the best medicine

yesterday was a nice, but tiring, day. I had a prenatal visit and also saw my acupuncturist. I even managed to get to prenatal yoga class before my morning was over. in the afternoon I took Carter to therapy and then we went to get him a haircut at this adorable kid's place near the Mission Street Safeway. we waited over an hour but it didn't seem to matter because there were so many cool toys to play with. during his haircut Carter watched Tom and Jerry and it was fun to hear him laugh out loud during the parts he thought were funny. a sweet kid moment in the middle of a rather peaceful afternoon. I realized how low-stress my life is these days--there are things that have to get done but it's not like grading papers or preparing for a lecture.

as far as the medical stuff, everything seems to be fine. the midwife checked the baby's heartbeat (fine), my blood pressure and urine (fine), the size of my belly and my weight (fine, although terrifying to me), and my dilation and effacement. that was pretty interesting--I asked about having an internal exam, and she explained that they don't routinely do them since they aren't very predictive of labor. she said I could be 2 cm dilated for weeks without entering labor or neither dilated nor effaced and go into labor three hours later. still, I was curious, so she did a quick check. I'm effaced (she didn't say how much) but not yet dilated, and the baby's head isn't fully "engaged," though she is pointing downward and, according to the midwife, unlikely to turn.

the midwife was a bit concerned about the baby's position, however--while her head is down and her butt is up and centered, her spine is curving over to the left of my uterus. hands and knees position and child's pose could help her move a bit, in the midwife's opinion, but since I do those poses so often in my daily life I'm not so sure. I'll keep trying and I'll certainly keep swimming, which may also help. we also talked about what would happen if we went past 42 weeks. Gavin and I would like to avoid pitocin if possible, and luckily the midwife said we could sign an "AMA" (Against Medical Advice) and go longer than 42 weeks if we wanted to (and of course, we wouldn't make that choice if the baby were in any kind of danger). she also said that we could use acupuncture and sex to encourage the baby's arrival. why is it that sex prescribed by your caregiver just doesn't sound as much fun?

later that day, my acupuncturist tried more points for both my dizziness and for encouraging my body to move toward labor. it was a very pleasant treatment and I fell asleep on the table until a contraction woke me up. I'm really happy to be getting treatment and it may be helping me manage the faintness quite a bit, because I certainly haven't been getting worse. she also has me on a herbal formula for "strengthening the pulse" which I'm still a tiny bit nervous about for the baby. nevertheless, I'm trying to just have faith and rely on her expertise. it's three natural and whole herbs including jinsing and two others I'm less familiar with. in her opinion, I should be taking these during labor also.

I spoke to my mother's sister last night and she told me a bit about her three deliveries and we tried to remember more about my mother's. it doesn't sound like any of it was terrible for either of them, so that's nice news. she also made me laugh by telling me about her fondness for American Idol, (!) and you know what they say about laughter. I have missed my mother terribly during this whole process and feel so lucky to have my aunt and my best friend's mom who have been my surrogate mothers in so many ways since my mom's death.

early this morning before Gavin got up for work, we were goofing around in bed when I got a little too close to the edge.. and fell off! I don't think I really realize how heavy I am and how much my center of gravity has changed. there was a moment of suspended time when I realized I was going over and then there I was on the floor. we laughed so hard I was worried we'd wake Carter. luckily for me, I did not fall on Astro (our german shepard who sleeps on one side of the bed), Thistle (I landed on my outer hip), or any of the various pieces of furniture (chest of drawers, side table, bed frame) nearby. our bed is actually quite low to the floor and my hip landed miraculously on an edge of Astro's dog bed that she wasn't using. but I scared Astro so much that she jumped on the bed, cuddled up with us, and started shaking. poor little thing.