Want The Good News or Bad News?
What a day it has been, I really don’t know where to start.
At the beginning I suppose…
Went into the clinic this morning to have the scan, was told that Indigo is measuring around 10lbs and that the waist measurements are off the scale (meaning shoulders could be large too and lead to shoulder dysoctia). I’m also carrying A LOT of amniotic fluid. Chris (the sonographer/midwife) said there’s no way she’d be happy to let me give birth at home or even the birthcentre so she’s referred me to the hospital 
Jeff drove us to B & Q where we sat in the car park for a while to discuss our options. I cried, a lot and to be honest my head was so messed up at this point I didn’t know what to think. Instead I told Jeff to open the envelope Chris gave us containing Indigo’s gender. He didn’t want to know until Indi’s arrival but it really softened the blow for me (find out boy or girl later 
). Jeff is really concerned and just wants me and Indi here safe and sound. I wanted to carry on with my homebirth plan but this is my first baby and to be honest I’m scared now! I’m still confident in my body’s ability to birth our baby but I’m scared of anything going wrong and not getting to the hospital in time - the hospital is 30-40 minutes away. I’m feeling like a complete failure about this now, succumbing to ‘their’ protocol. Anyway, we went into B & Q to buy some herb seeds and pots. After waddling around for 10 minutes I started to get immense backpain and then it travelled around to the front. It got so bad I had to go to the bathroom to breathe through it! Needless to say we got out of there sharpish!
On the way home we stopped at Nancy’s (MIL) for a quick cup of tea. We didn’t mention the whole having to go to hospital thing, just that baby’s going to be big and they’re going to keep an eye on it. While I was sat there my backpain got worse, then it went to the front again. I just tried to keep talking and smiling through it! We didn’t spend too long there! Straight home, straight upstairs on the birthing ball and on the phone to Mum. The pains I was having were constant at that point, there was no break in between like I expected contractions to be. After talking to Mum for a while I went downstairs to moan and weep at Jeff! Ran a bath but it didn’t help, I actually felt worse because of the heat so out I got out spent a while groaning through pains in the bathroom. I decided there and then to call the midwives to find out what I should do. The ‘contraction’ went away and I called them, getting an engaged tone everytime! By the time I finally got through to someone I was getting another ‘contraction’. I was told to call the hospital because they can’t help me now I’ve been referred :roll:. I intended to wait until this ‘contraction’ was over before calling them so went upstairs and laid on the bed. Jeff came up to join me (all this time he’d been getting the house and animals ready so we could leave if this really was labour!) and talked me through it. It passed and we stayed up there for a bit. After a while it was obvious that my ‘contractions’ had stopped. Dammit! I had an idea that they weren’t the real thing as I’ve had no show and my waters are still intact.
It’s all an anti-climax now. We really thought this was it for a while there. 
So, here I am now. I’m getting a hospital bag ready and Jeff just reminded me to sort the MP3 player out with my favourite music. I’ve got my head around the idea of going to hospital and although I’d like to try for a natural birth there, those pains I had were excruciating and I don’t know if I’ll be able to cope being out of my own environment. We shall just have to see how it all goes.
If you would like to know if Indigo is a boy or a girl…
Branka said,
April 17, 2008 at 7:13 pm
awww Sara, I know you must be dissappoitnted, but I hope you can still have a natural birth in the hospital.
Congrats on your little boy though…you just couldn’t wait?? hehehe
Well, I went for an appt today and my cervix is not favourable at all and the dr thinks I won’t go into labour until next week.
I will have an induction on Tuesday if the baby doesn’t show up by then.
I hope everything ends well for you and your boy.
I will definitely keep you in my thoughts.
hbacmama said,
April 17, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I’m just sobbing here. We don’t ‘know’ each other at all… and I’m sobbing for you and your homebirth dream. I KNOW the midwives are just following the rules. I KNOW that despite what you say about the pains being soooo hard. I KNOW that you will get through them. Can I be so bold as to give you my take on the what happened.
I think… and this is just me.
I think that you are/were grieving. And we all know that grieving hurts. Your body was hurting, because you were grieving. Yes, having a baby hurts. It will hurt more than you can ever imagine… but honestly. It all goes away after a while. Even in the most horrible of pain… I can remember laughing when they went away… laughing at the midwives, doula and husband who were all being so hushed and quiet. I thought this was hilarious and cue the next contraction….
I really hope you update us when you head out to the hospital… I have a Birth Candle that I light for friends who are in labour. It is waiting for Mr. Indi. OOOOOH I am sooooo going to save up and send him a Canada shirt from my boys.
I am totally assuming that you get to keep midwives during your hospital birth. right? RIGHT?! Oh God back to sobbing now… it seems like you don’t doesn’t it?
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF___!
hbacmama said,
April 17, 2008 at 7:26 pm
AND… I stick by my guess of 7 lbs 8 oz… just because I think that scans SUCK!!!! AND I have the studies to prove it in my doula files!!!!
pbttttttttttttttttttttttttttt (that is Canadian for sticking your tongue out and making rude noises. Got to love acting like a soon to be four year old… I just got in trouble from mine for doing it!)
halfpintpixie said,
April 17, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Yay, a boy! I’m sure Indigo will be delighted the blogging world has seen his bits
I hope you don’t feel too disappointed that you have to go to the hospital, I know it’s a really hard to have to change your plans at this late stage but it is still completely possible to have a great hospital birth. A lot of the preparations you made for your homebirth will stand to you, now you will have to make your personal birthing space in your head rather than in your home, if that makes sense!
Good luck, you’ll be meeting Indigo soon, it’s very exciting x
Kathy said,
April 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Congrats on the boy….sorry about the “big baby” diagnosis!
My 2nd son was 9 lb. 2 oz. and born at home with just a few pushes and no tearing at all. My SIL had a 9 lb. 8 oz. boy for her first, and didn’t tear at all (though she did push for 5 hours). She has, like, no hips at all and was pretty fearful of the whole pushing/birth thing, so I think it was hard for her to relax enough to get him out.
I’ve got some article url’s at the end so you can look through them and see what you think; and I just read *somewhere* about a woman who was sectioned for big baby (10 lb or something) and the actual birthweight was around 6 lb. Ultrasounds are not terribly accurate, especially with very big or very small babies — as long as the babies are “average” (which of course most babies are), they tend to be fairly accurate, but get too far one way or the other, and their accuracy decreases.
My u/s w/my first son showed his then-estimated fetal weight to be greater than his actual birthweight was 10 days later (7 lb. 5 oz.). Another SIL’s 3rd baby was suspected to be small (”lucky if she’s 6 lb”), and she was over 8 lb. at birth (they couldn’t get a good view because of her positioning)
The bad contraction pains may be related to the SPD. My 2nd labor was much more painful than my first (and my water didn’t break until nearly the end, which supposedly makes ctx less painful), and I think the SPD had something to do with it. Have you tried the “wishbone” exercise I mentioned to you earlier? If you’re not going to do chiro, then please at least try that. It helped one of my SILs, and I wish I had known about it when I was pregnant w/#2. In fact, I did it just a few months ago, and could feel my pubic bones re-aligning. It was weird, but felt much better — and I’m not even pregnant!
This is very important: you will NOT BE A FAILURE if you get an epidural. You won’t get a medal if refuse an epidural. I’m all for natural birth, but needless pain is just plain needless. Pain with a purpose — now, that’s something different!
Here’s a blog post about a doctor that gets moms — even those who have epidurals — into a good, upright birthing position. You can talk this over with your midwife or doctor and hospital, and see how accommodating they can be for you, with or without an epidural.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20010115/302.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BJI/is_5_31/ai_72882025?tag=rel.res1
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYD/is_18_38/ai_109265352
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11966473
http://www.homebirth.org.uk/big.htm
http://www.bellybelly.com.au/articles/birth/small-pelvis-big-baby-cpd
http://lauredhel.livejournal.com/215810.html
http://www.ican-online.org/vbac/cephalopelvic-disproportion-cpd