Pregnancy Check-in!

KH826 · April 2014

Good Morning Expectant Parents!

Here is our current EDD roster for this check-in:

@YBNormal85: April 24 singleton

@Jazibel: April 29 boy
@pinkspark: May 28 twins
@KH826: June 3 girl
@redrockmama: July 11 singleton
@ball.and.chain July 13 boy

@belovedvirgo0209 July 14 girl
@Kleigh1: July 26 girl
@2mamazinseattle: Aug 20 girl

@2momsinCA: Aug 20 boy/boy twins

@flygirl1228: Aug 21 girl/boy twins

@Trisholio and @trisholiosboi: Sept 2 girl
@shelly2314: Oct 2 twins

@manada and @healz413: Oct 29 twins
@only1leia: Oct 31 singleton
@pauljl: Nov 2 singleton
@byrrd: Nov 3 singleton

Now I know we have had some recent BFPs since the last time this list was updated (YAY!), but I didn't want to add anyone yet until they asked to be added and possibly had confirmation of their EDD, etc. So, if you would like to be added to the list, just let me know!

With that business out of the way, please share with us your pregnancy updates! What's new? How is everyone feeling?

QOTW: Do you plan to have a formal birth plan? If you are still in early pregnancy, have you given this any thought yet? How do you envision your LO's birth? If you do have a birth plan, how did you/your partner decide what was important to you?

*NOTE: If you have ideas for future QOTW for this check-in, please let me know! I don't want to get repetitive!

trisholio · April 2014

Good morning all! I only have one little one awake so far this morning, so I have a few minutes to jump on here.

Things are moving right along. I will be 19 weeks tomorrow and we also have our anatomy scan tomorrow. I am excited to see our little girl and make sure everything is going great in there. No new updates on the pregnancy as of right now.

QOTD: We have hired a doula and just love her! We haven't written a birth plan, but we have a general idea of how we want things to go. We live less than 10 minutes from the hospital, so I hope to labor at home awhile before going to the hospital. I am hoping to be able to use one of the birthing tubs to ease some of the pains. I am hoping to have a natural birth, but I am open to getting an epidural towards the end if necessary. I used to think I wanted my mom in the delivery room with me, but since meeting my wife that has changed. I don't think I want a lot of visitors and I want it to be just me and my wife when the baby is actually born.

Belovedvirgo0209 · April 2014

Good Morning everyone we are 26 weeks today .Woooohooooooo.Everything is good still dealing with swelling of legs and feet

and recently I have had a lot of pain/pressure in my pelvis they say its my hips spreading man does it hurt and cause me to waddle lol. But other than that I'm ok.We still haven't started prepping for Averie and I have changed my mind about her middle name so for now she is just Averie. I have decided to wait till I see her to pick her middle name.My cousin is 2 weeks ahead of me and I saw a pic of her yesterday on FB man am I jealous she has this cute baby bump and me i'm just big all over

I went for my 25 week check up last Wed I was already at the max amount of weight they wanted me to gain and to top it off I've never been this big in my life and I feel every ounce of it.I'm trying to watch what I eat and not give in so much to the cravings because I would really like a vaginal birth and if she gets to be 10lbs there is no way that is coming out of me lol.

QOTW: Do you plan to have a formal birth plan? If you are still in early pregnancy, have you given this any thought yet? How do you envision your LO's birth? If you do have a birth plan, how did you/your partner decide what was important to you?

Our birth plan is basically just go with the flow.I would really like no medicines if possible and during the birth it will be Heather and I and a photographer.I hope to have a calm,relaxing birth we haven't yet toured the hospitals so we can decide which one we want to deliver at.One is local and about 25 mins from our house but our doctor doesn't deliver there and the second is about 1 hr away but it is the one our doctor delivers at they both have pros and cons so hopefully we will be able to make a decision soon.I hope everyone has a wonderful day on this gloomy Monday

KH826 · April 2014

32 weeks tomorrow. This is going to be one of my longer updates (no one is really shocked at this from me, right?!?! )... but just warning you!

Saturday was our all day birthing class extravaganza. The class didn't really rock my socks, but I think that was because 80-90% of the info given was not new to me or my wife. We have done a lot of reading and watching shows/videos on our own, and we felt like most of what we "learned" was a dumbed down version of what we already knew. It was also a really long day, but that was expected. I am most disappointed that the instructor saved breathing exercises and techniques for last. After 7 hours in class, I was feeling pretty antsy and tired and my heartburn had started to rage... so I wasn't really "in the zone" for the breathing exercises we did, and I am not sure it was really useful to me. I think it would have been more useful earlier in the day. At any rate, there were a couple of things that I did really like about the class, so I really should focus on those things:

The instructor went out of her way to make my wife and I comfortable. We were the first couple to arrive at the class (not a shocker - we are always 20 mins early for everything). The instructor told us before anyone else arrived that she was so glad we were there, and that she would do her very best to use inclusive language and not refer to the non-pregnant parent as "dad" -- she also told us that her daughter is married to a woman and that her two grandsons are blessed to have two wonderful Mommas. She was very sweet, and it made us feel comfortable right away. That alone was worth the time and money spent for this class.
We toured the hospital, and got to see the labor and delivery rooms, postpartum rooms, walked by the ORs and saw the surgical recovery areas... we also walked the path we will take when we come in when in labor and got to see exactly where to go and what it will look like. I am a big planner and big visualizer of experiences, so that put me at ease.
We did learn a few exercises that my wife and I have already done together at home a few times since class, that I hope will be helpful. One has specifically designed to encourage a breech baby to flip. Another was more to encourage baby into position in general (whether breech or not) and help baby hopefully get into an optimal birth position. The last one was to strengthen leg muscles ahead of labor and is supposed to help with pushing. When we did them at home on Saturday night all of them were hard and I felt sore after... which makes me think that it is good for us to keep doing them!

In other non-childbirth class news... more progress was made on the nursery and playroom yesterday. My mother-in-law came down for the day and brought with her the dresser that used to belong to my wife's grandmother that will be going in the nursery. My wife sanded it, primed it and painted it last night! We also got art for the walls in the playroom, storage bins to go in the shelf/wall unit for the playroom, and my wife thinks she found a desk she likes for herself for the playroom and she might go back and buy it tonight.

In terms of how I am feeling... is THIS the point where it is OK for me to say I am feeling kind of crummy at least a portion of the time? I have been self-conscious about being a complainer and also acknowledging aches and pains b/c I have felt like a lot of people in my life have responded with "Already? So early?, etc.)... which ticks me off but also makes me feel like a wimp. Well, I know I am not a wimp, I think I am just honest and vocal. I also know I am carrying a pretty big baby, and she is positioned in a not so great way most of the time. Soooo.... my hips hurt, my back hurts (not constantly, but a lot), stairs have become a bit of a chore, and after not much walking around at all my feet swell and my feet and ankles hurt quite a lot no matter what shoes I am wearing. I don't think I have really "slowed down" yet, but I can soooooo notice the difference, and have to say I can't wait until I have more stamina and less aches and pains again! Someone out there please tell me that at this stage of pregnancy I am not alone in feeling this way? Thanks!

Oh, and baby has been a little jumping bean for the last couple of days. Yesterday, more than once, I was standing somewhere and my whole stomach moved when baby was doing her karate routine. My wife saw it twice, and thought it was pretty much the coolest thing ever.

QOTW: So, we haven't written anything out yet in terms of a birth plan, but I think we are going to soon. IF I don't need a c-section (come on baby, flip!), the plan is to attempt a natural childbirth, but not swear off an epidural completely if I think I need it once I am in the throws of active labor. Our priority #1 is healthy baby and healthy moms. Priority #2 is to try to make the birth the best experience we can, and if I find that I just cannot cope without an epidural, I don't want to let that ruin our birth experience. So we will stay open to what I need and just take it one step at a time. My wife and I have discussed having a code word for when I truly decide that I can't make it any further without an epidural. I think we will come up with one. Other than that, we would like to do a delayed cord clamping if possible to allow the cord to stop pulsing and the blood to make it to baby before it is clamped/cut. We don't plan for anyone else to be in the delivery room other than my wife and the medical folks. Both my wife and I would like to do skin-to-skin (me first, since we would like to see if baby will breast feed right away possibly), then my wife would also like to do skin-to-skin once we get settled into our postpartum room. We would like to delay visitors until after that so that we can have our initial bonding time just the three of us. I think that's it in terms of planning at this point... we will write something up in the near future and I am sure there will be some more details that I am leaving out right now...

YBnormal85 · April 2014

Good morning all!
2 weeks and 2 days left until my EDD. I was cleared for my home birth at 36 weeks so now we are just waiting for baby to pick its birthday! I am very uncomfortable lately :-/ nothing I do seems to help, unless I take a bath. I also have been welcomed into the lovely world of (tmi alert) hemorrhoids. They have been quite bad, and again nothing seems to help. From everything in read it seems to be a result of the pressure of baby so pretty much delivery will be my only cure in that department lol.

We are very excited to meet baby and my wife has been asking more frequently when I think baby will be here lol just hanging in there until then!

YBnormal85 · April 2014

Oops forgot to answer the question! We do have a birth plan (more like a wish list) written up and in our just in case bag for the hospital. Other than that my home birth team is very in tune to our wishes, my doula has been so helpful giving us great info and resources so after a lot of discussion and research we feel we have a pretty good plan set. With that being said if this child is anything like me it will have a completely different plan of it's own...so we shall see!!

healz413 · April 2014

We are 10w5d today and both Rockies looked great on our "11week" ultrasound this morning!
Both are measuring 10w4d with heartrates of 167 and 165. And once they both "woke up" we got to see a lot of awesome dancing-like movement.

We are still waiting to meet with the RE after the ultrasound.

Tomorrow we have our first in-clinic meeting with the midwife.

This weekend we bought two infant car seats from a woman with the sweetest most social 10 month old twins. It was refreshing to meet her and her kids and it is a relief to have the car seats bought. Even though it is still really early, we are trying to buy things early and used or on clearance where we can because we have so much shopping to do and because things are more expensive in Canada. (Car seats, for instance, are about $70-100 more expensive for the same model than they are in the US but you have to buy them here so that they're approved by transport Canada.)

Next week is our N/T scan. Not sure what day yet. Have to meet with the RE to find out.

QOTW: that's one of our big questions right now. With twins it is all up in the air. We are hoping to clarify our options tomorrow with the midwife

2momsinCA · April 2014

20 weeks 5 days here and feeling probably as good as it gets between a hellish first tri and what is certain to be a rather uncomfortable third tri with the twins. They've just become very active in the last week, it seems whenever I sit or lay down they start wiggling and kicking away which is a wonderful feeling especially nice they still aren't quite strong enough to jab me all that hard. One week from today we will have our second anatomy scan and what is most likely, provided they look good, our last appointment with the MFM. We really like our MFM and we love his clear and detailed ultrasounds so we will miss that.

@KH826‌ it is great to read about your birth class instructor and her efforts to speak inclusively and be conscious of the way she addresses the "dads" in the room. We start our classes next month and I'm worried this will be a problem for us.

@healz413‌ congrats on the early car seat score! They were the first things we purchased and it feels good to not worry about them... It also helped us realize we totally had to buy a bigger car because there was no fitting those behemoths in our little backseats. Better to find these things out sooner than later I suppose.

QOTD: well, we would prefer a vaginal delivery and that's all I can say so far. It will be K and I only in the delivery room/OR (along with probably a large team of doctors and nurses). If the babies are head down we will be able to try vaginal delivery otherwise its a c section. Either way labor will be in the OR and a c section will be scheduled ahead of time. They also said we won't get to go much beyond 38 weeks.

ball.and.chain · April 2014

Good morning and happy Monday! Well, sort of. It's a nice day here but I'd still like to be in bed.

I'm 26w1d today, EDD 7/13/14.

Things are good with Mr. Baby. Yesterday afternoon he was kicking up a storm. I slept really poorly on Saturday night (woke up with heartburn and had to sit up for a while, didn't end up falling asleep again for a couple of hours), so I couldn't persuade myself to get out of bed early enough to go to yoga on Sunday. I am totally feeling it -- my hips and lower back hurt way more than they have been! That is the last time I am eating chili during pregnancy.

We are in the process of trying to register for an infant CPR class, since that was one of our pre-birth priorities and we realized our weekends are filling up fast. Since my wife works on Sundays, we can only do classes/showers/etc on Saturdays, and that means the Saturdays get claimed pretty quickly when we have a lot going on. As it is, it looks like our only options for CPR classes are this coming Saturday if it's not full, or June. Hopefully this guy won't try to come out early, because I'm leaning toward June!

I noticed someone bought the stroller off our registry and was super excited, and then I realized that I registered for the wrong stroller. head:desk. We meant to get the Chicco Liteway Plus, which will hold a Chicco KeyFit infant car seat, and instead we registered for the Chicco Liteway, which does not fit the car seat. Boo. It shouldn't be a big deal; we will just exchange the Liteway for the Liteway Plus when the time comes, but I can't believe I didn't figure this out until AFTER the stroller had already been purchased. Or that with all the research I did, I missed the big difference between the two models. Oh well.

QOTW: We don't currently have a birth plan, nor have we discussed it much together, partly because my wife is supposed to be reading The Birth Partner and hasn't even cracked it open. (Sigh.) Until she does that or we go to our childbirth class (May 10th), I'm not sure that she is really educated enough on the topic to discuss it. Although pretty much her take on it is that she'll support whatever I want because I'm the one giving birth. I don't think we'll have a formal birth plan, but we will probably write down some of the things that are important to us so that they don't get lost in the confusion of the moment.

When I started TTC, I was very committed to natural childbirth. Along the way, it has become less and less important to me. Part of that after is from going though so much to get and stay pregnant, my priorities have changed a lot. I'm much less focused on having a certain kind of birth -- I really only care that everyone is healthy, and I don't believe that natural childbirth is the only way or always the best way to make that happen. I've also done a lot more research on natural childbirth, epidurals and other methods of pain management, and I'm not convinced that I will be more satisfied with a med-free experience. I've been reading a lot on combined spinal-epidurals and patient-controlled epidurals, which seem to be better options. Anyway...I guess this is all just to say that I'm still doing my research and haven't made any firm decisions yet. I have two more books I am planning to read and hope that between those and the childbirth class, I'll be able to make some firm(ish) decisions before I go into labor!

Manada · April 2014

Hi Everyone!

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts today!   As @healz413 said, we had our 10w5d u/s today, and it took awhile for the Rockies to wake up, but when they did they did some dancing for us.   I've been watching the short video clip H. made and I've decided they are currently doing what I like to refer to as the "thumb dance" --- where you basically make a thumbs-up sign with both fists and kind of wiggle your body while you grove with your thumbs in the air.

QOTW:
This has actually been causing me some anxst lately as I've been thinking about it.

Mostly because we had planned to try for a controlled, but low-key homebirth with a singleton to hopefully feel more empowered with the process. (Part of the issue with the IF treatment process we've had is dealing with Dr's and not really feeling in control of our care - - or able to make informed choices) --- --- so having a supported homebirth, or even a midwife-led hospital transfer felt really important to us.

With twins, it feels like all the hospital protocols and guidelines (I've been reading up on them) aren't created in a way to allow me or us any real power in our birth process.    As far as I can tell the guidelines would prefer that I be strapped to a table in all of labour with two fetal monitors, an IV, and an epidural --- and most likely some pitocin.   And any birth would happen in an OR with everything already prepped for surgery.     That image is so far from the supportive, controlled, quite home birth we wanted that it frightens me a lot.

So I think we're going to need a hard birth plan, and one that we can stand behind and advocate for hardcore.   We need to talk to the midwife about this, and I'm hoping she's supportive of it and willing to go to bat for us and push back on the hospital "norms" in some ways.

I'd like to go for a vaginal birth, with room to labour naturally for as long as possible while moving around and trying different coping techniques.   I'd like the freedom to choose our birthing position if we don't get an epidural, I don't want continuous monitoring or pitocin in early in labour, and I'd also like the freedom to eat or drink as desired.   And if we have a c-section it's really important to me that H. get the babies first, and that they not take them away from us/the room unless medically necessary.    I also want to avoid the eye ointment on the babies while they're still alert after birth so that they can see us without that goop in their eyes!

That's as much as I know that I'd like -- and a lot of those preferences are based on NOT wanting certain things

We'll see how this process evolves over the pregnancy - we'll be taking two prenatal classes, a twin specific one and one for queer families....

rkbo · April 2014

I have to say, it feels weird to not be checking in on the TTC Check In. This is my first check in here as I am just 4w5d today. I had 2 betas so far and I will have my 3rd tomorrow morning. I have my first ultrasound scheduled for April 15th.

My EDD is 12/10/14.

We haven't really discussed birth plans yet. I do know that I want to give birth in a hospital, and I am open to an epidural.

One thing that I have noticed that has changed for me lately is that I am soooo tired all of the time. This past Saturday, I fell asleep at 8pm and aside from waking up twice to roll over, I slept until about 7am. Thats just crazy for me. I never ever get that much sleep. I am hoping this is just pregnancy symptoms and it starts to fade.

trisholio · April 2014

KH826 - I do not think that you complain too much. I think you are very honest about your experiences. I feel like I complain a lot too, not just to you guys but in real life too. I am exhausted pretty much all the time, have headaches and some minor back pain ( I know will get worse) pretty much all the time. I feel horrible for my wife that has to listen to most of my whining. I keep waiting for the "fun stuff" like feeling the baby kick and for the exhaustion to let up a little. But I have a feeling I am tired from having two little girls, not so much being pregnant. So I guess I say all that to say, I UNDERSTAND! We all have had different journey's to get to this point and I know I am beyond grateful to be pregnant, but OMG I didn't know it was going to be THIS hard! I say enjoy what you can and take the bad stuff and realize it too will pass (just not soon enough) :-)

2MamazInSeattle · April 2014

Hi all! I'm 20w5d with Simone, due on 8/20 (I love using her name, moreso lately for some reason...).

Well, as I shared separately we finally announced on FB and I still felt super nervous doing so. Dumb, but still that fear of jinxing things is ever-present. We did get a load of love in response, which was super sweet and nice. And, we're OUT which is also nice! No more cropping my belly out of photos.

Our anatomy scan went well on Friday - no good pix this time, but measurements were all spot on and she was13 oz. (66% percentile) so right in there. No major heart defects, all organs/bones, etc. measuring spot-on or within a day. Phew.

My latest event is that I went poof! and swelled up a notch in the past couple weeks. As a result, I've had a few related symptoms: Numbness/falling asleep in my hands and feet, and heartburn (you swell inside too). It's been better the last day or two, but I keep waking up with dead-feeling hands and it's creepy. My MFM recommended (super sexy) compression socks (I ordered bright pink, just so they were at least fun and not geriatric looking); not drinking liquids with food (a weight loss trick too - separating food/liquid makes a big difference in overfull, bloated stomach), and just keeping moving. So I'm doing all that. Hopefully it helps! She said "this may be it and you'll stay like this for the rest of the pregnancy, or, you could swell more." Great.

Yesterday I went around Greenlake twice! That's 6 miles! And it was just fine, and made me happy I still can do that. Yoga continues to be a godsend in keeping my back and hips lubed up and doing well so far. @KH826 - since I'd say 70%+ of my class are people in the 30s-week zone, you are not alone. Back and hip complaints are #1 from just about all of them. I'm not there yet, but I'd say it's common. I wish you lived here - my yoga studio has a "healthy hips and back in pregnancy" workshop on Sunday I'd drag you to!

I think I'm going to go to it. Can't hurt!

We started our nighttime ritual we planned for 20w. J reads to Simone for 15-20 minutes (sometimes a kid book, but also right now she's reading The Birth Partner out loud to her in a nice gentle cadence, working out great for me to not have to read that book on my own!). Then we play 15 minutes of Classical music (either Spotify's Classical Chill Out or they have a Classical Brainfood or something like that mix). J rubs shea butter on my belly as she reads, which won't stop the stretch marks (it's hereditary) but does feel nice and makes my belly so soft. She's very committed to this routine and I love it!

Otherwise, we found this cute but rustic dollhouse along the side of the road and brought it home for a little project. Not that she'll use it anytime soon, but we think it'll be fun to fix up for her - and if she's not into it, it could be a good clothing/toy separator with 6 rooms.

Fetal echo (basically a heart-only u/s) is tomorrow, then we don't go again for a month for glucose test and growth/position check (she's breech atm, but we have a long way to go).

QOTW: Oy. I am working on my attachment here - this is where years and years of yoga/meditation will hopefully serve me. I am focusing on the fact that I can be informed, and make decisions, but that how my labor unfolds is largely out of my control.

In a perfect world, I'd have an unmedicated vaginal birth of average length and feel great about it! However, like @ball.and.chain, after the IF road, losses, etc. my perspective on what really matters for me has changed. So while my birth plan will include not offering drugs - and (per The Birth Partner book) choosing a code word to say "ok for drugs now" if needed - my real goal is to simply feel good about the experience, and that I was informed and chose what was possible to choose vs. being guided by some checklist and protocol for no good reason. We will absolutely have a doula who can help us both navigate in the midst of fatigue, pain and stress of labor which I think will help our outcome a lot and take pressure off of J and me both. I do plan to stay home as long as I can stand to, have a written birth plan, and ensure I have the right 'props' (like the big inflated exercise ball) on hand to be as prepared as possible to execute comfort measures. Overall though, I want to trust the process, let go of controlling everything (because it's unrealistic), have a positive attitude, yet be as prepared as possible for my ideal outcome.

Aside: We just had a good discussion on the section of The Birth Partner about being in pain vs. suffering - and the difference. She talks about a woman who did avoid meds by asking "am I suffering?" and her answer was "no, I'm just in pain, and pain with a purpose" - which I can see myself leveraging as a mindset.

Belovedvirgo0209 · April 2014

@KLeigh1 the best way I can describe the pain is it feels like someone has reached up inside of me with both hands and has started spreading there hands apart lol sorry to be so graphic but that is the only way I can think of to describe it plus Averie has been sitting low the entire pregnancy which is adding to the pressure. I have been sore for the last few days

I also started having a burning sensation right under my belly button it comes and comes and only happens when I stand without support pants so most likely its the extra weight of her pulling the muscle.

Jazibel · April 2014

Good Morning Everyone,

I think its safe to say that I'm feeling ready to be "not pregnant" anymore. Meaning come on baby Owen.... just a couple/few more weeks...

Really I just had a "bad" night last night with a raging headache, terrible heartburn - the threatening of leg cramps... Rolling over in bed only with great difficulty... I usually sleep pretty well, waking only 1x to use the bathroom. But last night wasn't fun.

My headache lingered and I'm drinking black tea and a glass of water with the hopes that the headache will fade. If not Tylenol here I come.

Other than that I'm doing pretty well. EV painted by belly yesterday with an underwater scene featuring a sea turtle (Owen's "theme animal"). Kaden's is an owl. We used these all natural non-toxic paints and sat outside in the shade, it was a lot of fun (though it was hard to keep Kaden away).

I'll try to PIP (the photos are on FB and EV's camera).

We have a meeting with a midwives this afternoon. We're now on weekly meetings. Eeeeekkkkk. It's also weird to visit with friends and leave saying "well the next time we see you might be visiting us and the baby..." I feel like Owen will be early (maybe by a few days/week). I could be completely wrong though. Kaden was 6 days late, and I had already started natural induction techniques.

There feels like there is still so much to do. I have a 2 page to-do list for today that I'm trying to get through. One thing accomplished is ordering my FREE breast pump through insurance. Wooohoo!! I have one (gifted to me by a friend), but I think it served her through 3 kids, so I'm not sure how effective it still is. I had a hard time pumping with Kaden, so I'm hoping this new "powerful" double electric pump will do the trick. I should receive it in 5-7 days.

QOTD: It was on today's to-do list to find our birth plan and update it for 2014. I just emailed EV a copy to review this morning.

Our plan includes our home-birth wish list/requests and also hospital and c-section paragraphs.

I plan to labor naturally and give birth at home (in the tub or out). If we go to the hospital because it is deemed essential or medically necessary. Then the most "urgent" requests on the plan include newborn care and interventions, as were choosing delayed cord clamping, no antibiotics, vaccines, etc.

What I loved about our home birth last time, was all the skin to skin Kaden had with EV and I. After 45 min or so, our midwife performed the newborn medical assessment next to us on our bed. I loved being so close to him at that time.

pauljl · April 2014

10w1 day today. Starting to feel real now. We will announce very soon and I can't wait! We are spilling the beans on DW's birthday (although she doesn't know it yet- I bought her a surprise shirt to wear in a photo "I can't keep calm...my wife's having a baby!" so that she can be in the driver's seat. I feel a little nervous about sharing because it is one week before our next Dr. appointment and the cautious side of me says to wait for one more peek at baby S. The excited side of me says JUST DO IT.

Clothes are tight and getting tighter. Elastic is my friend

Today I'm brushing up on maternity leave for my state/school district. I'm a little confused because it seems the system is set up so that days start counting from birthday- even though I have scheduled vacation right after the birth. These vacation days will count as a part of my maternity leave. However, a friend who teaches traditional calendar told me that even though she had her baby in the summer, the leave applies to working days only. So she still got to take leave at the beginning of the following year.

Hmm.. guess I better brush up on my mat leave knowledge. Obviously I want to take the most time possible to stay home without breaking the bank.

QOTD: I would like to go as natural as possible with as few interventions as possible. I plan to labor at home for as long as I can before heading in to the hospital. I am not ruling out an epidural although I would prefer to do it without. I will make a list of my hopes for this labor as we get closer while trying to recognize that being empowered is different than being in control. I can be empowered with this delivery even though there may be moments out of my control. Mostly right now I'm researching and researching so I know my options.

redrockmama · April 2014

Nothing new really about the pregnancy. Things are just moving along. Apparently we have a baby on the smaller side. Our latest ultrasound results were released to me through an online system this weekend and it looks like Bubbles is in the 50th percentile. I imagined having a huge baby since I was almost 10 lbs myself.

We have an appt with our midwife tomorrow evening. Everything else is just moving along. J's sister and her boyfriend moved a desk/cabinet out of Bubbles' room and into the basement this weekend. It was quite the chore. It ended up breaking and we should have just sold it. Oh well. Progress!

QOTW: Well, we were planning on a home birth, but we won't know if that is possible for 7 weeks at the earliest. If the placenta moves to at least 1 cm away but less than 2 cm, we'll try for a natural birth at the hospital. So...we don't have a birth plan yet. We'll wait and see what the next ultrasound says. I'll be 33 weeks then, plenty of time to write something up.

We really hope the homebirth works out, it is really important to us and would be the ideal environment for both of us. If it doesn't work out we obviously want a health and alive mom and baby so we'll do the c section and it will be fine.

shelly2314 · April 2014

I am not sure about a specific birth plan. We are 15w1d with our two little wonders. We are delivering in a hospital. It is both of our firsts so we wanted to deliver in a hospital that has a NICU (b/c of twins and any issues that could arise). We are lucky that there is a beautiful, new labor and delivery unit in Sarasota! Would prefer a vaginal delivery, but that remains up to our little monkeys! I did tell our OB that if the first one is primed and ready for vaginal but the second one is not, then just go straight to the c-section (no need to mess up both areas). We are allowed 4 people in the delivery room. 1 is obviously my wife, 2 is one of my besties that is a certified massage therapist to help me through labor. We have not decided if 3 and 4 will be the mothers or if we will just keep it between DW and I.

As far as how I am feeling....I have a lot of moments when I am just uncomfortable and unhappy. It sucks. Pain in my arms has gone and my sciatic (sp?) comes and goes as the twins move around in there. Other than that, things are good. Exhaustion is a common companion, but that is always manageable (much better than the nausea). Took our glucose test...failed the 1 hour test and had to take the 3 hour test---nailed it! LOL. Sadly I actually fasted for the 1 hour, but did not for the 3 hour. Oh well.

M has finished painting the nursery. It does look really good (I really didn't want to paint anything, but let her have this one). My dad is coming down and will put in a chair rail to help break up the room and add some depth to things. Then my parents are buying the crib we want (we are going to have both in the same crib for a while). The rest we will wait to purchase until after our baby shower (hopefully get some gift cards to put towards any BIG purchases we have to make)

We have one set of car seats and will probably get another that go with a stroller (works better so we don't have to trade seats in and out of both cars. My mom and dad are giving me the rocking chair that my dad bought my mom when they were pregnant with me...and I think that is so sweet!

Manada · April 2014

Oh-- we spoke with the MW this week about the fears and thoughts and we have a rough "plan" so far..

- we will be delivering in the hospital (this has been the plan since we found out there are two)
- assuming babies are head down and we are past 34 weeks, we will have a vaginal where the midwife will be in charge and the OB will simply be called on standby.
- we will place an epidural early in labour and test it, but not use it until necessary or I ask for it. This is to preserve my mobility as long as possible, and to prevent general anesthesia in the event of an emergency section.
- we will be in one of the standard labour/birthing rooms as long as everything is good. Babies can be delivered there.
- we will delay continuous monitoring for awhile, and use the wireless monitors when needed -- the MW agrees that it is far preferable to be mobile an having someone hold the monitors in position than be strapped to the bed. I can also use the tub in the room with this.
- if there is need for a section both the MW and H. will be present, babies stay with us unless absolutely necessary.

That's the rough "plan" really. We can't plan too much with twins, but it does feel better to have a bit of an "ideal situation" in mind for our twin birth that we are all comfortable with. Of course if they come very early this will change, but there are other concerns for that....

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