Doula!

We're going to have a doula for this birth!

I was searching Craigslist one day a couple of weeks ago (because who doesn't like to just surf?!) and found an ad for a woman who is completing her DONA certification and needs to attend some births- for FREE! So I contacted her and Ryan, Beth and I met her on Saturday to get some details and see if we "clicked." Well everything went very well, as it turns out I will be her very first vaginal birth as a trained doula! I'm really excited about this as I've heard wonderful things about having a doula during labor. They're really supposed to help things happen naturally- which would have been excellent in a hospital setting but I'm willing to accept all the help I can get right now! We talked to our midwife and she highly encouraged us to ask her to work with us. So basically during my labor it will be me, Ryan, our doula (her name is Christina) and the midwife. Once I'm ready to push we'll have a nurse there as well.

This is a good overview of what a doula is exactly and what will sort of go on for us.

I also forgot to mention that I had another midwife appointment on Monday. I'm up 18 lbs, still generally healthy, and Luke is now head-down. Hopefully he'll stay that way!

And Beth is feeling better today. She woke up with a 101 at 6:30 am, so I gave her some Motrin. Her fever never came back and although she's been a little cranky and not very hungry, she's acting pretty normal so we didn't bring her in to the pediatrician. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be 100% again!