25 weeks

This week is going much better than last week was.  The visit with Sue the nurse/midwife went amazingly well!  Mom and I talked to her for over an hour and we both left deeply relieved.  She confirmed that Dr. B wasn't going to train me in childbirth techniques because that hospital has a very high epidural and c-section rate so the doctors don't bother to avoid surgical interventions with training.  Good news is that Dr. B doesn't often cut episiotomies, so that's a relief.  Sue said she'd help coach me in whatever technique I chose, so yesterday Mom and I went to amazon.com to compare books and DVDs and find something that sounded like it was what I wanted.  We found a boxed DVD/CD set of relaxation/pain relief techniques, prenatal toning, prenatal yoga, what to expect, alternatives, pretty much everything I want to learn.  It didn't cost much either, so it should be here soon and I can start on it!  I'll let you know how I like it once I give it a good try.  I'll meet with Sue again starting in June (she's having surgery and needs time off) and she can use my heart murmur as an excuse to Medicaid to have weekly visits and work on this.  She also said I can do my labs in her clinic and they'll send results up to Dr. B, which would be great!  That way I can do them whenever is convenient and Dr. B will have a chance to look at them before my appointment so if there's something to discuss we can do it in person instead of over the phone or waiting another month for the next visit.  This should work out well for everyone and those two have worked together before.  It also seems like the general practice doctor may be a good fit for us to use as our family doctor, so when it gets to be time to pick a pediatrician I'll definitely be talking to him.

Sue also suggested that when I start going into labor to get a hotel room with nice big pool and labor comfortably as long as I possibly can there before going to the hospital to reduce the likelihood of surgical interventions.  Sounds like a great plan to me!  That way all of us can be comfortable and get plenty of rest but not be on the road for an hour rushing to the hospital halfway thru labor.

So, all that discussed, Mom and I left with a huge weight lifted.  Mom had no idea that obstetrics hadn't really progressed at all in the last 30 years and was appalled that those of us attempting intervention-free birth are the radical ones, but now that we know that for sure we can arm ourselves appropriately.  With an exercise DVD I can practice a lot at home and I'm sure there will be things in there that B can practice with me so he's ready to help with my labor positions.  He needs the exercise too!

News on B: still no news on surgery or anything, appointment on Monday.  Yesterday in the shower he noticed that the stitch holding the tube in place had come loose and was slipping down out of the bandage, and when we took the bandage off to change it the tube came out entirely.  He's been threatening to do that himself for a while now, but it just kinda happened that way.  I'm still a little nervous about it because it was still draining some nasty stuff, but not through the tube since they quit the radiology treatments.  I made him promise that if he starts getting a fever that he needs to go into radiology.  So far so good though, he's feeling much better with the tube out and hasn't had even a hint of fever and we're nearing 24 hours without the tube.  If his body can just take over and heal this thing, we'll all be happy campers.  His only pain now is the rib that hasn't had a chance to heal up yet.  He's feeling so good that he's trying to do more around the house and eat more so he can get some meat back on his bones.  I really hope he just heals up!

This Saturday is the benefit cinnamon roll sale by mom's friends at church, so with some luck that will help us catch up on bills that are creeping behind and maybe make some payments towards some of these bills.  Slow but steady progress on indiegogo and giveforward, so THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who has helped with those!

Jelly Bean has turned from diagonal to vertical now thanks to Sue's advice on where she was laying and which way to rub my belly to help her turn.  Hopefully she's head-down now, but I guess we'll see about that.  My fundal height is measuring 2-2.5cm too big, so Sue's debating recommending another ultrasound to make sure everything is alright.  Not sure what the issue would be, except for her growing too big too fast or making sure I don't have too much fluid or something.  Neither Sue nor Dr. B seemed worried about it, just mentioned that I'm measuring a little big.  Guess we'll see.  I'll take my gestational diabetes test next week so hopefully that goes well, really don't need to worry about that too but I wouldn't be very surprised if it came up positive.  Guess we'll see on that.

Concert weekend, last BHSO concert before she arrives!  It'll be a long weekend as usual, but it should be fun.  I have one more concert in Gillette on May 20th but that will definitely be the last one for a while.  Just trying to sneak in a couple more paychecks. ;)  I'll update on my jewelry party next week and Mom and I are working on a plan to be local distributors for SmartPots and how we'd go about doing that.  Probably just going to sell at farmer's markets or something, but it's worth figuring out a plan for.  Have a good weekend!