Fits and Starts

Going into Labor, Round 1

Yesterday Max came home from work around 4 and told this baby he could be born and immediately I started having contractions. Mild and spaced out contractions (like 3 an hour).  Then my mom arrived and Sabine started playing around getting all wound up and the contractions got a little stronger and closer together.
Finally around 6:30 I told my mom and Max we needed to get serious about dinner because this little guy seemed serious about moving on out. So mom went to work making dinner, Max went to work arranging things and timing me.  And I went to work wondering if I was actually going into labor.
I called Nancy around 6:45 and she listened to me. I had one contraction on the phone - again mild but noticeable about 5 minutes into the conversation.  She told me to call back in an hour.
I went down to dinner where I sat and shook and had contractions the whole time.  And finally made the decision to send my mom and Sabine out for the night.  In the dream that there is no distraction from Sabine during the birth.
So they left at about 7:45 and I called Nancy back at about 8.  In between we timed contractions and got 5mins, 5 mins, 2 mins, 11mins... and up I went to talk to Nancy.  Well, when I got on the phone with her she told me she thought I'd labor tonight.  She said the irregularity of contractions is more real labor than strictly regular 5 min intervals (more like false labor) because it's the way the hormones move through, in fits and starts.  So as I was talking with her I had contractions every 2 minutes.  Weak ones, but there.
She started by saying: OK call me back in an hour.  but by the time the phone call was ending she'd decided that at 2 minutes apart she really needed to come in 30 minutes.  So when we hung up she was leaving the house to get to our house by 9pm.
I wandered around for a little bit trying to organize myself and still in disbelief that I was in labor.  Told Max what Nancy said and got him to text my friends for me.  Then just tried to start settling myself (but honestly I just wanted to get on the computer) I finally found a quiet spot and laid down.
Around 9:10 Nancy came in.  She started with checking me and baby.  I was at 2 which was where I was when she'd checked at the last appointment on Thursday.  And she told me she witnessed a car accident on the way here.  (why did she tell me that?  so weird)  She checked baby boy and he was happy as a clam at 0.
So she sent me back into my quiet space and she and Max carried all her things in from the car and set up the entire birth space.  She also started brewing the herbs for the herbal bath.
Around 10:30 I got hungry.  And, I was irritated with Nancy being in my house.  I was in this space of "I want something to eat, but I guess I should ask... but if Nancy wasn't here I wouldn't ask...." and I was cold. And nothing much was happening, and I needed to pee.
So I got up and came out.  Nancy was reading in my bed, Max was downstairs on the internet.
"are you ok?" Nancy says. "Yes" and then she tells me how cozy my bed is and that it's fine for me to eat etc.  So I go down with Max.
I eat and wander and have more contractions, they actually pick up from the slow down I'd experienced while resting.
I decided I wanted to go get in my own bed. So Max tells Nancy.  What I really want is for her to go downstairs and away, but I couldn't tell her that. I even have a funny thought that I could put her in the playroom where the guest bed is and call her to report. I start thinking she should treat me like a first time mom.  She doesn't want to go downstairs because she says she wants to be able to hear me.
The compromise is that she goes into baby brother's room and reads in the rocking chair.
Max comes into the bed with me.  Around midnight neither of us is sleeping, not much is happening for me, though contractions are still coming but are spaced out and baby is playing around in there.  Max tells me that if he's born today (3/16) he'll share a birthday with Flava-Flave and Eric Estrada.  So that gets us giggling and laughing and we look up all the celebrity birthdays he would share.  (those are the best)
Max goes away. I still can't sleep. I start TRYING to pay attention to the contractions.  But I just felt like I wasn't in the zone.
Finally, around 1 Nancy comes in and asks if anything much is happening. We figure contractions are really spaced out and mostly only coming from baby moving around.  So she says: "I'm giving you permission for this not to be labor"  or "to let it stop" or something like that.  Uh. Ok.
She had me get up and move around just a little bit to see if anything changed.  And when I moved I did get a few more contractions and closer together.  But the test was when she checked me again.  Change in the cervix would mean this is pre-labor.  No change, probably false labor.  'I can't make false labor real labor, and I can't stop real labor' was what she said.
No change in there.  And, it didn't seem like it wanted to change.
So she decided to call it a night and go home.  She had me have a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers (so fancy at 2am).  She packed up her stuff and Max helped her carry it back out. She went home to go to sleep.  And I finally did go to sleep myself.
They left out most of the set up though, all the stuff from the birth box is spread all over the room and I'm all set.  Now again, it's back to the waiting game.
In the morning I texted peeps to let them know.  Turns out we weren't the only ones not sleeping last night so I shouldn't have waited until morning to say: 'nothing's happening go to sleep!'
So an eventful/uneventful night.  Personally I'm not in any particular state about it.  It just happened, I'm not relieved or disappointed or anything.  I just figure he'll come when he comes when he's meant to be here and not a moment before.  I'm sorry to have kept Nancy up most of the night, but as Max said 'it's part of the job'.
And today I'm just tired and dragging, both from lack of sleep and from the wine.  Thing is, I'd rather have everything ready and in place and have it NOT happen, than have nothing ready and in place and Nancy not here and then have it actually happen.  So it was fine and is fine.
Tonight I'm getting in bed and going off to sleep.

Belly Photos

Photos of me and Sabine at about 36 weeks (2 weeks ago).  I had a photographer over to do some prenatal yoga shots and pretty much on a whim we decided to take these photos too.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute.  It took Sabine a few minutes to warm up because she had a pretty big fall right as we were getting ready, but she came around once we asked her to spin and show off her beautiful tu-tu.  Enjoy!

(trying to figure out how to do a single shot - it's hard to know where to put the hands unless you wrap them around the belly - but that's so cheesy - so, Spirit Fingers??)

Nancy visit 27 weeks

(27 weeks, 3 days)

I'm making myself feel a little less guilty that I"m blogging so infrequently about this pregnancy by thinking that it'll be a boy so he'll care a lot less than a more sentimental girl would care.  who knows.

Also, I'm less open to commentary which means, I'm less open to sharing much this pregnancy.

BUT.  I do want a record, and I do want to share at least a little bit.

So this was my 4th visit to Nancy.  It came after the birth of my brother's daughter by C-section last week,  here in town.  Darling baby, I have to say, and wonderful parents, of course.

Monday.  Monday afternoon is not the time to have an appointment with Nancy.  She's swamped and is running behind most days. Plus she's getting bazillions of phone calls from folks who didn't call over the weekend.  I think I'm her last patient and she zips through because as she says "You're easy" and she always thanks me for being so.  I guess I am easy, but sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease, maybe I need to squeak more often.  I'm changing days starting in January though.  It's fine.  And there's really nothing much to talk about just now.  Well, except that I feel like I've forgotten everything I need to know.

But when I first came in she told me I looked pretty.  That was nice. She is so much about business most of the time, so it was an unexpected complement.  She said I looked like the holiday season wasn't making me too crazy. What was interesting was that I'd just been sitting in her waiting area for the last 20 minutes and thinking about how I disliked the hand-me-down clothes I was wearing.  Especially the top which came from a stranger and is too big.  How I'd rather go buy what I want to wear but don't want to spend the money when I'll only wear it a few more weeks.  And that I wished I could wear the dress I'd gotten for Thanksgiving that is pretty darn awesome.  Maybe I just need to wear it in a casual way all through my pregnancy.  I could do it.  Anyway.  I think it was the combination of hair down, brown shirt and these bright gold earrings that went well together.  Nice to be told that these days for sure.  Especially since I pretty much live in my sweatshirt most of the day.

We spent some time talking about the birth of my niece and about how nice it was for me to get to go and hold her when she was just barely a day old.   Nancy encouraged me to go to birth circle and hear some home birth stories too.  (I haven't been at all yet because I work on the same night it happens, but I might be able to sneak in late tomorrow)

She set my appointments from here on out and she gave me the drink for the glucose test which I'll need to do next time.  Ugh.

I asked her if my hormones are shifting now because suddenly I'm feeling a little more almost morning sickness-ish, and way more TIRED.  Like I'm made of lead.  After checking in that I'm taking all my supplements she did assure me that YES hormones are changing.

Then she asked if I'd been feeling more irritable.  (uh, yeah)  And she said because it's a boy there's testosterone floating around in there and that could lead me to feel cranky.  Crazy!  Our bodies are crazy!  But that gives me ammunition to feed my brain - and excuse to feel and behave irritably.  I'll have to work hard to keep that in check.

And of course she checked baby brother.  He was in the perfect position this time!  Praise Shiva/Shakti.  The last two times anyone saw me they immediately said "oh, he's breech!" Well. that got me all worried about a C-section, which is something I never even considered with Sabine.  Luckily I knew he had plenty of time to turn, and I feel kicks all over my belly which is also a good sign.
But today. head down in the perfect spot, and a little foot up under my right ribs.  As soon as she put the doppler on him to listen to his heart he gave a startled kick, and another on the second attempt.  So she said 'well, we know he can hear' which was no surprise given that he responds to me reading and singing to Sabine by throwing a party in there.

Nothing massive at this appointment.  And she let me go with instructions for the drink and an appointment in January.  After that I'll start going every other week already.

I'm just reaching this point of realization that I'm into the third trimester starting this weekend and we have SO much to do.  We have a ton to do physically, and I have a lot of psychological prep to do too. But.  This baby will come and we'll be as ready as we can be.  From there we'll just have to roll with whatever life has to offer.  The adventure begins again!

The Question

It's nice that when people ask me that most indelicate of questions (or ask it about me)... that I can answer "Yes, I am pregnant"  It would be totally awkward if I wasn't.

Last time i made announcements in my yoga classes and I guess I talked about it quite a bit.  This time I haven't done that, though I have told some students.  So it's been a bit of a question mark for people.  Well, last night just before I went off to teach I had a somewhat large dinner.   Big enough that Sabine told me I was fat.  I told her that it was because of the baby.    If there's nothing in my belly other than baby then I can actually still wear my skinny jeans and it's a little hard to tell that anything's going on.  But in the case like last night -- I wasn't hiding anything.  I was layered:  lowest level - Baby, upper level - dinner.   At least 3 people commented on my pregnancy last night.  There's just no hiding it in yoga clothes I guess.

And yes, I know I've been remiss on adding any photos.  They'll come soon.  As soon as I can pin Max down to take one or two.

Back to Nancy

(14 weeks, 3 days)

I had my first appointment with Nancy this morning.  Finally! After all of this time of being pregnant, I get to be with Nancy again.  Hooray!  I think women in RVA get pregnant for their 2nd 3rd 4th times just to get to be with Nancy.  She's awesome.

So I was pulling up to her house when she called me to say I was LATE!  Yikes!  Somehow my brain thought the appointment was half an hour later than it was.  Luckily, this is my second time around so it wasn't such a huge big deal, we just booked through everything.

Went in and did my loo run and weight check.  Then sat down.  She checked me right away and said that I measured exactly right for my dates.  Then she checked the baby.  First of all we commented on how right in front and right out there the baby is as a 2nd baby.  Then she got out the doppler.  First we heard a big kick, and then she eventually found the heartbeat - at almost 160 (more than Babe ever was).

Then questions.  Mine and hers for me.  I asked about travel because we still want to get away this winter and she told me to cut off flying by 32 weeks.  She told me a story about one of her mamas who recently took a plane ride.  When the plane dropped altitude the woman passed out, vomited, and wet herself.  They thought her water broke so they landed the plane and then she was put on a no-fly list.  Uh. Yeah, that doesn't sound fun!

She asked if I'd been feeling little kicks and I think actually I have.  Just faintly and not often.  I can definitely tell when the baby is in a new position because of the way it sticks out of my body wherever it is.

All of my blood work and stuff from the initial visit with the nurse practitioner was fine.

Then Nancy mainly went over what to eat and what not to eat.  And she said I should try to go as organic as possible, and to eat seasonally.  She wants me to add fish oil and probiotics around 20 weeks.  Also now she said they're wanting women to make sure they're getting enough vitamin D in pregnancy and while nursing.  It's good for both Mom and Baby.  So that means time outside in the sunshine for 10-20 minutes daily with no sunscreen.  Or, as the weather gets colder, a supplement of about 1000-2000 IUs daily.  She doesn't want me to add this stuff or the prenatal tea until about 20 weeks when all of the nausea and sick feeling has gone, because if I have one bad burp of any of it I'll be turned off and not want to take it for the rest of the pregnancy.

Another interesting topic for us to discuss was the flu shot.  I didn't have to worry about it last time because she was an October baby, but this time, especially with Sabine in preschool, it's something to consider.  She gave me some alternatives too though for good self-care during flu season.  She also said I can wait and see for a while and see what the season is starting to look like.

We ended our half session with her giving me a folder of information including contact phone numbers, approved OTC medicines, and the consent form.  We set a date in October for the next appointment and she even told me how to set up the 20 week ultrasound sometime in mid-October.  That seems so soon, but I guess I'm a tiny bit later starting with Nancy this time than before.  We still have a while to go.

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Then the mother duties just didn't stop as in the afternoon Sabine had a fever and complained of an earache.  Of course it was just after our Dr. office closed.  So we went to KidMed, which is like a patient first for kids.  They were lovely and the checked her ears and throat and pronounced no infections there, probably just a virus.  By the time she had some dinner she was bouncing off the walls but started to go down again by bedtime.   A little motrin and off to bed for her.

And now off to bed for ME!  plenty to do tomorrow!