Here we go again. As I pass the 36th week of this pregnancy, I am eagerly hoping that the baby won’t be late again! But I am also trying real hard not to hold my breath over it since the last 3 babies came 5 days, 3 days and 6 days past their EDD.
In order to distract myself, I have started to slowly prepare myself and the children for the baby’s arrival. Slowly because I am operating on a very low energy mode here 🙂
Starting this week, I will be doing the stuff I wrote about HERE and HERE.
But there are other things I need to do this time round as well.
Homeschooling
This year, we are homeschooling 3 out of the 6 children in the primary level (P1, P3 & P5). So I need to be very diligent in making sure everyone (me included!) finish what I have planned for our homeschoolin the next 3 weeks so that I won’t have a backlog of stuff staring at me after I birth.
We won’t be doing any formal school in March and April. But I am planning to do more read-alouds(History & Science specifically) with them. That is, if I am not dozing off in the middle of the day! I am not being ambitious here. If I can do just one hour of reading a day (probably split up into many instalments!) I would be happy.
Why am I doing this? I have learnt from past experience that too much free and play time gets everyone into trouble!
Home Management
I just started a final round of de-cluttering (very little left- whew!) of the entire house, room-by-room, 2 weeks ago. This serves 2 purposes – it removes all the eyesores (piles of papers on my table, stacks of toys all over the house, etc) and it will help the children when they do their chores.
Meanwhile, baby clothes, linens, cloth diapers, nursing clothes, mama pads, nursing pads all need to be pulled out of their storage vacuum bags to be washed and packed into their designated spots.
Confinement
I have also finalised my menu plan and my grocery list. It is just a simple 2 week menu plan that will be rotated from now until I feel bored or have more energy to think. For the immediate post partum period where we’ll be too busy to think about grocery shopping, I have already frozen food for Week 1 and will be freezing Week 2’s meal this week.
I am not freezing cooked food as I think most cooked Chinese food don’t freeze well. Instead I have just frozen the portion required for each meal and packed them into freezer boxes with their marinades. I will then pull the relevant boxes out to thaw and cook on the actual day itself. And since I do not follow any traditional confinement food taboos, this makes life easier on me 🙂
Pregnancy
As I approach the tail end of the pregnancy, these are the things I have done to prepare for labour and delivery.
Drinking my Pregnancy Tea
SinceI hit the 3rd trimester, I have been diligently drinking my Red Raspberryand Nettle tea.
Taking my vitamin supplements
I have also increased my intake of Vitamin C and started taking garlic and acidophilus to boost my immune system and to prevent an onset of Group B Strep especially since I am not going to be tested.
Taking it slow
Yes, despite all the things I need and want to get done before baby’s grand entrance, I am forcing myself to take it slow. Kinda contradictory huh?
What I have done is to spread out all the stuff that need to be done slowly over the course of the next 3 to 4 weeks. The important things that must be accomplished before the baby arrives have been scheduled for the next 2 weeks. The rest can be left undone if the baby should decide to come earlier.
Birth Plan
I have also submitted my birth plan* to my doctor so that we are in agreement about how I want the labour and delivery to go.
I generally have an extra burst of energy towards the end of each pregnancy (like now :)) that allows me to finish up tying all the loose ends but surprisingly, this time round, my energy level is really low and I have to literally force myself to get these basic things done 🙁
I hope this post gives other moms-to-be some ideas on how they would like to prepare themselves for the labour and delivery. And if you feel like scrubbing the walls or ironing everything in sight, good for you! 🙂
* I’ll be posting my Birth Plan in the next few days. Keep a lookout for it!