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This morning I had Leo's 26 week OB visit. It's the last of my regular visits! Next week I go back for the glucose test and then will be going every two weeks until he or she arrives. Um. Does that seem CRAZY to anyone else?!?! It's for sure going by fast!!! My appointment was later than usual so I expected to be waiting a long time. But this was the quickest I've ever gotten in and out! One neat thing about seeing Stacy is that each visit I see her looking more and more pregnant just as she's seeing me looking more and more pregnant. She looks awesome and totally made me envious! We listened to the heartbeat right away and I filled her in about our recent Ireland trip last week. Leo's heart beat was in the 140s-150s, similar to what we just heard Tuesday night. This visit I remembered to bring my birth plan! I just printed it off from what I used for Britt's plan and made a couple changes. We went over it in detail and discussed several thing...
Today is a day off from Disney posts! I hope everyone has been enjoying them, I could talk Disney every day and be totally content. :) I do have another child to focus on some too so today is devoted to Blitzen! I heard from Stacy yesterday about my birth plan. It was GREAT news! She said it went over beautifully in their meeting. That means all the dr and midwives have seen it and approved it. Yay! She let them know that this is my second pregnancy and that I was successful in natural childbirth with my first, I think that helped everyone feel okay about it since I've done it before without any complications. Now that it's been approved I feel comfortable sharing it with all of you! I never thought I'd have a legit birth plan because you can't really plan your delivery. However, this is a way for me to know that the hospital staff will be on board with me doing things the way I want to do them. Last time we felt like we were battling the staff on every little d...
Disclaimer: I am not as good a writer as my wife. My Incredible Wife First of all I would like to talk about my amazing wife. When she puts her mind to it she can do anything she wants. When she came to me towards the end of the pregnancy and told me she wanted to do the Bradley method, I was nervous. The method meant more responsibility on my shoulders and I had to basically be a coach slash Drill Sargent in the delivery room. Well I LOVE control, but all the horror stories I have heard all my life about that room made me scared. I sure you all know the story off when and how we started the training for Bradley so I won't go into it, but my wife was determined. She began to read and train, and tell me to read and help her train and she never looked back. The most amazing thing about the pregnancy part was the fact that even with all the criticism, her conviction that she could accomplish the natural childbirth never wavered. I can not even count the times we tried to ex...
Warning: this will be a VERY long entry! I apologize for that but I am keeping this blog for myself more than anyone else so I want to be able to remember every detail from the delivery of my first baby so I can remember what to expect for the second one! If it helps someone else out too, then great! Also I didn't leave a single detail out, so if you don't want to be aware of what happens during childbirth (I know "they" say pregnant woman shouldn't hear about it) then don't read this!
So after blogging, Zach walked in and I busted out crying. We decided to break the rules and go to Jacksonville for the weekend...I mean it's only an hour and a half away! After he left again I started looking up some cheap hotels and woosh...felt a bunch of leakage. I stood up to go to the bathroom and it was a TON more. Ran in there and took off my pants and it went through my undies (completely soaked) and my jeans. It was clear so I was pretty sure it was my water breaking! I called Zach and he came back home and smelled it and said it's odorless. I called the dr. just to check and while waiting for the call back I felt a lot more contracting. Nothing where I'm doubled over in pain but enough where it does hurt. OF COURSE Stacy is gone...and something I didn't think about when she left was that I may NEED her. When the dr. called me back she said I needed to go to the hospital. That is NOT my plan lady!!! I told her Stacy said I can stay home as long as it's cle...
This morning started the first of my weekly check-ups with Stacy. It's getting THAT close now! They weighed me and now my scale and home and the one at the doctors agree...I've gained 31 pounds (that's 35 to lose so I can lose an extra 4 lbs I had gained before getting pregnant). 31! I guess Zach is right that my stomach grows bigger everyday (tummy pictures to come tomorrow). I reeeeaaaalllllyy wish there was a way for me to not gain anymore as I've gained just the right amount at this point, but with four weeks left I'm pretty sure I'll most likely hit the 40 lb marker :( dang...but what can I really do about it? Anyway, this was one of those check-ups where Zach being there was so, so important to me. It was my first internal exam but it wasn't the internal I was expecting! She just used a cotton swab thing to gather some info that will reveal if I have some build-up of bacteria or something. She offered to check my cervix for any dilation but she said ...
Today I am officially starting my eighth month of pregnancy! Pre-pregnant life I thought people were pregnant for 9 months so I'd be pumped right now thinking it's almost over! Don't think so fast...the way the calculate all this junk now means I still have 8 weeks (2 months) left to go and I am STARTING my eighth month, the baby is born at the END of the 9th! Anyways...Here are some of the latest belly pictures (taken this morning) Here are the changes I've been noticing: I don't know if it's just because I've been sick this week but I wake up in the morning with really sore legs. Like I ran a marathon while sleeping or something. I've heard of the night leg cramps and I have woken up to some of these before but I'm not sure if that's why they are sore in the mornings or not! I can feel a lot of movement. I can distinguish between hiccups (which feel like a heartbeat to me) and kicks (which feel more like punches honestly) I've gained...
Zach and I both agree that it's so dumb that they have me come in every two weeks now! We wait forever then get in the room, hear the heartbeat, and Stacey asks if we have any questions (I always do and she said I'm the only one who writes them down...how else do people remember?) then we leave. Today, however, I'm so glad we had the appointment!!! During the class last night I thought up several questions to ask Stacey and the great thing about her is that she is so upfront and honest! I love that! Some things we discussed: She told me her birth story (she just had a son in October) and she had a tough experience. She stayed 4 cm for 8 hours! She didn't want an epidural but ended up having one and didn't want a c-section but ended up having one. She told me that when the time comes she will make sure I can get in touch with HER directly and she will come in whether or not she's on call!!!! (is that not so awesome???) She also said that she will avoid having to ...
Last night was the last of the series of prepared childbirth classes. While the first night was all about the gory details, last night was about how to DEAL with those details which was so much better for me! Skip the bad parts and focus on how to cope with them! I'm a planner so give me a plan and I'm happy :) Somethings we learned included: A little something personal about my birth! I was "the wrong way" when I was born so they used forceps on me...I now know that the real term for facing the "wrong way" is that I was in the posterior position! And if it happens to our baby they now have a better method of flipping the baby to the proper face down position by use of a vacuum extractor! I will have to have an IV no matter what (dreading it!) If I stay firm on not wanting a c-section and the baby is okay, I can push longer than two hours and they can't make me have a c-section (yay!) However, 1 out of every 5 births does result in a c-section de...
Tonight was night one (of two) of the Prepared Childbirth Class. This is the class. The one with all the intimate details of delivery! We did watch the video showing birth and it wasn't as graphic as I thought it would be...but it doesn't look very pleasant either! Here are some things I learned during this class: We can video tape! Just not the actual delivery but everything else! The staff won't tell anyone anything which is good (we don't want someone finding out the sex until WE tell them!) During labor I need to shift how I am laying and urinate often because sitting in one position too long or holding in my pee will make the process longer We need to make sure to pack plenty of snacks for Zach and to bring a focal point (which is like a picture of the ultrasound or something positive for me to focus on) I can stay home until my water breaks or until my contractions become 3-5 minutes apart During early labor (when contractions are 5-30 min apart) I ne...
On the way to the epidural class last night I felt Clover hiccup for the first time! Yay! This was a very active child yesterday for sure! We timed our trip to the hospital from our house and it will take us around 10 minutes to get there which is good to know because I hope to labor at home for as long as I can stand it. When we got to the class I pulled a typical Emily-Student move and sat near the front. About a second after we sat down I heard "Emily, Emily." Turn around and Kecia and her husband Ryan were sitting right behind us! I was so glad to see them! It's so neat that Kecia and I are due so close together. She's due March 10th and I'm due the 12th! I love getting together with her and comparing notes on our pregnancies. Wouldn't it be neat if we had them the same day? It's funny because she starting showing a lot sooner than I did but I think I've caught up to her now! The class was quick but I did learn a few things: They can admi...
Went to the doctor this morning just to hear the heartbeat and have a general check-up! I still weigh less than I did at my first pregnant dr appointment! I guess I was super bloated or something...isn't that strange? We got to hear our little ones heart and it's very healthy. Healthy should be between 120 and 160 and ours was 148 :) We discussed my raising heart issue and she said it is very common so I feel better abou that! I also asked about my intense migraines and she said from now on right when I feel one coming on I need to take 2 extra strength tylenols and drink a mountain dew then do it again every three hours until the headache goes away! Isn't that hilarious? She said it is sworn to work and it won't hurt the baby, she did say that my heart will probably race more during those times due to the increase in caffeine! I got answers to several of my other questions: The baby can fly anytime as long as the airline allows it and we have it suck on a pacif...
We just got home a little while ago from our 10 week dr appointment! It went WONDERFUL and really there were so many great things that happened! First, we got to hear our baby's heartbeat...the lady said it's very strong which is so great to hear! Then we got to SEE our baby!!! I have to say though that the gooey stuff they put on your stomach is NOT cold like I was expecting haha it was actually borderline hot! Anyway when the image came up on the screen I was shocked. Since I'm not very far along I expected it to be a little black blob and for us not to be able to make out anything. Instead our baby has 4 limbs that we could even see little fingers and toes! We could see the rapid heartbeat in "its" chest and could watch it do quite a bit of tumbling! That little thing moved like crazy...did somersaults and flips and everything! The lady, Lindsey Hayes is her name so ask for her if you use Southern OBGYN b/c she was awesome, said that being active is such a ...
