FEBRUARY HEARTS Due in February 2015 , open group all welcome!

[savvysaver]

Wow Feronia! Thank you so much for all your research and information. I appreciate any information that is sent my way. I love to learn and be prepared.

To be honest I was worried about the whole birth, but then I realized I can't control their position and all that matters to me is that both babies (and me) are safe. I was so worried about a c-section, and while I would so much rather give birth naturally I am not opposed to having both via c-section. I guess what frightens me the most is having one twin vaginally and then needing the emergency c-section.

I am really looking forward to reading those articles Feronia, I am sure I will learn a lot!

 

[SurpriseBub]

Yep- we already found out via the maternit21 blood test. That said girl! I am just wanting to see a scan to confirm it before we tell people in real life.

 

[savvysaver]

Yep- we already found out via the maternit21 blood test. That said girl! I am just wanting to see a scan to confirm it before we tell people in real life.

Awesome!

Sorry I am starting to mix up who knows and who doesn't!

 

[SurpriseBub]

No worries! I can't wait to see her girly bits on screen and be able to really tell people AND buy some pink stuff!

Also very excited to find out what everyone else is having... big props to anyone team yellow.. I definitely could not wait!!

 

[Feronia]

SurpriseBub, I heard the Materni21 test is 99% accurate on sex determinism, so you can be very confident you have a girl! That's certainly more accurate than an ultrasound!

No problem! Best of luck in your decision making. I know it can be tough. Personally, I'm really committed to having a certain kind of birth (and I was with my daughter, too). I didn't even put pain medication on the table as a possible option. I know there are drawbacks to this way of thinking, though. On the plus side, I know I can do it naturally at home and know I won't even be tempted to transfer or to take pain medication. I was able to get through a 56 hour labour with this mindset and not once did I consider transferring for an epidural. On the downside, if a rare event happened that required me to transfer, I would be SUPER disappointed and I think I would be really depressed if I ended up with a c-section... Certainly more disappointed than if I had an open mind about things turning out differently. Oh well, there are positives and negatives to each way of thinking, and I'll take my chances that everything will turn out well again.

Whatever you decide in terms of birth options is great! I think the goal should be to research your options and be confident in your decisions. Feeling empowered in your choices is the most important thing, I think.

 

[ttc126]

Feronia, what do you think of this??? My hospital will not even attempt a breech birth. At all! Their policy is c-section! Personally, i can't believe they won't even leave it to practitioners, much less the women themselves, but in our sue-happy society i guess i shouldn't be surprised.

For my son i was pretty much left no option but hospital birth with being high risk. I planned a natural vaginal delivery. Planned on no epidural, no augmentation, and had taken classes on natural pain relief and coping techniques. Well, all that went out the window when i had an emergency induction and magnesium sulfate. I really wish I could have avoided the epidural but i was already stuck in bed with a horribly uncomfortable catheter....Ugh. not how i hoped it would go! But, you know at the end of the day I was very thankful that my emergency situation ended with both of us ok.

This time, i will be induced around 37 weeks. I'm hoping to avoid an epidural if possible, but my attitude is that there are worse things than having one.

I hope everyone has an easy time and feels good about how things go!

 

[swanxxsong]

SUCH RELIEF.

My appointment today was with a midwife today and not the horrid nurse from last week. She said my BP was beautiful (110/70) and that all looks lovely. She said she is pleased with the changes I've been making (yoga, meditation, watching sodium intake) and that she doesn't have concerns right now at all. She told me to enjoy my pregnancy and return the BP cuff we bought and to stop worrying.

So. I am going to continue with my newly developed daily activities and focus on healthy baby, healthy pregnancy.

Phew!

 

[SurpriseBub]

No problem! Best of luck in your decision making. I know it can be tough. Personally, I'm really committed to having a certain kind of birth (and I was with my daughter, too). I didn't even put pain medication on the table as a possible option. I know there are drawbacks to this way of thinking, though. On the plus side, I know I can do it naturally at home and know I won't even be tempted to transfer or to take pain medication. I was able to get through a 56 hour labour with this mindset and not once did I consider transferring for an epidural. On the downside, if a rare event happened that required me to transfer, I would be SUPER disappointed and I think I would be really depressed if I ended up with a c-section... Certainly more disappointed than if I had an open mind about things turning out differently. Oh well, there are positives and negatives to each way of thinking, and I'll take my chances that everything will turn out well again.

Whatever you decide in terms of birth options is great! I think the goal should be to research your options and be confident in your decisions. Feeling empowered in your choices is the most important thing, I think.

Well said! though I don't think you should be disappointed in yourself if you get a c section- there are so many things that are outside of our control!

Funny how everyone approaches these things differently- i have had fillings done without anesthesia, so hope that means I could do natural birth... but i definitely want to be in a hospital to give birth and would be fine with changing my mind on meds or going for the c section if that seemed safest. I very much like having control, and feel like that plan gives me the most control in a very out of my control situation!

It will be interesting and amazing when this group gets to the point of swapping birth stories!!!! Feb just seems sooooooooooooo long away.

 

[SurpriseBub]

SUCH RELIEF.

My appointment today was with a midwife today and not the horrid nurse from last week. She said my BP was beautiful (110/70) and that all looks lovely. She said she is pleased with the changes I've been making (yoga, meditation, watching sodium intake) and that she doesn't have concerns right now at all. She told me to enjoy my pregnancy and return the BP cuff we bought and to stop worrying.

So. I am going to continue with my newly developed daily activities and focus on healthy baby, healthy pregnancy.

Phew!

Yaaaaaaaay!

 

[savvysaver]

Feronia, I am sure everything will go just fine this time too! You are very knowledgeable and have done plenty of research and know all of your options.

Excellent news Swan! So happy you had a great appointment!

 

[dcm_mw12]

Has anyone else breastfed before and can give me a few pointers. Actually what I wanted to do was pump my milk and put it into the bottle for my baby for when I return to work. Just wanted to know if anyone else ever pumped instead of exclusively breastfeeding? ( I hope my question isn't confusing at all).

 

[MellyH]

Hoorayyyy swan! Glad to hear the appointment went so much better than last time.

 

[MiniBump]

Has anyone else breastfed before and can give me a few pointers. Actually what I wanted to do was pump my milk and put it into the bottle for my baby for when I return to work. Just wanted to know if anyone else ever pumped instead of exclusively breastfeeding? ( I hope my question isn't confusing at all).

How long after the birth are you going back to work? I would recommend you start on the breast if you can for at least a few weeks just to build your supply (pumps are not always that great at extracting milk) but there's no reason why you can't then feed as well as expressing in preparation for going back to work. It is then possible to express whilst at work at the time you would have fed at home but still feed at the breast when you're at home - it doesn't have to be one or the other and really depends on your job.

As we're talking about birth plans, are there any other VBAC hopefuls in this group?

 

[MellyH]

I'm hoping to pump when I go back to work at about 12 weeks, but I have no experience to offer yet!

 

[dcm_mw12]

Has anyone else breastfed before and can give me a few pointers. Actually what I wanted to do was pump my milk and put it into the bottle for my baby for when I return to work. Just wanted to know if anyone else ever pumped instead of exclusively breastfeeding? ( I hope my question isn't confusing at all).

How long after the birth are you going back to work? I would recommend you start on the breast if you can for at least a few weeks just to build your supply (pumps are not always that great at extracting milk) but there's no reason why you can't then feed as well as expressing in preparation for going back to work. It is then possible to express whilst at work at the time you would have fed at home but still feed at the breast when you're at home - it doesn't have to be one or the other and really depends on your job.

As we're talking about birth plans, are there any other VBAC hopefuls in this group?

Thanks alot, Your post makes perfect sense. I'm not sure when I'll return to work but I'll definitely start with the breast first and I'll be asking for more information at my next appointment. Thanks again !

 

[swanxxsong]

Thanks ladies! I am so relieved!

DCM: I BF and pumped from day one. My daughter had horrible latch issues (premature) so I began pumping with a hospital-grade pump from the day she was born, to try and encourage my milk to come in since we were struggling to nurse. I rented the hospital-grade for a few weeks (my insurance covered this) and it truly helped me to bring in my milk.

My routine was I would nurse her, then pump after she was done to encourage further milk production. As my milk came in, I ended up with oversupply so I would nurse on one side, pump on the other, for every feeding.

I ended up with a massive stash that I ended up donating portions of because we couldn't use it all. But it helped my milk come in, and I always had milk in case of emergency.

I'm willing to answer any questions. Our lactation consultant at the hospital told me point blank, "I don't think you two will ever get this." I called LaLecheLeague in tears and with my awesome husband's help and a LLL leader on the phone, we got her to latch for her first time in-home the day we got back from the hospital. We made it to just shy of two years before she self-weaned. Persistence was key.

 

[Megamegan]

I'm probably returning to work at around 8-10 weeks, and everyone at my job pumps. There's a lactation room, in fact. So I feel lucky to have 4-5 girls helping me out there. I hope to get baby used to the bottle a couple weeks before I have to go back... I imagine that would be not fun if the baby didn't take to the bottle at all. Still a long time to go before really researching that, though.

 

[savvysaver]

Swan, if you don't mind me asking...what pump did you purchase after having to return the hospital-grade pump? I want a deluxe and efficient pump. We have some kind of coverage from our insurance, my husband is working on figuring that out since I am doing everything else!

 

[swanxxsong]

Savvy: yes, there's some coverage options now -- much better ones than when I had my daughter! I don't know all the details yet myself, I need to call and see, but I've talked to many women who got really nice pumps for free (well, 100% covered with reimbursement). So that's a huge perk!

I don't mind at all, I'll answer anything. We battled mastitis, we used a nipple shield for a period of time, we wrestled with over-supply and reflux... I'm an open book.

I used the Ameda Purely Yours double pump. Then I bought the Medela Harmony manual pump when I went on vacation and forgot half the pump accessories and couldn't find them in-store. I actually LOVED the manual and used it exclusively from about 6-8 months onward, because Aria loved tangling her hands in the cords of the electric when I would pump and nurse at the same time. And the hospital grade I rented was the Ameda Elite, or something like that. It's a green monstrosity but it was a huge lifesaver to bring in my milk, and cheap to rent for the first few weeks.

 

[SurpriseBub]

I am so furious! When I first found out I was pregnant, I wanted to see a doctor right away to get advice on medication that I had been taking/whether to keep taking it or not during pregnancy. I made an appointment with a doctor who was well reviewed on zocdoc and saw him- I knew deep down at the time that I likely did not want to stay with him, but felt pressured into "standard blood tests" then and there. I knew to say no at the time, but somehow just felt like I couldn't. That was in June. Today I get a bill from a lab (the first one I have received) that is past due... The ******* had done a whole range of tests well outside "standard" first visit tests- including an $800 screen for a cystic fibrosis gene mutation. My insurance paid most of it, but I am now on the hook for $250 and furious that he pressured me into testing. Basically I feel that what he did was taking advantage of my naïveté, and more or less immoral. For someone more well versed in he US health system... Is there a way for me to complain? Or does anyone know the tact I should use if I want to complain to that doctor's surgery?

I also now want the results if nothing else- originally I was told there was a fee for them to release them to me. Grrrrrrr... Seething!