The high(s) this week revolved all around the baby. This weekend we attended a birth class – the only in-person one we could find in Manhattan. We spent three hours each day with four other couples and our instructor (everybody was vaccinated) in a comfortable room. While I didn’t learn that much knew information (but I read a lot beforehand), it was super interesting to see videos and hear the instructor’s experience and the other couples’ thoughts. The class definitely strengthened my resolve to have a hopefully spontaneous and rather natural birth.
Also, yesterday evening we went to an acquaintance and her family in Queens for dinner. Their kids are now old enough that they part with all their baby things – and we can have everything we want. So we ended up with all the things we still needed and/or wanted anyways: a carrier, a stroller and car seat, a playpen, baby clothes and specifically winter suits, and a whole bag of cloth diapers. I had never expected to be so immensely happy about cloth diapers. But here we are with delighted me. I had made the decision for cloth diapers a while ago and then hoped for Black Friday offers because they are quite expensive when you purchase them new (although in the long run still way cheaper than disposable diapers). But now I can maybe spend that money on something else instead.
The low this week happened this morning. When I brush teeth, Arti usually jumps onto my shoulder to first snuggle and then get to the towel rack up behind me. It is a little game we play almost every day. I take a step back so that she can stand up on my shoulders and reach the rack with her front paws. Normally, Arti is super stable. Well, not so today. She slipped and somehow her claw tore through my upper lip – but it wasn’t her fault, just a stupid accident. All I saw was a lot of blood gushing in my mouth. I called Rich for help and when he came, he thought we’d have to go to get stitches. Eventually though, and fortunately, it turned out that I really only had a small, superficial wound on my lip. And that stopped bleeding after several minutes. I got pretty lucky there. After our initial shocks, we still made it to the birth class in time. At least for the rest of today Arti isn’t allowed back on my shoulders though.
|Watched| Küchenschlacht, The Great British Baking Show, Invincible
|Read| Dune, How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days, The Last Graduate
|Listened to| the new Taylor Swift album, the new Adele album, some Spotify play lists
|Done| continued my training on Coursera, went to Roosevelt Island for a nice long fall walk, we went to a birth class this weekend and also picked up plenty of baby things from an acquaintance
|Eaten| route vegetable tarte tatin, leek cheese soup, burrito, pizza, fish soup
|Drunk| water, coffee, herbal tea, hot chocolate
|Thought| yep, definitely no induction unless absolutely necessary
|Been happy| when I felt that our layette is almost complete
|Laughed| when one of the little girls at our acquaintance’s house immediately hugged my leg and wouldn’t let go (I must have very nice legs)
|Desired| a trip to Europe (without Covid)?!
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|Bought| compression socks
|Clicked| great outfit inspiration if you love Gilmore Girls, too: 6 Outfits Lorelai Gilmore Would Wear in 2021; Grace shares a lot of information on Botox: All Things Botox!; two great articles on maternal health/paternal leave in the U.S.: 1) What We See in the Shameful Trends on U.S. Maternal Health, 2) Without Parental Leave I Might Be Dead