All quiet on the Southern Front

Met with midwife #2 today, a woman named Sara who I'd also be happy to have show up in the delivery room. I measured the same weight and centimeters; my belly and baby growth seems to enjoy an echelon style of giant leaps rather than the old slow and steady method. Sara reported that there's nothing new in indications-of-oncoming-labor town; the shop is still closed up and quiet. The midwife said I could take evening primrose oil supplements and that those supposedly help loosen things up (but only if they were on the verge of loosening up anyway) but I'm feeling kind of que sera sera about it. On the one hand, am I about ready to meet this baby and have my body back to being a one-horse town again? Yes. On the other, am I ready for the huge major enormous monstrous life change of delivery and having a baby? Not sure that anyone can really be ready for that. So let the little one make its own decision about when to emerge without prompting from me, and I'll be ready when it tells me to be.
Another interesting note -- I mentioned that they had not yet re-tested me regarding my previous low iron count results, so Sara looked back through the notes and surprised me by saying my iron count had actually been pretty darn normal for a pregnant woman, just a little low for a non-pregnant woman. She said she wouldn't have bothered to put me on iron in the first place, although it doesn't hurt. So we're not going to bother with the retest after all. Maybe the CO doctor's concern was an altitude thing?
I have had one annoying symptom to speak of this last week or so -- Symphysis pubis dysfunction, or SPD. The name is a pretty fancy way of saying 'pelvic girdle pain,' meaning that the hormones that loosen up the ligaments and tendons to make the pelvic girdle bones roomier for birth are doing their job, only a little too well and a little too soon. It's not perpetual, it mostly occurs when I do things that stretch my legs apart -- like, say, take the big step up into a pick up truck -- which gives me a pretty sharp and stabby pain. The only real treatment is to avoid said stretching apart, so I sit a little more carefully and put pants on a little more carefully.
The good news about this is that the stronger onset of SPD (I'd had it slightly for a while now) is a good indication among others that the baby has "dropped," or at least started to, meaning that it's starting to line itself up into birthing position. This normally happens at 2-4 weeks out for first pregnancies and it's right on time. I've noticed I feel a little less compressed, I can eat a little bit more in a given sitting, I use the bathroom more, and the appearance of my belly has lowered. The midwife confirmed that Acorn's head is pretty low while she was palpating my belly to check for its positioning so she could get a good read on the heartbeat (which is as strong and clear as ever).
Acorn, true to form, squirmed and swirled underneath her hands.