Getting Ready for Baby Lindemann
As many of my followers here may already know, we’re expecting Baby Lindemann… and SOON!
These next couple of weeks are going to be packed with photo sessions, a few last minute house projects (oops, we tore out our flooring?!), spending extra time with Ayden, and trying to find time to simply relax as my stomach feels stretched to its max. I have some serious “prego brain” happening, therefore writing in sensical paragraph form just isn’t working for me in this moment, ha! So, here’s a few bullet points (that def turned into paragraphs) on this pregnancy:
Being pregnant during a pandemic is a little weird. Thankfully Dustin was able to go to the first few appointments, but once COVID-19 flared up in the states, the hospitals stopped allowing any other visitors from entering with patients. I went into the anatomy ultrasound with mixed feelings… I was looking forward to a pregnancy where I had my husband involved, but I found myself sitting on the hospital bed a little teary eyed when I was told I couldn’t record the ultrasound for him either. We settled with having the technician jot down the sex and put the images in an envelope for Dustin, Ayden, and I to open together out in the car. We’re grateful labor and birthing is an exception though - Dustin can come in then as my one support person!
Every pregnancy is different. While pregnant with Ayden, I felt very normal the entire duration aside from a little fatigue and a growing abdomen. My body has been feeling this pregnancy a bit more. My stomach started protruding much earlier, “morning” sickness definitely hung on for the vast majority of the first trimester, my feet ached from little activity at the beginning of the second trimester, water triggers heartburn if I drink too much too fast, and currently my abs feel as though they’re being pulled sagittally (really hoping gentle yoga and pilates are helping prevent recti diastasis!). I wore my regular jeans through at least 6-7 months of my first pregnancy. This time I caved and bought actual maternity clothes, giving up on comfortably buttoning my jeans around 3-4 months in.
I’m embracing my body more. During my first pregnancy, I practically lived at the gym and ran daily, sometimes twice. Since at least middle school, I was incredibly insecure about my body and spent much of my time trying to control everything about it. At 18, I was absolutely mortified of becoming “fat.” Don’t get me wrong - the regular and consistently longer duration of daily exercise I fit in as a young mom I believe absolutely helped make that first pregnancy such a breeze. Yeah, my ankles would swell up from water retention still and some weight gain is inevitable, but fitness really seemed to help with general comfort levels. When we first found out about this pregnancy, I was worried at first as I’m not as fit as I once was. But instead of letting the anxiety manifest, I channelled it into finding lower impact ways to maintain my health and also by honing in more on the foods I ate and when I ate. I feel much more at peace this time around, taking long walks with our dog, going on hikes with Ayden, practicing prenatal yoga and pilates, and really listening to my body in regards to what it needs. My muscles don’t have the definition I once had known, but I feel great and know I can always gain that definition back. But for now, slowing down to reduce stress and understanding that being healthy isn’t necessarily tethering yourself to intense cardio and the gym has made the world of difference.
Baby is well traveled, already! Baby Lindemann got to go to Italy with Dustin and I during our honeymoon! Yeah, he was obviously just a little peanut in the womb, but how cool is it to know that we carried him across the Atlantic Ocean and that he’s already been to Germany and Switzerland as well?!
I haven’t really had any cravings. But Dustin totally thought I had a pickle craving earlier in the gestation period, so we had multiple jars of pickles sitting in the fridge for a while, haha!
Educating ourselves on birthing was one of the best decisions. Dustin and I have been taking private classes through Doulas of Marquette - partly due to the regular birthing classes not taking place through the hospital through the pandemic, but mostly due to the fact we LOVE Melinda, the owner and founder! While I was laboring with Ayden, I didn’t know how to advocate for myself, nor did I really understand or know many of my options in regards to comfort measures, medications, the stages of labor, birthing positions, and so much more. I felt very much at the mercy of whatever was easiest for the hospital staff and that everything was completely out of my control. While we don’t necessarily have control in anything in life, we definitely feel much more prepared and knowledgable about how we want to proceed in different scenarios when our peanut plans to make his appearance in the outside world!
Our dog thinks all of the new baby things are for him. Whenever a new box arrives in the mail, Jeeves is convinced its something for him. Granted, ordering dog food and toys through Chewy probably has something to do with that too as he’s used to getting boxes as well (spoiled much?), but he will literally try to play with the baby toys and lay out on the play mats. He’s our bb Jeeves.
Currently, our baby is breech. I never realized how afraid of having a c-section I was until hearing that baby is currently breech. We’re just over 36 weeks pregnant now, so there’s still time for him to flip the correct way and we’re absolutely crossing our fingers it happens. We’ll be trying an external cephalic version to attempt to manually manipulate his position safely from outside of the womb next week based on what we hear at our next appointment (today, eek!). Furthermore, we’re giving some other methods a try to encourage him to move to the right position: swimming, visiting the chiropractor for the Webster technique, and performing various stretches and positions that’ll hopefully encourage him to invert.
Here’s a few images taken by our dear friend, Bryana, at Riutta Images! If you’re expecting and contemplating having maternity photos taken of some sort, DO IT! You all know I’m passionate about documenting all of life’s chapters in general, but pregnancy is such a unique period of transition. There’s joy, but there’s also uncertainty and that anxiousness that’s both good and scary knowing that big changes are coming.
Our little nugget is due August 10th! We’ll see what he ends up doing - babies tend to be on their own agendas after all ;)