Doctor appts

Yesterday we had another day spent at what I'm afraid will become our "home away from home"....the U of M hospital. We met with one of the OB doctors, and went over all the C-section paperwork, so we have that out of the way. As long as Cayman stays in the head down position they will perform the "bikini cut" incision which would allow me to have vaginal births in the future, IF I ever do this again (that topic is still undecided). We were given a tour of the birthing center. We saw the recovery room, which is where I'll start out before the C-section and return to after the C-section, then the regular rooms that I'll be moved to after the recovery room, and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where Cayman will be. Mike and I will have almost unlimited access into this room any time so we can be with our baby. There is a window to this nursery so we could look in and see it. There were a few babies in there now and seeing them with all their tubes and bandages didn't actually upset me...it made me more anxious for Cayman to be here!! It confirmed to me my feelings I've written about previously, that I would choose to find out about Cayman's diagnoses before she was born and having the experience of surgeries and being in the hospial myself makes me less freaked about such things. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying....I'm not casual at all about this whole experience! I think and worry about it all the time. And of course I've never had my own child and I'm sure it will be so much harder to see Cayman laying there with her tubes and bandages. I feel for Mike so, as it's very emotional for him to be a bystander to both his wife and daughter undergoing surgery.

After our tour of the birthing center we met with the Anaestheologist. They discussed my spinal fusion I have. It's high enough that they will be able to put in an an epidural catheter or a spinal block. They won't know which one of these to use until they know what kind of incision will be made. If Cayman stays head down and they do their cutting very low, they will probably use the spinal block. If she decides to be breech they will have to make a higher cut in the abdomen which gets more into the area of a previous surgery of mine. Sometimes this can leave a lot of scar tissue in there and it takes longer to cut through, which is why they would use the epidural catheter so they could keep administering the medicine. Hopefully Cayman stays head down...that would be the best. If by chance there is a lot of scar tissue in my spinal column and it is not letting the medicine circulate properly they will use general anesthesia. Although it sounds nice to be put completely out, as I can't imagine how weird it's going to be to know my abdomen is wide open and I'm laying there awake, but it would mean I would miss Cayman's birth.

That was the end of our day in Ann Arbor. We return in 2 weeks for another ultrasound, a clinical appt, consultation with the neonatologist, and with the pediatric surgeon. What did I say? Our "home away from home".

So onto more of the fun parts. I'm 35 weeks pregnant now. They checked Cayman's heartrate. It was in the 150's. It's always so much fun to hear my baby's heartbeat!! It's less than 4 weeks now til she's born! If everything is looking good at our next appointment in 2 weeks, that may be our last appointment there before she is born. There is an end in sight to this pregnancy!!

Story time:

Yesterday morning when we were getting ready to leave for my appointments. Mike was super tired as he's having a bit of an adjustment with nights and days. So he was a bit cranky. He wanted to wear his Ohio State hooded sweatshirt. Our very first appointment in Ann Arbor, he did wear it and his Buckeye hat, and we recieved way more attention than desired! Since then I allow him to wear only his Buckeye hat but nothing else with Ohio State on it. He asked me very politely if I cared that he wore his Buckeye hood. I told him I did and asked him to put on something else. He gave out a very annoyed sigh and went back into to the room to change. When he came out with something else on I thanked him, and his response was "Yeah, well I'm not very happy that I can't just be comfortable today". As he's saying this I am sitting down in the chair to rest my hurting back and my slightly swollen feet. I felt a pregnancy mood swing starting to rise and I wanted to say "Shut up!!" But I was nice!