Last Scan

Yesterday was our final scheduled ultrasound. This time we brought R along with us so she could see her sibling. Unfortunately since it's such a late scan, the wee one is too big to see overall and too uncooperative to see any detail. Not even a nose.

R watched for bit and started to get bored. L asked R to take photos of the ultrasound screen.

to RHere. Take my phone. Can you take photos of the screen?

R gets up close to the screen

Don't get close. Stand back there. You can take some good photos at the end.

Moving to the back of the roomI'll stand over here and take selfies.

grinningShe's a millennial.

Um... the millennials are in their 30s now

their jaws drop

She's like 2 generations later

jaws can't fall any further

What generation does that make her then?

trying to remember 'Alpha'. It went to 'Zed' and then wrapped around again.

Never before have I had such an opportunity to make people younger than me feel so old.

Regardless, the scan went well, despite the lack of any visuals more interesting than a ribcage and maybe some hair. While at the last scan everything was bang on average, things have started having some variation now. Head is a bit bigger than normal at 11cm across – the magic number at which birth starts to sound a litter scarier.

We're on the final road now. We're term soon and then it's the waiting game. Does the kid come before or after I start paternity leave?

New clothes

We have quite a few hand-me-downs we've gotten from various people over the past few months. Today we organised the baby clothes, separating everything by size. This time remembering that they get big pretty quickly and that 9-12 month pile is going to get used sooner than we'd think, and to make sure we remember where we put it.

It's starting to really home that there will actually be a baby soon. We've only a few weeks left. I kind of miss last time when I was so paranoid I spent the whole time reading up on everything and making sure we are prepared. This time, well, I remember what I read last time, and I'm pretty sure I recall what we need. Nappies. A birth plan. A bed. A changing table. Something to carry the child around in. Something to carry the stuff around in. some kind of pump/bottle/steriliser situation. And a hefty supply of panic attacks that I can pick up and use when I realise I've forgotten something rather critical.

On a similar note, I've been continuing the pre-midwife cleanup to get at least my bedroom tidy and ready. Or at least pretend there is an away for everything in the room. I even cleaned under the bed. It's a pretty high up bed, so we store boxes under it. Somehow, after cleaning, there was more storage space than there was before. This is just encouraging me to do more cleaning.

I found a bag of my clothes I put away. I recall one t-shirt and one pair of trousers I hated enough to put away, but not throw out, but I've no idea why I stashed away the rest. It's all reasonable stuff that seems to fit. I worry that if I try to wear any of it, it'll turn out to have a hole in an awkward or embarrassing place that only reveals itself when I'm far from the house and have no backup.

The other downside of the big clean, is I've vacuumed up so much dust into the air, I've been constantly sneezing with a sore throat for days whenever I'm in the house. With luck that will settle down soon.

Meet the midwife

The home birth team came to the house on Monday. The team was a midwife and student midwife come to take various measurements and answer all our questions about home birth. It's rare enough a medical professional comes to your home, so that was in our thoughts above everything else.

Of course we spent the entire week before cleaning the place just so they wouldn't end up saying I'm afraid your place isn't clean enough to give birth in. It’s the labour centre for you! before giving an evil laugh and dropping a smoke bomb to hide their escape. But that didn’t happen. We sat around the kitchen table having a pleasant discussion. The downside being, the whole time I was tempted to say And why don’t we go down to the bedrooms and see how clean they are, but perhaps them thinking me sane and not at all creepy is the better approach.

Of all the people we've met at the various hospitals during this pregnancy, these were the first to actually try to convince us to do a home birth. Everyone we've come across so far has told us the dangers and other problems associated with giving birth at home. The closest we'd come was a consultant who essentially said well, it's your choice, you know what you're doing, so do what you want.

This was different. They spent half the time telling us all the ways that a home birth is good for the mother and good for the baby. And that we should expect a faster, easier birth. They made it clear it would not be a home invasion – though they did say they require tea and snacks, so we have to take their orders in advance. How we chose to do the birth in the house was up to us. They don't require a specific room, it's all about the mother being comfortable.

They also suggested renting a birthing pool, but, given the only place we have enough space for it is the balcony, L decreed that an al fresco birth, while primal, would not qualify as "comfortable".

It was nice to hear at what stage to call them, how many people would be there, what happens if things go wrong, how long they stay after, what paperwork we get at the end, how to register the birth and so on. They also actively engaged me in conversation, rather than looking up surprised with a Oh you're still here look when I speak. All in all, a fairly comfortable experience which has left me much happier about the whole plan.

Also in the good news is the baby is no longer breech. So that’s a win too.