36 Weeks: Less Than One Month to Go!

I am 36 weeks today, so only 1 week until Ziggy is considered full term! Despite not having an appointment with my MFM this week, there's a lot to report. First off, AC flew here last Thursday and we were able to attend a free Birth Center Orientation & Expectant Parent's Night at the hospital where I'll deliver, which consisted of a useful presentation on car seat safety and inspection (I have my car seat fitting appointment set for Tuesday, October 27th, only 10 days before my due date), a video tour of the birth center (AC was disappointed that we didn't actually get to tour labor and delivery), a question and answer session with one of the labor nurses, and a presentation and Q & A with an OB anesthesiologist (turned out to be the same guy I met with a few weeks ago). A pediatrician was also scheduled to speak, but ended up not making it, which was just as well, since the session wound up lasting longer than expected.

I wont go too in depth into exactly what happened, but suffice it to say that the crowd here in Palo Alto is quite different from the one we encountered in Little Rock at our prenatal classes. That is to say, more educated and informed, but also more demanding and controlling. I almost laughed out loud several times at the degree of specificity that some of these expectant parents were demanding. One woman kept asking the anesthesiologist for extremely specific and detailed information about exactly how the various pain relieving methods work on the anatomical level. At one point AC turned and whispered to me that maybe she should go to medical school and become an anesthesiologist herself. I'm all for being informed and educated and I personally find medical knowledge fascinating (I did ask many questions of the same anesthesiologist during our private meeting), but there's no need to completely monopolize a public discussion.

There was also a lot of concern expressed over the possibility of residents and fellows, rather than an attending, performing procedures like epidurals or the delivery of the baby. Well, Stanford is a teaching hospital, and if you don't like that aspect, why not go somewhere else? Personally I have no problem with residents performing procedures as long as they're supervised (watch me bite my tongue later when something goes wrong during my labor and delivery that was caused by a resident's mistake!). So far I've been very impressed with the 4th year medical students who have seen me during my OB appointments.

Anyway, as AC put it, these people were just a lot more entitled than the ones in Arkansas, who I think were a little too passive, uninvolved, and uninformed. I also have to say that the quality of the presentations here was also superior to what we received in Little Rock. No wonder that the cost of one class here is more than the entire series of prenatal classes in Arkansas! Good thing this one was free!

On Friday I attended my second prenatal yoga class (I forget to mention that I went last week). The regular teacher was out last week attending a birth since she also serves as an occasional doula, but unfortunately the woman she was tending to ended up having a cesarean after 30 hours of labor (after 20 hours, she finally agreed to an epidural). Another woman in the class said that she had to have a c-section after two days of unmedicated labor with her first, so with this baby she was planning on switching hospitals (she delivered her first at Stanford and made it sound as if the hospital was to blame for her c-section). I have also heard from SH and from another doula who is not gung-ho pro natural that most of the women they see who try for unmedicated natural births end up with c-sections (the exact opposite of natural). Of course there are plenty of women who have successful unmedicated births, but it does make you wonder if sometimes the intense quest to avoid medication at all costs actually hinders the birth process when the labor is especially long and hard and pain relief might actually help the woman relax and gain strength so that her labor can progress.

Anyway, moving on! On Tuesday I had my weekly non stress test (it went fine and was completely uneventful save for Ziggy kicking the monitors like crazy!), which was observed by a third year student nurse. He had a case study assignment and asked if I would mind answering some questions for him. I told him about Kartagener's Syndrome, the IVF, my overall health, how the pregnancy has been progressing, etc. He seemed surprised at how much I knew about my own health condition, but honestly I was surprised at how little he seemed to know about medicine in general. I get that he's a student and he's still learning, but I kept having to define medical terms for him and explain myself in simpler terms than I'm used to when dealing with medical personnel. It got me thinking that maybe I should have been a nurse myself, but I know that the horrible hours (12 hour night shifts) and the constant exposure to sick people would not be good for my health.

In other news, this was another week for acquiring more baby stuff. A set of 10 reusable nursing pads from Udder Covers TM arrived in the mail. With a special online promo code, they ended up costing less than one dollar a pair! I also went ahead and finally ordered the Graco Snugride 32 infant car seat online, which to my surprise arrived the very next day. However, I am going to end up returning it since my very generous third cousin (from my Russian side of the family) who lives here in the Bay Area offered me her used car seat.

I called her on Monday and we arranged to meet up Wednesday (yesterday) at a park with her two-year old daughter (also conceived through IVF and delivered naturally at 36 weeks). She generously offered to lend me a ton of her baby stuff and even brought several items with her to give me right then and there. So now I have in my possession a Chicco KeyFit infant car seat (brand new when purchased two years ago and has never been in an accident), an infant bath tub, an infant neck support for use in the car seat or baby carrier, a baby towel, a couple of maternity sweaters and warmer tops, a prenatal yoga DVD and a postpartum Pilates DVD. Apparently there's a lot more stuff she wants to give me when I go over to her house next Wednesday evening. She is planning on trying for a second child with her frozen embryos next year, so I'll be returning everything to her before we leave for Japan, but I am so grateful to her for lending me these items temporarily. It will make things so much easier when we move and also give us a better idea of what we absolutely need to buy ourselves and what we can live without.

Finally I just wanted to mention that yet again I think I might be coming down with something. My left sinus and ear have been especially stuffed up this week and yesterday I started to develop a sore throat, so I'm wondering if I might have a sinus infection brewing. I see my pulmonologist tomorrow, and I'll ask him for a referral to an ENT who's covered by my insurance. The ENT I normally see here is great but he's out of network, and after the whole billing fiasco with the out-of-network orthopedist in New York when I broke my wrist (long, boring, and frustrating story that I don't want to go into here), I'm determined to stay in-network whenever possible.

Lastly I think I'm developing carpel tunnel or something, especially in my left hand. Both my hands, but especially the left one, will go numb if I grasp or hold something tightly. During the night I frequently feel like my hands are numb and tingly. I know this is just due to accumulated fluid from swelling pressing on the nerves, but it's still unpleasant. The other day I had an especially salty dinner and then went for a walk with my mom, and my hands really swelled up--they looked like sausages! I was relieved when the swelling went down after I drank a bunch of water and rested, but I think I need to be more wary of my salt consumption from here on out.

Anyway, that's all for this week! Sorry for the super long post. Maybe I'll try to post more frequently this week so as to avoid such long posts in the future.