Midwife Wednesday

After a wicked good night's sleep, the day started with finding a dead squirrel behind the toilet in our first floor bathroom. We are guessing that he wasn't smoked out before the hole was patched up and found his way in the house. Or else he crawled in through the open window (which was open to get rid of the smoke) and found his way downstairs. To die by a toilet. Oh well, let's hope this is the final scene in the squirrel tragedy.



I had an appointment today for my 40 week checkup. All good news. My blood pressure was 104/74. I have had mild swelling in my hands for the last week - my ring is a little tighter. This is actually a good thing as mild swelling is actually another sign of the body getting ready for labor. Think of it as storing up for the rapid fluid loss that will occur in birth. Mancub's heart tones were 140-150s, still a nice strong but normal rate.

The midwife assistant said she thinks he is probably engaged but she wasn't sure of her own ability to tell. She also wasn't sure if he was still ROA Or OP, so I'm not worrying about it. My midwife is much more confident in palpating the position of the baby. The other thing the midwife assistant thought was that he was an 8-9 lb baby - again I don't entirely trust her assessment. Just a few weeks ago the midwife thought he was somewhere around 6 lb and there is no way he grew that much. But he HAS grown. My belly measured 41 cm today (i.e. 41 weeks). I also gained 2.5 lb from last week! Part of that has to be swelling...and part because I have been eating like a pig for the last week. I think because he has dropped and my stomach isn't squished I can finally eat a normal meal before I get full. And my appetite has been keeping up. I also think I am packing away some energy for the birth and nursing...just my own theory for the huge appetite this last week.

I had some contractions during the appt. When the midwife assistant felt them she complimented me on my 'fit uterus'. Hah. That made me giggle. She also reiterated the idea that whatever 'work' I do know what all of this practice labor is good. Basically, I'm spacing it out over days instead of one long session. The active labor should go faster, which can only be good for stamina and energy. Nice to hear.

Then we were off to Target for some last minute shopping errands. I was waddling around and having contractions the whole time. I could feel him really low and it was pretty uncomfortable walking. I was happy to lie down and do birth practice when I got home.

We ate the homemade chicken soup for dinner. It was my first chicken soup ever and it is spectacular.

THEN we discovered one last wrinkle in the squirrel story. There were squirrel poops in the baby's room. And a few dusty rodent footprints on the baby stroller. And some squirrel fur in the under storage compartment of the stroller. Ew. Donavon cleaned it up and we are now hoping it really is all over. Although we have been going over what we think might have happened - assuming it was the same squirrel that eventually died in the bathroom. Curious.

With that, we headed to bed and played a little "let's distract Alyssa" game of Yahtzee.