I'm so excited!

I want my baby, when she is old enough to read my blog, to know how excited I am for her to arrive. I actually am not uncomfortable and I am fortunately not dying to become "unpregnant" as some are at this stage of the game (38 weeks). Aside from a few small issues, I can even sleep pretty well (thrist and bathroom breaks being the main disturbers), but I wake up at night and can't get back to sleep due to my excitement. I know it's going to be hard, I know I am going to want this sleep time back later and regret even a missed hour. But the sweet anticipation of seeing littlepea's face and drying her off on my chest and feeding her for the first time, just makes me so happy. This is truly the moment I have been waiting for, not for 9 months, but for years and years. I have always wanted to have children. I was afraid I would not get the opportunity for a while and this pregnancy is such a blessing, at any age, but especially at my age.

I even imagine my baby in her little clothes that I have lovingly washed and folded and see her laying in her little bassinet next to my bed. These weeks of being "full term" but not knowing exactly when she is going to arrive are just wondeful. I love resting, and finishing last minute details, and seeing my friends. But I really think Sweetpea and I have already carved out the place for littlepea in our lives. We have done all our "stuff", we have our careers, we have traveled, and had many wonderful times alone together, we have gotten it all out of our systems and we are soooo ready to just focus all our energy on our daughter. We were talking about it today and although we know we have to wait until she is ready to come out, we are anxiously awaiting her arrival.

I thought it would so hard to see my belly all huge with the baby in my belly and nothing could be further from the truth. I think it's the most wonderful thing in the world. I love the way it jiggles and gyrates as she squrms around and kicks and hiccups. But I am ready to have her out here. Ready and waiting. For you my love.

love, your Mama.

The final weeks!

Tomorrow I will be 37 weeks, which is considered "full term". It's been an exciting week, one of my best friends got married, we went to their Saturday night wedding. Two days later we celebrated our one year anniversary, so basically we felt like they threw us a big party!!

Of course everything is somewhat overshadowed by the impending newborn. I am really excited, such that is adding to my difficulty sleeping. I stay up thinking about her and bringing her home. I am trying to relax and not be afraid of the delivery but you keep hearing these stories, and even a brief sentence just sticks in my head, like someone said " I thought i was going to die". Why say that to an expectant mom? I really prefer the wise souls that keep quiet about their experience until I'm done. Anyway, I am practicing my hypnobirth techniques and hopefully that, along with great support people and staying in water as long as possible will help.

Our house is baby central. I have been laundering clothes as well as burp cloths, blankets, wiping cloths and covers for car seats, bouncy seats, swings, etc. We have bought some nice things for her and I am looking forward to using them. Baby is kicking and growing appropriately. I am so proud of babypea already! She is head down, thankfully now and side facing, but the doc says they don't really pick a backward facing angle until labor usually. I hope she does.

This is my last week of work, which is a busy one. I will probably have to spend some time next week finishing up my charts and tying up my loose ends, but things are going well. Most of my regular patients have known for some time that ths is my last week and are coming in to say good bye. I will be back in February if all goes well.

I have been incredibly blessed so far to have a healthy pregnancy. I have to admit I think I had H1N1, aka swine flu , which was awful, but it was fortunately the third trimester. I do think it affected babypea's growth for a month or so but now she is "catching up". I doubt it affected her in any other way, since it was so late already. At least I hope not. I was also lucky in that it could have been so much worse. Otherwise, this 39 year old body is doing a a pretty good job making this baby. I am dying to meet her face to face. Or maybe face to boob. Whatever!!!

Hasta Luego,

Dr. A

Don't believe what anyone tells you!

Hey we made it to 30 weeks today. I went for my much dreaded glucose tolerance test. Everyone told me how disgusting the sugar slurry would be and I was , understandably, grossed out. In fact, I have been more anxious about this test than any reasonable person would believe.
Was it anywhere near that bad? Of course not. It was like drinking an orange drink. Kind of tasty actually, and that's coming from someone that doesn't even drink soda or Snapple. No nausea, no aftertaste, no nada. I waited my hour patiently and had my blood drawn, es todo! I could not believe how many people had told me that this was such a big deal.
Now why do I mention this? I think it is a great example of how everything involved with pregnancy is generally blown out of proportion, exaggerated and fear producing. I, personally, thought that this would be 9 months fraught with vomiting, extreme exhaustion, painful kicks, muscle cramps and sciatica. Not to brag, but I have not thrown up in spite of intermittent GI upset/nausea etc, I have not been so tired that I could not work full time, and to date, I have not had any unusual pains (knock on wood). I have gotten sick more than usual and fiber has become my best friend. Now am I INCREDIBLY lucky? Or is really just the outliers that have major problems? Don't get me wrong, I think some people do have worse symptoms, and maybe they are not taking good enough care of themselves, maybe they are just more sensitive to hormones. But I do think, for the most part, pregnancy gets a bum rap.
The vast majority of people probably have mild symptoms, and no complications. They may blow things out of proportion, they may not. But I hear so many people echoing my initial thoughts about pregnancy I just want to dispel some of the fear and anxiety that women have been insidiously exposed to. Of course it is also a thrilling time when you feel your baby growing inside you!
So if anyone is thinking of getting pregnant and afraid of everything they have heard, forget about it!
Here is my recent belly pic: "30 weeks".

Hasta Luego,
Dr. A

27 weeks, alive and "kickin"!

People really love pregnant. It's been so lovely to have all the good wishes for my baby. I have always smiled at people with children, but I see it starts even earlier. You get smiles just for having a bun in the oven. Of course no one will pay any attention to me after the baby is born so I am soaking it all up now.
My current obsession is childbirth. Originally I was on the "Epidural Fo' Sho' " team. Why suffer needlessly? As I read more and thought more, I decided to try a go at "Natural birth". Now, we are taking a hypnobirth class and I am reading a book by the most famous midwife in the country, Ina May Gaskin. We also watched Ricki Lake's documentary, "The Business of Being Born". The sum total of my reading and studying so far is leading towards one conclusion, it's all about your attitude. Like anything else the mind/body connection is what seems to make or break your childbirth experience, barring unforeseen complications. Assuming all is going well, fear, anxiety and tension will slow you down and make everything more painful, whereas relaxation and confidence in one's body will make childbirth , if not totally comfortable, tolerable and fulfilling. I believe strongly in this since I see it all the time with the kids I take care of at the clinic. When mom says "He's scared, he's going to cry", then of course the baby cries and is scared. He thinks he should be. When women are told "it's going to hurt so bad, you are going to want to die" then of course it hurts so bad they want to die. Or at least have pain medication. If women are told "it's a natural process, our bodies know what to do, there are ways to cope with the contractions so it's not as difficult," then we may be able to sail through it.
Of course, you may say "easy for you to say, you have never done it". But one interesting anecdote has stood out in my mind during all this new learning. When my very intuitive friend was trying to give birth naturally, she was not progressing well and she said to me "I'm being bad, I'm not letting it progress". At the time, I had no idea how she could stop or slow her own labor progress, but everything I have read says that fear will do exactly that. It causes all the muscles to work against one another and not together. I will also say that the institution she was in was not conducive to it and she was not as well prepared as she could have been. Next time she's taking Hypnobirth, if I have anything to say about it!!!
Sooo, when the time comes, which team will I be on? We shall see. I have been to many births, I know how hard it is, and I am not a fool. BUT, I now have some coping skills, I will have even more by the time the next three months are up, I have confidence, and I have a team, (hubby and doula). If I need meds, I need meds, I am not going to deny myself. But maybe... just maybe.. with the right mental preparation, I can put fear aside, and let it go. Besides, my mom did the "Natural Birth" thing 4 decades ago, twice! With 8+ pounders, which makes me think, "if she could do it... I can do it too!" She will be there too, hopefully, unless my baby is an early bird.
Here is a recent belly picture:
Hasta Luego,
Dr. A

20 weeks:Halfway point!!

I know I have not been the best blogger of this pregnancy, but I'm too dang tired! So here is what I look like now, or at least what I looked like a week or two ago:

And here is what our sweet darling girl looks like now:

I still don't feel the movements but I saw her moving on the sonogram. I am so excited now that I saw all her body parts and they are all forming normally.
We have decided on a name preliminarily but I probably shouldn't advertise that, although I am pretty sure no one reads this. And if you do, I probably told you already. Ok? Ok.
I had a little meltdown at work today, hormones plus fatigue helped me to go over the edge. My poor boss, dealing with crazy pregnant lady. Sheesh. It's worth it though, I can't wait to meet my little girl.
Our registry has been started at Amazon.com. They don't have everything but they have more than anyone else. It's just nice to make an organized list of the stuff I need, it is more like a to do list than a "get me presents" list. In fact I don't really want a shower since all my poor friends must be sick of having parties in my honor, after my wedding, bridal shower and bachelorette party. Pregnancy brain is a real thing so anything I can do to remember stuff is helpful. I would think "I need a bather thing, I better write that down.". Now it's all there on the list.
My biggest dilemma is cloth vs disposable diapers. There is a drought in the area so it makes cloth a less good option. Of course the landfills are full of diapers and that's bad too. Six of one, half dozen of another? The most perfect solution would be the service Earth Baby that delivers compostable diapers and then picks them up and composts them into soil. However they do not yet serve Oakland area. Too bad. Because even a "biodegradable" diaper won't degrade in a landfill. Cloth feels better to me, I have to say. I mean, the big wastes of water are usually in manufacturing, and watering the golf courses, etc. I don't think cloth diapers are the main problem. I don't even have a lawn to water.
My other dilemmas involved what type of baby swing to get and what type of breast pump. Much less serious issues to be sure.
I have my book list, Happiest Baby on the Block, Dr. Sears' baby book, Baby language, and Elimination Communication. I am sure there are other good ones that I am missing.
Well I am officially exhausted and I still have to do the dishes, and get ready for bed. Can't WAIT for my Comfort U pillow to arrive in the mail. It was supposed to come already but the UPS site says Monday. One word of advice to pregnant women: don't wait until sleeping becomes uncomfortable to order your huge body pillow. Do it immediately, so you have it when you need it. Which will be sooner than you think!
Dr. Amy

Pregnant!

Ok, for anyone who reads this post and doesn't know I'm pregnant, that's probably because I've been a hermit. Or maybe you have not called me back. But now I'm going public, because I'm out of the notorious "first trimester" and I got my CVS results back. Good news! Normal Baby Girl. At least normal in regards to Down Syndrome and that is the most likely issue at my age.
I am currently 13 weeks. That is my girl up there on the sonogram. I was so anxious about that. On the one hand my maternal instincts were telling me everything was fine, but on the other hand I am a pediatrician and I KNOW all the things that can go wrong and do.

It's been interesting. At my first sonogram (7 weeks by dates) the doctor said the baby looked more like 5 weeks, and there was only a 50/50 chance of viability. There was also a second sac, which was empty, meaning I had two eggs fertilized but one was not successful in becoming a baby. I was a little sad but really, twins? I think it was probably for the best.
At the subsequent sonograms, the baby remained about 12 days behind, so my due date changed from 8/18 to 8/27. However baby is growing so I am happy.
Everything about being pregnant is exactly what they say. The first thing that happens is the constant bathroom breaks. Your bladder wakes you up every two hours at night, right from the outset~ and along with it the incessant thrist. They say you need to drink 8 8oz glasses of water a day. I think I drink that much between 10pm and 6am.
Then, you get really nauseated and yet you are starving at the same time. Something you normally like can disgust you so badly you start wretching. If someone is eating the wrong thing around you, the smell can send you over the edge. I have not gotten weird cravings, but if you want something you really want it and you fantasize about it until you get it, even if it takes weeks.
But fortunately that clears up (at least it did for me, except the cravings) rather quickly. then comes the heartburn and the other GI issues ( I won't go into detail, TMI) but it's pretty much the same for all of us. The one thing I would not have predicted is how much I am showing at such an early stage. I have seen lots of 13 week women that don't show one bit and I am already all maternity clothes all the time. I have also been sick a lot, since the immune system takes a 9 month break to prevent rejection of the little one. That has made it hard to exercise. Therefore I am not sure all the increased weight is due to baby and may be partly cellulite, but it's all good. BabyDaddy thinks I'm more beautiful than ever, so I'm happy to go out and buy myself new clothes! Any excuse to shop is good for me.
Well let me say again, that if you are reading this and you don't already know, I apologize and I hope we get together soon.

Prop 3

A lot of people seem to be confused on Prop 3 (Bond funding for Children's hospitals). The League of Women Voters says to vote Yes , the SF Guardian says to vote No. Although 80% of the money from Prop 3 would go to private hospitals, such as Children's Hospital Oakland, it is still a worthwhile expenditure of public funds. I know that CHO, the hospital I work it, is a major provider of healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured in the Bay Area. We do have an endowment but it is not nearly enough to cover the improvements that need to be made in the structure and facilities of the hospital needed. Also in these tough economic times, it endowments are not reliable. Children's is often not reimbursed for the care it provides, and yet continues to care for patients that cannot pay.
So vote Yes on 3, so we can make our facilities safe from earthquakes for our patients and staff and also so we can update our facilites to make the care of our patients state of the art. Please!