Knocked Up – Knocked Over

my journey through pregnancy and hyperemesis gravidarum

Monthly Archives: July 2011


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Birthing Positions and Water Birth Positions

I’m going to be sharing a full write-up of my birthing preferences a little later, but I wanted to take some time to talk about birthing positions.  This is a really important aspect of birth.

What you see in movies?  The woman flat on her back, legs up in the air, yelling her head off?  That’s a terrible way to push out a baby.  This position actually closes the pelvis off and forces the woman to push uphill.  No part of that is good for childbirth.  There’s only one reason to birth a baby in this position: to make it easier for the doctor.  You know, he doesn’t have to bend down that way.  He can sit on the chair or stand up.  Much more comfortable for him, right?  And that’s what’s most important after all: making sure your doctor is comfortable.

Before I go into this further, take a look at this article that lists the pros and cons of different birth positions.  Scroll down to the bottom to read the pros and cons of birthing on your back with your legs in the air.  Do you notice anything?  There are no pros for this!  That’s right.  There’s nothing good about this.  Only cons.

So you might gather from all of this that I want to push our baby out in a position other than flat on my back.  Honestly, I’m not sure how I will want to birth the baby.  On all fours?  Squatting?

I very much intend to use the birth pool.  So how does that work with birthing positions?  Honestly, I have no clue!  With Gabi, I had an epidural.  I was paralyzed from the waist down.  I was, you guessed it, flat on my back with my legs up in the air.

I have a hard time doing things if I can’t try it out ahead of time, or at least visualize it.  It’s why I never asked to use the squat bar at the hospital before getting the epidural with Gabi.  It’s why I asked my midwives to let me try out the birth stool during my second appointment.  It’s why I really, really need a doula.  If I’m not sure how to do something, I just freeze up.  I’m not sure why.  I just do.  So this is why I’m trying to familiarize myself as much as possible with water birth and various birth positions.

Like they say in my hypnobabies course, I’m having to retrain my mind to remove the flat-on-the-back, legs-in-the-air positioning from my concept of “normal” and replace it with a new normal which includes movement and various different positions.

To find out what birthing in the water looks like, I did some YouTube searching.  I’m going to post some links to some videos that helped me get some ideas on some of the different positions you can use if you’re in the water.

These are birth videos.  There is some potential for nudity.  I found the videos to be empowering and inspiring, but if you don’t want to see women giving birth, just don’t click the links.  And if you don’t want to see woman giving birth, but you click the links anyway?  Don’t come whining to me about it!

  • Here’s the first video I found.  It’s a home birth and a Hypnobabies birth (yay!), and she spends most of her birthing time outside the tub and only enters the tub to push.  Right around the 4:50-5:00 mark, you can really see the position that she is using to push her baby out.  She’s resting on her knees, leaning forward.  She actually partially stands up for the time when he was born.
  • Here’s one that is a photo montage.  She gets in the water at around 45 seconds in and from the look of it she’s on all fours, leaning forward against the side of the tub.  It’s difficult to tell, but it looks like she pushed her baby out in a seated position, leaning back against the side of the tub for support.
  • Here’s a third one.  This one is a hospital birth.  The dad wasn’t allowed to film during the pushing, but there are still photos and starting around 1:36, you can see that she’s seated, leaning back.  I also want to say that I love this dad.  He is so completely chilled out during this whole thing.  Completely calm and just allowing his wife to have a quiet, peaceful environment for her birth.
  • Here is a fourth and final one.  The thing that I find interesting about this one is how much the mother can move in the water.  She’s moving the entire time!

There seems to be an incredible variety in how women choose to birth in a tub.  I have to wonder if the water helps facilitate that.  I’m only 31 weeks, and already I feel huge and awkward.  I have to wonder if the weightlessness of the water allows them to move their bodies more easily for greater comfort during birth.

Seeing people actually giving birth in the water helps me so much to visualize what I want.  I think I may ever fill up our bathtub here at home at some point and do some of my Hypnobabies practicing in the water.  I really hope doing this kind of visualization and practice will help me to feel more confident during my birthing time.  I plan to talk to my doula and let her know that I do tend to freeze up.  I want her to be able to watch for this and give me a nudge if she sees this happening.  But I also want to find some empowerment on my own, and watching the women in these videos give birth really helps me to find that within myself.


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Chiropractors and pregnancy

I will be the first to say that I don’t know that much about chiropractic care.

I’m very much a scientifically minded, evidence based kind of person.  This means that I don’t always jump on what some might call “alternative healing” methods right away.  That’s not to say I don’t use them to compliment modern treatments.  I’m just saying that after surviving HG, I’m not going to rely on alternative methods to the exclusion of modern medicine.

I’ve got a healthy amount of skepticism about the whole chiropractor thing.  I had a chiropractor once tell me she could cure my head cold by adjusting my neck and tugging my ears in a special way.  But I would have to come back three times per week for a six weeks or it wouldn’t work.  MMMmmm.  I didn’t buy it.  Maybe that works for some people, but I really don’t think that’s the right choice for me.  I totally respect if that’s something that works well for you.  Please don’t misunderstand that.  It’s just not something that I really get into.

I have also had a (different) chiropractor take me from constant, horrible pain in my hips to no pain at all through deep tissue work and joint adjustments.  I was training for a half-marathon and later a marathon (didn’t finish the latter), and when you start running those really significant distances, things crop up.  Little issues become really big, painful issues pretty immediately when you push your body to its limit like that.  This chiropractor got me from barely being able to hobble after a 10 mile run to being able to run 15 miles with no pain.

This particular chiropractor was very into sports medicine.  In fact, he worked on the US Olympic marathon team.  He didn’t cure their sore throats.  He helped work their muscles and bone structure into physical balance so that they could run without pain from one body part compensating for another.  You start building your strength in a symmetrical way and your body is much more comfortable.

When I was pregnant with Gabi, I didn’t see a chiropractor.  I just never made the time.

This time, though, I’ve been getting horrible pain in the joints of my pelvis.  I mean, it was hurting to roll over in bed.  My entire right leg would start hurting part way though the night.  Not fun.

So I asked my midwives if they could recommend a chiropractor in the area. 

The one I ended up seeing is a sport-focused chiropractor just like the one I saw when I was running.  It was great.  No mystical stuff, no uncomfortable pressure to come back every single day for a month.  He just worked on the muscles in my hips, back, and neck, and gave me a few good adjustments.

I say he “just” worked on those muscles, but boy he really got in there.  It was pretty intense.  I had to breathe through most of it.  He told me to tell him to back off if I needed him to, but for me as long as I can stay relaxed enough to where I’m not flexing the muscle to “protect” it or holding my breath, it’s okay.  I like deep tissue work.  If it’s right on the edge of too much and I need breathe and focus, that’s just where I want the pressure to be.

I tell you this: I waddled in there, but I walked out like a regular human being.  Wonderful.

I went back to see him this past Tuesday just to follow-up.  He was able to get in a little more on the hips and worked things out enough to get a good adjustment deep in my low back, which he hadn’t been able to get before.

He also gave me some pointers on relieving some of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing:

  • Pelvic rocks (cat/cow if you’re into yoga) will help ease pressure on my pelvis
  • A calcium/magnesium supplement will help reduce the leg cramps (eating a banana apparently won’t help much)
  • Ice packs on sore places in my back, hips, and neck will help reduce pain also

Basic stuff.  Most of it echoed what my midwives had told me, but hearing him reinforce that was nice.

If you are pregnant, I very much recommend finding a good, reputable chiropractor.  He really helped me to feel more comfortable.  I’m still achy, cranky, and hot, but I’m not completely miserable anymore.  I’m also pretty sure that shortly after he did the first adjustments, the baby went ahead and turned the rest of the way to a head down position.  I’ll find out for sure at my next midwifery appointment next Thursday.  I’ve heard that getting your hips opened up can help a baby turn, so I really think this is what happened.

Have any of you seen a chiropractor while you were pregnant?  If so, what did you see him/her for?  Did it help?


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What’s up with my white blood cell count?

We’re going to go back in time a bit to last week because I realized that I forgot to post about what ended up happening with the high white blood cell count and all the tests they ran on my to find the cause.

We had gotten the iron thing under control with the Floradix, but my white blood cell count was still high, so they tested me on the 13th for a variety of things to see if we could find a cause (other than HG).

The blood test for H. pylori came back a resounding negative.

The urine test to check for a UTI came back negative.  In fact, apparently my urine was just about as perfect as urine can be (whatever that means).

The vaginal swab to check for a bacterial infection came back negative.

Soooo…  What does that mean?  That means that the mystery of the white blood cells continues.  The midwives, at this point, are willing to chalk it up to stress and the HG.  I’m inclined to agree with that idea.  I seem to vaguely recall having elevated white blood cells when the 3rd tri relapse hit with Gabi, so it makes sense. 

HG just screws up your body for a very long time.

Gabi’s trip to the Natural History Museum

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SAMSUNG

Saturday, we took a short road trip north to visit the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History with Gabi and her Grandma and Grandpa.

Gabi had a great time.  We let her lead the way and explore the museum as she felt inclined.  As she encountered different exhibits, we talked to her about them by asking a series of questions.  We’ve found that, for her, this is a good way for her to learn.

For example, the museum has a blue whale skeleton at the entrance that you can walk into and touch.  She loved this and wanted to be right up in the bones.  This gave us the opportunity to talk to her about bones.  Understand that about half of the books we read together are science-related, so she’s been building on this knowledge for a while.  This is a chance for her to see the things we’ve read about up close.

What do bones do? Help us stand up.  Can you find the whale’s ribs (she’s been talking about ribs lately)?  That’s right!  What do our ribs do?  Protect my heart.  Where is your heart?  Where do you think this whale’s heart was?  I think you’re right?  Do you think it was a big heart or a little heart?  Biiiiiiiig heart!  I think you’re right!  Do you remember if a whale is a mammal or a fish?  I don’t know.  Well… let’s think about it.  Do whales breathe fresh air in their lungs?  Uh-huh.  …  Mammal!  That’s right Gabi!  What do you think baby whales eat?  Do you think they eat fish?  mmmmm…. No, they drink their mommy’s milk.  That’s right!  Do they drink a lot or a little do you think?  Remember, a baby whale is bigger than Papa!  A lot!  I bet you’re right!  I bet it takes a lot of milk for a baby whale to grow up big and strong. 

Then she ran to the whale’s head and had Grandpa lift her up into the head.

Gabi, do you see teeth in this whale’s mouth?  No. No teeth.  What do you think it uses to eat?  I don’t know.  It uses a special kind of part in its mouth called baleen to eat a teeny-tiny animal called krill.  Do you want to know how baleen works?  It’s like when Mommy makes pasta.  You know at the end how Mommy pours the pasta through the strainer in the sink and the water flows out through the holes, but the pasta stays in the strainer so we can eat it?  It works just like that.

And so forth. 

Aside from the whale bones, the other big highlight (for all of us!) was the butterfly exhibit.  I’ve been to a lot of butterfly exhibits.  Usually, they’re huge, glass pyramids with exotic greenery and lush waterfalls.  This exhibit was a simple building with net ceiling and walls to contain the butterflies.  Inside were plants that can grow happily in the local environment.  It was the smallest butterfly exhibit I’ve ever been to.  It was also by far the best one I’ve ever seen.  Gabi was able to have many close encounters with the butterflies.  She even found one that landed on my back!  And another tried to land on her pink shoe!  It was very exciting.

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History isn’t a child-oriented museum, but by letting Gabi lead and explaining things in ways that she can understand, we were able to bring her into the experience and make it enjoyable for her.  Sure, we didn’t get to see the hall of minerals, which I was actually pretty interested in.  We also spent way more time looking at dioramas than I probably would have.  But that doesn’t really matter.  By letting her lead and teaching to what she was interested in, she learned much more and had a much better time than she otherwise would have.  We all did!

Here are some pictures from the day in no particular order. 

This gallery contains 20 photos


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Another Milestone! 30 Weeks!

Tomorrow, I will have made it to 30 weeks.  There’s something that feels nice and final about being in the 30s finally.  30 weeks is solidly third trimester.  30 weeks means I’m on the downhill slope.  30 weeks means I’ve only got 10 weeks left!

I had an appointment with the midwives today, and I got the opportunity to meet midwife #3.  I had met midwives #1 and #2 several times, but this was my first chance to meet midwife #3.  I really liked her.

For the most part, the appointment went as they usually do.  I weighed in (172.5 lbs) and then I got my urine dipped.  My numbers are still looking a little funky in my urine, but both midwives #2 and #3 said that because I had just eaten a bagel and had some juice for my Floradix, it wasn’t outside the norm.  It was just my body processing the sugars and carbs from the bagel and juice.  Midwife #2, who is an HG survivor, said that her numbers were strange her entire pregnancy.  The HG just messes up your body for a long time.

Then midwife #3 measured me and listened to the baby’s heartbeat.  Everything is measuring right on target for 30 weeks.  She also felt around on my belly to see if she could tell how the baby is positioned in there.  As it turns out, she’s currently laying sideways.  This would account for the increased pain I’m having in my pelvic bones and sciatic nerve.  Her feet are sticking out to my right, and her head is over on my left.  Midwife #3 explained that she is probably in the process of turning herself head down, and while there is plenty of room and time for her to go back and forth a few times, it’s likely that she’ll settle in head down and just stay that way.

I hope she finishes her acrobatics soon!  I am not living this side-lying position!  I swear I can feel her pointy little toes and toenails digging into the side of my uterus!  Ouch!

The pain in my pelvis really is pretty bad.  It’s bad enough that it’s been keeping me up at night.  It hurts to lift my legs and put my pants on.  Most of the pain is right where the pubic bones meet in front, but last night my whole sciatic nerve was aching and burning.  I asked for a referral to a chiropractor, so I’m going in to get adjusted and massaged this afternoon.  I’m hoping that will help.  Midwife #3 also suggested just a few cat/cow or pelvic rocks before bed.  That should move the baby up off of my bones and help through the night.

Since I am nicely into my third trimester, we briefly took the opportunity to talk about birthing options.  It’s so strange and refreshing to think that I don’t need to worry much about telling a nurse in the hospital what not to do to me or my child!  I don’t need to gear up for any strong advocacy.  Most of the things I want, like delayed cord clamping, are things that they do just as a part of their every day procedure.

I plan to do a full post on my birthing preferences to help readers who might be interested see the reasoning behind them, but for now, here are a couple of things that I mentioned to midwife #3:

  • Delayed cord clamping
  • No internal checks until I express a desire to push
  • Allow me to birth the placenta on my own without assistance
  • Low lights and quiet voices so I can focus on my hypnobabies techniques
  • Prefer, when possible, for everyone to use the hypnobabies terminology to refer to my pressure waves, birthing time, etc

She was great about it.  She listened, took notes, and generally did not make me feel silly for asking about this stuff.  It’s just really cool that I don’t have to put in big bold letters anywhere NO EPISIOTOMIES!!! and just hope and pray that the doctor on call remembers to look at my birth plan.

It’s just so much more… peaceful with these midwives.

I’m not saying that to knock doctors.  Not at all.  My OB with Gabi was wonderful!  It was a great birth experience and he could not have been more supportive.  And of course, Dr. Awesome is, well… she’s awesome!  The birth center and midwifery practice just has such a calm, quiet vibe.  No beeping machines, no harsh lights, no weird smells, no people barging in and out.  It’s just a completely peaceful and nurturing environment.

We also talked about birth kits and what to bring to the birth center.  She gave me an order form for the birth kit (pads, some herbs, gloves, etc) and a list of other things to pack to bring with us.  The birth kid needs to be ordered and in hand by 37 weeks, which is right around the corner.  Pretty exciting!

And as a bonus, as I was making my next appointment, a brand new mom came out with her baby girl who was born just today in the very wee hours of the morning!  She had wanted to lay still and sleep for a while there at the birth center, so instead of driving home in the middle of the night, they stayed.  It was amazing to see how tiny and perfect that brand new baby was!  I forgot just how small they actually are!

All in all, it was a great appointment.  We’ve gotten past the anemia scare with the Floradix doing a wonderful job at bringing up my iron, and I’m doing great!  You know.  Aside from the HG.  And today has been a 2 Zofran day.  One before bed and one after breakfast.  10 more weeks.  10 more weeks.


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DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks comes through for me in a huge way!

Quick word of warning to anyone currently suffering from HG:  I’ll be talking a lot about food in this post.  If reading about foods is a trigger for you, just skip this post.

I grew up in College Station, Texas, which is home to Texas A&M University.  In my hometown, there is a restaurant called DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks.  DoubleDave’s is an institution in my hometown, and the biggest reason for that is a menu item called the Peproni Roll.  (Yeah, I know. They spell it funny!)  Basically, you can think of a peproni roll as a rolled up slice of pizza, except without the sauce.  They roll pepperoni and provolone cheese up in the pizza dough and bake it.  Then you dip it in ranch dressing or marinara sauce to eat it.

 Peproni rolls are quite simply the best thing ever.

A few weeks ago, I had one of those pregnancy dreams.  You know, the really vivid kind.  All night long, I dreamed that I was in DoubleDave’s with my family.  They ordered pizza, but I, of course, ordered the rolls.  In my dream, everyone else’s food arrived, but my rolls just were not coming out of the oven.  They kept forgetting to bring them to our table.  In my dream, I finally lost my temper, grabbed the kid behind the counter by the front of the shirt, and shouted, “JUST GIVE ME MY GODDAMN PEPRONI ROLLS!”  I never got my rolls in the dream, and I woke up feeling miserable.

All day long, I obsessed about the rolls.  I tweeted about it.  I posted about it on Facebook.  I even learned about the history and origin of pepperoni rolls.  There’s actually a fellow out in West Virginia (the birthplace of the roll) with an entire websitededicated to them!  DoubleDave’s is listed under his Pepperoni Rolls Variations page (scroll to the bottom).

Finally, after looking at pages and pages of pictures of tantalizing rolls, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  Look, with the HG, it’s not too often that I get food cravings, but when I do, it is serious business.  I went to the DoubleDave’s website, and wrote them an only very slightly hyperbolic letter:

Dear DoubleDave’s,

I’m writing as a life-long customer. I grew up in College Station eating at DoubleDave’s. We’ve moved to Ventura, California, and there are no DoubleDave’s. I feel bereft without your peproni rolls. I’m 7 months pregnant and I’m afraid I might wither away without some peproni rolls. Last night I dreamed about them, even. In my dream, my family got their pizza, but my peproni rolls just didn’t come out. I waited for hours for those rolls. It was really sad.

Please. I’m begging you. Pleading with you. Open a DoubleDave’s in Ventura. Without your peproni rolls, I don’t know how I can go on. I miss you DoubleDave’s. Please come to California. The weather’s great. Ventura is great. You could go surfing every day. You’d love it here, I promise.

With Love,

Molly

Within a couple of hours they wrote me back!

Molly,

You have no idea how big a grin came across my face while reading this!  I don’t know, you may have already received replies from the rest of our gang as well.  We wish you were back here now!  In fact I would love to have a town full of pregnant DoubleDave’s fans right here in BCS!  :)

Years ago we would occasionally ship Peproni rolls in dry ice.  I’m going to have Joe experiment a little and see how we can get some rolls out to Cali for you!  Maybe you could send us an In N Out burger?   I have to admit, Ventura sounds pretty good when it’s 104 degrees here!  

 I’ll bet you anything Double Dave Miller would sell you as many franchises in California as you could handle!  

 Thank you so much for the kind words and good luck with that baby Texan!

 We will be in touch!

Larry*

This kicked off a flurry of emails and activity that culminated in Double Dave’s shipping me 3 dozen–that’s 36!–peproni rolls, 2 t-shirts, a beach ball, stickers, magnets, and a whole bunch of other DoubleDave’s-related goodies.  And you know the cool part?  The t-shirts they sent were a size large and a size medium.  This means that I can wear one now while I’m pregnant**, and then after I have the baby, I’ll be able to wear the other one!  How awesome is that?

I’ll admit: When I opened that cooler full of rolls, I shed a few tears.  I couldn’t believe that I was standing in California looking at a taste of home.  It was pretty overwhelming think that these people I had never met had taken the time to be so kind to me.

As an added note, I discovered that DoubleDave’s has a sense of humor!  They shipped those rolls in a University of Texas styrofoam cooler!  Juan is a maroon bleeding Aggie, and insisted on putting the empty cooler into the trash bin right away.  I fished the cooler out, and it’s providing plenty of family entertainment.  Hey, I went to UNT.  Longhorn coolers don’t bug me!  I make it appear in various unexpected places to assault his delicate Aggie sensibilities.  So not only did they send me a bunch of rolls and a ton of swag, they sent me ongoing entertainment!

The night those rolls arrived, I feasted.  It was heavenly.  The rolls they shipped were about half-way baked, so that means that when they come out of my oven, they don’t taste like re-heated, leftover rolls (which are still pretty good, by the way!).  These rolls taste like legitimately fresh and delicious, hot-of-the-oven, DoubleDave’s Peproni Rolls.

Gabi, my three-year-old, has also developed a taste for rolls, unfortunately, which means I have to share.  Hmpf.  I was able to teach her the proper Texan way to eat the rolls, which means dipping them in ranch dressing, not marinara!  Juan is stealing bites here and there, but mostly leaving them to me, which is very big-hearted of him. 

I just want to send a big, huge thank you to the folks at Double Dave’s.  Thanks to Larry, Lily, Joe, and whoever else was involved in shipping me these rolls and all the DoubleDave’s swag.  There are a lot of foods that I can’t eat right now because of the stupid HG, but peproni rolls are just the right blend of awesome and deliciousness that they stay down just fine.

People of Double Dave’s:  You are amazing.  You serve great food, and you go above and beyond for your loyal fans.  Some time, probably next year, when I’m back in College Station visiting, I’ll come by, and I will find you guys (or Larry at least since Lily and Joe are, I think, in Austin), and I will thank you in person.  In fact, I’ll probably come in a few times while I’m there.  That’s usually the way it goes.  We fill up on Double Dave’s, Freebirds, and Blue Bell Ice Cream while we can!

And Readers, if you happen to be going through Texas, and you see a Double Dave’s, stop in and try the Peproni Rolls.  You will not be sorry!

 

*Turns out, my mom is pretty sure she knows Larry from way back when I was a kid in 4H because he also owns one of the copy stores in town.  So look out Larry!  My mom may be trying to track you down!  That’s small towns for you!

**I’ll try to get some pictures in the t-shirt at some point to post.  I had planned to take a few pictures on the beach this past Saturday specifically for this post, but I tried to do too much Saturday morning and I felt too sick to go out Saturday evening.  We’ll try again this weekend.


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Green Disposable Diapers – Part 3

Okay, folks.  My parents are in town from Texas for a visit, so I’m going to take the lazy way out of today’s post.  Actually, I really lucked into this.

Janet, over at A Pregnancy With Hyperemesis Gravidarum, did my homework for me today!  How cool is that?

She has done a fantastic write up of different green diaper comparisons.  She tried out all four of the ones I’ve looked at:

  • Earth’s Best
  • Nature Babycare
  • Huggies Pure and Natural
  • 7th Generation
Read this post!  It’s awesome!
Thanks so much Janet!  You’ve given me some fantastic information the help narrow down my diaper hunt!


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How’s that Hypnobabies thing going?

Way back in March, I posted about hypnosis and childbirth.  It’s been a while since I talked about that, so I wanted to give you all an update on how that’s going.

 Long story short: It’s awesome!

I selected the Hypnobabies method of hypnotic childbirth, and at this time I have completed the home study course.  Just this week I started in on the maintenance part of the program.

The course itself is easy and pleasant to go through.  The book is divided into 5 lessons with each lesson building off the previous one.  For the hypnosis part, the hypnosis tracks (which are on CDs that you just lay back and listen and follow along with) start by simply teaching you very basic, guided visualization and self-hypnosis.  From there, the tracks build on that until you learn to put yourself into hypnosis using what they call the finger drop technique. 

The finger drop technique is a cue that you train your mind to accept that triggers you to go into deep relaxation and hypnosis.  This is the backbone of the program and one of the main tools I will use during my birthing time.

Hypnobabies is big on associations and cues.  It’s basic operant conditioning when you think about it.  You simply teach your mind to react in a specific way to a specific stimulus.

For Hypnobabies, those stimuli (cues) include the finger drop, where you bring your finger down like switching off a light switch, and words such as “release” and “peace.”  Every hypnosis track starts the same way and has the same music, so I have also learned to associate the voice of the woman reading and the music with the feelings of deep relaxation.

At first, entering the hypnosis feels a little challenging.  The mind wanders and it’s hard to really relax.  Hypnobabies plans for this, and because I listen to the tracks over and over and because the association cues are consistent from track to track, it becomes easier every time I try.

In addition to the new associations that Hypnobabies is teaching me, they’re also working to disassociate old feelings about childbirth.  As a part of this, Hypnobabies uses its own vocabulary to help you disassociate pain from childbirth.  Here are a few examples that you will see me start using in future posts about birth (old word=hypnobabies word):

  • Labor=birthing time: Doesn’t the word labor just sound difficult and unpleasant?  Birthing time is just so much more pleasant to say.
  • Contractions=pressure waves: Everyone knows contractions hurt, right?  We’ve all seen the movies.  Pressure waves though?  That doesn’t sound so bad.  And if you’ve been in the ocean, you know you can ride waves, let them carry you, flow with them.  It’s exhilarating.  When you fight ocean waves things get difficult and out of control, but when you dive into them, go deep, and let them carry you, they will move you and take you places.
  • Transition=transformation: Transition.  That’s that part in the movies where the woman starts screaming at her husband, right?  Pretty scary.  Transformation feels better to say.  It’s less frightening to think about.

Hypnobabies also does not use the word “pain” in any discussions on childbirth. 

By dissociating birth from fear inducing words, Hypnobabies teaches you to better handle the intensity of the moment and embrace it with joy instead of shrinking back with fear.  In fact, the very first class talks about the cycle of fear and how that can actually slow down and prevent your body from doing the work it needs to do.  Clenching muscles and panic do not make it easier to birth a baby!

Lest you thing Hypnobabies is just a bunch of CD tracks, let me assure you.  It’s not.  The home study course takes you through a complete childbirth education.  They talk about interventions and risks vs. benefits, stages of birthing, etc.  We took Bradley classes when I was pregnant with Gabi, so most of this is review.  However, if you are a first time mom, you will still get the information you need to help you navigate the birth process from a practical and intellectual standpoint.

So far, I’m loving Hypnobabies (if you couldn’t tell!).  I fall asleep every single time I listen to a track, which is apparently not a problem at all, and when I wake up in the mornings, I feel so much better.  I feel better rested, more confident, and just generally happier.  When I wake up at night, I use my finger drop technique to help me go back to sleep quickly.  When I had blood drawn at the midwifery appointment, I was able to use the finger drop technique to relax and get through it in a calm and peaceful way.

I’m excited to see how it works out during my birthing time.

Here’s another cool thing:  Hypnobabies sells individual hypnosis tracks for a variety of different purposes.  I’ve already ordered Needles are Ok! to help me deal with my needle-related PTSD, but there are lots of others that are intriguing: Baby Come Out, Breastfeeding Success, Peaceful Sleep Now for All, etc. 

Hint: If you “Like” Hypnobabies on Facebook, you can buy the CDs and MP3s there at a reduced cost!  That’s what I did!

There is one that I will never buy, however: Eliminate Nausea Now.

I do not think this CD would be at all appropriate for someone suffering from HG.  Aside from the very definite fact that there is absolutely nothing about HG that is psychological or in the mind, think back to what I said about associations.  The temptation might be there for a desperate HGer to give this a shot.  To me this seems like a very, very bad idea.

Trust me when I say that associations are powerful.  Heck, I was into Firefly when the HG started to hit.  Simply watching that as the nausea started to build has been enough for me to associate this show and everything about it with nausea.  The theme song, the title sequence, and the voices of the characters have become triggers for me.  Heck, it was all I could do to link to that Wikipedia article and write this paragraph.

You do not want this kind of association built for your childbirth method!

The last thing you need to have is an association with fear and vomiting when you hear the Hypnobabies music and the woman’s voice starting to read the scripts.  I think that the possibility in an HGer directly relating the hypnosis techniques for intractable nausea is a strong one.  This is why I choose to stay away from this track. 

This track is probably great for women with morning sickness, but I doubt it would help an HGer and the potential for harm is definitely there.  It’s simply not worth the risk in my mind.

That said, the entire Hypnobabies experience has really left me feeling empowered.  I’m looking forward to a beautiful birth.  I’m excited about joyfully welcoming this new baby into the world!


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The Hematologist Visit

Yesterday was my appointment with the hematologist.

It started of rather badly.

When they called me back, was expecting to be weighed and have my blood pressure checked.  I was not expecting to do this in the room where they were doing blood draws.

I walked in, saw the chair with the little drawers with all the needles and blood-draw-related supplies and jumped back.  I’m not sure why it caught me by surprise.  I mean, it’s a hematology office after all, right?  Blood is what they do.  But it did.  I guess I just didn’t expect it to be right there. 

I weighed.  Managed to sit down.  And then I started crying.  I told the nurse that I have issues with needles, and she was super nice about it.  She gave me some tissues and promised it would be quick and that she’s really good and it wouldn’t hurt.  She didn’t lie.  She was excellent.  It was just a tiny finger prick.  No big deal.

Yet, still I had to sit there shaking and crying and trying to pull myself back together.  It was so embarrassing.  All that for a little finger prick.  Honestly, it wasn’t the finger prick that bothered me.  It was the chair and seeing the supplies.

Afterwards, I went to the restroom and washed my face and tried to pull myself together.

The doctor came in right away.  They had a lab there in the office, so my results came back immediately.

She had great news:  My blood looks just like it should look for any pregnant woman at 28 weeks.  She didn’t see anything abnormal.  The iron was a little low, but not low enough to class me as anemic.  It was 11.9, up from 10.6 last Wednesday.  She said my platelets were well within normal range.

She did agree that my white blood cells were a little high, but they looked normal.  I guess there are different kinds of white blood cells and they mix of mine was what she would expect to see.  She said there is some indication that there might be an infection within my body, but there are other things that can cause high white blood cells, including stress.  While this seems a pretty likely factor in my case, my midwife has already agreed to test me for H. pylori next time I come in, and the hematologist suggested checking my urine for an infection in my bladder.

She said that I should definitely keep taking the Floradix iron supplement, and that it would be something to continue throughout pregnancy and until I’m done breastfeeding, but she said she wouldn’t worry.

She also looked at my blood under a microscope and that it looked good there, too.  She even went through my med list to see if there was anything I was on or that I had been on that could have caused issues with my blood.  Nope.

She was pleased that my midwife had taken the initiative to go ahead and refer me.  She said that it’s certainly better to play it safe and have a look at things rather than closing your eyes and hoping it will all work out.  One more point in my midwives’ favor.  I like them more and more every day.

I was really happy that my iron levels had already gone up in the last few days.  This really gives me hope and makes me feel less victimized by my own body.

Update: My midwife called me back last night and wants me to go ahead and come in early to find out what’s going on with the white blood cell count.  They had gone up since the initial blood draw on 7/6 and she wants to track it down.  I had an appointment originally scheduled for 7/21, but she wants to see me tomorrow.  She’ll test for H. pylori, a vaginal infection, and a UTI.  If there’s something that she can do to make me more comfortable, she wants to do it quickly.  I love her!


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Green Sunday – Natural Ways to get Iron

This Green Sunday, I’ll be jumping off my previous posts of the week and talking about iron.  Since I recently found out that I’m pretty anemic, it seems like a good topic choice.

“Molly,” you might ask, “Why don’t you just get an iron pill?”

A very good and very important question.  I don’t get along well with iron supplements.  First and foremost, they aggravate the nausea.  It’s a huge part of the reason I do not take a prenatal vitamin.  The high iron just makes me ill.  They also can be very constipating, and believe me, I get enough of that from the Zofran.  Finally, they can be difficult for your body to absorb.

Nutritional supplements can be good, but often they pass right through your body.  The trick is to get your vitamins and minerals from food.  For the vitamins that I do take, I try my best to find companies that source theirs from foods.  New Chapter vitamins (my daily vitamin) are sourced from food.  So is Floradix, my new iron supplement.

Sourcing nutrients from food also means they’re easier on the stomach.  So far, I’ve not thrown up a New Chapter vitamin (everyone knock on wood!), and the Floradix seems to sit pretty well, too.

I would like to find some other ways to safely and gently incorporate iron into my diet through simple and easy changes to my eating.  Now, anyone who has had HG knows that this can be difficult.  Finding snacks that don’t make me sick can sometimes be a challenge, so I did what anyone would do!

I called my mom!

And when you call in my mom, she springs into action in a big way!  She pulled out her trusty copy of Prescription for Nutritional Healing and went straight to work looking up foods for me to try.  Some of the ones she listed included (but is not limited to):

  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Dark leafy greens (NOT spinach)
  • Purple grapes
  • Plums and prunes
  • Carrots
  • Dried Apricots
  • Liver (yeah right!)
  • Meat
It also listed foods to avoid (also not limited to):
  • Milk
  • Cheese
  • Other dairy products
  • Sugars
  • Chocolate (damn!)
  • Spinach

Wait a second.  Avoid spinach?  Apparently so!  According to the book (and wikipedia backs this up), spinach contains a compound called oxalate that can block the absorption of iron.  Good to know!

I also asked the good folks over at the Natural Parents Network Facebook page for some gentle and natural ideas to help with adding iron into my diet.

Those ladies came through in a big way.  I got a big thumbs up on the Floradix, but they had some other suggestions as well.  I’m not sure how ready I am to try powdered colustrum or terramin clay (or where I can even find those things!), but they also suggested some simple things like:

  • Cast iron skillets (check!)
  • blackstrap molasses
  • Stinging nettle infusions (will have to check and see if that’s safe for pregnancy)
  • Avoid corn and wheat (not sure how well I can do that since I’m on a bread-heavy diet right now)
  • Fresh parsley
  • Turnip greens and carrot tops
  • Foods high in vitamin C to help the iron be absorbed into my body

The most appealing suggestion, though, was to try out some green smoothies to see if they are palatable to me.

Now I have to admit:  I was not exactly sure what a green smoothie is.

If you’re clueless like me, here’s the gist of it:  Green smoothies are a fruit-based smoothie into which is blended a leafy green of some sort.  This can be spinach, kale, chard, lettuce, dandelion greens, or anything else leafy and green.  They look green, but the flavor is that of the fruit

I swung by Trader Joe’s today, and here’s what I got for my green smoothie experiments:

  • Kale
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Strawberries
  • Fresh medley of cut pineapple, papaya, and mango
  • Orange juice
  • Coconut milk
  • Coconut water
  • Lemons
  • Limes
  • Unsulfered Prunes (can be soaked to reconstitute for blending)
I’ve also got in my pantry:
  • Organic blackstrap molasses
  • Flax meal (high in omega 3s)
  • Agave nectar (if I need to sweeten it)
Let the experimenting begin!
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