36 Weeks!

I'm 36 weeks today! That means I'm Full term (The baby's lungs should be developed by now and if labor started now, we wouldn't be worried about his development) - this is also a good milestone b/c it means we're on track for my homebirth. Anything sooner than that, the risk is higher, and I'd go to the hospital. We're now ready for a healthy and natural birth whenever the baby is. I hate still calling him "The Baby", but we've yet to find him a name. I'm runnign out of time quickly, so we're trying ot get a short list. Right now my short list has about 30 names, and I'm not even sure if I really like half of them! His middle name will be James, after my dad and grandpa, but that's as much as we have. Kenny and I are struggling to find a name we both like. I think boy names are much mroe difficult than girl names - especially for me b/c I don't want the traditional names. I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll have it narrowed down to 5 names, and then if I can't decide further, maybe we'll get some inspiration from him when he's born.
I got my birth kit in the mail last night, and that's exciting for me! It's just another marker that we're almost there. The Birth Kit is supplies that I order that we'll need on hand for the birth (bulb syringes, sterile gloves, blue waterproof pads to protect floor and bedding - pretty much all the supplies that you "use up" in the hospital). All the equipment like the dopplers and oxygen, the midwife brings. The only other things we need to be ready to have this baby tomorrow is a birth tub (which we rent, we jsut have to pick it up this week) and a couple minor supplies I need to gather up. So I'm just about ready to go and I'm excited!
I'm starting to get braxton hicks contractions quite often this week. I love it, it's such a weird feeling when it tightens up so much and it just reminds me that my body is getting ready. At my midwife appointment this week she tested me for Group B strep, while she was down there I asked her to see if I'd started dilating at all, we had just looked at my chart from Kaden's birth and seen that at this point with him I was dilated 2 cm (it was 5 more weeks until he was born), so I wanted to compare. I am 1.5 cm dilated with this one. So I'm going to keep planning on at least another 5 more weeks, but no matter how hard i try, I can't help but hope that he'll come sooner. With Kaden I thought I was in labor at one point b/c I ws having really regular contractions, but they didn't hurt. I dilated to 6cm adn then things pretty much stopped. I was at 6cm for 3 days before real labor started. So I realize that my body likes to start preparing ahead of time. I'm going to try not to get excited as I dilate more!
Next week I have my Home Visit with my midwife. SHe'll come ot the house adn we'll make sure we have all the supplies we need and talk in more detail about what I want for the birth. This is my favorite part of homebirth - I tell everyoen else how I want things to go, instead of the doctors telling me how it will be. Who do I want there, where do I want to do it, Do I want music, dim lights, do I want my water broken or left alone, do I want food and if so what do I want. It's one time where everything is really completely all about what I feel is best. I have lots of decisions to make this week too...
Kaden's up from his nap, so I'm done here. I'll post more soon!