Exhale (slowly)

I had an ultrasound yesterday and (apparently) all is well. The baby was as ever not moving and I was more than a bit panicked until they put up her heartbeat, which was normal. She is currently measuring 4lbs 11oz with plenty of fluid and only 1 day ahead of her due date. According to the doctor she's on schedule to be a 7-8 lb baby, should she arrive at full term.

I get a follow-up growth scan every 2 weeks from now on out. And I think we starts NST's in 2 weeks and do those at least every 2 weeks but probably every week. In addition I see the GD doctor every 2 weeks and my midwife every week. Should be busy. For the moment, I'm still cleared for a vaginal delivery.

I had a major GD scare yesterday night. I had a reasonable salad and mini whole wheat bagel for dinner and then drew my blood and it was off the charts high. I panicked. Took it 4 more times and it was still high but all over the place. I told JD I might want to go to the ER and have them test me. He did not look thrilled, sat watching me panic for a few minutes, and then very mildly asked: 'Isn't this a new box of strips? Could they be bad?' Well, wouldn't you know it the pharmacy gave me a long-expired box of strips and when I found other strips, all was normal again. So incredibly annoying.

And now a question for my loyal readers: We had our first real childbirth class on Sunday. It was fine, nothing I didn't know already. I'm pretty sure that one of the other couples were also IF patients (She used every code word in the book 'I'm 39' 'Long-awaited' 'We weren't sure we'd ever have a baby' 'We feel so blessed to be pregnant' and clearly wanted to talk to me after class but we had to run). Well, as you might guess, I'm not one for such nuanced statements. I started our introduction with "We are infertility patients and thus far pregnancy has been much, much easier than getting pregnant ..." So here's the question - about 10 minutes into the first birth video JD turns to me and says 'I'm going to faint. I don't think I can be your support person.' And I really think he means it. He doesn't like doctors or needles or blood and he's very queasy in those situations (not that I don't make him prep all my shots, but I did the actual shots myself. He also changes the lancets for my blood draws, but I always draw the blood myself). I didn't think we needed a doula since we'll have a midwife with us the entire time we're in the hospital (it's a hospital requirement for a midwife birth) and I really don't want a crowd when I'm in labor, but now I'm thinking that we should hire one if it will make JD less nervous. Thoughts?

And for the record, my biggest objection is just the cost. It seems silly to spend over a thousand dollars on my 'comfort' for a period of 24 hours, when we'll have a hands-on midwife with us. There are so many other things we could do with the money this year, and then the little fact that I'll feel like such a fool if we have a midwife and a doula prepping me for a C-section should it come to that ...

(oh, and because we're obsessive we already asked the woman teaching the childbirth class if she's available for my due date and she is and is not totally exorbitant and I really like her attitude - not too crunchy for me)