37-week update: Term!
Well, I am officially at term as of today, which means that the baby could be born at any time and it would not be considered premature. Of course, it might not be born for another five or more weeks, so I am trying not to get too excited just yet. But my mother took me out this weekend to several places and I got all the supplies that I needed for the birth, and I have put everything in a little box so it is all ready. I also got a few last minute things for the baby, such as a change pad. I had also ordered a few things online and they turned up on Sunday. I had no idea that Canada Post delivered on Sunday, but apparently they got the memo that I am anxious to have everything ready!
I am now up at weekly appointments with our midwives, so that's great. Today the baby's heart rate was 150, which was nice and strong.
I guess our big news this week is that we decided to hire a doula. We had been thinking that we wouldn't, because we knew that there would be two midwives here, and that seemed like a lot. But after our birth planning visit, and talking to the midwife, we realised just how useful a doula can be. For one thing, the midwife will only arrive once we are into active labour, with contractions being four minutes apart. However, the lead-up to that could be kind of stressful. The second midwife will only be there for the actual birth, so she is not really here for a long time at all. I think it will be reassuring to have someone here who's just dedicated to making sure that we're doing okay. Also, the doula will be able to give Julian a break so that he can go and have a nap, or grab a bite to eat if we have a long labour. Anyway, we really had left it to the absolute last minute, so we were very lucky that we were able to find a wonderful doula who is assisting with the instruction in our aforementioned prenatal classes.