FEB thread..... - Page 3

[J-Max]

UUUGGGHHH, rough day

Just FYI, for those that don't know. I had PIH with my last preg that developed into pre-eclamsia at 36-37 weeks and spent 5 weeks on bedrest. I have had PIH since I very first became preg this time, so they are watching me closely.

Yesterday started out good, but went down hill from there. My MIL came out to babysit me girls because I had several appt (ultrasound, NST, doc). I normally would pull DD#1 out of school for the day, but it was her Valentines party, so MIL volenteered to come down. We live about 1 hour and 20 min from town, so it is a full day event! We had had a very busy day Sunday, and I did not drink enough, so I stopped just before the u/s and bought a big bottle each of Gaterade and water and drank them before the appt. The u/s went great. Baby is most definatly a girl! and is measuring 2-3 weeks ahead. THis is important because PIH babies tend to not grow as well and be behind. They estimated her weight at 5 lbs 2oz (33 weeks, 2 days).

After that I headed up to the hospital for my weekly NST. Normally, my first bp is high (155/100) then regulated to 130-140 /80-85. Well my first pressure was 165/109! It stayed there for over an hour (I had several nurses VERY conserned!). They drew labs to see how my body was responding to these high pressures and I had lots of water and something to drink. (BTW baby was doing awesome and it seemed to have no effect on her ). After another hour of so my pressures started to come down and finally regulated at 140/100 and stayed there for the next hour and a half. My labs all came back very normal, so they finally released me!

I still had to go to my doc appt. This is where I Love my ob! He came in and rubbed my back and apologised for my bad day . Because my labs and everything else they can determine look fine, except for my bp, he said to go home and take it easy, but not to go on bedrest. Last preg, this seemed to make it worse. He said to listen to my body and do what it told me and if I feel "off" to come in. We also talked about and decided to do the steroid shots to mature the babies lungs. So I have to go to town today again to do the other shot and turn in my 24 hour urine test. He said he will do everything he can do to have me hold out untill 36 weeks, but baby can come anytime after that - that is March 6 - I am so not ready!

Well, thanks for listening and I hope you all have much better days!

[julesmiel]

Serenity, Nissa and Jess, sorry you've been having rough days lately! I'm sending good thoughts.

[jjsexton]

Hi there mamas,

I think we're all so close now that everything just naturally comes to a head...so sorry everyone is slogging through such rough stuff. I'm all good on the homefront but both my parents are (independently) going through really tough times and I just don't have much energy left to give - the baby is taking every last drop! I too am having a very rough time working...I have my own business and I'm the only one running it, so when I don't do it nobody does. Since the start of the pregnancy I've gone from 60-hour weeks to the point where I can now barely muster up a couple hours a day if that, and I have a feeling it's only going to get tougher. Must find balance - sigh!

ANYWAY, on to the fun stuff:

Originally Posted by speedknitter

Has anyone been to or given a co-ed baby shower? Any ideas on how to word the invitations, etc.?

We are doing a co-ed shower, and we worded the invitations to invite folks to join us both to celebrate the little one's arrival, and are addressing the envelopes to both names of a coupe or 'xyz family'. We also had sent out a 'save the date' email that said it would be co-ed, so I guess that was a giveaway! We're not doing any of the normal shower-y games or anything, just serving food and wine and champagne & having a little get-together on a Sunday evening...figure everyone can pat the bump and meet each other.
Also, someone on another board mentioned a great way to do the registry: you can make one from all different websites and add your own stuff (I added things like 'frozen meals for after the baby comes' to ours) too.

http://www.thethingsiwant.com

Hate that url though! There's another one at http://www.mywishlist.com, but I haven't tried that one.

Good luck everyone...keep your chins up! We're getting so close, and this is a tough time. Our babies are going through major growth spurts, we're getting unwieldy, and I know I for one getting tired of feeling so awkward and exhausted all the time.
it's a wet, grey week here in San Francisco and I know that isn't helping me get motivated, although realizing that there will be a little critter in the house in the next couple months certainly does! Plus my diapers arrived this week and they make me smile.

[aprildawn]

sounds like there's a lot of bad stuff going on among us april mamas. hugs to everyone having a rough time.

Jessmcg -- thanks for sharing your story about pih. i've been frustrated that my bp has been high enough for my doc to be concerned about it. when she mentions NSTs and possible induction i feel like i won't get the birth i want and that i feel is best for me and this baby. maybe i'm having a hard time taking the high bp seriously because it's not high by the medical standards, just high for me. also because it fluctuates so much. i take it at home 2x/day and it seems to always be between 120ish/75ish and 110ish/70ish. your good attitude about your situation encourages me and gives me some perspective on the whole thing. thanks!

on the topic of bp. the last three days i did the cream of tartar thing that i found suggested on these boards as well as gentlebirth.org and some other natural birth sites. it's 2tsp cream of tartar in 1/2 cup water and half the juice of a lemon or lime for three days. (i used orange juice since i didn't have a lemon on hand). last night and this morning my bp has gone down to the range of 100/65ish. wow! what a change.

has anyone else tried this? it says to repeat after 2 days rest. is that necessary if it has the desired result already? if it goes back up is it ok to repeat? wondering what you ladies might know. i'll probably post this question in the main board too.

[J-Max]

aprildawn - Thanks for the suggestion. I will buy some cream of trater today in town. (I have some, but it is really old). I drink alot of water with either lemon or lime juice in it, because I get tired of the taste of water after a while.

I go back and forth on the attitude! I have resigned myself to the fact I will never have a "natural" birth, but will make the best out of a bad situation. I have had 2 previous c-sec, so this one will be too. I feel that I have a very natural and birth friendly OB and hospital, so this really helps. (I have to hold out untill 35 weeks, because our hospital will not deliver before that and I or the baby will have to go to the nearest big hospital with a NICU, about 2 hours the other direction). I think part of the reason my doc is so good is because we did this all last preg and nothing helped (bedrest, meds, ect). I also have been going to this office for 7 years, which really helps.

I hope your pressures get better soon. How do you feel? I think this was more inportant to me than what the docs think. Last preg I was misserable by this point (I think the bedrest played a big part in that). Right now, I feel pretty good. I am tired and get sick to my stomache if I don't eat often enough. My pressures at home run slightly less than those ot the doc, but are still very high. My non preg bp is usually about 120/70. On a positive note, last preg my bp dropped within 30 min of dd being delived! The docs were expecting it to take about a week.

[danaalex]

jess, i'm so sorry to hear about the PIH issues. i've talked to a lot of people that suffer from PIH at the end of their pregnancies, me being one of them. i was lucky with both of my girls though because it didn't start until like 34-36 weeks and i delivered within a couple of weeks. i never had pre e and i didn't have to go on bedrest. i'm wondering if i'll get it again this time? guess i'll know soon enough. it's great that she's growing well!!!

serenity, i'm sorry to hear about the gestational diabetes diagnosis. i hope that you are able to do just the diet and don't have to give yourself insulin shots. you just might have an april baby after all . glad to hear that it's not going to change your delivery situation!

jessica, your party idea sounds wonderful. we were going to have an "welcome the new baby" party, but my middle child's birthday is april 14th so i think we're going to have a combo 2nd bday and welcome new baby party at my mom's house.

i don't really have any major discomforts right now. i picked up a new birthing ball and yoga video, cause mine are still in FL in storage, and i'm spending some time with both . i'm a little freaked at how LOW this baby is. when i release my stomach muscles, which are ALWAYS flexed right now LOL, this baby jets out from below my belly button. it's really really freaky and DISGUSTING LOL. i totally grossed my friends out hahaha.

[danaalex]

aprildawn, what are your pressures like in the DRs office? could you be suffering from "white coat" syndrome in the DRs office? that means your blood pressure shoots way up, but only in the presence of a medical type person LOL. it sounds weird, but it's soooo true. it happens to TONS of people. because your at home pressures are gorgeous! couldn't ask for anything better really.

[hawkfeather]

wow strolling through there really let me *meet* you mamas!
I had PIH in my first.. turns out it was actually husband induced hyper tension.. it was only high during appts becsue getting there, and waiting and the doctor was so stresful, and my ex husband and I were having issues,...it was fine in reality, i was finally admitted to hospital to be induced becasue of my PIH and as soon as i settled in bed and my ex left i was fine and my bp dropped and was healthy and normal..i know that is not the csae with everyone.. but that is my story anyways!..

I am happy to be here.. the last few days the third trimester hit me hard.. all of a sudden i am feeling stuffed with baby!!..
i am also having a lot of contractions every day.. i did with my last too though and she was two weeks after her dates.. so oh well..
anyways again.. happy to be here!

[J-Max]

Update this morning!

Just a quick update!
I had to go up to the hospital yesterday for the second steroid shot and they kepts me for about 1/2 hour to check my pressures. They were "normal" for me 140/90!!!
On Moday night dh were talking and I realized we had been very busy over the weekend and I had not drank much water, so I am think I was just very dehydrated. I chuged back the water and some gatorade monday and all day yestereday, so hopefully that helped.

Remember to drink your water

[aprildawn]

hey everyone. today has turned into a pretty good day for me.

first, yesterday i talked to a friend who is a retired nurse. she used to work in a NICU, actually. anyway, i was talking to her about my bp. i told her it was high at my last dr's appt, but that i remembered dd was playing with some toys in the room and made a big crash during the bp reading. my friend told me that could have a big affect on the reading and that the nurse should have taken it again. oh well. not sure what the reading was, but it was high. it's been in the 130s/80s range at the dr's office every time except a few visits in my 2nd trimester. she assured me that my at home readings are a better representation of my actual bp and i just need to keep recording those and taking it in to show the dr.

so, i was bummed that i'll have to be hooked up to the efm and might even be induced because of the bp and that we don't have the money for a doula in our budget right now. i posted a message on the FYT board asking for a cheap doula in central texas. someone, from wisconsin i think!, offered to forward my need to the doulas she knows in austin to see if someone could help me for cheap. i've had two calls already!! one of them has her brochures in my doctor's office and volunteers/trades time for her services, and one of them is working toward certification and used my doctor for her baby's delivery a year ago. how cool is that? i'm playing phone tag with both of them right now. i'm very excited about it.

also, we ordered a booster seat for dd earlier this week. it's coming today! so happy!! her carseat is my nemesis. why are those things so hard to strap kids into sometimes??!?!?

finally, i got my shower mama package today. veeeeery nice. bubble bath, homemade lip balm, biscotti, a book!! wow. all in all, a very nice day.

now...if someone could just do something about the heartburn...

[proudmamanow]

hi everyone! I'm overdue for a long post. My bosses have decided that since I'm leaving the office in 5.5 weeks (26 days) now is the time to give me new projects to work on! : so I'm extra busy just when I don't want to be. Hopefully it will make the time go faster between now and when I leave.

We had a mw appointment today with 'our' mw (as opposed to 1 of the backups) and our baby is no longer breech so I am very relieved. Our pool is on it's way, my dad & stepmom picked it up in Pennsylvania when they were there last week. We talked about waterbirth with our midwife today and about who will be with us when. We're a bit unsure as to whether we want another person to be around during early labour, as the mw won't come until active labour.

Now for personals:

April -- so glad your package reached you at last Glad your day has been good, so sorry to hear about all your bp issues I really hope you can avoid the efm. Great that you might be able to find a doula!!!

Jess-so glad that your bp is better, good reminder to drink water Glad that you have a good ob & hospital (your ob sounds great!). I know there are some other mamas on the various boards that have had very positive, intentional C section experiences.

to Hawkfeather good to see more Cdns!

danaalex I also have a new birthing ball and yoga video What fun! happy birthday too!

Stream good to see you again! I missed you --glad you were able to take a break from work.

jjsexton -your shower sounds fun! hope you enjoy it.

Seren sorry about your day..that sounds very hard. I know that m/c anniversaries can be very hard. Sorry that you have gd too

Nissa that all sounds rough! I hope things even out for you soon and that work gets better...

speedknitter...glad that you are enjoying BH contractions... I haven't had any yet but I'm sure they will come! for your doula questions I'd suggest going to the midwife/doula board in birthing from beyond.

juliesmiel -glad you checked out the link, yeah it's a great canal

: to all as we head into this last stretch !

[julesmiel]

Originally Posted by aprildawn

i posted a message on the FYT board asking for a cheap doula in central texas. someone, from wisconsin i think!, offered to forward my need to the doulas she knows in austin to see if someone could help me for cheap. i've had two calls already!! one of them has her brochures in my doctor's office and volunteers/trades time for her services, and one of them is working toward certification and used my doctor for her baby's delivery a year ago. how cool is that? i'm playing phone tag with both of them right now. i'm very excited about it.

So glad that you're having luck finding a doula! I trained to be a doula, and I know that having that support will help a lot.

Originally Posted by Jesse

Our pool is on it's way, my dad & stepmom picked it up in Pennsylvania when they were there last week.

Mine, too! It's one of those inflatable ones with fishies, and I'm very excited to get it. I might ask Joe (dh) to set it up so we can try it out.

[Stream]

Julie-- You know, until you posted that (about having a trial run with the pool), I hadn't even considered it. Duh-- we should totally do that. I would love to take it for a spin and I'm sure dd would too. And I keep wondering how long it will take to fill. Thanks for pointing out the obvious!

[danaalex]

wahhhhh....................................

for the past week i have had two sick children and a sick DH to deal with. my kids are almost 2 and 3.5 and i have only had to take one of them in to be seen for an illness one time and that was 2 yrs ago!!!!!!! they are just never sick. they never get what all of the other kids have, even if they play with them for a week LOL. they have great immune systems, normally. until this virus found us. it's a nasty one and one i'd love to get my hands around ( and strangle the life out of it).

it started last monday with my oldest and a nice high fever, then tuesday my youngest got it, as did my DH. the girls ran fevers in the 104 range for most of the week, with bella hitting 106 on friday. i'm a nurse and there was NO locigal explanation for a fever that high. they had NO other symptoms what so ever, and were actting completely normal when their fevers would go below 102. i was using tylenol and cold rags, and tubs until that all stopped working on thursday. we gave bella motrin on thurs and friday and it didn't work at all. i wasn't worried, i was pissed!!!! my kids were miserable, no one was sleeping, and i had NO health care type person to get in touch with. so, i called a ped that someone had recommended to my mom. we saw them friday afternoon and found out this is a sort of vicious cold virus. starts with a week of high fever, followed by 7-14 days of nasty cold with green gunk and a productive cough. yeah!!!!! just what i wanted to hear, that this was JUST the beginning and there was no way to get rid of it faster.

so the weekend sucked. more fevers, lots of icky stuff, majorly pissed off children, and now i have the cold part ( i missed the fever thank god!!!) today, they are on day 7 of the fever, and it's still there! S**T!!!!! bella was up SCREAMING last night for like 30 min. i don't even know what to do with her. she is back to the newborn stage where you can't even sit down with them or they scream because they want you to stand. i'm too big to wear her in the kozy in front, and she doesn't really want to ride on my back. i guess i should try her in it on my hip ( i JUST thought of that while sitting here typing). xandra got a bloody nose because the air is so dry and her nose is so stuffy, that was fun to deal with. her lips are dry and bleeding too. at least i can rationalize with her why she needs to drink lots of water. i'm stressed enough with this living situation that a nasty illness like this is not my idea of fun at all.

to top it all off, my DH and my mom are driving me batty. my Dh has very little patience right now and there is so much that needs to be done and talked about, and he just doesn't want to figure out what our plans are after we close on friday. my mom got mad at me because i'm not sure what we are doing with certain pieces of furniture in the new house, i just can't win. she also had the balls to tell me today that if a pg woman gains more than she should weigh or gain while pg that she is now obese!!! WTF???? i know that no person in the field of nutrition would label a pg woman obese, unless she was obese to begin with. so basically, she was saying that a woman that is 5'4" and weighs 136 lbs ( which is a good weight) and then gains 30 lbs while pg is now obese. OH!!! and then she told me that if you gain more than 30-35 lbs when you are pg, it's because you ate too much. OMG!!! and mind you, this is all coming from a woman that has NEVER BEEN PG!!!!!

calgon, take me away...........................
oh wait, i forgot, there is no working tub here LOL.

[liawbh]

Hope this week is better, danaalex.

[jjsexton]

Oh danaalex, you poor thing! just being this pregnant is practically more than i can handle right now...I can't imagine adding sick kids & hubby, not to mention sick SELF, to the list.
Do your best to let as much of it just flow off you as possible and remember to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF and your belly babe. You have big work to do! Hope it all turns a corner for you soon.... :{

[seren]

Danaalex, I'm so sorry you are having such a rough time. I hope things start to go more smoothly soon.

[heket]

Dana-

I don't know how you're keeping your sanity, but you're handling all of those stresses very very well. I know if it were me, I'd probably just get so fed up and tell my dh to grow up already and deal with the issues at hand and my mom where she could stuff it. I know it wouldn't solve much, but I'm a person who always has to get that stuff off her chest when I feel backed into the corner.

Sending some positive energy vibes your way to help out.

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes! It's been awhile since I checked back in, but things are going ok for now. The RPD seems to be ok for now -- the baby will have to be checked and given an U/S once born to make sure everything is ok. But the CNM told me that the RPD shouldn't affect the birth in anyway. *YAY!* So this means it should be fine to HB. We'll just take the baby in a couple of days after to make sure all is well.

Now that leaves one last, major hurdle to finish nailing down with dh and of course it's the hardest -- circumcision. Since we don't know the sex, I've been trying to have the talk with dh who has been very resistant and adamantly in favor of it. The discussions have ranged from him telling me that I'm trying to make all the parenting decisions without him, to his list of reasons why (none of which are valid to me), to simply "we will and that's that!" (WTF? I'm making all the decisions here? ) Anyhow, we did reach a point where I think he understood that all I want is to feel as if I've been a part of the decision and that my sentiments have been heard. Just as I've read things against, it's now his turn to show me why. Of course, he won't do the research. So my next move is to get him to read an article and discuss with me what he agrees and disagrees with. Maybe this will bring out the real reason why he's so adamantly for it. Unfortunately, it's taking me 3 weeks to get him to read this one article! (I know he's stalling : ) I'm trying to remain calm and persistant since it's now 32 weeks. (already? : )

Still have to get a few last things -- some of my HB items, a birth ball (I did at least start pricing them), a copy of Hypbirth that my MW recommends (does anyone have one they could lend or copy for me?) and the carseat. Then there's all the getting the house ready -- we need to steam the carpets and get new drawers. The ones we have are broken so our clothes are everywhere! I want to get it all straightened up before the HB so we can have our guest room back to use for guests (how novel a thought!) Seems like there's still so much more to do!

[speedknitter]

Got my birthing ball in the mail yesterday from www.birthwithsol.com
Of course, forgot to take something home from the shop to inflate it with, so will have to do that tonight. Their service was speedy and it arrived exactly as promised...a good online shopping experience.

We took a tour of the birthing center at Sequoia Hospital on Sunday, and it was pretty nice...but still a hospital. Huge private rooms for labor, delivery and recovery all-in-one, with huge bathrooms with walk in shower (no tub ) We've also decided to take a 2-week childbirth class, this Tues and next Tues evening, mostly cause we feel like we should. I'm thinking its either going to be really helpful or a total waste of time, trying to have an open mind about it!


Dana, how is everyone feeling? Getting better I hope! Just a few more days until you close on the house???


Heket, what is RPD? :


Penelope Pitstop had the hiccups at 5 am this morning...that was interesting!

[heket]

RPD= Renal Pelvic Dilatation

It seems that there's makers in ultrasounds OBs look for and RPD is one of them. It sounds much worse than it will probably be. Basically, it means the tubes in the baby's kidneys that drain urine are growing faster than what doctors consider normal on their timeline and they think there may be some kind of blockage preventing proper drainage. The tubes shouldn't be over 7 mm by week 32-34 and at week 30 they were measured at 4.7mm. So that's a good sign. Of all places, Baby Center had the basic layman info on it, but it is from their UK site.

What had concerned me was would we need constant fetal monitoring for this condition in case of anything. But it turns out the hospital wouldn't be doing anymore monitoring than normal. They would only ask for a pediatrician consult to check the kidneys once the baby is born. I point blank asked the CNM if it in anyway would affect the birth and she said no. My HB MW and I are very happy about this. But we will have to have the baby screen just to be certain that there are no problems. So even though I wasn't planning on it, it looks like we're going to be taking the baby in much sooner than I hoped.