Week 39 update

Seven days! Seven days and I could be a mommy? I can’t believe we are already that close! Well the saga continues as he is still breech and I have not dilated at all. No progress. My little man is apparently not interested in joining us out here in the real world quite yet. But boy he is definitely interested in stretching and wiggling and kicking when he wants to. My belly feels very tight and I am getting more and more contractions but then…nothing.Everyone who sees me at work is surprised every day I come in, thinking I must have gone into labor by now. It’s quite comical.However, while I await the arrival of my son I am in the ever sowarm company of lower back pain, hot flashes and (huge) swollen feet.  And they never seem to completely go down. I wake up in the morning and they are still swollen enough I can noticeably tell. Not fun I tell you. However I feel like I have been productive this past week. I started hardcore meal planning. I even busted out Microsoft Excel and made a spreadsheet for this. I feel pretty proud of myself and what’s nice is the effort in one afternoon has allowed us to not eat out once during the week. We haven’t said, “What are we going to eat tonight?”  Which was usually followed by, “___________ sounds good.” And we would go out and eat whatever it was.Yesterday I busted out a meal plan for the next 2 weeks that included freezer meals for the first week I am home with Ayden. While I will NOT refuse food brought to us by friends and family, (hint hint) it’s nice to know I have a plan and won’t have to think about it. J

On the note of friends and family, Ken and I have been so blessed these past nine months with amazing support, encouragement and donations of baby things. We want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been there for us. I have sent out a lot of thank you cards but I just wanted to say it again. THANK YOU!

As this week seems to crawl by we are making huge progress in finishing up the Nursery. We have a dresser now and are quickly filling it up with cute little onsies and such. All my cloth diapers are washed, folded, and ready for use in their baskets on the book shelf. All of his little elephants are in a basket by the crib. It’s really starting to look like a nursery and not a spare room that happens to contain a crib. What a miracle that is. We also finally have a bigger bed for ourselves. We had been talking about getting a queen sized mattress for a while and the more pregnant I got the more we said it would be nice but we will just wait. Well the wait is over. Neither of us was getting any sleep for nights and off we went to the store. Well home we came with an affordable memory foam mattress and we love it!

Something that keeps me sane every morning is my hot cup of peppermint tea. Since I am attempting to drink as little caffeine as possible, I have been getting in the habit of drinking hot tea in the mornings before work. Hot tea is good for you in general and mine is caffeine free but somehow it make me feel like I can conquer my day and I feel relaxed and at peace. This is not a common feeling at 39 weeks pregnant and I cherish it every time I can.

Well that’s about it for this week. Cannot wait to be typing up the post that says, “I am officially a mom, Welcome Little Ayden!”  We will chat again next week!      

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Week 38 update: RAIN, RAIN, RAIN...

It won’t stop raining here. It’s like we are living in the time of Noah and I searching for my life raft. Well, it just makes it more comical that I have been craving animal crackers like crazy this past week. Something is comforting about little-kid food to calm this pregnant momma. YUM! Being 38 weeks pregnant is definitely rough ya’ll but the excitement is building on getting to actually hold my little guy. And the excitement is building on both ends I think. My little man is “excited” to stay in my womb as long as possible…. Little stinker has decided to stay in the comfy little nook he has found and not turn head down despite our (and the docs) best efforts. We had our scheduled ECV on Friday and low and behold that little man did ¾ of a somersault and bounced right back to his original position. I guess he just loves looking up at me, even from inside the womb J My doctor said his wrist hurt afterwards and that my little guy did not turn but it was not for the lack of effort or trying. The nurse asked him if he remembered to take his Aleve that morning haha. We were in L&D for probably 4 hours after all was said and done. They like to monitor you an hour before and at least an hour after just to make sure baby isn’t showing signs of distress. Nope, no distress in this little man and we were back home to rest. My belly was quite sore for the next few days. We went ahead and scheduled our c-section for June 26th. I wanted to wait till the final moment just in case he takes after his father and flips at the last minute J Needless to say; if that does happen I will be ecstatic. Either way, I have our bags packed and we are ready for whatever comes. Ayden has cute onsies, diapers, and wipes. I even packed a little elephant for him. I have a Labor goody bag for in the instance that I do go into labor before the c-section and he has flipped. And I have a small bag that needs to be finalized, that is for postpartum. It will have nursing bras, a loose pair of pjs for me and change of clothes for Ken, breast pads, a few snacks, all the essentials, etc. 

We are guessing little man is around 7.2 lbs. He should be gaining a lb. every 2 weeks now. Man he is going to be a big baby. Since I am approaching my due date, I had been answering phones for the administration at work. I am still doing that but my feet are definitely starting to swell while I am sitting for so long each day. I have to get up and move around every so often. The Third Trimester is so weird! I had never had swelling in my feet much before these past two months. New experiences I suppose. Gives me a good reason to prop my feet up when I get home, which is nice. Speaking of home, the nursery is coming together. We have a built crib and a dresser that is en route to us as I am writing this. Instead of a pile of stuff in our apartment, it looks like we might be having a baby soon. Now all we have to do is clean out the closet and we might have room to put all our “stuff” that’s not baby related. I’ll let you know how that goes :)

You know how pregnant moms all seem to chop off their hair when its close to their due date. Well I promised up and down that would never be me. I love my long hair. Well I may not have gone pixie haircut but I definitely cut off quite a bit. By that I mean 8 inches. I did not realize how long my hair had grown during my pregnancy. But none the less I love it! I can still get it back into a pony tail if I need to and it’s easy to manage. So when I wake up in the middle of the night to breastfeed there isn’t any hair hanging in my little man’s face.  

Well that’s about all for this week. Keep an eye out for other posts and such I am going to try to get back on the ball with having at least one post outside of my updates each week. Love getting to keep everyone in the loop to what’s going on in our little growing family. Till next time…

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Breech babies

This is a topic I had not put very much thought towards until I got the news that my little guy, at 36 weeks, is breech. I kind of felt like I had been punched in the gut. What did I do wrong? Is there a way I could have prevented this? Am I now destined to have a c-section no matter what? Well a good dose of prayer and some research later I have discovered a few things.
To start, what does a breech baby really mean?

Breech is when baby does not turn and point his head downward towards the birth canal. There are three common breech positions; Frank breech, Complete breech, and Footling breech. He is an illustration:

Factoid: 1 in every 25 full term births are breech (Americanpregnancy.org)

While there are no known reasons why babies decide not to turn at the appropriate time; in some cases it can mean problems in the uterus, distress on part of the baby, or early labor. But do not start stressing out quite yet and scheduling an early c-section. Let’s look at the options for mama’s and their babies.
Once at 36 weeks, if a breech diagnosis is given, your doctor will be keeping a closer eye on you. Preferably they do not want you to go into labor with a breech baby as it makes things more complicated. It’s time to start trying to coax baby into turning.
Natural options:

•   Pelvic tilts
• Play music with headphones on lower abdomen
• Swimming
• Do somersaults in deep water
• Do handstands/ walk on your hands on the bottom of the pool.
• Sink to the pool floor and lay facing up
• Massage 
•  Elephant walking (bear walk)
• Walk around with hands and feet both on the floor. Tilts your uterus and allows baby more room to flip on his own
•  Tailored sitting
• RELAX!
• The more tense and anxious you are about baby turning the more you are constricting the little space he has to move. Get loose!
• Good websites to check out for turning your baby:
•  Turningbaby.com
• Gentlebirth.org/archives/breechcl.html

Disclaimer: There are tons of crazy methods that people will claim to be the most effective.  None of these methods are necessarily 100% effective and always talk to your doctor beforehand to make sure these are safe for you and your baby.
Medical option:

• External Cephalic Version (ECV)

o   This is a procedure where uterine relaxing meds are given and your OBGYN coaxes baby to turn head down by manually applying pressure, with his hands, to your lower abdomen and manipulating your uterus.

o   Some risks of this are: possible for your water to break, kick starting early labour, vaginal bleeding, or cord prolapse.

o   The success rate of this procedure is about 54%. And it reduces the need for a c-section by 33%.

o   Attn: It can be advised for you to not undergo version if you have previously had a c-section, you are suspected of having a big baby, high or low amniotic fluid levels, or if there is fetal growth restriction.

o   Because of the risks, rule of thumb is that this is preformed no earlier than 35 weeks.

After all these exercises and procedures, some babies will still just not budge. It’s even possible for you to have a successful ECV and your little one decides to flip back before you go into labor. Don’t be disheartened. From here there is still a choice to be made.
If the stars align and baby is in the Frank breech position there is still a small option to birth vaginally. A lot of doctors and hospitals will not let you birth breech period but some will. Talk with your doctor and see if you are a good candidate for this if you are wanting to avoid c-section at all cost. However keep in mind it could still end in a c-section if your labor does not progress smoothly and the baby is in distress.
I many cases, if your little one is still breech after all your maneuvering and coaxing, your doctor will suggest to schedule a c-section for sometime in your 39^th week. It’s better to have the c-section before you are thrown into full labor, as there can be fewer complications.  However, there is always a possibility that baby can flip even right before your c-section. Because of this possibility you will have an ultrasound and exam before you go into the Operating Room to check baby placement and position in case of a change. Even as common as cesarean sections are becoming, there are still risks as it is major abdominal surgery. Make sure to understand all the risks and give yourself plenty of time to recover after it’s all said and done. You’ll need it.
Always remember God is in control of your birth. Be it without any medical intervention or by the steady hands of a surgeon. As hard as it is, we have to trust Him with our babies and know He is with us the whole way, no matter the outcome.

Week 36 Update: Did somebody turn up the heat?!

Apparently when you are 9 months pregnant you feel like you are a menopausal woman having hot flashes. Hormones must be raging but that means my body is prepping for the finale. I cannot WAIT to meet my little Ayden! I am now down to weekly doctor appointments. I have my first internal exam and the doc said I am 0cm dilated, so no progression yet. Right before I went to my appointment I had my 9 month growth ultrasound. To our surprise, Little Ayden is actually average size. 6lbs and 2 oz. Unfortunately, He is also getting comfy in the breech position.  According to Doc if he doesn’t flip by next week we should discuss having ECV preformed to try and manually turn him while he is still en-utero. They give you some medicine to relax the uterine muscles and then push on your belly to try and coax baby to turn head down. If that doesn’t work then it will most likely need to be a cesarean delivery.  Praying He will wiggle his way around and get in position so we don’t have to take that route but God is in control and I have to believe he will come out the safest way he can manage.

I have started feeling some contractions off and on depending on what I am doing at the time. Focusing on drinking lots of water just to make sure the contractions don’t start from dehydration. In the heat we have been having off and on around here it would not be hard.

Started packing our bags for the hospital. Not knowing when he will come kind of stresses me out and I want to be prepared. However, our home is filling up with cute cloth diapers and little baby elephants so it’s hard to be super stressed out when I see all we have prepared and gotten for him already. I am even going to bring a little elephant stuffed animal with us to the hospital for when he is born. It will help me focus during labor on what is coming J

We had a good Memorial Day weekend. Our church had a picnic out at a local park on Sunday evening grilling yummy food and hanging out with friends. The pool at our apartment complex also opened up and I have already gone swimming twice. It feels so good to get in the water! Takes all the pressure and weight off my belly and soothes all my joints. LOVING IT! Kind of wish I could just live in the pool for the next few weeks.  Which is only 4 weeks in all!

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! Just so everyone is aware.

     

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