I am feeling more positive now although the situation with the midwifery services hasn't changed at all. We have discussed our idea of an ideal birth and we seem to be pretty much in agreement about that but we haven't discussed what we should do about preventing any intervention from the midwifery services.
I have decided for the time being to leave the issue as I have another 2 weeks before our next visit to the midwife! But as time is flying by I'll have to address the subject soon. But I am afraid that voicing my concerns will cause friction.
'An' has kindly arranged an anti-natal class that we should be able to attend which starts in August and is aimed at people who have more that one child. I'm looking froward to this but they take place on a Saturday and so finding babysitters might cause a problem as I'm not sure if any of the Grandparents will be willing to sacrifice a Saturday morning for us! But still we have some time to organise that yet.
We've been trying to organise the spare room and this week we managed to decorate the bathroom because we are fast running out of space and we need to use all of the rooms to their full capacity. Also HRH has been struggling during the night as he is suffering from a virus again and it has made us realise that once the baby is here it will be virtually impossible to cope because if HRH stays in the children's room he wakes the girls up and Luna wants milks and cuddles etc. to get back off to sleep and she is often woken several times during the night. And if he comes in with us neither Nigel nor I get any sleep and it is very hard to cope without sleep! Sorting and tidying will have to wait for a couple of days however, because Nigel seems to be suffering from a virus too!

This evening I feel terrible. I am really tired and achy and I feel as though I can hardly move. I realised I have 15 weeks left and I really don't think I have any more room to grow! Even my maternity clothes are tight!!!
To make matters worse I tried to discuss the concerns I have been having about the midwifery services and I think I must have worded everything wrongly! He didn't seem to share my opinions! Perhaps I'll have to leave things up to fate! I still feel very sure about what I want but maybe I need to give things more thought.
Right now I need to sleep!

I can't believe how behind I am with my posting. I'll try to catch up a bit. On Thursday 7th June we had our 24 week midwife appointment. It all went very well and was quite brief apart from Sharon only getting my fundal measurement to 22 weeks. For once however she didn't panic and even said that she remember me being the same with Luna. I said I was the same with all of them but I don't think she listened. Apart from that everything was fine. The baby had a good strong heartbeat. The last blood tests were fine. And of course the children were well behaved.
I have got more blood tests next time I go, which got me to thinking how bloody fed up with having my blood taken I am. I don't really know what the point of the blood tests probably to check my iron levels again to ensure I'm 'safe' to have a home birth! I felt quite rubbish about having more blood taken. I feel like a pin cushion. All I ever go to the surgery for is to have more blood taken and it wouldn't matter to me what the results of them were because I know I'm fine and I will have a home birth even if the results came back saying my iron levels were zero because I have no intention of having a hospital delivery! So essentially I'm having my blood taken as a 'precaution' every 4 weeks to shut Sharon up and stop her moaning! Why on earth am I being so submissive? I really don't want to feel obliged or bullied at any point but this is making me feel a little bit out of control! Nigel and I have decided to discuss what options we have.
I was lying in the bath on Thursday night thinking about the various possibilities that could occur during labour. Concealing it from the health services could be very tricky.Supposing I go into labour on the day of an anti-natal appointment. I'll have to phone and tell them! Or supposing I go overdue and they start talking of induction and daily appointments to check the babies progress! Also, we had sort of preliminarily decided that when I went into labour we'd call the hospital and say labour had begun but tell them that very little was happening and so don't worry about visiting us yet. We would then phone them later and say 'Oh it all happened so fast that we didn't have chance to call you back!' But what if I have another labour like the one with Luna, which lasts for 23 hours. At some point a midwife will 'pop in' to check all is well and I can hardly pretend I'm miles away from delivering if I'm not! Hmm. Makes me wish I'd never involved the maternity services at all!
On Friday 8th June our very good friend An had and NCT open house. Although we don't live in the same borough she has 6 children of her own which of course means our children have a truly super time playing while we're there and she is a good home ed friend and I love to support her where possible. The subject of maternity services always seems to crop up as 3 or 4 of the regular Moms there are pregnant. I had an opportunity to discuss the type of delivery I would like and it made me realise that I'm not daft and I'm not alone because plenty of people believe the best option is to deliver unaided. 'An' even said that if we needed support she would come along and help us deliver! I really feel like we have no need to visit the surgery anymore now because An is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. Especially the alternative sort that I'm hoping for!
We've been reading a book that An recommended called 'The Power of Pleasurable Childbirth' which talks about one woman experiences of childbirth, both assisted and unassisted. It is really interesting and is certainly food for thought! She actually sacked her midwife days before she delivered her second child! Hmmm!