Centering

One of the most fun aspects of my pregnancy with Bristol was that I chose to do Centering Pregnancy for my prenatal care instead of traditional doctor visits. This meant that a small group of women and I, all due in October, met together with our doctor and her nurse once a month and then every other week throughout our pregnancies. We checked ourselves in by recording our own weights, blood pressure, and gestation in our charts. Then we'd sit down to chat while each of us had our individual visits with the doctor. After that, there was a guided discussion about some kind of pregnancy or baby care topic. Sometimes the other ladies' husbands were there and sometimes it was just us girls. Bill never made it because he, of course, was caring for the rest of our brood. I was kind of the odd one since I was expecting my fifth and most people who do Centering are expecting their first or maybe second baby, but it just sounded fun to have a built-in group of buddies for #5.

We've tried to get the babes together, although admittedly, it hasn't been nearly as often as we'd hoped. Here are some pictures from our lunch date in June. Bristol was the only girl out of the five babies born to our group. This picture only shows the four babies born to the "old" moms. The fifth member of our group was super nice, but super young. I don't think she thought of the rest of us as "friend" material. :)

They were all born within about a month of each other. They were due in October, although one friend made his appearance on September 16th. Bristol was #3 out of these 4.

 

Bristol's not so sure what she thinks about her buddy next to her crying like that, but he is absolutely certain he hates that dog in the doorway behind him. Every time the dog would come into view, the poor guy would cry and cling to his mama.

Friends for everyone!