I had my 28-week appointment today and it feels like we’re now entering the pregnancy big leagues.
My past monthly prenatal appointments were filled with lots of thumb-twiddling and shrugs whenever my midwife asked if I had any questions. Aside from my first trimester anxiety, I’m fortunate to have, so far, a fairly textbook pregnancy and no known complications. No big red flags or recurring things to check up on, which makes for very quick routine checkups of my own making. No, the doctors and midwives aren’t rushing me out or hurrying things along—they’ve lovingly held space for me to speak to my heart’s content, but really there hasn’t been much to report on. Eat well, stay healthy and safe, grow the baby inside your uterus. That’s been the mission so far, from one appointment to the next.
Now, I feel the pace quickening. Literally in the sense that my appointments are shifting from monthly to bi-weekly, and then (in a couple months) weekly. It was a full-on negotiation of timetables and logistics as I booked the next handful of appointments on my way out.
Quickening also in that my providers seem tuned in a bit more, like when you’re just about to get to the good part of a movie. In the beginning of my appointment my midwife let me rattle on my now-repetitive banal updates of “just getting bigger!” and “protein is still a struggle but no other complaints, no discomfort yet.” But then the conversation turned, and she is the one asking (in her most kind way) the probing questions: birth preferences, pain management, and expectations. She tempers the good news of the practice’s historically low cesarean and induction rates, with reminders that any intervention and outcome is still a possibility, whether medically indicated ahead of time or not. She notes my reactions and responses, assessing in her own clinical way exactly what sort of patient I’ll be when we’re in our final act.
We are shifting the relationship from formalities and niceties to strategy and partnership. Tee ball to big league.1
I’m game.
Alllll the baseball puns and metaphors to come for our Cooperstown kid.