Sideways baby vegan under ribs.

Baby's big brother, waiting patiently? Or grieving?

I love thinking about my tiny barefoot vegan. It’s hard not to, in fact, as he spends a lot of time wedging himself up partway under my ribs; his very favourite position, and though it doesn’t really cause pain, it does feel pretty weird.  He also seems to prefer one side of the womb in particular so I only ever feel him under the ribs on that one side.  

At our prenatal visit last week (26 weeks) the fundal height was 23cm, about 1 cm behind average. The doctor said that was most likely due to the fact that he was positioned sideways.  I can’t believe how much he makes me giggle! His heart rate was 155.  Which I take as a hopeful sign that, with Patrick’s help, I haven’t been doing too much accidental sleeping on my back.

Thankfully it’s getting closer to our last visit with this doctor, who we’ve come to find rather difficult to communicate with.  She asked us which obstetrician we wanted to be transferred to as if we already would have known. Since we weren’t familiar with the list of available obstetricians, we did not know who we wanted. Little things like that seem to happen when we talk to her that make me feel weird, since she’s been doing this for so many years. As our healthcare guide, why would she not assume that since it’s our first ever pregnancy, we don’t know how all these processes work? I also had to look into the public health prenatal classes myself; I don’t think she was going to volunteer any information on that to us at all.  Anyhow, it doesn’t help to gripe about the doctor. I think maybe she got wary of us when we began questioning the idea of a 28 week RhoGam* shot.  When I told her at the last appointment that I had decided against the second injection and only plan to get one after the baby is born and blood-typed, she proceeded to almost literally shut down the session, quickly saying “see you in 4 weeks” and making for the door. Unfortunately we had more questions for her. It’s like she wants to be an authority figure and has a hard time admitting she doesn’t really know much about a certain subject. Perhaps we’ll seek out another physician after baby is born.

As symptoms go, they are relatively the same. My January work schedule is fabulous, totalling 25 hours a week, with 4-6 hour day shifts. I tire more and more easily, my hips continue to get more stiff and sore under the 16 pounds of belly weight I’ve gained, and when I walk I have frequent pain in my pelvic bone as it shifts to accommodate that weight.  It sounds dramatic! Though it can be uncomfortable I am actually feeling great. I’ve continued to eat really well and do my best to snack throughout the day. Snacking is the best way to go, as I eat very slowly and it’s hard to eat big meals without getting bored or the food getting cold.

Tomorrow two things will happen: I will go for blood work and a glucose test in the morning, and in the evening we’ll attend our first prenatal class. I am really excited for this, as I’ve been feeling the urge to start mentally preparing for the practical aspects of parenthood without really being sure how. It will also be great to meet other first-time parents!

*RhoGam, or WinRho, is an injected dose of immune globulin, a blood product made from Rh Negative blood that has become sensitized, meaning it has formed antibodies against Rh positive blood cells (which 75% of humans have) that have been introduced to it. In accordance with the nation’s health program, it is typically given at 28 weeks to Rh negative women in case of any blood mixing to take place in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy if the baby’s blood is Rh positive.  The way this would work is: since the mother’s blood would begin to develop antibodies against an Rh positive baby’s blood if shared, the dose of immune globulin, or pre-made antibodies, would attack any of the baby’s blood that had made it into the mother’s system in place of her own antibodies, so that her blood would not continue to produce more, which could then attack a second, future baby’s blood more aggressively, causing potential health problems.  The injection at birth would lower the chance of sensitization from 16% to 2%, and an earlier second injection at 28 weeks would lower that chance to 0.4%. The catch for us is that the 28 week injection of WinRho, even if there are no antibodies already present (most likely), would be able to cross the placenta and attack the baby’s blood cells in a similar fashion to what my own blood would do, except it wouldn’t be necessary.  We would rather find out the baby’s blood type at birth, as it could be negative, making it totally unnecessary to take any injection at all. I will still be 98% protected, even if I do have another baby, which isn’t likely.  We did get a call from the Rh Program Administrator after we told our doctor we were doing this, who confirmed with us that we would most likely be fine without the 28 week shot. What a relief! It’s been a long few months of investigation into this and I’m finally feeling resolved with it.

Soon to be more than just an "It"!

Approaching 19 weeks on Friday and all is well. Our prenatal appointments at my family doctor remain uneventful. Yesterday we had an appointment. The doppler lets us hear the heartbeat more reliably every time, and yesterday's attempt also showed that the baby is moving around a lot, as we kept losing the sound of its tiny heartbeat. It! I may only be able to call it "it" for another couple of days, as Monday we will very likely discover the sex! Although I'm excited to find out the news, I have grown to love feeling this little androgynous "it" in my belly and am very fond of its ambiguous identity. When it comes down to it, I have no particular feeling on which it is. When I try and think of names, girls' names come to mind the most easily. When I look at clothes, I am drawn to the boys' items. I can honestly say (and I wouldn't have predicted this- I used to strongly prefer the thought of having a girl) that although I have always gotten along well with little girls and have often dreamed of raising one, now that I have a baby in the works I am completely neutral in my desire for one or the other. The few dreams involving infants I've had so far usually didn't indicate which it was as I was still pregnant, and I've had one dream each of giving birth to a boy and a girl. In both dreams, I might add, I was unable to muster the brainpower to take care of either baby. Very bad dreams, and so I don't take either of them seriously.

Going back to the Dr.'s appointment, here are some stats, for anyone's comparison: The belly measurement she took was 17.5 cm this time, and was 14.25 or so last time (four weeks ago; 14 weeks). The heartbeat was 144, fluctuating from 156 last time.  This makes my mother suspect it could be a girl, as it is said girls have faster heartbeats than boys. Who knows!? I am getting very excited indeed, especially to witness the babe in all its glorious activity on the screen.

Other than that, I have been eating quite well. I have not had as much time or energy to cook as I'd like though. Today on my day off I baked some Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sarah Kramer's Vegan a Gogo. Not as healthy a dish as I could have made, but what the heck, they tasted fabulous. We've been going out to top up groceries really often, so we are eating good food. This morning Patrick brought me breakfast in bed with tea, fresh pineapple chunks and a "McMuffin" sandwich with vegan sausage patties and melted Daiya cheese. I have been making veggie fried rice lately, a mixture of onions, veggies, jasmine rice, sesame oil, olive oil, and Braggs in a frying pan, and sometimes some World's Best Meatless Chicken Breast thrown in. Delicious indeed. Hummus and pita chips got me out of a few desperate hunger pangs this week, bought at the farmer's market.

The one vegan pregnancy book we've invested in is "The Everything Vegan Pregnancy Book". While quite a bit of this information is stuff I've already come across before, either from reading on vegan nutrition or pregnancy, it is nice to have a resource that contains both in one. With info on how much of each important vitamin I should be getting and listing food sources for them, it definitely reassures me that my diet was fine to begin with, and with a bunch of recipes at the back it gives me some great new food ideas to punch it up.

While everything is going fabulously, there is one small issue we have started talking about. Since I have an RH negative blood type, I have been told I need to get a shot of RhoGAM, an Immune Globulin treatment that would prevent my bloodcells from creating antibodies against a future baby's potentially RH positive bloodcells (not this baby). I was told by my doctor that I will need to get a dose of it at 28 weeks, and then again after the birth. We began wondering yesterday about this drug and the possible side effects, and it turns out there is a lot of controversy surrounding RhoGAM and its possible side effects on the internet, and some RH- women opt to not get the shot during the pregnancy to protect the baby. This is what we are leaning toward, but we need to do more research before making a decision, which I will cover in the next post. 


Until then, sleep tight and keep kicking, tiny one! You are now the length of a mango.