Our new son!

So I’ve been really bad about updating the blog lately due to fatigue and general impatience with a computer that was behaving slowly.  The computer is fine now, but I’m still fatigued so updates will probably remain pretty random until after the baby is born and things settle down.

In baby news, there really isn’t any.  Baby is doing great.  I’m still doing fine.  Due date is TOMORROW!!  I have been having contractions, but they are either far apart or stop after a couple of hours.   Let me put it this way, we’ll have a baby by August 9th because that is probably the last day my midwife would let me go past my due date.

Today Dave and I are actually taking a day at home to ourselves!!  Probably one of our last for a long time.  We’ve been busy running baby errands or generally getting ready for weeks now.  I think our work has paid off though and we’re pretty ready…or as ready as you can be for a first baby!

Prayers are totally appreciated these days.  Especially for a safe, natural and healthy delivery of a healthy, happy baby!

Dave and I “finished” shopping for baby things over the weekend.  We had some nice Target gift cards so we decided to just go and finish buying everything we could think of, that we knew we absolutely needed.  Other stuff, I’m sure, will come up once the baby is here though.  Today I’m finishing laundering all the new baby things we’ve received and purchased.  On Sunday, Dave finished sanding the dresser/changing table so that it can be painted this week.  The humidity has just been too high around here lately to attempt a painting job, but this week is warmer and less humid so we can maybe finish that task.

I had fun yesterday making the crib up.  We’ll only be using the crib for maybe naps while we’re also in the room using the computer.  For the first several months, the baby will be sleeping in a co-sleeper next to our bed.

Wednesday I’ve got my 37 week appointment with the midwife.  Then in the evening we’ve got another interview with a pediatrician and then a tour of the hospital’s maternity unit.  Big day!

I’m still feeling pretty good.  My lower back, pelvis and hips hurt like the dickens by evening and for most of the night, but those are expected aches & pains of being 9 months pregnant.  Dave’s doing an amazing job of keeping up on our laundry and helping around the house with chores.  He worked and worked for about 6 solid hours on Sunday in the yard and the house.  It is a blessing to have such a supportive husband.

We’ve really only got a few things left to do before the baby comes.

• Finish and set-up the dresser/changing table
• Finish baby laundry (which I’m doing today)
• Pack my bag for the hospital
• And generally have the house ready for us to go

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.