Nancy Appt 39 weeks

Currently Craving: Chocolate Silk

Monday morning 8 am... even nancy was complaining about it this morning, and we were interrupted by several phone calls from other clients too. but we were back.

she continued to go over what to expect in labor and particularly transition and then pushing and delivery of the baby and placenta. she said that i'm not going to remember any of this stuff that she's telling me but she's putting it in there anyway and then when the time comes maybe i'll remember a small amount of it and that's fine. she'll remember and that's what's important. and she stressed again that it is scary for the people around me who have never seen birth before (katie and max). she also stressed that it is ok and even though my adrenaline will kick in and scare me, i am really ok. and it will be quite helpful for max to say 'you're doing fine.' and she went over again the beginning part of labor and that i should really really Rest, Nourish, and be Peaceful without trying to be social or anything. i'll need to be 'unobserved' to figure this all out. as she put it... 'when you feel that first labor pain, you won't like it' and then it's up to me to find my rhythm and how to work with my body to get through. (HELLO, yes, this is all a little scary at this point)

and then we checked on Babe. and for most of the rest of the appointment we checked babe. somehow she was way high up this time, definitely higher than she'd been yesterday for most of the day. so when nancy first checked we determined back to my right again. and i asked nancy if i should try to switch her to the left and she said it didn't really matter what i did, babe would be where she wanted to be and she's probably just facing her placenta.

so then we did the internal. and here's where it got tricky. babe's head feels like a bum from the inside. so is she breech is nancy's question. so then nancy was back and forth trying to get a good head 'bobble' at the bottom of my pelvis and feeling for bum at the top near my ribcage. she definitely felt like bum at the top but kind of like bum at the bottom too. AND babe was sleeping in this morning so she wasn't moving at all and giving nancy any clues. finally nancy got me some juice and we found a foot and then a thigh and nancy decided she was 98% certain babe isn't breech. she would like to be 100% before we go into labor though. (i think there's a trip to the vet in our future). she thinks babe is head down, back to my right side, feet on the other side, and she probably has her hands up by her head. who knows. nancy reassured me that if she is right side it doesn't necessarily mean anything bad for labor just as if she's left side doesn't guarantee textbook labor. we'll just have to see what happens. if it turns out she's breech though we'll have to work on turning her which can be difficult for a first time mom because my muscles don't want to let that happen. if she's surprise breech once labor has progressed it's an automatic C-section. i'm just going to rest assured that she isn't breech and be happy with that.

the rest of the exam said i'm about 80% effaced and not open at all. nancy expects to see us back at our next monday morning appointment. she said 'i think i've got one more with you.' but the best part was that she told us we're next. there's nobody else due to deliver before our due date. she got the last three done over the weekend and then me all by myself really and then she has a cluster near the end of october. so that makes me feel good. if babe comes close to the due date then we should have nancy all to ourselves. sweet! we left with an article about how to keep things intact down there as i push a baby out and the plan to come back next week. and we both left slightly annoyed and antzy that we'll be waiting at least another week but i guess we can't complain. and i can only remind myself that every minute she's in there is better for her lungs and everything else. soon she'll be here and we won't believe we ever lived without her probably.