Choices, choices.  Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

I’m 5 weeks away from D-Day, +/- 2 weeks.  People keep asking if I’m excited, and I am, but not very, because I’ve always somehow been calm about the pregnancy.  Er, except when I think that the baby is threatened.

On Saturday, we’ll have our first childcare learning session at this fancy international hospital here.  I hope that we will like the hospital.  They have an option for a water birth, something that the Mission Hospital won’t do.  Of course, we won’t know if I’m eligible for a water birth until I meet with the doctor.  We plan to do that if the ultrasound scheduled for Monday will show no problems with the baby.

At Mission, they have a policy of having a natural birth with the mother lying down and the physician will do an episiotomy at some point.  We were asking the doctor if it’s possible not to do it at all.  He said no, because it’s the only way to control how the tearing of the vaginal muscles will happen.  Ok, we understand that sometimes the tearing is really bad, but we were hoping that he could be willing to wait and see if it is really necessary or not.

Maybe if the baby is tiny, it will be possible.  Somehow, I know the baby will be long at birth, and given Daniel’s big skull and shoulders at birth, and my big skull and shoulders, I guess it will be a big baby.

So, normal or C-section?  If normal, standard way or water birth?

*sigh

I just met a former colleague and teammate who just got married and promptly got herself pregnant.  Including her, three people in our team are pregnant!  We were talking about when to have an ultrasound, and that they both will have the test for Down’s syndrome that Daniel and I refused, and how every day it’s a battle about food — to eat or not to eat sweet food, a lot of food, any kind of food, only what you can keep down…  Even whether or not to have a big baby is a choice, but of course, Daniel and I prefer a small one.

In the past, I had to choose whether to give birth here or in Manila (that would mean resigning so that I can fly home in my 5th month).

I’m sure that after the birth, it will be a new set of choices!

But after writing all of this down, I am glad of the situation.  After all, we do have options!