Week 28

Today I woke up in my 3^rd Trimester with hands so swollen I couldn’t make a fist.

 

It’s hard to believe I will have babies soon, and I won’t just be pregnant forever.

I am in my 28^th week, and I have a LOT to update on, so buckle up readers!

 

First of all this is what I look like now. 

I don't feel so big, but then I'll see a picture and be like, dang! 

 

I'm feeling over all fine, but it's getting a little harder to sleep. I guess I should take that back, my hips are doing a GREAT job falling asleep, and so are my forearms.

Ok, so I want to talk about the medical side of things first before I dive into the wonders of birthing class.  A couple weeks ago we had an ultrasound to measure the babies growth.  Now normally when we have these, we don’t really get a call to tell us how it went, we just see the results at our  next appointment with the OB or CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife.)

 

This time though, I received a voicemail at work from the Nurses office saying they would like to discuss the ultrasound results with me at my earliest convenience.

 

That was a little scary.

 

Then I received a voicemail from an office called “Maternal Fetal Medicine.” They wanted to make an appointment for me as soon as possible to run a high risk ultrasound.

 

That was a little more scary.

 

I had no idea what was going on, so I asked  my boss if I could take a moment to make a few phone calls.

As soon as she gave me the go ahead, I headed back to the break room, already trying not to cry, and started making calls.

I was freaking out inside… “What is wrong with my babies?” “Are they ok?, am I OK?”  Of course, the worst scenarios were running through my head.

 

So I sat down to call, and they explained very shortly that Baby B was measuring quite a bit smaller than Baby A, and they’d like to take a more in depth look. They referred me to “Maternal Fetal Medicine” who I called next, and they made appointment for me the next morning at 8 am.  They promised more answers after the appointment.

 

Right away I called Tim and told him everything. We prayed for our little boy, and tried not to be too stressed out for the rest of the day.

 

The new doctors office was really nice and had a HUGE screen for us to watch the ultrasound happening. It was pretty cool. They took over an hour to measure and check and look at the babies. As much as I like ultrasounds, and as much as I love seeing their little faces,  I was pretty over this one toward the end. I just wanted answers!

 

We double checked, it’s still a girl and a boy.

 

When she had gotten all the measurements the doctor came in to talk to us about the results.  Looks like Baby Boy is measuring close to Baby A in every way except his little belly. They see nothing to be worried about, as long as he keeps growing in proportion to Baby Girl. He says Baby Girl has better “Real Estate.”

 

If we don’t see growth in the next few weeks we could potentially have to have them soon to keep him safe. Woah.

 

So basically, from now on, I can have my babies ANYTIME. Like, next weekend or June 20.

Our babies will be perfectly normal and healthy and stay in for 36 weeks (injesusnameamen)

Ok. So we're taking a class called "birthing from within." It is us and 3 other couples and we're meeting every Friday for 5 weeks. We have only a couple weeks left. 

Our teacher is a doula with a soft voice and a middle part. She is very nice. 

This particular class leans more toward the "inward" side of birth. Not like, inward, like, uterus, but inward like spiritual and emotional.

Every class we have artwork, questions, and exercises to figure out how we will react in labor to the pain and extreme emotions that come up during such an extreme moment (or hours.)

My favorite (and least favorite) exercise is the "Ice test." In this test we clutch an ice cube for a minute to see how we respond to pain. For the first minute we focus on the pain. For the next minute she turns on music, or tries to distract us. The third minute she'll have us focus on our breathing, or moving to help with the pain.

Turns out if I'm singing and counting things I am totally distracted from the suckiness.  First I start looking for patterns and stuff to count (I counted all the panels of glass in sight.) Then I had to start making noise. I sang "let it go" and it was great. 

There are a few things in this class that are "not my style" but those things are easily overlooked and the helpful things outweigh them for sure. 

We have class tonight and we have to bring our "birth bundle." I'll leave that one  to your imagination.