I'm officially in my 3rd trimester already. Holy cow. This baby will be here before we know it. I'm already sad that I haven't said as much or documented as much this time around as I did with Blake. Truth be told, we are ever bit as excited for this one, but Blake stealing our hearts more and more each day (and the constant chasing around our active little guy), I haven't had much time to stop and just think about this little one because life has just been moving so fast lately.
Until today that is.
Tonight I got a call from my midwife telling me that my platelet levels have significantly dropped 50% since last month. It's not something to be too concerned about at this stage of the game, but considering that I'm at 82 and this is what I was at delivery with Blake, I'm just hoping and praying that I can keep them at least this high so that an epidural is still an option. Any of you natural birthers out there, I'd love to hear how you do it because I tried with Blake and just couldn't keep it up!
I feel blessed to have relatively easy pregnancies. Besides the nausea until 13 weeks, I haven't been sick much. I've been able to work out and because I have felt pretty normal, I forget that I'm even pregnant sometimes. And then the baby kicks and jabs at my ribs and I know they are jumping around in there. He/she is much more active than I ever remember Blake being.
What's tricky is there isn't anything I can do to increase the platelet levels or keep them up. And that is what is hard. It's easy to get overly worried thinking about worst case scenario, but I have faith that everything will be okay.
If anything, this is a gentle reminder to me that God is in charge. And that I should never take for granted the blessing and opportunity it is to be a mother. And that I can't wait to love this next one just as much as I love Blake. Blake loves babies and little kids. And so I know this next one is going to be the perfect little addition to our family. 3 months and counting...until we get to meet you!
I can't believe you're almost done already (though, for me the 3rd trimester went by the most slowly)!
ReplyDeleteSo low platelets mean no epidural? Fingers crossed you still have that option when the time comes. I just had Miriam without any drugs, but that doesn't mean I didn't want them. :) I can't offer any advice on how to get through it because I read loads of books to prep for natural childbirth and I'm not sure I used any of the techniques. I'm just glad Miriam came quickly!
Everyone is so different in their labors, pain levels, timing, etc... I think you have to roll with the punches. I had an epidural with my first, and my boys I've both gone natural. But, my labors are pretty quick. My sister labors are extremely hard because she has long contractions. I didn't have any techniques when I went natural. I just had the nurses and Christopher push on my legs during contractions to help with the pressure and they all let me squeeze their hands. I wanted an epidural with my 3rd, but ended up at the hospital complete and ready to deliver so there wasn't any time. The nurses were amazing though. One thing that helped me was a comment one nurse kept telling me (something along these lines): "Don't fight the pain, just let it go through your body and help you." You can do it, whatever happens! It was so great to see you and officially meet your husband last weekend!
ReplyDeleteI tried hypnobirthing. Although I ended up with C sections, I was able to deal with difficult contractions relatively easy. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI love Red Raspberry leaf, I take it the whole 3rd trimester, talk to your midwife about it but I have taken it with my last 3 pregnancies and I feel like it really helps - it is suppose to tone your uterus so your contractions are more effective...
ReplyDeleteone other thing that I think helped me in delivering without an epidural is to frog squat. I would do it every day when prego and then inbetween contrations when I was in labor. I read that squatting opens you up 1/3 and shortens the distance to push by 1/3.
I really love this website too...
http://www.birthingnaturally.net/index.html
Hope everything goes well this last trimester. We'll keep you in our prayers.
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