Appointment 25 weeks

Currently Craving: Ice Cream

On Tuesday we had our 25 week appointment with Nancy. And since we're still right in the middle of the pregnancy, it was still more about gathering information in general than about specifics about what will happen with this home birth.

First the general info... we're still right on. weight gain is right (i weigh more than i've ever weighed at this point) and Babe's home measures 24.5 at 25 weeks so that's fine. it sticks up just above my navel now and my navel is getting more shallow (or is it shallower?). When nancy was trying to listen for a heartbeat first i had a LONG braxton-hicks. right now they don't hurt but i'm getting them quite often, essentially every time i change positions, and i do that a lot in yoga... i think i have the fittest uterus on the block. then Babe did NOT want to be heard and when nancy first put the doppler on she moved away and then started kicking like mad which was funny because we could see it from the outside. nancy said 'this is fun because you're so slim we can really see her' but finally Babe did allow herself to be heard and she sound good still.

talking about being slim.... a lot of people have been telling me 'you're so small' and that doesn't bother me but i am wondering when i'll look really really pregnant. i thought i'd be huge by now. so i brought that up to nancy and she said not to worry. i've got three things going for me 1. first baby 2. height and 3. level of fitness. she said i look great and she can see the growing. she also told me i may never get the really round belly particularly because of my height and i might not start to look very pregnant until into the 7th month. so i guess that's reassuring. and it's fine with me to stay small because it makes life a bit easier not to be bumping into myself left and right or to have random strangers touching my belly. nancy said people want to connect and the only thing they know to say is about size 'you're small or you're so big' and she recommended that i learn from this never to say either one to a pregnant woman and just to tell her she looks beautiful and at most ask how the pregnancy is going for her. asking about size can be pretty undermining and make the woman self-conscious... am i going to have a tiny baby? is there something wrong with me or my baby? am i going to have a huge baby? am i a whale? am i not eating right? etc. and pregnant brains don't need anything else to worry about. she also very pointedly told max to ONLY tell me how great i look. (as if he would ever say anything different)

Education this time came about two things. first was the glucose test. here is where having a home midwife rocks!! she gave me the drink to take home, we scheduled our appointment and i'm just supposed to fast and then drink it on my own 30 minutes before my appointment. that is very doable. much easier than going to the clinic twice OR having to go there and then stay for an hour. she said i was the last person she'd expect to have gestational diabetes and that it's more of a safety net to catch people who aren't eating well and to get them on a better diet for the last trimester.

Education point number two was about breast feeding (isn't that one word? blogger says it's misspelled as one word) anyway. she asked if we wanted information even though i've already seen lots of breastfeeding women in my life (mom, marty etc) and i said yes, any information from nancy is going to be good for me. essentially when Babe is born her stomach is the size of a marble and then grows later. but at first she'll nurse for maybe an hour or two but then could go 12 hours or more without nursing. this is for SLEEPING for mom and baby. then for days 2 and 3 Babe is hungry, mom is frustrated because milk hasn't come in. and this is the time when NO ONE is to suggest that mom 'isn't feeding Babe properly' 'child is going hungry' or 'we should switch to formula' because it is precisely this hungry time of Babe rooting for nipple and working around there that stimulates milk production and causes the milk to come in. Babe will be fine despite the frustration. and then with proper latch things should go pretty smoothly with minimal injury to mom (protect the nipples at all cost, nancy said). and by two weeks old, nursing should be firmly established. Again, the great thing about having a midwife is that Nancy comes back and helps get this established. she'll help with getting proper latch and with proper latch, things should go pretty well. she also said that before Babe even arrives she will give me a DVD to check out that has images of proper latch and using that tends to help people a lot because then they know what things are supposed to look like. (i'm also super lucky that one of the moms on the block where i grew up is a lactation consultant and i would have NO problem calling her with questions)

Some things i already knew... like breastfeeding is law of demand and supply. baby demands it, mom supplies it. baby needs more or different calorie make of of the milk and the milk changes to fit baby's needs. the colostrum (first milk) coats the stomach with bacteria for babe and it tastes like amniotic fluid so she's used to sucking that. and it is recommended that women feed only breastmilk for the first 6 months of life and then continue to breastfeed for at least the first year. nancy said in the US only 30% of women make it to 6 months (that really surprised me, but i live in a sheltered natural world i suppose) and she said in new zealand and australia where they do a lot of studies (can't do them here because formula companies provide the money and they don't want women to breastfeed) women do much better at making it to a year and beyond because they know what to do and they have a lot of support. nancy also told me that human mammals have one more breast than normal number of babies and we are actually designed with enough milk to feed TWO babies. she said over and over you have enough milk you have enough milk. and she told max he's not allowed to ask if Babe is getting enough to eat, she is.

finally nancy recommended the local la leche league if needed. also she gave me the card of a lactation consultant if we need her in the future. and some books. she specifically mentioned anything by Dr. Jack Newman as he is the one doing all the research in the field. then also Breastfeeding made simple by Nancy Mohr Bacher.

she finished by recommending the book "the happiest baby on the block". she hates the title and thinks it should be named something like the continuing development of the human mammal in the fourth trimester... but she knew nobody would actually buy it if it was titled that. so nancy spent some time preparing us for the first three months where as she and others put it the baby is still underdeveloped and should still be in the belly so things are just sorting themselves out. sounds like you kind of go under or into hibernation in the first three months and then things open up again. and of course, don't expect to sleep.

at the end of the appointment we scheduled every single appointment from here on out. after the glucose test one i'll start going twice a month and then at 36 weeks it's once a week. when we got into october we scheduled through the 20th. but hopefully Babe will be here by then.

15 weeks to go. it's feeling a lot closer suddenly.