30 March 2010

39 weeks

really? this is new.
i wasn't expecting to raise my glass to this week.
but here it is....
so here's to castor oil...fill your glass...Cheers!

i'm kidding. no oil for me. just trust and courage.
so here's to trust and courage.

22 March 2010

so very soon

well...it's March 22nd.
and no baby yet.

i'm currently dilated to 3cm and mostly effaced.
so we'll see.

it's time to turn it over to nature and watch the process unfold in it's own time.
maybe she's wants a diamond birthstone like her sister.

one way or the other...she's coming so very soon.
and i'm starting to treasure these last pregnant days.
bodies are so amazing!

16 March 2010

ready

no...i can't sleep.
i would say i've been tossing and turning for the past three hours
but it's more like flumping and flopping around.
i feel like a hippo.
every movement involves leverage and multiple limbs.
and little miss ruby doesn't help by rummaging around in there.
maybe she feels like a hippo too.
a squished up one.

i want her to come.
if she's ready.

and i'm pretty darn sure she's ready. so come already!

while i was flumping around in my bed i started thinking about labor.
visualizing thru the contractions that i inevitably have every night until 4am.
and i was thinking about fear and the unknown.

i think that's what our culture breeds...fear. and in all honesty. i'm not scared of labor. it's not some torturous thing...it's only scary if you don't understand the process of it. it is the unknown that scares us. i use to be scared of electricity that way. i was terrified to mess with an outlet. then i wired my entire studio...and it's really quite simple. same thing with plumbing. but looking under the hood of my car always intimidates me. i know nothing about it. until recently, if i thought of jump starting another car by myself...i'm sure i would blow something up and someone would surely lose an arm or leg. so in these random thoughts...i thought of labor and pain, and how if we don't know anything about it, we can be pretty scared.

needless to say, i'm not scared to have this baby.

it's funny to think back...i remember waking up right after i delivered lynzee and still being terrified of labor. i had spent so many months freaking out over what if's and could happens, that after she came i was still scared.

then i passed a kidney stone a week after she was born.
then another kidney stone at home a while later.
then i had another natural birth.
and two more kidney stones.
and passed my miscarriage at home.
...now...not so scared of natural pain and the process it takes.


it's the unnatural pain that actually scares me. i'm terrified of interfering with the process and the complications it can create. i didn't react well to the pain medication during my first kidney stone at the hospital. i don't like feeling doped up and still have the pain. i need to have my head clear to deal with pain. to work with it. to remember that it is temporary.

anyways...those are my thoughts nearing 1am...as i wonder when i will get to hold this baby that kicks my ribs and rams her head into my cervix all night.

she's got to be ready.

12 March 2010

countdown

37 weeks...

i love my new ruby slippers :)


on the way to the talent show...

the girls did the jitterbug dance they made up themselves

at some point i'll figure out how to put videos on here...

until then...here's a photo


10 March 2010

strepB

let's talk about strepB
because it's causing a great turbulence in my mind
and i'm losing sleep over it.

for the past two days i've been reading online medical journals and opinions.
i just need a place to talk it out...so this is mostly for me.
but if you are interested...by all means read on.


so here's the facts:
strepB is a normal healthy bacteria that grows in your lower intestine. in all of us. it can spread to the vagina...and often does in pregnancy. 1 in 3 pregnant women test positive for this bacteria. that's 30%...that's a lot of us. the trick figure is that just less than 1% of these positive women pass it to their infants, who can become infected, usually with sepsis (infection of the blood). that's not a high percentage, but yes, it is a serious infection. so the Center of Disease Control here in the USA has a mandate prevention. It's quite aggressive in my opinion...as every pregnant woman must be tested and every positive woman must have two doses of antibiotics two hours apart thru an iv during labor. one of those doses needs to be a few hours before delivery...and it takes at least 30 min per dose. (that means during transition.) this all started in 1995...so really we don't know how this affects the immune systems of these babies yet.

however, interestingly enough, although the infections in the newborns have decreased, the immunity to penicillin and later infection of strepB has increased significantly.
hum.

instinctively...this feels wrong to me.

to kill off ALL bacteria, good and bad, before the baby passes thru the birth canal...has other implications. i think the bacteria is there for a reason...and i don't think a baby should be flushed with penicillin while in labor...or the mom. and if you can tell within 12-24 hours if the baby has an onset infection...why not treat the baby then?

or better yet...test all the moms at 35 weeks. if they test positive put them on a probiotic and vitamin C and zinc...then test them at 37 weeks...after all, it is a transient bacteria. it doesn't stay. that's why they test it so close to delivery, so they can guesstimate if you might have the bacteria during labor. and just because you have the bacteria doesn't mean you actually have a strepB infection.

i'm just bugged that i don't have a choice.

i think more research needs done before we mandate this throughout our entire nation. it feels like the only choice i have is to not make it to the hospital in time...but i really don't feel like delivering in the lobby. I would just like to talk about this. because i don't feel right about it. what if the penicillin makes my blood pressure rise...or the babies...and we end up in a c-section? what if it messes with my contractions or dilation? what if i have an allergic reaction? i don't want to be hooked up to an iv during transition...it makes a natural delivery quite difficult.

so i'm frustrated. and even though it shouldn't be such a big deal.
it feels huge to me right now. it caught me off guard.
and i don't like being told i have no choice.
none of us like to feel stuck.

i think my mother tiger instincts are kicking in.

07 March 2010

prego picture

look what brittney sent me!
(taken feb 13th in tabiona utah)
i'm going to see the midwife tomorrow...
let's hope for some progress.
cheers to completing 36 weeks...
cheers to full term!