After some serious nudging from That Husband I finally sat down and put my birth plans together. I’m approaching the point where I could go into labor any day and he knows how important it is to me that I have him there helping to control and be a part of what is happening as much as possible. It took several hours, but after reading through a variety of birth plans from different sources around the web I was able to put together comprehensive plans for a few different scenarios we might encounter.

I think every woman should research and write out a birth plan, even if it’s just for herself to look over. Websites like this one walk mother’s through common scenarios and preferences and help you pick and choose what works best for you. If you read a term or phrase you don’t understand, look it up! It’s important to know what providers are talking about when they speak of pitocin/episiotomy/rooming-in/etc, and knowledge will only help you get the care that makes you feel the most satisfied.

Please note that these birth plans I created are not for TH and Sarah, not the hospital. I think birth plans in a hospital setting are most effective when you are working with a specific care provider the you have the ability to sit down and overview your preferences with. It wouldn’t do me any good to show up at a hospital several hours into my labor waving my sheet of paper around and declaring that anyone who approaches me should read it first. I believe that hospitals are an environment where routines are established and followed in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness and thus not always excited about birth plans, especially from home birth mamas. The plans you see below are written out for That Husband and intended for him to read through and remember as much as possible so that he knows how to best respond in many of the common situations that happen during a birthing situation. I’ll of course be running through them with Sarah as well to make sure we are on the same page in various areas.

I’m sharing these  in hopes they help others who are attempting to write up their own plans, as I found many other personal birth plans sprinkled throughout the sites and forums I visited to be immensely helpful in ensuring I didn’t leave anything important off of the list. I’d love to have any women who’ve given birth previously comment and let me know if they think I’m leaving anything off that was important to them!

The Home Birth Plan

The Non-Emergency Hospital Transfer Plan

The Cesarean Plan

I moved to bi-weekly appointments a few weeks ago, and they’re coming so close together that I didn’t get my act together and write about appointment 5 before appointment 6 had come and gone!  Personally I miss only going in once a month, but I tend to be very chill when it comes to my healthcare and so I have to keep reminding myself that it’s important for me to visit with Sarah and have her check up on my swelling, weight gain, and measure my belly to make sure baby and I are where we need to be.

I’m making my way through my maternity photos slowly but surely. I love having the RAW files to process, but it means it’s going to take a bit more time to get through all of it. Photo by Bethany Jackman, editing by me.

Appointment 5

This was one of my shortest visits so far. I was up 6 pounds from my last visit, with a total weight gain of about 45 lbs at 31.5 weeks. My blood pressure rocked at 102/67 and baby’s heart was pumping away at 140 bpm.

I had attended the breastfeeding class offered by the birth center only two days before, so I had breastfeeding on the brain. Sarah had taught the class and mentioned the importance of showing your nipples to the midwife so I lifted my shirt and gave Sarah a little peek to make sure I don’t have flat or inverted nipples that would make breastfeeding difficult. She said everything looks great! We talked more about my breast reduction surgery and the plan regarding breastfeeding. I asked if I should purchase a supply of bottles and other formula related paraphernalia but Sarah said we wouldn’t worry about it until we had to. One of my favorite things about Sarah is her passion for helping every single mom to breastfeed and be comfortable doing so.

I told her that TH still hadn’t had a chance to get his blood tested and she gave me a test we could use to figure it out ourselves. Alright!

The last thing we talked about was Group-B Strep. She gave me a sheet that talked about the test, why it is done, etc, and told me to make a decision regarding my preference for having it done by our next appointment.

Appointment 6

Three weeks after appointment 5, I went in for appointment 6. It should have been two weeks but Sarah had a birth to attend on the day of my appointment so we pushed things back a bit. I frowned at the scale as I saw I had gained close to 8 pounds in three weeks, but my belly measured about a week behind so it looks like baby isn’t growing into a monster. Awesome blood pressure results once again, 102/58, and baby’s heart pumping away at 139 bpm.

At 34.5 weeks during this appointment it was time for Sarah to hand me the sheet containing all of the items I would need to gather for the home birth. I ordered a personalized birth kit from www.inhishands.com and put together a shopping list for things like towels/trash bags/sanitary napkins, etc. She asked that I have all of these items assembled by 36 weeks, which happens to be this coming Saturday. Crazy!

Over time Sarah has realized how strong willed I am regarding my own treatment and my desire to research things out for myself before doing them, and I really loved how she phrased her advice at this last appointment, urging me to look things up on my own and decide if I wanted to use them. She recommended Mountain Meadows Herbs Gentle Birth Formula, Red Raspberry Leaf Tea, and 2000 mg of evening primrose oil inserted vaginally each night beginning at 36 weeks. Primrose Oil is full of prostaglandins, thought to help ripen the cervix, and a method I’m definitely going to employ.

We talked about perineal massage, a method proven to help reduce tearing of the perineum during delivery and decrease the need for instrument assisted delivery. I believe in perineal massage because when TH does it, it forces me to relax and work on focusing through an uncomfortable event.

My calves and feet are swelling up to monster sizes lately but my blood pressure is still looking good and I don’t have swelling anywhere else so no need to transfer or worry aboutpreeclampsia yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s somewhat related to the large number of hours I spend sitting in front of the computer each day!

The last thing we discussed at this visit was Appointment 7, which will be a home visit! Sarah comes out to see her mom’s at 36 weeks to familiarize herself with the drive, know how to get in, talk to me about preparing the house, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice if every appointment was a home one?

I’ve said from the beginning that I didn’t think a baby shower was a good choice for me. I had heard enough stories (and talked to enough women) to know that sometimes they can dissolve into an opportunity for the mothers present to attempt to one-up each other in terms of who had the most painful/longest/shortest/scariest birthing experience. I long for a blessingway, but I don’t run in the right circles for it to happen. If I was going to gather together with a group of women, I wanted it to be a celebration of not just the baby and items s/he needs as life begins, but also of the impending event that would force me to transform from woman to mother. I thought that the possibility of a “horror shower” was my only option and so I wanted to avoid one altogether, opting for an open house after baby comes.

I think we’re planning on having cake, but don’t go thinking that anything like this monstrosity will be making an appearance. Via Cake Wrecks.

Then, the baby shower offers started pouring in from my dear friend in Dallas. What a wonderful group of women I am surrounded by! I started to rethink my position a bit, thinking back on the reactions I’ve had when talking about my home birth. No horror stories had been offered, no criticism voiced. The only people who had yet do to these things? My family, who I guess know me well enough that they think they are entitled to attempt to scare me into thinking childbirth is to an awful event to be dreaded. The women in Dallas though were just the opposite! They asked questions, often voiced astonishment, and wished me well. I realized that these were the kind of women I would be happy to have surrounding me in the weeks leading up to the birth, and so I accepted the offer of a friend and told her to being planning. She sent out the evite email on Monday and it’s been so fun to check the RSVPs to see who is coming. I told her no cheesy snickers-bar-melted-in-a-diaper games. We’ll see if she has other ideas in mind.

The best part about choosing to have a shower before baby comes, is as a mom who doesn’t know the gender, I’m guaranteed to receive gender neutral gifts! We’re attempting to go absolutely as minimal as possible, in part because we both don’t like clutter, and also because we’re hoping for a move to business school in the Fall and it doesn’t make sense to stock up on a bunch of baby stuff we won’t be using until after the move happens (high chair, exersaucer, etc). I spent a few hours putting together a Wishpot registry here and a quick Babies “R” Us one here, and if any moms out there would like to give me feedback on the items I chose I’d love to hear it (I’ve deleted and added several things already!)

March 27th is the schedule baby shower day. I hope I can find someone to take a few pictures for me, I don’t think my guests would appreciate it if I was the one trying to do so!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shown you an updated belly photo from my week by week series (which I’ve turned into a bimonthly event instead of weekly, which is much easier on me!), and the difference is HUGE.

What you last saw:

And what I look like as of Sunday, February 28th:

If you would like to see the full progression up to this point, you can click here to visit the slideshow I made with all of the belly photos I’ve taken so far.

*For those who are curious about me being okay with showing my belly when I talk so much about modesty, please see this reply I wrote to an earlier comment on the topic of birth photography and modesty.