We Are Having a Giant!

Today we met with another high-risk doctor. They come to this hospital on Mondays and Thursdays, they switch out each time. So we had a new one today, Dr. Magee, I believe. I really liked him. He told GT that at week 4 when Audrie smiles at him, she will have him wrapped around his finger, HAHA! I know it! GT has no idea yet! 

Anyway, so his weight estimate today is that Audrie weighs 8 lbs 12 oz. He told us that they are usually off a pound either way. We are hoping it is the under a pound way. I cant imagine her being 9 lb 12 oz-that would be nutso. So I think him and my doc are considering me starting insulin tomorrow since my blood sugars arent exactly where we want them to keep Audrie from gaining weight so rapidly.

So my question is...She is so BIG-why cant we take her out now???? Well the main answer is lung development. Babies whose mama's have the GD, usually have poor lung development. The test they use to determine lung development is amniocentesis. Basically they take some of the amniotic fluid and test it--somehow they can tell. Well, of course we have a complication with that. My fluid level is at an 8. When I gets below an 8, they take the baby. AND the amniotic fluid in the uterus is under my belly, so it is really low and the doc would have to go through my hip to get it, which he said would be extremely painful and I would not like him for it. 

Im not going to lie- I am ready to get her out :)  However, I understand why we are keeping her in. My biggest concern is that she continues growing and gets too big where my doc feels a C-Section is necessary. Why would that happen? Well, I am glad you asked. Doctors biggest concern with a large baby (macrosomia) is shoulder dystocia. This is when they babies head comes out but the shoulders do not. This is extremely dangerous. It only happens in 1% of births and it does not happen all the time with a baby that has macrosomia. There are alot of factors involved including the woman's pelvis, the size of the babies shoulders, etc... So what does a doctor do if shoulder dystocia happens? The doctor can do a few maneuvers to try to ease the babies shoulders between the pelvis bones---2 worst case scenarios: they have to break the babies arm and pull him/her out or push the baby back into the uterus and perform a C-Section (verrrryyyy dangerous)! So, this is something that could be an issue, but again only happens in 1% of birth. Plenty of women give birth to big babies, but it is my first baby and I have no idea how my pelvis is spreading or not spreading...I will ask my doctor how we check and when we begin checking those things.

I still am holding on to a little hope that we will be able to give birth naturally. Depending on if my doctor will allow me to be induced or not. The reason we wouldnt be able to do it naturally is if during labor my blood pressure spikes, then doc will want to give me an epidural to make it go down. I was talking with my night nurse about this issue...she told me that what happens is usually when I woman experiences pain then her blood pressure will go up. SO if me and GT are able to practice our relaxation techniques and I am able to work with the pain and not get tense and continue abdominal breathing then maybe we can keep the BP down and have her naturally. Another good thing is that shoulder dystocia is less likely to happen if I am pushing in a squatting or hands and knees position. Well, a woman cannot get in those positions if she has had an epidural. I will be bringing that to my doctor's attention...

To conclude things, please do not think that we do not have Audrie's best interest in mind. We certainly do, but just because I have these complications does not mean we forget all we have learned. We still strongly believe that natural child birth is the best option for us at this point. We have done alot of work researching and studying things to help with the child birth. We arent just saying we are doing it naturally and leaving it at that. However, we do value our docs opinion and respect her medical knowledge. We would prefer to do it naturally and will keep hoping for it, even though we know it might not happen.