As for names, thank you very much for all the suggestions. My husband got a kick out of it. We've narrowed it down to two names, and we just keep trying them over and over. Each is from one of our families. He likes the one from my family, I like the one from his, go figure. But I think we feel better about the whole thing now.
I can't remember how pregnant I am anymore by the calendar. This is information you're supposed to have at the front of your head at all times so that people know. But I can't remember whether I'm at 25 weeks? 27? 28? Does that mean I'm 6 months pregnant? Or in the 6th month? Is this my last trimester yet? Thank goodness for pregnancy websites that utilize cookies.
There is an issue I became aware of this past week that scared the heebie-jeebies out of me. Though everyone expects everything to go as planned with their labor and delivery, I realized this rarely happens. This includes me. In case you're just tuning in, my OB wants to perform a cesarean at 37 weeks or so in order to reduce any risk of uterine rupture caused by natural labor and delivery. This didn't come as a shock when I got pregnant; I knew this was going to be the case after my last surgery to remove fibroid tumors.
Speaking of fibroid tumors, those bitches are a pain in the ass. I really am going to call my reproductive endocrinologist this week and invite her to come see me when our daughter is born. Then I'll ask her when I can schedule another visit with her to examine how bad the situation has gotten. Every time I have any kind of significant digestion movement down there, there's this excruciating pain in exactly the same place. Ugh.
Back to the idea of a planned birth. It occurred to me that women go into pre-term labor, and because I have fibroids, my odds are higher than average. Even if it's not pre-term, I might go into labor before a scheduled c-section. So then what happens? This isn't my first baby; it's not like I expect this to take 10 or 20 hours. Is it possible I could arrive at the hospital fully dilated and ready to give birth? What does that do to the risk of uterine rupture? More importantly, what does that mean for me actually having to go through child birth again???!?!?!? I'd like to pretend I'm some kind of superwoman who wouldn't be fazed in the least by such a situation, but the truth is, it terrifies me. My birth with Grace was traumatic. It's true; as time passes, you tend to forget how awful it was. But really, it was bad. It was induced, so I don't know much of the difficulty was due to overly severe contractions. But doing it over again really scares me to death. I'm not good with relaxation techniques and lots of pain. Grace emerged from my body as I was puking green vomit. When they asked me whether dad or mom wanted to see and hold her first, I felt barely conscious enough to even parse the question.
So then I started thinking this week, ok, no problem, I'll just enroll me and my husband in a childbirth class and then we'll be prepared no matter what situation presents itself. I did this before when I was pregnant with Grace, and though it had very little good effect on my actual childbirth with her, it made me feel less anxious. But going this route has its emotionally negative repercussions too. We're going to spend 4-6 classes learning all about natural childbirth, getting all geared up for such an eventuality, buying into all the reasons why it's the most wonderful thing in the world...and then what? Have a cesarean? It's bad enough I'm suffering from clinical depression (oh yes, I am, more on that another time); do I really need to throw ANOTHER curve ball into this whole thing that will cause more stress?
I feel like I'm in some kind of a pregnancy and childbirth catch-22, like no matter what I do something won't go right. I'm seeing the obstetrician tomorrow, so you bet there will be a lot of questions about 'what should we do now?'
Help me....
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I wish I had suggestions for you. I'm sending good thoughts for the rest of your pregnancy and childbirth. I had a caesarean with my second child, and it wasn't bad at all. I remember telling my husband that I hoped they would make sure that I was good and numb...then he told me that for at least five minutes, my OB/GYN had been pinching me, hard, with a very scary looking clamp. Yes, I was good and numb. Then 15 minutes later, I told him that I wished they'd get the show on the road, as I was tired of just lying there...it turned out that they'd already gotten the baby halfway out. I had about 24 hours after when I felt GREAT, because the morphine was still in my system. When it wore off, I had pain, but I don't remember it as any worse than post-childbirth pain after natural childbirth. It takes a few more weeks to recover with a C-section...after natural, I felt pretty good after a week. With the C-section, it took 3 weeks or so, but it got better every day. Really, it's not bad at all. One thing to be aware of, if they haven't told you, is that you can't drive for four weeks or so afterward, so you'll have to be prepared with your husband or a friend to take you anywhere you need to go, or to run errands for you. Other than that, it's OK. I hope you'll feel better and less anxious soon.
i'm pregnant with twins...just over 29 weeks...i'm due august 12...because it's twins, the usual route of just seeing a midwife has not taken place this pregnancy..i have to see a doc every 3rd visit..at my last scan, we discovered that BOTH babies are breech AND they BOTH possibly have the cord around their necks...the cord thing, while it worries me, does not scare me, katy beth had it wrapped around her neck twice when she was born, vaginally, at just over 41 weeks...i have been induced for my last 4 pregnancies...the doc (and the midwives) keep telling me that odds are i will go in to labor on my own, probably no later than 36 weeks...i haven't gone in to labor on my own since i was 17...my last baby was 10 pounds, it took two whole days, and he was born at 41 weeks and 6 days..i keep looking at that and thinking "even with big twins at 6-7 pounds a piece, what really makes them think my uterus will give up the ghost and actually WORK on it's own, not to mention my very reluctant cervix?" i'm trying to be prepared, just in case, but i'm also sitting here and laughing out loud at the thought...no child birth classes to prepare...i've done it too many times and i know they really don't help much...and these two will come by c-section, whether i go in to labor on my own or i show up on the appointed day at the appointed time, which is july 31 with the surgery at 10 that morning...the doc has mentioned uterine rupture with me as well, simply because they are predicting BIG babies and don't want to stress the uterus more with actual labor...the best advice i have is take it a day at a time...if birthing children were a guarenteed science, there would be a lot more happy mommies out there!
I've just been around lots of pregnancies, but I think any and all anxiety is normal when you're on the home stretch. You can't really effect what your uterus is going to do. I think as long as you and your doctor have a specific plan once you get even closer, you'll be fine. Listen to your body and never fear waking up that oncall doctor.
I am sending you lots of hugs and loves and prayers (my own kind!) and just want you to know that I know absolutely nothing about having kids, but I do know you will be fine and it will all work out.
And I'll be thinking of you daily.
Heather, I don't really know much about your labor with your daughter, but unless you progress extremely quickly with your labors, even if you go into labor they can still do a c-section for you. They would have for me if I had gone into labor before the scheduled c-section. It turned out I was just barely starting labor the day of my section with Baby D (I could not feel the contractions but I have a pretty high pain tolerance anyway.)
I have had 3 c-sections now and I can tell you my recovery was easiest with my first section (which is opposite what most would say). It's so normal to worry about every detail. This is a big event no matter how it happens. Try to remind yourself that the time of surgery and recovery seem long at the time, but they are just a blip in your life and you will be back to your normal self within 2-3 weeks.
Thinking of you.
If you have any questions you'd like to ask re: c-section or whatever, feel free to email me.
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