36 Week Appointment

Yesterday was our 36 week appointment and our meeting with the pediatricians. The pediatrician visit went very well! We're really impressed with their office. It has all of the typical amenities that you look for in a pediatrician office such as separate well and sick waiting rooms, cleanliness, nice receptionists, real person answering services 24/7, open hours on Saturday, and a 24/7 on call nurse and doctor, and same day appointments. There are 7 pediatricians at the office. We were able to meet 3, all of the male doctors. I was very impressed with 2 of them. The third was nice, but just a little too mellow for me. I like doctors to be outgoing and talkative. It actually puts me more at ease. I wish there was a way to meet all of them, but obviously they aren't all 7 in the office all the time.

We haven't decided who we want to go to for Evan's first appointment, but our tour guide said that they encourage us to keep switching until we find who we want to stick with. His first appointment there will be 48 hours after we are released from the hospital. They won't be able to come up to our hospital to do the in-hospital care and circumcision, but they recommended a doctor at our hospital who can take care of him and they also recommended some doctors from another office who could come by. Anyway, I'm so glad that we found such a great office and doctors that are right next door to Matt's office. It's nice to have that checked off our list!

My midwife visit also went well. It turns out that they don't do vaginal exams every week unless I want them. And I'm happy to leave everything down there a mystery! If I'm still pregnant at 39 weeks they will do another exam, but otherwise it's optional. So the midwife just measured me (right on track) and listened to Evan's heartbeat (healthy and in the 130s). He has dropped!! The midwife said so and I can tell because I've been feeling a lot more pressure down there, even more than last week. He's also occasionally pinching a nerve in my right leg. Whoa! It feels like a jolt of electricity right in the crease between my leg and torso.

**TMI alert!**

I think I already mentioned that I lost my mucus plug on Monday. Lots of mucus on Monday and Tuesday, not so much on Wednesday and Thursday, just normal amounts. This morning - a lot. And there was a little bit of blood in it. I'm not sure if this is officially "bloody show" or not. From what I read labor usually occurs within hours to a week of having bloody show. However, I'm not sure if that's only when it happens at the same time as the mucus plug coming out. Even if it isn't official bloody show, it does mean that something's going on down there, meaning that I'm dilating at least a little.

Whether or not I will go into labor within the week, this has made me want to get everything ready!!! We are going to pack the hospital bag tonight as well as clean out the car and install the car seat.

Matt's office threw us a shower today. But I'll write a whole separate post about that - with pictures - tomorrow.