Health Update

We went yesterday for another appointment with Virve, our public health nurse. It was shorter this time, just over an hour and everything is good, except maybe, the insurance. We don't know yet, and she drew attention to it. She wondered if because what she is doing is preventative medicine would the insurance cover it. She said because we are seeing her, not the hospital, that maybe it won't be covered. But I thought they didn't do these checkups at the hospital. And I didn't think it was considered preventative medicine, so we'll see. We have to inquire, which I don't know if it will be a pain or not.

But on to the check up... Blood pressure 110/68. Weight 64.4 kg ( I lost just a little since the last check up). Hemoglobin 122, better and within normal. So hopefully our strategy for eating iron foods without dairy is working. And last but not least the measurement of the uterus is 24 cm. So, those are the numbers, and otherwise we talked a little bit about what happens during and right after birth, but in the opposite order.

First, I asked about the baby. Does it stay in the room with the mother or is it taken to a nursery? Her response was "We don't believe in nurseries." Okay. Questions answered. There weren't many follow ups to ask with that response. She said if you want time away from your baby then you would have to take it to the midwives station/office and it would just be sitting there as she continued to work. They encourage skin to skin contact right after birth, and if not possible for the mother, they would have the father do it. They wait to clean the babe and I guess if it needs light therapy, they would do that in the room too. I think afterwards you are in a room with a few other moms and babes. But we didn't talk about how long a typical hospital stay is.

The other aspect we talked a little bit about is how involved the midwives would be. It doesn't seem like they really stay with you until second stage. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't want to put all the support work on John. He might need some breaks and I might want breaks from him. And I think it would be helpful to have some women there who have seen this all before. We'll see. Maybe if you want more support it's available? Then again, we also have thought too much/decided how soon we want to go in to the hospital. We might take the tour and think "Yes, lets get here and get cozy early" or maybe "Nah, being in our apartment is just as good". But we will probably get to take an English tour with a few other couples. She's working on it.

That's all the news on that front.

Off to Lapland tomorrow! So now I need to go home and bake bread for the trip. Plus I am going to start another baby sweater and maybe baby mittens. I do back and forth when looking at the baby knit book about what to make. Should I try cables? Lacework? The Canadian girl is coming with us and loves lacework so she could probably help me. Baby blanket? Or focus on clothing? So many questions and now a lot more yarn to think about!

Love, Emily