a - b - C!

Today was our 7 month OB appointment. As usual, not an awful lot to share aside from the general stats. Who knew it but, despite being the queen of the skeletal injury, I seem to be a pro at this whole baby growing thing.

BABY MCDAID'S 30 WEEK CHECKLIST

Blood work came back fine - I'm neither diabetic nor anaemic. Doctor said to keep doing whatever it is I'm doing. Umm.. ok... aside from the pelvic dislocation, right?

Weight is good - only put on 2lbs this month. I found this highly amusing. I have consistently alternated between a weight gain of exactly 2lbs and 6lbs with each appointment. It's almost like good news sends me on an eating spree and bad news reigns me in. Truthfully, although I do tend to have a momentary panic attack when I put on more than expected, it doesn't end up that I eat any more or less or any worse or better. I'm naturally a pretty small and healthy eater. I think last month's glitch had a lot to do with Christmas at home with Bangers & Mash, Chinese, Fish & Chips ;o) Hehe... but it was FUN!

Kick count - Baby manages 10 kicks in as many minutes, on average, and at the right time of day (between 6pm and 10pm is best.) No problems getting the 10 in an hour during the course of the day that they need to ward-off panic.

Blood Pressure - as usual, relatively low and stable.

Baby's Heartbeat - loud and pounding away at the right speed.

Baby's Position - currently head down, as I suspected, although whether he/she stays that way we can't be sure just yet.

Re: that SPD thing - barely a flutter from the OB on this. Not entirely unexpected. Nothing to affect any other factors of the baby growing or birth process. Amazing how something that sounds and feels so bad is such a small glitch on the pregnancy radar. Sigh.

Belly Measurement - a little on the large side... again.

This last factor sparked the discussion about baby size and that itsy-bitsy opening I have for it to come out. Belly has consistently measured within normal parameters but a little on the large size each month, regardless of how much weight I did/did not put on. This leads her to believe that this is going to be a bigger-than-average baby. Of course, this is somewhat of an educated guess but you don't have to be a genius to see the correlation.

At 37-ish weeks we're going to do another ultrasound to get some more measurements and a better indication of size, although this isn't exactly guaranteed to be spot-on either - they can still be a pound off and, to me, this can make all the difference. The bottom-line, however, is that, based upon everything we know right now, it's looking unlikely that a vaginal delivery is my best option. I have an unusually small pelvis and, while some women do indeed manage to push-out a larger than average baby anyway, the odds are against me for anything bigger than 7lbs. Given that I'm not emotionally tied to a vaginal and/or natural birth, she thinks that scheduling a c-section may be the best option for me. Of course, she's open to me trying vaginal if I want to but there's a fairly good chance that I could wind-up in an emergency-c anyway, which is neither pleasant nor good for the baby and I.

We then talked quite a bit about c-section recovery and expectations. Strangely for me (the queen of avoiding pain and needles at all costs), I'm less worried about the surgery and more worried about dealing with weeks of recouperation and new motherhood all at the same time. As I've come to discover in the last 7 months, my emotional and mental well-being is strongly tied to my ability to be independent and active. So any time I'm faced with being physically limited and/or in pain for a prolonged period, I get a big black ball of dread in my stomach.

However, the OB explained that the worst part is the first few days (which for the most part you're in the hospital for) and then you should be able to get around with just minor pain and discomfort and, of course, medication. Medication is usually taken for 2 weeks and then, once you're off the pain meds, you can drive again. Walking and getting around can be done as tolerated, although no "working out" until at least 6 weeks. With a wink and a smile, she also reminded me that vaginal births do not come without their post-birth pain and discomfort either - its just where the pain is and the speed at which you can get back to being truly active.

I also asked about incision closure methods, since my sister-in-law had staples and felt that these worked out really well for her. The OB said that they do stitches not staples at Mercy much anymore but this was because they now use a newly approved dissolving stitching method that they consider to be superior to staples. Previously stitches were an issue because of the puckering, especially on the underlying layers (shudder), but this new stitch didn't have the same issues. Sounds good to me... or at least as "good" as closure from any major surgery can sound.

So, she made me feel a little better. I'm still not thrilled at the thought of having to deal with the recovery period but I'm not exactly thrilled at the thought of hours of labor and a stretched-out, sliced-and-sewn-up, sore coochie either, so I guess I can deal with it. Still, we may find out at week 37 that the baby is a teenie-weenie in a large uterus and vaginal birth remains a good option, so no final decisions need to be made yet. However, I'm setting my mind to getting used to the fact that a c-section is likely.

Next appointment in 2 weeks. Stay tuned. (I know... you're holding your breath, right?)