Spring, blood pressure and 2 more weeks of work...

The sun is out, Baby has taken as her assignment to strech my uterus and internal organs to the limit and I can again eat sourdough bread without getting nauseous. Thank you Baby! Mama is very happy. When can I enjoy a cup of coffee or tea again?

I haven't blogged for a while. I was at my 32 weeks midwife appointment and my blood pressure was up, there was traces of protein in my urine and I have been quite swollen lately. Also my iron level was lower than ever.

Midwife wanted me to go on sick leave.

I, of course, got terrified of preeclampsia and couldn't sleep all night. Had a headache (also sign of preeclampsia) and painful contractions the next day. Stayed home from work for a day with my feet kept high and watched a bunch of movies and tried not to completely freak out.

Since then I've seen the doctor at the maternity center, but decided not to go on sick leave for now.
Only have 2 more weeks of work.
My blood pressure is higher, but not extremely high. At the most it was 130/90. I've been at 110/60 all through pregnancy thus far. Lately it has been 120-130/80-85.

I've been trying to keep my tempo down, rest a lot and not overexert myself.

The thing is I haven't FELT as exhausted as I used to. I was so shocked at the midwife because, except for the swelling, I had started to actually resemble a normal human being.
Being able to walk at a normal pace, not feel like I'm dead and buried every morning, not being as easily nauseaus etc. I actually thought my iron levels were UP. I actually had some ENERGY again.

Anyho, I talked to the doctor, he said that my body is under pressure from the pregnancy and showing it through higher BP and protein that signals my kidneys are not keeping up. However, it it quite usual for the 3d semester and doesn't have to mean a one way road to preeclampsia.

So I chose to work these last 2 weeks, keep a low tempo and see how I feel day to day. If I don't FEEL well, I will ofcourse stay home.

And I would, of course, never ever want to jeopardize Baby's health. But there seems to be no clear answer as to if my higher blood pressure and my traces of proteins are "normal" for 3d trimester. Or if it is a sign of things going down hill.

Sometimes it's so hard to know what to do...

Also midwife said since we wanted a natural birth she thought I should be on sick leave to rest up for the birthing. She had a valid point I suppose. I wish she would have told us that before the doctors appointment.

Still if Baby is not early, I will have at least 5 weeks off before her due date.

Well, things like this has kept me busy these past weeks.
And practicing hypnobirthing relaxation and resting as much as I can.
At least my BP is not HIGHER. Perhaps it will stay where it is.

This is what I feel like...

Move over nursey!

You have competition for being preggos no 1! Let me introduce you to the wheatbelt!
Pop it in the micro for 2 mins, put it on your aching shoulders (or where ever you have pains) and enjoy a piece of heaven!

Let the sunshine in!

The sun is shining, there is no pollen in the air just yet, baby is doing water gymnastics and I just accidently ate half a package of chocolate chip cookies.

Life is good.

But most of my excellent mood is due to a VERY pleasant experience this morning.
We had Rainbow parentgroup again. This time it was at the hospital where we will birth Baby. Ofcourse, wifey and I had already been there, to meet the "but what if you still can't handle the pain" midwife.
Needless to say, my expectations were beyond low.

Well, wasn't I pleasantly surprised! We were greated by a completely different midwife who was actually HEARING us, eventhough this was in a group setting and not at all a forum for individual birthing preferences.
She immediatley understood what kind of birth we wanted, and as a consequence what we were and were not interested in. Hallelujah!
She was attentive, openminded and efficient.
She hooked us up with the phone nr to a midwife they actually have on staff who has delivered all of her 3 babies at home and is passionate about natural child birth.
I'm gonna call her tomorrow. For an extra fee we can "book" her and have her on call for the birth of Baby, which of course would be so worth it!

Wifey and I have considered hiring a doula. But since most doulas we researched seemed so intune with the medical model of childbirth, we were really wondering if it would be helpful, or just another person we'd have to discuss our choices with.
Now, can we get a fully trained MIDWIFE, during our entire birthing expericence who's passionate about natural childbirth then HALLELUJAH again!
How amazing!
There def. is a God, and she is def. on Baby's side.

The midwife we met this morning also made sure the oral Vitamin K we had requested when we had our "fear of delivery" scheduled talk, was ordered and kept for us. Apparently the EDA-eager midwife from our prior talk had done nothing about it.
Our parent group midwife also seemed to understand what we needed to do to keep my exposure to birch pollen at a minimum and seemed to take my allergies and astma seriously.

I almost wept of gratitude.

She also said that none of the things we requested were anything but really common sense, but that we needed to be clear and remind the staff before coming in to birth Baby.

Well, all in all it seems like there is hope of actually getting supported, and not just questioned, in our wish to birth Baby calmly, safely and with as little intervention as possible.

I think I'm gonna celebrate with a nap in the sun!

Crack of dawn...

...was about when I gave up trying to go back to sleep. My shoulders are killing me. The massage yesterday was lovely. I will go back for more. But it's so not enough to counter balance whatever it is I do in everyday life that cause me to have chest/shoulder/neck muscles of steel. I really need to heal this before the baby comes. I don't want to be in such pain that I can't comfortably carry and breastfeed our tiny treasure.
And by the way, yes, the massage table w the cut-out for your preggo belly was all it's cracked up to be.
The massage therapist told me she'd tried to convince a bedding company to make mattresses for the market from a similiar design since all the preggos she saw was in complete extacy over it.
No one wanted to do it yet.
Perhaps I'll make my own.

Anyho, as I laid in bed, tossing and turning,I was contemplating everytning from my career dive to how on earth I am going to raise and be responsible for another human being for the rest of my life. I also thought of breasts.



Let me explain.
Last night wifey and I was at our second parent training lecture at the hospital. This time it was about nursing.

The first time was a 4 hr long ordeal with a midwife who spent her time terrifying every woman in the room of the PAIN of giving birth, and then going through all the pain medications available.

She also told us that babies feel no pain for the first 20-30 mins of their lives ( I thought we abandoned that myth about around the time when Dr Mengeles heydays were over?). And that no matter how tired you are you need to get up and move around and be active during labor for it to progress.
Unless you have an epidural. In that case, I quote; "you will be so RELAXED your body will do the work for you even if you are resting".
Ok.
I actually raised my hand in this auditorium of about 100 terrified parents-to-be to ask her if you were allowed to rest and let your body do the work for you through relaxation instead of vigorous physical exercise.
She said "well, relaxation is the key". Not really answering my question and moving on to ceasarians. Wifey was so upset by all the nonsens this woman spewed out, she wanted to leave.
I wanted to stay and hear the full extent of the craziness being portrayed as the ultimate truth.
Know thy enemy. Forewarned is forearmed etc.
We need to be prepared for how hospital births are conducted in this country so we know what to say no to and what to accept.

Needless to say, expectations for no 2 in the lecture series was very low.

We were greated by a woman with a baby-doll on her arm and a gigantic plastic boob in her hand.
She waved this boob around now and again during the lecture and we were all terrified she was going to strap it onto her chest to do a nursing imitation.
At one time she said she was going to show us nursing and started pulling at her bra- strap under her blouse.
You could hear the half empty auditorium (apparently we weren't the only ones being put of by the first lecture in the series) gasp for breath and then sigh of relief when she adjusted her strap (without pulling out her boobs) and put on a video of breast feeding.

Now, the video showed breasts left and right, and ofcourse, they needed to do that to demonstrate nursing I suppose.
But what caught on was the casualty after givning birth. The bright lights, the naked mother and baby, hospital staff chatting with the new mom, commenting the baby etc.

And that's what kept returning in my mind. I am NOT comfortable with being naked with fully dressed strangers, no matter if I've given birth or not. Perhaps ESPECIALLY not after doing something so intimate as giving birth.

I don't want to show off my tits and my private parts in a bright room, fully lit, and with a hoard of fully dressed hospital staff poking around.
(Ok, it would be even worse if the staff was naked too.)

But you know, PLEASE, some privacy? Some modesty? I don't want strangers commenting our beautiful little baby. I want that to be a private moment for me, wifey and baby.
When our baby is slowly adjusting to the outside world and rooting for my breast, I don't want some frisky nurse or midwife (who also might have nagged me to run laps in the hallway all night to speed up labor)like a sports commentator telling our baby she's doing good, to go for it etc.

The birth of our baby need to be respected as something as beautiful, tender and sacred. Not like an open sports event where everyone gets to comment on your performance.

By the way, I couldn't help noticing all the babies on the video squinting when trying to look at their parents. No wonder when you have those bright lights in the room.

What animal in nature goes up on the brightest lit mountaintop to give birth to her babies? And in front of an audience? And do physcial exercises to "speed things up"?
From what I remember from nature channel, all animals seek a secluded, dark, safe place to birth. And the lay still, panting, doing so.

Oh well, each time and culture have their view of birth.

I must say that despise of the boob overload, I liked the lecture way more than the first one.
At least this woman seemed intuned with nursing and having a natural approach to babies and mothers (and plastic boobs).
Though I don't think it would have killed them to include at least one woman in the "father" part of the video and atleast titled it "What is the job of a father/other mother".
Atleast they could have let a non bio mom clear out the dishwasher or such.

I would also like to thank...

...the nursing pillow for making my life as a preggo more bearable. I have so far gladly boasted that I, except for fatigue and a depleted immune system, have no pregnancy ailments what so ever.
I am glad I enjoyed that for as long as it lasted!
Enter shoulder pains.
My God, I'm talking PAIN. At first I thought it was sittning infront of the computor at work all day that caused it. (And that might have been the start of it). The bump does make it difficult to reach the keyboard comfortably. Also, our workplace is not exactly known for having ergonomically correct desks and chairs. Non-preggos before me have had aches and pains enough to keep a rehab facility in business.

But now that I've been off work for a couple of days but non the less have the same pains, I have to consider other possible contributors.

Sleeping with the bump is always tricky. I don't know how I got by before wifey bought me the gigantic nursing pillow that is now a steady 3d bed pal. (Yes, air humidifiers, nursing pillows, there's no end to this womans resourcefulness. And no, you can't marry her, she's mine!).
But even with a threesome, sleeping can be difficult. There's nothing left to chose from except alternating between one side or the other. Laying flat on my back, I feel like someone dropped a bowling ball on me. Sleeping on my stomach is a dream so far off it's almost forgotten (though I did make an attempt last night by making nursey into a donought shape and stuck my bump in the middle. That worked for about 30 sek).
I have to consider shoulder pain is also due to me sleeping on my sides. I might fall asleep comfortably supported, but wake up in a painful knot, nursey on the other side of the bed.
Apparently pregnancy makes me move a lot while sleeping.

Oh well, I'm going to get a massage this afternoon to see if it helps. It's a pregnancy massage, and according to reliable sources the greatest benefit is the special pregnancy massage table that allows you to rest on you stomach!
Will let you know if it lived up to it's reputation.

Hallelujah!

Wifey brought me an air humidifier the other day. What a life saver!
My constant nose bleeds have almost stopped, I no longer drink 3 liters of water every night and need to visit the bathroom accordingly. I don't wake up feeling like I crawled through a desert, having eaten my way through the sand. I can actually breathe without creating an addiction to nasal spray. I highly recommend it for all you poor congested preggos out there!