31 week prenatal update and brain dump

Are these brain dump posts getting old yet? It seems like you are still reading them so I just keep writing them…

A few people expressed an interest in hearing the updates from the prenatal appointment we just had back on Friday so here they go:

We met with the 3rd OBGYN in the practice’s rotation this appointment. They like to have you see each doctor once towards the end of the pregnancy just in case you go in to labor and your doctor isn’t on call. Seems pointless since I am not delivering here huh? Well the doctor still doesn’t know that though…

Did you know without “documented” prenatal care homebirth mothers can be at risk for questions and harassment from the authorities? There is a woman on one of the local message boards who had a homebirth and no documented prenatal care and now her pediatrician called CPS on her. She is sharing her saga with us and it is unbelievable.

Apparently not having medical records to prove you were pregnant, if you’ve chosen to forgo modern maternity practices, is a big deal. It is one of the reasons we’ve chosen to continue seeing an OBGYN and partake in the “dog and pony show” despite our plans to deliver with a midwife.

So back to the prenatal update… Surprisingly I didn’t get pressure about refusing the RhoGam shot from this 3rd doctor. She was actually quite respectful, informative, easy to interact with and she had lots of good stuff to share about the pregnancy progress. She acknowledged N and spoke to both of us about my stats throughout the visit. We were both very impressed with her.

She felt I was progressing well and that I appeared to be quite healthy. I weighed in at 128lbs which is 2 pounds lighter than I weighed in last checkup (29 week prenatal appointment) but she wasn’t concerned. Have you placed your baby weight guess yet? Apparently weight gain stalls and in our case of moving houses it is quite understandable to loose a bit of weight between appointments.

Obviously, we’ll want to see a good weight gain in 2 more weeks so I am focusing on exerting myself LESS and eating MORE now so Tater is not getting deprived of anything. I know my eating slowed down and my activity level was through the roof while we were doing the bulk of the moving. See how fickle my weight is and how fast my metabolism works?

Also, we were happy to see my blood pressure decrease! I was right back at 100/70 which is pretty much where I started out at in the pregnancy. The doctor advised me to watch how fast I change positions and to not overdo things as I am tiny and have lower blood pressure so I am more likely to become faint or to pass out from sudden position changes.

She also commented on the sticky note in my chart regarding my tendency to pass out during blood draws, she said it probably had more to do with my size and blood pressure and less to do with anxiety or phobia. LOL

I measured in at 31 centimeters for my fundal height which is right on target for the gestational age according to her and Tater is still head down. We are still checking out good and I am feeling good as well. My stress level is also way under control now that we are moved and in the home stretch of the pregnancy (which probably has lots to do in my blood pressure change).

We talked with the doctor about my blood glucose monitoring and she gave some diet and activity advice to help me. Like i’ve said  before on my junk food binges I’ve tested at 120 and my fasting levels are in the 70’s-80’s. She just basically said that I needed to keep and eye on those foods and drinks that were elevating my blood sugar (the junk food carbs and sugars) and to lay off them as much as needed to keep within normal range, common sense and easy enough right? Yep!

I told N that if for some reason I do end up in preterm labor and we can’t make it to The Farm in time we need to make sure she was the doctor we asked for at the hospital. She is the ONLY one we could see ourselves under the care of, if need be. It was refreshing to meet and to get some good info from her and the prenatal visit was not even stressful this time! Next pregnancy I am going to use her as my OBGYN.