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I'm sure this is a practice-by-practice thing, but my midwife said that if I was ever worried in those early days (before giganto-baby started punching me in the ribs and bladder), to just call in and come by the office and they would do a quick heartbeat check for me, gratis. So you might want to check and see if your OB offers something similar before you spend money on something that you might only use a few times (and which might not work for you at all).
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Dec 28, 2011 07:01
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Incongruous posted:I'm sure this is a practice-by-practice thing, but my midwife said that if I was ever worried in those early days (before giganto-baby started punching me in the ribs and bladder), to just call in and come by the office and they would do a quick heartbeat check for me, gratis. So you might want to check and see if your OB offers something similar before you spend money on something that you might only use a few times (and which might not work for you at all). This is also the case with my OB practice.
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Dec 28, 2011 16:35
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A friend of mine gave me one of those things that's more like a stethoscope instead of a doppler and at 27 weeks pregnant I have still never been able to find her heartbeat with it. I'll even try right after an OB appointment and put it in the same place he puts his doppler and get nothing. Oh well I know she's in there because she's ALWAYS MOVING.
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Dec 28, 2011 21:05
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FretforyourLatte posted:I'm 37 weeks now and this kiddo is still breech. She is the most stubborn thing. I'm scheduled for an ECV on Thursday morning to try and get her to flip. Honestly I'm not thrilled about it - of course I want to do what I can to avoid a C-section but from what I gather, the ECV can be quite unpleasant and take a long time, and only has about a 50/50 chance of even being successful. Has anyone else had this procedure done? If so how bad was it and did it work for you? I had an ECV done in November. The procedure itself took no more than five minutes (and the doctor told me they wouldn't go longer than that because if the baby won't move, the baby won't move and trying longer won't change that). However, including the setup of the procedure, it took a while, but it was mostly just waiting around (they did a fetal non-stress test before and after the procedure and they did a quick ultrasound before the procedure to make sure there was enough amniotic fluid). My ECV failed (his butt would move somewhat but his head wouldn't budge). They tried three times in those five minutes and tried various ways of moving him. I don't know what it would have been like if it was successful, but it was ungodly painful and I was sore for days after where they had pressed. I would imagine it wouldn't have hurt so much if it had been successful since the pressure wouldn't have been in the same places constantly, but I have no way of knowing if that's true. Personally, I'd do it again in a heartbeat because I know I did everything I could to have a natural birth, which was something I really really wanted. Also, five minutes of horrible pain seems bad at the time, but what do those five minutes matter in the long run? That's how I think of it, anyway. So, that was my thinking and my experience; yours might be completely different. I ended up giving birth via c-section two days following the procedure and it turned out he was all tangled up in his umbilical cord which I was told could be why he couldn't turn. For the record, I had tried some spinning babies techniques to no avail.
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Dec 28, 2011 21:09
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FretforyourLatte posted:I'm 37 weeks now and this kiddo is still breech. She is the most stubborn thing. I'm scheduled for an ECV on Thursday morning to try and get her to flip. Honestly I'm not thrilled about it - of course I want to do what I can to avoid a C-section but from what I gather, the ECV can be quite unpleasant and take a long time, and only has about a 50/50 chance of even being successful. Has anyone else had this procedure done? If so how bad was it and did it work for you? I had an unsucessful ECV done at (IIRC) 37 weeks. I showed up & my OB did an ultrasound to make sure I still needed the ECV. My daughter was still breech (sky-gazing, one of the nurses called it, which I liked), and so they put in an IV and gave me a medication to keep my uterus from contracting while they tried to flip her. Then they did the ECV, three different attempts over about 15 minutes with long breaks in between. It was, bluntly, really painful, and I was glad that I had such a good relationship with my OB and that my husband was there to support me. I don't regret doing it, even though it was unsuccessful; like Greyscale Rainbow I was really hoping for a natural birth, so I was glad to have done what I could towards that. I ended up having a scheduled C-section at 39 weeks and was really, really happy with the result -- minimal pain, very quick healing, and an awesome baby girl who is now an awesome talk-my-ear-off toddler.
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Dec 29, 2011 01:12
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Thanks for the replies. As it turns out for me though, I got lucky and this stubborn child has FINALLY flipped over on her own, as confirmed by sonogram yesterday. I have an appointment today where I'll schedule induction in the next few days. Hopefully she won't decide she liked the other way better and flip back over again! Funny the way things sometimes work out, because I was originally all scheduled for the version and delivery on Tuesday and had to reschedule, and then on Tuesday night she wound up turning after all. If I hadn't had to reschedule I'd have gone through the version, with my luck the drat thing wouldn't even have worked, and wound up with a C-section. Waited one more day and we're in a much better situation. I am so excited to go to the OB today and find out when I'm having this kid, I have had ENOUGH of being pregnant, it's been such a pain in the rear end this whole time with my health problems, I can't wait to be done with the whole thing and hold my daughter in my arms.
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Dec 29, 2011 14:01
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Speaking of positioning issues, I'm 32 weeks and found out yesterday my baby is hanging out transverse. I'm freaking out. I know I still have a while yet but by this point in time I figured baby would either be breech or vertex. Right now I'm waffling back and forth between wanting to do everything I can to try to ensure she turns to believing there is nothing I can do. It's almost like I'm trying to protect myself and prepare myself for the worst so I don't really want to get my hopes up that she'll turn. Anyone else have a transverse baby during the third trimester? Can anything be done or do I just have to wait and see how she's positioned when I go into labor?
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Dec 29, 2011 14:08
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Mangue posted:Speaking of positioning issues, I'm 32 weeks and found out yesterday my baby is hanging out transverse. I'm freaking out. I know I still have a while yet but by this point in time I figured baby would either be breech or vertex. Right now I'm waffling back and forth between wanting to do everything I can to try to ensure she turns to believing there is nothing I can do. It's almost like I'm trying to protect myself and prepare myself for the worst so I don't really want to get my hopes up that she'll turn. Anyone else have a transverse baby during the third trimester? Can anything be done or do I just have to wait and see how she's positioned when I go into labor? With me they told me they don't worry about the positioning until 37 weeks. At that point if the baby hasn't turned you can choose to have the ECV done like they were planning to do with me. I could obviously be wrong but I would guess it might actually be easier to reposition a baby that's transverse as opposed to breech, baby is kind of halfway turned already and doesn't have as far to go. I might be completely off-base with that, though. Obviously I totally understand the freaking out, I have been stressed about this for weeks, but mine just turned on her own at 37.5 weeks. There are also methods for trying to get the baby to turn on your own, some of these are discussed on https://www.spinningbabies.com but I didn't attempt any of them myself so I have no input as to whether or not they're effective. Worth a look, though!
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Dec 29, 2011 14:23
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Mangue posted:Speaking of positioning issues, I'm 32 weeks and found out yesterday my baby is hanging out transverse. I'm freaking out. I know I still have a while yet but by this point in time I figured baby would either be breech or vertex. Right now I'm waffling back and forth between wanting to do everything I can to try to ensure she turns to believing there is nothing I can do. It's almost like I'm trying to protect myself and prepare myself for the worst so I don't really want to get my hopes up that she'll turn. Anyone else have a transverse baby during the third trimester? Can anything be done or do I just have to wait and see how she's positioned when I go into labor? My daughter was transverse until halfway through my labour. I laboured on my hands and knees, and everything worked out fine in the end. I would have been ok with delivering a breech baby, but she came out headfirst. Well, my knees were pretty busted up for a couple of days, but other than that it was fine.
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Dec 29, 2011 17:29
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Chandrika posted:My daughter was transverse until halfway through my labour. I laboured on my hands and knees, and everything worked out fine in the end. I would have been ok with delivering a breech baby, but she came out headfirst. Well, my knees were pretty busted up for a couple of days, but other than that it was fine. This is actually very reassuring. My OB said he wouldn't even start to worry about the baby's position until I went into labor and it's nice to know that the baby can turn even then. Still, hope she decides to turn well before then!
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Dec 29, 2011 17:49
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Mangue posted:This is actually very reassuring. My OB said he wouldn't even start to worry about the baby's position until I went into labor and it's nice to know that the baby can turn even then. Still, hope she decides to turn well before then!
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Dec 29, 2011 19:30
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Mangue posted:Speaking of positioning issues, I'm 32 weeks and found out yesterday my baby is hanging out transverse. I'm freaking out. My baby was transverse until about 33 weeks. I was told it was pretty normal and not to really stress until 36 weeks or so, and even then, just to try the spinning babies techniques and maybe some accupuncture. In fact, my little girl sometimes still turned to transverse before flipping back to head down up until last week (I'm 35 weeks). But drat, those transverse babies start to really cause some pain - here's hoping yours flips for you soon just so you can breathe again!
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Dec 29, 2011 21:39
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Finally had my gender ultrasound today (elective since I get no more scans at hospital unless there's a problem) and we're having a girl!! So excited, as I always wanted a girl first, and we have so much girl clothes from 2 friends who had baby girls in the last year. One thing I was surprised at though, was that the baby is laying straight across me (as opposed to head up / head down), and apart from flipping to face my spine for part of the ultrasound, she didn't move to be going up/down as I expected. Is that normal? She was very obliging with spreading her legs and letting us get a thorough look in both 2D and 3D though, so that was good. One of the 3D pics we got: 
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Dec 29, 2011 21:39
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Mangue posted:This is actually very reassuring. My OB said he wouldn't even start to worry about the baby's position until I went into labor and it's nice to know that the baby can turn even then. Still, hope she decides to turn well before then! I'm glad it helped. It sounds like you have a good OB, too, which is always nice. You could try hanging out on your hands and knees for a while a couple of times a day, too, to encourage your baby to flip.
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Dec 29, 2011 21:43
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Mangue posted:Speaking of positioning issues, I'm 32 weeks and found out yesterday my baby is hanging out transverse. I'm freaking out. I know I still have a while yet but by this point in time I figured baby would either be breech or vertex. Right now I'm waffling back and forth between wanting to do everything I can to try to ensure she turns to believing there is nothing I can do. It's almost like I'm trying to protect myself and prepare myself for the worst so I don't really want to get my hopes up that she'll turn. Anyone else have a transverse baby during the third trimester? Can anything be done or do I just have to wait and see how she's positioned when I go into labor? My baby was transverse at 32 weeks and the doctor didn't seem concerned at all. Actually, he seemed pleased, because I guess that means it's much easier for them to flip into the correct position then if they were totally breech.
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Dec 30, 2011 00:02
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I had no idea what this "ECV" thing you're all talking about was, so I googled it and then watched a video on YouTube. I'm now properly horrified. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AM6wDwTjmc The happy piano music doesn't help.
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Dec 30, 2011 00:17
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I'm starting to think my clinic is run by a bunch of pee fetishists. I pee in a cup every time I go, of course, and I've already done one 24-hour urine collection. (My blood pressure is elevated and won't go down, but I feel fine, the baby's fine, and all my bloodwork and urine looks clear, so it's not preeclampsia, not yet at least.) Today I had to sit at the hospital for two hours hooked up to the monitors to see what my blood pressure did (I peed in a cup again here), and tomorrow I have to go get another pee jug for another 24-hour urine collect! At this point I think the clinic has had as much of my pee as my own toilet has. I'm so tired of pee you guys 
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Dec 30, 2011 03:58
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Chicken McNobody posted:I'm starting to think my clinic is run by a bunch of pee fetishists. I pee in a cup every time I go, of course, and I've already done one 24-hour urine collection. (My blood pressure is elevated and won't go down, but I feel fine, the baby's fine, and all my bloodwork and urine looks clear, so it's not preeclampsia, not yet at least.) Today I had to sit at the hospital for two hours hooked up to the monitors to see what my blood pressure did (I peed in a cup again here), and tomorrow I have to go get another pee jug for another 24-hour urine collect! At this point I think the clinic has had as much of my pee as my own toilet has. I'm so tired of pee you guys The 24 hour pee collection thing is to make sure you don't pee protein, right? Peeing at every visit is totally normal for pregnant women. 
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Dec 30, 2011 04:16
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dreamcatcherkwe posted:The 24 hour pee collection thing is to make sure you don't pee protein, right? Well, yeah, I know that, but I don't know what yet another gallon of pee is going to tell them that the gallons they already have hasn't told them. There's nothing in there, doctor, please quit making me keep pee in my fridge 
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Dec 30, 2011 15:40
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Chicken McNobody posted:Well, yeah, I know that, but I don't know what yet another gallon of pee is going to tell them that the gallons they already have hasn't told them. There's nothing in there, doctor, please quit making me keep pee in my fridge Per the instructions from my OB, when I did a 24 hour collect last week I kept it on ice in a cooler, because they said keeping in in the fridge could cause food contamination.
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Dec 30, 2011 17:08
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Fire In The Disco posted:Per the instructions from my OB, when I did a 24 hour collect last week I kept it on ice in a cooler, because they said keeping in in the fridge could cause food contamination. What is the purpose of the 24 hour collect? I remember I only did one every time I went to my OB for the protein tests and I haven't had to do any this time around, yet. (9 weeks)
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Dec 30, 2011 18:16
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Yeah, it is to measure protein over 24 hours. I think it's mostly done when chronic high blood pressure is evident or is suspected. I think diabetics can also have protein in urine issues, though I'm not sure why. Since my blood pressure went through the roof when I was in labor with Cecilia, it's pretty much standard for me to make sure I don't develop more severe issues like preeclampsia this time around (which I didn't have last time, just high blood pressure during labor).
Fire In The Disco fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Dec 30, 2011 |
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Dec 30, 2011 19:38
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bamzilla posted:What is the purpose of the 24 hour collect? I remember I only did one every time I went to my OB for the protein tests and I haven't had to do any this time around, yet. (9 weeks) Every time you pee at the doc they are looking for a number of things. Protein in the urine paired with high blood pressure and sometimes acute swelling of the feet or face are signs of preeclampsia. As Fire in the Disco mentioned they will often ask for a 24 hour urine catch if your BP is chronically high or if it's really acutely high. The 24 hour collect is to make absolutely sure they get an accurate reading of exactly how much protein is actually in your urine (so you better make sure to catch every drop or they make you do it all over again!). Elevated urine protein along with increased BP is a much better indicator of preeclampsia than increased BP alone. For gestational diabetes, they look for glucose in the urine. If you're peeing sugar, it's a sign of elevated blood glucose levels.
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Dec 30, 2011 21:03
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Mangue posted:Every time you pee at the doc they are looking for a number of things. Protein in the urine paired with high blood pressure and sometimes acute swelling of the feet or face are signs of preeclampsia. As Fire in the Disco mentioned they will often ask for a 24 hour urine catch if your BP is chronically high or if it's really acutely high. The 24 hour collect is to make absolutely sure they get an accurate reading of exactly how much protein is actually in your urine (so you better make sure to catch every drop or they make you do it all over again!). Elevated urine protein along with increased BP is a much better indicator of preeclampsia than increased BP alone. Ahh, ok then that would explain why I never had to do it. Thanks 
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Dec 30, 2011 21:41
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Just got back from my OB and she said that with diabetics, there can be some kidney damage that makes you spill protein in urine. So the 24 hour collect I did last week was my baseline, and I will (unfortunately) have to do some more to make sure that it's not getting worse.
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Dec 30, 2011 22:39
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Fire In The Disco posted:Just got back from my OB and she said that with diabetics, there can be some kidney damage that makes you spill protein in urine. So the 24 hour collect I did last week was my baseline, and I will (unfortunately) have to do some more to make sure that it's not getting worse. Ahhh yeah that makes sense actually. Cool, learned something new today!
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Dec 30, 2011 23:47
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Fire In The Disco posted:Per the instructions from my OB, when I did a 24 hour collect last week I kept it on ice in a cooler, because they said keeping in in the fridge could cause food contamination. Were they worried about the food contaminating the pee, or the pee contaminating the food?
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Dec 31, 2011 00:05
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Fire In The Disco posted:Per the instructions from my OB, when I did a 24 hour collect last week I kept it on ice in a cooler, because they said keeping in in the fridge could cause food contamination. Makes more sense to me. My OB and the instructions on my jug specifically say to keep it in the fridge, but it sure is gross so I might put it in the cooler instead--ever since last time I can't even look at apple juice. 
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Dec 31, 2011 01:26
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Mnemosyne posted:Were they worried about the food contaminating the pee, or the pee contaminating the food? Good question. It just says "to avoid contamination, keep on ice in a cooler" on my instructions.
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Dec 31, 2011 01:47
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Fire In The Disco posted:Just got back from my OB and she said that with diabetics, there can be some kidney damage that makes you spill protein in urine. So the 24 hour collect I did last week was my baseline, and I will (unfortunately) have to do some more to make sure that it's not getting worse. One of the main things they are looking for is ketones. High ketones is a sign of ketoacidosis. When I had high ketones in my last pregnancy I was kept in hospital on a insulin drip. I was on continuous observation for three days (checking my insulin on the hour every hour to see what was going on). I had high ketones throughout the end of my pregnancy and they just kept monitoring it along with my insulin levels. They still have no idea what was going on with me, I was an atypical case and the things they did to try to get the level of ketones down did not work. I got a fancy testing machine that tested both ketones and sugarlevels with just one pinprick of blood. Infenctions can also cause high ketones.
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Dec 31, 2011 02:38
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So earlier in the year I had a miscarriage. I had gone in for an ultrasound around 10 weeks and it had stopped growing at about 6.5 weeks. Then it took a half a week more for everything to come out rather violently. Well, now I'm about 6 weeks and I keep switching between being totally positive, and excited that it's going to stick this time, to totally negative and feeling like any second I'm going to start gushing blood. I keep getting weird pinching feelings when I cough or stand up too quickly and every time I feel something odd I just get back to thinking negative. Has anyone been through a similar situation? Do I just have to power through this and deal with the ups and downs? It's driving me crazy.
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Dec 31, 2011 22:36
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You've got to try to stay positive. Millions of women go through miscarriages and then continue on to have perfectly healthy pregnancies afterward. That niggling feeling is probably always going to be there, but try not to dwell on it too much. If you feel really upset by it, do a pregnancy test. Maybe seeing that definite line will calm your nerves a bit. Those pains you're feeling are normal. I had and still have those pains whenever I cough the wrong way or get up too fast. It's just your round ligaments growing and stretching to accommodate the expanding uterus. I fortunately have not had a miscarriage, but I have had an abortion and my entire pregnancy I was sure I was going to miscarry because the abortion would have hosed something up inside me beyond repair. I'm now 33 weeks and this kid is as healthy as they come. You're going to be fine! Just breathe and take it one day at a time.
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Dec 31, 2011 23:51
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Nothing to add really, but look! Cute baby!
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Jan 1, 2012 00:00
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Awesome Kristin posted:So earlier in the year I had a miscarriage. I had gone in for an ultrasound around 10 weeks and it had stopped growing at about 6.5 weeks. Then it took a half a week more for everything to come out rather violently. When are you scheduled to go in for your next OB appointment? When I got pregnant again after my miscarriage, my OB had me come in at 6 weeks for a viability scan, and seeing the heartbeat took so much of the worry away. I'm now 27 weeks and I still get a bit nervous if baby hasn't moved in a while but he always more than makes up for it later by doing some of what I call "making popcorn" (little kicks and jabs that I feel all over the place).
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Jan 1, 2012 00:12
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Right now the only thing I've been able to do is go to a free clinic to get my pregnancy verified so I can apply for Medicaid since my husband just got laid off in November. thanks for the reassurance. I really needed to hear that everything's probably normal.
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Jan 1, 2012 01:20
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Awesome Kristin posted:Right now the only thing I've been able to do is go to a free clinic to get my pregnancy verified so I can apply for Medicaid since my husband just got laid off in November. You probably know this but just in case, you probably also qualify for WIC and can start getting those benefits right away. You can also see if a nearby hospital/clinic has someone like a maternity care coordinator - mine gave me info on a lot of resources that I didn't know about at all. And I will second that all my ligament pains felt like cramping so I was always afraid something bad would happen but I'm at ~40 weeks now...
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Jan 1, 2012 02:30
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Awesome Kristin posted:Has anyone been through a similar situation? Do I just have to power through this and deal with the ups and downs? It's driving me crazy. I'm going through something similar so I know what you're feeling. I went in for an ultrasound at 7 weeks and the doctor said that it looked like the fetus was only about 5 or 6 weeks along and so there was no heartbeat yet. She was kind of blase about it and said that I might simply have ovulated late (really?) and I didn't make a big deal about it at the time, but now I'm going a bit crazy while waiting for my next doctor's appt. It doesn't help that I have almost no pregnancy symptoms either.
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Jan 1, 2012 20:11
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Awesome Kristin posted:Has anyone been through a similar situation? Do I just have to power through this and deal with the ups and downs? It's driving me crazy. I previously had a miscarriage at around 8 weeks. I'm now 30 weeks pregnant, and it hasn't been easy. In the UK, they generally don't do the first ultrasound til about 12 weeks, so my first trimester was pretty hellish. I had to constantly reassure myself that every cramp and ache wasn't me losing the baby. I had weird paranoia that the tests were wrong and that I nothing would be there on the scan. In a way, I found my early pregnancy symptoms comforting. Morning sickness meant that the baby was growing. Sore boobs meant that my hormones were fine. It does get easier, especially when you start to feel movements. Also, with every day that goes past you're getting closer and closer to the 'safe' zone. The cliche about millions of women going on to have normal pregnancies is true.
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Jan 1, 2012 21:05
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I'm sending out the bat signal for Doom Catcher. Has anyone heard from her? Just wanted to check and see if she's okay because we haven't heard from her re: Secret Santa. I hope all is well!
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Jan 2, 2012 05:19
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Had me a baby the other day!    Sadie was born at 4:01 am on 12/30. They induced me in the evening on 12/29 because my blood pressure was starting to spazz out, and we'd already verified by amnio that she was fully developed and ready to go. She weighed 6lb 12oz and was 20in long. So far, she is a total peach.  Last night was our first night home and it went as well as things can go at this point, I was actually able to get a few hours of sleep here and there which isn't half bad!
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Jan 2, 2012 13:52
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