Waiting for baby

With baby number two (and final), the pregnancy has gone by so much more quickly.

Even these last three weeks, while I'm waiting, the days fly by.  I'm now only a week out from my due date - though I'm anxious to get the party started, I know the baby will eventually come and life as we know it will cease.

Our Au Pair has arrived and I'm already so grateful for her.  She swooped in, got started right away, and T can't stop staring into her eyes and smiling.  She plays really well with him, and since he's madly in love with her, he does whatever she says.  We adults love her too.  She fits in really well, seems to need as much alone time as we do, and joins in when we have company.  This process could have been a total disaster in a number of ways, but so far, we feel so lucky.

A my midwife appointment last week, my blood pressure was a bit high.  Even with visualization, which helped me bring it down when it was high when I was pregnant with T, didn't do much.  They had me come back two days later, and it was even higher.  After a little cry about possibly having to be induced (but being assured my midwives would be there while it happened), we headed to Kaiser for some testing to see what was going on.  Bubbs is home now for his leave, so luckily, he was able to take me to Kaiser for testing.

I have no other symptoms of pre-eclampsia than high blood pressure, but our midwives take no chances - if I want a homebirth I have to do whatever they say to ensure them that I have a normal pregnancy.

So, after an amazing mexican breakfast, we headed to Kaiser.  Navigating the parking lot is sure to raise anyone's blood pressure.  We arrived in labor and delivery and they had us wait in a yellow waiting room with burgundy chairs.  I started crying again - "I don't want to have my baby here, it is so ugly!"  Sobbing and laughing at the same time helped to relieve some of the stress.

Aside from how ugly Kaiser was, I realized just how grateful I am for my midwife team:

- The Kasier nurse demanded that I take of my clothes and put on a gown.  When I asked why, since they would be taking my blood pressure and doing an ultrasound, she said it was "just in case."  Um, "just in case WHAT?"  I put the damn gown on, but over my clothes :)

- When it was time to take my blood pressure, there were three alarms going off, plus my baby's heart rate monitor.  I'm trying to visualize being on a hot deck in the summer with an ice cold glass of wine while I have what sounds like a war going on around me.   Helpful.  In my midwive's office, I'm a lovely sofa and she checked to make sure I was okay with the light conversation going on outside the room.

- When my urine tests came back, the nurse says, "negative."  I was like, "um, negative for what?"  My midwives would have explained it all upfront.

- The nurse who came to take my blood couldn't find a vein and was really rough with me.  This is after I told her I hate getting blood draw.

-They gave me instructions for a 24 hour pee collection - I followed them, then brought the pee back the next day only to be told that I didn't do it right and they couldn't use it.

The good news is - I went from having 152/70 to 118/69 using visualization.  All my testing came back perfectly normal and my homebirth is still on.

I had acupuncture (twice) to help me keep my calm - and man was it groovy (the second time - the first time was just weird since I didn't speak the language of the acupuncturist).

We're in the waiting game now - trying to keep the house clean with all of us here full time and trying to keep me calm.

The birth tub is set up, the meals are frozen, and now it is just time to relax.