Miriam's Life

I drove up to Sulphur Springs today to visit Lucy, my past midwife and my doula this time.  I took her a copy of my birth plan and we discussed anything pertaining to her part in the birth.  I am really excited that she plans on being there for my labor.  I’m really comfortable with her as she has been through two labors with me already.  As I was getting ready to leave, Lucy asked if she could feel the baby and of course I said yes.  She measured me as well because I told her the doctor never tells me what I’m measuring.  My uterus measures 38 cm right now.  The expectation is that the cm should coorespond to the number of weeks you are.  I am 36 weeks now, so that means I am measuring a bit ahead.  With Elise, I usually measured on time, with Emma I measured a bit behind towards the end.  So we can assume that this baby may be bigger.  Lucy also felt the baby and said she would guess that he/she is about 7 lbs. right now, which means if that were true I could easily give birth to a 9 lb. + baby if I go to my due date.  I try not to get caught up on size as there are a lot of factors involved as to how hard/easy a birth will be.  But I definitely would be fine with going a couple weeks early if the baby is ready to come.

Since yesterday’s appointment I have been really excited about everything.  The threat of postpartum depression has been pushed back in my mind and I have began to experience real joy at the prospect of meeting this little one.  All the excitement of whether it is a boy or a girl, when exactly labor will start, and how everything will go is all adding to my excitement.  I am sure some of this release of worry and stress is due to the prayers that many of you are praying for me.  Thank you so much.  I’m sure there may be some downs ahead, but for right now, I am feeling wonderful.

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Today was my 36 week appointment.  My mom came with me and I left Elise with John’s Mom because she is not good at knowing when not to interrupt.  I had a lot to talk over with the doctor, and I thought she’d slow it down significantly.  We did all the regular checks and everything looks really good.  The baby’s heart rate was faster today–160 beats per minute.  He/she was awake though, so that makes the heart rate go up a bit.  I also got a group b strep test–a routine test for pregnancy that they like to treat if you have it so that you lower the risk of passing it onto the baby.  I don’t know my results, but it was always negative in my last two pregnancies, so I doubt it is very likely I would be positive now.

The doctor did a check to see where we are.  The baby is head down, which is a good thing at this point.  I figured it was, because that is how it feels to me, but it was nice to know for sure.  I am about 1/2 cm dilated, which is not much, but doesn’t necessarily mean anything anyway as to how close I am to labor.

We discussed some labor issues, things like eating and walking during labor and what he would allow.  We are pretty much on the same page for everything.  I have everything written down, not only for myself, but also so that if it happens that I am delivered by another doctor he can see what I had already decided on with my doctor.  The doctor was nice in saying that he planned on being there.  :)  Of course he warned me two days he’ll be gone to a conference and I warned him that the last time someone (John) told me a bad day to go into labor that was the day it happened.  Hopefully that will not repeat itself.  :)

We also discussed postpartum depression.  Our plan has been and still is that I will go on anti-depressants while still in the hospital and will be discharged with a prescription.  I plan on taking the ones I took before, because I know they work.  I did mention to him that I have been very emotional some days even now, and he said that if things got really bad before the baby came there is one anti-depressant that is considered safe during late pregnancy.  This takes a lot of stress off of me.  I hope I don’t have to use it, but now I don’t have to worry about it as much.

All in all, it was a great appointment.  I see the doctor every week now until the baby comes.  It won’t be long now.

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I’ve struggled a lot with this concept lately. I had reached the chapter in my devotional The One Year Book of Hope by Nancy Guthrie on “The School of Suffering.” As I read through verses saying “we are called to suffer,” I became quite frustrated with the terminology. If we are indeed called to suffer and to rejoice in suffering, does it then follow that we are to ask for suffering? Knowing full well the possible ways I can suffer I do not have any desire to ask God for more suffering, or to welcome it in my life.

Slowly through my struggle to understand what God wants of me, he has started pointing out truths that were missing in my initial reaction to this topic. Here is my attempt to share those truths with you. They have come to me over a series of weeks and in different circumstances. I am quite sure I have still more to learn on this topic and that my understanding is still flawed, but hopefully it is becoming clearer. [...]

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Today I am officially 6 weeks from my due date and 3 weeks from what is considered full-term.  Sounds close, doesn’t it?

This morning I had a general pregnancy check-up.  The heartbeat sounded strong, as usual.  My main concern this morning was the braxton hix contractions I’ve been having quite frequently.  For those who don’t know what those are, they are basically “practice contractions” as your body prepares for labor.  They are usually not painful, but sometimes they can begin some of the work of labor, theoretically making your labor shorter.  (I’ve never had that benefit.)  I had them quite frequently with my last pregnancy as well, but these ones seem slightly stronger.  The doctor was not concerned.  I got the impression that because this is my third, he expects me to know when I am in labor and will trust my judgement.

One of my other questions for him was regarding the dull pain I feel sometimes when the baby moves.  I have noticed it specifically in one spot and was wondering if it was possible that the baby had actually bruised me there.  He said it is quite possible.  I haven’t had this happen before, but he said that the uterus is thinner on later pregnancies, so it is more common to happen then.

I had one other important question for him.  As I kept a close eye on my contractions this weekend, I had started wondering just what I was supposed to do were I to suspect that I was in labor.  I am not planning on delivering in Siloam, so that adds another element of confusion to the process.  Thankfully, the doctor had good answers for me.  Obviously during office hours I would call or come in to the office first before doing anything else.  If it is after hours or on a weekend, I am to call the Siloam hospital OB department as they will be able to contact him.  Then he will talk to me on the phone and we’ll decide what to do from there.  He said oftentimes, he can meet someone at the office on the weekend to do a quick check if needed.  This all changes of course if I am already in the Springdale/Fayettville area as then it would be a lot quicker to just head to Willow Creek and let them contact the doctor.  Also if my water were to break I am to head straight to the hospital.  But he is still fine with me heading to Willow Creek, even with it being 40 minutes away (unless of course I am feeling that the birth is imminent).  Now that I write all that out, it seems like it might sound a bit confusing, but it makes perfect sense to me, and now I feel that I have a good plan if something were to happen early.

As a side note, I learned a bit of trivia today.  At this point in my pregnancy if I were to have the baby the baby would be termed preterm infant rather than premature.  Basically, the main difference is that by this time the lungs are usually developed enough to not have trouble breathing after delivery.  Of course, as my doctor told me today, this is still earlier than he would like for me to deliver, but it is nice knowing that I have reached another milestone toward a safe delivery.

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