Bun Quest

Sunday I freaked out a little. I wasn’t feeling Julia move as much as normal so I called the midwife who in turn had me go to L&D to be monitored. So off we went. I was hooked up for like 30 minutes while the nurse asked all kinds of “required” questions (do you have acess to food/water/electricity – uh, yes…in fact I’ve gained 43.4 lbs, pee like a race horse, and my hair is dry and curled!) After the inquisition the triage nurse confirmed that Julia looked fantastic and let us know that she’d be right back and left the room. There we sat for an hour until the triage nurse came back and announced that “Ginger” would be our nurse! WTF! Nurse! For what!  Apparently I was having contractions the whole time, all of them less than 5 minutes apart and lasting 30 seconds – 1 minute.  We were monitored for a few hours and the contractions continued the whole time! Ginger came in and told us that we were free to go and just to come back when they hurt. (sigh of relief) So I asked my typical million and one questions, chief among them.. “So do the contractions mean I’ll deliver soon?” Her response, “you’re really boomin’ em out!”

So today was our regularly scheduled midwife appt. Everything went fantastic, spent like an hour and half talking to her! She offered to check, and I gave in (knowing that for sure I was “normal”). And the results were….

2 centimeters dilated

90% effaced

Julia is at 0 station! (that’s apparently HUGE)

Mucous plug is “long gone” (oops! missed that one!)

“Bloody show” (also, missed that one?)

The midwife says that at this point it’s probably more like days, rather than weeks. But of course, she gave the typical disclaimer of “but you never know!” She guestimates that the baby is around 7 lbs. give or take!

Holy crap. We (by we, I mean I) are having a baby. Holy Crap.  I may be panicking!

The husband and I (and some other tag alongs we know) walked the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k on Saturday.  I had been thinking that I may have been overly ambitious walking that far just 10 days shy of full term…turns out I was right.  I didn’t figure that out until I woke up at 3AM with some wicked upper back pain which was creeping around to the top o’ the uterus and making me contract. I laid in bed for about 15 minutes and then got up to pee, the second my feet hit the floor I knew I was in trouble – my feet/hips/back/uterus felt bruised and beaten. I made it back to bed and debated waking the husband, I just kept remembering our birth class instructor saying that if you go into labor in the middle of the night to try to let “dad” sleep b/c he’ll need a lot of energy later. I decided that since we were still 10 days from full term, I should wake him up. We discussed whether or not to call the midwife, we decided that we would try a bunch of the things we learned in class before calling b/c we both felt like I was more than likely suffering the aftermath of the 5k as opposed to labor. So we busted out the birthing ball, the massage, the shower (for an hour and half), etc. My back would not stop hurting, so it finally occured to me that I should try sleeping somewhere else, I moved to the couch and finally I fell asleep at 6:30AM. Sweet, sweet, sleep (for 2 hours).

The most surprising part of all of that was what really goes through your mind when you think you might actually be in labor. During my time in the shower I thought the following things.

* I thought about how the first 20 something years of my life were consumed with looking forward to “just being married” and all the fun time young married people have. And how now, it’s over. We are no longer the young, fun, newly weds…we are “the parents”, and it will be a very long time until it’s just the two of us again.

* I thought about how hard and long we tried to get pregnant and how it’s already coming to a close. (sniffle, sniffle, tear – tear)

* Speaking of the close of pregnancy…um, this is really going to be a ridiculous amount of pain. Why do I make things harder than the have to be?

* If she’s born before halloween, I have no costume for her and she’d definately need a costume.

* There are really a lot more things I need to pack to take to the hospital. Finishing packing will take at least 30 minutes and my back hurts too bad to spend 30 minutes doing anything.

* Why is my back in constant pain, this can’t be labor or I’d be getting breaks in between contractions.

* If this is “it” will the doula still come, can the midwife still deliver, can I still go natural, can I still have a vaginal birth, will they force me to have an IV since my group b strep test hasn’t been done yet, will she be healthy – she’ll be small and given my sudden realization that a human being will be exiting my body that might not be that bad, will she have to go to the NICU?

* Thank goodness I don’t have to work tomorrow b/c there is no way I will be able to stay awake.

* What if my back still hurts when I have to go to work? I can’t focus on work with pain like this.

* Am I having contractions too, or is she just balling up really tight? Am I stupid that I don’t know for sure?

These thoughts just swirled around, equally as relentless as my back pain. It was good to get them out and overwith so that when it is time I can focus on trying to make it through each contraction.

We had our midwife appt. today, I’m up to 138.8 lbs for a grand total of 40.8 lbs weight gain. We went over our birth plan – no changes were made. We discussed the weekend’s events. She said that this was normal and yes, I’m having contractions and she’d be more concerned if I weren’t having them. She thinks I’ll go past my due date but I’ll be full term next Wednesday and if I were to deliver before then everything should still be perfectly fine. She said it was definately time to do all the little last minute stuff, so we went and early voted today!

I did a big thing today! I ate Boston Market for lunch. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it was huge for me. You see, during our two years of trying I ate frequently at Boston Market and it seemed like every meal there was followed by the news that we weren’t pregnant. When we started IVF I decided NO BOSTON MARKET. Getting Boston Market for lunch was a big step in trusting that the health of my baby doesn’t depend on supersition. But just in case, let’s all keep our fingers crossed!

35 WEEKS, 1 DAY

We met with the doula yesterday and formalized our birth plan with her.

The most important things to us/me are:

1. NO MEN (except the hubby, obviously), NO MATTER WHAT…this includes male medical care personnel.

2. No needles, no knives!

Pre Labor:

No medical induction unless 42 weeks gestation or water has been broken for 12 hours and labor has not started on it’s own.

Will try intercourse (!!!), walking, nipple stimulation, and will allow “stripping of membranes” after 41 weeks.

No cervical checks until 40 weeks.

Labor at home:

Will call doula/midwife in early labor.

Doula will come to house when I can no longer talk during contractions.

Wear birth skirt and nursing sports bra.

Dim lights and fake candles (oooh so romantic)!

Eat and drink as desired (this has been cleared with midwife and hospital)

BFF and “the mothers” have in/out priveledges.

Walk

Use birthing ball

Change positions frequently

Shower

Massage

Hot/Cold packs

Acupressure

Pelvic rocking

Mental relaxation techniques

Leave for hospital at 5-1-1 (contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, in this pattern for 1 hour), or whenever I feel like it. 🙂

Labor at the hospital:

All of the at home stuff plus,

No IV

No Hep. lock (unless I’m group B strep positive)

Intermittent doppler monitoring only, with exception of the 20 minute admit NST strip.

Limit cervical checks to “by request only” unless there is medical neccesity (which there usually is not)

NO RESIDENTS, NO STUDENTS, NO MEN

Use of squat bar/bed positioning.

No artificial rupture of amniotic sac.

No pitocin.

If labor slows, will try variety of positions as recommended by midwife, and will try nipple stimulation.

Medication NEVER offered.

Birth:

Push in any non-supine position (all fours, squat bar, sitting up in bed, side lying)

Spontaneous pushing per my “instinct” (most women naturally push 5-6 seconds at a time) or as midwife directs to avoid a tear.

No episotomy unless emergency intervention, such as forceps, is needed.

Warm compresses.

Almond oil for perineal massage, if needed.

Husband, Midwife, Doula only. (Sorry “moms”!)

After Birth:

Will request local anesthetic if stitches are required.

Delay cord clamping at least 2 minutes.

Julia placed on my abs/chest, skin to skin, both me and her covered by the same blanket.

APGAR to be performed while she is skin to skin.

Delay all interventions (eye ointment, vitamin k, measurements) until after first breast feeding session (occurs within one hour in 80% of non-medicated births if mom and baby are skin to skin).

Doula and lactation consultant present to assist with proper latching.

No pacifiers (until breast feeding is well established)

No formula

No sugar water

Waive hep-b immunization until at least 2 weeks old.

Vernix will not removed.

Dad to give first bath appx. 6 – 7 hours after birth.

Kangaroo care only.

I have always been an annoying, overly inquisitive, detail devouring person. I hate how there is a serious lack of details when it comes to processes involving IVF, and pregnancy/birth/post-partum unpleasantries. So in the interest of putting some details out there I will be posting the “nitty gritties”, so that other 35 week pregnant women who may or may not be freaking out about the impending delivery and fixating on every new bodily sensation can read at least one other person’s experience.

So I’ll start with my suspicion that Julia is in the process of getting “locked and loaded”. It all started today. I was innocently exiting my vehicle after lunch when I noticed that it felt like my girlie bits had inhaled several ping pong balls. Seriously, you know how your mouth/cheeks/lips feel after the dentist numbs them…all puffy and swollen. That’s what “she” felt like. I called my midwife just in case, and was assured that it was either Julia getting into position or perhaps when I sit down everything is so compressed that “she” does go numb.

Julia’s first bed!!! Don’t worry, I’ll remove the giant ass nursing pillow (which I LOVE) and the world’s cutest lamb rattle prior to placing her in the bassinet all swaddled up! (Also, I know that next to the window isn’t the best choice for bassinet placement, but it’s our only option…so we’re doing it!)

We wouldn’t want Jewels to be bored while traveling, so we put a mini-mobile in and got her a matching “nappie” and a snuggle buddy (who will likely be as large or larger than she is)!

Nursery pictures!!!

And just in case anyone was worried that Julia doesn’t have any clothes or diapers…rest assured!

I decided that my favorite brand of baby toys is Kushies, hopefully Julia will agree. Anyhow, I had my heart set on buying this rattle and spent all day on Monday hunting it down. By the end of the day, I still had not found it and was very disheartened. I could have just ordered it online…but I NEEDED it NOW with the full force of all things nesting pushing me to keep shopping until I found it. Thank goodness the husband wanted to go to Barney’s “just to look” at some shoes, because there in all it’s rattley glory was the Kushie ChaCha!!!!

The ChaCha now safely resides in the inner sanctum of Julia’s diaper bag waiting to swoop in and save the day in the event of a total meltdown.

Julia also has this amazing stacker!

And, I feel certain that Santa will bring her this totally rad new toy for Christmas!

My first trimester exhaustion is returning. My knees are constantly tempted to buckle under the additional 38.4 (yikes!) pounds that they’re supporting. My sweet baby girl has a lead foot, just like her mommy, only she uses it to see how far she can push Mommy’s ribs apart. My feet feel bruised and are 1.5 sizes larger than my pre-preggo size. My husband says, “My wife is lazy, or as some may say…pregnant.”

On the sunny side, I could totally star in a raunchy rap video if they only shot me from the back…people be like….daaaayum, back that thing up! (my dear husband jokes that they better add the sound effect of a forklift/other large piece of machinery backing up)

Which means that there’s another 6 weeks and 2 days of baby left to grow!!!! Oh, and my sincere apologies for the nasty VPL (visible panty line), eeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Since my fans have demanded it…I decided to get off my ass and post. My apologies for the obscenely long delay. It’s just that I’ve had this one track mind and it’s set on “getting it all done”, which in turn leaves me exhausted and devoid of anything clever or witty to blog.

So, I’ll be 34 weeks on Wednesday which means that in 3 weeks I’ll technically be full term. HOLY CRAP! I was at the maternity store today buying some tents to cover my belly with and I was startled by a little wave of sadness, I can’t believe it’s almost over. It makes me a little sad to think that this pregnancy is almost over. On the other hand, we’ll have a cute little baby girl to oogle at! And that’s obviously exciting, and scary…as is the idea of pushing my baby out! I mean, let’s think this through…you know how large pg bellies get, common sense doesn’t lend it’s self to the idea that something that requires a space that large is supposed to come out of…well, you know.

In other news, I bought my first pair of new running shoes since the 10th grade. They’re a size and half larger than my old ones and they feel delicious.