My cute kid

He found this wind whirly gig outside and has been blowing on it all day... I love hearing the giggles that ensue with each whirl...

my little sprout has arms and legs!

problems...

I had an abdominal hernia repaired in October of last year... now I am experiencing muscle spasms around the hernia patch. I called the surgeon and he said that it was most likely adhesions of the muscle that weren't allowing the muscle to move as my uterus expands... and if it is already causing problems at 10 weeks pregnant, I may end up on bed rest for the latter part of my pregnancy. They can't do a CT to make sure it's adhesions, or find out what else it might be... they can't do surgery on me because I am pregnant... so basically I just have to grin and bear it till the pregnancy is over. He did say that if it gets unbearable he can attempt a manual adhesion separation... which is basically a really rough massage of my abdomen to tear the patch away from the muscle... but then I will REQUIRE surgery to re-repair the hernia as soon as baby is born... so whether I have a VBAC or not I will be having surgery the day my baby is born...

Tacoma General

Today was uneventful. I met my new health care team today at Tacoma General’s OBAC Unit. They weighed me (I have neither gained nor lost weight…), took my blood pressure, got a detailed history, and sent me home. No tests of my blood or urine. No visit with the physician… Just an intake visit… Took about an hour.

I was told I am “extremely high risk” because of my prior Cesarean and desire for VBAC, current Diabetes, Hypertension, and Non-epileptic Seizures. I will remain in the “extremely high risk” category till I demonstrate that my Diabetes and Hypertension are not a problem for the pregnancy. Then I will be lowered to the “moderately high risk” category.

I was told that they will not discuss VBAC with me till the third trimester but the ARNP did say that standard procedure would be something like this:

After they determine the likely weight of the baby by ultrasound in my seventh month of pregnancy… yeah, late term ultrasounds are notoriously inaccurate…

And if I am not to have a macrocosmic baby… which they say is anything over 9lbs IF my Diabetes is uncontrolled…

And if I submit to NST’s weekly during my 9^th month…

And if I demonstrate my willingness to lower my risk by careful control of my Diabetes and Hypertension… no problem, I want a VBAC, I will do whatever is in my power to do to achieve that goal!

And if I don’t go more than 5 days past my estimated due date… since I went into spontaneous labor with Alex a week early, I think I should be ok… but the DO NOT induce women who have had prior cesareans, which is really a great thing, but could mean that if baby wants to bake a bit longer I may have to fight my birth team.

they will agree to allow a spontaneous trial of labor. However, this is all subject to change by the physician who cares for me based on individual circumstances… But really they are MUCH more reasonable than the UW was! I mean, the UW wanted to immediately schedule a section at 37 weeks! And when I pressed them, they grudgingly agreed to allow a ToL IF I didn’t have a baby bigger than 8lbs 13oz. no matter what the circumstances were, and I had to go into spontaneous labor by 39 weeks!

Altogether, I feel pretty good about this place. Even if I do end up with a section, I know that it wont be because they had unreasonable expectations…

Meeting my new birth team today,,,

I hope it goes better than Seattle. The UW was too much stress, too much travel, too much money, too much time, too much lying by them, just too much! They are a fantastic facility, and because of them I am on Insulin and my sugars have been awesome and I found out why my blood pressure is so high, it has nothing to do with baby, so I don't have to be concerned about Pre-Eclampsia... so it wasn't a complete waste of time... but I couldn't gestate in peace knowing that they intended it slice me open at 37 weeks...

Here's hoping that Tacoma General's OBAC is a better choice... because it is my last choice!

The first ultrasound pic at 7w 6d.... And we got to see the heartbeat!

A beautiful rainy day!

I love the rain, I adore it... sunshine a heat be buggered!

Today is one of those perfectly gorgeous gray days, with chill in the air and the leaves on the trees being blown by the wind... ah, perfection!

I just wanted to share that with all you unfortunate souls having to endure the heat and baking sunshine.... I hope you have air conditioning!

I want a do over....

Today, I was exposed to chicken pox... then I found out that my cousin died last Friday and my aunt is in the hospital...

I would like to redo this day... with better results.