30 Weeks

30 Weeks!

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant, three-fourths the way to meeting Shack Baby #2.  This pregnancy so far has been much easier on my body.  I don't have any swelling (still wearing my wedding ring and tennis shoes).  I don't have any physical signs of preeclampsia.  My blood pressure has been holding steady.  (I came in at 130/70 at my last appointmnet.)  My glucose test came back normal so I don't have gestational diabetes. Baby Shack is kicking and moving a ton which is great!   I don't have many pregnancy discomforts at this point.  The only thing I deal with is vivid dreams/nightmares and insomnia at times both of which I rarely suffer from outside of pregnancy.  I am so thankful my body has been handling this pregnancy better this time.

At my last appointment I discussed with Dr. C my delivery options.  Since I had a c-section with Lena I can just schedule another c-section after I hit 38 weeks or I can just wait and see what my body does naturally and try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section).  Truthfully, since I have had many surgeries, the scheduled c-section was appealing to me.  However, after talking with Dr. C (who is my age and has had a VBAC herself) I have decided to wait and see what my body does and at any point if I change my mind or if my body isn't handling the pregnancy well I can still do a c-section.  After my four day failed induction with Lena a labor and vaginal birth frightens me a little, okay....a lot.  I also realize that this is very likely the last time I will ever get the chance to experience pregnancy and thus childbirth.  I felt like I missed so much of Lena's birth because of how heavily medicated I was that I want to do my best to be mentally present for this birth.  

While I have gained much more weight than I wanted to at this point (34 pounds) I am still lower than the weight where I started with Lena's pregnancy.  I am so thankful that I made the effort to wait and lose those pounds before we did our 4th and 5th FETs.  I think being 40 pounds lighter for this pregnancy has made  a huge difference.  I know at this point that I will have to work pretty hard again to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight but I know I can do it as I did before.