Happy Birthday To You...and You...and you & you!

I think I might have mentioned earlier in a post how September is full of events, especially birthdays. I feel like in the upcoming weeks I will be having to make a few more posts than normal.

For starters, my shower is tomorrow! yay! I am very excited to see some friends and family that I haven't seen in a while. I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

Also tomorrow, September 11th is my precious dog Lacy's birthday! She will be 7 years young. Here are a few pics of this sweet little girl through the years.

Just a Pup


Resting on her big brother at the time.

How precious!


Growing bigger. Almost can't fit on her favorite spot by the window!


Growing big and strong!


She's her daddy's girl.

The beautiful Lacy now. (well add a few more white hairs)

On September 12th is my Mom's birthday and also my father-in-law's birthday.

On September 13th is MY birthday. Yes, just one day after my mom's. You will get that whole story later.

On September 16th is hubs birthday. Yes, only 3 days apart from mine, it was meant to be! Also, obviously he shares his birthday with his twin brother so more on that story to come.

Wow, busy busy week ahead of birthday fun. First things first though, off to my baby shower tomorrow. Que the corny games and a butt load of "ohhs" and "ahhs." (Man I dislike baby showers.....even if they are in my honor :-) Is that bad? I might not want to mention that to anybody tomorrow. I should be all smiles, right?

Tiffany

OK, Now I Can Really Do This

We have confirmation. Now I know for sure I can be a mommy to a little boy!

There is something that I didn't tell anyone except for hubs when we found out we were having a boy. You see, I've always considered myself quit athletic. I've played almost every sport while growing up. More importantly, when it comes to looking into the future, I know I can be out in the back yard with Little B and Dad playing sports with the best of them. I can throw and catch the football. I can play a decent round of golf (at least for 9 holes until I get bored). I can play basketball and even shoot a lay-up (at least with my right hand). I can kick a soccer ball (even though that is my least favorite sport). I can bump, set and spike a volleyball. I can ice skate if he wants to get into hockey. I will even most likely be the one to teach Bradley how to swim and ride a bike.

However there was something huge hanging over my head and holding me back from feeling like I can really be an all-star boy's mom. It was the BASEBALL. You see, I've played softball for many years and even to this day when hubs and I go out back to play a little pitch and catch we always use the softball because that's what I'm more comfortable with. So when I found out we were having a boy that was one of the first things I told hubs, "I need to practice throwing the baseball!"

Well I am proud to report that after a 15min throw and catch session with hubs and the baseball, I'm officially ready to be a boy mom. Let's do this!

Tiffany

10, 9, 8,...!

The count down is on!!! I am 30 weeks pregnant. Only 10 weeks to go. Unbelievable. Where the heck did the time go?



This past Tuesday we had our 30 week appointment and our check up ultrasound to check the location of the placenta. I was soooooooooo excited for this ultrasound because I was really looking forward to getting some 4D images of little B's face. Well, Bradley was in no mood to have his picture taken. Bummer :-(



Good news is that my placenta has moved up slightly. It is still what they consider low lying but it is in no way going to affect a vaginal delivery. His heart was at 144bpm which is exactly what it was 2 weeks ago. The ultrasound said his estimated weight now is 3lbs 8oz! Right on target. The u/s also showed him to have hair on his head! So cute! Plus we still have the confirmation that it is a boy. Phew.



We couldn't get a picture of his face because using the Dr.'s words, "He's in there like a taco." He is literally folded in half with his legs straight up over his face, and his feet at the top of his head. We did everything to try to get him to move. I moved to my side, the Dr. buzzed him with this thing that looks like an electrical shaver. He did jump when she buzzed him which made me feel good because obviously he has his hearing! But still, he went right back to the taco. I was worried and asked if he had enough room and if my fluid levels were low. The Dr. said no that my fluid levels were fine and there were plenty of fluid pockets, he's just comfortable with his feet in his face.



So here is the best picture we received. At the bottom center you can see the profile of his face. Big forehead (must be the hubs) and you can see the eye sockets and then the cute button nose. The white shadow looking thing at the bottom is his ear. Towards the middle left of the picture you can see where his shoulders begin and go into his body. Then at the top starting from the left you can see his legs shooting across up over his head. At the top right of the picture you can see his legs get skinner as to where the ankle joint is. If you look closely you can even see the knee cap area. At the very tip top is the placenta.







I can't believe that's his last picture in-utero!



Tiffany

Pediatricians, Episiotomies & Circumcisions Oh My!

Is this seriously what is consuming my brain? It's almost September and I should be thinking about football, and tailgating, and planning birthday parties, and bobbing for apples, and making a slutty Halloween costume, and shopping for new cute fall boots but instead......my mind is wrapped around the title of this posts. (Ok the slutty costume thing was a joke.) This sounds bad, but I am consumed with looking at Dr's pictures and ruling out the ones who look like pedifiles. I'm thinking about my vagina being cut or tore open and finally I think it's bogus that a circumcision is an elective surgery that is not covered as part of the whole payment package of having a child.



More specifically, I've been trying to set up meetings with a few pediatricians in our area so we can have "our" Dr. be the one to discharge our baby from the hospital. Well wouldn't you know that our health care system is TOTALLY F-ED UP. Oh wait, you did already know that, everyone does. So it turns out that, after I've spent hours on the phone and made fagillion calls, individual providers (the dr's themselves) and the offices or companies they work for have different tax ID numbers. After doing research I found that if the physician I'm looking at to be our babies dr. bills us under the office's name it will show up as out of network. However if he bills us under his own personal ID number it will show up as in network. WTF? So then I had to call the dr's office and ask them how they bill, and from which address. Many physicians work out of more than one office, however it seems that the shidiots working at Anthem only show them as in network when they bill from one location, and out of network if they bill from another. Just.Plain.Dumb.

To the episiotomy topic. I was reading through some paperwork my Ob had given me way back at my first appointment that I probably should have read earlier but hadn't. It was a flyer on the practice's view point on episiotomies. Basically they believe that even after being fully dilated, most every woman will tear slightly. They believe it is just as healthy to let you tear naturally than to cut you. The only time they will perform an episiotomy is if a) you specifically ask for one or b) the baby is in distress and they need to cut you so you can push it out quickly. Actually I'm totally fine with their vision it's just I wish I would have read this earlier. It's a situation like if I were reading about the episiotomy and only been 8 weeks pregnant I would have just read it and stored the info in my brain and went on. Now however when labor seems much closer I read it and my vagina cringes.

Nothing much to say about circumcisions except for the fact that in the itemized breakdown of costs, the circumcision is about $300 less than the anatomy scan. Uh......Um......... I'm no dude but I'm sure some guys would expect to pay top dollar to have their thing cut and pretty much shaped for life. Just a funny observation.

Tiffany

Hospital Tour

Last week hubs and I got to go on a tour of the birthing center (the 4th floor) in the hospital we are delivering at. It was so.much.fun! It created this excitement in me that if I were even a few weeks closer to my due date I probably would have hopped up into one of the beds and said, "Induce me now, let's do this!"



For the first half of the hour we sat in the main lobby and had a verbal explanation of everything and a Q and A session. There were 3 other pregnant woman there on the tour. A woman and her husband expecting their first, a woman there with her toddler expecting her second (I'm guessing), and finally a teenager there with her boyfriend or baby's daddy (not sure what he was) AND her parents were there with her AND her grandmother. Let me also just say (no judgement here....ok maybe just a little) that there is no way that the grandmother or the mother had their children when there age started with a 2 or higher. I think every woman in that family had their babies when their age began with a 1..............just saying.



Anyway, I hate when people ask questions, just for the sake of asking questions. This family with the entourage was like that. Also there was not one question they asked that was formed using correct english....again, I'm just saying.



Ok truly moving on. We got to learn all about the rules and regulations at the hospital, and the labor and delivery floor itself. The postpartum (recovery) side of the floor is totally renovated and brand new as of last year. Huge rooms, flat screen tv's, rocking chairs, and that uncomfortable pull out bed for the husbands (oh wait I mean coaches) to sleep on. We don't use the words husband there because you know, babies come from all kinds of families. There are 22 (I think) postpartum rooms. On the labor and delivery side there are 17 laboring rooms and 2 operating rooms. Labor and delivery rooms are equipped with soaking tubs, sink for baby's first bath, scale, huge flying saucer looking light that comes out of the ceiling to shine in your hoo ha, and again another uncomfortable bed for the "coach." As you can guess from the numbers it's a small more quaint birthing experience than huge hospitals. They encourage you to labor in any why that you please. You can use the tubs (which I will not, that grosses me out) or use the birthing balls or walk around or just lay there if that's what you want. Pretty much the only thing you can't do is eat. Damn. Besides that I really like how open they are to you laboring in whatever way you feel comfortable. (I hope they don't mind screaming.)



I think the best part of this hospital is that they do not have that typical nursery where you see all the babies lined up behind the window. All babies stay with the mother in the mother's room 100% of the time!!! Everything from delivery to cleaning the baby and weighing the baby, to having the apgar test, to having the pediatrician's first exam of the baby is all done in the mother's room. The only time the baby would leave the mother is if there is an emergency for any reason, or to get circumcised.



Also our hospital does not have any visitor hours on the labor and delivery floor. Therefore if we wanted to have a guest come in at 11pm that would be no problem. The regular hospital visiting hours end at 8pm. I really like that our guests can stay later than that. They do however have a "quiet time" between 1-3pm each day which is for napping and mommy's and daddy's to do their bonding with the baby. They said they won't kick your guests out during those hours but they will ask you to shut your door and be quiet. The nurses try not to come in during those 2 hours as well.



The last thing is super cool in a weird kind of way because I've never heard of this. Obviously security on the baby floors is super high. (Well duh, all us infertiles have thought about baby steeling once in our life.......haha, just kidding.) After they clamp off the umbilical cord they place a little tracker device on the baby's belly button. No joke. It will set off all the alarms in the hospital if it crosses the elevator barrier. If an alarm is set off the entire hospital goes on lock down until all the babies on the floor are accounted for. The funny thing about this is that after delivery the mom and baby are wheeled to the other side of the floor for recovery. You have to pass the elevators to get there and our guide has told us they are so sensitive that they have to watch so they don't wheel the baby too close to set the alarm off. Better safe than sorry!



We learned so much more on this tour, for example where the free food is for after delivery, but I think I've gotten out the gist of it. I did pipe up and asked a few questions like, "How does my baby get a social security number? Do I have to register it with the county like I did my dogs?" Hubs was just laughing at me as I asked that semi-serious question. For those of you who wonder the same thing the hospital should provide you with all the paper work to fill out the birth certificate and they will send it off to the social security department for you. All you have to do is pay for the copies to be mailed back to you. Hey, at least I wasn't the person asking, "Do the hospital provide them there car seats to rent, I heard them are some to rent!" Um no lady, and those of you who "accidentally" got pregnant are not allowed to speak on this tour. Thank you.



Tiffany

Distortion

I have a brain - body image distortion. Or I've become too "use to" seeing myself pregnant.



You know you have a distortion when you wake up in the morning, have a decent size poop, and look in the mirror and think, "wow, I look skinny today."



No! No Tiffany, there is nothing "skinny" about looking like you swallowed a basketball and having to baby powder your thighs because they rub together.



What has gotten into me? I guess it feels good to feel that way though even if it's only once in a blue moon when I actually #2!



Tiffany

A Birth Plan???

I've done a lot of talking lately with my best friend / sister-in-law / labor and delivery nurse. Yes she really is the trifecta of all knowing all things baby. Oh, did I mention she just had her first baby 5 months ago? So yes, he's the holy grail of babyness.

So anyway, she has really explained to me how hard it is/stupid it is to have a strict birth plan. Because of the numerous things that can happen during your pregnancy, especially during labor and delivery, it is almost unhealthy for you to have such a strict plan of how you think things are going to go. She has explained that she's seen way too many times woman who only have one vision in their mind of how giving birth is going to happen and when they have to divert from that plan they get very overwhelmed and just plain freak out.

I have completely adopted that theory for myself. I do not want a birth plan. Or, in other words I want my birth plan to be called go with the flow. UNFORTUNATELY, it seems like you can't even crack open a baby book to the third trimester and not read about how IT'S TIME TO SET UP YOUR BIRTH PLAN. Or you read, IT'S TIME TO WRITE DOWN YOUR BIRTH PLAN. Worse yet, IT'S TIME TO PUT COPIES OF YOUR BIRTH PLAN IN YOUR BAG FOR THE HOSPITAL. Good grief. Even last night at our birthing center tour, (which was so awesome and I'll post about that next) our nurse who was giving the tour explained how they are really activists for the mom and want to make the experience exactly how the mom would like it to be. She even mentioned that they will try and follow any birth plan the mother has in place.

Uhg, I'm so tired of hearing about preparing a birth plan that I've finally thought I'll do it. I've decided to write this down on a sticky note and through it in the hospital bag just to say I've done it. This is what it looks like:


My Birth Plan

• To get this baby
  


• Which is on the inside of my body



• To the outside of my body



• In a hospital



• With drugs

Ok so what do you think? Think that's good enough? Think that will work? If anything else hopefully now I won't feel so paranoid like I'm the only horrible mom to be out there without a birth plan. Because now I have one!!

Tiffany