The Weeks Before Delivery

Guess what? I’m “full term.” (37 weeks pregnant as of the time of writing. 39 now.) That means this baby is welcome to come any time in the next 5 weeks or so (now down to 3 weeks or so!). Like tomorrow, or a month from now. Who knows?

So I’m doing a few things to prepare.

1. Ordering my car seat. When it comes, I’ll install it in my van (yup, I moved up to a minivan), and have my CPST friend check the installation.
2. Ordering materials for my homebirth kit. My midwife will bring all the midwifey tools, birth pool/tub, and emergency gear, but I’m responsible for the “personal items” like a thermometer, sterile gloves, peri bottles, the cord clamp for the baby, herbal baths, etc. If you’re having a hospital birth, your equivalent to this item would be packing your hospital bag.
3. Starting “end of pregnancy” herbs and stuff. Red Raspberry Leaf (2-3 capsules twice a day), evening primrose oil (1 capsule orally, and 1 “the other way,” er, near the cervix, each day), and Christopher’s Birth Prep (3 a day starting at 37 weeks, then increasing each week until baby is born).
4. Watching some more birthy documentaries. There are so many more than I knew existed! Most of them are really low-budget/amateur productions, but they’re fun to watch if you’re into “birthy stuff.”
5. Flipping through the birthy books I meant to read but didn’t get to. A bit of skimming is better than nothing, right?
6. Consciously “practicing” when I get a Braxton-Hicks contraction. Trying to remember to breathe (it’s easy to accidentally hold your breath!) and relax my body when I get them.
7. Completing some nesting projects I had “on the list” but haven’t gotten to yet. I feel like as soon as I make the last curtain, I’ll go into labor. Who knows? Maybe it’ll work that way! In which case, I’d better get sewing!
8. Thinking about making some meals to freeze. This may or may not actually happen. It was useful to have those things on hand last time, but I’m not sure I’ll actually get to it this time.
9. Setting up the co-sleeper and changing area, organizing little tiny boy clothes and socks and diapers, and digging out the wee baby blankets.
10. Enjoying my last few weeks as a mother of one, and soaking up my toddler’s last few weeks as an only child. Taking mental snapshots of our family of 3 around the dinner table, as we are now.

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