With the lunar eclipse last night, and the full moon tonight, I was feeling quite certain that the stars had, quite literally, aligned to make sure that I birthed little Mathilda under the sign of Aquarius. This would have resulted in all of my children, as well as my husband, being Air signs...and I would still be the lone Water sign (Scorpio) in the house, thereby defending my title as the "different one" in our family. And besides, Brenton (first born) is an Aquarius, and he was such a gentle and sweet baby. But, fate has dealt another hand to me, a different zodiac sign to Mathilda, and at least a few more days or weeks of pregnancy. And I know that 37 weeks is really a bit too early. But eclipses and full moons just seem so "right" for birthing, don't they? And even our tiny little female kitten, Marjorie Stewart Baxter, went into heat this week which would seem to confirm my suspicion that babies and birthing are par for the course this week. (We feel really bad for her, she seems soooo distressed--we would have gotten her spayed earlier, as responsible pet owners should, but we were still under the impression that she was fairly young since she is so miniature compared to our alpha male cat, Old Kentucky Shark).

We had our midwife out to the house this week as well, and everything looks fantastic. Miss Tillie's head is down and very low (oh, how I waddle!) She has been presenting fairly posterior, but is now almost ROA, we are hoping that the massaging motions of contractions will help her turn a tad bit more for birthing. I had mostly posterior childbirth with Gabriella (second born) and it was not fun, or speedy...but she did come out eventually. I have been trying many of the exercises recommended for rotating babies into more favorable positions, which also help my back feel better. So it's a win-win.

Another issue i wanted to bring up is pregnancy weight gain. (click read more link below to continue reading)

I have never been a tiny person, and all of my pregnancies have seen a weight gain of at least 35 pounds. Not bad. But not perfect when the OB only wanted to see 25. And I was able to take it off again with breastfeeding, walking and healthy eating. But the pressure that I received from my traditional health care providers was not at all helpful. The very first appointment was all about bringing up my weight issues, warnings about too much weight gain, monthly, bi-weekly and then weekly weigh-ins with a clucking (and more than likely overweight herself) nurse making tsk tsk noises as she scribbles into my chart. I would avoid eating before prenatal appointments just so I would weigh a pound or two less! Usually this resulted in light-headedness after waiting 2 hours for the OB to return from a birth! That sounds healthy, eh? But nonetheless, I never drew the correlation between being pestered about weight and my tendency to counteract those bad feelings with eating...and eventually gaining weight! This pregnancy has been so different! Since firing my traditional care providers and going with home birth midwives, the pressure about numbers on a scale has vanished. They look at me, comment on how great I look, and we get to talking about how I feel...not numbers. The result? I am 37 weeks and have only gained 19 pounds. Right on target, and I did not need an authority figure looming over me making dire warning about gestational diabetis, or macrosomic babies... since i felt supported and accepted and assumed that my baby and my body were functioning normally, guess what? I treated my body and my baby as if they were normal and healthy! I ate healthy things when i was hungry and did not have physiological cravings or emotional needs that were being neglected elsewhere. I still eat fudge-cicles and cheesecake when i want...but certainly not the "let's stop at Pizza Hut and down a whole pan pizza because i've been starving myself since this morning to make my OB happy" type of eating!

Just another benefit of the whole-woman care that midwives can provide. Oh, and my last visit with the midwife took place in my bed...and it was two hours long. Imagine your OB conducting a two hour prenatal visit. In your bedroom. Yeah right. Two minutes, maybe, and the whole time the OB would be watching the clock, ready to run. I love my midwives!