36 Weeks Prenatal Visit

This morning was our last prenatal visit at the current office across town; the midwives are moving over to our side of town to an office across from the hospital. Convenient for me, and Mark says there’s a bus from campus to the hospital every hour, so not too bad for him either.

I’ve gained five pounds, if I remember the previous weight right, and all other measurements continue to be fine.

The baby was hiccuping and squirming during her heartbeat check — it was hard not to laugh hearing those blips in the doppler thing.

She has begun to drop a bit — I especially felt that increased pressure on the pelvic floor while walking around last night and a little today.

Since the midwife was already doing a group B strep test, we decided to do a pelvic exam, too, to confirm the drop; turns out the cervix is starting to get ready, too, softening and dilating just a bit. Doesn’t at all mean we’ll be in labor any time soon, just getting ready.

By the way, we’re at the point now where if we do go into labor, they won’t stop us — the baby can be born any time now and be healthy. Or she can take her time and end up two weeks late, who knows.

We brought in our birth plan to discuss. Primary idea is to keep a long-term perspective, making decisions that will be best in the long run rather than anything that would only be for immediate comfort. Second is to use as few interventions as possible, and to assist me in all the alternatives that can help us avoid interventions, such as massage, position, and so on. And then a few other things like our planning to breastfeed and wanting the baby to room in with us.

I feel better after ranting on Tuesday; I think I just needed to vent. By the way, I wasn’t complaining about lack of support from any of you blog readers, but mostly from the childbirth class and a bit from the midwives. And it occurred to me that I hadn’t mentioned any desire to go “natural” to the midwives, so of course they hadn’t talked much about it. Hence the birth plan discussion today.

We’re also getting ready in other ways — starting to set aside things to take to the hospital, setting up a month of diaper service with a pre-birth delivery a week before the due date, organizing the baby things, etc. Mark is carrying our cell phone now, since the lab office phones don’t have answering machines and there’s often no one in the office.