On Thursday, our doula met us at our house to have prenatal appointment 1 of 2. It was more information-gathering than anything, but she did ask that I send her a copy of my birth preferences. It made me think.
I found out a few weeks ago my doctor was going to be retiring in July due to recent health issues. It’s shaken the VBAC community because there are many women in my VBAC Facebook group that are (rightfully) concerned about what this means for them. Sadly, very few doctors in the area are willing to do VBACs, and my doctor was one of the very few who would do them after 3 C-sections. His two colleagues at the clinic with him won’t do them, so it leaves these women facing another automatic C-section regardless.
It’s a tough situation. My doctor had joked last time when I had Emelia that he’ll retire when they’re carrying him out in a body bag. I don’t know what has been going on with him, but I feel sad that it’s causing him to have to step back probably earlier than he intended. And I’m so grateful that if I had to have an unintended pregnancy, at least it happened now rather than even four or five months later because then he would be gone.
So when I initially drafted a birth preferences plan, there was a good amount I didn’t bother to include because I knew he would just do it. But there is a possibility I’ll have one of the other two doctors during my actual labor, so I need to circle back to it and add in those things just in case before I send it off to my doula.
Last Sunday, we celebrated my parents’ birthday at a restaurant for brunch and it was just Olivia and me in attendance since Emelia was running a low-grade fever the night before. I kept an eye on my carbs and my blood sugar ended up being in range.
But I was just so tired. So freaking tired, and I can see it on my face here.
This week, I also attended both girls’ “Come to school with me” day and they were so much fun. I was honestly really concerned if I would be able to do Emelia’s since hers was for 3 hours and her room is filled with lots of little chairs and sitting on the floor.
Olivia’s was only an hour and her teacher made sure I had a chair that rolled around so I could sit in it which was really nice. I think at one point Olivia was getting a little jealous at the attention I was getting from her friends (they all loved having a parent visiting) because she dragged me across the room to completely switch gears and do something different so she could have me to herself.
And Emelia’s day worked out better than I was thinking. Her teacher always made sure I had a stool to sit on and it was kind of sad because I had to sit across from Emelia during circle time because her assigned spot didn’t have any room for me to perch behind her. I made sure to give her lots of waves and smiles.
But she loved showing me her classroom routine and the things she does every day. She has this little name card that she needs to carry with her so that whenever she does table or rug work, her little card is there to show the other kids she’s working there. She didn’t interact much with the other kids when I was there, but she loved telling me who the other kids were.
I’m also on the last legs of my baby blanket with just a few rounds left to do. Right now it’s measuring 30×30 inches so I wanted to make it a bit bigger. But it’s just looking so beautiful.
I had one issue that happened this week that was a bit unsettling.
After getting home from my sister’s after brunch on Sunday, I lay in bed to listen to my hypnosis tracks. About 20 minutes from the end, I started feeling menstrual-like cramping in my lower abdomen. I know this can be completely normal, but it seemed to last quite a long time. In fact, when I got done with the track and it wasn’t going away, I texted Chris and said I was just going to lie there for a bit longer to see if they would go away.
I ended up laying there for quite a while, until Chris had dinner ready. Then right after supper, I ended up having diarrhea the rest of the night until right before bed.
Both of these things can be premature labor. I didn’t tell Chris about the diarrhea because I didn’t want to make it a thing and then cause my anxiety to increase.
And I slept the rest of the night and woke up perfectly fine Monday morning and haven’t had anything like that since. But Monday was acupuncture and I mentioned it offhand to her. She said it all could be a coincidence, but she did some extra needling on certain points to “keep baby in” and she wants to start seeing me every 2 two weeks now until I deliver. Hopefully, it’s nothing.
She did also do a lot of needling for my sciatica (which had some painful points), but actually, I think it really helped, even more than the chiropractor because I haven’t had any more sciatic pain since.
Still, I’m continuing to have lots and lots of hip/pelvic and pubic bone pain. In fact, pretty much whenever I move I have pubic pain. I went back to wearing my pelvic support belt and am really trying to make sure I get my exercises in twice a day.
It feels so weird being in my third trimester. It’s the home stretch and we’re almost there.
