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Pregnancy Symptoms
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I can't believe that baby will be here within about two months. I have so much cleaning to do. And I need to buy the birth kit supplies. And I need to start thinking more about what comfort meassures I want to use during labor. I want to get some special, comforting music, though I may want silence; silence was just fine with my first birth. I also need to buy some new candles since I would like to give birth by candlelight. I'd like some natural candles... maybe beeswax candles? And then I'd like to have the scent of an essential oil wafting through the air... maybe lavendar? I'll have to research that more.
I wonder what the weather will be like when I give birth. With my first birth, I gave birth in the morning after a stormy, rainy night. I hope it storms the night I give birth. Storms--at least ones that don't destroy or hurt things--are so cool. I've always loved the sound of rain... just as long as it doesn't snow. The night before I gave birth to Ellen the lights went out for a while. I guess we won't have to worry if the lights go out since I want to give birth by candlelight. ;) Oh, wait, though.... then we wouldn't have heat either, and that wouldn't be good. We could light the fireplace, I guess! But then we wouldn't have much hot water in the water birth pool. Well, how exciting it will be! We'll just have to see what's in God's plan!
Ellen is still nursing. Now she usually nurses at least two times a day... and she even asks on her own now. Sometimes I will offer if I see her with her fingers in her mouth, which isn't terribly often, just in case she has them in there because she needs to suck more. She usually likes to nurse before going to bed at night. I am glad she still likes to nur-nur, though my nipples feel sore and are still sensitive, so that makes it a little difficult for me sometimes.
I wore a too tight bra... one of my old ones... all day Saturday. Ack! I didn't realize it was so bad, but when I took it off that night I had awful, sore, red marks under my breasts that lasted quite a while. I hate wearing bras. I need to find a more comfortable bra--a nice stretchy one that is larger around the rib cage. I guess baby is really making my rib cage expand.
Last Friday, October 9th, I had a midwife's appointment. I ended up having the glucose test, but it was soooo easy, how could I say no? She just waited until it was, I think, at least two hours after I had eaten my breakfast, and then she poked my finger and got some blood. She put some on her little glucose tester, and it came out that my blood sugar level was just fine. She also used some blood to test my iron again, and that was fine, too. There was no protein or sugar in my urine. My blood pressure was fine. Everything appears to be normal.
Baby isn't transverse anymore; baby is now in the head down position. My midwife says baby can still do circles on his/her bead... twirl around; she said baby could "break dance." :) At the time of the appointment, baby's bottom was on my left side.
My midwife thinks that baby went through a growth spurt recently. I gained about six pounds since my last appointment about five weeks ago. Also she measured my, is it called fudal height?... and in five weeks it had grown from 27 cm to 32 cm.
Baby's heartbeat was 140 to 150 beats a minute. She let me try to listen to the heartbeat with the fetoscope, but I couldn't really hear it. Oh, well...
I finally asked my midwife how she feels about unassisted birth, and she said that she had done prenatals for a family who wanted a ucbirth, and was going to attend one in January. She is willing to sit in another room and then go in to help if a problem arises. Otherwise the dad or whoever is welcome to deliver the baby. She said she could show John how to do it, but John isn't interested in having an unassisted birth. I had been nervous to ask her opinion on ucbirth, but I felt satisfied with her answer. I'm relieved that she didn't say anything bad about unassisted birth, though she felt it would be good to have someone there to help "just in case." Actually, I found out that she delivered her second baby unassisted. She labored only about 1 1/2 hours, and her baby came shortly before her midwife got there.
John's face showed relief, and he said, "Oh, really?" with relief in his voice when he found out that the midwife has a cellular phone and can tell him how to help deliver the baby if she doesn't make it in time. Maybe I'll see if she will go ahead and show us how, though I feel that perhaps John would be so nervous that I would end up doing it, which would be fine, because I want to deliver my baby anyway! The reason I think he might be too nervous is because from past conversations I've had with him it sounded like he would pretty much want me to be in charge if I were to have the baby before the midwife arrives. I do fully believe that he could do it, if he wanted to.
The thing I don't like about her telling him how to do it over the phone is that it would make it seem like an emergency or something. I feel that childbirth is a natural process. My body knows what it is doing, and I'd just like to let it and the baby do their job. So if everything is going fine, I'd rather not have her give directions over the telephone.
I am convinced and pleased that I will have a lot of say in what goes on at the birth. I will be able to make choices instead of the doctor saying, for intance, "I am going to break your water now." I will be informed and given options... empowered to make my own choices!
My midwife said if everything is going fine during the birth, I can push how and when I like; though she said that if I vocalize in high tones, she will remind me to vocalize with low sounds so I don't end up with a sore throat. It'll be great to be able to move around like I want to, and drink or eat as I feel like it. She'll remind me to do things like go to the bathroom, because a full bladder call stall labor. It really sounds to me like she won't be overbearing. I hope my feeling is correct!
Well, from now on I will have an appointment every two weeks. That will make it go by even more quickly. I am looking forward to the appointments; they are fun.
I just haven't felt like doing much on the Internet lately. . . I feel more like cleaning and organizing my house. I'm very unorganized, and my house is cluttered and messy. It's been really bugging me.
I'm trying really hard to get it cleaned and organized! I cleaned a cupboard in our family room and made a special little play area for Ellen. I think she really likes it. I'm cleaning out my drawers and getting rid of lots of junk. Mom is going to come over and help today, and I am very happy about that!!
Ellen still nurses. I think she'll probably continue for awhile longer. I must have colostrum, and she seems to like the taste. It's going all right. Maybe I'm kinda getting used to being sore. ;) She nurses about 2 times a day, but not for very long periods of time... I think that's why I am able to handle it all right. She is very good about not needing to nurse for very long. When she falls asleep at night while nursing, I pull her off instead of letting her pull herself off. And other times when she doesn't fall asleep and is nursing, I'll say, "After you're done, I can scratch your back." She'll usually pull off soon after that and let me scratch her back for a little while.
She hasn't asked to nurse at church for a long time, so I wore a regular dress to church. . . one without an opening for nursing. Well, this Sunday she asked to nurse. She said out loud during church, "I want to nurse." I was a bit embarassed, but I didn't really mind! We went to the car, and I nursed her there. Thank goodness I was able to figure out how to nurse in that dress.
I just love it when baby moves and makes my stomach ripple. It's so funny when I am supposed to be paying attention to something else. . . the pastor speaking, for instance. . . and my mind is on the moving baby in my tummy. It's very distracting, and it makes me so happy to feel and see baby move.
 Taken Oct. 24th |
At the midwife's appointment last Friday I met the student who will be attending the birth with my midwife. I think she'll be pretty nice to have at the birth. She is or was? a La Leche League leader. She's also had training as a doula. She will be graduating in December from midwifery school, but she'll still attend births for a while so she can reach her quota.
 Ellen says she has a baby in her tummy, too! |
My midwife says that I don't have to have anyone at the birth that I don't want to be there. If someone is there to see the birth that I don't want there, she'll get rid of them for me.
I gained two pounds in the last two weeks. The student midwife measured my fundal height. It was the same as it was two weeks ago, but I wonder if that's because the midwife measured it last time, and maybe they measured it slightly differently.
There was no protein or sugar in my urine. Apparently I am drinking enough water. My blood pressure was fine. The baby's heartrate was 150. They took the heart rate after they felt to see what position the baby was in, so it was the heartrate of a baby who had begun moving around after being woken up by their prodding. At the appointment, the baby was still head down and facing to my right. . . his back to my left. My midwife said baby was tucked nicely.
At the next appointment in two weeks, the midwife is going to show John how to deliver the baby just in case. :)
I finally got a copy of my hospital records. Ellen's birth really was quite normal. I hope this one is as easy. There was something my midwife noticed when she made copies of the records for me. When they tested my blood after Ellen was born my iron level was only 27. That's why I felt so weak and out of it! She's not sure why my iron went that low, but she'll keep a closer check on it since she found that out. We'll test it again in a few weeks. If it's low after the birth, she'll give me some nettles right away to help get it up, and hopefully I can avoid feeling so icky after childbirth this time.
I made the appointment today for a childbirth class. It's a four hour refresher course by someone the midwife suggested. She's also the lady we'll be renting the birth tub from. The class will be on November 21st. I am looking forward to it.
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