June 17, 2010

Big Changes

Well, I'm officially 30 weeks and just the other day, we officially decided WHERE we were going to have this baby.  Yes, I know, I know, I'm one of "those" patients.  The patient's I can't stand ... always changing their mind, always questioning the decisions others are making.  BUT, I finally feel comfortable with where we're going to be birthing the baby.  The place is called Morning Star Birthing Center, located in St. Louis Park off Excelsior Blvd.  Here is their website.

It's not the cheapest place to birth but it's the first place that I've been that the physicians actually looked me in the face when I told them I wanted to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cecarean).  They were the first group that didn't look at me like I've been doomed or I was a needy patient.  Their success rate with VBAC's are 92%.  That's WAY higher than any of the hospitals I looked at.  Now I just have to work on getting to know everyone there.  I haven't felt so good about this birth until we made this decision finally last Saturday. Although the price tag is hard to get over at first, I really feel like it's in my best interest to birth here.  Any other place I was looking at had already labeled me as a failure in their eyes.  That's NOT the case at Morning Star. 

Considering this post is called "Big Changes" the other things going on in our lives right now are that we have decided to put our house on the market.  We could make our house work for about the first year with the new baby but after that we'd have to move to a house with more than 2 bedrooms and with this market, it's hard to say how long you're house will be on the market for.  Thus, we put it up just to see what kind of bites we get.  We've also seen some houses on the market that are 4 bed, 2 bath, fenced in back yard that are the same price that we're selling our townhouse for.  So, if we got a mortgage that was the same or less than our town house, we'd be saving money in the long run. You can see our house listing right here! It's kind of weird because our Realtor suggested we get rid of the cats so they're staying for a while at Jason's parents house.  It's also weird that the house is constantly clean.  We clean every night and put the "fancy" bed spread on the bed in the morning and make sure all the toilet seats are down.  :)

Not only have we made these two big decisions but I am also getting bigger.  So big that I had a bout of what some people call a gall bladder attack.  The baby is putting pressure on my gall bladder and therefore my gall bladder had created a stone and I had fun morning of trying to get it to pass through the canal into my small intestine.  (that was fun). With that being said, here's a picture of my ever growing belly/baby.
 

June 2, 2010

Star Tribune Article

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/95188129.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

On memorial day, my mother-in-law gave me a portion of the Sunday Star Tribune and said I just HAD to read this article. So on the way home from our memorial day festivities, I read the article and couldn't believe what I was reading. I was reading about my situation, almost verbatim of what I've been going through with my VBAC. Not only did my mother-in-law hand me this paper and tell me that I had to read it but several other people commented to me saying "Julie, you could have written this article."

If you have a moment, to read the article PLEASE do. It's proof that my situation is not abnormal and it is a significant problem. Don't let this happen to you. Be educated, ask questions. I wish I would have been more knowledgeable and more hard headed with my doctor. Now I have to be much stronger and a much more difficult patient for the safety of myself and my baby.

Ladies, don't let this happen to you, husbands don't let this happen to your wives.

~Mama Beal