38 weeks today…could be close?

I’m 38 weeks today. Wow how did that happen?? I haven’t taken a picture today because to be honest I look no bigger!

Had a home visit by the new midwife on Tuesday, she is lovely and we had a good old natter about the merits of natural childbirth and went through my birthplan. She seemed to agree with most of it and said she doesn’t take pethidine to homebirths anyway as she doesn’t like it! The only thing she had an issue with was my desire to not have internal examinations, as she felt that these were necessary to see how I was progressing and check for problems. We reached a compromise of only being examined every 4 hours which i’m happy with, as my previous labours were only about 4 hours anyway!

Baby wasn’t quite engaged yet but her head was resting on the brim of my pelvis, and we suspect she may be popping in and out as some days (like today for example) she feels lower down and its all a lot more uncomfortable, but other days its fine. This is all quite normal for subsequent pregnancies so i’m not too worried. She is where she needs to be and not breech or back to back so thats the main thing! Blood pressure ok, and baby’s heartbeat still a nice constant 140 bpm 🙂

I finally have all the last bits and pieces for the homebirth. Loads of cheap towels from Asda’s (I cut up a bath towel that was £3.75 for 2 into muslin size squares for use as burp cloths, got 24 out of it!), some ‘labour clothes’ consisting of a long baggy cotton shirt for land nesting and a couple of long stretch vests for the pool to cover my dignity. I will no doubt be completely starkers once she pops out for the skin to skin contact but dont want to spend all of my labour in the nuddy 🙂

I also have got some lavender bath and massage oils,  and some pure Clary Sage essential oil that we have mixed with some Sweet Almond base oil for massage. Lavender is for relaxing and the clary sage is apparantly quite potent for pain relief (pure on a cotton wool ball and inhaled can have the same effect as gas and air) and can also help the contractions along.  It can bring labour on so I’m not touching the clary sage until my due date  – but I am then planning a pure clary sage and lavender bath, followed by a clary sage massage of my lower back and abdomen (Akeel willing that is lol) and some hot curry and long walks. I dont want to go too overdue as Akeel has holiday booked from the 13th as he cant get paternity leave. It would be a shame if he had to go back to work a day or 2 after she is born 😦

So any niggles or signs yet?? Well…i’m getting much more Braxton Hicks contractions, and my bowel movements have changed (pre-labour clear out hehe). I also feel ‘odd’ most of yesterday and this morning, kind of spaced out and not quite with it. I managed to get my final uni assingment submitted today and gawd knows how I managed it!

I am going to be questioning every little niggle and pang now aren’t I lol.

So bets are on! Akeels birthday is on the 14th June, its our 5th anniversary on the 18th June, and Fathers Day on the 20th June!! Her due date is the 17th, so I wonder if she will be born on one of those days?