Wraps and slings and things

Here I am practicing the Maya wrap. The little stuffed elephant that will be one of my daughters' first stuffed animals is a good stand in. Wraps seem pretty easy.

Our friend Kristy told us to get Ergos. They are super nice baby carriers that are comfortable to the baby/child. We did because she is smart and we trust her opinion on kid and baby stuff.

She gave us a demo of her putting her little boy Elijah in on her back. It was a pretty amazing physical feat. She had to sling him onto her hip, hold him there, grab around and shift him to her back and then pull him into the pack. I was impressed and also taking notes. I'm going to be doing the same thing in no time.

33rd week sonogram results

All is well in twinsville.  The weekly sonogram alternates with one week being a "reassurance" scan for heart rate, breathing reflex and fluid around the fetus.  The other weeks we get the long sought after weight estimation.  We did not know this was the case, the alternating that is, so we had even placed bets on their weights.  It was a little disappointing to not get them.  They looked great though.  You could see them "breathing", practicing for the real thing.  They do this reflex about 3-5 times an hour.  

Kick counts tonight were great as well with B being the more active one: 10 kicks in 13 minutes.  A had 10 kicks inn 42 minutes.  She was tired.

33rd week sonogram

Tomorrow K gets her 33rd week sonogram. I'll report the results then! It's like getting a present every week.

Heat

Whenever we cook our house becomes so hot it is quite unpleasant. We love to cook so this happens all the time. The oven has no external vent so all the heat goes back into the room. We pretty much have to crank the A/C all the time at this point. Luckily our little abode has pretty good trees around it to help block the sun or it would be worse.

For a mom preggers with twins, this is doubly uncomfortable. K has gained over 50 lbs and has to wear a nylon belly band and it causes a rash. She is one gorgeous momma though. I don't recommend having twins in the middle of summer in Texas, but I don't not recommend it either. If you wanna have kids you're going to have them whenever. We wouldn't change it for the world, of course.

I do think of my little girls and what it will be like when they are older. I certainly hope we can get a handle on global warming and their world isn't one of crazy high temperatures and drought. I believe we will find a way to keep from cooking ourselves and this planet. I see the higher gas prices as being a blessing. People are finally starting to drive less and pay attention to their fuel consumption on a large scale it seems.

Name help

So we are thinking of naming one of the girls Odessa.  We live in Texas and there is a small, but fairly well known town out west named Odessa.  We are starting to think growing up in Texas with the name Odessa might be a hassle for the little one.  

"What's your name?"

Odessa

"You from Odessa?" or "Oh, you named after the oil town?" or "Just like the city, huh?"

No.  Like odyssey meaning a journey or spiritual quest.

"Oh"

Regardless of what you think of the name, do you think a little girl named Odessa, living in Texas would think, "I wish they wouldn't have named me that."?  

Post a comment.

Head vs Pelvis

While reading Birth: The Surpising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy I came across an interesting discussion of the evolution of the mechanics of human birth.

It starts out by stating that human babies are becoming larger over time as a byproduct of better nutrition and overall quality of life, and human brains appear to have grown larger over the last 2 million years.

She continues by describing the very specific way the human baby has to travel through the pelvis in order for birth to work succesfully. It is best for the baby to enter the pelvis chin tucked and facing to the side, and upon moving through baby needs to twist and and turn face down. Once the head is born, the baby must turn one more time to let the shoulders through. All of this twisting and turning evolved to accommodate larger head sizes with marginally larger pelvic openings. There is not a lot of room for deviation from this prescription of movement, but there is some, i.e. not all successful vaginal births happen this way.

The most interesting conclusion from this is that as humans evolved larger heads, human females did not evolve larger pelvises in the same proportion. Essentially, humans had to start giving birth to their babies before they were "ready" to leave the womb. This is one reason why human infants are one of the most helpless creatures compared to their counterparts in the wild. We all have seen the image of the newborn foal awkwardly standing and then running just minutes or hours after being born. I think I read, as far as mammals go, Panda and human infants rank as the most helpless. The first few months out of the womb is sometimes called the 4th trimester.  As we evolve further and likely brain sizes grow, thus head sizes, will humans eventually get to a point where all births are cesarean sections and vaginal birth is not even possible?

For multiples, this issue is less a factor because they are almost always smaller than singles and thus have an easier time traversing the pelvis. This is one reason I feel so fortunate we are having twins! Of course there are two births as opposed to one and that presents different challenges, but I am confident that K will  have an easier time helping each one of our little ones out because there are two of them.

Midwife visit

We went to our midwife yesterday. I always come out of those appointments feeling energized. She is an amazing woman. MariMikel Penn at http://www.newlifebirthservices.com/. She does it all and her energy will blow you back. If you are pregnant and in Austin, I STRONGLY recommend you consider her.  

The second most interesting part about the appointment, the first being hearing the babies' heartbeats, was her insistence that we make love and drink a glass of wine. Uh huh. Before anyone gets alarmed over that recommendation, let me state clearly, she does not recommend you drink alcohol during your pregnancy, BUT... if you are tense, stressed or having a hard time relaxing a glass of wine does you and the babies good by assisting in relaxation. Stress is a bad thing during pregnancy. And best of all, having sex does you and the babies good too. Her quote: "What got them in there, will help get them out." I know not everyone agrees with this advice, but I do.

Sex helps relax the muscles in the vagina and sexual arousal releases oxytocin, a hormone that shows up in large amounts during delivery. The idea is that the combination of the relaxation and oxytocin helps prepare the body for delivery ahead of time.