Exploring my inner hippie

You can't braid my armpit hair because there is none.  I don't make my own granola because I tend to eat sugary cereals and "field hand breakfast" (eggs, bacon, toast, grits, yum).  I don't recycle because there's not a recycling company that will pick up the recycling in my neighborhood, but there is a dump less than a mile away.  I use disposable diapers, disposable razors, paper towels, and I get plastic grocery bags at the store because (more often than not) I forget my re-usable grocery bags at home or in the back of the car.

However, I'm considering something even "hippier" than ever before: homebirth.  Okay, okay, it's only considered off the grid because so many women have been trained over the course of their lifetimes to view hospital births (or even birthing center births) as the only acceptable, clean, healthy way to have a baby.  Arguments on the pro side of hospitals and birthing centers are:

• You are close to (or co-located with) immediate emergency medical services, should the need arise
• You have access to medications and services that cannot be provided to you at home
• You don't have to get halfway through trying to push, only to realize that you need medical help to get that baby out (and then have to get in the car to go to the hospital)
• Hospitals are cleaner than your house (okay, well definitely cleaner than my house!)

But then there are the cons:

• "Sterile" environment still may cause exposure to germs from other sick people in the hospital
• Environment is not comfortable (even if they try to make the rooms more "homey" by adding soft colors and wood paneling)
• You don't get the rest you need because there is too much activity in the room/hallway
• Sometimes medical interventions happen because the on-call OB is too busy to wait for you to have your baby in the time it takes to have your baby (not because there is a medical need for it)

So I started exploring waterbirth last week, just because it seemed like a good idea and the hospital on base here has a birthing tub.  You are created in a womb full of water (or watery stuff) and there you grow until you emerge into the world, where it is shockingly cold and bright, and people take you away from the only person you've ever known (Mama!) to go get on a cold scale, get goop put in your eyes, get a shot of vitamin K, and have like a million people you don't know all fussing about in your immediate area (cleaning up, checking vital signs, taking pictures, etc.).  No WONDER babies cry when they are born!

On the flip side, you can be born into water that is the same temperature as Mom's body, pulled up into her arms and cuddled right away, where you can nurse and be happy and cozy for a few minutes at least before they have to do all that measuring and vital sign checking and junk.  Slightly less traumatic, right?

But we live in Alaska now.  And our baby is due to be born in early February.  It will still be cold (and that is an understatement), and my major concern is how quickly our firstborn arrived.  Second children come faster.  What if we don't make it to the hospital?

So that is when the idea of homebirth popped into my head.  And I can do a home waterbirth because tubs can be rented for about $350, I can have whoever I want in the room, I can be in my own familiar surroundings with my own familiar germs (and nobody else's!), and go crawl into MY bed (which is a sleep-number bed, by the way) after birthing my child.  No flustering of random nurses or attending physicians to come check out the damage done by putting in a fetal monitor that came out halfway through the birth, cutting me on the way out.  No blasts of cold air from the door being fanned at every opportunity with the in-and-out of all the random people.  No lights, sounds, machines, etc.  Just our home sounds, which our unborn child will be familiar with already after having lived there (muffled by the amniotic fluid) for the past several months.

It is a lot to think about, but after doing some checking up with my provider, I think homebirth is covered under our insurance.  How neat.

Au naturale ala aqua?

Two things have been floating around in my head lately.

1. Should I have a totally natural (i.e., medication-free) birth?
2. Should I consider a water birth?

The hospital here on base has LDRP rooms, which means "Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum."  This basically means that the room I go into from the beginning is mine until I leave the hospital.  Many hospitals have LDR but you have to go to a different room after the baby is born and cleaned up and given vitamin K and eye goop, and all that.  Another thing the hospital here has is a birthing tub.  You can labor in the tub and then get out to deliver (the last hospital I was in for my firstborn was this way).  But the difference here is, if you want to HAVE the baby in the tub, you can do that.

The major thing about doing a water birth is (once you get past the idea that you could potentially be sitting in your own "juices" for a while), you absolutely CANNOT do this with pain medication.  Although, from some of the research I've done, the water causes such relaxation in the mother that meds are not often required anyway.

The American Pregnancy Association had this to say about water birth: "Water seems to alleviate stress-related hormones, allowing the mother’s body to produce endorphins, which are pain-inhibitors."

Other websites I've found are:
http://www.waterbirth.org/
http://www.gentlebirth.org/
http://www.waterbirthinfo.com/benefits.html
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/lakshmi_bertram.html

The other thing I've been thinking about is drug-free.  I had an epidural with my first, and it went quite well.  From the very first contraction I felt until baby-in-arms was a mere 21 hours, and from epidural to birth was only five hours.  Nothing slowed down, I still dilated as expected, and I only had to push for 15 minutes (which is SUPER fast for even veteran moms).  However, I am considering it just because I'd like to be able to be informed and say I've done it both ways, and this or that was the way I liked better.

It will be a tough decision, but a friend (who just had a med-free birth) recommended I watch "The Business of Being Born," a documentary by none other than Ricki Lake, which is available on Netflix instant view.  To join their online community of support, their website is available here.

Anyway, I have a lot to consider.  Luckily, I still have a few months to consider it!

A "dark" dawning thought

It just occurred to me; I will be giving birth to my child in the Arctic winter.  I didn't have postpartum depression last time, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to it.  Especially when there will be so, so little daylight in February.

In early February, the sun will rise at approximately 9:30am and set at approximately 4:30pm.  If I'm reading this daylight chart correctly.  Other websites show somewhere between 5 and 6 1/2 hours of daylight in early February.

Either way, I should probably learn more about ways to combat seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that are safe for new moms and new babies.  I need to figure out if having a UV-lamp in the house is okay.  Ah, the joys of Alaska living!

Bump-di-bump

Ah, sixteen weeks.  Deuce is a-kicking quite frequently now, and I forgot how surreal and somewhat unnerving it can be until one gets accustomed to the feeling again.  Equally unnerving is how prone to sudden bouts of nausea and (sometimes) vomiting I am even this late in the pregnancy.  Hopefully this week's checkup will assist with some of the questions I have about it.  More to follow, once I learn something.

Indeed, it is time to be excited about the coming little one.  Now that fetal movement is noticeable and more often than once a day, I can feel pretty good about the development going on inside my growing tummy.  Unfortunately, it isn't yet to the point of doing "kick counts" and other monitoring that is adviseable in later pregnancy.  Still, it's something to cheer about.

Not so much the growing belly and shouts from relatives and friends to see pictures posted on Facebook.  Cut it out.  Please.

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen weeks tomorrow, and I am still experiencing "the sickness."  This was the sixth time I disposed of a meal I really wanted.  And it wasn't eggs this time, although I've discovered "Deuce" really does not like eggs.  It was mac-and-cheese this time.  One of my favorites.  Sigh....

Some things I've learned about this pregnancy:

• Exhaustion lasts beyond the first trimester if you've got a lot going on
• Don't feel bad if you feel "fat" more than pregnant or if your stomach sticks out more than the lower gut (where the baby is) - it's because as the baby grows, your intestines get pushed up (and out) to make more room for baby; hence, the larger stomach area (and larger waist)
• If the baby doesn't want it, you can't have it (even if you want it)
• Exercise is SO important to help with the fatigue (burning energy makes more)
• Fruit and water in copious amounts STILL may not prevent constipation
• It's NOT okay to drink Senna tea (AKA laxative tea) - even though it works!
• It's okay to take Metamucil
• It's okay to take Glucosamine
• It's okay to take Calcium supplements
• It's okay if you feel old while taking a small handful of very large pills (seriously, like my grandma)
• Probably best to take all those at night along with the prenatal vitamin to avoid stomach upset

I'm thinking the vitamins are what upset my universe today.  I just started taking all these extra supplements after getting the green light from a certified nurse midwife (CNM) provider.  Before you do it, it's best to talk to your provider as well.  Everyone is different, and if your pregnancy is "special" (anything from being extra complicated to carrying multiples, being an older mom [over 35], being a very young mom [under 20], having a history of complications or health problems during pregnancy, etc.) it's smart to get advice from a health care practitioner and not the Internet.  And definitely not from a blog!

Lots of friends and acquaintances have had babies recently, and it makes me (sometimes) wish we'd stepped up our game a little and had our bundle a little sooner as well.  Our first will be three before Deuce arrives, which makes the age gap a little less than ideal for me.  However, she may also be mature enough to handle the arrival a little better than, say, a two- to two-and-a-half-year-old might.

I've also started breaking out the maternity wear.  It kind of happened suddenly, the need to wear maternity pants.  This is not so far-fetched as it might seem.  Around 15-16 weeks is the beginning of a growth spurt for the baby.  It goes from being only 3 inches long (crown to rump) to 4 1/2 inches long in just a week or two.   By the time the spurt is over (around week 20), baby will be 6 1/2 inches crown to rump, and about 10 inches head to toe!  Take a look at Baby Center's picture for a Week 16 baby.  In sticking with the tradition of comparing the developing fetus to various items in the produce aisle, this week Deuce is about the size of an avocado.

Also, because I'm in the military I get maternity uniforms to borrow for the duration of the pregnancy.  I picked those up last week and will start wearing them to work tomorrow.  It's really unfortunate I'm not allowed to wear just the pants.  My regular uniform shirt isn't really snug or ill-fitting yet, but the maternity top looks like a tent.  Uniform regulations require that I wear the pants and top together, though.  So I'll be wearing a tent until baby Deuce fills it out.  Which, if memory serves, won't take long.  Even though weeks 16-20 only span about one month, that is the duration of one of the biggest growth spurts for the baby, and usually when the "bump" turns into a tell-tale "belly."

I'm actually excited about that part.