We're having a baby next month!

Well, it seems that all of the sudden the baby countdown is upon us! I had my 35-week appointment this week. After a few questions that began with, "what have you decided about..." and, "do you have ___ ready yet?" (and followed by responses like, "Oh yeah...I forgot about that."), my midwife, ever so graciously, handed me a pad of paper and a pen and urged me to make myself a to-do list. It's time to start preparing.

As our expected date of delivery approaches, Adam and I have found ourselves talking to others about our homebirth more and more. We often get questions that make it apparent that many people believe it is really risky to have a baby somewhere other than a well-staffed hospital. Rather than go on and on about that here, I just want to include some links to current research on the safety of attended home births for low-risk women. This is some of the best research, and here is a collection of some other great studies about assisted homebirths. The Business of Being Born is a really informative documentary on homebirth if you're not the kind of person who enjoys reading medical research. And just for fun, here is a cute picture of baby Isaac on the website of my former midwives in Oregon (scroll down to the very bottom). The bottom line here is not to advocate for univeral homebirth (that's obviously not the solution! Please don't hear that in my words). Where and how a baby is born is so unimportant in the big picture of parenting. I would just like to see our birth culture evolve from one of abundant fear-based medical intervention to one that celebrates that process that God himself created our bodies to go through. And as women, I think we need to do a better job of communicating that confidence to other women who haven't yet experienced birth. It's so much more productive than falling into the temptation of sharing horror stories.

As the birth gets closer, I'll share the alternative methods of everything birth-related that we're using, because I know I ate up that kind of information before I had gone through a natural labor and delivery. Labor induction (natural, gradual, of course!), pain management, relaxation, emergency preparedness, postpartum care, everything I can think of!

Without further ado, here are my pregnancy stats from my prenatal appointment this week:

NEW BABY:
Weight gain to date: 23 lbs
Blood pressure: 102/58
Heart rate: 160s
Presentation: head down; posterior
ISAAC:
Weight gain to date: 27 lbs
Blood pressure: 112/68
Heart rate: 140's
Presentation: head down

35 weeks

I had to include this picture of naked Lije running in right in the middle of my self-timed shot. Can't resist those cute Coppertone buns!