Busy, Busy

It's been a couple of busy weeks for us.

• Pre-Natal Visit: At my visit last week, we got the great news that Cashew is now head down. Although this means that his little butt is squashing my ribs to the point that they hurt constantly, it's great to know his little head is pointed in the right direction. We also found out that I failed the 1-hour glucose test by one point. I took the test over a month ago, but apparently my MW felt like the one-point fail wasn't worth requiring me to do the three-hour test until I had glucose in my urine at last week's appointment. She seems to be pretty sure that I don't have gestational diabetes, but is sending me for the test tomorrow anyway. Ugh.
• Shower: This weekend I had a shower in my hometown, with lots of my old friends there, as well as my mom's buddies. The theme was children's books. My friend made invites that looked like bookmarks and everyone was supposed to bring one children's book for the baby. The invites included a little sticker/bookplate for people to write a message to the baby and stick on the inside cover. It was such a precious idea! We got lots of books, some clothes, and a few of the items lingering on our registry. We really don't need too much more.
• My nervous breakdown: Yes, the hormones are officially raging at this point. In addition to being rather uncomfortable most of the time, our birth instructor really pissed me off this past week. We were supposed to write birth plans and send them to her for review. We tried to make ours sort of witty (I've head that providers get so annoyed/bored with birth plans that they rarely read them) and we tried to strike a tone that would create a partnership between us and our medical team (i.e. saying things like, "we aren't medical experts and will need to rely on you to let us know the pros and cons of the choices before us.") Well, the instructor emailed back that our birth plan was "silly" and made it seem like we weren't taking the birth very seriously. She also felt like we were giving the medical team too much power. I'd had a long day and her email started what ended up being a 24-hour crying spell, which leads us to...
• My birthing class decision: I'm struggling to decide whether to attend the last 5 of our birthing classes. The instructor's philosophy on labor and delivery seems to be that our medical team is going to push every intervention that makes their job easier/more convenient, despite our wishes. She has painted a portrait of doctors and hospitals as being "out to get you" and seems to feel like our labor and delivery is a power struggle between us and the hospital. She has also given us information that extends well beyond the Bradley Method, such as telling us we shouldn't get the H1N1 vaccine, advising against certain infant vaccinations, etc. Ultimately, I feel like the class is making me feel more stressed out, rather than more prepared. Brett and I are trying to decide whether to keep going.

Sorry for the long update, but I seem to blog in spurts. Here's the 32 week belly pic from this weekend's shower...