Project Pollywog: 39 Weeks, 1 Day
Oct. 2nd, 2007 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eniarelocinI am really not feeling great today. My back is killing me. It's so uncomfortable to sit anywhere- to the point of distracting me from work.
I've drug myself in to work at the college today- for a longer shift than my usual these days. This shouldn't be a big deal, but all I really want to do is lay down. The air in here is so dry that it gives me a headache every time I'm here, at least everyday since the quarter started. Not looking forward to hours more of this.
It's amazing to me how completely out of energy I am these days. Sometimes I feel fine and then think I can start cleaning or doing whatever project I've set for myself, but so quickly, even with the smallest tasks, I find I've exhausted myself. This usually involves tweaking my back in the process.
Fortunately my back hasn't been trying to go out too much today. Instead that dull back ache has intensified into this harsh, crampy, feeling of static and burning. I've had it worked on by the chiropractor on Saturday which helped a lot, and then accupuncture yesterday. Tomorrow it's back to the chiropractor. However, this pain will likely not only continue on, but continue to intensify until labor. Why? This is the part where I talk about Occipital Posterior.
This basically means that the baby is facing outward instead of facing my spine. As you can see in the illustration above this presents a problem allowing the baby to fit down the birth canal as it was designed to do. This can cause/lead to back labor. This occurs when the body works to turn the baby during labor, essentially. Sometimes it can be more painful and make labor take longer... sometimes not. Yet another reason for the birthing tub, though.
See SpinningBabies.com for a lot more information on this.
The theory is that the baby has been in this position largely due to my back being so screwed up for so long causing my uterus and pelvic alignments to be asymmetrical. So I'm doing exercises, going to the chiropractor and getting accupuncture to try and correct this as much as possible before labor starts to try and help my body out as much as I can. Included in this is sitting with my pelvis tipped forward as often as possible, not leaning back (reclining), and sleeping on my left side exclusively. Darlene, the midwife, says we should be proactive where we can (such as doing these things and doing chiropractic and accupuncture) and not worry about it beyond that because my body will likely take care of it, and I definitely don't need the extra stress. I'm trying not to think about the fact that this does somewhat increase our risk for needing a Cesarean, which is why it's a source of stress. But there is still time and I have faith my body will do what it needs to.
I definitely wish I would have known more about this earlier. I knew about the whole breech position thing (baby's butt is down and head up), but I didn't ever think about it facing the wrong direction, or that there was a wrong direction. Also, had I known that just putting up with my back being such a mess this whole time could cause added problems like this, I would have tried to do more about it. However, that does tend to cost money and there have been even bigger priorities for that. Ah well... in the meantime it just hurts, but hopefully it hurts for a good cause.
Ah well... almost there, though. Today, officially, I can say I'm about ready to get this over with. Part of me still wants the rest of the week to get things done in the office and wrap up with clients, but there is a huge part of me that is so ready for the baby.
Every night for the last few nights I've had baby dreams. I had one where I could grab the foot from outside of my belly and I tried to spin the baby around so it would be going the right way. There was another one where we, Stephen, baby girl, and myself were riding in the car. I had the baby in my lap in the front seat and she was looking out the window. She had a rainbow aura and a cute hat. I kept thinking I should really put her back in her seat now, but I didn't want to let her go. I had another one which was basically just looking back at the car seat (from the front seat of the car, which I do all the time) and finally seeing feet in it. I'm looking forward to that.
I'm ready to be captivated by the tiny creature.
Oh yeah, did I mention that we're now within a week of our due date?
I've drug myself in to work at the college today- for a longer shift than my usual these days. This shouldn't be a big deal, but all I really want to do is lay down. The air in here is so dry that it gives me a headache every time I'm here, at least everyday since the quarter started. Not looking forward to hours more of this.
It's amazing to me how completely out of energy I am these days. Sometimes I feel fine and then think I can start cleaning or doing whatever project I've set for myself, but so quickly, even with the smallest tasks, I find I've exhausted myself. This usually involves tweaking my back in the process.
Fortunately my back hasn't been trying to go out too much today. Instead that dull back ache has intensified into this harsh, crampy, feeling of static and burning. I've had it worked on by the chiropractor on Saturday which helped a lot, and then accupuncture yesterday. Tomorrow it's back to the chiropractor. However, this pain will likely not only continue on, but continue to intensify until labor. Why? This is the part where I talk about Occipital Posterior.
Occipital Posterior
This basically means that the baby is facing outward instead of facing my spine. As you can see in the illustration above this presents a problem allowing the baby to fit down the birth canal as it was designed to do. This can cause/lead to back labor. This occurs when the body works to turn the baby during labor, essentially. Sometimes it can be more painful and make labor take longer... sometimes not. Yet another reason for the birthing tub, though.
See SpinningBabies.com for a lot more information on this.
The theory is that the baby has been in this position largely due to my back being so screwed up for so long causing my uterus and pelvic alignments to be asymmetrical. So I'm doing exercises, going to the chiropractor and getting accupuncture to try and correct this as much as possible before labor starts to try and help my body out as much as I can. Included in this is sitting with my pelvis tipped forward as often as possible, not leaning back (reclining), and sleeping on my left side exclusively. Darlene, the midwife, says we should be proactive where we can (such as doing these things and doing chiropractic and accupuncture) and not worry about it beyond that because my body will likely take care of it, and I definitely don't need the extra stress. I'm trying not to think about the fact that this does somewhat increase our risk for needing a Cesarean, which is why it's a source of stress. But there is still time and I have faith my body will do what it needs to.
I definitely wish I would have known more about this earlier. I knew about the whole breech position thing (baby's butt is down and head up), but I didn't ever think about it facing the wrong direction, or that there was a wrong direction. Also, had I known that just putting up with my back being such a mess this whole time could cause added problems like this, I would have tried to do more about it. However, that does tend to cost money and there have been even bigger priorities for that. Ah well... in the meantime it just hurts, but hopefully it hurts for a good cause.
Ah well... almost there, though. Today, officially, I can say I'm about ready to get this over with. Part of me still wants the rest of the week to get things done in the office and wrap up with clients, but there is a huge part of me that is so ready for the baby.
Every night for the last few nights I've had baby dreams. I had one where I could grab the foot from outside of my belly and I tried to spin the baby around so it would be going the right way. There was another one where we, Stephen, baby girl, and myself were riding in the car. I had the baby in my lap in the front seat and she was looking out the window. She had a rainbow aura and a cute hat. I kept thinking I should really put her back in her seat now, but I didn't want to let her go. I had another one which was basically just looking back at the car seat (from the front seat of the car, which I do all the time) and finally seeing feet in it. I'm looking forward to that.
I'm ready to be captivated by the tiny creature.
Oh yeah, did I mention that we're now within a week of our due date?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
re: occipital posterior
Date: 2007-10-03 01:50 pm (UTC)so, tea at your place around 5? or if you're not feeling up to hanging out, that's okay -- i can just come deliver the goodies and say hi. you can let me know via text.
Re: occipital posterior
Date: 2007-10-03 06:23 pm (UTC)We have evolved in such a way that our pelvises have narrowed due to bipedalism and our heads a much larger (proportionately) at birth than other animals due to our brain size/capacity. It's a really interesting side effect of our special evolutionary path, and the reason that human birth is so hard and complicated. It's basically our trade off for being smart.
I'm glad you think so! I figure I just talk too much!
Re: occipital posterior
Date: 2007-10-03 08:46 pm (UTC)