36 weeks on Thursday!

I am truly feeling "great with child."




Our baby is now big enough that we can hear the heartbeat with a stethoscope! Shawn heard it first and then when he passed the ears to me, it sounded like the heartbeat was in the 180s or so, which is pretty fast. Then as I listened a little longer, it went back down into the 150s and I knew I had just heard an accel. It's one of the things we look for to assess for fetal well-being so it was an exciting moment for the midwife in me. Being able to hear it this easily was also nice after I slipped down the back stairs after an ice storm a couple of weeks ago so I could hear that baby was still doing well. (In my defense, the ice was gone from the front of the house and I forgot that the back of the house does not get as much sun.)

Shawn and I are doing a childbirth prep method called hypnobirthing, which puts mom in a deep relaxation for labor and birth to help cope with and facilitate labor. It's a lot of guided imagery and self/partner induced hypnosis. We have had 2 classes now and are practicing as much as we can at home. In class last week the instructor led us through a session that was 30 minutes long but we all perceived it as about 10. I think it's going to go well for us. Last night Shawn led me through a practice and I was able to get pretty deeply relaxed fairly quickly. I attended a number of hypnobirthing births when I was a midwife at the Maternity Center, and the families were pretty successful. I am hopeful that it will go well for us.

I am getting anxious about the baby actually coming home now. We still don't have too much prepared. We have gotten a number of blankets for presents, but we have no clothes or much of anything else yet. My shower is on Sunday so I am sure we will do lots of shopping after that to fill in the gaps. The nursery is almost done. There are a few more wall hangings to go up, and we need some shelves above the changing table and closet organizers, but then we are good.

We have been reading parenting/baby books and have a parenting class on Wed night. I feel at a little disadvantage because I never did much in the way of babysitting and my siblings are so much younger than me, I am worried about my mothering ability. Shawn took care of his brother a lot, so he has a little more confidence, but I am looking forward to Wed night! I know how to do the basics, like diaper changing and I am a darn good swaddler, but I am used to handing babies back to their parents when they start to fuss! Now I will be the parent!