Little Bear's Story, Part II
*Me at 25 weeks on our babymoon in Santa Fe*
We settled on East Side Birth Center in Bellevue. 2 midwives that have their own birth center. A birth center is a great option if home feels too scary, but a hospital feels too clinical. It's set up like your own private suite. There's a bed, a full bathroom, a giant tub for labor/birth, a lounge area..it's like being at home BUT with some extra medical equipment. This made Rich feel more comfortable and was a good option for me.
As a 33 year old primigravida, with my history of HPV and my LEEP procedure, there were some extra precautions from the beginning my midwives wanted to keep an eye on. We went in at 5 weeks to confirm the pregnancy and draw my first blood for Hcg levels (the "pregnancy" hormone, thats what confirms a pregnancy on your take home test from the drug store. It's also SURGES during the first trimester and is what causes "morning sickness"). From there we went back at 8 weeks, and my Hcg wasn't surging quite as fast as they normally like to see, so they had a sonographer come in just to do an ultrasound and double check things looked good. They DID, AND we got to see the little bear really early on.
From there we came back at 12 weeks and every 4 weeks after that. At 12 weeks, because of my higher risks, every time I went to the Midwives, I also went to see a perinatologist (an OB that spends EVEN MORE time in medical school specifically focusing on pregnant women). This is where we got our ultrasounds. They also did a cervical ultrasound each visit, where they use a sonogram stick to view my cervix. They were essentially checking to make sure it was strong enough/long enough to hold the baby in. (A LEEP procedure uses an electric wire to remove parts of your cervix, which is what they did to remove the lesions that had developed from the HPV. Luckily we caught it before they had turned into cervical cancer.) The first doctor who came in to talk to us after that ultrasound was a very animated Romanian man who told me my cervix was too short, and I would need to have a procedure done to SEW IT SHUT. He wouldn't really answer my questions, he wanted me to get on antibiotics AND take advil (you are NOT supposed to take advil during pregnancy!!) was pretty patronizing and used fear tactics to try and get me to do this procedure. He also said I shouldn't be on my feet, and should quit my job if I wanted the baby to stay in there full term. I was rattled. I went home. I ignored my brain, which tells me Doctors are smart, doctors know, trust your doctor and went with my gut which was I DON'T NEED TO DO THIS! I opted to take the advil for a week (after conferring with another OB and my midwives) and then see where I was at.
We had another appointment a week later, which I made with a different doctor at that office and guess what- MY CERVIX WAS LONGER! It's all so relative! How they measure depends on so many factors, there isn't a universal way they do it, so this doctor felt fine with me coming off advil and continuing to monitor. Which we did for the next few weeks, which meant we got to see little bear 5 times in 2 months (you normally only have 2 or 3 total ultrasounds your entire pregnancy).
I wanted to do the genetic screening. I would have wanted to know ahead of time if we were facing any issues. It also gave us the opportunity to find out the sex at 12 weeks through the DNA test. Results came quick and there were not genetic abnormalities to be worried about. The sex was through a website, you clicked a button and "boy" or "girl" would appear. I was at work, and I did it on my phone. "boy" appeared and I was in shock. my stomach dropped and I felt like the wind got knocked out of me. I was so sure it was a girl. I can't tell you why, but I just thought it was a girl. I cried. I called Rich and stayed on the phone while he clicked it and found out too. I let myself work through those emotions and of course became excited for whoever this baby would turn out to be. I realized I was putting an expectation on him without having ever met him (or having him even exist yet!) and that wasn't fair. We decided to mostly keep this to ourselves. We told friends and family in person if they asked, but we didn't "reveal" it, and certainly didn't have a party to celebrate it.
From there pregnancy was pretty easy. My morning sickness died at week 11. I only threw up I think 3 times total? I was very nauseous but was able to manage it with constant snacking. My appetite also disappeared and I could really only eat very bland foods. I noticed I only threw up when I was hungry. So it was important to keep food in my stomach. Rich would set up a snack buffet in our bathroom, and I would get up in the middle of the night and sit on the bathroom floor feeling like shit, snacking on carrots, almond butter, cheerios, nuts, and other silly little things.
I was taking a lot of supplements the entire time: Prenatal, fish oil, iron, probiotics, vitamin C, vitamin D, beef liver and magnesium. I was also taking Progesterone because my levels weren't as high as they'd like and Levothyroxine because my thyroid wasn't working properly (very common during pregnancy. It's all good now!)
I worked on my feet and stayed fairly active. I was going to Barre, hanging out with friends, living my normal life, and wearing my normal clothes. I bought one pair of maternity jeans from UNIQLO for those first few months while it was still cold out. Overall I gained < 30lbs. My breast grew early on and I switched to nursing bras. Honestly I felt great. My tummy was small for a very long time. You wouldn't of known I was pregnant until maybe 8 months? I got tired early, and went to bed before 9pm almost every night. We took a childbirth education class with Penny Simkin, which was fun but not entirely helpful for me. Because of my doula training and having read her books already, I didn't actually learn anything new. I think it was helpful for Rich though. We also met with a lactation consultant one on one to learn about breastfeeding. We also took an online sleep class through Taking Cara Babies. (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!) We met a few doula's, but hired Bekah. We met with her a handful of times before labor. She came to a midwife appointment, she met me at my glucose screening test (more on that), she came to my shower, met my sister and mom and was literally a dream.
Towards the end of pregnancy, I failed my first glucose screening test which meant I had to go in for a second one where I fast for 12 hours beforehand, then drink a 100g sugar drink, and get my blood drawn every hour for 3 hours. THIS WAS POSSIBLY THE WORST PART OF PREGNANCY. I passed. I also tested positive for Group Beta Strep, which I already knew from my HPV/LEEP. This just meant I had to have antibiotics during labor. No big, it keeps the baby safe.
I started going to the midwives weekly during the last month and each visit would start with a high blood pressure reading, so they would take it again at the end, at which point it would be lower and they felt find about it.
At 38 weeks, my reading was high again and I asked if that was something we needed to address. Yes it always came down, but it was always high when I came in. They said it wasn't too much to worry about, but they would take my blood and a pee sample and just test for pre eclampsia. The test came back negative, but they asked me to come back in 2 days to retest. It was still high, so they asked me to do a 24 hour pee test (collect ALL pee in this orange jug for 24 hours) and get a home blood pressure kit to continue monitoring and let them know if it got above a certain point. I was at work that morning, and they told me to just go home and rest, so I skipped the rest of my shift that day. We continued to monitor at home, and it just kept getting higher and higher. I was getting more anxious the higher it was getting, which in turn made it go higher. We called and the midwives at that point didn't feel safe handling my care so they referred me to the hospital and told me I would need to go in, and would likely be induced. Having that high of blood pressure was unsafe for me and the baby, and the only way to relieve it at that point was to have the baby. This begins my labor story, so will be continued in another post! Stay tuned..
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