I cannot believe in less than a month I will have a newborn again! Hello 9th month of pregnancy! I cannot wait to see your sweet face Ezekiel Erick. As of next Friday, you can OFFICIALLY come whenever you want! --- I say that because I am 36 weeks today and legally you have to be 37 weeks to proceed with a home birth. So if I should have consistent contractions that cannot be stopped or my water should break within the next week, I'll have to deliver at North Shore Medical Center with Dr. Spence. And as much as we LOVED him, I still desperately want my VBAC at home with my family and my AMAZING midwife!
So what has been happening in our journey this last month……
Iron infusions have officially been approved for home! Praise God! And after all the fights, I'll end up paying the EXACT amount for 6 infusions at home that I would've for 6 in the hospital. Except they come to me and they're in and out in an hour or less. God is so good! I've had 3 so far. To our knowledge my hemoglobin was a 10.4 and my ferritin was still a 6 at the start. After 3 infusions my HGB went to a 10.5 but my ferritin jumped to 163! Plus I have good platelets which is important to bleeding during birth. So I'm thrilled with these numbers. I still have 3 more to receive and will get my next one this upcoming Tuesday. If for any reason baby comes before we complete them, the home nurse will come administer what is left after delivery for an "after" boost. We had to skip this week because BOOOOOO - mommy got sick! I tried so hard to avoid it but it happened. And I finally went to the doctor Wednesday to be told I have bronchitis and to be put on 10 days of amoxicillin. Happy to have a diagnosis though because I really thought I was going to cough this boy out! Time to get healthy and get the germs GONE!
We also finally met with Dr. Spence. He's an incredible man and we left feeling anxious, excited, empowered and with a few more questions. I won't pretend we weren't nervous after meeting with him but Miriam is just simply amazing and scheduled an appointment at our house that Erik could be here for and talked us through all our worries! Basically Dr. Spence cannot legally approve a home birth but he CAN completely deny you one if it isn't safe. If he doesn't deny you one, then you can "proceed at your own risk." But he can't put his license on the line approving it fi something were to go wrong. As any OBGYN, he still prefers to see all births in a hospital setting. His words to us were basically…. 1) The positive is that it's been essentially almost 4 years since my csection with the twins so my body has had plenty of time to heal. If it hasn't healed at this point, it won't. 2) The negative (maybe?) is that my uterus was closed in one layer instead of two. It doesn't guarantee anything will go wrong BUT they always prefer to see two layers. HOWEVER there were some sights of extra bleeding that they did put figure 8 stitches over, so those specific sections are "doubled." Again, there is no guarantee of what this means but it's something to point out. 3) I've never had a natural birth so we don't know what my body/pelvis will do. If a woman had a previous csection because she stopped progressing or the pelvis didn't accommodate the baby or something like that, it's likely it'll happen again. But since I wasn't given the opportunity to labor with the twins, we don't know what my body will do. That can be good or bad. Personally, I don't think it's going to be a challenge. 4) My iron. He said if my HGB stays above a 10, I can proceed with the home birth (though he still prefers hospital) but if it drops under a 10, I need to be in a hospital. As stated above though, I don't foresee that to be a problem. He also recommended that after the baby has been delivered, Miriam administer pitocin no matter what. That will force my body to contract and restrict some of the blood flow and help with my chances of hemorrhaging. If I were to hemorrhage she'd administer pitocin anyways, so his theory is to be "ahead of the game" and after speaking with Miriam, she agrees. She also said she'll put a needle in my hand for an IV but won't hook me up. It shouldn't bother or interfere with birth but then if I need fluids she can give them to me faster without fighting with finding veins. Once you are dehydrated, it's much harder to get a vein. Overall, it was a great meeting and we were very happy to have Dr. Spence consult with us. And he graciously gave us his cell number and said if we have any questions at any point, feel free to reach out to him. He's a wonderful man!
So after meeting with him, I had a great telephone call with Sara to walk her through some of what he said and some of what made me nervous and she really calmed my thoughts and helped me mainstream my emotions and encouraged me to start documenting any questions to be addressed at my next prenatal with her and Geri. As stated, Miriam also came over and talked through things with Erik and I and helped settle us a bit too. Birth is nerve wrecking no matter what but it's so empowering to make decisions and feel like you are in control and have such confidence in our team. It's so exciting and truly such a blessing!
We also met with our birth photographer. We'll be working with Stefanie Perez with Sperez Photography https://www.facebook.com/sperez.throughthelens?fref=ts we hit it off with her initially and she is good friends of Miriam so I know that they will communicate and Miriam will help her not miss anything important. I'm excited to see what she produces for us to help tell this amazing story we've been creating and growing for 9 months!
This week we were supposed to have our home visit to plan the birth (as much as can be planned) and have all the players in the house together at once one time prior to birth as well as our next prenatal with the doulas but my bronchitis ruined that. So now we are waiting for a date to reschedule next week. At which time I'll have my group b strep test too. In the meantime I had one last ultrasound yesterday and a NST (non stress test). Baby boy is STILL measuring big. At this point he should be statistically just under 6 pounds and he's measuring 7 pounds 8 ounces! His head already measured 40 weeks! HAHA! So we'll see what he decides to do. Non stress test was good and showed no signs of contractions yet.
So the birth kit is here. I still have a few things to buy over the counter at target (like rubbing alcohol, wash cloths, etc). We still need to reschedule our home visit and prenatal with the doulas. I still have to do non birth related things like get the boys school stuff together - can you believe my boys are starting preschool in just over a month! So much to do, so little time. But I am REALLY REALLY excited! I know God is working and he will be present and front and center at this birth and not let anything happy to me or Ezekiel that shouldn't. But please continue praying for us! I also expressed to my mom the desire to have her here for his birth. She's the only one outside of Erik and the boys that I DESPERATELY want with me. So please pray her timing is perfect! I know God is in control and I can do nothing but trust in Him. Have a wonderful day!
