Runnin' out of room

The poor kid is just running out of room. His/her bum is permanently wedged in my ribcage, I fear. I'm at least on the tall-ish side. I can't imagine women who are 5 feet tall carrying to term. Where does all that baby go?

In spite of the meager accomodations, Baby Milotay is still a dancing baby. More often than not, I feel legs squirming under the surface of my stomach. I wonder if our poor little one is trying to get comfortable, or if he/she is really fine and just playing? I also wonder if those legs will be as constantly moving on the outside in a few weeks as they are on the inside.

He/she seems to be developing the habit of waking around 3-4am and then going back to sleep from about 6-10am. Not too bad. Rumor has it that, at least for a few weeks, babies tend to keep the sleep patterns they developed in utero.

I just finished reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. I originally read her classic Spiritual Midwifery - a tad too hippy-dippy for me, though I liked all the birth stories at the beginning. Published in 2003, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth similarly features tons of birth stories for the first third of the book. She then goes on to back up home/midwife attended birth with statistics, research, and good science. She explains the powerful ability of the mind to control the body (even if unconciously) during labor. If you know anyone who is groovy and having a baby/planning a pregnancy anytime soon, this is THE book to give to her.

What's the worst pregnancy book we've read? We have a three-way tie:
1) The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine. It's so awful I don't know where to begin. Two standout scenes: a friend of the author paints her toenails before visiting the OB so she will feel pretty even when her feet are in the stirrups; the author defends her decision to continue coloring her hair even when the "Pregnancy Police" (her term - nosy people who tell pregnant women what they should/shouldn't do) warn her that the chemicals are bad for the baby by claiming that her husband would leave her if she quit coloring her hair. Sad, sad, sad.

2) What to Expect When You're Expecting by multiple authors. The women who wrote this undoubtedly started out with good intentions. However, I suspect they've been threatened with lawsuits since the book was first published ages ago because it now reads as though it should be titled Everything That Could Possibly Go Wrong When You're Expecting. Because pregnant women just don't worry enough.

3) The Mother of All Pregnancy Books by Ann Douglas. Originally conceived as a Canadian alternative to What to Expect When You're Expecting, it goes above and beyond the call of duty by explaining birth defects in graphic detail for tens of pages complete with charts. The amount of pages dedicated to the section entitled "The Indredible Growing Baby"? About four. Sheesh.