Pre-Baby Belly

I think I'm going to take some better quality pictures at some point to mark the starting point of the belly journey, but I couldn't resist snapping this one this morning.  It's totally flat!  Finally!  I've worked to hard to get these abs and I'm so glad that I can finally see the work.  This photo is of Gwenn Stratton.

In this photo, she is 28 weeks pregnant.  She's so incredibly inspiring.  She's continued her workout routine throughout her entire pregnancy and she says it's even helped her to have more energy and feel better during pregnancy.  My goal is not to work out like her through my pregnancy, my goal is to work out like me.  Basically, I'm not going to try to push myself to an extreme, but it is proven that it is possible to keep up your pre-pregnancy level of fitness as long as you're reasonably fit and healthy before hand.  

Basically the coolest thing ever.

I ran across this blog randomly and I'm now determined to do something similar to this for my pregnancy.  Photographer Ryan Marshall did a series of photos of his wife that he called "The Belly Series" on his blog, Pacing The Panic Room, and it is one of the coolest things I've ever seen done.  If you've never seen it, definitely check it out.

An amazing read!

I just finished reading Homebirth in the Hospital, by Stacey Marie Kerr, MD.  It is a fantastic book!  It basically spells out exactly what I want my birth experience to be like.  She is an OB/GYN, but she has spent a lot of time observing midwifes at home births and has learned to integrate the homebirth into the hospital birth.  Her opinion is, that in most circumstances, a woman's body will do everything it needs to do during labor and that most woman do NOT need all of the interferences of a medical facility.  She talks about how differently childbirth is viewed by the midwife community vs the medical community.  Midwives view childbirth as a natural part of life, something normal and routine.  The medical community views it as a medical condition which should be closely monitored.  So she strives to encompass both of those views and create the most comfortable and natural birth possible, while still having all of those usually unnecessary medical procedures and interventions available in case they are needed.  It's such a great book and really just empowers women to have the kind of birth that THEY want, not giving birth the way someone is telling you to.

I really, really, REALLY hope that it would work out...

...for me to have a baby HERE.  This place is beautiful and just seems like a really great place to give birth.  I'm terrified of giving birth in a military hospital and I'd really LOVE to do it at a birthing center vs. a hospital anyway.  It says they take Tricare, but I have NO clue how all this stuff works.