« Two Down, One To Go | Main | The Dressed Rehearsal »
April 21, 2005
Midwife, Glucose & Clothing
Wednesday we had our final midwife's visit at her office space. From now on it's home visits... not the kind of service you get from an OB!
The usual measuring stuff was done, taking down weight increases and such. My bloodpressure was fine, which is always good news. I'm measuring a fraction behind 28cm in the belly measuring thing, but 27.75cm for a week 28 baby is also not exactly something to get worried over, of course. I think that might have had to do with the fact that I didn't drink too many fluids preceeding that visit, so less amniotic fluid or so.
Sakina also felt to see what position the baby was in, which was new. PreZ and I got to feel too, after she ascertained the position. The status yesterday afternoon was that the baby is head down in a vertical position, with it's back along the right side of my belly, which is pretty good. The position to avoid is having the baby's back along my spine especially when birth becomes imminent, as posterior presentation means that the baby's forehead would be what's presenting at the birthcanal, rather than the occiput (back of the head). The back of the head is more malleable, due to the fact that the baby's skull has the fontanelles (those soft spots), which allow the skull to squish. The forehead doesn't do that, it's solid and larger as a result. So smaller, malleable and squishy is preferable of course. This is also why babies often have those coneheads when they're newly born, their head's been squashed and moulded to fit through the birth canal better.
The odds are that the baby will probably stay mostly head down, especially as its moving space in my womb is running out and a vertical position is most comfortable for it as opposed to horizontal, but it could still somersault regardless. Obviously it will still rotate on it's vertical axis, so where it's spine is is up for grabs. There are exercises I can do and positions for me to sit and sleep in that will aid in helping the baby get to or stay in the preferable anterior position (with it's spine somewhere at the front of my belly). Most of those exercises and positions are basically down to good posture, and to be honest, they come pretty naturally as it is right now. Slouching or reclining in a seat is just becoming too uncomfortable, because my ribcage ends up digging into my belly or my midriff gets squashed even more, so sitting up straight and upright is generally much more pleasant.
This morning I had an 8am appointment at a laboratory to do my 1 hour glucose test. This test is to screen for gestational diabetes. The various pregnancy hormones can trigger this in various women. So I had a 6.45am wake-up call, after being unable to fall asleep until around 2am thanks to the residual warmth and mugginess from the absolutely glorious weather we had on Wednesday (82F/28C). And of those meagre 4.5 or so hours, I couldn't even sleep them in one go, I woke up numerous times during the night. But I arrived early at the lab, and relatively with it.
The test consists of getting 2 tubes of blood drawn in your 'fasting' state (no brekkie), and a urine sample, then you get to drink something that's pretty much a Fanta orange drink, only made with a specific glucose rather than sugar or corn syrup. Boredom ensues as you spend the next hour in the waiting room (or wherever), until you get called in to have another vial of blood drawn.
I believe the urine test was to check for proteins in the urine, which can be one of the signs of pre-eclampsia, which can be a result of gestational diabetes. The lab tech said that that came back negative, so good news so far. I'll know the blood results by my next visit, or possibly sooner depending on whether my midwife lets me know. Between my bloodpressure being fine, and negative urine results, I'm not too worried. High bloodpressure is usually one of those symptoms that's part of pre-eclampsia... it all goes hand-in-hand for the most part.
After my lab test I managed to snatch a half hour nap or so before heading off to the city, where I met PreZ and a friend from karate for lunch. Fish and chips at the Irish pub near his work, yummy! After lunch I went on a mission to find maternity clothes. Again. I think the Gap pants I had might have been 3-6 month pants or something, because they were getting more and more uncomfortable. Usually fine in the earlier part of the day, but generally by late afternoon or evening they'd really feel like they were digging into my underbelly, which is fairly unpleasant, especially when I think it might actually be kicking off a few Braxton-Hicks contractions.
First I hit up a maternity boutique not too far from the pub, where I managed to score a basic tshirt and 2 new pairs of pants. The pants are really really comfy, though certainly not too cheap at around $60 each... but I've had enough misery with the cheap maternity wear at places such as Target, H&M and JC Penney, and I'd rather something that looks and feels good, rather than feeling all dumpy in ill-fitting cheap pants. It's also nice to have another tshirt that actually comes past the waist band of my pants, seeing as most of the pre-pregnancy shirts I sometimes still wear hover ever closer to the bottom of my belly button.
Other than the Mimi Maternity boutique I ended up going to Motherhood, where I picked up 2 shirts for summer, one black and one with a black and cream print. Really, I tried finding nice stuff in a nice colour, but this really isn't the season for it (or maternity just isn't the style for it). The number one colour this season, in maternity and regular clothing, is pink. And pink is so not my colour. Other colours include anything from the happy easter bunny palette (turquoise, lime, orange, yellow, white). No purples or burgundies or jewel tones in site, or even sane non-candy non-pastels.
The Maternity Gap was a washout, with browns, creams and turquoise. The stuff they had in black felt like cheap stretchy cotton stuff (as though it was supposed to have gone to Old Navy, but accidentally detoured to the Gap store with a higher price tag attached), or it was cut so oddly or of a strange ruched style that made the belly look like I'd parked a VW Beetle in it. Very unflattering. And I'm so not paying good money to look like I'm the size of a bus.
Perched on the opposite corner of that particular square (Herald) is Macy's, and I figured I'd give that a shot too. There's a Pea in the Pod store in Macy's, which is part of the family of stores that Mimi Maternity and Motherhood are part of I believe. I walked in and immediately saw some really nice stuff, in purple. Score! Or so I thought at least... until I grabbed the price tag and realised that the lovely shirt I was looking at was $145! Part of the store was designer maternity wear, so even the designer sales rack was out of my price range for the build-a-wardrobe shopping trip. Luckily they had some other Mimi wear in the other part of the store, and I found a nice plain 3/4 sleeve shirt... in black.
At least this shopping trip wasn't a disaster. I have a bunch of nice items and basics, and that'll keep me going for a while. There are a few items I might get online, seeing as it either means trekking further into Manhattan as well as run the risk of the fact that various boutiques still might not stock it.
Of course at the end of it all, my feet were killing me. The pelvic ligaments weren't too thrilled either, but not too bad. Add to that the sleep deprivation, and I was quite happy to finally get home this evening. But a fruitful day.
Posted on 09:48 PM to: Pregnancy