Trying to Plan My Birth and It Has Not Gone As Planned

Well, I haven't been knitting or sewing or reading the books on my classics list lately. After reading "Birth" by Tina Cassidy, which I LOVED by the way, I became temporarily obsessed with researching midwives, natural childbirth, and homebirths. Thanks to one of my wonderfully informed friends, Mark and I also watched Ricki Lake's documentary, "The Business of Being Born." Between the book and the movie, we were becoming convinced that drug-free homebirth was the best option for us. I was still a little anxious about not delivering in a hospital, but then I read, "Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife" by Peggy Vincent. I also highly recommend this book to expecting mommies. It was filled with wonderful stories about sucessful (and a few scary) home births.

I started reading, "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" by Ina May Gaskin. She is evidently the midwifery guru, interviewed for the documentary I mentioned above as well as the historical book "Birth". This was also on the recommended reading list in the back of "Baby Catcher". The first portion of the book is filled with stories of women traveling short and long distances to a place in Tennesee called The Farm. It sounds like a very hippie, midwifery compound where single mothers can get a new start and where any woman who wants a drug-free birth can go. Their stats are very impressive with much lower cesearean and mortality rates than hospitals.

I put down the book to watch a mid-day movie with Mark. He is working 7 days a week lately, but on Sundays is working mornings instead of nights. I love this because we can at least have dinner together and do normal couple things like lounge in our PJs all afternoon. :) Unfortunately, I ran into some problems while watching the movie and had to call our doctor to see if it was anything I should worry about. Five minutes later I was on my way to Labor and Delivery...!

I am only 25 weeks so keep in mind this was quite scary. I had one nurse asking me my medical history while another brutalized both arms trying to find a vein to put an IV (I look like a junkie at present) and yet another was doing some not so pleasant things to me (can you say catheter?). I had people asking me to sign paper work and others asking me if I was excited to be having a baby today.

WHAT!!!! My only response was, "I'm not having a baby today!"

I immediately felt like I was living the terror that many of the women I had read about had described. Swooped into the hospital in a wheel chair, hearing scary things like, "Prepare the delivery room" and "did you think you would be having a baby today?" No one could say what or why they were doing these things to me... and no one seemed to notice that the nurse jabbing me with a needle hadn't a clue how to put in an IV. The irony was here was unbelievable.

Thankfully, my wonderful doctor showed up. A woman who I was previous to this moment considering firing. In a very calm straightforward way she explained everything. Weew. Protocol, yadda yadaa. Then the bad stuff. I was getting tested for placenta previa and placental abruption (both which would likely mean I would loose the baby). They monitored baby's heartbeat, my contractions (which I wasn't having by the way), took measurements by ultrasound, eventually took tons of blood for testing, etc, etc, etc.

The conclusion: You are not in labor (DUH! even I knew that). You don't have placenta previa or an abruption (YEAH!). Your baby is very active and healthy as far as we can tell (heee, my little trooper, he kept kicking the moniter and they kept loosing his heartbeat. This was not scary as it was quite obvious he was bustin' a move in there). What's wrong? No clue. I was definitely dehydrated for starters. I got tons of fluids and this morning I awoke to actually see my ankles! I have weird CBC counts (their high) but they can't find an infection anywhere. My doc is still trying to figure it out.

I have to go back if I have more symptoms at which point that will treat me for preterm labor despite the test showing otherwise. I also have a load of testing to get through tomorrow to see if they can uncover the mystery. Until then I am not on bedrest, but I can't clean the house, do laundry, vaccuum, drive, cook, lift anything, walk for any extended period of time, etc. It's essentially bedrest except I can go to the bathroom whenever I want and I can sit at the desk in my office. Oh joy! This also means no midwife for me. I am officially considered High Risk, which is a fancy way of saying they think you're going to have your baby way to early.

I am happy to see that without all the puffiness I look like a normal pregnant lady again. Hopefully I'll get a picture before I blow up again. I'll post it soon. It is also wonderful to see how healthy our son is. Nothing wrong with him at all so I have no real complaints.

Wish me luck!