9 weeks and counting – cartoon from Baby Gaga
I don’t know that I want a beer per say – but any relief from the back pain would certainly be welcome. The other day my husband even researched acupuncture, but I think he was more curious than actually considering it – ditto for me – I’ll settle for an excuse to whine to him every day about it.
According to BabyCenter.com, Baby Blueberry is now the size of a grape (nearly an inch long!) – still tiny, still fruity, but s/he’s starting to look more like a human – a tiny grape-sized human. Their tale has left the embryo and they’ve developed teeny tiny little teeth. Their little he or she bits are there but won’t be distinguishable for another few weeks. Their eyes are fully formed, but their eyelids are fused shut and won’t open until 27 weeks. Now that BB’s basic physiology is in place, s/he’s poised for rapid weight gain – woohoo!
I finally met with my new OB yesterday who seemed really nice – I like the office a lot, too. She gave me a physical and told me that I can and should eat an extra 300 calories on top of the 1750 I’m eating now. I was all, “Awww shucks,” but you know – you’ve gotta do what you gotta do – and if baby wants a slice of weight watchers chocolate cake and some frozen yogurt, well – baby gets. We also talked about reasons for and against VBAC (vaginal birth after a cesarean). She explained to me that the big concern is the possibility of a uterine rupture (which means the incision on your uterus could break – I’d always thought they were talking about the incision on my stomach, this makes more sense as it’s not something they can sit there looking at). The statistic is that 1% of women attempting a VBAC will get one – which doesn’t sound very high but my husband pointed out that 1% is 1 in 100, which isn’t actually very good odds for something like that.
A lot of women apparently will schedule a c-section for the date of their “due date” and if they haven’t gone into labor on their own by then, they have the c-section which was what I was initially planning to do, but the more we talk about it, the more I’m leaning towards a scheduled c-section, which would happen 1 week before my due date (which is July 18 – my aunt Debbie’s birthday, the day AFTER is my father’s wife’s birthday – maybe I’ll schedule it for the 17th so we can have a 3 day birthday weekend trifecta?).
For one thing, and I know it’s silly to talk about planning every aspect of your birth, but hear me out – if the whole thing were scheduled I could arrange to have MM stay with one of his grandparents while I’m in surgery and then come meet the baby as soon as we’re all clean and happy and well. The recovery from a planned c-section is much easier than an emergency c-section after a day of induced labor or otherwise. My body has already shown that it had no interest in progressing even with the help of drugs – who knows what it would decide to do by itself. Basically, I want to what’s best for our family and safest for the baby – the c-section, after a long day of “labor” was easy in comparison, you know? And I’ve read that it’s perfectly reasonable to nurse your baby right after the c-section, etc.
Basically – it comes down to this: I’m not afraid of a cesarean – I know how the operation goes, I have read up on it a lot between this pregnancy and my first – and intend to read more – and while part of me has this stupid hang up about wanting to have a “real birth” I am afraid of it, too – and I don’t want to risk my baby’s health for my own pride. I will likely either schedule a c-section or do my first plan of scheduling one for the day of my due date – but one thing I know and am relieved to hear – is that she will not be inducing me again at all – and not because I don’t want one – she says it isn’t safe and it didn’t work last time, they won’t be doing one. Hurray!
Oh and I know you will all be super happy to hear that I’ve had some morning sickness – nothing compared to the last pregnancy, but it’s been there and all glorious. So I won’t be perfect – haha far from it. But surprisingly with the morning sickness came a lessening of the nausea – is that weird?
So I guess that about wraps it up – morning sickness showed up, I’m still deciding on my “birth plan,” I get to eat MORE (which is actually good because I’ve been very hungry up until yesterday when I finally added the extra calories into my day – yesterday was good) and BB is a Grape now.
Mommablogsalot 
10 responses to “Bump Report: Week Nine”
Girl, how do you find the energy to keep up blogging? I can barely check my e-mail…lol!
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Mmmmm! Extra cake!!!!
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@ Carrie : I totally get what you are saying – obviously there are risks with any labor method and any kind of surgery has it’s risks – it’s all gonna come down to research and then some gut instincts. 🙂
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I’m sorry if it seems like I’ve slacked on comments, for some reason Bloglines wasnt showing new posts.
I think you should go with what works for the family. All three of my kids were C-sections, and I have no regrets..not that I had much choice due to my issues. None of them scheduled except number 3 but I started going into labor the Friday before my Monday C-sec. Go figure.
With boy number 3, I was up and rearing to go that next morning (he was born at 10pm at night) so I had a much faster recovery than the other 2. Not sure why that was maybe my body was used to them.
I’m loving reading the weekly update.
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I don’t want to give you any unsolicited advice either, but I do agree with the commenter above. There are big risks with major abdominal surgery as well.
I had my first c-section because he was breech. My 2nd (and largest at 9.8) was an induced vbac. That was in 1998, before the risks of induction were known, but all in all that was my very best birth, even though he was a big baby it was textbook! My 3rd was er c-section.
I also just had my 2nd surgery in 9 years to remove scar tissue left over from my c-sections, so there is that also to consider when going the surgical route. My (and I am sorry for the unsolicited nature of this, it’s just that I’ve been there) advice is to do lots of homework, even getting a 2nd opinion. If a vaginal birth is what you really want, and your doctors are comfortable with you at least trying, you have nothing to be afraid of. It was a great experience for me.
Trust your instincts hon.
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While the risk of uterine rupture is certainly not something to be dismissed, a major surgery like a c-section certainly carries many of its own risks. I’m not trying to suggest you should have a VBAC – only you can and should decide what you’re most comfortable with. I just hate to see consideration of the issue focused exclusively on the risks associated with a potential rupture, rather than balanced against the atendant risks of the c-section itself. It’s not an easy decision, and it sounds like you guys are giving it lots of thought. You’ll do whatever is right for you.
I’m sorry about your morning sickness! So not fun.
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It sounds like the scheduled c-section would be the best choice for your family and a 1% chance is still scary. Hope your morning sickness doesn’t last too long.
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I had a VBAC, so while it sounds like you’re leaning toward scheduling, if you have any questions or want some real-life info, feel free to send me an email.
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Been there, done that! I scheduled my repeat for 1 week before the due date & the little stinker put me into labor! It didn’t have anything @ all to do w/ the stress my mil was putting on me or all of the furniture that I moved (3 rooms full!). They did stop my labor & I was in heaven!
I will totally agree that a planned or repeat was sooo much easier. I did nurse as soon as possible (I had a panic attack on the table due to the stress I felt from my previous delivery but not something you should have!) & I even walked 6 hrs after my delivery which was as soon as they’d let me since they’d ended up putting me to sleep.
Ok, so did you get all that? I know I rambled (ha,ha when don’t I?) but I Loved my repeat c-section! And yes, the recovery was so much better after not laboring for 36 hrs on pitocin!!
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Obviously I have never had kids, but I am all for the scheduled c-sections. I have three friends who went that route, and all were quite happy they did.
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