While our birth center offers individual prental appointments they also offer what they call "centering," its basically group prenatal visits. First time parents are required to either take centering or have their individual appointments inaddition to birthing and parenting classes. These classes are all covered in the centering appointments. Aaron and I choose to do centering because it seemed like a more interactive approach and it might give us the opportunity to meet some new parents as well.
Today we had our second centering appointment, each two hours long. There are 7 couples, including us in our group and all of us are due around the same time. I look forward to these because its such an informal yet informative discussion group. It is led by one of the midwives and a labor/birth assistant. If I have a question but forget to ask it chances are one of the other pregnant moms will ask a similar question. Today's class mainly focused on good posture, yoga positions/stretches, nutrition and hearing some birth stories from Ina May's Guide to Childbirth book (I hear its a good one but havent purchased it yet). As I looked around the room I glanced at everyone's bellies, comparing mine to theirs. And guess what? I have by far the largest belly, and not by a little bit, by A LOT! And as we were discussing how far along we all were I found out they were all a week or two ahead of me. Let me be fair and say that there were 3 couples who were absent from class (probably, due to spring break, keg stands Im sure). There I was sitting there with women who were in their 26th week and barely showing, if they werent in my class I wouldnt even know they were pregnant. Then there is me, 24 weeks 6 days and it looks like I have a giant basketball under my shirt. I know that every pregnancy and every woman is different and we will start showing at different times but the difference was so drastic I left feeling a little uneasy. Scared for the near future of naturally delivering a 14 pound baby, please say it isnt so, but the way things are going Im not too sure. I still have at least 15 weeks left (up to 17 weeks), I dont phsycially understand how that is going to happen. How can I get 15 weeks bigger? Is that possible? My skin is already stretched to the max! I keep thinking during one of these appointments they will tell me I am farther along that they originally thought, but the uterin measurements keep measuring right on target.
Giant Penelope, please slow down.
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