Friday, April 4, 2014

An interesting journey begins

    I am now 15 weeks pregnant as of today. With my first two children, I delivered with doctors at a hospital in a southern county. While I loved the nurses and the fact that they were a designated baby friendly hospital, I did not enjoy laying on my back for the entire delivery. So this time around, after a long discussion with my husband, I sought out a midwife group in our new community. While I want a natural birth with a midwife, I do not want it at home. There is always a chance of complications so I was relieved when I found out that they deliver at a local hospital. So I made an appointment with them to discuss my pregnancy care.
    Instantly I fell in love with them. They were thorough when discussing my medical history. I have fibromyalgia, which can cause complications during pregnancy. My old ob/gyn never once considered my fibromyalgia during my pregnancy. My midwives were instantly concerned about it and even mentioned sending me to a specialist if needed. They took into count my history of depression and postpartum depression, scheduling me an appointment with a therapist. During both of my previous pregnancies, I began to have high blood pressure towards the end of them. My protein count was never high enough to classify it as preeclampsia, but for me my blood pressure was beyond too high. I normally have a very low blood pressure and they did not take that into account. When I told my midwives this, they ordered a 24 hour urine test. They did this in order to get a base count of my proteins so that if my protein levels begin to increase later they can decide if something needs to be done. My husband was thrilled with them and this was all on the first appointment. Due to my medical history they classified me as high risk to make sure I got the attention I needed.
   While discussing my history, we also came to discuss how I wanted my labor to go this time around. I knew I did not want to be laboring on my back again. I had been researching water birth and the hospital where I will be delivering has a water birth suite. When I mentioned this to my midwife, she thought this would be a great way to ease my pain during labor. Since I have fibromyalgia, the warm water would help ease my muscles. Within just the first visit my experience was completely different than it had been with my old ob/gyn. My husband left the appointment filled with relief. He had been so worried after what my last pregnancy had been like. He felt like he no longer had to worry about me since I was in good hands. They were even excited that I am still nursing my almost two year old!
   Now I am in my second trimester, my fibromyalgia has flared up greatly. Luckily I have learned to manage it with good nutrition, exercise(on my good days), tylenol, warm baths, and massages from my husband. All of those were actually recommended by my doctor. She didn't want to prescribe any pain killers because I was trying to not medicate heavily during my pregnancy. However after I deliver she wants to see me again to discuss medication and possible trigger point injections. I am considered overweight, and my midwives are happy to see that I am not gaining a lot of weight yet. While I was working, my symptoms were flaring up badly. So my husband and I had a long discussion. We had been smart at tax time by paying our rent up for six months. This made us able to live on just his income until he found a better job. We were thinking it would take a few months for this to happen. Instead within a week of me quitting work, he had found a new job. So now I can take it easy when I need to and ease my pain. Most days Milk Monster is cooperative about it. This pregnancy is definitely going to be an interesting journey, for all of us.

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