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
June 2, 2010
May 29, 2010
I'm training for a marathon ... (not really but kind of)
On Wednesday night of this week, Jason and I attended our first Bradley Birthing class. It was really informative and I know this is really going to help us get through our next birth. So far, we've been given instructions on nutrition and exercise to help us become physically prepared for the birth. I believe I've already told you about the nutrition aspect, eating the eggs, yada yada yada, I hate eggs but I'm doing it anyways, yada yada. But, the exercise part is somewhat new and really interesting as to why we have to "train" to have this baby.
Here's the list of exericses I have to do and that COACH JASON is supposed to get me to do.
1. Pelvic tilting-(75 per day)on hands and knees, tilting my pelvis forward and backward to help baby assume the correct position for birth.
2. kegals-(75 per day) husbands, if you don't know what kegals are, ask your wives; dudes, if you don't have a wife, don't worry about it; ladies, if you don't know, ask your girl friends, you should be doing them even before you are planning on having a baby.
3. Inversions-(30 seconds) this one looks rediculous. I put my forearms on the floor with my head down, stick my butt in the air on a couch or chair. This also helps the baby to go head down. Kind of like a modified "tri-pod/head stand." If the baby doesn't go head down by the time you're due, the Bradley instructor said she'd tie me to an ironing board and tip me upside down ... I'd rather not do that so I've been good at doing my inversions. :)
4. Butterfly legs-(20/day) this is kind of like the "birthing machines" (as I call them) at the gym where you're sitting in a chair and pressing your legs outwards from the hips. The difference is, you're siting on the floor of the living room and Jason becomes my resistance. This one is kind of fun because I know my legs are stronger than his arms so sometimes he'll grimace because he's working so hard. ;p
5. interval hills-(3+ /day)-You've probably heard that normal walking is good for pregnancy but walking up hills is even better. By walking up hills, the exercise becomes Anaerobic (no oxygen used) which is supposed to train the baby to recover after a contractions. Essentially when you're having a contraction, the baby is being squeezed and momentarily deprived of oxygen. If you can train the baby to recover before he's born, he'll be healthier and safer when the day comes he will have to endure several contractions for long periods of time.
So, today I did all my exercises, even the interval hills. It was hot, and I didn't want to go, but all I could think about was, " how much do I NOT want to have a C-section" rain or shine, heat or humidity, I have to train for this MARATHON of a birth. Feel free to keep me in check. :)
Oh, and here's a picture of my walking partner. We were both panting by the end of our 3rd hill.
Here's the list of exericses I have to do and that COACH JASON is supposed to get me to do.
1. Pelvic tilting-(75 per day)on hands and knees, tilting my pelvis forward and backward to help baby assume the correct position for birth.
2. kegals-(75 per day) husbands, if you don't know what kegals are, ask your wives; dudes, if you don't have a wife, don't worry about it; ladies, if you don't know, ask your girl friends, you should be doing them even before you are planning on having a baby.
3. Inversions-(30 seconds) this one looks rediculous. I put my forearms on the floor with my head down, stick my butt in the air on a couch or chair. This also helps the baby to go head down. Kind of like a modified "tri-pod/head stand." If the baby doesn't go head down by the time you're due, the Bradley instructor said she'd tie me to an ironing board and tip me upside down ... I'd rather not do that so I've been good at doing my inversions. :)
4. Butterfly legs-(20/day) this is kind of like the "birthing machines" (as I call them) at the gym where you're sitting in a chair and pressing your legs outwards from the hips. The difference is, you're siting on the floor of the living room and Jason becomes my resistance. This one is kind of fun because I know my legs are stronger than his arms so sometimes he'll grimace because he's working so hard. ;p
5. interval hills-(3+ /day)-You've probably heard that normal walking is good for pregnancy but walking up hills is even better. By walking up hills, the exercise becomes Anaerobic (no oxygen used) which is supposed to train the baby to recover after a contractions. Essentially when you're having a contraction, the baby is being squeezed and momentarily deprived of oxygen. If you can train the baby to recover before he's born, he'll be healthier and safer when the day comes he will have to endure several contractions for long periods of time.
So, today I did all my exercises, even the interval hills. It was hot, and I didn't want to go, but all I could think about was, " how much do I NOT want to have a C-section" rain or shine, heat or humidity, I have to train for this MARATHON of a birth. Feel free to keep me in check. :)
Here's a picture of my belly, moving right along into the 3rd trimester.
Oh, and here's a picture of my walking partner. We were both panting by the end of our 3rd hill.
May 25, 2010
Dirty Laundry
A few days ago, I was sorting through my laundry and noticed a trend. Being pregnant dictates the way you do your laundry, how much laundry you have to do and what type of laundry/clothes you wear. Maybe you're saying "DUH" in your head but please, continue reading and let me explain.
First of all, pregnant laundry requires something called "the sniff test." I have become an expert at the sniff test. When you're pregnant, certain places ... and certain things ... smell different (use your imagination). Especially pants. Pants can usually be worn only once and then they have to pass the sniff test, which they most likely don't pass the sniff test after one wear. No more wearing my jeans 5 times before I wash them.
Second, because you can't wear certain items of clothing more than once, we're doing a LOT more laundry. Because we end up doing more laundry, I ended up pulling out more maternity clothes to compensate so we don't have to do laundry so often. So I got rid of wearing my jeans (due to the number of times I have to wash them) and added black stretch pants. Black stretch pants are ESSENTIAL because they're comfortable and they can also double as black dress pants (shhhhh, don't tell my patient's I'm wearing stretch pants to work.)
Another essential would be bra's that FIT!!! Good grief ... my normal C's and even the last pregnancy D's don't fit anymore so ... if you do your math right ... I had to go and buy new bra's. Bummer. It's really hard to find something cute that's that enormous.
Because I couldn't find anything particularly cute, my next decision was to go the comfort route. So, I broke out the old NURSING bra's. Now those things are HIDEOUS, but most definitely the most comfortable.
A few more tid bits; hair binders are attached to all my old buttons of my clothes. they're instant waist lengthen-ers. Another way to lengthen the life of wearing "regular" clothes is to not button the pants and just cover it with a belt or even better, use one of Jason's old ties. :)
Speaking of laundry, I put a bunch of clothes in the baby dresser and I just had to take a picture, everything is blue! Completely different from Abby's wardrobe. Here's some pictures.
These little shoes are my favorite item in the dresser.
Look at ALL the BLUE!
Here's a belly shot
I just had to add this. Abby looked so adorable in this little outfit. She wore it to Joy School (church) she is getting so BIG!
First of all, pregnant laundry requires something called "the sniff test." I have become an expert at the sniff test. When you're pregnant, certain places ... and certain things ... smell different (use your imagination). Especially pants. Pants can usually be worn only once and then they have to pass the sniff test, which they most likely don't pass the sniff test after one wear. No more wearing my jeans 5 times before I wash them.
Second, because you can't wear certain items of clothing more than once, we're doing a LOT more laundry. Because we end up doing more laundry, I ended up pulling out more maternity clothes to compensate so we don't have to do laundry so often. So I got rid of wearing my jeans (due to the number of times I have to wash them) and added black stretch pants. Black stretch pants are ESSENTIAL because they're comfortable and they can also double as black dress pants (shhhhh, don't tell my patient's I'm wearing stretch pants to work.)
Another essential would be bra's that FIT!!! Good grief ... my normal C's and even the last pregnancy D's don't fit anymore so ... if you do your math right ... I had to go and buy new bra's. Bummer. It's really hard to find something cute that's that enormous.
Because I couldn't find anything particularly cute, my next decision was to go the comfort route. So, I broke out the old NURSING bra's. Now those things are HIDEOUS, but most definitely the most comfortable.
A few more tid bits; hair binders are attached to all my old buttons of my clothes. they're instant waist lengthen-ers. Another way to lengthen the life of wearing "regular" clothes is to not button the pants and just cover it with a belt or even better, use one of Jason's old ties. :)
Speaking of laundry, I put a bunch of clothes in the baby dresser and I just had to take a picture, everything is blue! Completely different from Abby's wardrobe. Here's some pictures.
These little shoes are my favorite item in the dresser.
Look at ALL the BLUE!
Here's a belly shot
I just had to add this. Abby looked so adorable in this little outfit. She wore it to Joy School (church) she is getting so BIG!
May 10, 2010
The size of a cauliflower!
On THIS meter, it says the baby is the size of a head of cauliflower ... I'm pretty sure he's bigger than a cauliflower. At least, he feels bigger. He's been kicking and scratching at just about the same times everyday. At least he has a schedule.
There's been a lot going on since we got the ultrasound. After we got the ultrasound, I decided I've been having a hard time dealing with the whole LOOMING possibility of a secondary C-section. So, I've been talking with several people about it, learning about different people's birth stories etc. The whole fear of this second birth has been hindering me from really bonding with this baby so talking to people helps me get my mind off the inevitable. To bond with the baby, we went garage sale-ing for baby boy clothes. We've gone to several garage sales over the past few weekends, we also got a new dresser for Abby's clothes to make room for the boy clothes. Just the process of going through the baby clothes and imagining the baby wearing them was helpful in bonding with him. Now, the dresser is filled with baby blue clothes instead of pink clothes. :)
We've also been trying to come up with names for him and it seems to be even MORE difficult than it was for Abby. We have a list started but it's a long list, there's nothing that Jason and I agree on and nothing REALLY jumps out at us. Bummer. At least we have 108 days left. :)
There's been a lot going on since we got the ultrasound. After we got the ultrasound, I decided I've been having a hard time dealing with the whole LOOMING possibility of a secondary C-section. So, I've been talking with several people about it, learning about different people's birth stories etc. The whole fear of this second birth has been hindering me from really bonding with this baby so talking to people helps me get my mind off the inevitable. To bond with the baby, we went garage sale-ing for baby boy clothes. We've gone to several garage sales over the past few weekends, we also got a new dresser for Abby's clothes to make room for the boy clothes. Just the process of going through the baby clothes and imagining the baby wearing them was helpful in bonding with him. Now, the dresser is filled with baby blue clothes instead of pink clothes. :)
Here's a picture of my belly at about 24 weeks.
We've also been trying to come up with names for him and it seems to be even MORE difficult than it was for Abby. We have a list started but it's a long list, there's nothing that Jason and I agree on and nothing REALLY jumps out at us. Bummer. At least we have 108 days left. :)
April 21, 2010
AND the verdict is ...
The baby's head is the right size, the ventricles are developing at the right rate, the kidney's are functioning, the heart has 4 chambers, ten fingers, and all other parts are functioning just fine. The baby also cooperated and opened it's legs and in between there was ... A PENIS!
Abby's going to be a big sister to a healthy baby BOY!
She's a little disappointed but I think if we would have waited, she would have been even more disappointed when the baby came out. At least she has time to adjust to the idea of having a brother.
UF-Dah. :p
Abby's going to be a big sister to a healthy baby BOY!
She's a little disappointed but I think if we would have waited, she would have been even more disappointed when the baby came out. At least she has time to adjust to the idea of having a brother.
UF-Dah. :p
Today's The Day!!!
I've been so excited about today that I didn't sleep as soundly as usual last night. Today we get to see the baby via ultrasound!!! We will be posting if it's a boy or girl later today. Hmmmm, but which blog to post on? Technically this is my blog and the other blog is the "baby" blog. You'll all just have to keep checking. I'm sure the suspense is killing you. :p I know it's killing me.
Any guesses as to if it's a boy or girl?
As for now, I'll leave you with this picture my brother received at 2 am from my wild and crazy father in Las Vegas. (He's at a conference for work as you can see, he's still wearing his badge work badge.)
I Love my Dad. :) (My Mom's name is Janis.)
Any guesses as to if it's a boy or girl?
As for now, I'll leave you with this picture my brother received at 2 am from my wild and crazy father in Las Vegas. (He's at a conference for work as you can see, he's still wearing his badge work badge.)
I Love my Dad. :) (My Mom's name is Janis.)
April 6, 2010
Baby Beal Number 2
BOY or GIRL
April 21st is the day we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited. I already told you my prediction. Jason doesn't have a specific feeling on if it's a boy or a girl. But, either way, we're super excited to finally find out if Abby will have a little brother or a little sister.
HOW I'M FEELING
Having to do my job is very different from a desk job. Don't get me wrong, I sit down during the day and do desk work too but my job is pretty physical. The last few weeks of March Accel and Be Well was really busy and since I have to do all the adjusting, I was coming home from work REALLY sore. Specifically my inner left leg and left glut muscles. I would come home and have Jason stick his elbow in my butt. I have Dr. Desiree' adjust me but when you're pregnant, you produce a huge amount of hormone called relaxin which allows your muscles to stretch out and joints to become loose. Thus, the adjustments hold for a few days at the most. Bummer.
Another thing I've noticed is that my mind is having a REALLY difficult time focusing. When I'm at work, it's fine, I can write a list and check stuff off as I go but, for instance, I had to take Abby to get her haircut today and I wasn't 100% sure where I was going, it was raining, AND I had to take a detour to get where I was going, I kept having to tell Abby to be quite so I could concentrate (how do you explain concentrate to a 2.5 year old) and I got REALLY lost going home. Ugh. It's really frustrating because there's nothing I can do about it but blame it on the pregnancy.
On an up-note, I haven't puked in a few weeks but I definitely feel nauseous several nights a week.
WEIRD THINGS ...
Some weird things that I've noticed would be ... my eye sight has been terrible. I was reading in our book that pregnancy can make your eye sight worse while you're pregnant. ALSO, my tongue is all patchy. Yes, PATCHY. I'm pretty sure it's a vitamin B deficiency. Obviously I'm sending all my B vitamins (the vitamins that come from protein) to the baby.
CRAVINGS
I have a huge crush on fruit pies these days. When I'm not pregnant, I don't usually crave fruit pies or any pies for that matter. But, if I was going to have a pie, I'd have a chocolate-y french silk pie but these days that doesn't even sound appetizing.
Speaking of appetizing, these days I have a really hard time finding foods that both I and the baby want to eat. For instance, I LOVE LOVE LOVE sweets and Easter candy. But, this candy doesn't sound appetizing to my stomach. My head says "eat the candy" my stomach says "don't do it!"Same with Milk. I know I'm supposed to drink milk while I'm pregnant but every time I drink it, my stomach hurts afterward. Ugh, I just can't win. (well, maybe I win with the fruit pies.)
Before I forget, I am doing a new pregnancy diet which calls for me to eat a lot of eggs. Unfortunately I have never liked eggs and am having a hard time figuring out how to eat them. If anyone has any recipes or ideas as to how I could eat them, I'd love suggestions. I'm supposed to eat 2 a day. Here's my stipulations. I can't stand hard boiled eggs. I even tried them in an egg salad sandwich (I tried really hard) but I just couldn't do it. I don't mind eggs scrambled or in an omelet but I'd prefer some type of Egg bake. Any suggestions would be helpful. I can' only stand scrambled eggs for so long.
So, that's enough for now. I'll leave you with an updated picture of my tummy. Looks bigger than last time. (Boy, I still haven't washed that mirror. I better get on that. Just ignore the dirt.)
~Mama Beal
April 21st is the day we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited. I already told you my prediction. Jason doesn't have a specific feeling on if it's a boy or a girl. But, either way, we're super excited to finally find out if Abby will have a little brother or a little sister.
HOW I'M FEELING
Having to do my job is very different from a desk job. Don't get me wrong, I sit down during the day and do desk work too but my job is pretty physical. The last few weeks of March Accel and Be Well was really busy and since I have to do all the adjusting, I was coming home from work REALLY sore. Specifically my inner left leg and left glut muscles. I would come home and have Jason stick his elbow in my butt. I have Dr. Desiree' adjust me but when you're pregnant, you produce a huge amount of hormone called relaxin which allows your muscles to stretch out and joints to become loose. Thus, the adjustments hold for a few days at the most. Bummer.
Another thing I've noticed is that my mind is having a REALLY difficult time focusing. When I'm at work, it's fine, I can write a list and check stuff off as I go but, for instance, I had to take Abby to get her haircut today and I wasn't 100% sure where I was going, it was raining, AND I had to take a detour to get where I was going, I kept having to tell Abby to be quite so I could concentrate (how do you explain concentrate to a 2.5 year old) and I got REALLY lost going home. Ugh. It's really frustrating because there's nothing I can do about it but blame it on the pregnancy.
On an up-note, I haven't puked in a few weeks but I definitely feel nauseous several nights a week.
WEIRD THINGS ...
Some weird things that I've noticed would be ... my eye sight has been terrible. I was reading in our book that pregnancy can make your eye sight worse while you're pregnant. ALSO, my tongue is all patchy. Yes, PATCHY. I'm pretty sure it's a vitamin B deficiency. Obviously I'm sending all my B vitamins (the vitamins that come from protein) to the baby.
CRAVINGS
I have a huge crush on fruit pies these days. When I'm not pregnant, I don't usually crave fruit pies or any pies for that matter. But, if I was going to have a pie, I'd have a chocolate-y french silk pie but these days that doesn't even sound appetizing.
Speaking of appetizing, these days I have a really hard time finding foods that both I and the baby want to eat. For instance, I LOVE LOVE LOVE sweets and Easter candy. But, this candy doesn't sound appetizing to my stomach. My head says "eat the candy" my stomach says "don't do it!"Same with Milk. I know I'm supposed to drink milk while I'm pregnant but every time I drink it, my stomach hurts afterward. Ugh, I just can't win. (well, maybe I win with the fruit pies.)
Before I forget, I am doing a new pregnancy diet which calls for me to eat a lot of eggs. Unfortunately I have never liked eggs and am having a hard time figuring out how to eat them. If anyone has any recipes or ideas as to how I could eat them, I'd love suggestions. I'm supposed to eat 2 a day. Here's my stipulations. I can't stand hard boiled eggs. I even tried them in an egg salad sandwich (I tried really hard) but I just couldn't do it. I don't mind eggs scrambled or in an omelet but I'd prefer some type of Egg bake. Any suggestions would be helpful. I can' only stand scrambled eggs for so long.
So, that's enough for now. I'll leave you with an updated picture of my tummy. Looks bigger than last time. (Boy, I still haven't washed that mirror. I better get on that. Just ignore the dirt.)
~Mama Beal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)