We had our 31 week appointment this morning. Everything is looking great! I am super healthy, my blood pressure is perfect, I have no swelling. My numbers from my gestational diabetes test were phenomenal. :) My iron level is a bit low so they have had me start an herbal supplement called Floradix which I've been taking for about two weeks and has made a huge difference in my energy level! I think I could almost pinpoint to the day when my iron levels dropped as suddenly I felt like I had a constant hangover. Now...hangover gone and I am back to feeling like my normal self. I feel great! Here I am at 31 weeks...all along throughout pregnancy when I tell people I feel great many have said, "oh, just wait!". Well, I'm still waiting and don't have long to go. I intend to feel great all the way through! I am a heavy believer in the mind-body connection and the power of the mind. Where the mind goes- the body follows! :)
Sweet baby girl is growing and growing! She has gotten large enough that I can feel her baby body in my belly. It is the sweetest feeling in the world. I feel her little feet quite often and can sometimes see them poking out of my right side. I had my confirmation this morning on where exactly she is lying and she is HEAD DOWN! YAY! Now, we just need to keep her there. The midwife today felt my abdomen and showed me exactly how the baby is positioned, with her head down, her spine over to the left, her little butt under where my rib cage meets, and her little feet right where I always feel an appendage sticking out. :) So exciting.
Some of you may know that I am planning a natural birth. I have many reasons for this, the largest being that I have always felt that God designed our bodies to take care of things themselves. I believe there is a place for doctors and medicine and hospitals but I think it is a place that is gone too a little too often and a little too much in our country and in this day and age. Childbirth is a natural human event and I don't believe it needs intervention unless intervention is called for. Aside from that basic philosophy there is a lot of not so great stuff that is associated with the typical pain meds and usual procedures that take place in typical hospital births these days. The C-section rate in our country is phenomenal (Cesarean sections make up nearly one-third of all deliveries in the USA – twice as high as recommended by the World Health Organization) and would you believe the infant mortality rate in our country is actually the 2nd highest in the world? And then of course our maternal mortality rate is not looking so hot either (More women die in the U.S. after giving birth than die in countries including Poland, Croatia, Italy and Canada, to name a few). Too much medical intervention. It starts with fetal monitoring, leads to pitocin, leads to epidurals, leads to slowed labors, leads to baby in distress, leads to c-section...which is major surgery (regardless that it is major surgery that is done a tremendous amount in our country - it is still major surgery). Anyways, I have decided to bypass all that hubbub. :)
I am birthing at the Austin Area Birthing Center http://www.austinabc.com/ http://www.austinabc.com/
It is a beautiful facility and a beautiful environment in which to have a baby. It is completely safe. All births are midwife attended. Never fear for those of you who may worry. If there are any complications the hospital is only minutes away. There is always the slim chance that something may happen that does send me to the hospital. I don't intend for that to happen and don't feel that it will- but it's there if we need it. There is a place for drugs and surgery in childbirth in some instances.
The birthing center is an amazing open minded, patient led center. Anytime I have a concern or problem with something they give me an alternative. My appointments there last between 30-45 minutes and are usually a combination of me asking my latest list of questions, speaking with a midwife, having my belly measured (it is currently 31 cm from top to bottom - right in correlation with 31 weeks of pregnancy!), and listening to the baby's heartbeat. There are about 3-5 midwives at the center and I rotate among them at my appointments. This way I know them all when the baby's birthday rolls around and whoever is on call to deliver the baby will not be a stranger to us.
Andrew has been the most supportive husband and daddy out there and has been to every single appointment we have had ever had since our baby girl was conceived. He usually just sits and listens...occasionally asks a question which I find cute :), and sometimes throws me under the bus (like the time he told the midwife I had eaten ice cream the last 3 days in a row!). Ahhh...that was a good weekend.... :)
So that is where everything stands for now. We are getting very excited and I know what they say about the end of pregnancy being the slowest is true! The weeks are starting to crawl a bit more - although that probably also has something to do with me no longer teaching and business being slow in the summer. I am enjoying my last months by myself and looking forward to the coming months with my baby girl as my constant companion.
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