Appointment

Everything is still fine and dandy with The Drew's gestation.
Big, huge news though: he's turned head down!
I was excited by this important milestone, but apparently it does NOT mean he is "getting ready" for anything. The vast majority of babies turn during weeks 33-35, and it doesn't mean a thing. Most babies still come at 41.5 weeks or so.
In possible future career news, Mary was actually the one to scientifically determine Drew's position. (She is going to make a fantastic midwife.)
The midwives at Swedish loooove Mary. So do the nurses, so does everyone, duh.
So they always involve Mary with whatever they're doing.
So whenever they use the Doppler, they stand her up in a chair next to the table I'm on and let her do the work. First, the midwife palpated (is that the right word?) my abdomen for a bit, and she told Mary to help. Then she told Mary it was very important, crucial even, to say, "Hmmmmm. Hmmmm" while doing it. (Turning your eyes one way or another or looking up to the sky is optional but also fun.) So there they were, the two of them, sounding for all the world like migrating humpbacks.
Mary was having the time of her life. Then the midwife put the ultrasound gel in two different places, one very high and one very low. Then she gave Mary the little handheld Doppler and told her to first check the spot down low for a heartbeat. Mary did, and found the heartbeat immediately. As a control to the test, she was then instructed to check the spot high up. She did this, and the heartbeat was only faintly audible. This confirmed that her brother had turned around. (So does all the pressure in my lady parts these days, but this was the scientific method, yo.)
Mary got weighed on the scale and is now a healthy 34 pounds.
I got weighed, too, and though I'm not 34 pounds, I did lose a pound since the last visit - second time in a row this has happened. I'm delighted, they're delighted.
My BP was 100/70 this time, so the diastolic is up 10 from the last visit but still doing fine. What does that mean, when the diastolic goes up? I must visit Dr. Google today to find out.

I was asked if I wanted to take a non-stress test from weeks 37 on. I did some research (again, at Dr. Google's) and it doesn't look like something I'd be opposed to. It's basically just where you lie down for 20 minutes or so and one monitor measures fetal heart rate and another measures for contractions, which may or may not happen this early, I suppose. (And when they do happen this early, you really don't feel them. But the monitor can.)
Then they make sure that every time the baby moves his heart rate accelerates, like everyone's should.
If it doesn't, further tests are needed to make sure everything is okay in there.
I don't feel like we *need* the test, but I also want to make sure he doesn't have any problems. He does have an elderly mother, you know, which is why the NST was suggested in the first place.
So the midwife told me to do a little research and think about it and decide if I wanted it. (OB: "You're going to have this test." Midwife: "I will tell you the pros and cons of this test, then you do your research, and let me know if you think it's something you want.")
She was writing the vitals down on my little card and Joe asked if they had a spot for "Wife's Treatment of Husband" where she could notate some discrepancies/possible problems.
Pffffft. She got a kick out of that.

In other news, as I was walking into church a friend was walking out with her sister in law, who is due 5/1 and also doing Hypnobabies! Neither of our husbands, it turns out, have been keeping up with the program. Nice.
I want to get together with them and discuss it though. They seemed very sweet and Lord knows friends are hard to come by in this town.
And how cool is it that we're due a day apart? (Well, my midwives have my EDD at 4/30. I have it at 4/29, but that's because I factored in my luteal phase, average cycle length, etc. Doesn't matter anyway because hardly any baby is born on his due date - babies are born on their birth days, not when doctors decide, as Hypnobabies says.)