She's definitely still a girl! No scrotum or penis in site! Heart rate was 136 BPM, so she's nixing that's old wives tale of girls always being higher than 140! She was VERY active the whole ultrasound and was sucking on her thumb for most of it. We got to watch her opening and closing her eyes and mouth and even saw her tounge come out at one point. She's also in the perfect birthing position already, head down with her back toward my stomach.
The tech was amazing. The tech didn't do any measurements on her since we were officially there to measure my cervix. She did measure fluid levels and all looks good there. She had measured my cervix within the first 5 minutes and then she spent a good 20 minutes just playing with the ultrasound and looking at our baby girl. My mom came with and was amazed at the details too, it was quite the experience for her!
And today also officially marks the beginning of the 3rd trimester! In the home stretch now!!!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
25 Week Appointment Update
Just had my midwife appointment on Wednesday. I was 24w5d and measuring 27 weeks! Baby was super active the night before the appointment and I thought for sure she was still head up because I only feel movement below my belly button. Nope, head down, she must just have super strong punches! She's also likely kicking towards my back with her feet which might be why I'm rarely feeling anything above the belly button. The midwife was impressed that we were seeing movement as well this early and said we must have a strong little girl in there. She was even more surprised when we searched for heartbeat and she felt around and we determined that it wasn't even the kicks I've been feeling but punches! Heart rate was sitting in the solid 140s and everything seems very healthy! I also finally hit my pre-pregnancy weight and I'm almost into the 3rd trimester. I should "expect" to gain about a pound a week from this point out.
We have another ultrasound scheduled for 2 weeks from today to check cervical length again (and recheck the gender!) and my Mom will be coming with for that one, possibly my Dad as well. Mom is soooo going to cry! She only had one ultrasound with my brother about 26 years ago so this will be quite the experience for her!
My next appointment is on December 3rd (to get me back on track to line up with the 28 week) and I get to do the fun gestational diabetes testing then. That involves drinking a pretty icky orange flavored drink and waiting for an hour before getting your blood drawn. It measures my insulin levels. Hopefully I pass, because if I fail then I have to do the 3 hour test which means drinking that same drink and then getting my blood drawn every hour for 3 hours! After that appointment though we're down to every two weeks already!
Brandon also has been seeing movement but this afternoon he got to see her when she was super active and he was amazed at the big kicks I've been getting. I think it's getting much more real for him. He also told me that for the next 3 months I should take advantage of having him do stuff for me since it's only going to happen twice in my life! LOL...I'm soooo taking him up on that and not forgetting that he said that!
We have another ultrasound scheduled for 2 weeks from today to check cervical length again (and recheck the gender!) and my Mom will be coming with for that one, possibly my Dad as well. Mom is soooo going to cry! She only had one ultrasound with my brother about 26 years ago so this will be quite the experience for her!
My next appointment is on December 3rd (to get me back on track to line up with the 28 week) and I get to do the fun gestational diabetes testing then. That involves drinking a pretty icky orange flavored drink and waiting for an hour before getting your blood drawn. It measures my insulin levels. Hopefully I pass, because if I fail then I have to do the 3 hour test which means drinking that same drink and then getting my blood drawn every hour for 3 hours! After that appointment though we're down to every two weeks already!
Brandon also has been seeing movement but this afternoon he got to see her when she was super active and he was amazed at the big kicks I've been getting. I think it's getting much more real for him. He also told me that for the next 3 months I should take advantage of having him do stuff for me since it's only going to happen twice in my life! LOL...I'm soooo taking him up on that and not forgetting that he said that!
Friday, November 7, 2008
HypnoBirthing
Well I've had a few people ask me now, "What is HypnoBirthing?" so I figured I would put it all out here instead of writing it over and over again!
But before I do that, a quick update. I'm 24 weeks pregnant, which means that if our little girl decides to make her appearance super early she already has a 50% chance of survival! How amazing is that?!? Of course we're hoping that she decides to stick it out until at least week 37! I'm feeling great, lots of energy right now...2nd trimester for ya! I just finally hit my pre-pregnancy weight again this morning as well, so I'm doing great on the healthy aspect of things as well. We do have a name picked out, but we're keeping that part a surprise for now. She has been kicking like crazy. I've been able to see the kicks a few times from the outside. Brandon laid his head on my stomach the other day and got kicked pretty hard in the forehead as well. I'm loving feeling her move around inside me and I'm so thankful and excited and looking forward to meeting her in just about 3.5 months.
As for HypnoBirthing (copied this from an email I sent to someone):
Basically Hypnobirthing is almost like self-hypnosis for birth. It teaches you deep relaxation and breathing techniques for labor/delivery to avoid as many medical interventions/drugs as possible. The deeper breathing leads to more oxygen and endorphins in your body for a more pleasant experience. It doesn't promise a pain free-delivery or even an intervention-free delivery, but basically a less painful delivery and the more relaxed you are the less of a chance for interventions.
A couple of the benefits of hypnobirthing are:
~it eliminates the fear-tension-pain syndrome before, during and after birthing. Which is basically the pre-condition that we're taught that birth is supposed to be the most painful thing we'll ever experience, which isn't really true. Women have been doing it for centuries but it's only been the past 100 years or so pain has been associated with each birth instead of the occasional cases.
~It can shorten the first stage of labor by several hours because your muscles are more relaxed. The more afraid you are the more tense your muscles and the harder it is for your cervix to dilate.
~eliminates fatigue during labor so you have more energy for the actual birthing because you're more relaxed during the early stages.
I'm a strong believer in natural birth because getting pitocin to speed up labor causes your contractions to be more intense. More intense means more likely to get an epidural, which in turn can then slow down labor, which leads to more pitocin, higher epi dose, more pitocin again and eventually your contractions are so hard that it puts a lot of stress on the baby. That can lead to emergency c-sections if the doctor doesn't feel like your progressing fast enough or if the babies is in distress; which is about a 40% chance. Natural labor with no medical interventions, even if it's longer, has about a 5% chance of a c-section. Plus I plan to exclusively breast feed and babies with epidurals are a little more sluggish after birth and have a harder time latching and breast feeding.
It took Brandon and myself 3 years and 2 months to get pregnant with one miscarriage and one ectopic pregnancy. I've spent the majority of those 3 years researching not only infertility treatments but pregnancy so I feel very aware and informed about what's going on. I've looked at all the options and feel that, for me, that a natural labor/delivery is the only choice. It's not a choice for everyone, but after researching so much it's what I strongly believe in for myself and for the best birth and labor not only for me but for our daughter. We're also hoping to do a water birth to help make our babies entrance into this world as least traumatic as possible...to both of us!
Here are a few videos of hypnobirthing:4 minute news-story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kA3PMJwA8
Dateline did something on it too (great documentary!) 20 min total, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llT30oHxz6gpart 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f05YQbnsUGA
But before I do that, a quick update. I'm 24 weeks pregnant, which means that if our little girl decides to make her appearance super early she already has a 50% chance of survival! How amazing is that?!? Of course we're hoping that she decides to stick it out until at least week 37! I'm feeling great, lots of energy right now...2nd trimester for ya! I just finally hit my pre-pregnancy weight again this morning as well, so I'm doing great on the healthy aspect of things as well. We do have a name picked out, but we're keeping that part a surprise for now. She has been kicking like crazy. I've been able to see the kicks a few times from the outside. Brandon laid his head on my stomach the other day and got kicked pretty hard in the forehead as well. I'm loving feeling her move around inside me and I'm so thankful and excited and looking forward to meeting her in just about 3.5 months.
As for HypnoBirthing (copied this from an email I sent to someone):
Basically Hypnobirthing is almost like self-hypnosis for birth. It teaches you deep relaxation and breathing techniques for labor/delivery to avoid as many medical interventions/drugs as possible. The deeper breathing leads to more oxygen and endorphins in your body for a more pleasant experience. It doesn't promise a pain free-delivery or even an intervention-free delivery, but basically a less painful delivery and the more relaxed you are the less of a chance for interventions.
A couple of the benefits of hypnobirthing are:
~it eliminates the fear-tension-pain syndrome before, during and after birthing. Which is basically the pre-condition that we're taught that birth is supposed to be the most painful thing we'll ever experience, which isn't really true. Women have been doing it for centuries but it's only been the past 100 years or so pain has been associated with each birth instead of the occasional cases.
~It can shorten the first stage of labor by several hours because your muscles are more relaxed. The more afraid you are the more tense your muscles and the harder it is for your cervix to dilate.
~eliminates fatigue during labor so you have more energy for the actual birthing because you're more relaxed during the early stages.
I'm a strong believer in natural birth because getting pitocin to speed up labor causes your contractions to be more intense. More intense means more likely to get an epidural, which in turn can then slow down labor, which leads to more pitocin, higher epi dose, more pitocin again and eventually your contractions are so hard that it puts a lot of stress on the baby. That can lead to emergency c-sections if the doctor doesn't feel like your progressing fast enough or if the babies is in distress; which is about a 40% chance. Natural labor with no medical interventions, even if it's longer, has about a 5% chance of a c-section. Plus I plan to exclusively breast feed and babies with epidurals are a little more sluggish after birth and have a harder time latching and breast feeding.
It took Brandon and myself 3 years and 2 months to get pregnant with one miscarriage and one ectopic pregnancy. I've spent the majority of those 3 years researching not only infertility treatments but pregnancy so I feel very aware and informed about what's going on. I've looked at all the options and feel that, for me, that a natural labor/delivery is the only choice. It's not a choice for everyone, but after researching so much it's what I strongly believe in for myself and for the best birth and labor not only for me but for our daughter. We're also hoping to do a water birth to help make our babies entrance into this world as least traumatic as possible...to both of us!
Here are a few videos of hypnobirthing:4 minute news-story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7kA3PMJwA8
Dateline did something on it too (great documentary!) 20 min total, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llT30oHxz6gpart 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f05YQbnsUGA
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