In the above picture you can see the umbilical cord really well, the amniotic sac and just in case it's too vague the baby is facing to the left, head at the top. I hope the fact that his head is 50% of his size now doesn't foretell the future!Tim took a shower with the last of the warm water in the water heater Wednesday night since he had to go into the office on Thursday and I could work from home. And thankfully the weather has been decently warm - though constantly raining- so the house didn't get below 66 degrees.
By yesterday around 4:30 I REALLY wanted to be clean so I spent about a half hour heating kettles full of water in my electric kettle and dispensing hot water from Tim's birthday fancy coffee machine in order to fill the tub with about 2.5 inches of water and I took a "soak". Not the cleanest I've ever felt, but pretty darn good.
Then late last night I realized that with my appointment this morning I wasn't going to be able to shower...
So I woke up early and heated up the kettle once more, poured it in a big bowl with some cool water and squatted in the shower for a true bird bath- dipping out of the bowl to clean only the most important parts for a rather intimate exam- and I washed my face.
Made it to the appointment right on time since the weather was horrendous this morning with dense rain and multiple car accidents along the route.
Here's what happened:
Checked in,
...waited.
Got called back (Tim went with me), peed in a cup,
...waited.
Ultrasound technician took us back to her room and did the ultrasound with an internal probe (which I kind of fibbed about to Tim last night b/c I had said something about wanting to be clean for my exam and he kind of looked spooked and asked if they would be doing anything internal and if they were he wouldn't be going- and I said no- you listen to the baby's heart thru the outside and I wasn't sure that they'd do an internal ultrasound since they can do an external one....but I figure these kind of appointments will ease him in to being able to handle the labor and delivery so my fib was really for his own good and character development!). We got to see the little tyke (and only one, whew!)-measured to be 8 weeks old, with a good heart rate of 156bpm (very cool to see the heart beating on the ultrasound), he didn't move while we were watching but we did see his yolk sac, umbilical cord, where his brain is and the amniotic sac- all looked great. I did have a tear or two slipping down my cheek, but Tim remained stoic.
I asked if we'd get to hear the heart beat and the ultrasound woman said we could if we wanted to but there is some disagreement about whether this can be harmful- this meaning aiming the sound waves directly at a small immature heart- and that many ultrasound/doppler technicians wouldn't do it to their own children at this stage. So we decided to play it safe and just wait till the next appointment to hear the heart beat.
Went back to the waiting area.....
Nurse came and got me- took my vitals: 5'7", 137lbs (I'm blaming this on bigger boobs, a uterus the size of a grapefruit, my breakfast cereal and decaf coffee, clothing and major salt retention from the previous two night pizza and BBQ), blood pressure 114/58,
...waited.
Nurse came again and put us in the head midwife's office- and we had the introduction to the practice (5 midwives- you see all of them though you do have a primary one- whoever is on call is who will deliver your baby), went over the standard packet of information (nutrition, cord blood, birthing classes, hospital tour, etc), medical history and then I got to ask all my questions that I have been writing down in a notebook by my bed at night.
Here goes:
How long past due date before inducing? 7-10 days
EVC for a breech baby would begin when? 35 weeks
Practice use of episiotomies? Try to avoid them, but will use them if absolutely necessary.
Forgot to ask about their c-section rate, but it should be lower than the national average since they are midwives.
Will they induce if it is thought to be a big baby? No, but if the baby is bigger than 9.5lbs they will offer a c-section.
Can I walk around as much as I want during labor at Gwinnett Medical Center? Yes
Is it an automatic IV? No, and the port is optional, but they highly recommend at least having it in place just in case something does go haywire they don't want to have to take the time to put in an IV.
How much fetal monitoring? Initial monitoring when you first come in, then usually 15 minutes of every hour (all external monitoring unless the baby is in distress).
Can I deliver in other positions that flat on my back? Yes, they actually discourage flat on the back deliver and I can deliver in any position except for squatting.
How long does the baby stay with me after deliver? 1-1.5hours and they can room in.
Can I eat and drink during labor? Only clear liquids (so jello, juice, water, popsicles, etc)- but she said most women don't feel like actually eating anything during labor.
She also said that if the water breaks on its own, then they give up to 12 hours for dilation to get underway, longer than that and the risk of infection rises.
I'm sure she told us other things but I can't remember them now.
Then the midwife gave me my physical- which including a pap smear (Tim's worst fear realized!), breast exam (apparently I have good nursing nipples), and pelvic exam (nice round uterus, plently big enough pelvic opening- though she said just don't have a 9 or 9.5lbs baby...she said this kind of jokingly, but Tim told me on the car ride home that he was a 9.5lb baby).
Got dressed, got my blood drawn (who knows what they do with 5 full vials of blood!)
Paid, went to lunch.
Dropped of Tim and came home to find the gas truck parked in front of our house, but nobody in it and a tag on our door saying they were sorry to have missed us and call to schedule them to come back. I called and the women put us in the queue saying it would be sometime today, but that I couldn't flag the guy down since he needed a work order. Thankfully the guy saw that a new car was in the drive about 15 minutes later (as I was typing the first paragraph of this post) and turned it back on. So I now have heat and in a few more minutes a hot shower! Woohoo!
My next appointment is April 24th and I'll get to hear the heart beat!
Here's more pictures...
No comments:
Post a Comment