I guess I didn't gain any weight this week. The nurse is usually so fast with it that I can barely get a glance at what the scale says. But this midwife didn't mention it at all. BP was still in the 120s over 70s, Hot Dog!
I'm Strep B Negative, so I won't need to have antibiotics during labor, at least not for that. I suppose something else could happen where I would need antibiotics though. Hot Dog again!
She said that a Hep Lock is standard for the midwives so that's good. The IV was probably the least of my problems last time but if things go better this time an IV would be annoying.
Since I won't be having an IV I asked about food during labor. She said clear liquids is the hospital policy to make anesthesia happy. Then she pretty much said, don't come in until you really need to and eat on your way here if you're hungry. Which was kind of my plan anyway.
In my birth vision I said I would prefer intermittent or telemetric monitoring. She said that they pretty much can't do intermittent since you need someone to be with you one on one during active labor because monitoring happens so frequently. So it looks like telemetric will be the way to go.
Assuming my water hasn't broken yet when we get to the hospital we'll ask to be in L&D 5 or 6 so I can use the tub if I want.
I feel pretty well prepared. I still need to do some stuff around the house but I think we're ready to go to the hospital under pretty much any circumstance. Kaida even has a bag packed. I don't know what situation might arise where she would need to go somewhere for more than a little while but if it does, she's ready.
Colin's Heart Rate was in the 140s this week. He was Occiput Posterior (head down but facing my belly) at the office which is not how we want him for delivery but head down is good enough for me. They usually turn to anterior during labor if you're able to be up and moving. So everything still looks good!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve
Kaida is starting to get a cold and she had a little bit of a rough night after we got home from Aunt Jen's last night. So she was super tired when she woke up this morning.
We put her down for a morning nap a little before 10 and she slept until 12:05. So we thought an afternoon nap was out of the picture. But around 4:15 she was so crabby and rubbing her eyes that we put her down anyway. She slept for a half hour so that helped adjust her attitude a little bit.
Then it was time for church right away. So we had to get her changed super quick. JR took her diaper off and was putting it in the pail while I got her dress ready. She stood up on the changing table and suddenly we hear "Uh-oh." and she peed. I guess she's figuring out that you're not supposed to pee on yourself.
Posing for pictures
her pretty dress.
When we got to church she kept saying "Ooooo, Wow!" I guess because the lights were on? It was adorable. Then she had to look at all the luminaries that they put out to line the driveway. They were very pretty.
She was pretty good. JR took her up for the longest Children's Talk Ever. Seriously, you know it's going to be a lot of kids, and probably kids who don't normally come to church so don't know to sit still and be quiet. Make it snappy! Plus it was boring. Oh, and JR said that she kept calling Pastor "Poppy" while they were up near the front. I can see the resemblance so I don't blame her.
She had juice, and fish, and JR's phone played Baby Einstein almost the entire time so we made it through with minimal screaming. And only the occasioanal exclamation of "Baby!", "Wow!", and "Kitty!"
When we got home we took a walk down the street to look at the lights and realized that we are one of only 2 houses on our street that don't have outside lights. Maybe we should get some outlets on the outside of the house... She really likes the lights.
After dinner she had her bath lickety-split and then we Skyped with Grammy and Poppy so Poppy could read The Night Before Christmas to her. She had a running commentary the whole way through "Baby! Bear! Ho-ho-ho!" whenever she saw something she recognized. I think she liked it.
Then we moved Mary and Joseph into the stable and set out milk and cookies for Santa.
She thinks she should test them to make sure they're okay for Santa.
Nice and cozy in their stable.
It was a very fast delivery!
She went to sleep very easily so we'll see if it lasts. It was a pretty exciting day!
Merry Christmas from Kaida!
And Colin!
We put her down for a morning nap a little before 10 and she slept until 12:05. So we thought an afternoon nap was out of the picture. But around 4:15 she was so crabby and rubbing her eyes that we put her down anyway. She slept for a half hour so that helped adjust her attitude a little bit.
Then it was time for church right away. So we had to get her changed super quick. JR took her diaper off and was putting it in the pail while I got her dress ready. She stood up on the changing table and suddenly we hear "Uh-oh." and she peed. I guess she's figuring out that you're not supposed to pee on yourself.
Posing for pictures
her pretty dress.
When we got to church she kept saying "Ooooo, Wow!" I guess because the lights were on? It was adorable. Then she had to look at all the luminaries that they put out to line the driveway. They were very pretty.
She was pretty good. JR took her up for the longest Children's Talk Ever. Seriously, you know it's going to be a lot of kids, and probably kids who don't normally come to church so don't know to sit still and be quiet. Make it snappy! Plus it was boring. Oh, and JR said that she kept calling Pastor "Poppy" while they were up near the front. I can see the resemblance so I don't blame her.
She had juice, and fish, and JR's phone played Baby Einstein almost the entire time so we made it through with minimal screaming. And only the occasioanal exclamation of "Baby!", "Wow!", and "Kitty!"
When we got home we took a walk down the street to look at the lights and realized that we are one of only 2 houses on our street that don't have outside lights. Maybe we should get some outlets on the outside of the house... She really likes the lights.
After dinner she had her bath lickety-split and then we Skyped with Grammy and Poppy so Poppy could read The Night Before Christmas to her. She had a running commentary the whole way through "Baby! Bear! Ho-ho-ho!" whenever she saw something she recognized. I think she liked it.
Then we moved Mary and Joseph into the stable and set out milk and cookies for Santa.
She thinks she should test them to make sure they're okay for Santa.
Nice and cozy in their stable.
It was a very fast delivery!
She went to sleep very easily so we'll see if it lasts. It was a pretty exciting day!
Merry Christmas from Kaida!
And Colin!
Friday, December 23, 2011
Kaida and Babies
When Kaida sees pictures of babies on my computer she always comes to point them out to me. Baby is one of her favorite words and I'm pretty sure than Blankie is named Baby. It's a little bit confusing because the Taggie Baby Doll she also sleeps with is a baby too.
I've started telling her that a baby is coming to live with us but it's hard to tell if she gets it. I know she understands a lot more than she can tell us but this may be a little too abstract of a concept.
If I tell her that there's a baby in my belly she comes over and lifts up my shirt, points to my belly button, and says "beh-buh". Kind of like, "No mom, I think you're confused, that's a belly button, not a baby."
I've started telling her that a baby is coming to live with us but it's hard to tell if she gets it. I know she understands a lot more than she can tell us but this may be a little too abstract of a concept.
If I tell her that there's a baby in my belly she comes over and lifts up my shirt, points to my belly button, and says "beh-buh". Kind of like, "No mom, I think you're confused, that's a belly button, not a baby."
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
36 Weeks Midwife Appointment
Went to the Midwives today. JR stayed home with Kaida and that was very nice.
My fundal height measured 36 cm so that's right on. My iron is good and so was my blood pressure, 120/72, but I gained 9 pounds in 3 weeks. I knew I had gained a bunch, and it all happened in this past week or so. That's alarming but I don't have a whole lot of swelling, just my hands occassionally. And if the weight gain were related to preeclampsia I would have puffed up somewhere. She thought maybe he had a growth spurt. Which would also explain the "Pyramid of Pain".
That is what I've taken to calling the ridiculous pain in my groin area. I had some pain with Kaida. You could tell it was just soreness from carrying around a baby. This is that with an added sharp pain in the dead center of my pubic bone. So sometimes just walking or lifting my leg to put my shoe on is really painful. The midwife thought it was just the round ligaments stretching out.
She said that he's head down with his back toward my left. I think he's still there right now. But he has some giant movements every once in a while so I think he's still able to switch it up every once in a while.
She was guessing that he's already 5-6 pounds and said he had a pretty good sized bean. Sounds like we might have another giant headed baby, but maybe not a weeble this time. She said that sometimes with preeclampsia babies don't get everything they need through the placenta so that can lead to a lower birth weight which would explain Kaida being so tiny. So if he's already that big then (fingeres crossed) maybe no preeclampsia!
She looked at the birth vision and didn't think anything seemed unreasonable. And we did the Group B Strep test so we'll have the results of that at my visit next week.
As soon as I had parked the car at the hospital I started sneezing and my nose hasn't stopped running yet. I think I may be sick. Blech.
My fundal height measured 36 cm so that's right on. My iron is good and so was my blood pressure, 120/72, but I gained 9 pounds in 3 weeks. I knew I had gained a bunch, and it all happened in this past week or so. That's alarming but I don't have a whole lot of swelling, just my hands occassionally. And if the weight gain were related to preeclampsia I would have puffed up somewhere. She thought maybe he had a growth spurt. Which would also explain the "Pyramid of Pain".
That is what I've taken to calling the ridiculous pain in my groin area. I had some pain with Kaida. You could tell it was just soreness from carrying around a baby. This is that with an added sharp pain in the dead center of my pubic bone. So sometimes just walking or lifting my leg to put my shoe on is really painful. The midwife thought it was just the round ligaments stretching out.
She said that he's head down with his back toward my left. I think he's still there right now. But he has some giant movements every once in a while so I think he's still able to switch it up every once in a while.
She was guessing that he's already 5-6 pounds and said he had a pretty good sized bean. Sounds like we might have another giant headed baby, but maybe not a weeble this time. She said that sometimes with preeclampsia babies don't get everything they need through the placenta so that can lead to a lower birth weight which would explain Kaida being so tiny. So if he's already that big then (fingeres crossed) maybe no preeclampsia!
She looked at the birth vision and didn't think anything seemed unreasonable. And we did the Group B Strep test so we'll have the results of that at my visit next week.
As soon as I had parked the car at the hospital I started sneezing and my nose hasn't stopped running yet. I think I may be sick. Blech.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Kaida seems to be done with two naps. Last Saturday, completely out of the blue, she just stopped napping in the morning. I tried putting her down for the next couple days just to see if it was a fluke but she's sticking to her guns.
Today she finally napped for 2 hours so that seems more reasonable. For the first half of the week her one nap was only one hour. That was not fun, especially when she's up during the night or I'm having braxton hicks that keep me up. I was a very tired Momma for a couple days there.
Today we put in our order for the newborn diaper rental at Happy Baby Company. We decided to go with the fitteds with covers. Our theory is that they come to roughly the same price as disposables and will hopefully work better. I remember Kaida's disposables leaking all the time. Hopefully that won't happen with these. If it does, we're no worse off than we would have been.
Santa came by with the volunteer fire company tonight. So we went outside to see him. There were a lot of flashing lights and loud music but she didn't cry or anything. And after he had driven by she said "Ho-ho-ho." We were thinking about seeing Santa Cow tonight too, but I decided against it. I wasn't really hungry for chick-fil-a and I couldn't think of anything to dress her in for the picture. I think Santa on a fire truck was good enough.
Today she finally napped for 2 hours so that seems more reasonable. For the first half of the week her one nap was only one hour. That was not fun, especially when she's up during the night or I'm having braxton hicks that keep me up. I was a very tired Momma for a couple days there.
Today we put in our order for the newborn diaper rental at Happy Baby Company. We decided to go with the fitteds with covers. Our theory is that they come to roughly the same price as disposables and will hopefully work better. I remember Kaida's disposables leaking all the time. Hopefully that won't happen with these. If it does, we're no worse off than we would have been.
Santa came by with the volunteer fire company tonight. So we went outside to see him. There were a lot of flashing lights and loud music but she didn't cry or anything. And after he had driven by she said "Ho-ho-ho." We were thinking about seeing Santa Cow tonight too, but I decided against it. I wasn't really hungry for chick-fil-a and I couldn't think of anything to dress her in for the picture. I think Santa on a fire truck was good enough.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Reasons
Remember the time that I took Dramamine following the label's recommended dosing schedule and for 2 days woke up only to eat and pee?
Or the time that I had "The Rash" and was prescribed an allergy medication for itching. And when I took it I kept falling asleep in class. And when we read the label it said "May cause drowsiness in children under 4."?
Or the time I had jaw surgery and the Roxicet made me so high we had to cut my dose?
Or the time they gave me the lowest possible dose of pitocin and I immediately had contractions every minute?
These are examples of some reasons I want to avoid medication during labor. Medication and I seem to be unable to come to an agreement regarding how we should interact while it's in my body.
Not to mention all the kind-of-scary statistics.
I was reading an article our Lamaze teacher gave us about the best way to have an intervention free labor and delivery and it lists allowing labor to start on its own. It then lists all these statistics for people who are given pitocin. If you are given pitocin you have a 50/50 chance of ending up with a c-section. Among other things. It kind of gave me a little panic attack. Not so much that I'm worried for this time but that it could have happened last time.
So yeah, still hoping to avoid all of that.
We had our hospital tour last week and now I'm worried about going to the hospital. When we got to the Triage part of the tour I kind of didn't want to go. Not that anything bad happened while I was in Triage with Kaida. But I was all alone, my phone was running out of battery, I was scared, and it's not a comfy place to be. I just have a very negative feeling about it.
So now I'm afraid that we'll get to the hospital, get into Triage, I'll start freaking out and Colin will leap back up into my uterus and be all "If Mom is freaking out this must be a very bad place to be born. I don't think I'll make my entrance today after all."
In other news I had maybe 4 contractions between 3:30 and 4:30 this morning. They kept waking me up but since I sleep on my left side I couldn't see the clock so I really have no idea how far apart they were. Eventually I went to the bathroom, drank a cup of water, and was more awake. While I was doing that I had 4 more in, maybe, 10 minutes. I was pretty sure the info sheet said it may be pre-term labor if you have 5 or more contractions in an hour so I decided that if I had another contraction after those 4 fast ones I would go double check the sheet and then maybe wake up JR. But then there were no more. I guess peeing and drinking the water helped. Plus I rolled to my right side. (All suggestions from my Doula book that I re-read last week).
They certainly didn't feel like labor contractions (at least not the ones I've had) so I was only kind of worried. I would describe them as high pitched and fast. Not that that would make much sense to anyone but me.
We have one more Lamaze class left which is how many we had left when Kaida was born, so I'm hoping to break our record.
Or the time that I had "The Rash" and was prescribed an allergy medication for itching. And when I took it I kept falling asleep in class. And when we read the label it said "May cause drowsiness in children under 4."?
Or the time I had jaw surgery and the Roxicet made me so high we had to cut my dose?
Or the time they gave me the lowest possible dose of pitocin and I immediately had contractions every minute?
These are examples of some reasons I want to avoid medication during labor. Medication and I seem to be unable to come to an agreement regarding how we should interact while it's in my body.
Not to mention all the kind-of-scary statistics.
I was reading an article our Lamaze teacher gave us about the best way to have an intervention free labor and delivery and it lists allowing labor to start on its own. It then lists all these statistics for people who are given pitocin. If you are given pitocin you have a 50/50 chance of ending up with a c-section. Among other things. It kind of gave me a little panic attack. Not so much that I'm worried for this time but that it could have happened last time.
So yeah, still hoping to avoid all of that.
We had our hospital tour last week and now I'm worried about going to the hospital. When we got to the Triage part of the tour I kind of didn't want to go. Not that anything bad happened while I was in Triage with Kaida. But I was all alone, my phone was running out of battery, I was scared, and it's not a comfy place to be. I just have a very negative feeling about it.
So now I'm afraid that we'll get to the hospital, get into Triage, I'll start freaking out and Colin will leap back up into my uterus and be all "If Mom is freaking out this must be a very bad place to be born. I don't think I'll make my entrance today after all."
In other news I had maybe 4 contractions between 3:30 and 4:30 this morning. They kept waking me up but since I sleep on my left side I couldn't see the clock so I really have no idea how far apart they were. Eventually I went to the bathroom, drank a cup of water, and was more awake. While I was doing that I had 4 more in, maybe, 10 minutes. I was pretty sure the info sheet said it may be pre-term labor if you have 5 or more contractions in an hour so I decided that if I had another contraction after those 4 fast ones I would go double check the sheet and then maybe wake up JR. But then there were no more. I guess peeing and drinking the water helped. Plus I rolled to my right side. (All suggestions from my Doula book that I re-read last week).
They certainly didn't feel like labor contractions (at least not the ones I've had) so I was only kind of worried. I would describe them as high pitched and fast. Not that that would make much sense to anyone but me.
We have one more Lamaze class left which is how many we had left when Kaida was born, so I'm hoping to break our record.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
34 Weeks
Nothing too exciting has been happening lately. He's still moving around like crazy. I don't think Kaida moved around quite this much. Or she had more dainty movements. He feels like he's doing somersaults all the time.
Since my last appointment I've been having some groin and pelvic pain. I would say it's usually a dull ache, which I had around week 36 with Kaida, so this is definitely starting earlier. Sometimes, though, it's a really gnarly pain that makes it hard to walk. So I'm not sure if it's something he's doing or if it's my ligaments being a little too relaxed and not holding my pelvis where it belongs. Or a combination of both since it goes away pretty quick and just starts to ache again.
We met with Bethany the Doula and went over our birth vision. It's pretty much the same as with Kaida except I added intermittent monitoring to telemetric as an option since I'd rather not wear any belts, I added that I want a mirror and hot compresses when I'm pushing since the mirror really helped last time.
And I added "Please do not separate Colin and I (even across the room) unless medically necessary". Our Lamaze teacher told us that Kangaroo care is great for the baby and is actually a recent hospital policy but that old habits die hard so nurses often just take them to the warmer after the cord is cut. Having Kaida with me right after she was born was the best feeling so I'd like to repeat that, if possible, and have it last more then 15 seconds.
I figure that most of the birth vision is just how the midwives do things so it's really for the nurses to know how I'd like things to go without having to explain myself to everyone who comes in the room.
Bethany told me that she had registered for a convention but they changed the dates from sometime in February to January 18th and 19th. I told her I was fine with a backup but hopefully he doesn't come on his due date or the day before. Batsheva would be the backup and she seems very capable but I really like Bethany.
Colin's Stats:
According to the e-mail he's about 4 and 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. He's still working on adding fat and maturing his lungs. But if he were born right now he wouldn't likely have any long term problems.
As for me I'm up about 27 pounds from my starting weight. Doing better than last time but that's getting close to the recommended limit. My fingers have been puffing up a little bit, again, not as bad as last time but I was hoping to avoid it entirely. I'm still wearing my rings though so that's good.
Since my last appointment I've been having some groin and pelvic pain. I would say it's usually a dull ache, which I had around week 36 with Kaida, so this is definitely starting earlier. Sometimes, though, it's a really gnarly pain that makes it hard to walk. So I'm not sure if it's something he's doing or if it's my ligaments being a little too relaxed and not holding my pelvis where it belongs. Or a combination of both since it goes away pretty quick and just starts to ache again.
We met with Bethany the Doula and went over our birth vision. It's pretty much the same as with Kaida except I added intermittent monitoring to telemetric as an option since I'd rather not wear any belts, I added that I want a mirror and hot compresses when I'm pushing since the mirror really helped last time.
And I added "Please do not separate Colin and I (even across the room) unless medically necessary". Our Lamaze teacher told us that Kangaroo care is great for the baby and is actually a recent hospital policy but that old habits die hard so nurses often just take them to the warmer after the cord is cut. Having Kaida with me right after she was born was the best feeling so I'd like to repeat that, if possible, and have it last more then 15 seconds.
I figure that most of the birth vision is just how the midwives do things so it's really for the nurses to know how I'd like things to go without having to explain myself to everyone who comes in the room.
Bethany told me that she had registered for a convention but they changed the dates from sometime in February to January 18th and 19th. I told her I was fine with a backup but hopefully he doesn't come on his due date or the day before. Batsheva would be the backup and she seems very capable but I really like Bethany.
Colin's Stats:
According to the e-mail he's about 4 and 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. He's still working on adding fat and maturing his lungs. But if he were born right now he wouldn't likely have any long term problems.
As for me I'm up about 27 pounds from my starting weight. Doing better than last time but that's getting close to the recommended limit. My fingers have been puffing up a little bit, again, not as bad as last time but I was hoping to avoid it entirely. I'm still wearing my rings though so that's good.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Kaida's Adventures in Self Feeding
We started giving Kaida her own bowl or plate and utensils. She thinks it's quite fun. Sadly it seems to make at least 2 times the mess on a regular basis.
The fork seems to be a little bit easier for successfully getting food from the plate to her mouth. But she has trouble with the transition from the stabbing motion to the transporting to the mouth motion.
Very often she holds the spoon or fork in one hand and picks up the food to eat it with the other hand. Occassionally banging the plate with the utensil just to hear the noise.
This video is from the first time I gave her her own bowl and spoon.
This other video is from a long time ago. This is when she first started saying ball. We're playing in her big girl room before it was done. She had a cold so she's hoarse, but it's still adorable.
The fork seems to be a little bit easier for successfully getting food from the plate to her mouth. But she has trouble with the transition from the stabbing motion to the transporting to the mouth motion.
Very often she holds the spoon or fork in one hand and picks up the food to eat it with the other hand. Occassionally banging the plate with the utensil just to hear the noise.
This video is from the first time I gave her her own bowl and spoon.
This other video is from a long time ago. This is when she first started saying ball. We're playing in her big girl room before it was done. She had a cold so she's hoarse, but it's still adorable.
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