29 weeks, and another midwife appointment

Yesterday marked the 29 week point. Things are still going well overall.
I'm noticing that I get more easily tired lately without doing much. I'm also having a hard time eating what I'm used to eating. I feel like I get full pretty quickly, especially at night, and also feel somewhat sick after a somewhat big meal. One of the worst after effects is feeling like I have acid in the back of my throat. I've never had to deal with heartburn or acid reflux or the like, so this is all new to me. To keep it from happening, I'm forced to do what I should have been doing all along anyways: I'm eating tiny meals, several times a day. Most of the time, that is enough to keep me feeling better. I have noticed, though, that there are certain foods that I also have to stay away from. So, I'm no longer drinking smoothies made with yogurt, strawberries and bananas. :(
Today I had another midwife appointment.
Of course, as usual, I was soooo looking forward to it. (note the sarcasm.)
Also as usual, I had quite a bit of a wait before I was able to go in.
My appointment was supposed to be at 10AM, but when I arrived, I noticed that there were girls from 9:30 and 9:45 still waiting in the waiting room. Soon after I arrived, the girl with the 10:15 appointment also came to wait. They started talking about their pregnancies, and pulled me into their conversation.
It turns out that all of them were also pregnant with their first babies, but they were all in their early 20s. They were all still in their first trimesters, so they were excited to hear that I was much further along. Up until now, all of the girls I have met who are as far along as I am seem to be pregnant with girls. I thought I was one of the only ones with a boy. I found it interesting, though, that according to these girls, amongst the girls in their first trimesters, most are pregnant with boys, and there are very few girls. It was funny to hear that the girl in front of me, who was a bit of a tomboy, was the only one preganant with a girl, but she had wanted a boy. The girl next to her, more of a "girly girl", had wanted a little girl herself, but was pregnant with a boy.
I got out of the conversation when they started to talk about how much they were smoking while pregnant, and how hard it was to cut down. So, to pass the time, I ended up playing sudoku's on my very new(early) birthday present from Mauri, an ipod touch.
Almost an hour later, it was finally my turn to go in.
We pretty much did what we always do at these appointments. At first, she took out her little wheel to calculate that I was 29 weeks along. (I don't even bother to try to tell her anymore.) As she was doing that, she looked down and saw my folder full of pregnancy information and said "wow, I have never seen someone so organized!!" She proceeded to ask me if I was German. (I guess Germans are more organized??) We talked a little bit about my background, and then she took my blood pressure, weighed me (up 1.5 kilos from the last appointment), and listened for the baby's heartbeat with the doppler. When it was time to make the next appointment, she informed me that I would have to go in for my last blood and urine analysis in a month. I will also be screened for group b strep infection, something that doesn't sound like a lot of fun, and she made me an appointment with her for a week later, so that I can pick up the results of the test.
I asked her about the birth preparation classes that I was supposed to start at 28 weeks, and she told me that the classes meet every Tuesday at 11:30. Next week, though, is a week of fiestas here in Dénia, so they wouldn't be meeting. There didn't seem to be any other time slot available. I found that interesting because my brother-in-law always comments about those classes because he was able to go to them with his partner, and he gets home very late like Mauri. So, I asked the midwife if there were some other time slot so that my husband could also attend with me. She told me that she, being new here, was only given one time slot, and that the room she was given wasn't even big enough for everyone who needs to attend, so, husbands can't come along anyways.
I asked her how the classes worked, because there is an open time slot for everyone, and everyone will be starting at different times. She told me that it is very difficult to make the classes work, and that it would be much more practical and effective if there were closed sessions in which everyone were to start on a certain day, and to be there for 8 sessions. So, I'm not very optimistic about how the classes will be, but I guess I'll know for sure in another 2 weeks.
I'll leave you with the info from my 29 week email:

How your baby's growing:

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day.