Thirty-Two-and-a-Half-Week Midwife Appointment

I had an appointment with Anjli this past Wednesday morning. I was one of the first appointments of the day, so it did not take long to be called back to pee in a cup (must have been fine), step on the scale (weighed 144, up one pound from the visit two weeks prior), and then be placed in an examination room where my blood pressure was taken (100/62).

It was nice to see Anjli again. She has such a happy, calm air about her, which is comforting. She asked me how things were going and then asked me to give her a refresher on what is going on with my thyroid levels. After looking over the last couple of test results (the most recent being the one in May), we decided to go ahead and have blood drawn at this visit to check it again. So hopefully I will hear about those results in the coming week or so. She measured my belly and listened to the baby's heartbeat, which see said sounded perfect (I agree). I asked her my question about water births not being allowed if the baby is suspected to be over nine pounds. She answered by saying this, in her opinion, is a stupid rule, and she has apparently been trying to get the hospital to remove it for some time now. She said the ultimate concern is the shoulders getting stuck in the birth canal during delivery, but that if you look at the statistics, this issue is nearly an even split between larger babies and smaller ones. And then the real worry, I guess, is being able to actually deliver the baby in the tub if this indeed happens. But she said one of the best positions to get into if the shoulders seem to be stuck is hands and knees, which is very easy to get into when you are already sitting or floating in the tub. So she thinks the hospital's thought in general on all of this is simply debunked. She told me not to worry about a thing -- that this is really a decision between the midwife and me and Jarrett when we are in the hospital. I also mentioned to her that we are definitely storing cord blood again this time around, which she noted in my chart, and we also made a copy of the certificate we were given for completing the waterbirth class, which was also placed in the chart. She asked me whether I had preregistered at the hospital during the waterbirth class, and I said no, so she said I could do so online, which I have since done.

Oh -- the only other issue that came up is that when she felt for the baby, she noted that its head is facing somewhat down, but more over to the side (my right side). She said that at least it was moving in the right direction, and that we would just hope it continued to do so. Anjli said that their best recommendation to get the baby to move into the correct position is chiropractic care, specifically the Webster Technique. I keep meaning to ask Dr. J whether she knows anything about this, but I might just end up making a few appointments at the local Lotus of Life Chiropractic, where I know the chiropractors are very experienced with this. I am slightly concerned only because at this point with Elsa, Margaret noted that she was way down, headfirst, in the birth canal. But, Margaret also said that it was somewhat rare for babies to that far down at that point in the pregnancy, so who knows.