Last night Ben and I attended a birthing info night at Women's College Hospital. There was a panel of four doctors and they were very helpful. It was weird being in a room full of pregnant women! Since they have a 80 page booklet online going over their policies, procedures and rules I felt well prepared. My main questions were regarding visiting hours since the website and booklet had different information.

During labour and delivery I'm allowed to have two support people with me, Ben and one other. Those people are given bracelets and can come/go as often as they like while I'm in the hospital. They're given 24/7 access. Everyone else (siblings, parents, etc) has to abide by the posted visiting hours of 3:30 pm - 8:30 pm daily and there is a maximum of two guests visiting at a time (not including support people) and they discourage many people from hanging out in the waiting room. Thankfully being downtown there's a ton to do, see, eat, and shop while visitors are waiting their turn. Between 1 - 3 pm only the partner is allowed with the mum and baby (no second support person) as this is considered a resting period. All phones are shut off to the rooms, which is ok cause I don't plan on having a phone turned on in my room to avoid the abundance of calls. Ben will have his Blackberry with him (although turned off in the hospital) so he can field calls.

My biggest worry right now is the second support person. Both my sister and mom are willing to be that person. I'm torn between the two. I obviously want my mom with me but worry about her keeping long hours and she's an hour away (not that it matters too much cause labour is usually multi-hour). My sister on the other hand is closer to us in distance and it'll be easier for her to drop everything and come running. I Just hate the idea of mom being limited to visiting hours. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I still have a few months to decide.

My friend at work told me a sad story of her friend losing her pregnancy at six months because of high blood pressure. Thank god I don't have to worry about that. I've always had good blood pressure. Even though I'm overweight I'm pretty darn healthy and my doctor has no real concerns. I went for another check up tonight and my gestational diabetes test came back negative - wohoo! I'm so thankful for that. She measured my stomach and said it's growing nicely and I only gained 2 lbs this month. Things are going very well. I start my bi-monthly visits now and go back in two weeks.

Also today, I ordred my Maya baby sling. They look amazing, comfortable and perfect for carrying a baby around. I ordered it from www.mayawrap.com cause it's hard to get the larger sizes in Canada. It should arrive in about two weeks.

We went for our 3D ultrasound today and thankfully I didn't get myself too exctied. As usual, or at least the last 2 regular ultrasounds, the baby wasn't cooperating. She was facing down and towards my spine with her hands over her face so we weren't able to see ANY of her face. Knowing the baby is stubborn and difficult we were placing our bets on it being a girl and taking after me. Not just that but practically everyone on Ben's side of the family has had girls so it was pretty much a done deal before we even conceived. Since we were primarily there to confirm the gender thankfully the technician was able to confim that much.

So now that we know, I can start my planning and get registered at Sears (and maybe one other place). First though, I need to finish school. This Wednesday I had in my group's final paper and then we present the week after and I'll be done and graduated!