I saw my new midwife today. When I told her I get short of breath easily and my heart races with minimal activity she asked if I have anemia. DUH!!! I have chronic anemia and didn't even think of the correlation to these symptoms.

Usually it's not really a problem but with baby it gets more symptomatic I guess. I told her I was taking Iron supplements before and during early pregnancy until I was too nauseous...but they didn't seem to help anyway.

She recommended Floradix. I'm excited to try it! Apparently our bodies respond to it much better and some women feel a difference in only a couple days.

So hopefully that will help...but seriously, I quit my gym class, stairs make me winded and I have to lay down a lot. ugh! I tried a cup of coffee one day to get a little energy and broke out into a sweat from the caffeine. I'm afraid to do that again. lol

Zoe~I'm interested to hear how the Floradix works for you. I don't tolerate iron supplements very well and since my iron is only barely low (12.9 instead of over 13) I'm taking blackstrap molasses daily to help up my iron. I guess they want it higher since you lose so much blood during birth? That's how it was explained to me, anyway.

Gale~Sounds like you have wonderful shower! I love all the handmade things people make. So cute and so thoughtful!

Boots~I have little patience for knitting too. I crochet like nobody's business though! It is so much faster.

I cut out 56 double sided flannel wipes this weekend (out of four receiving blankets.) I plan on zig-zagging the edges in the next week or so. I'm also finishing up a baby sweater I'm making for a friend. After that, I think my crafting might come to a halt until after the baby is born. I'm getting tired!

I got lectured by my doula this week. I had some pretty bad swelling that kind of freaked me out a bit. I mean I could feel the swelling happen. She told me I need to stop doing so much and she's right. I've been trying to go full stop once home on top of working full time. So, I'm taking it a bit easier and the swelling seems to have resolved itself.

Other than that I'm feeling good. The baby seems to still be changing position periodically. I'm hoping he/she ends up head down and stays that way soon!

Warning: Rant ahead.

Piss. Me. Off. My OB stripped my membranes yesterday WITHOUT ASKING ME. She told me after she did it (it was just supposed to be a pelvic exam.) It didn't put me into labor (which I'm not looking to be induced anyhow), it just caused a whole bunch of really painful cramping. I've loved, loved, loved my OB up until now and now I'm just insanely irritated. Grrrr...

/Rant.

Wow Gale! That is so not cool! I have an entire list of crap like that pulled on me and that is why by my fourth baby I have absolutely had it with that kind of stuff and hubby and I are having a homebirth with a midwife on call.

I haven't had a single OB appt and it has been the best pregnancy for it.

anyway...you are so close! I hope you are able to maintain your autonomy from here on out. It's a fight with hospital births, unfortunately.

Zoe, I would be so down with a home birth except that the town we live in is too small so emergency facilities are too far away. The hospital I'm giving birth in is 45 minutes from here, way too far for a home birth. And we only have one midwife in town and she is a... um... not nice person.

Hehe... that and I really don't want to clean up the mess. ;)

It'll be ok, I like the hospital and their staff a lot. With my last one they were great about asking instead of telling. This is the only bad experience I've had over the course of 2 pregnancies, so that's a pretty good record. I just need to tell my Dr at my appt on Thursday "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!"

Well that's not so bad then. I actually had a doctor get into my crotch and break my water before we knew what was going on. Hubby and I were in total shock and had thought we were going home. Then the nurses had apparently set up for a circumcision and the doc came in to get our baby for it. Not once did anyone ask if I wanted it done and we did not! I shudder to think if that had been carried out without our consent.

And they wonder why I would NEVER let anyone take my baby out of our sight. lol

That's horrible! I'd definitely be doing something different too if I'd had those experiences.

I did have one nurse spend about an hour trying to tell me why I was horrible for wanting my son circumcised, a decision which I believe is very personal and not up for debate among anyone but mom and dad. That was the worst of it with the nurses though.

Gale~ WHAT??? You aren't even over due! Ugh, why do doctors think that's okay???

My midwife is going to be on vacation when I hit 36 weeks, which is the only internal check they do prior to labor. I'm a little concerned about another midwife that I don't know doing it, but I will definitely be mentioning that I don't want that done! I don't think they'd would based on my experience with my midwife, but I'd rather mention it anyway.

Dh and I thought about a home birth, but decided against it for various reasons. I do love my midwife and, so far, I really like the hospital. I had to go in for a minor issue early on and the nurses were awesome! I have a doula as well, so I'm happy with our decision.

Zoe~ Did you have a birth plan that they were ignoring? I'm just curious. DH and I are still debating the circumcision thing, but whatever we decide will be in our birth plan. If it's a boy, of course. ;)

I gave up on a typed birthplan after the first baby because I don't think they even look at it, really. If you do one keep it short, to the point...maybe like a list with bullets and bold print they can tuck in the front of your chart.

Not that it matters to another parents decision but we are personally for letting baby boys keep all their body parts, perfect just the way they are. Plus, total tmi but The foreskin serves a very important function in sex...no lube needed ever;)

I'm planning on keeping it short. Our doula feels it's really important. We'll see.