Monday was another doctor visit, and everything looked great. The baby's head is down, so we're praying he just stays that way from now on! Luckily, breech babies aren't hereditary, or else the odds would be majorly against us! Grace, our doctor, estimated that Baby D. weighs a little under 3 lbs...wow!
The only semi-bad news is that Grace is going on holiday April 1st and won't be back until the 11th. So the other doctor, Lucy, would deliver the baby if it comes during that time. I can't fault Grace, because she basically never takes holiday from what I've seen. And I'm not terribly concerned because Lucy is actually the head of the practice. She is extremely good from everything we hear, and we only picked Grace initially because she's a bit more "warm and fuzzy" than Lucy. Either way, it's very comforting to know that I will definitely have either Grace or Lucy, which is not at all the case if we had gone with a public hospital.
In public hospitals, you potentially see a different doctor every time you go in for a check-up, and have absolutely no idea who will deliver your baby. It may be someone you've never met, depending on who is on duty when you go into labor. Public hospitals are also much more limited regarding visitors, including husbands. This was definitely a deal breaker for us, as I am not interested in going through birth without my darling husband there at all times. And then there's the language barrier. From what we hear, doctors can usually speak a reasonable amount of English, but the rest of the hospital staff often can't. This could be a problem, as Nate and I speak about 4 words of Cantonese combined. (I know, it's terrible. I promise I'll do better if we ever live in Europe or something.)
As for me, the belly is getting bigger, but it's certainly not unmanageable yet. I'm very grateful that my back is feeling pretty darn good most of the time. I will admit, however, that a few things are getting more difficult. Tying my shoes can be a bit annoying, because it's really hard to reach them with my belly and pants waistband getting in the way. I also tried to take stairs two at a time today, and discovered that my thigh actually hits my belly now. Mind you, even with the obvious basketball under my shirt, I'm still occasionally getting comments like, "Wow, I bet you haven't had to buy too many maternity clothes!" Seriously? About the only non-maternity clothes I can fit in at this point are two t-shirts and my elastic waist pajama pants/shorts. But, I guess I'll take that as a compliment that I'm not yet looking like a beached whale! :)
The kids at school, on the other hand, are definitely noticing the belly. I frequently get comments from my class like, "Hey! The baby is getting bigger/fatter!" Unfortunately, the kids are right at belly-height, and they haven't quite gotten used to the enormity of it. This means I get a lot of hugs where students' heads kind of bang into my belly. I'm trying to mostly do side hugs instead.
A 1st grade class was walking by me in the hall today, and these were the comments I got:
Student #1: "Mrs. Dennison, are you going to have a baby?!?"
Student #2: "I'm so excited! I want to see it!"
Student #3 says in a very grown-up, serious way: "Is this your first child?"
