Chugging along

Officially 38 weeks today! I had my weekly appointment on Monday and everything is looking good. The midwife asked how I was feeling and I told her that I had good days and bad days. She told me that meant that I probably wasn't quite ready yet, since I wasn't having enough bad days!ha! I think they are unsure what to do with me, being American. They told me they don't get many English speaking patients. Last week when I met with the midwife, she told me that the doctor had put a note in my chart saying to be extra nice to me since we were foreign! haha! I think they are worried that I am nervous about giving birth here. I'm really not. I've been very pleased with my care so far and actually feel like they treat childbearing and birth as it should be...a more natural process. We'll see what I think after I've actually given birth but so far, so good!

The midwife usually feels around on my stomach to feel baby and then uses a dopler to listen to her heartbeat. Ellie was pretty active that day and typically hates the dopler anyways. She is head down, low and in a good position. However, her heartrate was around 160, which the midwife said is good for her, bad for me. Apparently babies typically settle down a bit and become less active right before labor starts but she's still moving and a groovin' so we continue to wait. The midwife said that since most first time moms go late, to put in my head that she will come at 41 weeks (the latest they will let me go here is 42 weeks as long as there are no other concerns prior to that) so that I'm not disappointed if my due date comes and goes. Sigh. I'm ready to be done with pregnancy but more than that I just want to meet my baby!!

Many people have asked about the pain medication situation here and I talked about it briefly in my last post but here's a more in depth look at it. I think I previously mentioned that most Dutch moms give birth without the use of any medications. In fact, it wasn't until a few years ago that they passed a law requiring hospitals to have epidurals available 24/7. My hospital offers 3 different options. One we have completely ruled out...it's basically a morphine shot in the thigh (more technical and in depth than that but I can't really remember all the details because we ruled it out right away). The 2nd option, and one we are planning on going with at this time, is a pain pump. Basically it's a pump that you control. It's more short term and you can administer it as needed (to help through the contractions). I like this because it doesn't completely eliminate your ability to feel anything but also takes the edge off. It is also completely out of you and the baby within 30 minutes from the last dose.This is the most popular option at the hospital. The 3rd option is the epidural. The thing I don't like about these is that you can't get up and move around plus I've had friends who have had complications with them. So my plan right now is to try and go as long as I can unmedicated and then have the pain pump as my backup. We'll see how labor goes though and I'm not dead set on having a natural birth.

I've decided to park the ole bike. When I mentioned to my midwife I was still riding, she said " do you feel like you're sitting on her head??" and since the day before I actually did feel like I was sitting on her head and then that was confirmed through the midwife, I feel a little weird and uncomfortable smashing her head. So it's the bus or by foot for me for the next few weeks.