This week has been full of appointments!

Well, I suppose two appointments doesn’t really count as “full” but it just seemed pretty busy.

On Tuesday, Juan went with me to the appointment with the midwives.  Since we’re getting down to the wire, I wanted him to go again.  The appointment went well.  We reviewed the birth preferences we had written up and there were no issues.  Everything was just fine, and most of the things I had listed were things that they either do or don’t do anyway. 

The only exception was the internal checks.  They usually do internal checks, but she said there’s no reason why they need to do them.  If I prefer to skip them, that’s just fine.  She even said that she wouldn’t need to check me if I suddenly feel the urge to push.  She said if I did a little trial push and felt the baby moving down, we were ready to go!  If I do a little push and it hurts, then we know I need to give my body more time to dilate a bit more.  So there’s no need to 3 nurses and 2 doctors to be reaching up in there.  That’s so refreshing and comforting to know.

Tuesday was also the day of my Group B Strep test.  We won’t know for a while what the results are.  Once we know, we’ll be able to finalize a few of the items in the birth preferences list and I’ll post the final draft so you can see it.

Aside from those things, it was a usual appointment.  I got measured and I’m measuring right where I should be.  We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat.  And feel her position.  She’s still head down, although, she did roll around while the midwife was feeling her so that her back was up against my back.  She seems to have rolled back into place later, though, and there’s still plenty of time for her to move around.  She’s doing great in other words!  Headbutting my bladder as much as possible!

Thursday, I had my first appointment with the therapist.  I won’t go into all the details here, but it went really well.  We talked a lot about feelings of powerlessness and where in my life I am powerful.  It was amazing how good it felt to have someone validate what I’d been through in the hospital that one really bad Friday night.  She’s a medical professional who works with people with eating disorders in addition to being a counselor, so she was able to point out why what I had been through and validate just how serious my situation was.  Hearing her tell me that, yes, I was actually pretty close to dying that Friday night really helped me come to terms with things and let go of the guilt I’ve been carrying for being angry over the lack of treatment I received at the hands of the hospital.

Anyway, it was a good experience.  I really felt like I was able to connect with her, and I appreciated that she didn’t try to logic me to death like the previous counselor I saw (way back in January).  I’ll keep going back to her for a while.  It’s really seemed to do me some good.

So, it’s been a busy week.  Tomorrow I’ll be 36 weeks.  I think I posted previously that 36 weeks is considered full term, but that’s not correct.  37 weeks is full term.

I’ve got 4 working days next week and 5 working days the week after.  Then I go out on maternity leave.  I can’t wait to be done with work!  One less thing that I will have to worry about.