Well, the midwife said we have officially reached the point where if labor were to begin they wouldn’t try to stop it!!  Pretty cool to know we’ve entered the home stretch…even if that home stretch could be another 4+ weeks.

I got to see the top of the baby’s head today via sonogram.  My midwife wanted to make sure the baby was still head down.  So I got a quickie view of the skull top and the suture line that runs across the top.  I didn’t get to see anything else though.  Too bad you can’t tell if the baby has hair via those things.  I want to see this little person soooo badly now.

I keep reading that the baby’s movements should be smaller now since it should be running out of room in there, but this little person still manages to make pretty awesome flops sometimes.  His/her little fanny was parading across my upper belly the other night pretty comically.  I had a bulge to the right, then the center and then back to the right.

The midwife gave orders to start walking.  Everyday we are too walk as long as I can on the track.  She said it will help get the baby moved down into position and help me once labor actually comes.   The baby hasn’t dropped yet and the midwife said it could be 2 weeks before delivery after the head is all the way engaged.  So we’re at least 2+ weeks away from any big news.

So we’ll not be using this first pediatrician we interviewed.  He totally started out on the wrong foot by severely criticizing my personal choice (as a totally healthy, absolutely no complications, pregnant woman)   to use a midwife versus an ob/gyn for my prenatal and labor & delivery care.  After his mini-rant about how I’m putting our baby in danger using a stand-alone midwife who is not under direct supervision of an ob/gyn, he then proceeded to chastise our choice to have the baby at a very small hospital here in our own town rather than driving 45 minutes to the nearest big hospital.  And things kind of went downhill from there.  I didn’t even make it through all the questions I’d planned to ask him. And since that interview, we’ve heard from others that he nor his practice are very good.  We’ve got lots more choices though.

I had my 34th week appointment this morning and all is well.  No weight gain!  (No guilt meant for those of you who are supposed to gain weight during pregnancy…I’m overweight already and not supposed to gain at all.)  My blood pressure was 110/80 still.  And baby’s heartbeat sounds just fine and is in the head down position.

During my next appointment at 36 weeks, the midwife will do the required culture to check for the presence of Strep B and check my cervix for the first time to see where I’m at.

Tonight Dave & I are going to visit the hospital where I’m going to have the baby so we can see the rooms and just get a feel for the place generally so it isn’t strange when I need to go in for real.

I had the gestational diabetes test this morning and it looks like I’m in the clear!!!!!!!!!!!!  I had them do both a finger stick and draw blood just so I wouldn’t have to wait until Friday for results.  Thankfully, the midwife thought that was a good idea and my finger stick number was great so she doesn’t foresee much of a different story from the drawn blood work.  Yeah!

Aside from that baby is doing great.  My blood pressure is still perfect.  And all is good!  Again, another YEAH!!  I start going to the midwife every 2 weeks now until 36 weeks when I start going once a week until I deliver.

Well, it is an absolutely perfect day outside so I’m going to go sit on the porch with an ice tea for a few minutes before I get busy doing some more household stuff.

This afternoon I’ve been taking some of the new baby clothes out of its packaging and getting it ready for laundering.  Everything is just so cute.

Now that the baby room is painted and we’ve converted a big chunk of the room into the baby room, I’ve finally got places to put things.  We still don’t have a dresser in which to put most things, but I have closet space and shelving space to use.  I’ve got one whole shelf devoted to blankets.  I’ve got maybe 8 receiving blankets, 5 normal blankets, 2 fitted crib sheets and some water-proof pads. So I’m feeling good about my blanket supply right now.  I might want to acquire more crib sheets eventually though.

I’ve been having fun actually finally getting a chance to look closely at all the wonderful things folks have given our baby.

It is getting harder to move and breath because the baby is growing up into my rib cage and really pressing on vital organs.  I can still bend over, but it has become this awkward semi-squat move so I don’t squish baby & myself.

Last night Dave heard the baby hiccuping.  He said it sounded like a drum inside my belly.  And he got to feel a few more kicks and watch my belly poking outward randomly with baby movements.  That was pretty awesome.

Tomorrow is my glucose test day to determine if it looks like I’ve developed gestational diabetes.  I need to make a little list of things to ask the midwife tomorrow.  As we are getting further along, I’ve actually got more questions than I did at the beginning.