|
Week 39
~ Late Pregnancy Blues
This has been a really difficult week emotionally, but has ended on a good note. I think the stress of everything is finally getting to me. There isn't much more news on the job front with Tom and I am losing patience with Tommy who has been really needy, and I spent most of the week trying to get the house clean before my parents got here. I was just spent in every way! It's also been really hot again so it was hard to do anything except sit around all day.
My thirty-nine week OB appointment was more of the same. Baby is still high and my OB said I'm only 1.5 centimeters dilated and very thick. She was pretty discouraged and talked about post-dates and other stuff and twice a week non-stress tests (NSTs) after 40 weeks. She doesn't like to do any inductions of vbacs in light of the recent research, several papers not just the NEJM one (good and bad cause if I go to 42 she'll probably really push a c-section, but hopefully I'll go long before then!). My GBS test came back and I'm negative so that was a bit of good news. She looked at my birth plan and said that just about everything was very routine (in particular the baby care stuff). I had included a lot of things in case of the need for a repeat cesarean. I want it to be more of a birth this time. For one thing I want my mother and doula with me during the operation. She said that if I have general anesthesia for an emergency c-section they probably won't allow both in. I was really hoping she would push for me there, but she said it's up to the anesthesiologist. I'm hoping we can convince the anesthesiologist that my doula is a professional and has been at several cesarean births and that my mother has also been through one already and both will be good! I want my doula there because I want someone who knows the technical stuff to relay information to me, and I want my mother there so a family member can view the birth. Another thing I feel strongly about is no routine IV or heparin lock. I have a lot of valves in my veins and don't take IVs well in the usual places so they have to go in the back of my hand, which limits my ability to comfortably use that hand and move around. Of course if an IV is truly needed I won't refuse it though! The OB went on and on about how I might need an IV anyway because women often dehydrate during labor, how you need a lot more fluids than you realize and most women can't drink that much because of nausea, etc and how inadequate fluids lead to an ineffective labor. I, of course, agree with all of this about the ineffective labor and fluid needs, but I have no problem drinking a ton! Plus I plan on eating easily digestible water rich foods like chicken soup (will provide some protein) and watermelon throughout labor.
At the appointment my OB also asked permission to gently strip my membranes to hopefully release more prostaglandin to get that cervix doing a bit more. I figured why not and she did it. It wasn't that uncomfortable so I do think she did it very gently. I've heard it can be excruciatingly painful. She encouraged me to keep taking the EPO. The baby has moved down a little bit more, but is still fairly high. Nothing happened yesterday, but today I lost a little more mucus plug and had a tiny amount of blood in it. It was still not much and pretty snotty/runny, not a big clump like with Tommy. I walked a ton today (our membership to the Children's Discovery Museum expired today so we took Tommy). I started getting a lot of tailbone pain, and I have a lot of pressure as well. I had a few contractions today, but I was also out longer than expected grocery shopping and the contractions stopped after I drank two glasses of water.
My parents ended up arriving a little earlier than expected. They drove out faster and moved up plans because they were afraid with all that prelabor last week that I would wind up in true labor and they would miss it! I really appreciate this and am so happy they are here. Having mom here has been a huge motivator after being down for most of the week. She has given me a great boost of energy and we are getting a lot accomplished together. Tommy warmed up to them right away as well. It was as if they hadn't even been gone and like he had been seeing them everyday these last two and a half months. It has been a great mood booster just to sit and watch Tommy interact with my parents. I so wish we could live closer together!
|
