Sat, Apr 8, 2006
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labor projects
Most of the natural childbirth books I’ve been reading advocate planning a few “labor projects” — enjoyable things to work on when you are in early labor. Often, early labor isn’t terrifically painful, but it can get a bit dull, and one can easily get impatient and anxious. (When “active labor” starts, there is more pain and it is more difficult to concentrate — and there are different strategies to deal with that stage.)
But, having never done it, early labor sounds like fun to me! Here are some of the things I plan on trying to do:
• frost cupcakes for baby’s birth-day (they are already baked and in the freezer, unadorned)
• soak in the tub
• listen to a book on CD — maybe Bridget Jones’s Diary, which always makes me laugh. Or maybe an Agatha Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot, my favorite detective.
• sing along with Handel’s Messiah
• finish packing my hospital bag (it really is almost done)
• go for a walk around the block with Jon, if it is nice out
• bake lots more things if it goes on a long time — a full-fledged birthday cake, perhaps, or some cookies
I may think of others later, but those sound like the most fun to me right now.
This post was last modified April 8, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Jon said,
April 8, 2006, at 7:58 pm
I like the idea of your singing The Messiah! Baby sure got an earful of it while you were rehearsing and performing it last winter. I bet it will be familiar to her.