Friday, August 25, 2006

39 weeks: like farm-fresh produce

just got back from my 39-week appointment with the newest midwife at the practice. she informed me that, not only will she have hospital priviledges next week, as of saturday, obstetricians will no longer be covering the midwives' shifts. that's really exciting news to me: i was feeling leery of having some random doctor in there whom i've never met who may turn her [or worse, his] nose up at the birthing preferences the midwives already signed.

the nurse who checks my blood pressure and weighs me assumed i would have my cervix checked today, which i thought was odd since midwives [and especially this one] generally agree that internal exams are kind of needless unless rushes are being felt. i obliged and, as i thought, the midwife came in, saw me with the paper drape around my waist and said, "so you want me to check you?" i was like, "um, the nurse told me you were going to." whatever. she checked and, no surprise, i am "long and closed". the notion of my cervix being unripe makes me imagine that inside my body is this something crisp, green, and hollow or like the blossom-end of a green banana. i kinda wish i hadn't been checked because i have read that, when a woman uses mental imagery, she can affect the progress of her body's readiness. oh well -- what's done is done.

anyway, i have one more weekly appointment scheduled for next week with the first midwife i met, and then, if i still need to ripen at that point, i go in the following monday for a non-stress test and to talk about post-dates testing. yuck. the good news is that there will be a full moon that week on wednesday so, if i still have this baby giraffe in me at that point, hopefully some inner tsunami will shake things loose.

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