36 weeks

We are down to weekly appointments with our midwives now. Crazy. In less than a month we will have another child (well, outside of my body anyway). We had a really productive appt today with Ali (primary midwife) and Abigail (student midwife/naturopathic doc). We discussed gathering supplies for birthing at home, and did a repeat blood draw to see if my iron has risen enough to not be worried about it anymore. I actually remembered to write down all my talking points this time, so we talked A LOT. I brought up my concerns about not having enough face time with the women who may attend the birth, and Ali was very considerate and seemed in total agreement--even stated that the other student midwife would NOT be there, as she has never met me. She also said they would likely not have Sunita, their new third team member, come as the primary as I've only met with her twice. She may be there to assist, but unless something significant prevents it, either Val or Ali will be coming with the student MW Abigail (whom we really like, even though we've only met her twice, too). To many women this may all seem arbitrary, as our society has come to accept strangers in the "delivery room"--we are given no opportunity to meet the nurses who will be caring for us in the labor and delivery departments of hospitals, and often haven't met the doctor on-call (as babies tend to not like being born during business hours). Even if a woman has her own doc, she probably doesn't feel like she has a real relationship with that person, having spent less than an hour or two total with him/her during clinical visits. Midwifery care is very different in that your midwife is very conscientious of the necessity for trust and respect in a birth attendant--a stranger walking into a woman's birthing space, whether she expects it or not, can (and often does) make labor slow way down, or even come to a screeching halt. Many women will rush to the hospital from home feeling like they are in a strong labor pattern only to be told by the stranger that has just put a and inside her body that she isn't really all that progressed and should either go back home or "take a walk for an hour." Had that woman stayed home to begin with, her labor likely would have continued to progress well and been much shorter and easier as a result.
So anyway, I fell better now about my situation with my midwives--I know they are listening to me and understand the importance of respecting my birth space. And I was assured that if someone I did not know well (or at all, as that is a possibility, but not likely) were to attend the birth, that person would not touch me but merely assist the midwife with equipment and paperwork. I've been in situations as a doula where this happened, and the assistants are very good at blending into the corners and being unobtrusive.
We also talked about snakes. Yup, snakes. I don't even recall how it came up, but we ended up telling them about Morgan's new fascination with her imaginary pet snake, Sally, and how I influenced her attitude about snakes (Indiana Jones convinced her they were scary) by telling her how much I liked them and how nice they are as pets. Ali was fascinated by this and wanted to hear all about how my family used to breed a rare species of King snakes when I was younger. Seriously, who can say they've discussed reptile reproduction at a prenatal checkup?
The other fun thing we discovered today (aside from Ali's delight over me saying "horny toad"), is that the baby is trying quite hard to roll face-up (meaning feet and hands towards my naval), which is not a good position to be in. Not only is it uncomfortable for me, but were he/she to stay that way it will make for a longer more painful labor and birth. Suck-o. So I will be spending a lot of time over the coming days/weeks encouraging the little rascal to find a more cozy place to rest, one that won't turn my belly button inside out with every poke of a toe (I never get an "outie" while pg, it just stretches out flat). This will include spending LOTS of time on my hands and knees, as well as some other handy tricks I've picked up along the doula road. I will also call on MY doula should I be unsuccessful alone-she's very experienced with rotating babies. How handy, to have such a person at my disposal. Doulas are awesome, if I do say so myself.