Filters
Yesterday was the first day all week that someone hasn't told me how big I am Mostly, I think that's because I didn't see very many people yesterday. I only taught one family's worth of kids piano lessons yesterday, and those children are all extremely polite and well behaved. And also, it's never the kids that tell me I'm big, it's just adults! It's like people have never seen a pregnant woman out here before! Actually, I think that might be true for a lot of people, since there aren't a whole lot of people having babies in Columbus. My personal perspective on how many women are having babies and how often they are having them is a little bit skewed because of The Church I belong to, and how valued children and families are in that church. Also, my congregation is made up of a lot of young couples (because we live near a university), so when you put young couples together with a belief system that values children and families so highly, you get people who are breeding like freaking rabbits. All_the_time. This is not a bad thing, it's just hard to remember that pregnancy is not quite as normal in the rest of my community as it is in my church community, so I need to learn to be more patient with people who may have actually never seen a largely pregnant woman, or who at least haven't seen one enough to not make it a novelty. Le sigh.
Baby Showers
I've been thrown two baby showers this summer. The first was given by my sister-in-law and aunts when we were out west visiting family. It was lovely! So many of my family members and best friends from college (who I still consider my closest friends, even though I don't live near them), were able to come. And it was awesome. It was so great to be around so many women who I admire and who have loved and mothered and sistered and friended me for so long!
I was also given a baby shower by some friends of mine from my church. I was blown away by how many people showed up and how generous they were with their time, talents, food making abilities, decorating abilities, and gift giving. I'm not a very emotional person on the outside, but if I looked like a deer in the headlights during that shower, it's because I was so overwhelmed with how cared for and loved I felt.
Another awesome thing about my baby showers was that no body, NOT ONE PERSON, told labor and delivery horror stories! I'm 31 years old, and like I said earlier, belong to a church where people are having kids all the time, so I've been to my fair share of baby showers in my life time. And let me tell you, people are REALLY awful about telling horror stories to soon-to-be moms about giving birth. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about 3rd degree tears, the worst pain you've ever felt in your life, never having your nether regions be the same again, or what have you. Sometimes those stories were so bad that it made me never want to have kids. So, I was fully preparing myself to hear all sorts of stories like these at my baby showers, but no one told them!
I kind of think it might be due to what I like to call the "Steel Magnolia Effect." If you've never seen Steel Magnolias, it's basically a movie starring Julia Roberts as a pregnant Type 1 diabetic who ends up dying after having a baby and it's really sad. Any way, that's pretty much most people's experience with anything diabetes and pregnancy related, but even when that movie came out, it was super out-dated. Pregnancy and Type 1 is much more common and much more safe these days. But, I think it might still be preventing people from telling me their birth horror stories, because they're worried that my birth is already going to be like Steel Magnolias. Or, maybe people are just getting more considerate about those sorts of things? Either way, I'll take it!
Don't get me wrong, I'm still scared that things won't work out with this baby, too. And while at this point the biggest complication with a baby I could encounter would be something going wrong during the delivery (just like everyone else), and the chances of still birth for a baby of a Type 1 mom are only slightly above those of a "pancreas-typical" person, it still does scare me. And I won't stop being worried until this kid is out of me and she and I are home in one piece. But, I think that is every pregnant woman's fear, so I think I'm pretty typical in that sense. Any way, I'm just very grateful that no one told labor & delivery horror stories, because I worry about that stuff enough anyway.
Non-Stress Tests
I've started having non-stress tests twice a week. Basically they just slap a monitor on your belly, find the baby's heart beat, and record it for like 20 minutes. Or, if the baby is sleeping and doesn't move enough, then a really annoying nurse says, "Let's see if we can agitate the baby!" and proceeds to push hard on your stomach to try to wake the baby up and get it to move around. Sheesh. Next time she's going to get ninja slapped. But, all the tests (I've had 3 so far) have been fine. It totally freaks me out to have to listen to the baby's heart beat for that long, because it varies up and down so much, but I'm told this is normal. Also, one time I heard (and felt) her having hiccups while listening to her heart beat, and that was pretty fun.
And that's basically it! We're just in a holding pattern now with diabetes stuff. My insulin needs have increased a bit more (what's new there?), and I just had a three-week long fight with my medical supply company to get them to actually do their job and ship me some infusion sets for my insulin pump, but any diabetic person, pregnant or not, knows what that's like, so that's not really news. :)
Thanks for sticking with this super long post, friends! I'll keep you updated as more interesting things happen!
aren't non-stress tests the worst?? I had to have them with every kid because they were all so late. I, too, wanted to punch the technician after they left bruises all over my belly from "waking up the baby".
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wish more people had told me what going into labor would actually feel like. I honestly didn't know I was in labor for the first 8 hours because I had no idea. the entire world had been all up in my business that day at the doctors, so I figured a little crampy feeling was to be expected. I had no idea labor felt like cramps.
And lastly, sorry I couldn't make it to the shower. My kids and I have awesome presents for you, though. ;)