September 2008 babies

[MLB]

Good Morning,

LostGirl - did you do a graduate degree? In what?

I have been exercising (can't run - makes me have to pee after 30s - frustrating since I just ran a marathon!) and last week at my 16 week appt I was told that I could do ANYTHING I wanted at the gym including ab stuff and lower body stuff. I know that this is not standard advice. The nurse said that everyone is so afraid of being sued AND since they don't know people's exercise history they are very cautious about what they usually say, but since I have been exercising for years, it would be ok. She said that I wouldn't hurt the baby, but if I pushed too hard, I could pull my own muscles. Also - she said in a controlled environment, it is super hard to get your core temperature above 98 degrees and thus to the danger zone for the little one. In addition, she said that I would know if laying on my back was decreasing circulation - it would feel like impending doom. It wakes you up if it happens while you are asleep and for some women it makes you feel breathless. I was happy to hear that it was so dramatic. I was worried that I was inadvertently cutting off normal blood supply sometimes.

Last night I woke up with massive abdominal pain. Felt like menstrual cramps. TOTAL PANIC. (but no blood....) I have had sharp pains on one side or another which I attributed to round ligament stuff, but this was all over just above my pubic bone. I will call the DR when they open, but sounds like nothing to worry about from posts by others.

[LostGirl]

MLB, I hear you. I had some funky pains last night too. Before I went to bed, I felt some sharp pains down the middle of my belly, but when I stood up and walked around the apt they went away. I too worry about sleeping on my back, but every time I end up on my back something tells me to move. So I get on one side or the other. Glad though to hear that decreased circulation is something that's hard to miss!

I did in fact do a graduate degree in English literature 1880-1960 at Oxford. Why do you ask? Do I seem particularly nerdy to you? Ha! Did you go to grad school too.

I love that your doctor was honest and told you that you should do what you feel comfortable doing considering your fitness level. I held back in the first tri but less so now. That said, I creep along when I run. (My long run could run forever pace used to be 9 minute/miles now I can do a 5k at 10min/mile pace max! This morning though I was pooped so I ran 1.5 miles and then walked another 2.)

Anyway, for the next month from Month 4 to Month 5, I intend to swim twice a week with my team, run twice a week 4 miles (once with a pal, once alone) and lift weights twice a week. After that I'll reassess.

Lately I've been loving the weightlifting for my upper body, I figure during the hot days of summer my only solace will be to look at my cut arms and say, Thank God they still look the same! (Everything else by then no doubt will be slouching toward Bethlehem...

CT Michele and Elca: Sorry to hear about your round ligament pains. I'm not looking forward to them, but sadly I think they may be unavoidable. Things have to shift, I suppose.

Lostgirl

[MLB]

LostGirl - You don't seem particularly nerdy...you just said that you remembered 'those days' when I said that I am frantically writing my dissertation. (It is due 3 weeks from yesterday in decent rough draft form and I defend May 14!!) I am working with St. John's wort and modifying the chemical content through environmental manipulation. This is through the Biological Engineering Dept at Cornell, but one could debate about how much 'engineering' I actually did....

The doctor's office called back and said not to worry about the pain unless it lasts a few days or more than 8 hours/day. She also asked if I did more activity than usual yesterday (Yes, I lifted weights for most of my body).

It is so sunny and beautiful out that I am tempted to try to run (jog) again, but I have a 2pm meeting that I have some more work for and it is 15+ mph wind. Tomorrow might be better, so I'll give it a shot then. I do sleep better if I work out..

I had to pony up $90 for a 2 month membership at the gym. Since I am no longer teaching fitness classes, they revoked my free semester membership. I understand why they did it - but REALLY, with 8 weeks left they made me pay for the whole semester??? We would have changed gyms entirely, but DH is paid up thru May. I was tempted to write a nasty letter, but it would have just gone to the person following the rules, not the one making them.

OK, the documents I need to read have printed, so back to work.

[CT_Michele]

hello all-

I had my level 2 anatomy scan today at the hospital. It took like 45 minutes and we got to see alot. They also recorded it on dvd so we could take it home and show our family. She pointed out heart, hands, feet, spine, kidneys, bladder, skull, brain and much more. The baby was being difficult and was not cooperating very much with positions.

The sonographer said she had an idea of what the gender was, but didn't want to say until the dr's came in and looked to see if they felt the same way. 2 dr's came in and when they looked they said I may have to wait until next time, they had an idea but wouldn't say. So when the dr was talking she said "she" and I asked, does that mean you think it's a girl? She said that's the feeling. When the dr left the room the sonographer said, "I saw while the dr's were looking, and it's a girl." That is what we were hoping. We aren't going to shop just yet, we are waiting for confirmation next time, but we are pretty confident in saying it's a girl.

here's the best pic from today, sorry if it comes out huge, i tried to resize

[CT_Michele]

my dh made a youtube video of the best 3 minutes of the u/s from yesterday. I am going to try and copy the link so you guys can check it out, but if it doesn't work when you copy and paste, go to youtube and type "Ella Michele" in the search box. You will see an 18wk u/s pop up, that's ours!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NrCG9DXG_1s

enjoy!

[MLB]

Michelle - Your photo is so cool! I am using wireless internet right now and the connection is not great, so I can't watch the video...but I will. You are so lucky that you got a level 2 scan! I am not scheduled for one (it would require a referrel to another Dr. and my OB's office doesn't see a good reason to do that).

Which brings up my good news...FINALLY I got the results of my triple screen (Downs, trisomy-18 and neural tube defects). The midwife called and said the results were perfect - no risk. Then she qualified it, "you know how these results work, right?". I didn't ask for my specific numbers because it would be too easy for me to obsess over it...

OK - back to work. Hope everyone is having a good day.

[MLB]

Did anyone's belly suddenly get a lot bigger? DH says he can see a massive difference in the last few days, and I measured my belly for the first time on Thurs and it is almost 1" bigger today! If I keep growing at this pace, I will look very preggo at the wedding I am going to in 2.5 weeks!

[washingtonda]

Hi ladies -- I had posted here a while back but had a hard time pulling myself away from the Dec/Jan cycle thread because I had so many friends over there who needed my encouragement. Most of them have now gotten BFPs or have not and are doing other things so I officially moved to this board as my main source from here out. I see a few names that I know so I should fit in well. I just have to catch up to where everyone is in their pregnancies and go from there.

I notice that we don't have many Sept mommies here so the one's that are here have to start posting more. I'll make a commitment to log on here as much as I can.

We'll good luck to all. Again my due date is 29 Sept but since I am a C-section mama, I'm being told that I can schedule my section for anytime the week before.

Good luck to all and I am glad to be here.

[LostGirl]

Welcome again Washingtonda,
I have jumped between loads of threads but now I guess this one is it. Though I still lurk to see how ladies are doing elsewhere.

Anyway, last OB-gyn appointment was totally uneventful in a nice way. My due date is Sept 19th so I'm a little ahead of you. We are just now signing up for birthing classes, I think I'm going to do the Bradley method. That is I'm going to try for an all-natural birth. I'm interested to see whether my mind can weather the storm that is labor. I know my body can.

My sister in law, who got an epidural for her son, said over brunch on Sunday said, "That's cool that you're into pain. I'm just not." Our whole table burst into laughter. Of course, I'm not into pain. I am just looking forward to going through a lifechanging experience, and as a jock, I can't help but think my mind will be my most powerful weapon against the unrelenting pain.

How did you choose to do a C-section? Are you going to take any birthing classes?

MLB: I have looked seriously preggo for weeks now. My book club finally noticed, or as they put it, it became obviously it was a bump and not just the slow accumulation of fat this side of 30. HA!
Lostgirl

[MLB]

Washingtonda - It's good to hear from you again. I also lurk in the old thread, but I just don't know what to say to comfort those for whom the second (or so) try didn't work. Sort of...survivor's guilt.

LostGirl - It depends on what I wear. You could see a change in my belly a month ago if I wore a more fitted tee shirt, or if the wind blew. Now it is starting to become very obvious unless I wear a hooded sweatshirt or button down shirt. I am about 6" bigger in the belly area than normal. I think it takes a while to show on me because my shoulders are broad, waist is usually very small, but my hips and bum are bigger...people assume it is all muscle and I let them - but that is just where I hide extra fat. Sadly, I am also about 1.5" larger in the hips and the same amount in the thighs, so not looking forward to wearing a bathing suit on the kayaking trip that precedes the wedding.

I haven't figured out what birthing method to use (DH works with a woman that swears by Hypnobirthing), but I am leaning toward no drugs. The marathon and triathlons have not been as painful as expected (perhaps not enough effort was expended), so...we'll try this. That should do it I expect!

[LostGirl]

The thing about triathlons and marathons is that for most people they aren't painful because they just want to finish the race, not compete. For me, I have to compete, it's in my blood, so I'm the one at the end of the race, with my tongue hanging out and my legs quaking. I'm the one who loves to see men get bummed out when I pass them in the last mile of an Olympic tri. It must suck to get beat by a girl.

Anyway, it's been tough for me to discover "moderate" exercise in the last 18 months in order to gain enough weight and fat to become pregnant. But I did it somehow, basically by not listening to my instinct to go hard.

But I am not delusional!! Labor is far more painful and agonizing than any race no matter how hard you push yourself. Old track buddies and rowers who would race till they puked have assured me of that, but I think mental toughness is something that goes a long long way.

I really have an ability to dig deep and keep going and to distract myself from pain with mental strategies - that may be worth something the day I give birth. Maybe not! We'll see... I'm just so curious...

[andnichole]

Lostgirl: You can definitely go through labor without the epidural. For my daughter my whole intention was to have an epidural. Once I got to the hospital I progressed fairly quickly even with the nurse telling me the whole time "it will take a while for you to dialate b/c it's your first baby." When I got to the hospital at 9am I was 4cm dialated and 2 1/2 hours later I was at 9cm. By the time the anesthesiologist got to me (11:30am) the OB said it wouldn't have time to take effect and so I pushed from 12:00pm and my daughter was born at 2:30pm. Unfortunately my daughter was turned sideways and so the OB thought she would be out by 12:30 but it took a little longer with trying to turn her.

The point of my story was to let you know that it was completely doable. It was very tiring (I remember thinking "can't this be a relay where I can hand the baton off to my partner" b/c I was so tired) but it definitely paid off in the end when I was able to get up and go to the bathroom 20 minutes after giving birth.

Even without any meds after you give birth they will hook you up to Pitocin to get the placenta out which brings back on the contractions. The only way they will unhook you from the Pitocin is once you have urinated so at the first opportunity I told them to let me up to go so I could get that dreaded IV off of me.

I would definitely do it without an epidural again. I am pregnant with twins now and when I brought it up with the OB he told me that it was not advisable b/c if something were to happen where they needed to get the babies out quickly I would have to go under general anesthesia. It was my every intention if I was pregnant with one to definitely not do an epidural.

[LostGirl]

Thanks for andnichole for those kind words. You should be a coach! Now I have a positive mindset about labor and believe I can do it - half the battle with anything in life, I'd argue
lostgirl

[andnichole]

Lostgirl: Absolutely. I think the scariest part about delivery the first time is the not knowing what to expect. You are completely right, if you prepare yourself mentally for the challenge of giving birth you will be fine. I liked that I still felt like I had control of the situation and my body versus not being able to feel what was going on down there.

[CT_Michele]

Hello Everyone-

Sorry I haven't posted lately. It has been crazy busy at the elementary school and my college work has piled up. I am trying to play catch up before my vacation in 2 days, so dh and I can enjoy the time.

Washingtonda- Welcome back! I too have been lurking and suppoprting on the dec/jan thread. It was my first home and i didn't want to give it up. I was very sad to read all of the bfp's and I think that thread is about done. I will try and be more vigilant about posting here. Because there are so few of us, it has been a slow go, or maybe I was just used to the frequent posts on the other side...either way, I will do my best, but I will be away from a computer next week, so I will have to catch up when I get home.

MLB- My belly is starting to grow too. It is still hard for people who don't know me to notice since I am a bigger girl anyway. It definitely depends on what I wear too. I am going to be a maid of honor at my brothers wedding in August. I will be a full 8 months pregnant. That shold be a funny site and the pics I am sure when just be lovely!

I am going to wait until school ends in June before doing childbirth classes and such. Since I will be off for the whole summer, I think it will be better for me to wait. I am starting to be a little nervous about delivery though, which I am sure is normal for first timers. I am expecting an epidural, and just praying for no c-section, but I guess I really don't have much control over what happens and will just go with the flow.

My mom has been a little reserved about this whole journey. She feels she is too young to be a grandma in her 40's. I was excited today, she asked me to stop at her job, and she had the cutest little outfit that says "I love my grandma." I guess she is finally accepting it and is starting to look forward to it.

I will try and post before I leave on friday...you girls have a great week!