The Buzzbees

I’m a little behind updating about my last prenatal checkup. Sorry… better late than never, I guess.

Last Tuesday, I went in for my 28 week prenatal checkup. It was also the day I had to take my glucose tolerance test (actually my second one). I drank the nasty glucose drink at home and then headed to the doctor. We got there about 15 minutes early to make sure we were there in time to get my blood drawn at 9:30 am. However, we have discovered that the lab there is pretty unorganized (and I think the lab techs are very rude, too). I had to go back to the lab and tell them I needed to get my blood drawn for my glucose test. So they did all my vitals first and then said that the lady drawing the blood was helping someone else and would come get me after she was done. But 10 minutes later, she still hadn’t come back to get me. So I had to go back to the lab and basically harass them to take my blood. I just really didn’t want to have to do the test over again! But I prevailed and they got the blood drawn… finally.

After that, they took me back to the room to wait for the doctor. But of course, she was over at the hospital delivering a baby… so we wait some more. Probably at least 45 minutes. The nurse did come in and tell me that my sugar level was a little over the cut-off that the doctor likes to stick to (130). My levels were 134. So she gave me the orders to go take the 3-hour glucose test. FUN! Once the doctor got there, she measured me and then decided that she wanted to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing well. So we went over for the ultrasound and got some really cute pictures! The baby is doing great and is already head-down (hopefully it will stay that way). The baby is still measuring a week big. So I’m hoping for an early delivery. I’m so ready to meet this little one! Yes, I have baby fever!!!

Here are the ultrasound pictures that we got last week:

Baby Buzzbee with legs/feet over head!

REALLY flexible Baby Buzzbee!

Last Monday night (July 26), Eric and I went for a tour of The Baby Suites, where we will be having the baby. It was a fairly large tour with probably over 30-40 people. We started on the 3rd floor, which are actually the postpartum rooms. They were fairly nice, a little small, but that wasn’t really surprising to me. Some had bathtubs and some just had showers in the bathrooms.

Also on the 3rd floor is the nursery. In Mississippi, apparently there is a required transition period for the baby. An hour or so after birth, the baby is taken to the nursery for 4-6 hours for the transition period. This is where the nurses monitor all the vitals, give the first bath, do the hearing test, etc. Eric & I have known about this policy for awhile, but are still pretty frustrated with it. Being at 4 of Candi‘s and 4 of Amy‘s births in Baton Rouge, they do all this stuff in the room with the mother. Eric asked the nurse during the tour if it was mandatory that the baby had to be taken to the nursery and of course she said yes. I really don’t understand why they take babies away from their mothers… and for 4-6 hours! WHAT?!? Everyone says… oh it’s a good time for you to get rest, take a bath, etc. But I just want to have my baby with me! I’ve waited long enough to have him/her and now I only get 1 hour before you take them away for up to 6 hours?!? That is insane to me.

Anyway, after this part of the tour, I was pretty much frustrated and probably had high blood pressure. But we continued on and went downstairs to the 2nd floor to the labor & delivery rooms. These rooms are a little larger, but still nothing spectacular. A hospital room is a hospital room to me, I guess. Although we did notice that the rooms do have the Panda warmers in them, which are exactly the same thing they have in the nursery. So, of course I’m thinking to myself, why can’t the baby have it’s transition period in the room with us. So, this is something we are going to look into. At the hospital we were planning to use before we had to switch doctors, we were told that you could ask for a private transition, where the baby would stay in the room with you. However, this requires having a private nurse and of course, will cost extra. But we’re thinking… well, we have to pay the first $5000 anyway, so why not at least try to get what we want. I guess we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, when I go into labor, it won’t be a day when there are lots of patients being induced or anything.

This week marks the beginning of my third—and final—trimester. I have started feeling really tired the last few days. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it has to do with how much sleep I’m getting. Or maybe not the amount, but the quality of sleep. Almost down the minute, I’m waking up exactly every 2 hours to go to the bathroom. And although I’ve pretty much been doing that since my pregnancy started, I think it takes me longer to get comfortable and get back to sleep once I lie back down. Last night, I was only comfortable when I was lying on my back, and you’re not supposed to sleep on your back when you’re pregnant. Sadness.

Another change recently is my waistline. My belly hasn’t quite popped out yet, but I definitely see some changes… finally. Maybe I’ll actually look pregnant soon (and not just overweight). Speaking of weight, at my last appointment, I was still under the weight that I was at my initial prenatal visit. So I’ve still haven’t gained any weight. And I guess you could say that I’ve lost weight, because the baby (and all that entails) has to weigh something, right?!?

On Monday next week (July 26), we are going on a tour of The Baby Suites, where I will be giving birth. Then the week after that, on August 3, we go in for our next prenatal checkup (and I will also be doing a glucose tolerance test). And starting on Thursday, August 5, we will be going to a 4 week childbirth class (every Thursday for 4 weeks). Fun times! Maybe our schedule will be full enough for it to go by quickly. I’m sure October will be here before we know it.

So, we have about 13 or so weeks to go… I’m hoping less because I’m ready to hold Baby Buzzbee! We are getting more excited everyday and can’t wait to meet him/her!

Yesterday, we had an appointment with our new OB, Dr. Temeka Johnson, for our 25 week prenatal checkup. Everything looks fine with the baby. She listened to the heartbeat and measured my belly (which was a first for me). Although, I didn’t ask what the measurement was… might not want to know

I’ll be going back in 3 weeks (when I am 28 weeks) so that I can do another glucose test. That is always fun. The nurse didn’t give me an option of flavors this time. But I did ask if they had other flavors and she said it was either orange or lemon-lime. So I opted for the orange. The strange thing is, at this clinic, they have like 8 oz bottles of this stuff. But you’re only supposed to drink 5 oz. So, I’m not sure why they just don’t save money and buy the 5 oz bottles??? Weird. Maybe they get them for free or something. Who knows?!?

Anyway, I really do like our new doctor. She is very sweet and personable. And she seems very supportive of our natural birth plan. I’m glad that everything worked out quickly. She’s received all of my records from my other OB, so we should be fine from now on.

On Monday, July 26, Eric and I will go tour The Baby Suites at River Oaks where we will be having the baby now. I’m excited to see it. I’ve heard it’s pretty nice. We’ll also be signing up for a Childbirth Class soon.

The last few weeks have been crazy busy for us. Two weeks ago, Eric and I traveled to Louisville, KY for Eric to attend the Gurus of Tech Conference. I worked from the hotel there while Eric went to the conference during the day. I think he had a great time and was able to meet a lot of tech people from around the country. While we were there, the OB Educator from the new clinic called me. She wanted to get all of my health history and then go ahead and schedule me to see Dr. Johnson the next week. So I gave her all of my history over the phone and she schedule my appt with Dr. Johnson the next Tuesday (which would’ve been July 6).

Then, as we were traveling back home on Friday, my older sister Candi called to give me an update from her doctor’s appt. She said she was already 3-4 cm dilated and that the mid-wife said she would go ahead and break her water on Saturday if she wanted. So they opted to go ahead and do that. Eric and I got home about 3 pm on Friday afternoon and repacked a few things, then headed down to Baton Rouge. Candi, Craig, Cameron & I headed to the hospital first thing Saturday morning. Since Candi had tested positive for Group B Strepp, she had to get 2 rounds of antibiotics before they broke her water. So they started the first round at 9:30 am and we had to wait 4 hours before the next round could be put in. So around 1:30, they started the 2nd round and then broke her water around 2 pm. Her contractions started picking up after that and she got into the birthing tub around 3 pm. She gave birth to Cole Benjamin Lindsay at 3:50 pm. He is such a cutie! And I feel so blessed that I got to be a part of the special day with them. I’m so glad that she held out the week we were in Louisville!

So last week, I spent the week in Baton Rouge to help Candi with the other 5 kids. I’m glad that I was able to help her and still be able to work. That’s the perks of working from home! Anyway, Eric came back on Thursday to pick me up and we headed home on Friday afternoon. Although I had a wonderful time being with my family, it was definitely good to be back home with my husband!

And because I spent last week in Baton Rouge, I had to reschedule my OB appt! So we’ll be seeing Dr. Johnson for the first time tomorrow, July 13. It’s been almost 6 weeks since our last appointment. So I’m anxious to see how everything is going. Although, the baby has been really active, moving around and kicking. So I’m sure everything is fine I’ll try to give another update tomorrow after we see the doctor.

On Saturday, July 3, we welcomed a new baby into our family. My older sister, Candi, gave birth to Cole Benjamin Lindsay. He was born at 3:50 pm, weighed exactly 8 lb and was 19 1/2 inches long. He is their 6th child and 4th boy. We are so excited to have him and I can’t wait until Baby Buzzbee is here. I’m so glad that he/she will have a cousin so close in age.

The lady from East Lakeland Clinic called me this morning and said that Dr. Johnson approved me! YAY! I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a problem since we already saw her once. I’m glad it didn’t take 10 days. I really didn’t want to be stressing about it. So I have an appointment on July 6 to see the OB Educator. I’m not sure what they do, but I’m thinking it’s to talk about the money. After that, I will get to schedule my next prenatal appointment with Dr. Johnson.

So a few weeks ago, we filled out the paperwork at Baptist Hospital in Jackson to be pre-admitted there. The lady there called last week and told me she had some other paperwork that I needed to fill out and that she would mail it to me. However, I never got it. Then yesterday, she called and told me that she was having a problem checking my insurance or something.

Drama #1—Baptist is not an in-network provider on my insurance.
This came as a total shock to me and Eric. How could we not know this?!? I guess we just assumed that since our OB was in-network and was in the building right next door that the hospital would be in-network. But apparently it’s true! I know it’s totally our fault for not checking first! Oops! Anyway, our out-of-network deductible is $10K so it looks like we’ll be switching to River Oaks Hospital (and YES we checked to make sure they were in-network!!!).

Drama #2—Finding out if our current OB would deliver at River Oaks.
I finally got to talk to a nurse today and she said that they ONLY deliver at Baptist. So, now we’re back to the dilemma of switching doctors. Back in April, we were contemplating switching because we felt like our doctor wasn’t being supportive of our birth plan. And we actually met with another OB at River Oaks to discuss switching to her. However, we decided to stick with our OB after discussing our birth plan further with him. Apparently, that wasn’t the right decision… hmm…

Drama #3—Getting in to see the new OB.
I called the East Lakeland Clinic today to make an appointment with the doctor I saw in April. The lady I spoke with on the phone said now that I’m over 20 weeks, I have to be approved by the doctor. And it may take 10 working days for them to call me back. Sooooo…. we’re kinda in a holding period until I hear back from them. However, I feel like we’re in a catch-22. The doctor we’re currently seeing won’t deliver at the hospital that we need to deliver at and I don’t know if I can get in with the doctor that can deliver there. So what to do??? What happens if I don’t get approved with the new doctor? Do I keep seeing my current doctor for prenatal checkups and go to River Oaks and let another doctor deliver? Do you see my dilemma?

Oh well. I guess we’ll just be patient and wait for the verdict from the East Lakeland Clinic. I’m not too stressed about it though. I know God will take care of us and put us where we need to be. At the end, we’ll have a baby, right?!? And that’s all that matters

This morning, while lying in bed savoring the last few minutes before I HAD to get up to get ready for VBS, I started feeling the baby kicking. I think I’ve been feeling it on and off, but was never quite sure. But I’m pretty sure this was the real thing. I felt about 3 or 4 kicks before I decided to use the BabyBump app on my iPhone to record them. There is a kick counter in the app to help you keep track of them. Within the first minute of recording, the baby kicked 7 times. Then about 5 minutes later, I felt some more. After 10 kicks, the app tells you something like “Congrats! Your baby has kicked 10 times within 2 hours…” So I guess that was good. Since the baby kicked that many in about 6 minutes.

Eric didn’t get to feel them because he was already up and in the shower. But I’m not even sure he would’ve been able to feel them since they feel more like taps than full-on kicks right now.

I’ve tried to be still some and feel for others today, but it’s been a little crazy with VBS. I’m running the MediaShout slides (basically putting up the words on the screens) for the worship rallies & music time. So you know I have to sing and the do the motions with all the songs Anyway, I was excited to finally hit this milestone in my pregnancy! I’ve been hoping for weeks to feel the baby move and it finally happened. I’m sure as they get stronger though, I’ll be ready for it to stop But for now, I’m savoring every minute of it!