Getting ready for baby

Mother's Day, 2011

We made it!  I am officially 37 weeks pregnant today, a milestone that always feels good when we arrive, because of the time that we didn't.  We will get to meet this little one within the month!  I've been busy getting things ready on the home front, trying to make the arrival of the baby as easy as possible, since we will still be in the middle of our third and final school term of the year.  If we were back in Woodland Park, this would probably mean clipping coupons for newborn diapers and Papa Murphy's pizza, going to Munchkin Market to get some great deals on secondhand baby things that we might need, long weekly doctor appointments and getting ready for a short hospital stay away from Faith and Joel.

Things are a little bit different in Kenya.  I've said many times lately that I've made up for the lack of "nesting" instinct during my first two pregnancies with this one.  I think at least 75% of that has to do with necessity of preparation for the baby here!

One of the items that has proven most helpful for our family this year has been my sewing machine, that was at least 50% of one of our precious thirteen suitcases.  I've been busy making simple things like swaddling blankets and burp cloths, that are easy enough to make here, and don't really justify the effort or cost of receiving from the states.  I even made a 'Boppy' nursing pillow, which I'm really excited about having.  I had to make some custom-sized sheets for our custom-sized Kenyan mini-crib that the baby will sleep in for the first couple months or so.  I've also enjoyed making a few small quilts and other less-practical, more-crafty things, which keeps me busy when I'm feeling like I'm just sitting and waiting on the baby to come.

I've been stockpiling diapers and wipes on my trips into Nairobi for shopping.  Newborn diapers are very difficult to find here, so we'll just start out with size one.  Faith was in preemie diapers for a few months, and even Joel was for a few weeks, so I'm hoping this one can fill 'em up a little better, to cut down on laundry!  We will primarily use cloth diapers, once we feel up to getting back into the swing of things with those.  We've had a break for over a year from diapers!  I imagine we are in for a bit of a shock again.  Disposable wipes are also very expensive here, so I'm working on a few options for using cloth wipes.  We brought along most of our cloth diapers, so we have what we need, but there is an awesome diaper grant program for missionaries here that provides for many missionary families throughout the world.

One of the more challenging differences that I am anticipating is the lack of "fast" food here.  I don't really mean McDonald's, but just the lack of convenience foods/locations/hours here.  We can't run to the store after supper to get some more lunchmeat for quick sandwiches, or grab some soup from Safeway or a frozen pizza from Walmart.  Yes, we will have wonderful help in the form of meals from others on campus, but once we are on our own again, we're back to cooking from scratch day in and day out, and planning ahead for the day-long stock-up trips into Nairobi.  I've been trying to freeze some meals and have easier things on hand (we can find a selection of more convenient things to eat in Nairobi, thankfully) but really, convenience food after this baby is born is going to mean my stockpile of $6 boxes of granola cereal!  Pictured is my first attempt at making a (giant) batch of granola bars, which are sitting in the freezer, waiting for me to go into labor.

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I was telling Jim the other day how all I wanted was to go to Walmart or Target and get this certain kind of Gerber sleeper that we had with Joel that I just loved (they had zippers... so much easier than snaps!) and then I could come back here, and I'd be happy.  Once I snapped out of my daydream, I realized that if we were in the states, I really wouldn't care about that at all, and I wouldn't do it.  What's the next best thing in Kenya?  Or maybe the tenth best thing...  Toi Market.  'Toi' is a large outdoor clothing market in Nairobi, with stall after stall of used clothes and shoes.  This first picture is just the outskirts of it.  It's really one big crowded maze that makes you think you should be in the Amazing Race.  The roofs are just tarps, the stalls made from lumber, and you are constantly trying to watch where you step (it's just muddy ground below), look for what you need, hold on to your money tightly, and tell the vendors hounding you that 'no thanks, I really don't need any more maternity clothes'.  If we were to need anything for our family to wear, we would certainly be able to find it here.  Maybe not in the right brand or color, but we could keep ourselves clothed quite nicely.  I purchased four more baby sleepers for about $6 total.  It can be rather warm inside, and it's certainly more tiring and more of an ordeal than shopping online or waltzing in and out of Walmart, but for what is available, it's more than sufficient.

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We plan on welcoming our newest creation just down the hill at Kijabe Hospital.  This will allow me to labor at home as long as possible, take a last-minute ride down the bumpy road to the hospital, welcome our baby, and as long as everyone seems healthy, return home a few hours later.  There will be no routine IV's, no poking or prodding of the baby, no extensive monitoring, no waking the baby every so often, and nothing that the natural process doesn't really warrant.  Maybe I sound a little like the natural birth movement that is hitting pockets of young moms in America and has been for a while... 

There will also be bugs on the ceiling and spiders in the corners, I may end up laboring in the ward with eight of my closest Kenyan friends, or maybe I'll be pushing out the baby alongside another in the delivery room without a door, on the narrow flat bed that doesn't do anything fancy.  There are no epidurals to choose to have or not to have, and there is no heat or air conditioning.  Most likely there will be power, but last Tuesday it was out all afternoon.  There's one bathroom down the hall for everyone, and I've gotten the impression that I'll probably rather just wait to shower until I get back home.  Our hospital bag isn't just filled with things for 'mother's comfort', it's filled with towels and blankets, and diapers, and anything and everything we'll need for that day or night that the baby arrives.  

That being said, we are excited for this delivery, and the part that makes the above paragraph bearable, and maybe almost not noticeable, is the care that we will receive.  I will be attended by a good friend and a talented nurse, along with the skilled doctor or midwife that greets us in the delivery room (that part is unable to be planned, but whoever it will be is very skilled and able), and there are a handful of missionary pediatricians around that will be on call, day or night, to care for the baby that has been wonderfully knit together in my body over the last eight months.

Above all, we trust in the God who led us here to Kenya, allowed us to create this life, and designed the amazing feat of childbirth, and we eagerly anticipate the unveiling of his awesome plan and faithfulness in the arrival of our third child, just as He did with the arrivals of Faith and Joel.