Antenatal appointment update (plus a bit of astrology)

My midwife Lisbeth has just been round to do the 38wk check and everything is looking good, but not imminent for labour starting. Pip is now partially engaged (1/5 of head in, 4/5 out - woohoo!), and has definitely made progress in finding a better position for birth. Lisbeth confirmed what I thought, that Pip's back is now down my left hand side, so hopefully he/she will keep moving round a bit more to get into the optimal anterior position, aided by my efforts to encourage him/her. She said that I have the blood pressure "of an 18 year old" at 110/60, and there were no problems with the urine test. She found Pip's heartbeat straightaway; average rate of 150bpm.

Quite apart from the antenatal stuff, we had a lovely long chat over coffee; she was very pleased to hear about our civil partnership and name change (and enjoyed seeing the photos - I'm going to do a post about this later, with the Flickr link). I also talked about all the birth prep stuff that I've been doing, and she was delighted to hear about the antenatal yoga, homeopathy, breathing and hypnotherapy - she's really incredibly supportive of all my/our plans for a natural birth, and had lots of encouraging things to say about how these things have helped previous women in her care. She actually asked again if we definitely wanted a hospital birth. I said that I wasn't averse to a homebirth by any means, but that we feel "safer" planning for a hospital birth for our first baby (Karen in particular feels this way; over time I have been leaning more and more in favour of a homebirth). Lisbeth said to see how it all goes when labour actually starts, as we could change our minds when the time comes and stay at home for the birth if all is going well and my coping mechanisms work out. I really hope that Lisbeth is on call when I go into labour, as we would both love her to deliver our baby. It's not that we don't like the other 4 midwives on the team (although there's one that's a bit quiet/dull), but we have definitely bonded with Lisbeth, and not just because we've seen her the most (as she's our "named" midwife). However, she's just about to take 2 weeks holiday - arrrgh! She'll be back at work on the 5th March, so Pip needs to wait until after the due date if this is to happen. I'm still thinking that Pip is going to be born around the 7th/8th March; Karen's guess is by this Friday, 23rd February!

Whenever Pip comes, s/he is going to be a lucky Golden Pig, now that Chinese New Year has passed. Karen and I are both Dogs (she is an Earth Dog, I'm a Metal Dog). Apparently, this is the year of being a Fire Pig/Boar; individuals born in this year are deep, motivated by affection, stubborn, sensual and irresponsible! I've never really looked into Chinese astrology before (I ignore most star sign stuff, as I don't think that I really fit the characteristics of my Western star sign, Aries, very well at all), but the brief characterisation of a Metal Dog that I just read seems to fit me pretty well. Interesting!