An Intimate Photo Shoot, Pregnancy 33 weeks 4 days

In a rare moment of self-disclosure (I'm leery about what I post in the online world), I have decided to share a few photos from my pregnancy photo shoot taken at 33 weeks & 4 days. Today, Wednesday April 20th (although I'm posting this a few hours early) is exactly 36 weeks and we are looking forward to meeting our little one very soon! My husband & I had a lot of fun working with the most talented and wonderful photographer on these, Cecilia DelViscio of Rhode Island.  She recorded our wedding at this same location in August 2009 and we had no doubt that she would do just as an amazing job this time around.  Thanks Cecilia!

And there you have it!  I am a very blessed woman with a wonderful husband and a very round baby belly!  That has "dropped."  

Erythromycin & Vitamin K, to Give or Not to Give?

Call me a skeptic, jaded, cynical…I think the medical field is full of unnecessary treatments that are driven more by insurance companies then by what is necessarily in our best interest.  Don’t get me wrong, modern medicine can be and is wonderful when accessed and provided appropriately.  However, somewhere along the line, we’ve turned into a pill popping, there’s a diagnosis for everything culture. 

My point in all of this is that in a few short weeks I will be giving birth to my first child.  Within the first 24 hours of my newly born child’s life, there are a lot of “routine” medical tests and procedures that occur.  Certain obvious things are necessary and make sense to me, such as suctioning the baby’s nostrils out, clamping the cord & cutting it, performing the APGAR testing, vital & weight checks, cleaning up the baby, ect.  However, there are 3 things that I’m not so sure of and have received mixed information on when it comes to “medicine” that is given.  Shortly after my child is born, it is standard procedure to put erythromycin cream in the eyes to treat for any bacteria that may have been transferred from the vagina, especially STDs.  The baby also receives a Vitamin K injection to prevent unexpected bleeding that can be caused by low levels of the vitamin that helps with clotting.  Lastly, the baby is usually given its first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccination on its 2^nd day of life. 

I’m one to question everything and my maternal instincts are kicking in.  I want to know re: the 3 mentioned treatments are they truly necessary?  The answers I have received to my questions have varied from OB to midwife to doula to friend to what I’ve read.  I have decided that I will delay the Hepatitis B injection until the first appointment with my pediatrician, which is perfectly normal to do.  However, I’m not sure what to do with the erythromycin or Vitamin K.  My concern is that I do not want give my newborn child treatments that are not necessary, but I also do not want to not give something that could be needed.  Did I mention I don’t trust “standard procedures?”  I know I do not have any STDS and as a result there is a very low risk for any type of damaging bacterial eye infection for my child.  So should I still allow the erythromycin ointment?  I eat LOTS of strawberries which are packed with Vitamin K (I really like them, they’re one of my “cravings”) and am going to breastfeed.   Babies do build up Vitamin K levels with the initial colostrum milk from their mother and in the following weeks.  Is the Vitamin K necessary?

So what do you think?  If you are a parent, what did you do?     

Advice for this Mom-to-be

            Today I am exactly 30 weeks pregnant.  This is my first pregnancy, and it has been both an amazing and interesting experience.  There is something about pregnancy that I noticed brings out a type of longing in other women, specifically mothers, not just to touch your belly, but to share stories and bits of advice from their own experiences.  I have heard from so many women how they  “loved being pregnant.”  I’ve been told the many difficult stories people have experienced during their pregnancies, birth and after.   Frequently I hear when I say I am looking forward to actually having my child “just wait” or “enjoy it while you can.”

Well, I don’t love being pregnant.  For me, it is a means to a beautiful ending.   I genuinely enjoy feeling my baby move (I opted to keep the sex a surprise) and find it very reassuring.  I do not enjoy the hip pain and leg cramps I experience at night that wake me or feeling stretched and uncomfortable.  Yet that really has been the worst of it.  The initial fatigue I experienced that I just couldn’t even begin to explain subsided after a few weeks.  I wasn’t overly sick in the beginning although brushing my teeth for some reason induced an unpleasant gag reflux.  My health is good, my fibroids in sufficient check, and I passed the 3 hour gestational diabetes test after an initial high score.  Despite the fair-weather experience, I am really just looking forward to meeting my newborn infant and motherhood as a whole.  I know it will be difficult, I know I am going to be exhausted; I’m okay with that.  At least I will be waking up to care for my baby versus because my hips ache. 

So today I am reaching out to ask for some positive and practical advice from all the moms out there.  Tell me about your joys in the first weeks and months of having your first born.  Share your challenges and how you overcame them.  Help me to embrace my soon to be future with your experiences and words of wisdom, while I wait for my soon-to-be bundle of JOY.  After all, there is a reason we call babies just that!