Friday, January 4, 2013

Happy New Year/6 months appt!

26 weeks, 2 days

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope 2013 brings you the family of your dreams!  :)

In the IF ME world, everything is going swimmingly!  I had a day of cramping/period bachache when I was home for the holidays, and that sort of freaked me out, but it seems to have resolved itself.

I had another Marvelous Midwife appointment!  From now on I go every 2 weeks. I am so excited about that - for some reason that is a huge milestone for me.  Go team Appleseed!

I was browsing about one of those online forums for people with babies due in April 2013 - well lo and behold, someone has ALREADY had their baby!  Yikes!  Scary!  Hope that baby is ok - but little Appleseed - YOU STAY IN THERE.

I'm really stretching to find questions to ask the MM, but here's what I came up with for this month's appt:

CS: Can you recommend a post-natal tea?  
MM:  Wait until I am post-natal, and then see what I need.
 
She then recommended the herbalist around the corner, and said I should go there and have her make me up a brew for whatever ails me post delivery.  I asked if the tea really works to bring milk in or help with flow - she gave a resounding "OH YES!".  I asked if the tea specifically made by that herbalist helps, and she said yes.  So that seems like a good plan.  I'll send DH out for it if need be.  :)
 
CS:  Can i still drink red raspberry leaf post-natal?  
MM:  Yes.
 
Remember I am drinking red raspberry leaf tea every day. Sometimes several times a day.  This seems to raise eyebrows in the preggo and formerly preggo community, as there seems to be a lot of bad info on the Internet about this.  But my midwife strongly recommends it, and there are lots of side benefits to red raspberry leaf tea as well.  One day I swore I was getting sick, I chugged down 3 cups of the stuff and I didn't get sick!  :)  And I've had no pre-term labour yet.  AND - you tell me a drink will make my labour easier?  I'm down.
 
CS:  Is there a weight at which baby should be transferred to hospital?  
MM:  Yes, 2.5kg.
 
Hahah - my first reaction was "kilograms!" with a groan.  Here is a cultural insight for all non-Canadian blog readers.  While Canada is officially fully metric, Canadians typically know their heights in feet/inches and their weight in pounds.  Give us a mile or a degree Fahrenheit and we run screaming [although I'm 'bilingual' - I can speak Fahrenheit because I grew up on a border town], but our weight and height and we're all Imperial.  I think it is too much American TV.  ;)
 
Anyhoo, that is like 5 lbs 8 oz.  Very small.  I am gunning for an 8 pounder! (I was 8 lbs - that seems a VERY perfect weight to me.)  I asked if it was a home birth would the baby have to go in an ambulance, and she said it depends on how they are doing.  She said in fact that morning they she had delivered an underweight baby, but he was doing ok and she would have brought him in a car if he had been a home birth.
 
CS:  Do you check for a cleft palate?
MM:  Yes, one of like 25 checks we do on the baby.

CS:  Let's talk about back labour.  I've heard bad things.
MM:  Yes, it is difficult - mostly because back labours tend to be longer.  This is often a good case for epidural.  My first labour was back labour.
 
She then went on to say there are positions that I can sit in now that will lower the likelihood of having back labour.  Total surprise to me!
 
I found this fun site on the Internet http://www.spinningbabies.com/ and it is pretty much a  summary of her recommendations.   So I'm trying not to slouch backwards at work (I'll be hopefully ball-sitting soon), and I even washed the floor on my hands and knees last night!  That was recommended somewhere on the Internet (since on hands and knees is a great position to be in), and I was like - why not kill two birds with one stone?

I am generally not a floors person.  I don't really care if they are dirty (although that would be different with an Appleseed crawling on them, of course).  So it was certainly the first time in this house the kitchen floor had ever been washed by hand!  It was ok - sort of a good workout in the end!

CS:  What was up with that cramping/backache?  It felt like a doozy of an AF was about to arrive!
MM:  Probably just ligament pain.  No need to worry unless it is rhythmic.

I am measuring right on target for bump-size right now - I am 26 cm and I am 26 weeks.  I guess that is how it is supposed to go!  :)
 
My blood pressure is still low low low, but that is better than high!  While home for the holidays, I measured my blood pressure a bunch with my parent's fancy home blood pressure machine - I was like 90/60 in general.  LOW!  I find if I get below 60 on the bottom, I'm not feeling good.  But MM said plenty of preggos are walking around in the 50s.  But for me, that's when I want to lay down.

2 comments:

  1. Low milk supply is a real issue. I used the following remedies.
    @ western: fenugreek : it didn't work
    @ Indian: sabudana( you find in any Indian store); it did wonders
    @ Chinese: chicken mushroom soup; pig feet soup; papaya fish soup; all very helpful
    @ Irish: vanilla ice cream dark beer float; I only did it once, towards the end of my breast feeding days; not sure how effective - but definitely tasty.

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  2. You always have great questions! Gosh, 6 months! I can hardly believe it. Stay in there appleseed! :-) I'm so excited for you. Appts every 2 weeks, too! It's getting closer for you to meet your little miracle! :-)

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