Bradley Birth Class

Every Monday night for the past 6 weeks (and for the next 7 or 8, also) Rob and I have been attending a Bradley Birth class. It's all about natural birth and how to stay relaxed and in control during labor. I have every confidence that we'll be able to have this baby without drugs (barring any major medical complications, of course) and this class is a huge part of that. We love it!

This week the author of the Bloom Spokane website attended the class and wrote an article about it. I feel like she captured the class very well! Click here to read her article. But please, no comments about the less-than-flattering pictures! :)

Just Say No.

First of all, I want to say that we aren’t anti-doctors, anti-hospitals or anti-modern medicine. We are still planning to deliver at Sacred Heart. However, our recent experience at the emergency room there completely solidified our belief that choosing natural birth for this baby is the right thing for us, and there is no one out there that knows what we want (and need) better than we do.

So, last week I got a chest cold. I have asthma so of course the first thing that happens is that it goes to my chest and I get that horrible cough that makes people look at you like you’re going to kill them just by being in the same room with them. Needless to say, it was pretty hard to breathe with the cold and with the baby squishing things in there! Friday morning I woke up and it was bad enough that Rob decided we needed to head to the ER.

We arrived at about 9 am, and waited for a while after checking in. We told them about the asthma and of course the pregnancy, and the first thing they did was to give me a breathing treatment. I’ve had these in the past for chest congestion and they really work for me! That day was no different and after the treatment I was starting to feel better already. At this point I thought we’d be able to get me an inhaler and be on our way… Not so.

The ER doc decides that because I’m pregnant, and therefore more vulnerable to infection, I need to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Hesitantly we agree, after checking (from Rob’s phone) the safety of those for pregnant women. It seems to be ok to do, so we proceed. That test comes back normal. We head back to my little room and wait to be released, but no such luck.

The doctor then says we need to do a blood draw to check my D-dimer levels, and she wants to give me an IV. At this point we’re seriously wondering why we’re still here, but she is the doctor, so we go ahead with the blood draw but decline the IV. I am NOT a fan of those, and I didn’t want to be there all day. She says I “look dehydrated” and brings a quart of water for me to drink instead of the IV fluids. I drink it (and have to pee every 10 minutes from there on out).

Of course, the D-dimer results come back very high, and she tells us the next thing to do is to inject dye into my veins and do a CT scan to rule out a blood clot in my lung. Ok, seriously? I was ready to just walk out of there. We ask for a few minutes to talk about it, because, as she put it, it “does have a significant amount of radiation that gets to the baby”. First of all, my mom literally DIED when they injected her with dye for the same kind of thing (years and years ago) so I don’t ever do the dye thing just in case the same thing could happen to me. And second, radiate my baby? REALLY?? I think not. I have asthma, people! You already gave me the medicine that helped me breathe better!! What more do you need to see?!?!

We declined the test, and she made us sign a form that said we were leaving against her medical advice, but not before she called our OB-GYN and told him what was going on. He apparently agreed with her that the test was necessary, and she even said that I was doing harm to the baby by skipping the test. Awesome, thanks doc. We signed the form and left. It was after 1 PM by the time we got out of there, and I have to say that it felt like we had narrowly escaped their evil clutches! That is not a good feeling. But it was the first time we’d ever turned down medical help or advice to make our own decisions like that. THAT was a good feeling!

So, all of that to say this: I realized that day that doctors aren’t evil, horrible people, they just have a different view of things than we do, especially for the birth of a baby. They NEED to find a solid, undisputable reason for a symptom, and sometimes the easiest answer doesn’t seem to be good enough. We’re planning to go without an IV, or epidural, or constant monitoring, or being stuck in the hospital bed the whole time for the labor and delivery. I don’t want to be drugged or have the baby be drugged if I can help it. Medical emergencies aside, childbirth is not something that a doctor even needs to be involved in, if you ask me! But, that’s a topic for another day and I could go on for HOURS, so I’ll just leave it at that. :)

We hired a doula this week also and she’s great! She’ll definitely help us do this the way we want to, and not be to pressured by nurses and doctors that are just used to doing things the same way each time. Our Bradley Birth Class is really helping with that, too! Both Rob and I have learned SO MUCH it’s amazing, and we both feel much more empowered to be able to do this! First time parents that we are, we want to be as prepared as possible. We’re getting there, slowly but surely!

OK! Enough of that. How about some pictures of the last few weeks! Baby girl is getting BIG!! Unfortunately so is my rear… but it’s for a good cause. :)

Here I am at 29 weeks:

And at 30 weeks:

And here’s the punkin at 30 weeks! I can’t believe we’re 75% of the way there!

30 weeks: a cabbage. She weighs about three pounds!

The baby shower is coming up in a few weeks, and I’m very excited! Friends and family will be there that I haven’t seen in a long time. My mom and sissy are throwing it for me, and it’s all a surprise! I can’t wait! :)

I hope everyone has a good weekend, and stay healthy! You don’t want to end up in the ER… Heh heh.

Sunday Update

So, not much to report over the last few weeks, but I do have a few pictures to share!

26 Weeks:

27 Weeks:

It feels like I’m getting bigger by the minute! Here’s where the baby is at 27 weeks:

27 weeks: a cauliflower!

I’m feeling pretty good lately! We’ve started taking Bradley Birth classes, and we LOVE them. I’m really learning a lot about why so many people have complications during birth, and how to (hopefully) avoid those complications. We’re going to try and bring this baby into the world without drugs, and this class is really helping to prepare us for that.

On Tuesday we have an appointment with our doctor and we plan to discuss how they feel about natural birth. Last week we toured the hospital where we plan to deliver, and they seemed very open and willing to work with us there; I hope the doctor feels the same way. Because it’s a whole “practice” that we go to and not just one specific doctor, it’s been hard to get a feel for that kind of thing at each of our 5-minute doctor visits when we’ve gone in. So this time we’re just going to ask a ton of questions and see what we get! So many people have scoffed at us for our choice of having a natural birth, be it friends or acquaintances, unfortunately I’m kind of getting used to it. If the doctor turns out to be the same way we have no problem finding a midwife or different doctor more in tune with our expectations. I just hope we don’t have to go through that!! Wish us luck, I’m not really looking forward to that part of the appointment.

Also, I took the glucose test for gestational diabetes last week and passed with flying colors. I am SO GLAD I don’t have to do that again- whoever decided that making an already dizzy pregnant lady drink some overly-sweet, syrupy, sugar-high-inducing drink and then drawing her blood, was a cruel, evil person. Oh, and did I forget to mention that they don’t want you to eat anything other than toast before the test?? It was awful! I thought I might pass out in the lab as we were leaving, and I think I scared another pregnant mom walking in after me… oops! But at least she knew what she was in for! YUCK, I don’t look forward to doing that again for the next baby. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves there… :)

In other news, we started the Dave Ramsey envelope system for our money this month, and so far it’s working pretty well. It will take another month or so to get used to it, and get out of the habit of just handing over the plastic card all the time. Even with debit cards it’s too easy to just spend and not think about it, so this cash-only system seems like it will help us immensely. So far so good! My sis-in-law Katrina sent me a link to a really neat site that has templates to make your own envelopes to use (go here to check it out!), and I got out my craft stuff and went to work! I’ll post pictures of how it turned out later, but I’m pretty impressed!

And now, I would like to highly recommend you all go out and get a new bed. Not just any bed, THIS bed. We were blessed with it as a Christmas gift (THANK YOU MAMA AND POP SHANKLAND!!) and until we slept on it for a few nights I really had no idea how bad our other mattress had gotten. So go. Now. Go out and get one! It will change your life. I promise. :)