nesting & baby update

when i was first pregnant with tristan, my friend zandra immediately purchased "the pregnancy journal" for me, saying that it was an absolutely essential book to have for a new mom. and it was. i loved reading every single day what miraculous detail was forming or taking shape in my unborn baby's body. there was also plenty of space to write down how i was feeling, or what i was craving on that particular day. i found that during my second pregnancy, the book was even more fun to read because i could compare my pregnancies and see all of the similarities. (oddly enough, josh first felt samuel move the exact same day gestationally that he first felt ava move!)

last night i was dutifully reading my pregnancy journal and read that when i was 32 weeks along with samuel, i was having such a strong urge to nest, but couldn't do a thing about it because of my broken leg and inability to get around. it broke my heart to think of his room all cluttered full of boxes and random non-baby items, without a single onesie washed or folded into tiny little drawers awaiting his arrival. never mind that i still had 8 weeks of pregnancy ahead of me; i somehow wanted and needed to prepare his room immediately!

i smiled as i read my notes from 2 years ago, thankful that this time i can nest to my heart's content any old time i choose and wondering what my hurry was last time. then, this morning, after running errands and eating lunch and nap time, i was suddenly seized by the urge to nest. the box of hand-me-down clothing sitting on the floor in ava's room suddenly became unbearable to look at. i had to put those clothes away. but then i realized that i didn't have any extra hangers, so i went into the boys' closet and began pulling down shirts of theirs' that were becoming too small so that i could use those hangers for ava's closet. but then what to do with the too-small boys' shirts? well, tristan's had to be put away in the correctly labeled storage bin, of course and samuel's had to be bagged up and set aside to give away. this whole need to hang a few items up in ava's closet ended up causing me an entire afternoon (and into the evening) of sorting and folding and there were clothing bins and hangers and piles of different sized clothing EVERYWHERE.

i found a bin of 24 month hand-me-down clothing that i never even knew existed, so samuel now has about 10 new shirts hanging up in his closet. that, of course, then led to the need for more new hangers, so the size 7 shirts that are too big for tristan were binned and labeled and put away for awhile. the blue hangers had to be exchanged for white ones (oh, it would never do to have blue hangers in a little girl's closet, don't you know!) and finally, finally the mess of boys' clothing was organized and put away and i got to nest away in my little girl's room. there really is nothing sweeter than a teensy pair of pink plaid newborn size shorts. well, she'll obviously be sweeter than those shorts, but i think i'm going to have to take them out of her drawer once every few days and just look at them, then tuck them away again.

i had another midwife appointment on tuesday morning and she looked concerned when feeling my tummy. she said the baby is head-up (which i knew just from the sorts of movements i've been feeling, like kicks to the bladder) and she mentioned that if the baby hasn't turned to a head-down position by my next appointment (in 2 more weeks) that she'll send me to the hospital to get an ultrasound confirmation and then have a doctor there try to turn her. i asked her if i would be allowed the chance to deliver a breech baby, if it comes to that and she looked apologetic as she said "no". c-sections are so routine and "simple" nowadays that most doctors aren't familiar enough with breech deliveries to be comfortable doing one.

so, after coming home and googling a few things, i'm wondering why the concern so early. babies turn and turn until around 36 weeks when it becomes more difficult for them to do so. i love my midwife, but i sort of wonder where she's coming from in this situation, so i'll be sure to ask more questions at my next exam. reading about how they turn babies made me cringe (its apparently quite painful and not without risks), so i'm going to do my little baby-turning exercises and pray that she's head-down during my next exam, just to appease the midwife.