Home Visit!!!

The home visit went very well! Here's a brief (or maybe not-so-brief) re-cap for those of you who couldn't make it (we missed you!) Midwife: Lynda Barton-Kirch, CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife) Lynda was a L&D nurse at Community North and Wishard for years before earning her Master's in midwifery. She's been involved in home births for over 16 years, including having one of her own babies at home. Birth Assistant: Shannon Greika Shannon is a birth doula and midwifery student. Her main role will be to assist Lynda with whatever she needs, and maybe even take the lead under Lynda's supervision! Support: Sarah Mockaitis, Tonya Henderson, Jaime Aguayo. Sarah's a photographer as well as L&D nurse! Tonya's a photographer as well as doula and massage therapist. Jaime's planning her own home birth and will be in charge of handling my type A needs while I am too out of it to do it myself (phone calls, computer stuff, etc). That's our superstar birth team :) Sarah and Tonya weren't able to make it today but my dad and grandma were here with us! Lo & Pop were at school. First things first, we all ate! Pizza from The Ordinary, veggies, fruits, salads and lemonade. Yum! Then Shannon took my blood pressure (110/80) and everyone got to listen to the heartbeat through the Doppler (136ish). My fundus measured in at 39cm, right on target for me (I always seem to measure 2 weeks ahead). Then we went through the list of home birth supplies we've collected (towels, receiving blankets, peroxide, fish net, witch hazel, heating pad... lots of fun stuff) and showed Lynda & Shannon where everything is being stored so they won't have to ask during the birthing time. Lynda gave us a few supplies (sealed in sterile packaging of course) like the cord clamp (sooooo cute), bulb syringe, sterile gloves and whatnot. Then we showed her around the rest of the downstairs and made sure to point out the washer and dryer (they'll start a load before they leave, woohoo!) and where stuff is in the kitchen. After we all came downstairs Shannon swabbed me for the Group Beta Strep test. We'll get those results sometime this week. If it's positive, I can opt to have an IV or injection of antibiotics once the birthing time is coming, or I can do a cleanse to get rid of the bacteria and test again. And we turned in our consent forms for baby care in the first 48 hours. That's really all there was to it! I'll be 38 weeks on Thursday, so we've got the green light to go ahead and get to birthing whenever baby is ready. Lynda attends home birth up to 43 weeks gestation, although absolutely refuse to stay pregnant into June so this kid had better get with the program ;) Our birth tub should come sometime in the next 2 weeks! Lynda suggested we have 6 feet of space in case we get the big jetted tub so Zach laid down on the floor as our measuring tape. It'd fit!!! So anyway, everything is going really well and is as normal as can be. We got our house all in order and all of our big projects out of the way and we feel so prepared for the birth and having a newborn (well, as prepared as anyone can be!). The Mini Marathon is this weekend and I really wanna finish it, but after that the baby can come as it pleases :)