Last night Gary and I went to “ A night with the Anesthesiologist” which is a meet and greet with the head of anesthesia for our hospital. It was very informative and I am glad we went. I am pretty sure I am going to get one, I’d say 90% sure. Part of me wants to try without, but part of me just really doesn’t see the point. No offense to those of you who believe in all natural. The only reason I am 90% sure and not 100% sure is it would be nice not to have to deal with everything that comes along with the epidural, the fear of it, the initial bee sting shot that numbs your back, the catheter and IV. But I am also the type of person who crys when giving blood so the chance of me going natural is pretty darn slim. I did think that there was good reason to put the drugs off as long as possible so I could be up and about, which I thought would help move the baby along, but this guy said there is no truth to that once you are in active labor. I don’t know, there are a million opinions out there. Bottom line is I am glad we went. Afterwards we got a tour of the birthing area. That was eye opening. It was nothing like I was expecting, kind of janky really! It is an older hospital. I just expected everything to be shiny and metal and very sterile looking, but it’s more like a hotel room with a crazy looking bed in it! I know people who have delivered here though and it has a great reputation. We also got to see 5 little babies in the nursery. Oh one was only 3 hours old and they were doing his footprints. Just wanted to eat him up! They gave us a flyer and the hospital holds mom and me groups for people with infants. I think I may try to go to those, it’ll be nice to meet some other people with little ones.
On Monday I had a checkup. The doc said the baby is pointing down and ready to go. Starting at my next appt which is in 2 weeks I will start getting internal’s again. I don’t get anymore ultrasounds, that was disappointing news. I would love to see how big she is. He wasn’t able to make any sort of guess about her size, just said I was measuring on target, so she’s probably around 5ish lbs. But boy am I in countdown mode, not so much b/c I am ready for baby, I mean I am, but it’s totally scary. But work is a constant headache. I am a project manager with 8 busy accounts. I will have 4 different people divvying up my accounts. So I am starting to copy them on everything now, and include them in meetings, etc. It’s annoying for me and annoying for them b/c something I include them on today might not be an issue in a week, but if I don’t include them and something happens, they are out of the loop. It’s a hard balance to keep. I have been working on an enormous project that goes live next Tuesday. That will be such a huge weight off of me. It’s been horribly stressful and then that account won’t be quite as high maintenance and it’ll be easier to keep my backup involved.
I am thinking more about names and keeping a short list, right now here is what I have on it:
Elanore
Ruby
Adelaide
Mallory
Lillian
Violet
Zoe
Sky
Oh and I have an absolute new favorite food. If you see this in the store, you must try it. It was on sale at Giant Eagle for $1 a pop, usually cost more. I have the lemon verbane and cucumber dill, both were fantastic.
8 comments:
I bristle when men try to tell women anything about labor, so I have to add my take on the epidural... it didn't have a chance to slow labor so I can't say much about that, but the second it kicked in, it suddenly put the brakes on my ability to push. I had no idea what I was doing down there ;) I just wish someone could have explained that to me at the time so I didn't feel like it was my fault for being a bad pusher or something.
I like all of your names, especially Ruby, but have you seen the cartoon Max & Ruby? I hate to say it, but the Ruby character is wretched :(
i think you're smart to wait and see about the epidural, whatever you decide is the right decision and until you're there you just don't know. and go to the hospital mom and me group...i went twice to ours and wish i'd gone more before i had to go back to work!
The name Adelaide is so pretty! Glad to hear your appointment went well
I think the name Zoe is so cute.
I went 20 hours without the epidural and when I finally got it I thought "Why didn't I get this MUCH sooner?" Still had to have a c-section which I was terribly upset about at the time but doesn't seem bad at all in retrospect.
Good luck transitioning out of work. I had a hard time when I was leaving as well. I was actually responding to emails while in labor in the hospital.
so exciting!!!! Good thing you are open minded with the epi!!!
Work was annoying trying to wrap up and not knowing when my last day was! I hear you on that!
Pretty names!
I would get the epidural..after putting many of them in for patients...I must say..they arent that bad. Most patients think that it was well worth it..and the initial discomfort is VERY minor.
Oh my gosh I cant believe you are already 34 weeks! Time is flying. I loved my epidural so dont feel guilty if you decide you want to go that route. It made my labor smooth and easy.
I think that your are smart to gather all of your information. I planned on a natural, birth center birth with a midwife. My labor didn't go as planned, and I ended up having to transfer to a hospital. I ended up with an epidural after 57 hours of labor, and my daughter came 3 hours later. Every birth is different. I think that the epidural was important for this birth, but I'm planning on having any future babies naturally with the midwives.
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