Weekly appointments now

Well, because it's officially my "full term" week, I've now started going to my midwives' practice weekly. I'm also trying to circulate through with the midwives that I haven't met yet (I know many of them through my doula work already, which helps). Had another excellent appointment today with no news to report, which is good news, of course. Odds and ends, really ... baby's heart rate is still in the 140s, he/she is still head down but has rotated a bit with his/her back to my left (called the Left-Occiput-Anterior position) rather than my right, where it had mainly been the last few weeks. I signed the release form to possibly have a waterbirth (if I feel like it), and declined a cervical check (which I plan to decline until there's a reason to have one). And, again, in the "let's see how low Cara's blood pressure can go" contest, I have a new record: 93/56! :)

All very routine, all very quiet. Brian and I had our last prenatal meeting with our doula, Stephanie, last night, and so we're now just taking it easy and checking a few other random things off of our family to-do list in the next few weeks. I probably should install the second car seat (the brand new one, paid for by our car insurance after our accident) and make sure it actually fits in my little red car. Hmmm ... oh, and I guess I should finish packing the bag! It's amazing how much more mellow I feel about this whole process the second time around. Perhaps it's because I'm assuming that I still have a month or so to go?

This heat and humidity has been challenging. As I write, my feet are quite swollen and I'm going to go upstairs soon to put them up and read for a while. I'm looking forward to a drop of a few degrees over the next few days, because I really do feel like a different person, physically, when the temps are in the 80s rather than the 90s. Yesterday, for example, Maia and I spent almost four straight hours outdoors in the morning (8:30 to almost 12:30), but then I felt the need to "hide" inside all afternoon and stay as cool as possible. I definitely feel more aches and pains on these hottest days.

That's all for now!