I have been attending Bradley classes to learn the things I need to do to prepare for a natural birth. One of the things they recommend to help avoid tearing and/or an episiotomy is going without underwear as much as possible.
The theory is that animals don't tear when they give birth because their perineum is exposed to air and sunlight which helps make it more pliable and stretchy. I, however, am not comfortable going commando.
But I really want to do everything I can to train for this so my body is ready to bring my punkin into the world with as little medical intervention as possible. So I have this flowy skirt I wear when I am around the house and I go sans underwear when I wear it.
Well, this last week has been ridiculously hot... excessive heat warnings daily... heat indices from 105-115 for days... too hot to even swim... my friend Jenny's latest blog post title says it all: Greetings From The Surface Of The Sun.* I have been taking multiple showers every day and even walked around naked most of one day when I had the house to myself.
A couple days ago, I showered as soon as I walked in the door from work. When I got out, I tossed on my flowy skirt but never put on a shirt. An hour or so later, my husband gets home, takes one look at me and laughs... "you look like a bush woman who just stepped out of the National Geographic..." I laughed too and asked him if he was complaining... of course he said no... he's not stupid :-)
*http://notinkansasanymoretoto.typepad.com/
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Glamors of Pregnancy
I have a cold... not a bad one but it is still uncomfortable. The other morning, I woke up with the sore throat I know comes from sinus drainage... I got up and went to work anyway but left as early as I could that day.
That afternoon, I slept a good 3 hours and woke up feeling great. So I went to dinner with some friends from church... we had planned to meet at this fabulous Italian buffet and I wasn't going to miss it since I was feeling better.
That night when I got home I still felt fine. I did some things around the house and then had a snack before I went to bed.
I usually wake up 2-4 times to go potty during the night and I always get a snack so I don't ever really have an empty tummy... I think this is the reason I never had morning sickness.
Anyway, that night, I was having these pains in my chest that feel like indigestion but I have recently discovered are actually hunger pains because my tummy is now smooshed up into my chest cavity. It is hard to eat then but I knew I needed something so I ate a frozen fruit cup hoping that would help and I went back to bed.
The next time I woke up, I felt even worse and I got that metallic taste in the back of my mouth. You know the one you get right before you vomit? That's the one! But I still had the pain in my chest. I figured if it was stomach acid I was tasting because I was hungry, a piece of bread might help. I pulled the crust off to share with Bailey then I took a couple of bites myself.
That's when things got bad...
I knew the bread was a bad idea after the first swallow. I tossed the rest of the piece to Bailey and ran to the bathroom. I made it just in time.
Now I never vomit... ever... the last time was the day before my baby brother left to go back to Iraq (November 2007) and we went out and I got hammered and paid for it for 2 days... So that one was my fault... I wasn't even sick...
Well, this time it only lasted a few minutes so it wasn't too bad. And I felt 100 times better after it was over. So I headed back to bed.
The next morning, I woke up starving and feeling much better so I slowly ate some breakfast before getting ready for work. As I was putting some make-up on, I noticed some little red dots on my left jaw line and up that side of my cheek. I had a few other spots around my right eye as well. I figured it was just freaky pregnancy skin and didn't give it a second thought.
The following morning, however, I went to put some eye liner on and when I pulled my lower lid away from my eye, there looked to be a puddle of blood where the inside of my lid met my eye!!! What in the????? I checked the other eye and it was there as well! I started to think about it and I realized I must have thrown up so hard that I caused facial hemorrhages!
Petechial hemorrhages to be exact. You know, the stuff they look at to determine if a person was strangled to death...
Ahh... the glamors of pregnancy :-)
********************
26 weeks today... time is sure flying now!
That afternoon, I slept a good 3 hours and woke up feeling great. So I went to dinner with some friends from church... we had planned to meet at this fabulous Italian buffet and I wasn't going to miss it since I was feeling better.
That night when I got home I still felt fine. I did some things around the house and then had a snack before I went to bed.
I usually wake up 2-4 times to go potty during the night and I always get a snack so I don't ever really have an empty tummy... I think this is the reason I never had morning sickness.
Anyway, that night, I was having these pains in my chest that feel like indigestion but I have recently discovered are actually hunger pains because my tummy is now smooshed up into my chest cavity. It is hard to eat then but I knew I needed something so I ate a frozen fruit cup hoping that would help and I went back to bed.
The next time I woke up, I felt even worse and I got that metallic taste in the back of my mouth. You know the one you get right before you vomit? That's the one! But I still had the pain in my chest. I figured if it was stomach acid I was tasting because I was hungry, a piece of bread might help. I pulled the crust off to share with Bailey then I took a couple of bites myself.
That's when things got bad...
I knew the bread was a bad idea after the first swallow. I tossed the rest of the piece to Bailey and ran to the bathroom. I made it just in time.
Now I never vomit... ever... the last time was the day before my baby brother left to go back to Iraq (November 2007) and we went out and I got hammered and paid for it for 2 days... So that one was my fault... I wasn't even sick...
Well, this time it only lasted a few minutes so it wasn't too bad. And I felt 100 times better after it was over. So I headed back to bed.
The next morning, I woke up starving and feeling much better so I slowly ate some breakfast before getting ready for work. As I was putting some make-up on, I noticed some little red dots on my left jaw line and up that side of my cheek. I had a few other spots around my right eye as well. I figured it was just freaky pregnancy skin and didn't give it a second thought.
The following morning, however, I went to put some eye liner on and when I pulled my lower lid away from my eye, there looked to be a puddle of blood where the inside of my lid met my eye!!! What in the????? I checked the other eye and it was there as well! I started to think about it and I realized I must have thrown up so hard that I caused facial hemorrhages!
Petechial hemorrhages to be exact. You know, the stuff they look at to determine if a person was strangled to death...
Ahh... the glamors of pregnancy :-)
********************
26 weeks today... time is sure flying now!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Over Cooked
Pregnancy does strange things to one's body. I have read about and expected these things. But something still caught me off guard.
When you are pregnant, your skin goes nuts. You get acne and dark blotches and skin tags and hairs growing out of strange places... I expected these things... but I was spared the indignity of them all...
Or so I thought.
Memorial Day weekend, my husband sailed in a regatta with one of our neighbors. We hadn't got our boat in the water yet but I still wanted to enjoy the sun and work on my tan. So I layed out in front of our house while I waited for him to get home.
Normally, it takes a few hours for me to start to show some color. I can be on the water for 3 hours and tan well but not burn til I've been out for 4 or 5 hours. After about an hour and 15 min, my husband got home and I went inside and we went about our day as usual.
As I was showering in preparation for a party we were attending that night, I realized I had burned a bit. Not too bad though so I wasn't concerned... but by the end of the night I was miserable. The entire front half of me was bright red and on fire... even the front of my legs which never burn. All after an hour! Someone at the party even asked if I was trying to cook the baby faster...
I figured I would just lay out the next day to work on my back side to even things out a bit but only for 30-45 min so I didn't burn my back, too. Then I remembered, I can't lay on my belly anymore!!! Was I doomed to be two-toned for the entire summer?
Well, it rained the next day so I couldn't even go to the dog park and stand with my back to the sun...
The next weekend, I layed out again and figured out that I could still lay on my tummy if I propped myself up on my elbows and kept them directly under my shoulders. So I worked on evening things out.
Here is where it gets tricky. The first day I layed out, I was just in shorts and a tank which I pulled up to expose the baby bump. So my tan lines were more like a tube top than a bikini top. So the next time I layed out, I put SPF 50 on all the places I was tan from the week before so that the white spots around my bikini top could catch up. Well, I overlapped the sun screen a bit and now I have finger marks in the white part that was supposed to be getting tan! I am 3 different colors! My tan is so messed up now that I will be surprised if it evens out by the end of the summer!
Who would have imagined that a sun worshiper like me would end up hyper-sensitive to the sun?
When you are pregnant, your skin goes nuts. You get acne and dark blotches and skin tags and hairs growing out of strange places... I expected these things... but I was spared the indignity of them all...
Or so I thought.
Memorial Day weekend, my husband sailed in a regatta with one of our neighbors. We hadn't got our boat in the water yet but I still wanted to enjoy the sun and work on my tan. So I layed out in front of our house while I waited for him to get home.
Normally, it takes a few hours for me to start to show some color. I can be on the water for 3 hours and tan well but not burn til I've been out for 4 or 5 hours. After about an hour and 15 min, my husband got home and I went inside and we went about our day as usual.
As I was showering in preparation for a party we were attending that night, I realized I had burned a bit. Not too bad though so I wasn't concerned... but by the end of the night I was miserable. The entire front half of me was bright red and on fire... even the front of my legs which never burn. All after an hour! Someone at the party even asked if I was trying to cook the baby faster...
I figured I would just lay out the next day to work on my back side to even things out a bit but only for 30-45 min so I didn't burn my back, too. Then I remembered, I can't lay on my belly anymore!!! Was I doomed to be two-toned for the entire summer?
Well, it rained the next day so I couldn't even go to the dog park and stand with my back to the sun...
The next weekend, I layed out again and figured out that I could still lay on my tummy if I propped myself up on my elbows and kept them directly under my shoulders. So I worked on evening things out.
Here is where it gets tricky. The first day I layed out, I was just in shorts and a tank which I pulled up to expose the baby bump. So my tan lines were more like a tube top than a bikini top. So the next time I layed out, I put SPF 50 on all the places I was tan from the week before so that the white spots around my bikini top could catch up. Well, I overlapped the sun screen a bit and now I have finger marks in the white part that was supposed to be getting tan! I am 3 different colors! My tan is so messed up now that I will be surprised if it evens out by the end of the summer!
Who would have imagined that a sun worshiper like me would end up hyper-sensitive to the sun?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Contractions
So I've been having contractions...
I was at work one day and I felt a twinge that I thought was round ligament pain. I sat down at the nurses station hoping it would go away... then the twinge moved around a bit then encircled my entire waist... I asked one of the nurses if she thought it might be a contraction... she said yeah and to drink more water to see if that helped... that was at 21 weeks and I ended up having 3 contractions in 36 hours.
I increased my water intake and things were fine. Then at 23 weeks, it happened again. I had 2 in 12 hours.
Over the last couple weeks, I have had many off and on but nothing that is so consistant that I can keep track. I have learned in my Bradley classes that these contractions are good... it's like a work out for my uterus. As long as there is no spotting, cramping, or pain, I am fine and it's just my body getting ready to push this puppy out :-)
The thing that surprises me is that they are not painful... not even uncomfortable. It's just a tightening of muscles like if I was doing light ab work or something... but it is similar to a charlie horse because it just happens and I can't control it... but there is no pain.
I am learning more about my body every day... its facinating how you can live with something for 30+ years and still be surprised and the things it can do...
********************
25 weeks today... technically viable... but let's cook a little longer, shall we?
I was at work one day and I felt a twinge that I thought was round ligament pain. I sat down at the nurses station hoping it would go away... then the twinge moved around a bit then encircled my entire waist... I asked one of the nurses if she thought it might be a contraction... she said yeah and to drink more water to see if that helped... that was at 21 weeks and I ended up having 3 contractions in 36 hours.
I increased my water intake and things were fine. Then at 23 weeks, it happened again. I had 2 in 12 hours.
Over the last couple weeks, I have had many off and on but nothing that is so consistant that I can keep track. I have learned in my Bradley classes that these contractions are good... it's like a work out for my uterus. As long as there is no spotting, cramping, or pain, I am fine and it's just my body getting ready to push this puppy out :-)
The thing that surprises me is that they are not painful... not even uncomfortable. It's just a tightening of muscles like if I was doing light ab work or something... but it is similar to a charlie horse because it just happens and I can't control it... but there is no pain.
I am learning more about my body every day... its facinating how you can live with something for 30+ years and still be surprised and the things it can do...
********************
25 weeks today... technically viable... but let's cook a little longer, shall we?
Friday, June 12, 2009
You Can't Fix Stupid
Working in a big city hospital, I see and hear a lot of wacky things. And yet, there are still some things that surprise me.
I was walking down the hall when I patient came out of her room dressed like she was headed outside. I figured she was headed out to smoke. A social worker was reviewing her chart at the time and told the new mom that she needed to wait a few minutes because the she was about to come in to talk to her. The patient said, "I just need to run outside for a minute, I'll be right back." The social worker, matter-of-factly and plain as day, loud enough for me to hear as I was passing by, said, "Are you going out to buy drugs?" I just kept walking and didn't look back.
There was a family who was being counseled about the baby they were about to have. The ultrasounds had revealed spina bifida and the baby was going to be born via c-section and taken straight to the NICU for evaluation to determine if the baby needed to be transfered to the local children's hospital or if it would remain in our NICU. After the extensive counseling session with a social worker, OB-GYN, neonatalogist, NICU nurse, and patient advocate, the father-to-be asked, "so will the baby be able to stay in our room with us the whole time?"
There was a baby who did not pass his hearing screen in the NICU and I was working with the family trying to get the out patient appointment set up and give directions and instructions for where they needed to go and what they needed to do. The mother and father lived at different addresses and when I was writing down the address for mom and giving it to the follow-up facility, dad kept asking if I needed to change the address to his. I asked him where the baby's full-time residence would be and he said the mother's home. I told him that was the address we needed for the paperwork. We went through it 3 times before he stopped asking me to change the address. Later on, right before they were were leaving, he asked the nurse, "when are you going to put the chip in his neck?" Huh?
Nurse: I'm sorry?
Dad: You know, the chip so we can find him if he gets lost.
Nurse: We don't do that here.
What did this guy think? That his child was a dog? All I can figure is he may have seen the Duracell commercial with the child locator (which creeps me out anyway) and didn't realize it was a key chain type device you attach to the child, not a chip you implant in their neck!
*********************
24 weeks today :-)
I was walking down the hall when I patient came out of her room dressed like she was headed outside. I figured she was headed out to smoke. A social worker was reviewing her chart at the time and told the new mom that she needed to wait a few minutes because the she was about to come in to talk to her. The patient said, "I just need to run outside for a minute, I'll be right back." The social worker, matter-of-factly and plain as day, loud enough for me to hear as I was passing by, said, "Are you going out to buy drugs?" I just kept walking and didn't look back.
There was a family who was being counseled about the baby they were about to have. The ultrasounds had revealed spina bifida and the baby was going to be born via c-section and taken straight to the NICU for evaluation to determine if the baby needed to be transfered to the local children's hospital or if it would remain in our NICU. After the extensive counseling session with a social worker, OB-GYN, neonatalogist, NICU nurse, and patient advocate, the father-to-be asked, "so will the baby be able to stay in our room with us the whole time?"
There was a baby who did not pass his hearing screen in the NICU and I was working with the family trying to get the out patient appointment set up and give directions and instructions for where they needed to go and what they needed to do. The mother and father lived at different addresses and when I was writing down the address for mom and giving it to the follow-up facility, dad kept asking if I needed to change the address to his. I asked him where the baby's full-time residence would be and he said the mother's home. I told him that was the address we needed for the paperwork. We went through it 3 times before he stopped asking me to change the address. Later on, right before they were were leaving, he asked the nurse, "when are you going to put the chip in his neck?" Huh?
Nurse: I'm sorry?
Dad: You know, the chip so we can find him if he gets lost.
Nurse: We don't do that here.
What did this guy think? That his child was a dog? All I can figure is he may have seen the Duracell commercial with the child locator (which creeps me out anyway) and didn't realize it was a key chain type device you attach to the child, not a chip you implant in their neck!
*********************
24 weeks today :-)
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