The Big 3-0

Hard to believe its gone so fast but on Tuesday I'll officially be 30 weeks. 7 more weeks until the girl is fully cooked and 10 weeks until my due date. I think she'll be here closer to 7 weeks than 10, but I'm not taking any bets quite yet.

Overall, it's been a fine week; Jay's been working extra hours, I've been trying to find new ways to make sleeping more comfortable, and that's about it. We're gearing up for more visitors in about three weeks, because Jay's mom and grandmother are kindly throwing us a baby shower on July 12. My Mom and my friend Sue are coming up from Maryland, which should be fun. I like a full house.

I've been nesting (slightly) by cleaning and organizing, and yesterday I decided it would be brilliant to rearrange the living room furniture. By myself. While Jay was gone. Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got finished, but I want to make the place as baby-friendly in its set up as possible. I think I accomplished that. I managed to pull myself together for a lovely girls night with Amanda and Angela at the local tapas restaurant, where I got to eat yummy food and salivate over the sangria Angela was drinking.

Otherwise, not much to report. Our next doctor's appointment is July 1, and I've got a million questions for her about typical hospital procedure during labor and delivery. We're meeting with a pediatrician on July 9 to see if we like him. In two weeks, my weekly non-stress tests at the hospital begin and I start heading for doctor's appointments every other week. I can only imagine how time will fly at that point.

Until next time, I leave you with the belly:

happy father's day

Sorry for the delay between updates -- I think we've finally hit the calm before the storm. While we've been busy with work and such, the girl has just been swimming along in there rather uneventfully at the moment. She kicks constantly, which I LOVE, and we both just get more excited to meet her everyday.

We did have one thought-provoking baby moment this week, watching an amazing new documentary called "The Business of Being Born." It was created and moderated by talk show host Ricki Lake, after she had a not-so-good hospital birth experience with her first child and then a really good home birth experience with her second child. It basically explored why we're one of the only countries (developed and underdeveloped) that relies so heavily on hospital births with OBs and has less midwife-assisted home and birthing center births. Yet, we have the highest infant and maternal mortality rate of any developed country, and have the highest c-section and induced labor rates of any developed country.

The movie took a lot of leaps, basically concluding that the reasons for the high rates of c-sections and inductions had to do with not wanting women in the hospital too long so the hospitals could turn over beds frequently and make money. I don't entirely agree with this reasoning, especially stated so bluntly as the ONLY reason we have such high rates of these interventions, but I also don't believe its an entirely far-fetched or inaccurate assessment of PART of the reason births in our country occur the way they do.

The most amazing part for me and Jay (aside from being able to watch three amazing home births and an emergency c-section totally unedited) was hearing the medical explanations for what happens to the body during a labor that has an early intervention like pitocin. This is a common scenario these days: Say I start having contractions that are 1 minute in length/3 minutes apart and am told to head to the hospital, only to find I am 2 cm dilated. I could stay this way for HOURS, if not days, with no harm to the baby (particularly if my water hasn't broken, which it statistically most often doesn't, despite every woman's fear and/or knowledge of women who's water broke with a gush in line at the supermarket). Because of a high risk of bacterial infection (which I believe is possible, living the repercussions first-hand of a bacterial infection gone awry last year), after your water breaks, babies must be born within 12 hours. But if it hasn't (which again it is most likely not to), I could labor for a long while at the hospital. But, the movie concludes, the prevailing belief is if the baby could be born sooner rather than later, wouldn't it be more ideal for everyone? The hospitals prey on the idea that you're already at the hospital and are anxious to meet your baby, and they conclude almost 100% of the time that a long labor can cause the baby to be in distress (which may or may not be entirely true, depending on your circumstances). So you say, sure, let's try some pitocin to speed things up. Next thing you know you've shot up to 5 cm dilated in a half-hour and are in extreme pain, and so they give you an epidural, which makes you feel great but by nature slows down your contractions. However, they still want that baby out, even if you feel like you could handle contractions for a few more hours, so they up the pitocin even more to get you fully dilated as soon as possible. Now, you can feel the contractions even stronger despite the epidural, which they promptly turn up so you can feel less and hopefully be more rested for pushing. But then the contractions slow again, and the cycle begins all over. Eventually, you're having difficulty pushing because you're numbed to even the pressure of the contractions, and since you're already prepped with the anesthesia, they wheel you off to have a c-section because at this point it IS imperative that they get the baby out.

While every birth experience is different, and this was a fairly biased documentary advocating for home births and against hospital births, the above scenario made a lot of sense to me, and is one we'd like to avoid. So, I'm going to do a bit more research, and while I certainly remain totally open to taking whatever course of action my particular labor demands, I'd like to avoid the early interventions like pitocin if they are not medically necessary. I'm still up for an epidural, but I'd like to try to see how things progress naturally before I make any decisions.

All of this may be a moot point, however, because at this point I have a strong suspicion that she is breech, which would require a c-section if she doesn't turn in the next 10 weeks. It's entirely possible that she will, but all movement at this point is centered very low, barely higher than the top of my pubic bone. From what I've read and seen (and clearly what I feel, which is an even strong indicator), most movement felt is kicks, not punches, which would mean those are her feet down there. I'm going to ask the doctor on July 1 when we go in, and I know there are ways to manipulate her in the uterus that can help her flip around, but I think it is helpful at this point to keep an open mind about c-sections.

All of this is just interesting food for thought, but I've never been one to believe in absolutes and I don't think at the end of the day I'm going to feel super strongly about much other than having a healthy baby (since that's all I feel super strongly about now). But it was interesting to watch the presentation of beliefs I'd never really given much thought to unfold in front of me and actually make a bit of sense. I guess this is the true definition of "learning."

So while we ponder this some more, I'll leave you with a fairly recent belly pic (from Thursday):All for now!

happy june!

It's been an eventful month so far~I worked the longest day of my career on Sunday, putting in 12 full hours. We had our big work event on Monday night that went well, so it all paid off. I was dead to the world on Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning I got some not so good news--I failed my glucose test (miserably) and was told I may have gestational diabetes. They told me I needed to come in the next morning for a three hour glucose tolerance test, which was today.

I was very nervous. Gestational diabetes is NOT GOOD, because while it can be controlled through diet and exercise, it increases my risk and the girl's risk for Type 2 diabetes MANY times over. If a mother has gestational diabetes, there's a 50% increased risk for Type 2 later in life, which scared the crap out of me. But, luckily, my very dear friend Gill is a diabetes educator and registered dietitian, so I knew she could help. I failed the test by a BIG margin, so even if I passed the three hour test, it was clear there was some insulin resistance going on. So regardless, changes would need to be made.

So I went this morning for the three hour test, which involved a fasting blood draw, chugging the drink, and then three more blood draws at one hour intervals. After about the second hour, I got very woozy and nauseous, and they made me go lie down. It was quite embarrassing. But I got through it and headed back to the office and had to wait until 3 pm to get the results.

The good news is that I passed, and I don't officially have gestational diabetes, which is a HUGE relief. The only downside is that I was borderline on the one-hour draw, which indicates that I am having some insulin resistance and still need to modify a few things. Basically, I've got to count carbs and keep up the consistent exercise, certainly through the rest of my pregnancy, but in an effort to help off-set any risk for Type 2 in the future, big changes are in order for the rest of my life.

I'm so pleased it's not as bad as it could be, but I still want to be careful for the sake of my health and hers. I've got a lot to learn about it, that's for sure! Certainly the last thing I really want to be doing now is counting carbs and keeping track of what I eat, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. It's a healthier approach to eating overall, which is never a bad thing, and it may help me continue to control my weight. Also, it will help keep her from getting too big, which often happens with gestational diabetes babies and almost always then results in a planned c-section before your due date. I want her to be born as healthy as possible, and I'll do whatever it takes.

With all the craziness at work and Jay working two jobs, I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend with my husband, hopefully hitting the beach and getting some good cuddle time on the sofa. He was so worried about me and the girl, and I just love him so much for being so supportive and loving and kind. This was just another reassurance to me that we can get through anything.

He's at work tonight so I didn't get a picture today--maybe I'll get one this weekend in my bikini so you can see how enormous I've gotten. It's to the point that this morning I actually SAW her kicks in addition to feeling them. SO crazy. I love how it feels. If it wasn't for the fact that margaritas are off-limits, I could truly be pregnant forever.