35 weeks

We had another appointment with the doctor yesterday.  Our baby is doing great.  He passed his tests with flying colors and didn’t even need any prompting as he was wide awake and very active!  Yesterday’s appointment was a big one because we had several health things to discuss (diabetes management, arthritis/stomach management) as well as my birth plan.  My doula, Deana, came along with me and Charles to the appointment.  We had a very good discussion about the plan for the birth as well as our wishes and hopes for the birth.

Here are the basics.  We are planning to meet with Dr. Kline on December 31st (a Monday) and make a plan.  The tentative plan now is that she would start my induction on the 3rd (Thursday) and I would come in to get things going initially on the 2nd (Wednesday).  However, this may change depending on how ready my body is for labor.  If I am really ready, we’ll go, if not even close, we may give my body a few more days to prepare (but not more than 4).  The induction method plan right now is to use a foley catheter to manually open my cervix and then follow up with Pitocin if needed (sometimes the manual opening triggers your own hormones to start labor, which would of course be awesome).  The nice thing about the foley is that it is non chemical AND I can go home with it in and wait to come back to the hospital until contractions start or the catheter falls out (meaning it did all it will do).  I am elated with the option to not have to stay in the hospital for that whole day (inductions can be lengthy processes).  If the foley doesn’t work, then we would use cytotec, which is far less preferred but will get the job done.  Once it is administered, I must stay in the hospital. I am also going to have the option to snack in labor until I get pitcoin or epidural or until the active phase of labor (>4 cm), which is great so I don’t starve if the beginning part of the induction takes a long time.  I will need fairly continual monitoring if I end up on Pitocin (and intermittent otherwise), but they have wireless ones that work when you are walking around or work if you are in the tub or shower.

We also got a tour of the birth center and it is a lovely place, complete with a fridge in every room and a microwave in the hall which will be perfect since hospital food is not going to be fun with my food intolerances.  They also have tea and jello and stuff for both mom and dad.  Each room has a nice day bed for the dad with sheets and blankets.  The room feels nice and warm rather than sterile, which I like.  Each room also has a shower/tub and a birth ball and all the hookups for baby warming.  It looks like a really nice place and I am really excited we chose it!  They do almost everything in the room, including most interventions like oxygen or suction if necessary after birth.  They would only take the baby out of room if he needs additional help beyond the first stage of intervention and then Charles can go along.  Otherwise, baby stays in room with me the entire hospital stay.  They bathe, measure, inject, and otherwise prod baby in the room with the parents, which is great and something that is important to me.  Here is an online tour if you are interested.

We discussed with the doctor our desire to have as natural labor as possible but also that we can’t foresee what will happen and we want a healthy baby.  We want to be flexible but also want the option to talk through things and make as reasoned decisions as possible.  Our doctor is totally on board.  She has been such a good listener and communicator the whole pregnancy and I can’t imagine labor will be any different.  I am going to finalize my birth plan in writing and then the doctor and nurse will review and write an addendum so that the hospital knows the doctor is on board with it and won’t ignore it if I come in at a weird time when no one is there (I love that my doctor and nurse suggested this and are so supportive of this, not all doctors and nurses are).

Healthwise, it was a pretty up and down week. Well the first half of the last week (wed-sat) was definitely up but the last half has been down.  Luckily no contractions to report, but my stomach symptoms are back with a vengeance and my arthritis is only okay. I swear my body knew how important our Gingerbread Rock Christmas party was to us and made it so I survived that.  About 20 minutes after the last guest left I crumbled into a billion pieces.  I am increasing my prednisone another 1 mg to see if that helps (started today).  I can’t wait for some relief.  Last night was especially bad with me waking up after being asleep for an hour and feeling extremely sick.  Charles was still up because I had gone to bed early and took amazing care of me, making me ginger tea to settle my stomach and keeping me company.  Have I mentioned how awesome he is?  I have been a trooper (if I must say so myself) and continued to eat my full amount of calories despite wanting to do anything but, with such an upset stomach.  I really am committed to keeping this baby healthy and I am willing to do whatever it takes, even if in the short term, I suffer a bit.  For now, I am just going to take it easy and luckily I don’t have to worry too much about work. 

On the fun news, Gingerbread Rock was a huge success and we had a blast seeing all of our friends, playing rock band, and seeing everyone decorate their gingerbread houses.  Charles and I haven’t made one yet, but hopefully we get to it this weekend.  We also go our new coffee tables and end tables (although we have to send one of each back because of defects).  The room looks so professional and so nice and is very functional (I’ll post a pic once the last table is here and the look is complete).  Charles finished the dresser in the baby room too so that is coming together.  We also had our first hypnobirthing class Monday.  All in all, it has been a busy week, but less busy in the last few days.  Charles and I were almost beside ourselves because we finished our doula meeting around 5 or so yesterday and we had the whole night with nothing to do.  We aren’t used to that.  I was tempted to go be productive, but knowing we needed a break, on top of feeling sick, made it easy to just chill on the couch. 

Tomorrow we meet with our pediatrician to test her out, which should be interesting.  Then Saturday we have the winter beer festival.  I am hoping to go along, but I will need to feel a lot better than I do now to go.  This weekend I hope to put together more of the baby stuff, fill the drawers and start settling into the room.  Since I keep getting more tired and sick I feel a need to put some time into getting things ready now in case I feel even worse later.  If I don’t feel worse, then Charles and I can just enjoy being done.