31 Week OB Appt

It's only been about a week and a half since the last appointment but with the holidays and my partner going out of town later this week this was the appointment we were able to get.

Blood pressure was low-normal -- which is normal for me
Baby's heart rate was 146
Fundal height was 32 -- it's slowed down since the fibroid has stabilized so says my OB. I was measuring ahead by 2-3 weeks there for a while.
Weight -- the same as last time, 163. The doc said it wasn't a big deal since we knew that the baby was growing appropriately from the ultrasound.

He asked if the baby moved a lot and we said yes. He asked how I was doing and I told him not so great right now. My stomach has been upset since last night, I don't think I caught anything, just the foods I was eating weren't sitting right with me. I think it was the veggie chili and the oatmeal actually, on top of the pizza Sunday night. Pizza hasn't been agreeing with me at all, even before I got pregnant, but followed by all that soluble fiber and my compressed digestive tract and my body was all in fits about it. I stayed home today to help let it sort itself out.

He asked if I had any questions and I asked him about anesthesia agents used during cesarean delivery. I found an article that says that fentenal (sp?) can interfere with breastfeeding in epidurals. I looked up whether it was used for c-sections and found that it wasn't as commonly used. The doc said they haven't seen any issues with it in their patients but that it isn't used for a spinal block which is what I will have. He also said that fentenal can make you feel really itchy.

Researching Infant Car Seats

There are a million models of car seats out there and I had rather skimmed than researched so I finally roped my partner into helping me pick out a car seat for our baby due in February.

There are several different models, some more appropriate than others for newborns/infants. The different types are:

Rear-facing
Forward-facing
Convertible

Experts suggest using a rear-facing seat for as long as possible, and it seems that some States require their use for babies under certain size limits. Convertible seats will switch from rear-facing to forward facing so that can extend their use.

Some convertible car seat models claim to work from 5lbs on up, with the straps adjusting to different positions but in discussions I have seen online it seems these don't fit small babies as well.

The other option, which is very popular and I'm sure you have seen them, are infant car seats. These models usually feature a base piece into which locks the infant carrier. The carrier can be removed and taken with you to help limit disrupting your sleeping baby. The problem with infant car seats is that babies can grow out of them quickly, either height-wise or weight-wise, and then you have to get them into a convertible seat anyway.

Recent studies have shown that keeping your baby in the infant car seat for longer than the trip length itself could result in the infant being shifted into a position that could compromise their air flow. So, in spite of it being a popular thing to do, porting your baby around in the car seat actually could be injurious.

From our early research it looks like you can get infant car seats for $130 or less. The convertible car seats seem to be running in the range of $300 or so, at least of the models we were looking at based on online reviews from several web sites.

It seems as though you should get a couple years use out of a car seat before having to graduate to a child's booster car seat -- which are required if your child weighs less than 49 pounds.

Here are some links:

CarSeatSite.com -- Which Seat is Best for My Child?

BabyUniverse: Car Seat Buying Guide

Epinions.com - Car Seat Reviews

Improper car seat use can be deadly - 12/13/06

Baby at almost 30 weeks

I had my u/s friday morning and everything looks really good. They estimate he weighs 3lbs. 11oz. already. The u/s tech kept commenting on what a good baby he was, letting her get all her images and angles. He gave a few good kicks while she had the wand on my belly and she commented on how strong he was. They probably say that to everyone but who doesn't want to hear it about their own baby.

Here he is in profile and isn't his nose that much bigger than at 18 weeks:




We ate lunch and then I had my OB appt. I'm up 2lbs from my last visit to 163. He said everything looked good. I made sure he knew exactly where the fibroid had moved to since I made the u/s tech show me. It's out of my pelvis now so it shouldn't interfere with delivery at all. My partner and I asked him a bunch of questions about the delivery -- from when to schedule it (anytime after Feb 8th), to if we could lower the drape during the delivery part (yes), to could my sister (a doula) could attend, to how long I would stay in the hospital (3-4 days), to whether my partner could stay with me (yes, all private rooms with cots), and how soon after I could hang with (as soon as they checked him out in the room) or feed the baby (in recovery).

I stopped by my RE's office after my appt and saw a couple of the support staff who have worked with me before through both of my m/cs and beyond. They both asked me "did we do that?" when they saw my belly but I assured them that we did it ourselves. The scheduler, Debbie, was excited for us and I told her about how I did acupuncture treatment focused on treating my fibroid and stopped trying for a few months last Spring and that when we tried again we got this sticky baby boy. She was going to tell my RE, the one who did my fibroid surgery -- she said they like to know what happens with their different patients. Ultimately they did contribute to the success since they helped me through my two m/cs and the fibroid surgery. I promised to bring him in in the Spring so they could meet him.

Fighting a cold

My partner's been fighting something for days and now I think I'm getting it as well. It seems like just a cold right now, a little sneezing and fatigue. I was so tired that I wanted to lay down at work around 3pm but I pushed on until 5:30 pm and then headed out. I came home and crashed out asleep in bed for two hours -- yes I was hungry but I was more tired than hungry so I opted to sleep first.

When I woke up I felt so crappy but I needed to eat something. My partner's out of town so I was on my own and feeling completely unmotivated to cook. I opted to open a can of sardines and have that with a carrot and some crackers. Nice. Actually sardines have calcium and iron so they are a good thing to eat, and being smaller fish they have less build up of heavy metals such as mercury compared with tuna. For dessert, since I was still hungry I warmed up some peaches that I froze in September in slices -- good for folic acid. Not the most gourmet of meals but well rounded at least.

Time for me to get back in bed now though.

Belly at the Beach

Here's my latest belly shot taken in Venice, CA over Thanksgiving at 28w2d.

Preparing for Baby Lists

Sorry I've been neglecting you. Between travel to LA for Thanksgiving to trying to keep up with work and the demands of my body (naps, eating, rest) I haven't had too much time for blogging. I have been thinking of you though and of ideas for new posts. This is one that I thought would be helpful for many folks planning for their first babies. I've found lots of lists for what you need to prepare for baby and I figured that if I compiled them and compared to how I want to care for my baby I should have a decent shopping list -- or at least an idea of what I'm up against as I've hardly done any shopping so far.

Baby and Mom Gear from BabyCenter.com -- a page with links to multiple lists

Shopping for the First Few Weeks -- this is more household shopping

Layette Needs

New baby basics from Consumer Reports

Baby Shopping List from womenshealth.gov

The Ultimate Baby Layette Checklist

Baby Layette List

Layette Necessities

Layette

Nursery Checklist

Diaper Changing Essentials

Breast and Bottle Feeding Needs

Perineal Massage

Or how to prepare your hooha for pushing a baby into the world. Something that I'm not going to experience first hand.

Evidently with some extra attention you can help prepare yourself manually for some of the stretching that is going to have to happen during a vaginal delivery.

http://www.umich.edu/~umperl/massage.htm
http://www.childbirth.org/articles/massage.html
http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/episiotomy/a/perimassage.htm

http://www.maternitycenter.com/articles/episio2.html

Braxton Hicks Contractions

I had a few Braxton Hicks contractions Wednesday eveing. It was after 10pm and I was trying to get my partner to head home after hanging with some friends downtown for dinner. I think my body just had enough, and I think that sugar drink for the Glucose Toleranced Test dehydrated me. No pain or anything just a constrained, tight feeling about 5 times as I walked back to our car. Disconcerting though to say the least.

It was funny because my OB asked me at my appointment if I had started having any and I really don't think I had. Then again this morning, lying in bed about to get up I had another one. I guess my body is ready to start exercising the woomba now. I'm at 27 weeks today, one more week and I'm into the third trimester.

Glucose Screening and Anemia Blood Test Results

I just heard back from my doc's office. I passed the GTT perfectly (yeah!) but my hemeglobin is low (31.7) and my ferritin is way low (7!). I've got to bump up my iron supplementation, I haven't been as religious as I should be about taking it. I do eat iron rich foods but my body isn't great at absorbing it.

The nurse suggested taking Slow FE so I'll give that a shot. If not we'll just keep on working on it.

26 week OB Appt

Nothing desperately exciting, just a blood draw for my glucose tolerance screening and to check for anemia. I should have the results in the next couple of days. Here are my stats:

Weight -- I gained another 3-4 lbs in the past month, up about 24 overall.
Fundal Height -- measuring at 29, factored largely to fibroid
Baby's Heart Rate -- ranged from 155-160 bpm and he was active after all that glucola/sugar drink for the GTT.

I also brought up some questions about delivery today with my OB, just about hemorrhaging during the c-section and afterwards and making sure he knew that I'm fully aware of interventional radiology and how it can help and that I really don't want a hysterectomy. He understood what I was saying and agreed that while they have a range of meds that can help control bleeding, that they would consider IR prior to hyst should that situation come up. He says unfortunately it does still happen from time to time (not specific to fibroids).

My next appointment is in 3 weeks and I'll have an ultrasound then as well to check on the baby's growth versus the fibroid. AFter that we move into appts every 2 weeks through the 3rd week in January and then every week if everything continues as it should.

Ack! The Dentist

I had my 6 month dentist appointment this morning. I only got to see the hygienist as my body started to lose it as the cleaning and curretage progressed. First things felt like they were getting dark, then I felt like I was getting nauseous, then I felt like I was going to pass out and throw up and I had to sit up twice to try to settle my body down. Finally I said that my body had enough and that was it, so I didn't even get to see my dentist. It was rather upsetting -- though my teeth and gums look great she said. I even got teary about it, and would have cried if I had let myself.

My acupuncturist's office is down the hall so I went there for a while to sit in their reception. I checked in with one of the acus I see and asked her about the blood sugar/adrenaline sensativity that I've been feeling (a little stress and I feel sick for hours, plus that's what's been waking me up at night). She said that it sounded like my kidney energy was needing adjusting so I set up a couple appointments and hopefully that will help make a difference.

Then I bought a hot chocolate on my way to the office, figuring the sugar/chocolate plus the comfort factor would make me feel better.

Belly at 25 weeks

Here's the latest and greatest. I'm starting to feel pretty big and having to use some moisturizer on my belly as the skin definately feels stretched out now.



And my belly button? It's been turned inside out for the most part and it's about one quarter the size it normally is. I still count as an inny but who knows what's going to happen to it in the long run.

Just over three months to go now.

snippets from my online posts

(over the past two weeks)

I didn't tell you that I hung out with my sis on Sunday for lunch and a little shopping. When I drove over to pick her up she got in the car, pushed aside my coat, pulled up my sweater and t-shirt to expose my belly and said "hi baby!" She's very excited. She said with her doctoral research she's been around lots of pregnant women but it's different when it's family.

...

My body has decided [last] week that it won't sleep straight for more than 6 hours so I go to bed and wake up in the middle of the night and then I'm up for hours before I'm able to go back to bed. Makes for an interesting work day as I'm a bit tired out by late afternoon as it is.

...

I can't believe I'm almost 6 months now I don't feel that big but when I look at myself in the mirror I'm amazed. Let's see what else... we bought a new car on Thursday night after work. We got a Toyota Prius and it's really quite cool. It starts with the push of a button! I spent today tidying up my old car so I can sell it.

Not too much baby things going on here. Just cooking, eating, resting -- but I did do some stretching, push-ups and leg lifts this morning (dance warm-up). Yesterday I made chicken soup and banana bread in the morning and then garlic herb breadcrumb topped snapper with mashed potatoes and black kale for dinner. This kid is eating well.

I swear I need some more pg jeans though and a new bra. My belly has gotten so big that it is pushing the demi band down all the time on my Gap jeans. My bra is just getting a bit tight all over, not sure if I need to go up a cup or a band or both

Oh, and we bought our plane tickets for Thanksgiving. Flights weren't giving us much in the way of aisle seats so we splurged and bought first class. It's the only time I've bought first class (I did manage to get bumped to business class once though) but I told my partner, if ever there were a time to get first class it was now. And, the tickets are fully refundable too, just in case.

...

My partner put his ear to my belly the other night to see if he could hear anything and the baby kicked him in the side of the head We both started laughing. My partner has spent more time with his hands on my belly feeling the baby move, while we watch TV or read in bed. He even noticed this morning when the baby was sleeping as there were no wiggles. I like that he's got a little bit more of a relationship going on with the baby now. He went out with his buddy and they were talking baby stuff the other night, and then talked with our massage therapist and one of his clients about the baby -- they were asking. He said it was the most he had talked about the kid out of the blue so far.

His brother's having his 40th birthday this weekend and so I have to contend with my SIL and MIL. Thankfully there will be others around to help soften the tension. I'm still not feeling very open with my SIL at all and she's not even talking to me either. I'm left feeling like if she wanted to be nice to me she just could have done, but by attacking me she showed her complete and total lack of understanding of where I'm coming from and what I've been through. I feel she owes me an apology at the least. I'm so not into confrontation that its not funny. I imagine (and probably rightly so) that my SIL is spending all today bitching about me to my MIL. Fun, fun, fun.

I also found out last week that one of our former employees, someone who worked with us for 5 years and was generously compensated, continues to talk sh*t about me and my m/c. She only knows of the one as well. What a heartless person, all I can think of is that since she's never going to have children that she really can't fathom what I've been through. Still, her mother died of cancer about 10 years ago so it's surprising that she learned such little compassion about other people's grieving experiences. I only hope that her badmouthing me and my misfortune reflects badly on her in other people's eyes.

Go figure that pg loss can have such a lasting impact in so many ways on so many relationships.

...

I know that feeling as well. My losses were discovered so early that the really scary "is this going to fail for me again right now" passed sort of quickly. Still, the wavering of symptoms is really common, particularly around 8/10 weeks as the placenta starts to take over more from your ovaries/corpus luteum. I'd go from feeling absolutely lousy for a few days to feeling okay for a few days -- which would just make me worry. Also, each OB appt would bring the prospect of bad news so I would start to get anxious before each one that some pronouncement about the health of the baby would come crashing down on me. But it didn't. All I got was good news, good test results, things growing right on track.

Try making a list of all the positive signs of your baby's vitality and your body's comittement to the process. HCG levels, heartbeat showing up on time, dates measuring on time, baby measuring perfectly on size. Your nausea, increased metabolism, fatigue, food cravings/aversions, little ovarian twinges, breast pain, let them help provide you with a little confidence that things are proceeding as best as they can. One day at a time. And look how far you have made it already.

...

For some reason as I was falling asleep last night I was starting to freak out about the glucose tolerance test. I'm not tolerating glucose well right now at all so the thought of drinking some sugar syrup and making myself feel all woozy doesn't sound like fun at all. Do you think that the fact that I'm having blood sugar issues (crashing levels and feeling woozy) is a bad sign or is it common in pg?

---

I did bring up the jelly beans alternative with my OB but he resisted. I could push for it if I want to. He said we could do the test later in the day which should help, so not total fasting. I can eat breakfast but have to hold off on simple carbs, juices and sugary fruit. I have to drink the stuff about 45 minutes before I go in for the blood draw and I can have something to eat right after. I just don't like that much sweet stuff, particularly after cutting back on it over the past 5 years due to the advice of my naturopath and acus.

Did I mention that I passed the 24 week mark yesterday? Only 16 weeks to go. Let's see, so if there are 4 weeks in a month then 24 weeks equals 6 months and 16 weeks is divided by 4 into 4 months then that equals 10 months -- don't you just love pg math.

Pregnancy Dreams #1

Last night I dreamt that I had another abdominal surgery. I woke up from the blackness and it was days later. I saw the incision. I removed a mask from my face that was giving me oxygen and there was a scab on my nose as if they had scraped it putting the mask on me -- but enough days had passed that it was starting to peel. I kept thinking how much longer it took this time as I was only in the hospital from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon when I had my myo two years ago. It seemed like 4-1/2 days this time in my dream.

Last week I had a dream that I was looking at my breast and milk started coming out. Just a little but it was sort of interesting to me in my dream.

Weeks ago I had a dream that we got a new baby kitten.

Growing

I had my OB appointment this morning and we talked about a bunch of stuff. First thing though are my stats:

I'm up about 20 lbs in weight so far
My fundal height is measuring 25. It should be measuring 22 but we chalked the difference up to the fibroid.
The baby's heart rate was 146 and sounded like a tom-tom drum more now.

I mentioned my roster of new symptoms from the past week -- puffy ankles, dizziness, fibroid pain, leg cramps. He said cross country flying was hard for just about all pregnant women so that factored a good bit. The dizziness he agreed was just keeping up my water consumption and also if I feel a bit of a crash an hour after lunch to just eat a little more then to keep my sugar levels ups. He though the leg cramps was more likely due to lactic acid build up but I'm still thinking its the calcium supplement that is helping and he didn't have a problem with that.

So my fibroid... he said it should be moving out of my pelvis based on where it was located in the ultrasound, but it's not yet. It still might as things continue to grow -- other women with fibroids have noted changes like that over time in their pregnancies I've seen from the various message boards I follow. Since it is causing me some irritation he said that we do need to keep an eye on it and to make sure that it isn't triggering pre-term labor. Just as I thought, though so far it's just been focalized pain.

He said by our next appointment we should know which way my fibroid is going to go and whether or not it is going to cause problems. We talked a bit about fibroid degeneration, which I've learned a fair bit from on the uterinefibroids discussion group over the past four years. He said if ibuprofen doesn't help then we could try stronger pain relievers though I assured him that the pain wasn't that bad yet.

He said the fibroid isn't in the greatest position but that it shouldn't cause any issue during my c-section he doesn't think. He said we will want to monitor it more as we get closer to delivery, having another ultrasound at 32 weeks or so. He said it might interfere some with monitoring the baby's growth, I'm thinking that's because it is making my uterus larger. I asked him if as the baby grows if it might cause me more discomfort and he said it was likely.

I asked about travelling at Thanksgiving to Los Angeles to be with my partner's family and he said it should be okay, provided my fibroid isn't causing me more problems (cramping, pre-term labor). I talked to my partner about it, that we might book refundable fares and also call the airline ahead of time to get a seat that was well positioned -- aisle seat, near toilet, with leg room.

My next appointment they will check for anemia and I also have to do the glucose tolerance test with the nasty Glucola stuff.

I came back to work and was feeling a little sensitive about things but writing down what we learned here in my blog, and sharing it with you all, it makes me feel a little less isolated. Having the fibroid isn't a fun thing at all but at the end of the day we do have a baby on the way and my body is doing pretty well -- once I just figure out the minor dietary adjustments to keep it happy in this next phase of pregnancy.

Belly at almost 22 weeks

I feel like I've grown a lot over the past couple of weeks and my partner could tell as well when he saw me when I got back from New York. Between him travelling for work and my travelling to visit family and friends back East we didn't get to see each other for a week and a half.

I'm now feeling wiggles up on my sides now occasionally, a couple inches below my rib cage but the baby is also getting a lot bigger because oftentimes I can feel him wiggling up above my belly button and down low by my hips at the same time. He fairly predictably wakes up a minute or so after I do in the mornings, likes to dance after I eat meals and then around 6pm and 9pm he gets pretty active for a while. During the rest of the day I get a fair amount of movement as well. He doesn't wake me up at night, rather I wake him up when I have to go pee.

My partner spent a good 15 minutes last night hanging out with the baby wrigglng under his hand last night. That was nice.

I'm finally just about recovered from 3+ weeks of cold and flu. Everyone at the office got sick and my body was having a hard time fighting it. Even while I was travelling last weekend I was feeling run down. Gradually I'm feeling more and more like myself though. Thank goodness.

Feeling Dizzy

Yesterday as I went for lunch I started to feel a teeny bit light-headed. I ate my lunch in a park and felt okay but after that when I started walking back to work I started feeling more dizzy and weak so I went and sat somewhere for a good 15-20 minutes reading a paper until I felt I could make it back to work. At the office though I continued to feel weak and dizzy so I laid down in our conference room with the door closed and drank some water. I dozed for a little while and I was in there for a good 45 minutes until I felt well enough to return to my desk. Then I was feeling upset and lonely and wanted my partner here but he's in Spokane again until tonight (I haven't seen him since last Tuesday evening).

I called into my OB as I had felt a little dizzy in New York as well, plus I had been having a little ankle swelling. The nurse called me back and said it was most likely related to my recent travel and being out of my routine and suggested that I should drink more water and not do any aerobic exercise for a while. She said since it hadn't been a full day since I had been back that I should just see if I feel better over the next few days. My next OB appt is next Wed. but she said to come in sooner to have my blood pressure checked if I wasn't feeling better. She also said it is possible that demands on my blood volume might be increasing right now and that drinking more water would help with that.

I had to stay at work for a good while longer as I drove to work yesterday and I wanted to make sure I was okay driving home. At home I made sure to drink water and rest on the couch and then I made dinner and camped out on the couch some more. I went to bed at 9pm and by this morning my ankles swelling had gone down and I'm feeling okay.

It just made me feel so vulnerable and alone. I just want to see my partner -- and to have him understand how much things are really starting to change for me physically. He's been working too much all year long though (like 10-14 hour days) and weekends and I'm really feeling like I want him to be there for me more now.

I told him I wasn't sure if I wanted to fly to L.A. for thanksgiving after all that with my body. He has this thing though where he wants to pretend that everything is fine and normal -- but heck, I don't feel normal. I just don't know what to do about thanksgiving now though.

The kiddo is doing fine though. He's wiggling around right now.

Pregnancy Update - 21.5 Weeks

My pregnancy nose is a bit picky right now and when I got home all the little smells were getting to me. It makes me want to clean the house and do all the laundry right away.

Let's see what else, my nipples are really huge and dark now, the changes have been going on for a while but man is is really noticible now. Also I've been having more heartburn. It's a combination of my stomach not emptying very quickly and also things getting squished. I looked up where I'm supposed to be at fundal height wise in Pregnancy Week by Week this morning and I'm a few weeks ahead of where they say I should be. I'm feeling wiggles up high, almost 2 inches above my belly button (which is starting to get shallower and shallower).

I feel the baby regularly now, he's getting so strong. Sometimes it weirds me out but mostly I like the reassurance of feeling the movements, wiggles and kicks. I feel him down on the left, in the middle, on the upper right and left and behind my navel. I don't feel him in the lower right -- that's where I feel my fibroid so he hasn't got room to play over there.

Oh, and I got a really nice card from my friend Deborah, my fibroid sister. We sent each other care packages when we had our surgeries two years ago. She's got a baby girl now. Another friend of mine from the online world, Marina, sent me a box of baby goodies that was waiting for me when I got home last night. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet though.

Flying with Swollen Ankles

This week brings the lovely new symptom of puffy ankles. They aren't the worst I've had in my life, my feet don't feel numb for instance but it still makes me wonder what's up. Probably just too much sodium in my parent diet.

I flew back from New York last night on a non-stop flight. Jet Blue was awesome and they got me an aisle seat in row 2 after I told them I was pregnant ahead of time by phone. I tried to get up at least once an hour to stretch and pee so it was great to have the aisle seat. I fell asleep for about an hour or so and woke up with my ankles feeling more swollen so I did more flexing and stretching to try to get the fluid moving.

Flying wasn't that much fun really. I've got to fly at Thanksgiving and then I think that's it. Sitting up is okay for the heartburn but not fun for the ankles and bladder.

Yeah so

I went maternity shopping a bit while I've been in NY. I went to one shop that carried exclusively the Maternite brands -- Pea in the Pod, Motherhood and Mimi -- with my mother and we were both shocked at the poor quality of the material, the prices and for me, also that everything was manufactured in the poorest areas of the world such as Bangladesh. I bought one sweater on sale and left it at that. On Saturday I went into NYC and found some things at H&M, they have their own maternity line called MaMa and I bought a few tops, a sweater and a skirt.

Yesterday I went to visit my friend and her twin boys in my hometown. The boys are 2-1/2 now and they are very cute. One of them was very interested in the fact that there was baby in my belly and he patted it a couple times. I told him that the next time I came I would have a little baby with me and would he like to play with the baby and he answered seriously and slowly "Yes." He said he likes babies. It was cute.

My other and I couldn't swing getting together but mostly because I'm still so run down from fighting my cold/flu virus. I took a 2-hour nap on Saturday and Sunday because I felt so achy and tired. I hope that I pull through it in the next week or so. I am gradually feeling a little better so you should know. Dang though the achy joints.

My mother dug out a little sweater she knit for my brother when he was an infant and also a little quilt my great-aunt gave me when I was a baby. That's pretty nice to bring home with me.

I can't believe I'm past the halfway point already. This is going by pretty fast now and I'm not ready at all. Work is still up in the air, I need to clean out my studio to make way for baby, and who knows what else. I think I'm just tired and a bit stressed out. I had to reschedule my flight home until tomorrow evening and it's putting a kink in my day tomorrow that I didn't need.