11 Weeks Along

A lot has happened since I last blogged so I will use bullet points to update:

• Chiropractor: Evening of first visit = blissful pain-free sleep. Next day at bed time I started getting sciatic nerve pain radiating ALL the way down my left leg after I did the floor exercises my chiropractor instructed me to do. As I lay in bed I was in so much pain it was almost impossible to sleep. I still don't want to take anything, so no Tylenol. After a couple fitful hours of tossing and turning a heating pad finally helped me get some rest. The next morning I went back to the Chiro and told him about my pain. He did an adjustment, and as I walked to my car I felt even worse. Decided that maybe it was these visits that were aggravating (NOT helping) my lower back pain. Chiro = Not not for me right now! I need a new plan!

• Yoga!! I went to a Beginners Plus class with a good friend last Friday and felt fantastic after the class and ever since. I go back tonight to a prenatal yoga class. I'm hoping that I continue to feel better as a result of this type of stretching, strength building, breathing and inner focus. Yoga = Good so far!! Hope this is the answer to my lower back discomfort!

• Pregnancy Symptoms: Other than the back pain I have been feeling pretty great. No sickness at all, my energy is returning, and I've had a good appetite! Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and cant stop thinking about Cheerios so I end up heading down to the kitchen to eat a bowl or two of cereal before I can get back to sleep. I have gotten back to walking a lot, which feels good, but my pace has slowed some since I seem to get out of breath pretty easily. Just going up the stairs makes me huff and puff. I've read that its totally normal, but it makes me feel very out of shape. I get a little crampy here and there, sometimes its a sharp feeling when I move too quickly, but nothing too alarming or worrisome. Oh, and my memory....not so sharp these days. Pregnancy brain has totally set in!! :)

• OB visit: I couldn't wait until Feb. 1oth to see the new OB a friend of mine recommended, so I made an appt with another highly recommended OB group for next week (Jan 28th). I kept the Feb. 10th apt with the first OB too. I will determine which practice I like better and stick with them! If neither of them make me feel completely comfortable I will keep looking. To some I'm sure this may sound a little overboard, but I really want to find a practice who I click with since I never felt a closeness at all with anyone at my IVF clinic. I just want a more personalized type of care. My sister, who's a midwife in Oregon, has suggested that I find a CNM practice and interview with them. I'm considering it. To be honest I'm feeling very overwhelmed about choosing my next provider. Since this is my first baby I have no idea what to really expect, therefor I'm not sure what I really want. Do I want to try an all natural birth with no interventions? Maybe a water birth? Or will it be far more painful and awful that I could possibly anticipate so will I want an epidural and all the drugs they can give me to make it easier? Will I need to be induced? Would that really be necessary? Will I ultimately need a C-section? Obviously I don't know the answers to ANY of these questions and I'm sure it may seem WAY TOO EARLY to worry about them. But I kinda feel like they do matter now because all doctors have different protocols about when its appropriate to induce, or do a c-sections, or administer drugs, etc, etc. I And to make things even more confusing for me is that everyone I know who's given birth has their own stories, suggestions and advice. I feel lost in all the information and options and fear that I've lost my own vision of what I want. I haven't even started meeting with the new doctors yet and I'm already feeling exhausted by the process. Part of me wants to just give up and go to the first practice I see. I am so tired from the fight of trying to get pregnant that the idea of fighting for the birth plan I want seems like to much work. Maybe it would be easier to just do whatever my doctor tells me to do. As long as my baby is healthy then I'll be happy, right? Maybe not? Maybe I'll regret not choosing one thing over an other! Ugh! Why is this so frustrating for me, and why do I feel like I'm the only one who feels this way? AHH! (Sorry for all the venting, it helped to get it out. Hopefully the first doc I see makes me feel really at ease and I can stop feeling anxious about the birth that is still 6.5 months away. Perhaps its just the fact that I've been released from my IVF doc and haven't yet found a new OB that has me feeling so vulnerable...who knows! Maybe its all my hormones!)