Week 24!

24 weeks with my little guy, and I'm growing closer and closer to him. He is a crazy little guy. I never thought I'd be able to feel him wiggling ALL THE TIME. Sometimes he gets so crazy in there and it makes me wonder what he is up to. Is he dancing? Practicing karate? Moving my organs out of the way? Or maybe just saying hi? Either way I love it. I wake up sometimes and he is wiggling around and I can't wait for the day when he is earth side and up in the middle of the night doing the same thing and I get to look my son in the eye and tell him to go to sleep or else! And if he is anything like his father then he will spend the rest of his life being a wiggle worm in his sleep. His poor future wife. I mean *cough cough* what? I have the best sleep ever next to my man.
This week we had another prenatal appointment. In case you are just tuning into Butt Chin Biographies, I'm receiving prenatal care at Bella Vie Gentle Birth Center and every prenatal test is optional for me! Which is awesome because there are tests that are really just not relevant to me. I knew that the glucose test was coming up, so I was looking forward to learning about it from my midwives. Pretty much every woman takes a picture of her glucose drink, it's like a right of passage for pregnancy. Am I right? I asked my midwife why most pregnant ladies take this test, and what are good reasons for not taking the test, or possible alternatives to the test. What I learned is that I have no risk factors for gestational diabetes (YAY GO GOYER FAM) and a lot of times the test needs to be re-done, and one of the ingredients in the drink isn't even regulated by the FDA. Also that much sugar just isn't good for any body, pregnant or not. BUT they did explain to me the problems that gestational diabetes causes and that doesn't sound like fun either. So, an alternative to the glucose drink is getting a blood sugar tester thing (yes that is the official name) and taking your blood sugar levels two hours after you eat twice a day for a couple days. This not only shows a much better picture of what your blood sugar looks like, but I'm told it's really helpful in making better eating decisions. I DEFINITELY need help in that department, so I opted for the alternative test instead. No nasty flat soda drank for this pregnant lady. I'll save my sugar intake for something much more appetizing thank you!
My sister brought up a question I have never thought about before. She was curious how EVERY pregnant lady was supposed to dilate to 10 cm before pushing, when we all have different bodies and different sized babies. I was like, wow, I have no idea. Every woman does not have the same size anything, so why should the cervix be any different? So I posted the question on my birth center's private facebook page (reason number 385 that I LOVE my birth center) and asked the midwives to shed some of their wisdom on the subject. The response was remarkable! I learned so much about dilation and how it's measured and how my midwives felt about closed glottis pushing. All this from throwing it out on facebook. If you are curious about this, message me! One of my midwives' doctoral classmates got a hospital in Alaska to change their policy on closed glottis pushing and it made their cesarean rate go from 30% to 15%!!!! Oh what's Bella Vie's cesarean rate you ask? 4.9 % in the last 3 years! That's impressive folks!
In other news, thanks to copious amounts of Bio Oil, and now Earth Mama's Stretch Oil my belly button is no longer about to rip in half! Praise the Lord! My grand canyon of a belly button is still on it's way to becoming Mt. Everest, but right now we are at Great Plains. I'm sure you were all wondering how it was doing, so there ya go!
Oh I turned 24 last Thursday, so that was exciting. I celebrated by getting a pedicure with shellac because my darn toes are just so far away now, and it's hard to keep up with the paint. I got to spend some nice time with my family too. This time of the year I get showered with the love because Mother's day is a couple weeks before our anniversary, and then it's my birthday! My poor husband. It works out ok though, because after my birthday is Father's day, so now there is that for him!