37 Weeks

Aaaah! This is the most pregnant I have ever been! I’m 37w3d and Wesley was born at 37w0d so this is all uncharted territory for me.

I had a prenatal today and things are still looking good: BP was 126/78, baby’s position is LOT, and I was given some “Dr. Christopher’s Birth Prep” capsules to take. They also recommended Evening Primrose Oil capsules, but I’m still doing some research on whether or not I want to try those. They did my GBS test today too.

Denise did a cervical check (SO UNPLEASANT, UGH) and said I was about 1cm dilated and the tissues were soft, which is a good sign my body is getting ready. I know cervical checks really do not mean very much in terms of predicting when labor will happen, but in some respects it’s nice to know that I’m not totally unfavorable at this point like I was with Wesley. Denise also said I have a “nice big pelvis” and then later described it as “roomy” so that’s funny, but it’s a good sign too. She said the baby is really easy to engage in my pelvis if she applies pressure to the top of my belly, so it looks like there shouldn’t be any engagement problems.

I finally purchased the last few things for my birth kit, so that’s basically ready to go. I still need to pick up some towels from my mother-in-law who has a bunch of extras that she doesn’t mind me using (ours are all white and we have, like, four. I’m supposed to have around ten) and she also has some bendy straws, which I think is the last thing I’m missing.

Then I get to go grocery shopping for labor food! I wasn’t allowed to eat during labor with Wesley so I have no idea what I might like this time. I’m thinking popsicles, Gatorade, and maybe fruit snacks? We always have stuff like Greek yogurt and fruit on hand but I could see something like fruit popsicles being helpful and we never have that kind of stuff on hand normally.

I’m down to four more days of work left – this Thursday and Friday, and then next Tuesday and Wednesday. My job is not strenuous by any means but gosh, I am kind of ready to be done.

Next Monday is our home visit, where the midwives come do my prenatal appointment at our apartment and determine where they’ll set up their stuff and highlight any cleanliness or safety issues they see. This means I have to, like, really REALLY clean up and make it presentable in here. We should probably shampoo the carpets but I can’t even think about moving all our living room furniture to do it so it may not happen. Ack.

Mostly I don’t know what to do with stuff like our wooden drying rack for clothes, which we use but not consistently, so it lives awkwardly in our kitchen because there’s really nowhere else to put it. Or Wesley’s outside toys – we don’t have a porch or a backyard and I don’t feel comfortable just leaving them outside all the time, so they live in the kitchen and the living room and generally take up a lot of space. Hmm. Renting a less-than-optimal living space kind of sucks in this regard.

In terms of labor and baby updates, my plan is to keep my Twitter updated as long as I can manage. I might assign somebody to post updates if I become unable to do so, but that’ll probably be the best place to get baby notifications if you’re interested.

File Under: Pregnancy, VBAC

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