Week 37 – Full Term
Friday marked the beginning of Week 37. I’m almost becoming a dad!
As of Friday, little baby Peach is considered full-term. Now Peach is fully-formed and capable of surviving outside Mom-to-Be’s womb – with just a little care and attention from us. For the next few weeks until Peach decides it’s time to make the grand showing, it’ll be putting on a bit more body fat in preparation for the big birthing event.
We took some photos of Mom-to-Be’s belly – it’s definitely full and feeling quite firm. We can feel more or less where Peach’s legs and feet are, and we think we know where it’s bum is too. Peach has not turned completely into the fully-desired position but we are encouraging Peach in the right direction by talking to it and explaining what we want. Oh god, we’ve turned into bloody new-age parents!
At our last midwife appointment we had a little more discussion about what to expect for the labour and delivery. Once labour starts and is regular, we give her a call and she will come to visit and make sure all is well. Our Strep B test came back negative so there’s no concerns if her water breaks early – if it had come back positive then we’d have to go to the hospital to get an intravenous antibiotic to help protect the baby. Then we wait until Mom-to-Be is at least 5-6 cm dilated before we whisk her off to BC Women’s Hospital where she will be admitted and the real fun begins!
The midwife asked a couple of questions that I found amusing. First, did I want to catch the baby? (my answer was “maybe…”. Mom-to-Be’s comment after the appointment, “I don’t really want you to, because babies are slippery and I don’t want you to drop Peach!”). Never thought about catching the baby, and personally I think I’d just be traumatized. Never mind Peach!
The second question was did Mom-to-Be want to catch her baby? To which she said, “maybe…” Personally I can’t fathom how she’d have the energy and coordination to do so given the birthing videos we’ve seen. But then again, who am I to say? It’d be kind of cool if she did – something she’d definitely get bragging rights to!
The last question was a repeat of “do you want to cut the umbilical cord?” I’m still not big on this idea but my reply was the standard “maybe…”
So what’s next? Well, getting the car seat installed is one. And trying not to pass out during the delivery is the other. We’ll see how well I fair on both!
