10th OB Appointment (36w0d)

I had my 36 week OB appointment this morning. And wow - these appointments really seem to be happening pretty quickly now. I think I am getting closer to being ready for Murtle's arrival, but I need for her to be about a week late since I'm going to be working up until the Friday before my due date and it would be great if I could have a full week at home making the last minute preparations without having to worry about work.

I got to meet with Dr. Edwards again today. I must say that she has become one of my favorite OBs in the practice and I hope that she ends up delivering Murtle. I gained another full pound since Wednesday (making it a total of about 12 pounds of pregnancy weight). Although Dr. Edwards told me that she still wants to see me put on some more weight, she was highly pleased that it seems that Murtle has caught up growth-wise since she advised me to start eating more ice cream, as she's convinced that it helps with growth issues. I tend to believe that and switching to 2% milk actually helped. My blood pressure checked out fine and I assume the urine sample was A-OK, too. Dr. Edwards did not do a cervix check today since I just had it done last week. She said that it is pretty likely that I could go over my due date considering there has been no action going on down there yet and because this will be my first child. She told me that since I do not wish to be induced a week before or by my due date (which recommend because of my "advanced maternal age"), then she wants me to also go to the specialists' office for weekly visits from her on out so they can monitor the health of the placenta (since it could start to break down soon), the fluid levels and just make sure Murtle is still growing and thriving.

We also went over a checklist of items in preparation of Murtle's arrival (e.g., reminding me that I will need to get the anti-biotics during labor because of my GBS, labor signs (contractions every five minutes that last a minute each), where to go when it's time to go to the hospital, and birth control after delivery (ha!...as if I need to worry about that). She asked me if we had a name yet, so I told her our in-utero name - she got a kick out of that, especially when I told her that when I told Dr. Penn what the name was, I was afraid that he was going to refer me to social services immediately for pre-emotional abuse, ha ha.

I also talked to a representative from the Johns Hopkins' School of Nursing's Birth Companions Program today. One of my Fertile Thoughts friends told me about the program and I decided to get some more information on it, especially since I am considering a natural birth. DH thought this could be a good resource / support for us, especially since it won't cost anything. The program offers free student nurse doula services to any woman in the Baltimore metropolitan area. After speaking with the representative, I agreed to meet with two students (they work in pairs to ensure someone will be available at time of delivery) for an initial visit to get some more information and to see if this service would be useful for Murtle's delivery. Here's the link to the program for anyone who is interested:

nursing.jhu.edu/practice/bc/about.aspx