38 week OB visit with Anderson- trouble in bubble-land

I went in to my OB appointment with Anderson on Friday morning at 8:45, expecting everything to be just like it always was and quick and easy. Well everything was great (bp was 106/72, pulse was 84, I'm at 164.8lbs, and Killian's heartrate was 125) until she did the fundal height measurement. She tried repositioning me a few times, but the measurement was still coming up short (34-35). She checked my chart again, and found that I have been coming up short for awhile now. She asked me if I had an ultrasound to check on fluid levels, and I told her no. (I have been asking for one for awhile now, because I KNEW my fundal heights were always low, and I just wanted the piece of mind of knowing for sure that everything was okay. The other OB's refused to do one, telling me that they only do them when they have doubts about the baby's position, and since Killian is clearly head down, they weren't going to do one at all til 41 weeks.) Well Dr Andreson was a bit concerned and wanted me to come in for an ultrasound as soon as possible. They had an opening at noon, and I took it. She stripped my membranes, and off we went.

On my ultrasound, Killian was swallowing and practice breathing like normal, and his fluid levels were perfect. BUT his size was alarming. The ultrasound tech is not allowed to tell you anything during the scan, so you have to talk to your doc, but when they do measurements, the numbers do show up on the screen. All of his measurements were around 34 weeks. I am 38 weeks along. She also took A LOT of time measuring and remeasuring the bloodflow in his cord. Every u/s I've had, I left right after and the OB or the nurse would call me later in the day once they had a chance to look it over. But this time as soon as the ultrasound was over, the tech asked me to stay, because my doctor was gonna want to talk to me right away. I waited for a little while before they took me back into an NST room and hooked me up, telling me that Dr A wanted an NST strip on Killian, and then she would be in to talk to me.

He passed the NST with flying colors. Dr A came in and was praising his fluid levels and his test results (she said he was a rockstar on his NST), but I could tell she was setting me up for some not so great news. It turns out that Killian is suffering from IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction). He is in the 8th percentile for size. The bloodflow from the placenta wasn't exactly what they were hoping to see I guess (she said something about the placenta and the cord, and I'm so fuzzy that I don't remember exactly what she said.) My head is spinning. She scheduled my induction for first thing monday morning. (8am central time). So it looks like I will have my baby by Tuesday night. I have everything crossed that he is healthy and safe, and when he is born, we will just find out that he was just little... because I am a small person.

The plan is to have me go in to L&D at 8am Labor day and have another NST done. Then Dr Anderson will come check my cervix and see how it's going. If I am favorable, they will start the pitocin immediately, if not, they will start cervodil, and I'll have that in for 12 hours, THEN they will start the pit. Either way, I'm terrified. Even if it had to be in the hospital, that's fine, but I still wanted my birth to be natural. Which there is NO WAY it's possible with the pitocin. I will HAVE to be on an iv. I will be walking in, to start the cascade of interventions right away. And I'm so scared of how it's going to turn out. Will he be healthy? Will he have weight issues because of this? Will he have nursing issues because of the drugs? Will the pitocin actually cause ADD later? Or autism like they are now doing research for? Why Killian? Everything was going perfect up until now. I did everything healthy for him... I can't wait for this all to be over so I know what we are dealing with and whether he is going to be born healthy or not. For now all I can do is wait.

Killian's nursery &&hearts

The whole nursery (still a mess, but it's still a work in progress.)


I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this swing...


Crib and wall decor


His changing pad that I made to match his crib bedding


The crib bedding that my Mom and I lovingly made for him. (ROCKETS!!! *squee*)


His crib and another angle of the awesome rocket bedding


The wall decor... through the meshy thingy


The wall letters that I made for him

38 week belly pics

Early labor.... that sputtered out v.v

On Friday August 26th, I was woken up a few times, the first at 8:30am, the second at 11:40am, the third at 2:30pm by a sort of burning pain in my belly on the right side, from my belly button up to my ribcage. It felt a lot like the pain you get in your side from running or exercising too much. No repositioning or moving or anything made it better, in fact moving or leaning into it made it worse. The first two times it woke me up, I was able to fall back asleep, but the third time, I really thought about it and I was worried, so I got up and figured I would try a few other things to relieve the pain. As far as I could tell, the pain wasn't coming and going... it was constant. I didn't have any bleeding or anything, so I was confused. I called my midwife (Anneke) who hadn't heard of this kind of pain before, and was going to call her senior midwife to consult with her and see what she thought I should do. Shortly after getting off the phone with Anneke, my burning pain was accompanied by another pain, appearing in my left ovary region as pinchy, period like cramps that wrapped around to my back. The pains weren't constant this time though. They were coming and going in waves, and my belly was getting hard at the top through them. (ribcage to belly button again). Anneke called back and I told her about the new pain, and how now all of the pain was coming and going in waves. She said they sounded A LOT like contractions. We started timing them, and they were lasting 20-35 seconds long, and were 2-4 minutes apart. Only the upper part of my belly was getting hard. Anneke was confident that this was early labor!! But because they were VERY short, she said it was VERY early. She suggested that I drink lots of water, and take a shower or bath and see if they kept coming. I drank a ton, and took a long hot shower (while sitting on the floor lol) and they did not stop or slow down. So she suggested that I walk around a bit, and see if we could get them to last a little longer. Mom and I did A LOT of walking, and they began to space out some. Throughout the day I alternated walking with resting with my feet up/napping, and the contractions continued about every 20 minutes. Still short (roughly 40-50 seconds long) so still not active labor. Bed time rolled around and I could NOT get comfortable enough to sleep. I finally passed out around 7am, and the contractions had still been coming every 20 minutes up to this point. I slept like a rock once I fell asleep though, and when I woke up around noon, the contractions had stopped. I had maybe one or two more throughout the day, but nothing regular. Sooo I guess my birth story is TO BE CONTINUED....... *grumble grumble cuss cuss*

37 week belly pics part 2 :)

Because my pictures that I took last night were in a dress, you really couldn't see my belly very well, so I took some better ones today.





On a side note, still having insane pressure and some random sporadic contractions and diarrhea all day long...

37 week belly pics

And I just wanted to add that I lost 2 more pieces of my plug today... and I've had reasonless diarrhea starting Saturday night, all day yesterday, and so far today. I'm hoping this is the beginning of real labor....

36 week midwife appointment- home visit!!

Today was my home visit from Anneke and Ginnie!! They inspected the layout of the house and told me the best place to put the pool (Right in front of the sliding doors to the deck! It's gonna be beautiful!!) and how to set up. They also measured the distance and showed us where to run the hose from. 25ft is juuust long enough :) They looked over my birth kit and were satisfied with it, so we've got that all done. I need to put a mattress down near the pool too, to deliver the placenta on, but we can just use the futon mattress from the spare room :) Paid half of the cost for everything, so that's a load off my mind too. I signed the consent form for the vitamin K shot after he's born like the pedi requested, so that's out of the way. It looks like everything is ready, we're just waiting on the little guy! They did my exam on our couch (which was so comfy and awesome :))... My weight was better than it was at the OB, and my blood pressure was MUCH better. Weight is at 161lbs, and my blood pressure was 102/64. My pulse was 84. Fundal height is still lower than it should be, 33 instead of the 36 (almost 37) weeks I am.... He is settling into my pelvis further though. His heart is still beating away at 134bpm. I had my first internal exam done too. My cervix is 70% effaced, and a fingertip dilated, and Killian's head is at -1 station. I was so confident that losing part of my plug meant I was further than that, but I guess I'm not nearly as far as I was hoping...

36 week belly pics and OB appointment

I had my 36 week appointment with my OB today (Dr Heins). They did the usual, and then they did the GBS test. (NOT fun. They shove a qtip where it should never go.) My weight and bp aren't coming up in a happy place :( though the doc wasn't concerned. My weight was reading at 164lbs (YIKES!) and my blood pressure was at 116/82. My pulse was at 84. They asked me if I was "still" taking my blood sugars, and I just said no, and they let it go thank god. My fundal height was measuring behind again... at 34. But baby's heartbeat was at a nice 133bpm, and he's a serious wiggle worm, so he is apparantly still doing well in there :p It took a few days for the results to come back, but my GBS test was NEGATIVE!!!! YAY!!!

Progress!!!!

Early this morning (4am!) I lost two chunks of my plug when I went in to pee!!! They were brownish tinged snot wads no bigger than a dime each :) YAY!!

35 week belly pics

I got creative again this week :P

















OH THERE you are, feet!!!!! It's nice to see you again! :P

August 5th OB appointment with Smith

On August 5th I had an OB appointment, this time with Dr Smith, who is one of the ones at the practice that I'm not horribly fond of. But it was the only one they had available this week. My weight according to their scale is 158lbs (Not very far off from the midwife's scale lol). My bp was 90/60, normal :) My pulse was 80... She did my fundal height and forgot to tell me what it was, but I asked the nurse and she ran back in and got it for me before I left. We are measuring 34. Baby's heart rate was at 125bpm, and she said something about baby's heart slowing down as they get older. They decided to harass me at this appointment about the glucose screen again. I mean harass. They will NOT let it go. They sent me home with a meter and want me to monitor my sugars for the next two weeks. I tried to do it, but blood makes me faint, no matter how small the amount, and the first three times I did it, I threw up afterwards and almost passed out. SO I stopped. WHY are they pushing this SO hard when I have so little time left? At this point, tracking my sugars for 2 more weeks would mean that they wouldn't have the information til 37 weeks (my appointment is two days before I would turn 37 weeks) so if they even had to put me on insulin or anything, it would literally be 2 weeks before my due date. Which makes me feel like it's bullcrap. They also told me my GBS test will be at my next appointment. So that'll be interesting. :/

34 week Midwife appointment!

This was the last midwife appointment that I have to go out by her!!! The next one is my home visit already! I can't believe I'm so close to 36 weeks! That's my huge milestone that I've been hoping for. Anything after that, baby would be fine to be born, though I swear he HAS to wait for at least September 1st!! The midwives told me at this appointment that there is somebody due August 30th who has the pool before me... and I don't get it until she's done with it. CRAP. Baby had BETTER not come before she's done. I don't think I could survive a natural birth without the water aspect. I wish I could afford a fishy pool as backup. Anyway, I guess the ladies had been talking about me a bit, and it's been decided, I am the perfect candidate to be Anneke's first birth as the primary care midwife. No matter when I deliver, whether Ginnie is in town or not, Anneke will be delivering me!!! If Ginnie is gone, Jan will be "overseeing" and observing Anneke. I'm super excited!!! I LOVE Anneke!! And that way, if I do ever have any other babies, I can still see the same midwife! (Ginnie is retiring, she is not accepting any conceptions after October 1st of this year.)

Anyway! To get to the updates. My weight has not changed according to their scale from the last appointment, it's still at 157.6. My blood pressure is still exactly where it's supposed to be, 98/60. My pulse was 80. All normal. Killian's head is in my pelvis, but not very deep (you can still wobble it) so he isn't engaged yet. They couldn't tell which way he was facing though. His heart rate was a little low for him, 130bpm, but I didn't eat anything before my appointment, so that could've been why. My fundal height was measuring slightly behind again, 32.5-33 (1-1.5 behind) but they said that was no big deal. Nothing to worry about.

34 week belly pics

33 week belly pics

I'm a little late uploading these, and my camera hated me this week, but here they are.

My normal OB appointment on July 19th landed me in L&D

Monday July 18th, I had two contractions that were relatively painful. I felt the tightening of BH, but there was like a strong "gas pain" all the way from the back, wrapping around my belly along with them. The first one, I wasn't paying attention to time it because I was so shocked by it, but I knew enough to time the space inbetween that one and if there was another one. Sure enough, about 6 minutes later, another one. That one was around 2 minutes long. 8 minutes later, another, only not painful at all. Just a basic BH, and then another basic, non painful BH 10 minutes after that. Then I fell asleep and napped for about an hour or so, and when I woke up, there weren't any more. I already had a normal appointment scheduled with the OB for in the morning on Tuesday, so I decided that since they didn't come back, I would just wait and talk to them about it at my appointment, just kind of figuring they would do a check and let me go home then. I woke up a few hours after my usual bed time (Probably around 5 or 6ish Tuesday morning and went to pee, and there was a quarter sized spot of bright red blood on my pantyliner. I still didn't feel any more contractions or anything, so I just waited til my appointment.

My appointment was at 9am on the 19th. They did the usual measurements, I'm at 159lbs now, which puts me at 29lbs gained to date. Blood pressure was 100/62 and my pulse was 60. My fundal height was only measuring at 30, but this is the first time it's behind, so it could've just been the way baby was turned. He checked Killian's hb, but didn't tell me what it was. I told the OB what had been going on, but I was still feeling just fine, and there was no more spotting, so I wasn't real worried, but he wanted to do a cervical check anyway. He said they can't do a FFN test til 24 hours from when the bleeding happened, so he couldn't do that. He got called upstairs to deliver a baby, so he had me go upstairs to L&D so he could quick check me in between checking on the laboring mama. Well I guess today L&D was super busy, and he didn't tell me that he didn't just want me up there for a cervical check... he wanted me up there for contraction monitoring too. So the nurses hooked me up, and although Killian was doing just fine (and being SUPER active, might I add)(his heartbeat was anywhere from 120-155 the whole time he was on the monitor) I was contracting. I had 3, I'm not sure on the time lengths and stuff on them, because the monitor screen was pretty much behind me, but I could feel them. Again though, they stopped. Baby didn't even notice them at all. He finally did the cervical check at around 12:30. My cervix is still long and closed, but it's much softer than he would like. SO he had me take a dose of procardia (I had to bite them to get through the extended release coating, and wow do those things taste like mint!!). He said that in a half hour, the nurse would bring me another dose of it, he'd do another cervical check, and I would be able to go home.

Fast forward to 2pm. (yes, it took THAT long, because they were super busy.) I got my second dose of procardia and the doc came in about a half hour after that. I was fully expecting to be told I could go home at that point, because there had been no more contractions, and Killian was doing great on the monitor, but he said they wanted to wait 3 hours from the last dose of procardia to send me home, to make sure that it had really stopped the contractions completely.

6pm rolls around, and Dr H finally comes back in and does the cervical check. Still long, and closed, but still as soft as it had been before. But he said I could go home. I am under strict orders that if I have any more contractions that hurt, or any more spotting I need to go straight in. SO for now, everything is alright, but it sure wasn't the best day I've had :/

Just had to share these siggies

GraysMama on jm made me some ADORABLE siggies, and I just couldn't help it, I HAD to share them :)





I LOVE them!!!!!

32 week belly pics

4D elective ultrasound!!!!

For my birthday, Dad agreed to pay for an elective 4D ultrasound for me so I could see and watch Killian for awhile, so we went on July 16th (almost 32 weeks) and boy was it amazing!!! I got a dvd of the whole thing and a cd with 74 pictures of him. He is still definitely a little boy, and he is a cuddler!! He was all cuddled up with the wall of my uterus, and then when we got him to move, he cuddled with my placenta. :) But we caught a smile and quite a few other faces. He is soooo cute!!!
















Yup, still a boy! Hehe finally a gender shot! (I got one in 3d too, but I'm sure nobody wants to see that lol)









He is beautiful, and I am even more in love now than I was before XD

July 13th midwife appointment

It was a normal appointment, and everything is still looking good. My pulse was at 88, and blood pressure was 92/60. I am now at 157lbs, so that puts me at 27lbs gained so far. My fundal height is still right on, at 31. Killian is still head down (YAY!!!) and Anneke (the midwife in training) let me feel it. It was so cool feeling!!! Those ARE his little feet in my ribs lol. We talked about when I have the baby and everything, and even though Ginnie (the midwife) may not be there, no matter who delivers me (it will be another local midwife who is covering for Ginnie while she's gone) Anneke will be there. So no matter what, I have a stable person who I am used to that will be there for me through it all. I am also supposed to add vitamin D to my vitamins every day, and we also discussed how to best let my OB know that I am doing the homebirth thing. I'm nervous for that conversation, but I'm ready, because it means I am doing so well in my pregnancy!!!

31 week belly pics