Bradley Birth: A few labor tips

Warning: This post contains some "gross" topics or facts concerning labor. If you dont want to hear about specific bodily details, then dont read! Now dont say I didnt warn you...

One article we got during my Bradley class was focused on teaching you to notice outward signs of how far dilated you are without doing a vaginal exam. Allowing too many vaginal exams can really discourage a laboring mom (what I am not past 4 yet??!!) and invite bacteria in each time. 

So here are some tips it gives on how to assess the progress you are making during labor:

1. Sound: During early labor, you can still talk normally and chat in between contractions. Once active labor starts, you probably wont talk during contractions and seem in your own world in between as well. Once you get to transition, you will completely be in your own world and oblivious to those around you. This means you are about to start pushing. 

2. Smell: There is a smell that comes around the end of dilation. It is a mix between mown hay, semen, and dampness. 

3. Irrationality: This is a sign of hitting transition. You will begin saying things that make no sense or are the exact opposite of what you were saying. Its a good sign that you will be pushing soon. 

4. Feel: When your uterus starts thinning and dilating, the muscles of the uterus bunch up at the top of it. During a contraction, at the beginning of labor, check how many fingers you can fit between the fundus (top of the bump) and the bra line- you will prob be able to fit 5 fingers. When you can fit 3 fingers head to the hospital, you are prob 5 cm dilated. And at 1 finger you are fully dilated. 

5. Look: There is a shadow that extends from the anus up towards the back along the crease of the buttocks, which is called the 'bottom line'. It begins at 1 cm and lengthens to 10cm, and its length coordinates with cervical dilation. 

6. Gooey Stuff: The bloody show. (This is different than the mucus plug.) Usually this happens around 2-3 cm dilated and then a 2nd time around 8 cm dilated. It is up to a couple tablespoons in quantity, and can be clear but is usually streaked with pink, brown, or bright blood. The 2nd show means labor is very near. 

7. Opening of the Back: This is the spot above the tailbone and it will bulge out just before pushing. 

So there are some ways you can try to assess how your labor is going. Do not get caught up on numbers but instead look for other signs that your body is doing what it needs to do to get that baby safely out! 

39 week OB Appointment

Back to the doctor again today! We are still healthy and looking good. Griffin's heartbeat was 156 today! But I had been running around before so I had him all excited.

I am 3 cm dilated and 90% effaced now. He is pretty sure baby is in the posterior position (which is the one you want, meaning the baby is facing my back). So everything looks good and ready except that baby has not dropped. His head is low, but not fully engaged. So he is still floating some. Dr. Gass thinks it will still be a little while, unless my water randomly breaks (which you can never really predict).

So that's where we are folks. Although you just never know, we are thinking he will prob go after his due date. And that is fine with us! Griffin knows when he is ready to make his debut, so we are just gonna let him do his thing.

Next week we see Dr. Stice (Dr.Gass will be on vacation) and will do our first non-stress test. This just means they will strap me up to two monitors and observe for 20 minutes. It will monitor any contractions and baby's heartbeat. Just to make sure everything still looks good. Dr. Gass was sweet today and kept saying he hoped he didn't miss the delivery! Me too, so I am hoping he either comes this weekend or waits till the 11th. But I know we have no control over it.

So now we just wait and enjoy this time. And surprisingly I really am!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

39 Weeks and Counting...

• How far along: 39 Weeks
• Total Weight Gained: 34 lbs (started 107, currently 141) 
• Sleep: Doing ok. I am really tired and can fall sleep in a moments notice! But I still wake up numerous times a night...  
• Best Moment of the Week:  Probably Monday night. It was just great quality time with my Pate boys. We put up the clothes line and hung our diapers for the first time, Whitney brought us a yummy dinner, and we went to Wal-mart to pick out paint for Dustin's new classroom. It was laid back and fun.  
• Movement: Yes yes, little Griffin is still moving often. He moves all day, but typically when I lay down he kinda goes nuts! Ha!     
• Food Cravings: Not much this week. I had a weird and unhealthy eating week. Ick.    
• Food Aversions: N/A
• Symptoms: Huffing and puffing, cannot bend over, waddling majorly, sore tailbone, tired tired tired, pee all the time... 
• What I miss: Being able to bend over! Ha!
• What I'm looking forward to: D-Day (as in delivery day!)! There are no more events and we are all setup, so now it is just a waiting game till Griffin decides it is time to make his debut! 
• Other news: 
• We got the clothesline put up and the diapers are now prepped and ready to go!
• We had a Starbucks Shower at Yuki (a sushi place in town) and it was so fun! Thanks guys!
• It is VBS time at church. We have VBS Monday-Thursday of this week, so we have been gearing up and decorating for that. This year I am not teaching or leading anything and it has been kinda strange. But I am looking forward to it!
• Last week I had a movie night with Gary and Becky and it was wonderful! We watched Harry Potter: The Deathly Hollows Part 1, and man does that thing end abruptly! Glad I didn't see it last year and have to wait a whole year to see the rest! It was a really good time chilling and catching up with them. Now that we have everything ready I feel like I can just use this waiting time to spend quality time with friends and family, and thats a blessing!
• I am just now starting to review my labor notes from class (just in time right?) and I am hoping to do some posts on that this week. 
• I have some of the baby book planned and printed so now I just need to put it together. Maybe that will get done this week?? But with VBS I am not so sure.
• I am still not sick of being pregnant. Things are definitely more difficult to do (I am slower) but not uncomfortable. It is difficult getting used to everyone looking t you like you are miserable and having to constantly answer if you are so over being pregnant. I love it. It is the neatest experience ever. I am still a week out from my due date, but people are treating me like we are 2 weeks overdue. I am trying to just smile and move on, but it is gettin on my nerves! Ha! I know they mean well though! 
• Everyone that sees me in person thinks my belly is really big. One friend told me it looks way bigger than in the photos. It feels the same to me though!
• Gender & Name: It's a Boy! Griffin Alan Pate

Milestones:
According to Babycenter.com : Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

Wow, 39 Weeks! This time has just really flown by! I cant believe he will be here so soon!

38/39 week OB Appointment

All along my doctor has counted my appointments on the week I am about to enter into, bc they are always on Thursday or Friday and I switch weeks on Saturday. I have been counting them as the actual week I am on. Confusing.

So yesterday I went to the doctor again. My blood pressure was 118/62 (which is goo but the top number is higher than I normally am). Griffin's heartbeat was 150. So maybe we were both just a little more excited than usual? Dr.Gass did a cervical check again and I am almost 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. So progress is being made in there.

Baby is at a -2 station, which is how they measure how far down the pelvic bone they are. It is measured going from a -3 to a +3 with -3 being at the top of the pelvic bone and +3 being the bottom of it.

Exams are uncomfortable. I just want some of you to be aware. There is so much pressure when they are pushing into to you and feeling baby's head. During your yearly exam they always say you may feel some pressure, and I never do. So I thought this would be the same way. Nope! Just a warning. One more reason not to do this every single week! Ha!

I go back on Wednesday for my next appointment. Goodness.

We talked to Dr.Gass some about labor. He still feels confident that my body is going to be able to do this just fine and naturally! Yay! We randomly started talking about due dates and going late. I was very late (4 weeks) which sounds nuts today! But Dr.Gass said when they had their daughter (2 weeks and a few days late) their doctor said if you haven't had the baby in 2 more weeks we will induce you. Which would have been 44 weeks. That used to be common. But now everyone is begging to be induced before their due date. When we started saying 37 was full term, people started believing that almost as a due date. I mean people keep saying things to me like "is he ever going to come out?" "any day now" and "do you have an induction scheduled soon?". It's as if they think Griffin is super late- and I am still a week from my due date! I know at this point some people are so uncomfortable and struggling, I get that. But as a society we are just programming ourselves into wanting shorter and shorter pregnancies. That could get dangerous!

Off the soapbox.

So things were good at the checkup. My body is gearing up to deliver my boy and someday in the not distant future I will have a son! Until then it is time to keep waddling along!


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

This takes the cake...

Awhile back I posted some creepy baby shower cakes... but today I came across one that totally takes the "cake" as WORST BABY SHOWER CAKE EVER!

I mean really?? OMG!