Thirty-and-a-Half-Week Midwife Appointment

It turns out that I do not have all that much to report following my appointment this morning. It was fairly quick, in and out, again this morning, which was great. I probably could have even taken Elsa with me today, but Shelly was kind enough to watch her over at their house, as we are hoping to do some childcare swaps here in the coming weeks before playgroup at Gabriela's starts back up.

The appointment started out as usual. I peed in a cup (must have been fine), was weighed (143, up one pound from my appointment two weeks ago -- kind of shocking to me considering the amount of food I ate in Jamaica), and was then put in a room and the nurse took my blood pressure there (I did not catch what the actual reading was, as we were too busy discussing the book I was reading -- Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen). I did not have to wait long at all before the midwife came in -- and a new, permanent midwife at that! I believe Amy is officially no longer part of the practice, and it was this midwife's (Helen's) first day. Her first day at this office, though, as she has been a midwife for 15 years. My first impression was really great, so I was happy about that. She really went over my chart with me and answered my questions. We even had a good conversation about my quandary over whether to hire a doula this time around. I think she tipped me the way I was already leaning -- to save the money and trust that we (me, Jarrett, the nurses, and the midwife) can do it just fine this second time around. She said second births tend to go much more quickly, and your body, since it has already been down this road once before, acts like it really knows what its doing. I think I will go with that. One question she could not answer, which was totally understandable since she is new to the practice and, thus, the hospital, was what the deal was with not being able to get in the tub for a waterbirth if it is suspected that the baby is nine pounds or more (which we learned in the waterbirth class). She said she would ask Margaret about it tomorrow when she is in the office. I still have time to find out all of those details.

I measured right on track, and the baby's heartbeat still sounds great. I will likely have my thyroid levels checked again at one of the next two appointments. I will be back there next on Wednesday, July 20. Until then, I will just keep on keeping on. Things seem just fine right now.