What, it's not all about me??

I hung out for a while Sunday afternoon at my husband's family cabin, which is owned by him and his two brothers (this also includes me by default as his wife). The cabin has been in his family for 3 generations.

My other two sisters-in-law were there today so it was fun to sit on the dock and chat with them. One of my sisters-in-law, who is trying to conceive, was telling me how she was talking with our mother-in-law yesterday and a neighbor (who is my husband's dad's cousin, or something like that) and they were saying how much fun it'll be with a new member of the family joining us. It was exciting, she said.

That's when I realized that this baby isn't just mine, or Nels'... he/she already has TWO families who can't wait for him/her to join them. I'm not just giving birth to a child on my side of the family, but to a grandchild, a niece/nephew, a cousin, etc., for my husband's family, too.

It was a little strange wrapping my brain around that one. I guess it's not all about me.

My 9-year-old nephew, Luke, was crossing his fingers, toes and legs today, saying that he's just hoping for a boy cousin. So we'll see at Monday's ultrasound. I'm so excited for that. My brother and dad both said they think it's a boy. We will see.

On a related note, my husband told me Saturday that I have to stop reading stuff to him out of the pregnancy books I have because he's having nightmares. The night before we'd been talking about the delivery and birth, etc., and talking about some things I've learned recently about natural births. I'm working on a story on home births. I interviewed two sisters-in-law last week who gave birth in birthing tubs in their living rooms, three weeks apart. One of the women gave birth so quickly that the midwife wasn't even there yet. She got there 20 minutes after the baby was born. The woman, her husband and sister-in-law basically delivered the baby themselves. (It's true, I watched the tape.)

One of the moms loaned me a book about gentle birth options to read. It also has a DVD with six birth experiences to watch. (And yes, I forced Nels to watch them all with me.) Well, I think I believe in many of the theories behind a gentle birth but when it's time for me to give birth, I want to be in a hospital. I'm going to aim for a more natural birth, forgo an epidural, etc. (I didn't have one when I had Erika.) but that doesn't mean I won't refuse other medications or medical interventions if need be.

So the book says that it's important that the mother nurses the baby right away after the baby is delivered and criticizes how nurses take away the baby in hospitals to get it cleaned up, etc...The gentle birth way is to have the baby nurse within moments after he/she is born. Nels and I talked about this and I told him that that's what I want to do, to make sure the baby nurses right away.
That night Nels dreamt that the baby was taken away by the hospital nurses for an HOUR and he was running around telling them that they had to bring the baby back, that the baby needed to latch on RIGHT AWAY. He woke up freaked out. Too funny.

On a lighter note, the baby seemed to enjoy watching Sex In The City on Saturday. Either that or he/she liked the popcorn and milk duds I was eating because he/she was moving all over the place.