34 Week Appointment

Today's centering session covered the topic of infant care. Prior to hearing the guest speakers we completed our belly checks as usual. My blood pressure was a little high, but nothing alarming. My belly measured fine and the baby's heart rate was in the 130s. She is still in the transverse position and the midwife said that if she doesn't move before our next appointment in two weeks then we'll have to start discussing some options. She didn't say more than that, but I'm assuming that means options to get her to move head-down or a c-section if she stays in the same position. There's one other girl in our class of about ten that has the same issue, except her baby is currently breech. 

Our speakers were from a parenting organization on post that provide infant care instruction, home visits, and play groups. The first topic of discussion was how to bond with the baby, specifically focused on the dads. Most of the husbands in our class are deploying in November and the rest are leaving in January or February. I feel blessed that Tim leaves at the beginning of next year so he'll at least have a couple months to bond with our daughter. These other dads are only going to have about a week with their newborns, if even that. After that we talked about infant sleep position, bathing, sibling rivalry, and circumcision. We ended the class by introducing ourselves to one of the husbands that hadn't previously attended the class and we had to do so by saying something to make him uncomfortable. All the women were laughing so hard and begging people to stop so we wouldn't pee ourselves =). Most of the women had no shame and told this new addition to our class about their nipples leaking, trials and errors of trying to shave "down there" with a huge belly, etc. It was quite comical! 

My next appointment is on October 16th, and hopefully the baby will be in the proper birth position by then!