I’m not sure how many of you knew we were expecting… well, we are… And we found out yesterday that we’re having a boy!
The officially unofficial due date is January 9th. We are pretty excited.
The doctor’s office actually screwed up and scheduled our ultrasound for a day when no technicians would be in. Oops! But since we were all there and excited to find out, my doctor went ahead and did a short ‘gender only’ ultrasound. I have another appointment this morning for the measurements portion of things. It actually worked out to our advantage though… we like to get video recordings of the Ultrasound and, due to lawsuits and such, IHC isn’t too fond of recording them for us. With Bridget they flat out refused and we had to argue pretty seriously and sign a waiver to get them to do it. We brought a videocassette this time prepared to put up a fight, but since it was my doctor performing the ultrasound instead of a tech, all we had to do was say “please.” That was nice.
Anyway, here are a couple of images from the ultrasound:
He didn’t try to hide the fact that he’s a boy. It was pretty obvious.
We haven’t chosen a name yet, but Dave and I both remember liking the name ‘Spencer’ when we were brainstorming names with Bridget. So that is a possibility.
So far this pregnancy has been pretty mild – just as it was with Bridget. As long as I remember to eat and try to avoid foul smells I’m okay. I’ve only thrown up a few times. I am grateful it is mild. One looming consideration for me though is C-section or attempt at vaginal delivery???…
For those of you that don’t know, I spent 13 hours in labor with Bridget… 4 of the 13 hours I was pushing. She wouldn’t drop past position 1 – apparently I have a small pelvic bone that happens to be tilted slightly upward. Inside of gracefully finding her way out of the birth canal, Bridget continually banged the back of her head up against my bone. After 4 hours of pushing, my doctor called for an emergency C-section. It was nearly 4am when she was born and I was exhausted. The recovery was horrible too – I had a lot of the swelling and hemorrhoids from a vaginal delivery PLUS the pain and swelling of the incision. It hurt to walk for almost 3 weeks, and hurt to laugh or sneeze for even longer than that.
Bridget was only 6 lbs. 7 oz. when she was born.
My doctor says that there is a possibility that a vaginal delivery might work this time… bodies tend to change with each pregnancy. But there is no way to be certain.
So the dilemma… Which option do I choose??
Obviously a successful vaginal delivery would be the most affordable and easiest to recover from. But what if it doesn’t work (remember no way to be certain)? I don’t really love the idea of another emergency c-section and more hideous recovery. And this time I’ll have a toddler to care for too (e.g. I can’t just live in the recliner for 3 weeks). If I choose the c-section route from the beginning I can schedule the birth and to a degree minimize my recovery time… as compared to an emergency cesarean. But that would cost more than a vaginal (but not as much as a ‘vaginal turned emergency c-section’) – and it also means that any/all future births will also have to be cesarean.
I need some help here. Looking at the PROS/CONS:
Vaginal Delivery
PROS: If successful: quick recovery. Lower cost. Shortest hospital stay. Possibility of future vaginal deliveries.
CONS: Risk of emergency c-section = highest cost, longest recovery. Small risk (1%) that previous incision can rip while pushing = fatal to mom and baby.
C-Section
PROS: Ability to schedule the birth*. No risk of additional emergency c-section. Moderate recovery time (as compared to vaginal + emergency c-section)
CONS: Higher cost. Longer recovery (compared to successful vaginal). All future births will also be cesarean.
*I should mention that we have 90%/10% insurance through the end of the year – so a scheduled c-section would be late December (if we have it our way).
Can you see why this is a tough decision? I’ll take any thoughts/suggestions/experiences I can get. What would you do? Which route would you choose?
(Has anyone else had to make a similar decision?)
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_cesarean_section_hospital_bill_cost
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722092223AAYa3Bn
Good one:
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/healthy-living/pregnancy/labor-delivery/delivery-options/cesarean-delivery-best-option
I have witnessed natural and C-section births. the C babies seemed to come into this world with a lot less trauma and seemed to be a lot calmer.
Check your insurance to see what is covered and what your max out of pocket is. Find out what is covered for the baby too. C section may eliminate extended stay for the baby too.
The best advice I can give would be to study all your options then pray about it. Have Dave give you a blessing. Listen to his counsel then make your own decision it is your body and you will be the one that lives with the decision. You can’t go wrong when listening to the Holy Ghost.
No advice here, just a big congrats! Boys are so fun. 🙂
Yahoo! Congrads! While Bridget and Cadence are playing, Cooper and baby Boy can play too. This is perfect. One of each!!! I’m excited for you!
Congrats on the boy!! Only because I had all of my vaginally, I would vote vaginal ONLY if you didn’t have to push long and get hemorroids again. I had those with Karoline because I didn’t know what I was doing and was so drugged up and couldn’t push right. With the other 3, I recovered really well and had no problems. It was great being able to walk around as soon as the epidural wore off (Savannah was natural so I could have walked right after delivery, but they wouldn’t let me) That’s my vote, but thank goodness you will have a healthy baby either way. Can you imagine being alive when we didn’t have this technology and you didn’t have an option? You probably would have died having Brigette. I love modern technology!!
Well first off Congratulations! How exciting! And I am actually in the same boat as you we are due a month after you and I had to have an emergency c-section with Brock so I am extremly nervous about this pregnancy cause it took so long to recover after I had him and I got an infection it was miserable. Anyway I think it’s a hard decision cause like you were saying if its another c-section then thats what you’ll have to have for all your pregnancies. Well good luck we’ll have to talk sometime!
Tina, Congrats on a boy!! I like having one of each…
Also just a little bit of my opinion or experience so to say… I had Kambree emergency C section as well though I never pushed so I didn’t have those things to deal with. However my epidural wore off on one side. That made for an extremely painful C section which I think made my recovery worse as well. 2nd time around I was giving the option of trying for vaginal again. (which still terrified me because I had never done that!) So eventually I opted for a C section. It went tons better than the first one and my recovery seemed a lot faster as well. I think I only really used my Lortab for about a week. And as long as when I woke up during the night to feed Konnor I remembered to take it, I was able to get out of bed and walk in the morning. If I forgot….. well you probably know that pain pretty well. I think the reason I had a C section is similar to yours, I just am not shaped quite right to have a vaginal delivery.
It was also nice to choice the day of delivery, Kambree was really young so I was worried about her and who would take care of her while I was in the hospital. It was nice to make those arrangements before hand. So I’m C section all the way! 🙂
Good luck with making your decision it really is a hard one. I’m sure what you choice will be the right choice for you.
Congrats again on a boy!!
Tough decision. We’ve discussed it while walking so I won’t add to your list of comments. CONGRATS ON THE BOY!!! “Thats, Dave’s Boy!” 🙂
Congratulations! I had no idea you were expecting. Mine have all been vaginal deliveries. I pushed for 2 hours with Brayden before they discovered that he was posterior so they used forceps to “unhook” him from my pelvic bone, and he popped right out. I had hemmoroids for a year after him. The next two vaginal deliveries were a breeze…I only had one stitch with my second and no stitches with the third.
Unfortunately, it sounds like even if you go vaginally, you’ll still have the “first time effects”.
I don’t know what it’s like to recover from a C-section, but I had my appendix out when I was 20 weeks pregnant (so no laproscopy), and it took until after the baby was born to finally heal (since my belly was stretching and growing during the healing) Even with the long recovery, looking back it wasn’t THAT bad. I think if it were me I would be tempted to schedule a C-section in December for insurance purposes, and tax purposes, and because it sounds “safer”.
But, having said all that, I agree with the first comment. Heavenly Father can direct you to do what’s right for you. It would definitely be ideal to have the option of vaginal deliveries in the future.
Who’s your doctor? Would a second opinion on your pelvis size give a more accurate guess to base your decision on, or is it something they just can’t know ahead of time? I remember having my pelvis size checked at the beginning of every pregnancy. I’m VERY picky about doctors, and I’ve been to several in Logan. My personal favorites are Dr. Fowers, Dr. Noorda, Ken Wade (PA) and Dr. Horsely. My least favorite was Dr. Benedict.
Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the stories and advice about vaginal deliveries vs. c-sections. It really is interesting to hear other people’s experiences.
Felicia – My doctor is Kristen Craig. I really like her. With Bridget they talked about trying to suck her out, but didn’t think it would work – that’s why we did the cesarean. I’m not sure if a second opinion would really help… it wasn’t the size of my pelvis that was the issue, just the orientation.
Lately I’ve been leaning more toward the scheduled c-section. The benefits seem to outweigh the annoyance of a long recovery – and I’ve heard its a little easier the second time around. But I still have a couple of months before I have to decide. 🙂
I’ve heard great things about Dr. Craig. Best of luck in your decision.
No advice. I just wanted to congratulate you guys! You’re amazing to have made through to the half way mark to tell people. My Dr. is Craig also. I love her.
CONGRATS!!! I have a really good book called hypnobirthing. I took the class with my last baby and it was amazing how using the relaxation techniques really helped in the delivery…now I am not saying that it could fix the pelvic area concerns, but if you were to try for another vaginal delivery, it could help you with some of your anxiety. You might check to see if there are any classes in your area, and if not, I would be glad to send you my book and relaxation CD.
Ok, I didn’t read the other comments, so I hope I’m not redundant, but I had a similar problem with my pregnancies. With Andrew I was in labor for 24 hours but only dilated to a 9 so I ended up having an emegency c-section. It was a beast to recover from – as you well know. Dr. Craig is my doctor too and she really wanted me to deliver Simon vaginally, but there was a small concern of placenta previa. Not sure if you know, but it’s where the placenta grows over the cervix making a vaginal birth deadly since the placenta would come out first. Once you’ve had a c-section the risk is much greater that you’ll develop it. They’ll look for that in your next ultra sound. Anyway, she didn’t seem worried about it but said if I started bleeding at all during my pregnancy then it would be a sign of placenta previa and we’d have to do a c-section. Well, 3 weeks before Simon’s due date I started bleeding quite a bit and ended up having another emergency c-section. This time recovery was a breeze. I couldn’t feel a thing during the surgery and afterwards the pain was much less than what it had been with Andrew. We didn’t have a choice, but we’re ok with having to do a c-section each time because we’re not planning on a huge family. The cost is definitely more and that stinks, but we got over that pretty fast. Anyway, I agonized over the vaginal vs. c-section decision forever. I wanted the c-section because I didn’t want a repeat of Andrew’s birth, but was worried about the money and recovery too. We discussed it with Dr. Craig and finally decided to not make a decision right away and just let things play out. Guess it’s a good thing – the decision was made for use! Hope that helps.
I just realized, I didn’t even congratulate you! I noticed yesterday at church that you were pregnant, so I was glad to read about it on your blog. Boys are definitely fun! As much as I want a little girl, I adore my boys.
I KNEW IT!!! HAHA!! I’ve been doing the sidewards-glance at your belly for the past few weeks at church and thinking “Tina’s GOT to be pregnant,” and then deciding not to ask you about it, fearing that you were actually just putting on a few pounds 🙂 CONGRATULATIONS!! I’m so excited for you! I don’t know what kind of advice I could give you about the vaginal/c-section dilemma, I didn’t go through that sort of trauma with Carlitos. I’d say that since it’s still pretty early, that you not worry about it for a while… play it by ear? I don’t know!