39 weeks; let's get going!

39 weeks pregnant. This was my goal was to get this far and then have this baby before I hit 40 weeks. I've been practicing my HypnoBirthing and listening to my May 27th CD as much as possible. Looks like things are progressing nicely as well and my midwife is very optimistic that this baby will be here in just a few days. She doesn't think I'll make it to my next appointment on my actual estimated due date of June 2nd (next Thursday). She was right with Aydia, lets hope she's right on this one too!



The last two NSTs I've had have gone very smoothly. Both times he passed right in about the 20 minute mark. On Monday I had a few small contractions while on the monitor and he reacted beautifully to them. I started loosing my plug a bit on Sunday night and that happened only 10 hours before Aydia was born but this time it's more of a gradual loss vs a lot at once like it was with her. I did have her sweep my membranes on Monday and we did it again today as well. On Monday I was still at the 1 cm and 50% but today I'm at 2cms and 75% so I've made a bit of progress! That's where I was when I went into labor with Aydia with the exception that she was a little lower than this little guy is now. Another big difference is that I measured right at 39 weeks at this point with Aydia and I'm measuring 36 weeks today, so maybe he'll be quite a bit smaller? It could be that he's also more off to one side still as well. It's so hard to tell. Anyway, she did a sweep today and said she even felt the bag of waters bulging out a bit so we're praying that things happen soon now. I'm walking, drinking my red raspberry leaf tea, using evening primrose oil and of course I'm *supposed* to be having sex too...we'll see. ;-) Send any and all labor vibes my way please, I'm planning on having this baby by the weekend's end so we're on "Operation Get Twinkle OUT!" right now.

38 weeks

Today I had my typical NST and 38 week appointment. First off, I'm still only 1cm and 50% and Twinkle is still hanging out pretty high so nothing is really happening. The only thing happening right now is that he's slowing down a lot. Pretty much to the point of where Aydia was as far as activity, which is really odd for this baby since he's almost constantly moving. I mentioned it to Stephanie and then we did the NST. With the NST we're looking for a 20 minute period with at least 2 heart accelerations in it. Today he just wasn't cooperating. First he kept moving off the monitor, then he finally stayed on but didn't do any accelerations. Finally after about 45 minutes she gave me some apple juice to drink to see if he would wake up a bit. 30 minutes later he had finally had a 20 minute period with the accelerations.



So I almost failed the NST today. If I had they would have sent me for a Bio-Physical Profile, which is an ultrasound that looks for specific things like a certain amount of arm/leg movements and practice breathing and checking blood flow from the placenta to the baby. Luckily I ended up passing though. I did however measure really small today, 34 weeks instead of 38. I'm pretty sure this little guy is going to be smaller then Aydia was. He might be long but I don't think he's going to be big. Honestly with that information, plus the slower baby, I'm kind of surprised they didn't send me in for a BPP to check amniotic fluid levels. But an OB signed off on it since Stephanie had to go deliver a baby and wasn't able to check things off at the end of the appointment so I'll trust that they know what they are doing there. Kind of makes me nervous though. Tonight however he's back to his normal active self, so maybe it's just that he's saving up his energy for our birthing time.



Still gearing up for a May 27th birth date with my HypnoBirthing CD but I'm allowing my mind to be open to dates before that. Like starting tomorrow we're supposed to get Thunderstorms coming through sporadically until Sunday morning. Maybe one will be severe enough and change the Barometric pressure enough to send me into labor? I'm open to that.

37 weeks and the waiting begins

37 weeks along! That's kind of a big week mark to hit in pregnancy as it means that if Twinkle were to be born at this point he would be considered full term. It also opens up the door to water birth officially. I mentioned last week that I'm doing 2 Non-Stress Tests a week from this point on. I had my 3rd one done today, all have been fabulous when it comes to results. Today we were able to get him to stay on the monitor right from the start so it only took 20 minutes vs on Monday where he we were trying to figure out the best place to track him and it took about 50 minutes. Luckily since he's always so active he shows plenty of accelerations within that time to pass considering that he only needs to show 2 of them.

The Non-Stress Tests are actually to monitor the placenta's health. When he shows at least 2 accelerations in a 20 minute period that shows that the placenta is functioning correctly and getting the correct blood supply and oxygen to him for him to continue thriving. No one is honestly concerned that my placenta will deteriorate but since I have that damn Gestational Diabetes label we have to do it to make sure, even though my numbers are still perfect without even really trying or even modifying my diet.

Aydia comes with me on these appointments as I have them all scheduled for around 11am on both Mondays and Thursdays and no one else is of course home at that time to watch her. Both Stephanie and her nurse Kristen compliment her each time on how well behaved she is! She sits happily for the 30-60 minutes it takes to get everything done eating a snack and watching a Veggie Tales movie and occasionally talking with me. She never attempts to wander away from her chair or anything, just sits there as content as can be. THANK GOODNESS! I don't know what I would do if she were a super active child...which is probably what Twinkle will be.

Comparing the two pregnancies I know that he is MUCH more active then Aydia ever was. She moved around of course, but more stretches and never active periods of more then 15-20 minutes and then relatively quiet for at least an hour. Twinkle likes to squirm and squirm and squirm. I get a quiet period out of him for about an hour in the afternoon, other then that he's ALWAYS moving. At night I'm up every 30 minutes at least due to his activity. Seems like every night I'm waking around 4:30 to use the bathroom (thankfully just the one time a night as I'm limiting my water intake in the evenings) but then I'm up till at least 5:30 or 6:00 waiting for him to calm down so I can fall back asleep. We're in for it with this child, I can tell. I swear to you that my labor will start with my water breaking first this time again because he's going to kick or punch so hard one of these times that he's going to rupture the membranes! HA!

Anyway, after the appointment I'm at the same stats as last week, 1 cm and 50% effaced. I feel like he's lower then last week but he's still floating above my pelvis so birth looks to be several weeks away still; which is more then fine with me! I'm choosing my birthing day as May 27th. My doula with Aydia is due right after me and she's choosing the same day. We're both doing HypnoBirth and she is actually a Hypnobirth instructor now and a trained Hypno-therapist. She has made a CD for herself centering around the 27th as her birthing day and is burning me a copy and I should get that early next week to listen to. I'll be 39 weeks and 1 day on the 27th and I've just felt that date resonating with me this whole pregnancy. It will at least be the day my birth process begins, that I honestly feel and believe, part of me thinks he might actually be born early on the 28th though, just like his big sister. Either way, I'm looking forward to birthing my little guy and experiencing birth again. It was such an amazing and empowering experience with Aydia and I'm honestly excited about it. Trust your body, trust your baby, trust birth. :-)

Well hello there!

Well aren't I just the horrible blogger?!? Over 2 years later and I'm finally posting an update. First of all, Aydia is over 2 now! She's a very sweet girl who loves to talk! Every day it seems like her vocabulary just expands times 10! She is able to tell us most of the time what she wants. Oh, and she's pretty much potty trained! Not at nap or overnights but she tells us when she has to go potty during the day so we're done with day time diapers. I don't quite trust her when we're out and about yet so I do put her in a diaper on outings but she'll normally tell me then as well and that diaper stays dry most of the time.

Here is a picture of our big girl!

The other big news is that Aydia is going to be a big sister! In like 3-4 weeks! Told you I was really behind in updating! I'm 36 weeks pregnant today with a little boy. We have a name picked out but for now we've been calling him Baby Twinkle, which was a name Aydia came up with. We asked her at about 6 weeks into the pregnancy what we should call the baby and she said Twinkle so we went with it. Because of that his theme is all stars, from his bedding to his decorations.

This pregnancy has been MUCH different from Aydia's. With her I had it very easy, hardly any morning sickness and I was comfortable for most of the pregnancy and I had no complications. This time around I was sooo sick. I actually ended up on a prescription to help keep me from throwing up and to keep the nausea at bay. I did loose 15 lbs because of the whole morning sickness part, and actually I haven't even gained it all back. I'm currently still 2.5 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. With Aydia I ended up gaining 22 lbs over my starting weight and I experienced a 5lb weight loss immediately after birth with her, so I'll be in a good place for weight once this baby comes I think. Ironically I've also been diagnosed with gestational diabetes this time which I didn't have with Aydia. However I'm under the impression, as well as my midwife and the OB I recently saw, that I likely had a false positive. My numbers are well under control and he's measuring right on track. However since I have the Dx I have to follow certain protocol that I didn't with Aydia just to double check on him. That has led to an interesting change in events for us.

I started out this pregnancy going to Generations clinic. Unfortunately Stephanie, my midwife with Aydia, had moved to Hudson Physicians and we just felt like it was too far of a drive to risk once I hit labor. Generations has a FANTASTIC c-section rate and they deliver at St. Joes which also is the best hospital in the twin cities for natural birth and I could do a water birth there. Sadly I never really clicked with any of the midwives at Generations. I didn't feel that same connection with any of them that I had with Stephanie. Also, at my 34 week appointment the midwife I saw that day told me that I wouldn't be "allowed" to go past my due date. Wait a minute, hold the phone. Now I may have the label of gestational diabetes but I'm showing absolutely no signs of it. I measured 33.5 weeks at that appointment so technically small, and no ultrasound had been done to determine what size he was in. There was NO medical reason at that point that induction should have already been brought up. Now I don't think that I'll make it to my EDD this time around but at the same time I didn't want an induction threat hanging over my head. Being a birth doula I do feel like I'm much more educated then the average woman on birth and I refuse to be induced for no sound medical reason. I left that appointment feeling tense and not trusting the group anymore.

Brandon and I had a long discussion that night about what to do. We discussed doing a home birth, something that honestly would be my first choice and if insurance would cover it we would be doing for this pregnancy. But we just can't afford to be spending that much money when insurance will pay for all but $500 of my whole pregnancy and birth in a hospital. I even brought up doing unassisted childbirth briefly but neither of us were completely comfortable with that idea. This whole pregnancy I kept telling him how much I missed Stephanie and that I felt like this wouldn't be happening if I had been seeing her. So after our conversation I decided to give her a call. I spoke with her and she was kind of shocked that they were already talking induction as well. She told me that she would be "thrilled to catch my baby!" So we made the switch to Hudson Physicians.

Our drive is going to be a bit longer, and now I'll be birthing our little boy in WI instead of MN but I feel sooo much more confident in everything now. I've had 2 appointments with her already. The first one at 35 weeks where we just chatted for 45 minutes about how this whole pregnancy has been going and a quick measurement of my belly and a heartbeat check. Then I saw her last night as well for my 36 week appointment which also included doing an ultrasound to check his growth (because of the GD) and a Non-Stress Test (NST) to check to see if the placenta is functioning correctly. Everything was PERFECT. He's measuring at 36w4d, which is right within normal but he has 38w5d legs! Long baby I'm growing! His estimated weight (which can be off by 2lbs either way) was 6lbs 6 oz which puts him right on track with Aydia's birth weight of 8lbs 9oz since they gain about 1/2lb a week from this point on. I also had my GBS test performed, which I'm assuming I'll find out the results next week, and a quick cervical check. I'm already 1 cm and 50% effaced! I'm doubting he'll wait till his due date of June 2nd to come out.

I'm excited to deliver at Hudson hospital, it's absolutely gorgeous since it's only 7 years old. It's small, but they have a low c-section rate of about 15%, which compared to the national average is wonderful. The World Health Organization says anything above 15% is unacceptable. Better then the hospital closest to us which is sitting at 27%! But they also don't have any midwives that deliver there so that hospital isn't even an option for us. (I don't trust hospitals that don't trust birth and allow midwives.) I'll be doing a water birth this time around assuming we make it in time as well. Their water birth tub is gorgeous! This time it's in my notes to fill up the water birth tub while we're on the way so we are able to make it. If you read Aydia's birth story below you'll see that there wasn't enough time for them to fill it up for me as they didn't realize how fast I was going to go.

I'm using a doula again, a wonderful friend of mine who I did my doula training with and we'll also be using the same birth photographer as we had for Aydia's birth. I'll also be doing HypnoBirthing/HypnoBabies combination this time around like with Aydia. And this time my midwife Stephanie WILL be the one to be at my birth!!! I'm beyond excited about this as I love her so much as my provider. The only day she won't be around will be May 14th for her son's college graduation so no labor on that day please! We have quite the plan in place for when I go into labor since Aydia's was fairly quick and I feel confident that I'll make it to the hospital in time. And if by chance I give birth on the way there I'm okay with that as well! I trust my body, my baby and birth! I'm getting so excited for our birthing day now.

Pictures of our little man:

And my belly pictures thus far, weeks 4-36: