Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Last 24 Hours: Pregnancy News, A Possible VBAC and A Tumbling Class

We've had a couple of exciting days.

Yesterday the girls went to their first tumbling classes.  

I wrote an entire post about it, but it's currently in the "draft" bin because, well, the whole thing was a little embarassing.  Let's just say that Mae Bae was Mae Bae and for some reason I was shocked by this.  You see, in my imaginary world, Mae Bae loves tumbling so much at home that she was pleasant and cooperative at her class.  Instead she seemed to think she'd been entered into some sort of football/wrestling combo event and raced around the room.  She treated tumbling like a full contact sport, when not trying to hold hands with little boys that she'd just met.  After twenty minutes of trying to contain the Mae Bae-ness, she went outside with Daddy.

Sadie's class went well until the teacher said the word "race" (thankfully this was in the last five minutes) and she began trying to "get rid of" the competition (which she saw as the little boys in the class).  You could tell she knew what she was doing was naughty, because she kept looking over at me with this "I know I shouldn't be doing this but I just have to win" look on her face, while I tried to communicate that slamming into other people to win the "crab walk race" was not an appropriate activity.  Before she went to bed she said:  "I did good at the beginning of my class.  But I was bad at the end.  When we did the crab walk race I wanted to get rid of the boys."

Yeah.  That led to an interesting conversation.

Today, however, she's sick and cuddly, with an additional dose of cuddliness caused by the fact that the weather is suddenly turning towards autumn, and it's 66 degrees in our house.  Our two girls, after a year in Florida, think that 66 degrees is frigid, even with long pants and long sleeves on and would like to spend all their time wrapped in down blankets shivering.

We may need to invest in a space heater for the living room, so that we don't have to heat the whole house all day long.

In other news I met my OB today and was pretty happy with the entire appointment.  He was polite, lacked the condescension I've ran across so often and didn't scoff when I explained that I wanted to weigh the risk of future possible c-sections against  the risk of a VBAC right now.  He said that was an important consideration to make, and that since it's nationally recommended to try VBACs even after a second c-section (and after a discussion of the previous two labors and c-sections) he said he would be willing to let me try, although he would want me to head to the hospital early on in labor.

He wants me to come in weekly, to meet the other doctors in the practice, so weekly appointments start now.

The catch of the moment, is that the baby was breach at my last ultrasound and appears to be transverse now (although we've moved from breach to transverse in the last couple of days, so that seems to be a step in the right direction!).  If the baby is breach we can't try a VBAC, so I'm checking out Spinning Babies and any other info or suggestions I can find.  I go in for an ultrasound in eight days to give him a better idea of what's going on (and also because those four incidences of spotting make everyone want to make sure there aren't any problems at the moment).

In the last month I do seem to have lost a pound, which I'm guessing is from all the time we spent on the road, being disgusted at the idea of another fast food decision.

I'm pretty excited to even be given a chance at a natural birth.  After pushing for five hours without any pain killers I know that I can do this, if it's physically possible.  And having a doctor and hospital that actually is supportive and thinks that it's a good idea is pretty awesome.

10 comments:

  1. Sadie's confession nearly made me do a spit take with my coffee. Made my morning.

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  2. My little guy turned breach twice, the second time at 38 weeks. I looked at all the advice online and decided to try the acupressure. I used clothespins on my pinkie toes for about 10 minutes. After 5 minutes, he was so active I was amazed. I can't promise that is what did it, because I had a lot of amniotic fluid and he was able to dance around in there pretty well the whole pregnancy. Praying that all goes well!

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  3. Do you have access to an inversion table? Two five minute sessions on an inversion table turned my last breech baby.

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  4. Good luck with your VBAC!! Spinning Babies is a great website, and they have a lot of good suggestions. A few of my friends had breech babies, but the babies flipped when my friends tried acupuncture and going to a chiropractor. Might be worth a try. Hope it works out for you!

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  5. So glad that you at least have the option for a VBAC, and that your doctor seems reasonable.

    Marie

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  6. I hope all goes well with the baby turning--as you say, he's on the right path.

    Also--what about follow-ups to two recent posts? The house? The foot?

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  7. Spinning babies convinced me not to try a VBAC because my narrow pelvic outlet and my persistent posterior babies don't mix well! Good luck. The two c-sections have given me enough reason not to pursue another pregnancy. I'm saving a third c-section for a surprise pregnancy that may come along.

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  8. Both my babies turned after the 36 week mark! That's great to have a Doctor thats open to v-bac, prayers for a safe delivery!

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  9. Oh my, I just had the best giggle. Your girls sound just like mine!!

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  10. Will pray that your baby turns in time so you can try for a VBAC!

    Though I have to admit a 9 lb plus baby would scare me - my three have all been between 6.5 and 7 lbs (at 37 to 38 weeks), and that seemed plenty big enough (I always tease my husband that I prefer to fatten them up after birth). Size is probably due to me and my husband's small stature combined with my tendancy to deliver early (though fortunatly not early enough to qualify for automatic NICU admission - my hospital insists on it at 36 wks 6 days, and my last was born at 37 wks 2 days - bit of a squeaker timewise).

    Transverse at 32 weeks isn't terribly unusual though, as long as your baby isn't already too big to make the rotation. Mine always liked to hang out transverse for most of my 3rd trimester (after they got past the "look, I can do a full somersaut while you are talking to a room full of people and make them all stare at your stomach" 2nd trimester phase - no amount of loose materity clothes can disguise your bump shifting positions top to bottoms and side to side by 4 inches or more). I never have had a problem with feeling faint during pregnancy, but my babies in-womb antics have made some middle-aged men I was trying to give a serious physics presentationt to look pretty pale! But I am quite short (5'0"), and I think transverse provides more space for my babies without running into uncomfortable bones to bump their heads on (the result, however, is that I am always "lopsided" pregnant, with the bigger, harder "head" side of the baby making one side of my stomach stick out a lot further than the other - no nice "round" baby bumps. However, they have always politely turned head down at 35-36 weeks (after at least one appointment where my OB starts to get worried about the transverse thing), and then spent two weeks trying to "stretch" their little bodies back out, which involves jamming their feet into my ribcage and PUSHING their head down into my pelvis - not so much fun, and in my experience guaranteed to break my water or trigger serious labor within 2 weeks. So I never hope for head-down before 35-36 weeks, since I don't want a preemie.

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