I was tested for gestational diabetes today, not for any particular reason other than that that is what they do when you hit the 28 week mark. The midwife told me to schedule the test for first thing in the morning and not eat any carbs for breakfast because it could skew the test. I chose to ignore this advise for a couple reasons, the first being that the lab place where I scheduled this work didn't give me any instructions at all so I figured it couldn't be that important. The second is that I don't really see the point in having the test in the first place considering I show no symptoms of diabetes. And the final reason is probably too much information...but it's because my digestion tract needs some high fiber cereal first thing in the morning to wake up and I just wasn't willing to sacrifice a poo.
I scheduled the test for 7:10 a.m. this morning thinking I'd make it to work by 7:30 (all the appointments were in 10 minute intervals so this seemed a speedy process) and not have to take any time off. I showed up early (6:50) hoping to be taken in early. Not so. They took me in at exactly 7:10, gave me a bottle of sugary orange stuff to drink in a 5 minute time frame, then told me to wait in the lobby for an hour....What???? Yeah. Apparently there is no eating or drinking for 1 hour after chugging the sugar rush stuff, at which point, they draw your blood. A heads up that I'd be spending my morning in a waiting room would have been nice, but oh well. Fortunately I had my newest issue of Mothering magazine to keep me entertained. I read a good article on attachment parenting and another on hosting your own family friendly caberet (which sounds uber fun!).
Oh yeah, and 28 weeks by most books is considered the third trimester....HELLO final months!! Time to start the count down!!! 85 days to go (assuming that she is on time and that my counting is correct--both of which are silly things to assume). I should see if there's a count down gadget....
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Yet Another List
Time for a quick totally baby-related update! I managed to catch up on a bit of my reading this week. The things that stood out for weeks 26 and 27 are:
1. Hannah weighs a little over 2 pounds now
2. She is now capable of opening her eyes and blinking
3. Something scientific that I forget has happened in the development of her lungs (air sacs or something??) so that if she had to breathe on her own right now, she'd be able to do so
She's on the road to independence!!
1. Hannah weighs a little over 2 pounds now
2. She is now capable of opening her eyes and blinking
3. Something scientific that I forget has happened in the development of her lungs (air sacs or something??) so that if she had to breathe on her own right now, she'd be able to do so
She's on the road to independence!!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Those Big Belly Blues (and 3 Months to Go!)
I don't actually have the blues so don't go getting alarmed--I just like the alliteration.
Today is May 19 which means that I have exactly 3 months until Hannah's estimated date of arrival (August 19). I sent an email to mom today with this news in it and she replied that I was going to start getting big now, and fast. I let her know that the "fast" thing is already happening; every week I'm bigger than the week before. Then I made the following list:
Top 5 Reasons for the Big Belly Blues:
1. When I do a forward bend stretch (which I do twice a day believe it or not), I have to separate my feet to make room for my belly between my legs as I touch my toes. (This also goes for lunges--I have to lunge to the outside of each hand now rather than the inside when doing my sun salutations each morning.)
2. When I tie my shoes, I have to kick each leg out to the side and do an upper body twist to reach the offending shoe (because tucking my knee into my chest like I used to do is now uncomfortable).
3. When I wake up in the morning, the non-maternity cami tank top I sleep in is lodged under my boobs requiring some yanking, twisting, and turning to pull it back down over my cold, bare belly.
4. The opening in my pants is getting wider and wider...where I used to be able to zip a little, I can no longer zip at all. It looks as if I'm starting to outgrow the belly band...but I think I can pull it off for a little longer.
5. In spinning class, I have to adjust the handle bars on the bike so that they are super high (beach cruiser style) to give my belly room and to avoid kneeing myself as I pedal. (Please note: this is not an aerodynamic position.)
Today is May 19 which means that I have exactly 3 months until Hannah's estimated date of arrival (August 19). I sent an email to mom today with this news in it and she replied that I was going to start getting big now, and fast. I let her know that the "fast" thing is already happening; every week I'm bigger than the week before. Then I made the following list:
Top 5 Reasons for the Big Belly Blues:
1. When I do a forward bend stretch (which I do twice a day believe it or not), I have to separate my feet to make room for my belly between my legs as I touch my toes. (This also goes for lunges--I have to lunge to the outside of each hand now rather than the inside when doing my sun salutations each morning.)
2. When I tie my shoes, I have to kick each leg out to the side and do an upper body twist to reach the offending shoe (because tucking my knee into my chest like I used to do is now uncomfortable).
3. When I wake up in the morning, the non-maternity cami tank top I sleep in is lodged under my boobs requiring some yanking, twisting, and turning to pull it back down over my cold, bare belly.
4. The opening in my pants is getting wider and wider...where I used to be able to zip a little, I can no longer zip at all. It looks as if I'm starting to outgrow the belly band...but I think I can pull it off for a little longer.
5. In spinning class, I have to adjust the handle bars on the bike so that they are super high (beach cruiser style) to give my belly room and to avoid kneeing myself as I pedal. (Please note: this is not an aerodynamic position.)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Decision Goal Still Not Met...
My husband fixed my dryer! My husband fixed my dryer!! I'm doing a little happy dance and singing this happy song. Schlepping my laundry around to other people's houses to wash is a habit I was happy to leave in my college days.
I still haven't read about what's going on in my pregnancy these days...I was 26 weeks (out of a total of 40) on Wednesday. I went in for my May checkup on Monday. As of Monday, I weighed 153 pounds (pre-pregnancy weight is about 140) and my stomach measured 27 inches. That's the first time they've measured my stomach so I don't have much to compare that too. I guess they were measuring the dome??
As for where and who is delivering, I'm a bit hung up still...I met one of the three midwives who deliver at Mercy (hospital) on Monday. She was nice and calm and fine, but for some reason when I was driving to work afterwards, I got really upset. I had this moment where I realized that I just wasn't going to get what I wanted, and I was going to have to get over and just do it the traditional way. The thing is, I think the Mercy experience would probably be similar to what would happen if we were in Virginia Beach. The birthing center there was in the hospital and although I never got around to touring it, I'm guessing it was pretty similar. And it's not that bad; it's just that I have gotten my head wrapped around home birthing and am stuck on it and really, really wanting that experience. I decided not to think about it until after I met the home birthing midwife, which I did on Wednesday after work.
I sat on a comfy couch in a cozy basement office surrounded by the home birthing midwife, her assistant, and her student. We talked about all my concerns (most of which are the concerns of my mom and Eric more so than myself). I got teary-eyed a couple times when explaining the frustration of having everyone so adamantly against home birthing--hormones have had me pretty wacky and emotional this week. I guess that shows how comfortable I was with them. They are very kind and warm and knowledgeable and soothing...I think my biggest attraction is that they weren't alarmists. I feel like so much of the giving birth process is a cause for alarm for most people, and I really want to avoid that. I want to be surrounded by people who look at it as something perfectly normal and natural, not a medical emergency. Those people are hard to find.
This midwife also had a lot of interesting things to say about GBS (see much earlier blog) and ways to deal with it naturally rather than with antibiotics which is what the hospital will administer. She sent me home with a ton of reading material on this topic that has been really helpful. And she said she would meet with Eric and mom to answer their questions and attempt to calm them down as well.
So I left there calm, zenned out, and thinking that maybe I could have what I wanted after all. Yes, the cost is $1800 and she doesn't accept my insurance, but I was thinking that probably we'd have some patient out of pocket costs for the hospital birth anyway so maybe they'd be comparable. I called my insurance the next day to ask about this cost, hoping we could take cost off the table of pros/cons. Welllllll....not so much. My insurance covers 100% of maternity care except for a charge of $15.65/night for a hospital stay with a minimum charge of $25...While I hate to make yet another decision based solely on money, the cost difference between $1800 and $25 is huge. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if we weren't simultaneously renovating an entire house AND trying to save for when the baby is actually here and in need of certain things that cost money...The idea of paying to deliver when we otherwise wouldn't have to doesn't appeal to my frugal mind. Money has always been my biggest hang up and a cause for great stress, as much as I know that it shouldn't be.
So I'm back to being frustrated and annoyed, but mostly I'm just not thinking about it. I had my May checkup so I figure I have some time before I need to decide (like until my June appointment).
As for advice, there seem to be two camps: those who think I should do a hospital birth rather than take the "risk" of a home birth and those who support my home birth options and insist that money should not be a deciding factor on this because it's a big and important event (these people have also pointed out that we didn't go through the expenses of a wedding, which is true, but we are going through the expenses of a renovation...).
Anyway, I don't know what I want to hear at this point. I just want the home birthing midwife to take my insurance so that money isn't even a factor.
I still haven't read about what's going on in my pregnancy these days...I was 26 weeks (out of a total of 40) on Wednesday. I went in for my May checkup on Monday. As of Monday, I weighed 153 pounds (pre-pregnancy weight is about 140) and my stomach measured 27 inches. That's the first time they've measured my stomach so I don't have much to compare that too. I guess they were measuring the dome??
As for where and who is delivering, I'm a bit hung up still...I met one of the three midwives who deliver at Mercy (hospital) on Monday. She was nice and calm and fine, but for some reason when I was driving to work afterwards, I got really upset. I had this moment where I realized that I just wasn't going to get what I wanted, and I was going to have to get over and just do it the traditional way. The thing is, I think the Mercy experience would probably be similar to what would happen if we were in Virginia Beach. The birthing center there was in the hospital and although I never got around to touring it, I'm guessing it was pretty similar. And it's not that bad; it's just that I have gotten my head wrapped around home birthing and am stuck on it and really, really wanting that experience. I decided not to think about it until after I met the home birthing midwife, which I did on Wednesday after work.
I sat on a comfy couch in a cozy basement office surrounded by the home birthing midwife, her assistant, and her student. We talked about all my concerns (most of which are the concerns of my mom and Eric more so than myself). I got teary-eyed a couple times when explaining the frustration of having everyone so adamantly against home birthing--hormones have had me pretty wacky and emotional this week. I guess that shows how comfortable I was with them. They are very kind and warm and knowledgeable and soothing...I think my biggest attraction is that they weren't alarmists. I feel like so much of the giving birth process is a cause for alarm for most people, and I really want to avoid that. I want to be surrounded by people who look at it as something perfectly normal and natural, not a medical emergency. Those people are hard to find.
This midwife also had a lot of interesting things to say about GBS (see much earlier blog) and ways to deal with it naturally rather than with antibiotics which is what the hospital will administer. She sent me home with a ton of reading material on this topic that has been really helpful. And she said she would meet with Eric and mom to answer their questions and attempt to calm them down as well.
So I left there calm, zenned out, and thinking that maybe I could have what I wanted after all. Yes, the cost is $1800 and she doesn't accept my insurance, but I was thinking that probably we'd have some patient out of pocket costs for the hospital birth anyway so maybe they'd be comparable. I called my insurance the next day to ask about this cost, hoping we could take cost off the table of pros/cons. Welllllll....not so much. My insurance covers 100% of maternity care except for a charge of $15.65/night for a hospital stay with a minimum charge of $25...While I hate to make yet another decision based solely on money, the cost difference between $1800 and $25 is huge. Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if we weren't simultaneously renovating an entire house AND trying to save for when the baby is actually here and in need of certain things that cost money...The idea of paying to deliver when we otherwise wouldn't have to doesn't appeal to my frugal mind. Money has always been my biggest hang up and a cause for great stress, as much as I know that it shouldn't be.
So I'm back to being frustrated and annoyed, but mostly I'm just not thinking about it. I had my May checkup so I figure I have some time before I need to decide (like until my June appointment).
As for advice, there seem to be two camps: those who think I should do a hospital birth rather than take the "risk" of a home birth and those who support my home birth options and insist that money should not be a deciding factor on this because it's a big and important event (these people have also pointed out that we didn't go through the expenses of a wedding, which is true, but we are going through the expenses of a renovation...).
Anyway, I don't know what I want to hear at this point. I just want the home birthing midwife to take my insurance so that money isn't even a factor.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Belly pics!
At long last, I present you with not just one, but two updated belly pics!! One is a little more risque so scroll down at your own discretion. This first one here was taken at the Virginia Beach zoo. There's a giraffe in the background but he's been covered by my flailing arms. The arms up is because I keep getting accused of sticking out my belly in pics. In my defense, what I'm tring to do is roll my shoulders back and have good posture, thus keeping my arms from covering the belly, but when you roll the shoulders back, you've also gotta tuck your tailbone to avoid the chest and belly jut. While I attempt to tuck my tailbone, there's only so much tucking I can get this bootie to do, especially these days with the added weight in front. So hands up it is!Eric and I enjoyed a fun, relaxing weekend with my cousin and her hubby. On Saturday we went to the beach and attempted to relax while sandstorms pelted us with blankets of sand that felt like millions of little needles and horse flies attacked in between. It was quite the idyllic day at the beach!
In baby news, I'm way behind on my reading. No idea what's happening with Hannah right now except that she's moving a decent amount and has located my diaphragm which made my breathing more difficult than usual during the drive to Virginia Beach on Thursday. Upon arriving back in Baltimore, I learned just how dangerous scooping cat litter really is...I seriously had no idea. I figured that as long as I washed my hands when I was finished, it was fine, but apparently you inhale the toxins. My neighbor Amy is a nurse and spent some time in a...I think she called it a Knee-Q....(NECU??). Assuming it stands for newborn...emergency....Anyway, she saw tons of cases of this toxication in babies and her own fiance nearly died upon being born because his mom scooped while preggers. Our immune systems can fight off the bacteria, but the babies can't. So now I have a whole new thing to freak out about. She offered to come over and scoop it for me (here's where living with your husband comes in handy) which is really sweet, but makes me feel terrible! I hate how much I've had to lean on people these days and feel like my neighbors catch the brunt of it because they're so close so they're the ones who see me as I'm unloading heavy boxes from the car (that's how Amy and I started talking yesterday--when she came to my rescue as I attempted to unpack my car). I'm not used to having to depend on people so much and am really hating it!! I can't even begin to imagine how I will be able to pay everyone back for taking such good care of me.
Oh, and I got cards this year for mother's day!! Crazy, huh?? Both of my amazing neighbors got me cards and so did my mom (despite the fact that I did not get her a card....daughter of the year award anyone???).
As for the goal I set last week, no, I haven't accomplished it, but I do have a definite deadline now: end of this week. I've got a 9:45 appointment with the midwife who delivers at Mercy hospital this morning (hence the reason why I'm blogging right now rather than working). On Wednesday at 3:30 I meet with the midwife who delivers at home. I'm going to take a list of questions with me to that one (would take some to this one but I never got around to writing any down). Then I'll weigh the pros and cons of each with everyone who wants to hear me waffle back and forth. When I get tired of talking about, I'm going to close the discussion and just make a decision. I imagine that the decision is not going to be as easy as I had hoped (because the home birth midwife doesn't take my insurance), so I'm thinking I'm just going to go with my gut and choose the option that I'm most comfortable with.
Happy Monday!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Fun Fact
Here's a fun fact pulled from one of my pregnancy books:
"Worldwide, 98 percent of people alive today were born at home."
Take that home birth skeptics!!
Goal for the week: call home birthing midwife, raise questions and concerns, and come to a decision as to who will be delivering the wittle wellogg and where.
"Worldwide, 98 percent of people alive today were born at home."
Take that home birth skeptics!!
Goal for the week: call home birthing midwife, raise questions and concerns, and come to a decision as to who will be delivering the wittle wellogg and where.
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