Thursday afternoon marked another doctor’s office visit. It seems as though as we approach the due date and are on the weekly visits, they somehow become less important. Or at least, less involved with less new information. Thursday’s lasted a whopping 5 minutes, with a measurement (38″), listening to the heartbeat (145), and feeling the baby’s position (head down, face down). We have opted to not have any exams or checking dilation at this point – especially since there aren’t any contractions to speak of. 

After the doctor’s visit, we headed up to Denver to meet up with some friends for dinner and a show. Dinner was a little celebration of Jennifer’s birthday, a little celebration of Ahna completing her work for the Master’s Degree, a little celebration of Thursday evening together, and a lot of celebration of the show to come. Yup, we got tickets and saw the Flight of the Conchords. Oh boy, are they hilarious! Tickets for the show sold out in something like 3 hours and were being hawked on-line for well over $200 (face value was $35). It did lead to a late evening, but it was a wonderful time.

Our friends at Cherokee Trail Elementary hosted a shower for Ahna and I yesterday. Unfortunately, I had to work so I missed it. It sounded like a wonderful time and we got some amazing items for the kiddo. Oh, the cake was awesome (leftovers were brought to the firehouse by Ahna for our consumption). 

So we have chosen to use the Hypnobirthing method of birthing to bring our baby into the world. There have been a lot of questions about this from family and friends and we will not even attempt to answer all of those here. However, here is an exerpt from the Hynobirthing web site that explains the overall concept:

“Hypnobirthing – The Mongan Method – is a unique method of relaxed, natural childbirth education, enhanced by self-hypnosis techniques. Hypnobirthing provides the missing link that allows women to use their natural instincts to bring about a safer, easier, more comfortable birthing. Emphasis is placed on pregnancy and childbirth, as well as on pre-birth parenting and the consciousness of the pre-born baby. As a birthing method, Hypnobirthing is as new as tomorrow and as old as ancient times.”

Okay, a little disclaimer: I don’t like the term ‘hypnosis’ so we generally describe this as a deep-meditative state that will allow Ahna to focus inward on her body and on the baby. It is a very calm way of ushering in our baby to our world, and is another evolution of the natural birthing process. There is lots and lots of information on this technique available on the web if you just search ‘hypnobirthing.’

We completed our scheduled classes last week, but will continue to meet with our teacher every once in a while until the birth day to make sure that we are on track. We practice the breathing and meditation techniques nightly (okay, every once in a while we miss a night) to ensure that we are ready for the moment when it arrives. A little plug for Nancy: www.hypnobirthingwithnancy.com