Week:27

Weight gain: o

I kept avoiding my glucose screening test all last week and I was so afraid that my OB would yell at me when I showed up this week. I ended up seeing a doctor in the practice who I hadn’t seen before, and she told me she actually had no idea why I was given a script for the test so early because I’m really not supposed to go in for the test until after week 28. So my guilt dissipated pretty quickly and I’m glad  I can go sometime next week now. I’m secretly afraid that I’ll develop gestational diabetes b/c I have strong family history for diabetes.  Also, at my last ultrasound they said the baby was bigger than it was supposed to be that week. They said he was perfectly normal and fine but that he was ahead of the average by about a few weeks. Saji is pretty tall so I can very well be having a big baby, but I fear that he’s getting big b/c of an insulin deficiency. I definitely do notice that when I’m not eating timely, I do feel sick and dizzy. I dont’ know if that can be chalked up to pregnancy in general or GD. I guess we’ll see! The very positive thing I have going for me is that I havent’ gained a lot of weight. Rapid weight gain is usually a sign of GD.

I actually only gained one whole pound from the last doctor’s visit to this one the doctor informed me. I seriously think I gained 3-4 lbs this month but maybe my I lost some water weight or something today. She said that the minimum weight gain was okay for now but in general I’ve only gained about 13 pounds total. She said I had room to be 5 lbs ahead at this stage but she’s not concerned at all because it’s still normal and healthy and at the end, plenty of ladies pile it on. I kinda dont’ want to go over 25 lbs but I dont’ want to set these number goals for myself and then get totally bummed out when I go over. Plus who know what Baby AM will even weigh? I’m hoping that the baby is not sooo big b/c that will just be uncomfortable and raise my chances for a c-section at the end there!

I’ve definitely noticed that I’m experiencing discomfort with my moods in general. I’m tired and out of sorts at end of the day and I feel very emotional and stressed out about the little things. While I might have only gained 13 lbs, I feel like I’ve gained 35. At the end of the day I feel like my belly is huge and tight and like I can’t catch my breath sometimes. I feel like I have no room inside of me and I can’t imagine getting a whole lot bigger.  I’m trying not to stress myself and to take it easy at the end of the day with relaxation techniques and massages from Saji. I do notice those things really do help me unwind. Another frustrating thing is I can’t sleep at night! All last week I averaged about 3-4 hours a night!! I can’t get comfortable and then when I finally do, I have to wake up to go to the bathroom. Also, I’m doing that annoying thing where I wake up early in the mornings when I don’t have to and I can’t fall back asleep. Sometimes this is due to hunger. I find I have to get up at the crack of dawn and eat something or else I have to endure a growling stomach.

I wish I could nap in the middle of the day or early evening at least, but I can’t seem to get drowsy enough to nap. Naptimes just end up being rest times where I’m laying quietly and feeling the baby kick. Not a bad way to spend a half hour or so, but man, oh man, I wish I could just go to sleep for 8 hours straight at night!!

On Sunday, Saji and I attended a Childbirth class at the hospital we’re delivering at. The class was all day from 9 am-4 pm with a half hour lunch break and a few smattering of 5 minute bathroom breaks here and there. Although I was struggling to stay alert for the first half of it (how ironic that I got sleepy in this class!), I found the entire thing so helpful and informative. The class was taught by a Nurse Practitioner/Lactation Consultant and she really injected a lot of warmth and humor into the class. She also broke up the class into a great rhythm of videos, lecture periods, breathing activities/exercises, interactive Q&A periods, etc.  That helped the day not be monotonous and it always felt like we were doing something new.

Aside from the valuable info (you can always read all this stuff in pregnancy books and stuff) the class was really worth it because of the breathing/relaxing techniques she taught us. I’ve been vocal about getting an epidural from the beginning. I’m not a big fan of pain or confident in the fact that I can work through it, and also I figured if there was something to take the edge off of the pain that was relatively safe to me and the baby, I would definitely sign up for it! I never bothered to think about breathing techniques etc. because I figured I would get pain meds asap. I didn’t realize that you dont’ get an epidural until 4 cm dilated minimum and sometimes to get to that point in labor it takes several hours, we’re taking 10-12 hours in a lot of cases with a first baby!! Labor is a sloooow process mostly in phase one.  I had no plans to manage and deal with the pain from early  contractions because I figured the time I’d be dealing with that pain would be so minimal and insignicant.

Also, I didnt’ realize how much time there is where you’re laboring at home during early labor. You can’t really go to the hospital until your contractions are 5 mins apart and for a duration of 60 seconds for 1 hour. If you’re going by that 5-1-1 ratio, you have to realize you are spending a huge chunk of early labor at home. If you go to the hospital and your labor is not pregressing, they send you right back home sometimes and you have to try to manage and work through that pain until you can get back to the hospital.

I also never communicated with Saji my expectations of him as my coach. I figured he like most husbands you see on sitcoms would run around excitedly picking up bags and trying to get me to the hospital before active labor began. Then I had visions of him saying stupid things while I wanted to rip his head off. Yeahhh, not a pleasant, relaxing vision in the least. But sitcoms and movies make you think of labor as this sweaty, excruciating process where women turn into she-devils and men are bumbling idiots who do things like faint or say the wrong things.

Our instructor really hit home that your labor process is what you put into it. If you dont ever lay out a support plan with your partner, how do you expect to have things go a certain way? I thought a birth plan meant a detailed list of options you wanted in terms of medication and procedure. I didn’t realize it also started at home the second you felt contractions.  There’s a whole mental process that goes into this that I didnt’ factor in. Prior to this class, I like a lot of women was just scared of the unknown and the pain of labor. I never had faith that I could work through and manage my pain or that I could be in control of the situation. The class gave me a lot more confidence in the fact that this experience is my own and everyone else is my support system.

The other best part of the class was having the instructor teach the partners how to give proper massages. That itself was worth EVERY penny of the class. In the past, I wasn’t a big fan of Saji’s massages because he was too rough and his idea of a massage was a deep tissue Swedish number and I’m not a big fan of massages to begin with. I find them uncomfortable and the amount of pressure put on me is often too much no matter how much it’s adjusted.  But I really enjoyed getting a scalp, shoulder, neck and lower back massage from Saji because the teacher showed him how to use just his thumbs to apply pressure to key points. Also she used different things to add pressure like a rolling pin, tennis ball, and pool noodle, which were all great! They say a lot of labor contractions are in your back and give you tremendous lower back pain. It’d be wonderful if some of it could be alleviated by simple massage techniques!

All in all, I was really happy with the class and felt very informed and proactive about being in charge of my labor experience. While I’m still ready for anything,  my attitude is better about it and I’m remembering that the most important thing is at the end of it, I’ll have a beautiful baby in my hands (knock on wood!).

 

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