About a Month from Today

About a month from today is my "due date" give or take a week. 

I've been thinking a lot about this birth and what it means to me and also what it means to everyone else.  I think it's important for me to write some of the things I've been thinking about so that when I go into labor and get to the hard parts where I think I won't be able to handle it anymore that I can recall the importance of the decisions I've made to have a VBAC and a natural birth.  Over the next four weeks I'll be making more frequent blog posts to publicize the importance of what I'm about to attempt.  So, here goes nothing ...

What does it mean to be a VBAC?  Well, the term literally stands for Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.  From the medical community, you're labeled as a trouble maker, a rebel, a difficult patient and a complication waiting to happen.  But, there's also a book written about VBAC with the acronym meaning Very Beautiful And Courageous.  I like this acronym much better.  I haven't read the book but the title pretty much sums up the book, I can imagine. 

From the perspective of other women who have had successful VBAC's, the connection you have with other VBAC's is instantaneous.  Only a VBAC can fully understand what another has been through.  I realized this over the weekend while at a family reunion for Jason's side of the family.  We had barely gotten in the door and, of course, I'm the only one in the room who is pregnant so I stuck out like a sore thumb.  A woman (whom I've never met before) comes running over to me before I could even sit down and grabs my hand.  She looks me in the eye and introduces herself quickly and starts talking to me about how brave I am and how she is CERTAIN I can have a successful VBAC because SHE was a successful VBAC and her sisters had successful VBAC's.  Before I know it, we're swapping stories about our C-sections and she's telling me how greatful she was to have been able to have a VBAC and how much it changed her life.  Her eyes started to well up with tears and I could empathize with her emotional moment and could have hugged her on the spot (although I refrained because I couldn't remember her name.) 

Even thoughI couldn't remember her name, the connection I felt was so strong and I am so grateful she felt the need to encourage me and talk to me because these last few weeks will probably be the most difficult for me emotionally.  I'm constantly double guessing myself as to if I've made the right decision or not and this moment/connection just re-affirms and justifies how RIGHT this will be.  

So, back to the meaning of this VBAC, having a successful VBAC is not only important to me, but it is important to all others who have had a successful VBAC.   I am attempting a VBAC for my own purposes as well as those who have had VBAC's before me and for those who may have to VBAC after me and to educate those around me how to avoid becoming a VBAC themselves. Because of this, I hope all of you can learn something from my experience.

Thanks for all your support and prayers.
~Mama Beal

Abby's 3 years old and now it's time for the baby to come out.

So, when we told Abby about the baby, we told her that around the time Abby has another birthday and turns 3 years old that the baby would come soon.  Well, Abby turned 3 years old on Sunday 7/18 and her next question after the birthday party and cake etc was, "now is it time for the baby to come out?"

Well, it's ALMOST time.  37 days (give or take a week.)  And I'm starting to get that "exhausted" feeling that you get in the last month of pregnancy.  Here's a few things that are going on with me for the past few weeks during the pregnancy.

1.  Heartburn ALL the time, especially when I'm laying down in bed at night.  For some reason I only get it when I lay on my right side.  "so lay on your left side" you say, well, when I lay on my left side the baby kicks like crazy and then I get no sleep.

2.  Insomnia just about every other day this week I've woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and cannot get back to sleep.  It always happens between the hours of 2 and 4. Yuck.

3.  Bathroom breaks have increased from 0 times per night to 2-3 times per night.  I kid you not, I am not just pee-ing a little bit, I'm pee-ing A LOT.  It frankly surprises me how much comes out every time.

4.  Rolling over in bed, I feel like a beached whale.

5.  I have been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions.

6.  I can only eat small meals again.  I can't even eat a whole sandwich without feeling like I'm giving myself heartburn.

7.  This one is a good one.  So far, NO additional stretch marks.  The first time around, they were TERRIBLE and Really Really itchy.  Not this time.  

Well, if anything, this pregnancy is completely different from the last one which hopefully means the birth will be completely different.  THERE'S HOPE!  Well, at least our Bradley instructor certainly seems to think so.  (My pregnant brain can't remember everything I've written about the Bradley classes so if I've already written this, my apologies in advance.)  We're the only couple in the class that has already had a child.  So whenever we're talking about specific parts of birth, the Bradley instructor will talk about for "first time births ... blah blah blah ..." and then she'll point to Jason and I and say, "but not for you guys, you won't have to do that since it's your second" or "your birth will be much shorter" or "this will be much easier for you because it's your second."  I REALLY hope she's right.  If you are interested in finding out about the Bradley Method, Sarah Beth is our instructor and you can find her bio here. Or you can go to www.bradleybirth.com to find someone near you that teaches the Bradley method.  I highly recommend it, I wish I would have done this for our first birth. 

On a different note, Jason wisked me away to Duluth for a 2 day weekend.  It was very nice to just relax, watch some cable TV and see the lake.  Living up there for 4 years at school, you forget how much you really appreciated the lake and all it's beauty.  Here's a few pictures from our trip. 

A few pictures at the rose garden.  I would have taken more pictures but it was really hot out.

Of course we had to stop at the boat museum, I didn't mind at all, it was air conditioned.

That's not a boat, that's just me.  Large and IN CHARGE, and really really hot,

What are they doing?! I would NEVER do that. (although I wish I had when I was a student.)

Almost 33 weeks!

Well, I am 33 weeks now and I'm starting to feel like it physically.  My hips hurt, just about every morning when I wake up, I find myself huffing and puffing while adjusting patients during the day and naps are my best friend these days.  I don't mean to complain because besides all this, I'm healthy as a horse and so is everyone else in the Beal household.

So far, no one has looked at our house.  How annoying to clean it every night and morning before we leave and have no one to admire it.  Oh well, the news keeps saying the housing market has tanked once again because there are no longer any tax credits for purchasing houses.  Thank goodness we don't necessarily NEED to move right away.  We'll just keep cleaning and keep it on the market, maybe the right fish will come by and take a nip at it. :)

Below is a picture of my belly again.  I'm trying to get together a slide show that will show the progress of my belly.  People keep telling me how big I look these days but when I look back at my belly pictures I've taken, I don't see that drastic of a change.  I think by people telling me I look "big" what they're really saying is I look "good" for being so pregnant.

I am also trying to stay healthy and keep my uterus in good shape. Below is a picture of a type of tea that I'm using, it's a loose leaf tea called red-raspberry leaf tea.  It's helpful for all sorts of different feminine problems/conditions but it's mostly known for toning and conditioning the uterus.  Although it looks like drugs, I think it's doing it's work correctly.  I've been having lots of braxton hick's contractions so I know my uterus is strengthening itself to have this baby.  We get it at the Co-op and bag it up in a plastic baggy.  I feel a little weird leaving it out on the counter or visible in the cupboard so I hide my "stash" in a cereal box in the cabinet. :p  I don't want any potential home buyers to get the wrong impression.

One more thing that's been happening gradually is that my hair has been changing colors.  I didn't really notice it until I saw my hair in some pictures from our family trip to Hackensack MN.  It's progressively getting redder/oranger.  By the time I'd had Abby people had a hard time distinguishing my hair color from red or blond.  It seems this time around my body remembers what happened last time.  So, here's a picture for those of you who haven't seen me in a while.

 

Well, that's all for now.  Hope ya'll had a fantastic 4th.

~Mama Beal

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.

 

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

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. :)

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.

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!