A Breath of Fresh Air

I don't think until the last  four weeks, I have ever had a time during pregnancy where I was completely comfortable with my choice of providers. During my pregnancy with Smudge, I quashed those feelings, completely ignoring my gut, and stayed with my provider. Well, we all know how that ended. I didn't intend to do that twice. 
Four weeks ago, I was awaiting a consultation with a new obstetrical provider. Well, that consultation couldn't have gone better. When I walked in with two full pages of questions, I was sure he would hate me. Instead, it was as if someone had given him my questions ahead of time. He had ALL of the right answers. There wasn't one thing I had any concern about. So, rather than take my consult with him and discuss my concerns with the midwives the following week, I switched to his practice officially that afternoon. 

This morning I had my next appointment with my new OB practice. I met Dr B's partner, Dr R. She was like a breath of fresh air. Completely relatable, young and an osteopath - so right on track with my natural tendencies. I was concerned that perhaps she didn't share all of Dr B's beliefs in terms of VBAC and natural Cesarean, but she quickly laid those fears to rest. She said Dr B trained her as a resident, so she essentially practices EXACTLY as he does, as do their other partners. She said any member of the practice would support my birth wishes. 

And I think the best part of my visit today was when she told me that I'm measuring perfectly for 25 weeks, my belly looks great and she thinks I'm right on track for my weight gain. I expressed my concerns about how quickly I was gaining and what the midwives said about it. Dr R said she had no concerns about my gain, I'm right on track and if she had any worries she would tell me. 

The good news is my gain is slowing. I'm attributing it to stress. I'm no longer stressed about my provider and I'm now gaining less than 1lb a week. I know that still sounds like a lot, but considering how I was gaining earlier, it's really good. I'm now up 20lbs in 25w. That's horrifying to me, considering I only gained 20lbs all together with Anna. But my diet is different now, my activity level is different now and it's an entirely different pregnancy. This baby will NOT let me stop eating. I'm trying really hard to make the right dietary choices, especially since I'm CONSTANTLY hungry. Smudge didn't do this to me. So, as Dr R said today, either this is a boy or I'm just growing a girl who will weigh more than 5 1/2 lbs. And we're totally okay with that. 

My new goal is 35lbs. I do not want to gain 40lbs. But hopefully I can keep it just under that. 

In other news, I scheduled my glucose tolerance test. Guess who gets to eat jelly beans instead of that awful disgusting drink? THIS GIRL. I'm waiting to clarify how many I have to eat, but I'm psyched. Not only about that - but that they draw all blood work in their office, so I don't even have to go sit at lab corp. 

Other good news from this week, the hospital where I'm going to deliver the Squish is now certified "baby-friendly" which means I'm going to have the BEST lactation support possible. And as if that weren't good enough, now the labor and delivery unit has telemetry monitoring, which means I won't have to be tied to a bed AT ALL while I'm in labor. I may even be able to get into the tub. That would be awesome.

GTT in 2 weeks. Until then....