Around the block again

Well we made it into the "sweet spot" as I have decided to call it now. We had our midwife home visit on Monday and everything looks good to go for our home birth. Scott is picking up the labor tub Saturday so after that - any day will be a good day for a birth day by me!

Seriously thought I am double minded about when this baby comes. Part of me wants to be finished and part of me still thinks that a few more days between birthday and Christmas would be better. So for now I am just trying to let things go as they will without any intervention of intention from me. We'll see how long that lasts

For the most part I am a happy pregnant camper. That is until I have to move, walk, roll over, etc. Over the last week I have developed a wicked case of Pubic Symphysis or Pelvic Girdle Pain as it is also called. Thankfully my Chiropractor is back from vacation (note to self - NEVER finish a pregnancy when your chiropractor will be on vacation for 2+ weeks) and I have seen him twice this week. The adjustments help for a little while, but I foresee many more visits in my future. Either that or I am going to have to send Scott to chiropractic school before we have a third =]

Well if anyone is actually reading this blog - I would love to hear your thoughts, guesses, predictions etc. on the following

Baby's Birthday
Baby's Gender
Baby's Stats (Weight, Length, Head Size, etc.)
Anything else people usually guess about regarding babies that I can't remember right now.

So far all the random strangers who have given me their opinion, think I am having another boy!

Additional Information:
I have NO idea or inkling as to the gender.
Pregnancy symptoms were mostly the same (morning sickness about the same, etc.) although I had different aversions/cravings this time.
Chanler is convinced that this baby is a boy - go figure.

I think I pulled a stomach muscle. I'm not sure when I started noticing pain because I originally just thought TBN was camped out in my ribs again, but this is different. It has been at least a week, but I think it may have started earlier than that. What a bummer - between the pelvic and stomach pain, I can hardly move sometimes.

Oh well, this will all be over soon enough!

So I had my first dream about this baby last night. Here is what I remember (because even during the dream it didn't make much sense)

The baby was a girl
The baby actually came out of Chanler, but I had to work really hard to help him get it out
The baby was a champion nurser (except when she got some thorny vines in her mouth)
We were near the ocean
There was something about a toy train (I have been trying to find a battery operated engine for Chanler for the last few days)
Some of our old small group were there (we had dinner with them last night)

That is really mostly all I remember. I guess eating Indian food will give you strange dreams, or at least it did this time . . .

I think I am starting to have "some" contractions. Don't get too excited or anything. They are not really painful or in any sort of pattern, but I am pretty sure they are happening. I honestly don't remember what my "contractions" felt like with Chanler's birth, but they were Pitocin induced anyway so that might have been different. I guess the fog of labor really has set in for me.

These contractions are either, my uterus squeezing the baby and the baby reacting or the baby poking around a bunch and making my uterus react. Not sure who is starting the whole thing. Either way I guess it is a good sign . . .?

Just in case you were worried that you missed something - you haven't.

I am still pregnant, still having the same pains (not labour pain mind you) and still hormonal as all get out!

That's about all. Oh yeah and Scott says I have started to waddle (well not waddle really, but walk like I'm made of wood or broken or something like that) yippee.

On why I am still pregnant . . .

"Because our children have your (Jesse's) sense of direction* and my (Scott's) aversion to change"

At least he can make me laugh!

* this was said just after TBN had been trying to relocate into my rib cage (i.e. baby has NOT dropped or settled at all!)

Well so far there is really only one . . . and it isn't a very accurate one.

I am SO grumpy, cranky, short tempered etc.

According to my midwife this could be an early sign of labour . . . or I could just be "done" with being pregnant and in pain.

Trying to be positive here . . .

The good thing about be on (or at least VERY near) your due date is watching people's faces when they ask you "when are you due?" A response like tomorrow or today will send most people into a somewhat stricken/panicked expression, like your water is going to break right then or you are going to ask them to catch the baby or something. People crack me up.

Scott and I took a birth class series from my friend Stephanie (our doula) and finished a few weeks ago. The last assignment to the husbands was to prepare a foot massage and bring a poem, prayer or blessing. This is what Scott wrote for me . . . Yes I cried.

********************************************

We start out on the path of life alone
unsure of what we may find
unsure of what we may do
unsure of where we may go

I found in you
a friend, a confidant
someone that I could trust
someone that I could hold
someone that I could love

I found in you
a wife
more precious than rubies
more valuable than fine gold
my heart's desire

And then we were three
amazing, yet mundane
exhausting, yet exhilarating
crying, yet laughing
teaching, while learning

How can one so young
cause so much anguish
how can one so little
cause so much worry
how can this be fair
Soon we will be four
what will this new one bring
what will we learn
what will we unlearn
how will we change

This new little one
will likely teach us, again,
that our grasp of the situation
is not quite what we would like
to think it is

So as we walk along this path
together, hand in hand
still unsure of what we may find
still unsure of what we may do
still unsure where we may go

I take comfort that we are walking
together, hand in hand
to make the uncertainty, less troubling
to make the unknown, less worrisome
to make the love, deeper

Knowing that we are in this
together, always and forever
God says "It is good!"
and it is,
it is good...

I think I am being stalked by my HMO . . .

They called me twice today because I haven't been in for an appointment. The first time they wanted to know if I had delivered and I explained that, no I had not, but that I had an outside midwife I was seeing. Then a different person called to clarify what I had told the first woman. She wanted to know which hospital I was planning to deliver at so they could forward the records . . . I said, I am planning to deliver at home and would only show up at Kaiser if there were complications that necessitated transferring. She was confused and unsure at best. I guess I should be expecting another call any minute.

The best part is that the women calling are from my "primary care physician's" office and I have NEVER had an appointment with that Dr.