Last ultrasound

I had my ultrasound today, and everything still looks really good. Mia is head-down, which is good. :o) She's also still a girl, and the doctor showed us what are likely the "girl parts". (Apparently, the odds are still about 20% that she's really a boy whose "boy parts" haven't descended yet.) We got to see a shot from the top of her head and of her very round belly. Unfortunately, we didn't get any print-outs this time, so here instead is a shot of my belly at 29w2d: And here is a shot of Friday inspecting the new crib: Poor kitty has no idea has no idea what he's in for... :o)

Lamaze - Part 4

Today was all about labor positions and the breathing (or lack there of) during pushing. We also did an exercise where our instructor gave us about 20 cards w/ opposing delivery options on either side. We laid out all the cards with our ideal options facing up. So for example, we got to choose between epidural/no epidural, vaginal birth/C-section, multiple support people/one support person, etc. Then when we were finished, we had to imagine that a couple things didn't go the way we wanted and to turn over a couple of cards. Then a couple more. And then a couple more. It was amazing how quickly I ran out of things I was willing to give up easily. That made me realize how odd it is to spend so much time preparing for an event you have so little control over. But in any case, it's better to be informed than not. I mean, I can't imagine learning about forceps delivery for the first time while in the middle of actually delivering a child. We also watched a rather unpleasant video on C-section deliveries. I think that was actually more disturbing than watching the vaginal births. The main thing we learned is that dads should not look over the curtain during surgery! ;o) On a happy note, we have our next ultrasound scheduled in a couple days. If she is upside down, I think this will be our last ultrasound. If not, we may be in for several more between now and delivery until she does flip over. I'm mostly looking forward to figuring out exactly where she is and where she's facing so that I can figure out if she's been punching or kicking the same place on my stomach for the last week. :o) I'll post new baby pictures soon!

Lamaze - Part 3

Our third night of Lamaze was all about pain relief options, and I felt miserable about all of them. Essentially, there are two main categories of pain relievers. Approximately 30% of women go with an injection of some sort of narcotic (like Demerol) to help "take the edge off". It apparently doesn't do a whole lot for the pain itself, but it makes you less aware of the pain. In other words, you're out of it. But the downside is that you're less aware of what is going on in general, which makes some women feel totally out of control. On top of that, the narcotics can make baby drowsy and less able/willing to breastfeed in the short window during which they are alert after birth. Then, of course, there is the ever-popular epidural, which about 65% of women go with. So, lets start with my loathing of needles... And this is the mother of all needles. They actually inject a catheter between two vertebrae in your back so that you get a steady stream of medicine directly to your spine, which blocks pain below the chest. That already terrifies me. And the bonus is that when you get an epidural, you automatically get all of the following prizes:

• bound to bed for the rest of labor b/c you have so little strength in or control over your legs.
• an IV for the rest of labor b/c an extremely common side effect of the epidural is a massive drop in blood pressure (for mom & baby), so they have to keep you very well hydrated.
• an internal fetal monitor for the rest of labor, which is essentially a "screw" attached to the baby's scalp to monitor baby's heart rate and a separate catheter into the uterus to monitor contractions more accurately.
• a urinary catheter for the rest of delivery b/c you can't walk to the bathroom anymore and probably can't tell if you need to go either.

This all sounds miserable to me. Not to say that labor itself doesn't sound miserable, but I think I would go crazy with all those tubes and the fact that I'd have to lay flat on my back for however many hours... Ugh.

Why don't we have better options for this stuff yet??

28 weeks!

We're about twelve weeks to go!! I am officially in the third trimester now, and all of the really fun symptoms are kicking in. My back still feels like it belongs to someone three times my age... I've given up walking as exercise b/c it's just too painful. After 20 minutes, I want to fall over & I feel terrible for at least the rest of the day. So I have been swimming for the last couple of weeks, and that is sooo much better. The only time I don't feel pregnant is when I'm in the pool. And my back almost feels normal when I get out of the pool. There's definitely something to be said about being weightless when you're pregnant!! My ankles are also swollen most days, and it doesn't seem to matter too much what I do during the day. Sitting seems to be worse than standing or reclining. My sister and I joke that that I have one bad ankle and one "control" ankle... The left one swells at will and the right one doesn't seem too bad. The effect is that if someone looks at my left leg and says, "That doesn't look too bad", I can show them the right ankle and get instant sympathy. ;o) Otherwise, I'm still doing pretty well. I'm *really* excited that we got our crib today. (Thanks, Pat!!) It's all set up in what will soon be the nursery. It trips me out every time I walk passed it because, well...because there is a crib in my house!! I can't believe we're actually going to have a baby in three months... I will definitely post pictures once the room is put together. :o)

Lamaze - Part 2

We had our second week of Lamaze, and we started breathing! ;o) The focus was actually on several different labor positions to try during the first phase of labor, which lasts something like 6 -10 hours. This is before you need to get to the hospital, and they want you to do anything besides laying flat on your back, which is great b/c that's the last thing I think I'll want to do. We tried out at least a half dozen labor positions, and I found that really helpful. Our instructor also snuck in another labor & delivery video, and my favorite part was that our task was to watch the woman's husband and to make note of what things he did well and what he did that was just...annoying. We all decided to that it is "annoying" to repeatedly pat a laboring woman on the head, even with a cool washcloth. It is also "annoying" to sing She'll Be Coming around the Mountain when She Comes to a woman in labor. It's apparently also a bad idea to remind a woman in labor of the Philly cheese-steak sandwich she had for dinner the night before. ;o) We also talked about what to pack in the hospital bag. Our instructor always plays relaxing music in the background when we are practicing the breathing exercises or labor positions, and one thing that Jeff and I agree on is that we won't be packing a copy of Elton John's greatest hits to listen to during my labor! I don't care how appropriate "The Circle of Life" is for bringing a new person into the world, I just don't think I could tolerate it! I think I might get out an old pre-race CD to listen to and try to treat this like a marathon. That would at least give me some delusion that I know what I'm doing!

Lamaze - Part 1

Jeff and I went to our first night of Lamaze class this week. Each class session is 2 1/2 hours long, and we meet once per week for six weeks. Jeff was worried that it was going to be 15 hours of nothing but breathing exercises: "hee - hee - whoo". But we actually didn't do any breathing exercises at all on the first night. Instead, we talked about all the stages of labor, what happens in each stage, and how long each stage lasts. I alternated all night between thinking "holy crap..." and "okay, I can do this". I think my favorite part of the video we watched was the real earthy couple who went on a hike when she first went into labor, and her husband said, "We had a really nice day out on our hike while she was in the first stage of labor." And I was wondering if she'd had as nice a day as he had... All I can say is that I'm not going hiking when I go into labor.

 

The rest of the video was actually really good...and, of course, graphic. I was expecting something made in the 1970's, but it was pretty recent and the computer graphics did an excellent job of explaining what happens at each stage. (Maybe, too well...) Next week we start the actual breathing exercises, so I'll let you all know how that goes. ;o)

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