Gilberts' Fridge

Midwife appointment...

So I had my week 31 appointment yesterday and all is mostly well.

The baby's heartbeat is REALLY strong--and fast. It always amazes me how fast it is whenever I listen to it, and it is one of the best sounds in the world to me. It's such a comfort to listen to that strongly beating heart, and I would happily go to the midwife every day just to hear it and know that my baby is healthy.

I'm measuring just right for how far along I am, which is good to know. I am still getting comments about how big I am, and it's so discouraging. After a while it starts to make you feel like you're an abnormal freak and that you are going to give birth to the world's largest baby. But I'm right on target for 31 weeks, I'm just carrying this baby all up front. So that was good news.

I got the results of my blood work from the last appointment, and everything looks good there. Apparently, my iron levels look GREAT! I'm not even slightly anemic. Hooray for those pre-natal vitamins that I have taken religiously since I did my first pregnancy test.

The only thing that was cause for concern was the old pee test. I had protein and leukocytes in my urine, so they are sending a sample in to the lab to see if I have some sort of infection that needs to be treated. They weren't overly concerned about it--just sending for the tests to be on the safe side. If I don't hear anything within a week I can assume that everything is fine.

I saw Kate at the midwife's office again. She is lovely--so much better than the other two I've seen. She even asked me how I was doing. She's friendly and helpful, and I wouldn't mind having her there to deliver my baby. That makes a nice change from the other two midwives I've seen, who I really wouldn't want anywhere near me or my unborn child.

Martin and I were discussing the appointment later in the evening (he couldn't get the time off work to come with me), and he said he was glad to hear that the baby was healthy. Of course, I had to point out that the baby is healthy as far as we know. There's really no way to be sure until after it's born. And then we started talking about how scary it is to have a baby. There are so many things that could go wrong at any stage. The fact that most babies are born completely normal is a miracle. And yet, with all of the things that might go wrong, you don't really tend to think about them. You assume that everything is fine and normal. Even I assume this, even though I am a chronic worrier.

I'll admit that I was really worried at first. I was worried that the pregnancy wasn't in the right place at first, and then I was worried that I would miscarry. And every time I had a twinge or saw a little bit of blood I would freak out and have to fight the urge to get into bed, put my feet up, and call the hospital immediately. But once I had my anomalies scan at 20 weeks and everything was normal, that worry seemed to melt away. Now I'm just worried about being a mother--actually caring for this tiny baby that's about to come into our lives.

We went over to the Mundays' last night. I cooked dinner ( I love cooking dinner over there, because they do the dishes after!) and we just sat around talking for ages. They bought Martin a gift--a book all about being a dad. We had a skim through it together, and had quite a few giggles over the quick quizzes in it. Martin is so chilled out about becoming a parent, but I think I am freaking out enough for both of us. And I wonder, is he really just not afraid, or does he not realize how drastically our lives are about to change?