Again, I've not posted for quite a while. On the pregnancy front, little has changed. The baby keeps getting bigger and my belly is showing it. Sometimes the baby tickles me and I wonder if it is a hand or foot I'm feeling. I enjoy just sitting and feeling it move, so long as it isn't kicking me in the lungs.
I seem to be gaining an appropriate amount of weight from my estimations. I can certainly tell I've gained weight when I move from one place to another! While I am enjoying the pregnancy, I will also be glad to get back to my typical weight sometime after the baby is born.
The doctors have me coming in about every two weeks now that we're in the third trimester. I talked to a woman at the hospital's anesthesiology department about what we could do if the baby needs to be delivered c-section. I had rods put in my back to correct scoliosis when I was 12 years old, and my doctors and I thought it would be a good idea to have a plan if the old fashioned way of delivering doesn't pan out. The anesthesiologist said that she would like to have an x-ray to see where the hardware is in my back, which we are trying to get from the hospital in Chicago where I last had x-rays. Other than knowing where the rods are, she said performing an epidural or spinal would probably just be difficult. She said I may have an increase in the risks associated with those procedures, such as leaking spinal fluid and severe headache that can last a couple days.
Hmmm. Well... here is my plan: hope, plan, and prepare in the ways that I can to have the baby naturally. The doctors say that giving me an epidural will prevent what is known as autonomic dysreflexia. My injury is around the T-10 level and I have not experienced this in the past, so I'm hoping that it will not occur during labor. But I've never had something as tramatic happen as having a baby, so I don't know if it will or not.
I'm hoping that they will physically be able to give me an epidural or spinal, but I really do not like the idea of having a needle and drugs going into the spinal area. If the baby ends up needing delivered by c-section, the other alternative if a spinal doesn't work is general anesthetic. If that happens, I am totally out of it, the baby can possibly get exposed to the drugs before it is born, and Josh doesn't get to be there when it is born. :(
So I'm thinking positively, trying not to stress about all the "what if's" that freak me out, and enjoy still being pregnant. I have the baby to feel and talk to everyday, so it is easy to enjoy.
