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19 Week Ultrasound

We went in today for our 19 week ultrasound. We maintained our alliance to "Team Green" and did not find out the gender. Our little baby looked great and was measuring only a day ahead of his/her due date. He/she is in the 74th percentile for size (which is a nice change from the 98th percentile babies that I have delivered in the past).


Everything was looking good until they checked the position of the placenta. Normally, it is positioned high up in the uterus above the baby, like the picture on the left. The picture on the right shows it completely blocking the baby's exit. This is called placenta previa:



Mine is in between these two situations, like this:



In 90% of second trimester cases, it corrects itself and moves out of the way. We have a follow-up ultrasound scheduled in eight weeks to take a look again. If we are in the unlucky 10% of cases, it was the opinion of the doctor I met with this morning that the baby should be delivered via c-section. This, of course, does not sit well with me. I am meeting with my regular doctor this afternoon for my monthly check-up and will get his opinion on the situation then.

Why all of the c-sections?

I am probably not the best person to speak on this topic seeing that my previous births were both medically-assisted; however, we are planning a natural childbirth with our baby due in November and I have learned so much in the last few months. I am home today because Gabriel got sick last night and I have spent a portion of his naptime watching "A Baby Story" and folding laundry. I have watched this show hundreds of times before, but today I saw it in a new light. It was sad. I saw three different births and all three were c-sections. One was because of a previous surgery and the other was because of low fluid levels. I understand that it is the mother's choice of whether or not to have a c-section but it seems as though they are doing it out of convenience and attaching a medical reason to make themselves feel better. At one point one of the women joked that the c-section would be the fastest weight loss program ever... Is this what childbirth has become? For thousands of years women have given birth to babies without the need of medical intervention. Now over 30% of babies are born via c-section. I'm sure that most of these women have some medical "reason" for why they had a c-section, but really they seem more like medical excuses. C-sections mean longer hospital stays for moms and babies (since baby is told when it will be born and may not be finished developing entirely). This in turn means bigger pay days for hospitals and doctors. It seems to me that most c-sections could be avoided entirely if the mother took better care of herself with her diet and exercise throughout pregnancy and took the responsibility to educate herself on what truly constitutes the need for a c-section.

Having a c-section is one of my biggest worries. Unfortunately all of the hospitals in this area refuse to allow a vaginal breech delivery. Both Cadence and Gabriel were born head first and I hope this baby decides to do that too.

I'll step off of my soap box now. I just had to get that out.

Yard Sale WIN

Chris and I got up early this morning and went yard sale shopping. We stopped at a sale in Simpsonville that had advertised lots of baby items. The lady told us that she didn't have anything marked and to just make her an offer. So I did and paid $70 for:

Medela Pump in Style breast pump
Boppy Naked Pillow with 2 covers
9 Dr. Brown's 8oz bottles with nipples 1-4 flow level for each
2 Playtex bottles with drop-ins with nipples 1-2 flow level for each
2 sleepers
4 receiving blankets
1 crib sheet saver
1 crib sheet
5 sippy cups (2 Avent, 1 Dr. Brown's & 2 others)
10 spoons
bowl
baby food grinder
8 Soothie pacifiers
3 Avent pacifiers
3 other pacifiers

Baby Tummy

Chris has been taking a picture of me every Friday since I was eight weeks pregnant and we plan to continue this until 8 weeks after delivery. Here is the first installment of the Baby C slide show. :)

15 weeks 4 days

Chris and I had an appointment with the baby doctor yesterday. We are 15 weeks 4 days along in this pregnancy and the baby had a heart rate of 145. The last time we were told the heart rate it was 154 but that was at 7 weeks, and I understand that they gradually go down over time. The doctor told us that he wants to schedule another ultrasound at around 18 weeks. I was pleasantly surprised! With Cadence and Gabriel, I didn't have that ultrasound until almost 21 weeks. This would be the ultrasound where we find out if it is a boy or a girl, but we aren't planning on doing that this time. It will definitely be a true test of my will power to not scream "Yes!" when the ultrasound tech says, "Do you want to know the sex of the baby?"

After the doctor we made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up some paint samples for the nursery. Originally we had planned on doing a brown, yellow & green theme, but I think now we are going to go with tan/beige, chocolate and pink or blue. Since we are not finding out the gender of this baby ahead of time, we will have to wait until November to buy blue or pink stuff, like this:




In the meantime, we'll load up on beige sheets and use Gabe's old lamp shade. I don't think that the baby will mind. :)