27 Weeks

It's been 27 weeks and I had an appointment on Wednesday. Here are the stats:

Weight: Total gain of 22 pounds
Blood pressure: Holding steady at 120/70
Uterus: Finally a concrete measurement at 27cm (she hadn't actually measured before)
Baby's heart rate: "good" was all I could get out of the nurse. Hmph. Doesn't she know I like numbers?

All of these things are "perfect" according to my doctor. "Perfect" is her favorite word. The nurse takes my blood pressure and listens to the baby's heart beat, so the first thing the doctor does when she comes in is have me lay back so she can measure my uterus. Every time I lay down, her eyes brighten and she smiles a beaming smile. "This looks just perfect. This is great!" Seriously, I feel like I've given her a great gift or something. Because I really have control over what my uterus looks like....

I got my Rhogam shot at this appointment. Because I'm Rh- and Jon's Rh+, I will have to get a Rhogam shot during every pregnancy, and after the delivery of every baby that is not negative. So that was this appointment. Bad news for me: unlike last pregnancy, the doctor does not provide the shot in the office. I have to pick it up at the pharmacy and take it to the doctor's office myself. Inconvenient, yes, but the really bad news is that prescription insurance doesn't cover it. Considering I have a high risk of miscarriage if I do not take the shot, this makes NO SENSE whatsoever. The nurse advised I check with my medical coverage and see if they would cover at least some of it.

I also had my glucose test, and the nurse did an awesome job taking the vials of blood she needed. Probably the best experience ever for me. I won't hear back from them about the test results unless I need to have further testing, so I'm going to assume everything's fine.

Questions I had:
Have I gained too much weight? Dr. W says I'm right where I should be (to quote: "perfect"). It's definitely more weight than I gained with Caleb, but who knows. I'm trying not to worry about it, but sometimes I still do.

Will I need to be monitored through the entire labor? Yes. But the good news is that the monitors are wireless. With Caleb, the monitors were attached to a printout machine with about a 10-ft cord, and I was confined to that area (bed or near the bed) except to go to the restroom or take a brief walk in the hallway. Because of the induction last time, the nurses wanted to monitor me constantly. Evidently this hospital requires constant monitoring of everyone, but at least I can move around some more. Dr. W said it was very important that I move as much as possible, and they would take the monitors off if they interfered.

Will there be a birthing ball available? Yes, as well as a large shower with a seat. Because of being hooked to the monitors last time, I didn't take advantage of the shower, and it intrigues me. I'm wondering if it'll be helpful or not.

When can I first feed my baby? What happens right after delivery is up to me. I have the option of holding my baby before the cord is even cut: the nurses would lay a towel over me, put the baby on top, then a towel on top of him. They would rub him down a little while I got to hold him.* He wouldn't nurse at this point, though. Whether I hold him before the cord is cut or not, the dr. always waits for the cord to quit pumping blood (which I read is a reaction it has when it hits the air...a water-birthed baby's cord won't stop until the baby is brought up from under the water...just a little trivia for ya). Anyway, I like this approach. Dr. K (my doctor with Caleb) had the policy of immediately cutting the cord unless the baby was a little listless, and then she would allow that last bit of blood to get pumped into the baby for an extra boost.

So back to the nursing question, Dr. W said I really needed to let my pediatrician know what I wanted, and while he wouldn't be there, he would send his instructions to the nurses. So I can choose to try to nurse before the baby gets his shots or his eye goop. The advantage to this is that the baby doesn't have all these different hands poking and prodding him, and he's not got stuff in his eyes to keep him from opening them (if you ever saw our first photos of Caleb, his eyes and eyelids are all shiny because of putting the eye goop in immediately). So waiting allows the baby a little extra measure of calm to try nursing for the first time before getting jostled around by the nurses. On the other hand, Caleb did fine with it. He didn't really nurse, but he was quiet and willing to try. So I guess I find out from the nurses if it's a big nuisance for them to have to wait to do all that. If it's not, I think I'd like them to wait while we try to nurse.

I don't remember any other questions, except that we got to talking about how most of Dr. W's responses lean to the more natural methods, and I found out that she trained under a physician who performed not only the basic medical births, but also births using natural methods: water births, etc. And while Dr. W was a fan of those things, she cautioned that she would always have a birth at a hospital instead of at home, just in case of an emergency. While I see some really great advantages to home births, I also have a much greater sense of peace knowing that we're where we need to be if something were to happen.

And that's it on my side of the tummy. How about little Newbie2?

Well, he's up to 2 pounds now! That means he's doubled in weight in the last month--no wonder I've been tired! As with every update lately, he is our little jitterbug, doin' a dance all the time inside Mama's belly. Today when I laid down for a nap, I felt a definite bump up by my ribcage. Whether it was a head or rear end, we couldn't tell, but Jon gave it a little kiss anyway. We love our little boy!

*Funny note: It was at this point in the discussion with my doctor that I started beaming. "I'm going to have a little baby! And I get to hold him! This is real!!" Wow, what a cool thought. However, it was also at this point in my relaying the discussion to Jon that he got very disinterested in what I was saying. I even stopped to ask if he wanted to talk about it later. "No," he said. "I just got really sick feeling all of the sudden." The day of labor and delivery was really hard on Jon last time, and he's not looking forward to it at all! It was pretty rotten for me, too, but I can't help but forget it and remember the sweet moments with my newborn!