The Final Countdown

Last night, one of my midwives came over for the home visit and suddenly I’m realizing just how close we are to the finish line over here. *gulp*

I’m just three days shy of being considered “full-term” now and I can feel the clock ticking. After last weekend’s nesting frenzy, we’ve slowed down on preparations again, mostly due to a busy calendar this week, but the pressure to Get Things Ready is building, for sure.

For a homebirth mom, the home visit can be a big milestone. My midwives conduct all of their prenatal visits in the office, but at 36 weeks, one of them comes to you. The visit has several purposes – they want to make sure they know how to find your home without trouble (especially important if rushing over half asleep in the wee hours of the morning), want to check in on whether you’ve got all of your supplies in order, get a general lay of the land, and, if needed, make suggestions about how and where to set things up once the Big Day arrives.

I think that because I worked for them for the last year (in addition to being a patient), the midwife assumed I had my act together and didn’t carefully check in on my supply-situation while here last night. Lucky for me as I just ordered my birth kit this morning. Whoops. (If you’re reading this, J, please pretend I didn’t just say that!)

Moving on…

The visit last night was really lovely and reminded me yet again why I love working with midwives for my pregnancy care. All of our visits throughout the pregnancy are scheduled for a full hour, but last night’s included both dinner and a toddler tea party.

Over dinner, we discussed my pregnancy, the chiropractic care I’ve been getting, any worries or concerns we still have lingering around about the birth itself, and how the baby had been moving in recent weeks. Once we were done eating, we went into the bedroom to check-in on Boo.

While I laid in bed, my daughter and midwife measured my fundal height together (36cm – right on target!) and palpated to determine the baby’s current position (slightly posterior – must work on that!).

The midwife then showed her how to take blood pressure with the “arm hugger” and let her give it a try on daddy.

And, finally, they used the Doppler to listen to Boo’s heart beat.

This little bugger thinks it’s funny to try and hide from the Doppler every single visit, but we found him/her anyway, despite the attempts to kick the wand clear off my belly. I have a feeling this baby is going to be feisty.

At the end of the visit, we all gave J big hugs and sent her on her way. From here until the end, we’ll move to weekly visits back in the office until the day that we call them and say, “It’s time.”

I can’t wait.

-----

Follow Jo on Twitter at @outtajo or visit her personal blog, Outta Jo, Onto You.