So… tomorrow is an important day. Starting tomorrow I will officially be in full-on countdown mode for baby’s arrival. Three weeks! Tomorrow my midwife can legally assist me in a homebirth should I go into labor, although I do hope Baby waits a little longer than that.

Don’t get me wrong, I am SO excited to meet the little one! But we have quite a lot left to do before then… or at least a lot that I want to get done before then. Most importantly my oils haven’t arrived yet… Oh, have I not told you about my oils?

You see at my last birth a good friend came and sprayed some nice smelling water on a damp washcloth, and when I used it to cool off it took the edge completely off of my contractions. It was heavenly. I had stumbled upon the wonderful world of aromatherapy.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was not in a frame of mind to make sure they kept the damp washcloths coming! I was a little distracted if ya know what I mean… but afterwards, when I remembered the experience, I made sure to ask her what she put in that magic bottle! The funny thing is, it was actually a homemade diaper spray that she put together for Evie and she just happened to bring it to the birth. And she just happened to spray it on the washcloth because she thought a scent would be nice.

The mix was water with tea tree oil, rosemary oil and lavender oil. The secret? Rosemary and lavender are both analgesics – meaning they work as pain relievers! Since then I knew I wanted to be much more intentional about using aromatherapy for my next labor. The last few weeks I have been researching oils and finally, after much decision-making, settled on the ones I wanted to use for my labor. They are now in the mail, on the way here! I think I will give them a post all their own.

In addition to getting the oils ready, we still have our birth supply list that we need to check off, and we need to get the house in order and finish all the packing I want to do before Baby’s arrival. Since we move in August, and I really don’t want to do a lot of packing with a newborn… we’re going to try and get as much done before then as possible. We have made lots of progress, but there’s still more to do!

I will be keeping you updated as we move forward! Also, I’m trying to decide… should I live blog my birth? Let me know if you’d like to get moment-by-moment updates. If I have enough interested readers I might just try it; it could be fun!