Love for the New Baby

I don't know if it's because it's so obviously a maternity top or if it's because the baby was laying horizontally in this pic or what it is, but this shot makes the bump look huge. I really don't think it's that big in person.

Baby no. 2 and I had a big midwife appointment this morning and it went pretty well! I had my second glucose test, so that's out of the way. During my pregnancy with Ellie, they did one hour tests, then did a three hour test if you failed the one hour. This time around, it's two hour tests across the board for everyone. Since I failed one of the three draws when I was pregnant with Ellie, I am a bit nervous that I'll come back with a gestational diabetes diagnosis, but we'll just have to see which way it goes.

Then I went in for the main part of my appointment. Baby girl kept kicking/punching at the doppler every time my midwife tried to get her heartbeat - ha! Then the midwife felt around for her and she thinks she's head-down, but I disagree, since I still feel the most powerful movements way down low in my pelvis, and I'd imagine that to be kicks. Apparently, she's still small enough that it's tough to tell for sure either way, and it doesn't really matter at this point, anyway. I have growth scan ultrasounds at 32 weeks and 35 weeks, so we'll know for sure when I have those.  I asked about our upcoming travel plans, too, and got the OK on that...I was surprised that she hesitated, but she agreed that since our route is along a major highway and in well-populated areas, we'll be fine.

We also chatted for a bit about attempting a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarian). I have my appointment to go in and talk to the OB who performed my C-section on the 28th, but she thinks they'll be fine with letting me attempt a VBAC. I have to say, as we get closer to the actual delivery, I get more and more nervous about trying for a VBAC. My recovery with my C-section was so good, and I've heard so many horror stories about vaginal birth. But, the midwife gave me some good perspective. Basically, she said that if we decide to schedule a C-section, it'll be done between 39-40 weeks. If we don't schedule a C-section, they won't be inducing me to avoid it, so I'll have to have a C-section by default at 40 weeks. But this particular midwife seems pretty convinced I won't make it to 39 weeks. So essentially, the decision kind of becomes, when I'm in labor, do I go to the hospital and try to VBAC, or do I go to the hospital and ask for a repeat C-section? For now, we're just going to wait and see how the pregnancy goes. You never know, we could run into a situation where the baby is breech or there is some other complication that takes the decision out of our hands, anyway.

While I was in the office, I scheduled out my appointments through July and August...and I'll be full term before the last one on my calendar! May flew by and June seems to be going just as quickly, and all of our weekends are fully booked from now through the 4th of July weekend, so I have a feeling August is going to be here pretty quickly. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going, and how soon this baby will be here!

Oh, and major props to the Lord for making the weather SO AMAZING so far this summer...we've only had 4 unbearably hot days so far, and this entire week has been/should continue to be in the upper 70's/low 80's, sunny, breezy, and low humidity! I could not ask for a better summer to be pregnant in! I have the windows open today and it's the middle of June!