25 Weeks, 6 Days.

Damn...I cannot believe I am so far along already. This pregnancy is flying by, but then at the same time when I realize I've spent half this year pregnant, it blows my mind.

Today was my regular monthly check-up with my MW, and things are going well. Baby is lying transverse (in other words, taking full advantage of my hammock hips and stretching out side to side), which she could tell immediately by placing her hands on the sides of my waist. In her words, "Baby must be transverse, because your belly is wide across here." Yeah, we'll go with that...I'm absolutely ok with blaming my wideness on the baby. ::wink wink::

Baby's heartrate was in the 150s, my uterus was measuring 27 cm (typically your uterus height is about 1 cm per week of gestation, but it's ok for it to vary up to a few cms either way as long as it continues to grow), and my blood pressure was a little low, but perrfectly ok. I have an anterior placenta (which means it's across the front of my body, between baby and my belly) which probably explains why I feel a lot less movement with this pregnancy that with the last. We talked a bit about nutrition and weight gain (both of which I am fine on, according to her, but I wouldn't be sad if the weight gain slowed a bit), and she predicted another long, lean baby for me. That makes sense, given Luca was long-ish at 22 inches and lean at 6 lbs, 7 oz. It also makes sense given my pregnancies seem to mirror my mom's to a large extent and my brother (her second) was 23 inches long at birth.

In other news, my next appointment is in January, and it'll be the test for Gestational Diabetes. Unlike an OB, she won't be sending me to a lab for the orange drink. Instead, she gave me the option of coming in for a blood draw two hours after eating any of the following:
- 18 large jelly beans
- a large candy bar
- a carb-loaded meal

I chose the carb-loaded meal, so I'll be having a guilt free heaping serving of pancakes or french toast early that morning and then getting my pancreas levels tested for signs of GD. Have I mentioned I love my midwife?

In other news, my options for natural childbirth classes were limited. I was debating between Bradley classes and Hypnobirthing, but in the end I won't be able to do either. Both classes are a series that takes place over 8 - 12 weeks, and because the holidays fall 3 months before I am due, there are none I can get into that would finish on time for me. I'd hate to invest 11 weeks and $300 just to miss the last class that may hold the most important information. So I opted instead to buy the book "Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method" which comes with a CDRom to listen to leading up to and during labor. I've started reading the book, and will begin listening to the CD this week. I'm also going to read the Bradley book because, well, why not? It can't hurt....right?