Doula Meeting Tomorrow!

Since my Mom won't be able to be present for the labor, and since Josh makes these weird quick sucking in air sounds just watching someone give birth on tv... we've decided to hire a doula! But all kidding aside, we have some great reasons to go this route.

Some of you might be all, what’s a doula? Why are Josh and Stef such hippies with this whole birth thing? Well....what if I told you that there was a pill you could take during labor that would make you:

26% less likely to give birth by cesarean section
28% less likely to use any analgesia or anesthesia (including epidural)
41% less likely to give birth with forceps or vacuum extractor
33% less likely to be dissatisfied or negatively rate their birth experience

Well that can’t be found in a bottle, friends. Those are the results of studies showing what happens when a woman is supported by a doula in labor. (Findings of Hodnett's et al meta-analysis of 15 trials of continuous labor support from N. America, Europe, and Africa)

We are interviewing a doula tomorrow at panera bread! She was so very sweet on the phone. And she's worked with our midwife too. I feel like between her and josh and Becky (midwife), I will have a whole team of people rooting on baby bot’s entry to the world. Now I will just see tomorrow if I feel comfortable having her be privy to my lady bits and seeing me, you know…labor possibly like a mad woman (it is possible that I might bite). Bonus Points: She’s a Licensed Massage Therapist.

Here is website of MY potential Doula, Jenn: Check it out. http://jennelfnerdoula.homestead.com/

And don’t forget to VOTE on the sex of baby bot. Poll is to your right.

16 weeks

Mom, Janeen, I know you were skeptical when I told you the baby was the size of a lemon at week 14, so I know you will scoff at the avocado comparison! But it isn't necessarily as big as it, but more like how long it is.

This week: Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you're interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

Here is my 16 week picture in my getting too small green stripy shirt. I also have a bare belly pic on the side bar comparing it to the 4 week belly. Because I like to flash my friends and family. Oh the scandal!

Boy or Girl?

This is Josh: There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether we’ll have a boy or a girl. I take the classic stance that a healthy baby is the goal and the gender is secondary.

If I can be guaranteed a healthy baby, and am free to speculate about whether I want a boy or a girl, I still think either one would be cool.

If it’s a boy, then I sort of know what I’m getting because I’ve been there. I see boys in malls or at parks and I know what it felt like to just want to run and tumble and flail my limbs wildly. You’re a kid, and there’s energy to release. Especially at the mall, which is so boooorrring.

If it’s a girl, then that throws a little wild card in there. But more studies are showing that girls are smarter than boys and excel more easily through high school and college, so that’s a bonus. It seems like having a girl would be an amazing adventure.

One of the things I most look forward to is coaching little league baseball or softball, which is what my dad did for me and my brother. The biggest challenge here is not whether it’s a boy or girl, but making sure that our Baby Bot doesn’t want to play soccer. - Josh

Aiming High

This is Josh: I’m happy that we’re going with a midwife. We’ve been watching baby pregnancy shows on Discovery Health over the past few months, and so many of them go the same way. It’s a slippery slope of one seemingly small intervention after another, until you’re dug in too deep and the only way out is a C-section.

Everyone agrees doctors are great for when there’s complications or a high risk birth. Those C-sections and other interventions save lives. But it seems like doctors delivering most babies aim too low. The one and only goal is a safe birth for mom and baby. But for a large amount of women, they can aim higher than that. The doctor’s toolkit is heavily focused on drugs, surgery, and fixing problems. But this presumes that a pregnant woman is sick, which is often not the case.

Women have successfully given birth naturally throughout history. It seems like it can be an empowering and momentous event.

You can say, well, in the Middle Ages women had kids, but like all things, times are better now. Women live longer now than back then, we’re not using leaches to suck demons out of our blood, and overall medicine has gotten so much better.

But data shows that other countries, such as the Netherlands, still use midwives extensively and have very successful outcomes for birth. The data shows that American doctors’ interventions can create new hazards and in many cases, the interventions are unnecessary.

Given the different incentives that exist for doctors today, it’s not surprising that the rate of C-sections is increasing. With a C-section, doctors know that they can have that baby out in a half hour. The high cost of major surgery is not taken into consideration over the low cost of a natural birth, because of our health care system.

If all signs point to a healthy pregnancy, it seems like a natural birth can be a powerful experience. The more we’ve read, watched, and talked about it, it seems like the best way to go down this route is to have a midwife. It seems like the care we get is based more on the philosophy and perspective of the caregiver than anything else, and a midwife puts the odds in our favor that we won’t have unnecessary intervention in our birth. – Josh

How far along?

How far along? 14W5D

Total weight gain: 3 pounds (lost two in the past couple weeks :()

Maternity clothes? I bought some shirts but I desperately need some pants. The Bella Band can only do so much.
Stretch marks? None.

Sleep: I wake up at least once every night to go to the bathroom. I find that my back is starting to hurt when I wake up on it.

Best moment this week: See my baby bump poking out when I sucked my tummy in. It would NOT suck in!

Movement: None yet!

Food cravings: Prosciutto mozzarella tomato panini, kale with lots of vinegar and hot sauce

Food aversions: Tomato sauce, I hate the smell.

Gender: Still waiting to find out. The ultrasound is set for Nov. 12th

Labor Signs: Oh god no.

Belly Button in or out? In, but now I can look into it from a mirror when it used to face down a bit more

What I miss: Red wine, Motrin 800 and my cute button down tops

What I am looking forward to: Feeling movement!

Weekly Wisdom: As my baby grows so will my body. If I stayed as skinny as I was before I got pregnant, the baby would not survive --- This is from Josh when I came out of Victoria’s Secret. I went from a 36C to a 38 D cup. YOWZA!! Milestones: Making it to the second trimester!

Firing my ob, hiring a midwife.

So we went to see and interview a midwife today. I want a natural birth experiences with as little interventions as possible. I don’t want IV’s or to be strapped to a bed with monitors and an epidural. I don’t want pitocin to override the natural oxytocin (love hormone!) I can naturally provide. I don’t want to start on a cascade of interventions which increase the chance of a cesarean section. I have total faith in my body and in the history of women who have trusted their bodies to do what comes naturally. I don’t need anyone to deliver my baby, I just need a person to attend the birth.

If you know me, I am not natural in any other way. I love drugs. LOVE them. I miss them. I have chronic back spasms that I have muscle relaxers and the occasional script for vicodin. And if you ask josh, I’m sorta into mother nature, but I won’t go out of my way to recycle. I eat organic when possible, but I have no problem driving thru a McDonalds for a tasty McGriddle. And why walk when you can drive!

But if you think about it, and read the research, you put yourself and your baby at less risk going the route I’m going. Of course the most important thing is a healthy baby at the end, but that is obvious. I would love to have a birth process that is powerful, healthy and spiritual for me, josh and the baby. I have a plan. And all plans can be derailed. But I want to put my best foot forward. It’s the least I can do.

2nd Trimester!

We made it! I’m 14 weeks! We made it to the 2nd trimester, where there is only a 1 percent chance of losing baby bot. Not to say that there isn’t a chance that something can go wrong with the baby. But there is only a tiny chance that my cervix will open and my womb will spontaneously expel the bot.

I still get nauseous occasionally during the day. It doesn’t linger for hours like it used to. And I find when I lay on my left side it is easier to manage. It is a walk in the freakin’ park compared to the earlier weeks.

I’m feeling good! More like myself. Like before I had felt all these symptoms, and I felt like my body wasn’t my own. I miss my sleeping pills a little now. Especially now that my chronic insomnia is coming back a bit. I always have heartburn with a headache. A headache can come on its own, but the heartburn needs its headache buddy. But I will take all this crap over sickness any damn day of the week. I almost feel like I have PTSD from the first trimester.

Hmm, but besides symptoms. I am still getting used to the idea of being pregnant. I mean I am so used to seeing a cute baby in the library and having that longing feeling. And now I have to say, oh wait! I’m making one of those cute things right now!

I can’t see a car seat in my car come April. I have no lollipop visions of a nursery. I haven’t bought one baby thing. Not a sock, not a onesie, not a thing! Before it was because I was being cautious. But now I think it is just me being neurotic. I’m sure once I step a foot into Babies R Us it will be like that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. My face will melt off and light beams will shoot out of my butt.

You know the first couple of weeks I was pregnant, I wanted to tell everyone. And then for a week before we told everyone, I was in a panic. Just freaked out. I didn’t want anyone to know. I wanted to move to a convent and have my baby in secret. Maybe this has something to do with the way mammals like to just crawl under the porch and give birth. I don’t know. Anyhow, I think buying baby stuff is just another crazy thing that I can’t subscribe to yet.

I hope I don’t have a baby as crazy as me. Cause I am sure it will be some different kind of crazy that I will make me wring my hands, and tsk my tongue.