Ward Words

Even though my due date is still 3 weeks off, I am, as of today, officially full term. If I had the baby today, it would not be considered early anymore. Lucas read a statistic yesterday, though, that most first time mothers have their babies between 38-42 weeks. Which is an enormous, month long window. We decided the baby will be here before Christmas, though, and even more ideally before the 20th. My midwife gave me lots of exercises to help move the baby into ideal position, plus suggested a regimen of red raspberry leaf tea and 5W herbs. So, operation have baby before Christmas is officially underway!

My most recent midwife appointment was last Wednesday. We had to go a day earlier than usual because of Thanksgiving this week. I got the results back from my Group B strep test--negative! This makes me happy because I get to avoid the IV during labor. Also, my blood count came back normal, so I don't have to take any extra iron or protein. Baby had moved slightly (instead of back towards my left side, back was facing front), so I have been doing the yoga cat/cow moves and laying on my left side to help it move back into position. We do know it is head down, and because there is hardly any room left in there, it really doesn't have room to turn all the way back around, which means it should still be head down at birth. yay!

Lucas and I have almost finished packing our bag for the birth center. With a birth center birth, you go home anywhere from 4-6 hours after the baby is born, so I am trying to resist over packing...very hard for me, but Lucas is doing his best to keep me in line =]

Pictures of the nursery to come after this weekend. Lucas and his dad built the crib yesterday, and today we are moving in some of the other furniture...

~Kelly