37 Weeks

I am now entering that final stretch. By most accounts I am considered full term, and really, the baby can come any time and will likely be just fine. I am waiting for a ferocious bout of nesting so I can actually feel accomplished about something. But so far, the only one nesting around here is my spouse, who is managing to work way more than full time, play TBall with Jonah every Sunday at the crack of dawn for 6 hours AND complete a bunch of tedious projects we have been neglecting for years. My projects have more to do with the Costco sized box of Haagen Dazs bars in the freezer and watching birth videos on youtube. Let's see, what else is new? I grunt every time I bend over to pick something up, even my maternity pants are too tight now--I have to resort to dresses and I use every excuse in the book to get out of cooking dinner. Oh yes, I think my feet just grew a 1/2 size...I will give it a month or so before I throw all my shoes out and start over with new ones, just in case they somehow go back to normal.

I can't wait to find out who this little person is. Dying to know the gender. Something about already having 2 kids makes me really wonder about how the genes will be mixed up this time around. Now there are 4 people in our family this baby might resemble and I can't conceive that it won't be some mix of my two kids and not it's own person.

Just watched The Business of Being Born and found it inspiring and informative. Not only is it set in New York City so it seemed particularly relevant to me right now, but I found the segment where someone is on the way to the hospital in a taxi particularly interesting. The driver did a nice job of handling the chaos in the backseat while trying to be soothing, even when her water broke all over his car. The midwife featured in the film is one I considered--we corresponded via email even. I am left surprised, as always, by the statistics--like that in the U.S. only 1% of births are homebirths. Coming from homebirth-friendly Portland, that number shocks me. And then there is the Cesarean rate in New York City--in some hospitals here it is 40 to 45%. And sadly, while most Americans believe that a hospital is the safest place to give birth, our maternal and newborn outcomes are at the bottom of the list among developed countries. I am not quoting sources for these numbers here...but they are easy to find with a little searching. (These are just what I remembered from the film.) Cesarean rates vary widely by hospital, national averages are more in the 20% -25% range...but I am surprised that Manhattan would have such high numbers. I like to think that women here are highly educated and empowered to make different choices, but I think time and perceived convenience and a massive cultural/institutional presence trumps the other factors.

Anyways, our plan is still a homebirth. Or rather an apartment birth. Of course, there is always the possibility that hospital care will become part of this birth. But just like I wouldn't hang out in a hospital unless I was sick or injured, I wouldn't plan on birth in a hospital unless there was a medical problem. So far, I have felt strong and good and while I can't say I actually look forward to labor (does anyone?), I think I am ready.