geminigirl | Yadda Yadda,

pregnancy stuff that I'm putting out in public cause I need more feedback than the filter would get. :)

First off, more recent fetus-photo...

More here

I'm fine. Heartbeat at 155. Referral to pulmonologist, and I called and they squeezed me in for tomorrow morning at 8:30. Which will make me a cranky woman because I'm not a big fan of morning and because it will involve rush hour traffic to get to this place for an 8:30 appointment. But if it means breathing better, so be it. The OB suggested the possibility of supplemental oxygen, but I'm really hoping I don't end up going that route. I'd be fine with nebulizer treatments or a long acting bronchodilator or something (can't do inhaled steroids, I end up with thrush and coughing blood every time I've tried.) We'll see what the respiratory therapist and NP have to say tomorrow.

I scheduled the rest of the OB appointments through my estimated due date today. This is overwhelming. And scary. And I feel totally unprepared. And I just hope that I'm good at the forthcoming job.

We started a registry this week (someone at Cayne's office asked, which means I assume a shower is in the works somewhere.) No you can't see it yet...it's not done and I'm not happy with it, I need to make more changes first. If you do want to see it leave a comment to that effect and I'll comment back when I'm more settled into what's on it. This is not a request for stuff. This is an "if you wanna look at it you can tell me cause it requires that I disclose my name to you. I do not expect stuff from anyone for this.

So, with today's OB appointment, I was cleared for delivery by whoever is on call, rather than whichever MD is on call. What that means is that assuming that everything continues to go smoothly, if it happens that a midwife gets to me first when I'm in labor then a midwife gets to deliver the baby. This is a very good thing. Which brings me to the public-reasoning for this post...we started talking very vaguely about birth plans at today's appointment. And the doctor asked what I wanted...and my answer was "as low intervention as we can." Dr. P is fine with that. I threw out examples like "no continuous fetal monitoring" to which he said "no problem, unless we've had to use Pitocin," and I'm apparently allowed to wander around as much as I want if I'm comfortable, whether or not my water's broken, and use the tub and so on and so forth. But, I'm looking for birth plans. If you've written one when you gave birth (or you've got a partner who has written one) please share it. Links here are fine, e-mail to username at livejournal is fine, and so on. But the more I can read actual real ones that people I like have written the more able I think I'll be to craft my own.

Here we go.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not off topic at all, sweetie. It's entirely relevant to the post. And yes, I'm aware of the increased risk of other interventions with Pitocin, but thank you for the reminder and the opportunity to talk about it a little bit.

He's not pushing induction or anything like that at this point, but it's a reasonable thing to discuss in the sense of "it's something that you should be aware of as you think about things," if that makes sense. If I start to have complications later and we have to talk about getting the baby out, I may end up with the choice to try something like Pitocin or just schedule a C-section, and in that event, for example, I'll go for the Pitocin first, even if it does end up leading to other interventions. And the other side of that is the fact that if I go too far beyond my due date, that means at the very least a conversation about induction. It's worth at least mentally being prepared for the possibility, you know?

I know that Dr P knows that I'm the kind of person who is going to go home, sit down, do all the reading and research I can, and so on, and make educated decisions about what to do and what's next. Rather than encouraging it as an option, I think it was his suggestion that I include my feelings and thoughts on that in my plan and to understand that if that becomes an issue it may change the course of things and I need to be flexible, understanding and well informed about it.

That's totally fair and thank you for providing more insight into the situation. I'm also glad you didn't bite my head off! (grin) Everything you responded with completely makes sense to me. And thank you for approaching me kindly. :-)

I wouldn't bite your head off for bringing up something reasonable and important to think about, in a thoughtful and informative way.

It's certainly something I've thought about, and Cayne's thought about, too. I'll share his IMs when we were talking about things to make sure to discuss with the doctor, in a post filtered to the pregnancy filter tomorrow or the day after depending on how tired I am.

Hugs to you, lady.

And I also wanna be on the baby registry list, please ktx.

:D

And hugs to you. I've been thinking of you a lot this week.

No worries about the registry list. I need to feel like I can sit down and deal with it, and that's not likely to happen until I can get my lungs settled down so I'm focused less on breathing and more on everything else that needs to happen. :)

OH TOTALLY! I wasn't pressuring for a list now, just saying count me in as one of the recipients of the information whenever the time comes. Lungs comes first holy cow of course!!!

xoxoxo

:-D

E., I think your thoughts on this totally make sense here. Pitocin can be a not good thing, but when its the better of the things on the plate in front of you, it looks mighty appealing.

Yadda Yadda,

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