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pregnancy

Our Pregnancy Journey: Why we’ve decided on a Bradley Method Birth Plan

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I’m just going to say it: We are opting to have a natural delivery of Baby L. And this is a completely personal decision. But I’ve been asked about this a lot, so I decided to talk about it here.**

I should warn you that I’ve heard it all. I’ve heard the laughs and cackles of seasoned mothers saying “That’s what you say now,” to “You won’t make it,” to “Insert other discouraging words here;” But this decision didn’t come easy.

Well, scratch that. I always knew I wanted a natural delivery of sorts. It all started with some eye-opening information I’d received in regards to obstetricians being surgeons. Surgeons feeling most comfortable with, well, surgery. And my strong desire not to have a surgical birth. And a strong belief that our bodies were made to handle labor and delivery.

And that’s where it started. The research, that is.

I wanted to know more about my options in regards to my health and the delivery of my baby. So I asked around. I mentioned to a few people that we were really interested in a natural delivery method. One of those people was a yoga teacher from my local studio. She mentioned Bradley Method classes and I quickly went home to research a local Bradley Method teacher in our area.

Without really knowing much about the Bradley Method {other than what’s divulged on the website}, I signed us up for classes.

The Bradley Method is really an education on your pregnancy, your health, your babies health, and what your body will go through during each phase of labor. It’s not a Lamaze class. Bradley teachers focus on preparing the pregnant woman and her partner for different coping mechanisms for the entire process of laboring and delivering.

Oh – and did I mention that there are a total of 12 weeks of classes at two-hours a class? Yeah. Intense.

But so totally worth it.

I learned so much about my body and the baby and even the nitty gritty about delivery. There was no glitzing and glamming up delivery — this is going to be tough work!

But I also learned about the adverse effects of using high doses of medicine on a baby; in essence that’s what we’re doing when using pain medications and other meds during labor and delivery.

Sidenote: My one true “ah-ha!” moment of the class came when the teacher {who is also a doula} said that your whole pregnancy your doctor will tell you that you can’t take this drug or that medicine, etc. But as soon as you go into labor, the doctors no longer consider you to be “pregnant” and are willing to give you strong and high doses of medicines they wouldn’t have just hours earlier. Interesting, huh? 🙂

So this was the basis for our decision of choosing a natural delivery via the Bradley Method. We’re both on board and know that nothing lasts forever; the pain will eventually subside and I’ll be left with a beautiful little baby to make me forget it all.

** All of these feelings and opinions are completely based on my research and my completely subjective feelings on this particular area. There is plenty of evidence to support my decisions {see bradleybirth.com for more information}, but this post wasn’t to preach and educate; it’s really just to share my feelings and our plans. 🙂

oh baby! 35 weeks!

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How far along? 35 weeks + 4 days.

How big is the baby? WhatToExpect.com says that baby is about 20 inches long and about 5.5 pounds!

Total weight gain? As of last weeks appointment, 33 pounds. I have another appointment early next week; but honestly, I haven’t been able to eat much of anything, so I’m not expecting much {I say that now – LOL}.

Stretch marks? Still just the few on my right side. Looks like I got one on my left side now. I can deal with one. 🙂

Sleep: Not happening a lot lately. Things have gotten progressively worse in the sleep department over the last week; mostly because the pain in my hips/legs — even when sleeping with a giant body pillow. I’m surviving though.

Movements: Still feeling a lot of them – he’s an active little guy!

Food cravings: Nada. I can’t eat again. I’m so over food and I can barely keep it down these days. Little guy is pushing on my stomach and causing me to nearly throw up everything I eat and drink.

Food aversions: Still just grilled chicken.

What I miss: Feeling pretty. Seriously. It’s hard to feel good about yourself when you waddle and are carrying around extra pounds. I wish I could paint my own toenails and shave my legs. Ugh.

What I’m looking forward to: This weekend I’m finalizing things in the nursery and calling the company who provides our maternity care coverage. Things are starting to seriously progress so I’m looking forward to things feeling even more ‘real.’ Also, we start our weekly appointments next week! I go to the chiropractor for the first time to have my hips realigned and get to see my OB the following day!

Other notes: I mentioned I’ve been exhausted. I really feel that exhausted doesn’t fully offer justice to how I’m feeling. I cannot for the life of me focus. This makes work a ton of fun. I’m definitely struggling to stay awake; but I’m struggling to stay asleep, too. This renders me highly emotional. Which makes recent comments from people regarding my weight just loads of fun.

I posted the above pictures on my personal Facebook page yesterday. I do this every week. A while back I made sure that I felt comfortable with everyone that I’m FB friends with — generally because I’m about to bring another person into this world. It was time to reevaluate if I wanted all of these ‘friends’ to see my personal life. I didn’t. I cut some out. The ones I kept as FB friends (which is still a lot), I was totally OK with knowing me.

Well I posted pictures last night and tagged Chad in the pictures (ya know, being the baby daddy and all 😉 ) because he & I both have family far away — Kentucky, Denver, etc. Then came the comments. “Are you sure you’re not having twins??” and “I was thinking the same thing!! LOL” and “I think you’re going to have a HUGE baby!”

Not. Cool.

Best thing? Not my FB friends. Grr. Also? You never tell a pregnant woman that she looks like she’s carrying quintuplets. Or twins, for that matter. Especially when she isn’t and is struggling to feel like her ‘self,’ as many pregnant women do.

Between the extreme fatigue, third trimester hormones and word vomit from FB non-friends, I lost it. I just cried and cried and cried.

I know that when I wear dresses {or even loose fitted clothing}, it makes me look more pregnant… also known as, bigger. But I actually put myself together — I actually was trying to look my best. And people try and tear you down. It’s awful.

So I took this picture this morning:

These were taken less than 12 hours apart. I know I look smaller in the picture from this morning {thanks tight-fitted shirt}. Regardless, is it wrong to expect people to let you be when you’re trying to hang on to every ounce of attractiveness you may feel about yourself when you’re pregnant? Sigh. 🙁

So I’m going into this weekend with a little bit of a sad and heavy heart. But I’ll survive.

 

Early Pregnancy + Workouts

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I’ve mentioned that this pregnancy kinda came out of the blue for us; But when we found out about our little surprise, I was sick. Like, not “oh I’m having morning sickness” sick.

Like, falling to the ground from crippling cramps and an inability to stand up/drive/walk, sick. The pain was so severe that my doctors did several ultrasounds to make sure it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy. It turns out I was suffering from severe pain from the implantation of the embryo into the uterine wall.

I had never heard of any friends having this kind of pain during early pregnancy, and even though the doctors initial concerns disappeared after confirming with ultrasounds that this was not an ectopic pregnancy, it didn’t dull my concerns. At least not entirely.

In addition to the pain, the fatigue and exhaustion was beyond anything I had ever imagined {even having had mono 3 times throughout my young adulthood}. So between the pain, concern, and exhaustion, I was terrified to move, let alone continue my normal workout routine.

Soon the pain subsided. The fatigue, however, did not. And I was still adjusting mentally and emotionally as well. I know that for Chad he had some time to let it sink in. But for me, I felt like, “Oh my gosh. My life changes now. Not in 9 months. NOW.” I’m suddenly responsible for a whole other persons well-being. Talk about pressure! It was all about taking care of me and this little baby.

Which meant more sleep, no more wine, and serious paranoia about pretty much everything else.

Like working out too much. Even though my doctor had confirmed that if you had a workout routine prior to pregnancy, you could continue throughout your pregnancy — just don’t take on any new exercises + routines.

But I was so afraid. And I was so tired anyways.

Even still, I would drag my butt out of bed once a week or so and do some sort of exercise.

Running —

I tried running. That didn’t last. Baby L was sitting low and on my bladder way too early on. I could hardly make it three blocks without feeling like the next few feet of running would make me pee myself. Time and time again I’d try… just to see if I could do it.

Nope. Not a good idea.

Yoga —

I’m not a yoga rookie. I’ve been practicing hot power yoga for over 4 years. I figured, I’ve got this. I’ve seen plenty of pregnant women kick some asana!

I went to my Power Yoga classes. And it wasn’t the yoga that killed me. The yoga I could handle.

It was the heat.

Since the power yoga classes I take are in a hot room; hot room + nausea = not a good combination. But I still went. {sidenote: The funny thing? My yoga teachers were the first of everyone to guess that I was pregnant! The reason for the guess is because instead of “binding up” a pose — see below — I would do what we call “open arm twists;” which is meant to protect the midsection from injury during pregnancy}.

I eventually stopped torturing myself b y going to the hot power classes. Although, it was really hard to “let go” of my ego in this situation and just take it for what it is: part of this pregnancy journey!

I did end up taking vinyasa classes, which are done in a cooler room {not air conditioned; but probably just around 80 degrees instead of the 95 +}. But I was still really nervous about what my body could and could not handle.

Biking —

“I want to go for a bike ride!” was something that I proclaimed to Chad one day after work.

I made him get out the bikes for the first time all year and take time to blow up all of the tires. It took “so long” to blow up the tires, that I had to pee not once, but twice during the process. In actuality it took about 15 minutes.

I peed twice in 15 minutes. First sign that this was a bad idea.

We started our bike ride. And I made it a half mile from the house before I declared my pregnant bike-riding days a thing of the past.

Biking down a bumpy road while pregnant = no bueno!

Swimming —

I am not a fan of being in a bathing suit. And I was not about to find myself in a regular bikini. But Chad was dying to get out of the house and move.

Luckily I had picked up a pretty little polka-dotted preggers tankini at Kohls {yes, I said tankini — something that I plan not to wear post-baby}.

I suited up and we headed to the pool.

I was in heaven! We swam laps for about a half hour and I felt great! I was trying not to push my luck and I was still really tired, so 30-minutes was about my limit at that point.

I had finally found my early-pregnancy workout of choice! But I still didn’t make it to the pool as often as I would have liked. First trimester woes are nothing to kid about, and I give huge props to all the second time around moms who go through it with a little one in tow! My body and preferences have changed even more since early pregnancy and I’ll share the details of my experiences in future posts!

My only advice to newly expecting mama’s is to listen to your doctor and listen to your body. That’s it. You know your body more than anyone. I knew that I could do hot yoga; something just didn’t feel right to me while doing it. So I backed off. And I found a joy in an exercise that I had long given up on!