MaternityShare

Feeling Internal. But, A Quick Check In. July 7, 2008

I have been feeling internal. I am preparing for birth. Signs point to me delivering in the next week to two weeks. That’s what my doctor said when she called me today to check in with me. I was impressed that she took the time to do that personally. Even though I am uneasy and in some discomfort at times and worried about my baby being in the womb long enough, I feel blessed. Things are going pretty well. I am healthy and so is the baby. I have great medical care providers. I have insurance. I have a wonderful doula. Billy is very supportive. The list goes on…

I am headed for bed now but I want to add one more thing to the list: tomorrow I get to visit with my dear friend Nicole who is visiting from Portland, Oregon with her fiancé Jeff who I will be meeting for the first time. And Nicole will finally get to meet Billy.

G’night.

Childbirth Education & HypnoBirthing: Rachel Yellin Teaches Us. Part 1 July 6, 2008

While on my moderate bed rest we hired Childbirth and Hypnobirthing Educator Rachel Yellin of One Moon to come to our home and teach us. Rachel is a wonderful, beautiful, grounded woman who had great things to share with us both from and educational and a energetic standpoint. She started us of by gathering information about how we felt about the upcoming birth. Pretty much right away I admitted that I had fear. We spent a good amount of time talking about the fear and why I had it. I felt like I was having a mini-therapy session which is something I did not expect to have or spend as much time as we did on. I felt like I was hogging or using up our valuable time but she kept me engaged with questions as well as offering ideas and possibilities that I could focus on instead.

In the end I found that spending this time on addressing the fear issue is related to the philosophy of hypnobirthing. Some of the ways in which it relates are these:

• It is important to find and work with a healthcare provider that is willing to work with me to give me the birth experience I want (unless special circumstances arise, then we take it as it comes). In my circumstance, I realized that I did need to look into an alternative provider and hospital.

• How you think and talk about things is important. Hypnobirthing is big on affirmations which work to ease and convince your mind of things that are true. The most simple example of all is that a woman’s body is designed to birth. Both the mother’s body and the baby’s body know what to do. It is now my job to get my mind (my fear) out of the way of my body so that I can let nature do what it is meant to do: birth naturally without pain.

It is interesting to read about how the body works. When it feels safe it has a releases certain chemicals to facilitate a chain of events that is the natural process of birthing.

When the body feels threatened, it shuts down the natural birthing process as a survival mechanism. In Ina May’s book Guide to Childbirth she tells how it has been observed in nature that if a gazelle begins to give birth but in the process is surprised by a predator, the gazelle can reverse the process (by shutting her cervix so that its baby remains inside its womb) until it can find a safe spot to give birth without fear, without threat.

This is true with human mothers too. If human mothers feel safe, comfortable and supported in their birthing environment then the mother gives birth naturally and with ease, without pain.

Birth Show July 5, 2008

I have not been posting to MaternityShare the last few days because I have been preoccupied. On Thursday afternoon I began spotting.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!

I was asked by the nurse mid-wife that was on call at the hospital to come in for observation and testing. It turns out that I had my “bloody show” or, “birth show”. In a nut shell that means that my cervix dilated more and as well as thinned more in preparation for birth. I could deliver now or in 5 weeks (that would be past my due date). We don’t know. Chances are sooner rather than later. But, we’ve heard that before, haven’t we. The spotting occurred because as the cervix thins and dilates capillaries break and bleed. Apparently it is all normal. About a month before one’s “due date” the body typically prepares for birth and, this is just one of those ways.

At the hospital they did a vaginal exam and found that I was nearly fully effaced (cervix is WAY thin) and that I am 2-3cm dilated. They monitored my contractions and the baby’s heart beat for about 2 and a half hours then did another vaginal exam in which they found that nothing had changed. They decided to let me go because even though I was having contractions I was not having labor patterned contractions (contractions that come at regular as well as close together intervals). Also, the fact that my cervix dilation did not change meant that the contractions were not affecting my cervix.

I was told to go home and relax.

I had more contractions today that made me wonder “is THIS it?” but they never got regular enough for long enough. So, its not show time yet.

There is so much I could blog about but I am getting very tired and need to sleep. Stay tuned for more good stuff from Mama and Baby Bird…

Feet Temporarily Out of the Picture July 2, 2008

I took this photo today so that you will be able to see what I see: no feet! Well, I can’t see the top of my head… but I thought it would help illustrate the point if I held the camera up high in a birds eye view. My belly button has not yet popped out (I am still an “inny”). We figure that when my belly button pops out that will indicate that the bird is done cooking!

Sorry to those of you who have been waiting so long to see pictures of how I and the baby bird are developing. I still have more to come of weeks past. And there are some ridiculous ones…. so stay tuned…

35 Weeks Along

Yesterday marked the 35 week point! Wee!

Here is a picture of my belly at 35 weeks pregnant. If you want to see an enlarged picture, just click on the image.

In the foreground is the baby seat that came with a Graco Travel system which has a matching the stroller that Billy got a few weeks ago. He installed the car seat base in the car so that whenever the little one decides to arrive we will be ready for action!