Tomorrow

I have another midwife appointment. So I wanted to jot down a few things beforehand. This will be my second GTT during this pregnancy, and hopefully they will just be a monthly test from now on out. But, I'm realizing now that I'm in the 3rd trimester that it's absurd that I have yet to talk to my midwife whatsoever about that huge elephant in the room: um, labor.

Now, I know, if I were a normal relaxed woman I would be totally clueless until we finished our 20+ hours of childbirth classes (really - 19 hours of natural childbirth, breastfeeding and newborn care we pay for, 4 hours required by the gold-plated birthing center I probably won't qualify for, and a one hour hospital tour. That's at least 6 visits to midtown for us in the next 6 weeks ...). But, I don't think it's absurd to start talking to her about it. And what I really want to know is what happens if I need to be induced - will she even do that? at what point? do I have a choice of different methods? What happens if the baby is breech? Is there any reason they would schedule me for an ultrasound?

In addition to the GTT, I need another round of testing for anemia (to my great annoyance my midwife took me off the iron supplements my ob/gyn had put me on - my understanding was that I'm normally slightly anemic, almost everyone gets anemic in the 3rd trimester, and there's no serious downside to light supplementation, but she didn't exactly see it that way). A few other blood tests, discussion of my flu shot for Wednesday, and what in the world I should think about the rather sporadic movement I feel (every 2-3 days usually), and I think I'll be pretty content.

And, on an entirely unrelated subject, I need a bit of a thicker skin. See, JD's parents don't speak English at home. Usually I don't mind - it'll be great for the baby, and I enjoy the time to think during dinner, etc. when they sit talking. However, it has come to my attention in the past 2 days that they think I am really, really uptight and obsessive about this pregnancy and now I'm starting to be a bit paranoid about whether they're talking about me.. Little things like worrying about listeria, refusing to eat tuna, and not using certain cleaning products have alterted them to my obsessiveness.

It all came to a bit of a head because they asked us what we'd like off of our registry. There were at the time exactly 4 items* at or over $100 - and we have 3 sets of parents and 1 sister between us, so that seemed like a perfect opportunity to ask them to purchase one of those items. The item I asked them to get was the crib mattress. We bought a used mini-crib down South and it's hard to find mattresses and sheets for it. I had registered for a regular mattress, but it has coils (not nice) and I realized last week that the all-organic mattress was only $30 more expensive. I really have no idea if it makes a difference to have an organic mattress (and I can't seem to find any reliable articles online), but for $30 it seemed like a worthwhile investment. Well, JD's mother gave me a long lecture on exaclty why there was no danger from a non-organic mattress and I was being silly.

She also told me the carseat I purchased was too heavy (we got a totally normal one, rated highly by consumer reports) and that I definitely shouldn't plan on bringing it abroad with us. Right. I'm just going to hold onto my 5 month old baby as we careen about rural China.

I really shouldn't complain - they are incredibly loving, so excited about the baby, and obviously geniunely worried about my obsessiveness. But what I really didn't want was to have to leave them explicit directions and rules when they watch the baby, or even to have to think about it. They raised a wonderful son, and they clearly adore children. So I'm working on overlooking the little things (doesn't help that JD mentioned that they left him home alone at 2 years old while his mom went to work. Yup, all day except for her lunch break. Age 2.) But for now I'm trying to avoid all subjects related to natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and food/organic/chemicals.

* For the record, I don't think those 4 items are unreasonable: 1 car seat, 1 fancy-schmancy wooden highchair that converts to a regular kid's chair, 1 breastpump, and 1 crib mattress. Everything else has been purchased used, except for the light-blocking curtains I ordered last week.