One Week to Go

With only 7 days left until my due date, I'm getting a little anxious. Getting ready would probably be helpful, but just thinking about it seems too overwhelming, so I try not to. Major things that I would love to have accomplished before the baby comes:

1. House cleaned (including window and carpet cleaning)
2. House decorated
3. All boxes unpacked (yes, we still have some that we haven't unpacked - it's been 5 months since we moved in)
   
4. Homemade food cooked and stored
5. Books on natural birth reread
6. Birthing classes attended
   
7. Hospital bag packed (it seems the least tiring and difficult to do, but for some reason I have this feeling that once I pack it, the contractions will start, so I'm putting it off)

Most of these things won't be done before the baby comes, so I'm trying to convince myself that even if the baby joined us today, everything will be OK. And it's working; I just need to work on convincing Len now, too.

And, the plan is to go with VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). The doctor is on board although we were asked to come to the hospital at the last minute - basically to push the baby out - since everyone there, according to my OB, will be ready to do a C-section on me because of my previous cesarean delivery. And because we have a 1.5 hour drive to the hospital, something I am NOT willing to do right before pushing the baby out, I'm planning on laboring in the hospital's parking lot (thank you L&J, and J&K for offering your homes; I might still call you depending on how I'm progressing).

And, another thing that is on my mind is that a couple of weeks ago I had the test for the strep B group bacteria done, and it came positive. According to some statistics 40% of healthy women have these bacteria, and supposedly we may have them one week, and they could be gone the next, but if a pregnant woman tests positive in 36 weeks (that's when the test is taken), she has to take antibiotics during labor (which is usually at least 4 weeks away from the test, and chances are the bacteria could easily be gone). A book I'm reading talks about maternal deaths - only a few per year in the US - because of the antibiotics intake during labor, and with my luck, it could easily be me, and I'm not ready to go. The chances that the baby gets infected by the bacteria, and that's if the bacteria are present during labor, are 1 in 4,000. Chances are low, but if the baby gets sick, she can get very sick - meningitis and/or pneumonia. So, this is just another thing that's on my mind...

7 days to go...