We are still without a Midwife but Lynda has been working hard to change this. She is championing the effort not only for us, but for all women of our area that wish to make this choice. I can not thank her enough. If it turns out that all does not come to fruition before our baby is due, I will know that at least we have helped to progress the cause by asking for the option. There are mothers all around calling for choice and wanting a voice. Eventually it will happen – you can’t keep the wishes of intelligent, and forward thinking women stifled for long.

Lynda and I met for coffee yesterday and I was describing some of the comments that I was struggling to deal with. These comments were not overly harsh, more concerned, and I know it is more about my dealing with ‘non-conformance’ and learning to not let it get to me. This is especially hard for me when comments come from people that I respect, and I don’t want them to see me as foolhardy. She described your ‘tribe’ – the people that you associate with and surround you pre and post birth. She said something as simple as – it’s common for people in the tribe to want to care for a pregnant woman and protect her. Wow, lightbulb moment. My ‘tribe’ wants to protect me. They just care about me. It may not be what I think, need or want to hear, but thinking about it in terms of… ‘you are telling me this, because you want to protect me and this is what you honestly believe is best’, has really helped. I don’t have to agree with it, but I don’t have to fight it either. I am able to accept their thoughts, skepticism and comments with positivity.

I had to laugh yesterday because literally in the same day one person told me ‘you’ve gotten so chubby in the face’, and someone else said ‘Oh, you haven’t put on much weight in your face or anything.’ LOL!! Yep, leaning to turn a blind eye to it all. 🙂

People often use the term popping out. I don’t feel like I am popping which I picture as energetic, like a jack in the box. At the moment it feels more of a BOOOIIIIINNNNGGG! Like a slinky spring that explodes and there it stays wobbling on a new gravitational axis.