What a weekend so far! It's the busiest one I've had in a while. I think I held my own pretty well for 35 weeks preggo.

Friday morning I went to my chiropractor. I'm basically seeing her once a week at this point to get adjusted and make these last weeks of pregnancy more comfortable. She can only do so much for me, but it's better than nothing. I don't even want to know how I'd feel without her adjustments. She also employed the Webster Technique while I was there. The Webster is a technique that chiro's use on preggos like myself to help their babes turn because mine, bless her little heart, is still breech. She basically pressed really, really hard on some important ligaments that support the uterus to help them loosen. This basically gives the baby more room and my uterus more flexibility for her to turn. Space is scarce for her these days, so turning is either a chore that my body is making too difficult for her or she's just being stubborn. Whatever the case I want to start making an effort to help her turn. She just may turn on her own around 38 weeks, but for now I can at least try to help her along. I have an ultrasound on June 15th to check her position. If she turns before then, great! If not we'll see what my midwife has to say about that. If she never does turn I hit 39 weeks I might be sent to the hospital for an external cephalic version, which is manual baby flipping from the outside. It's a more aggressive than the Webster in that it should make her turn right then and there, not press here and there and wait a few days to see what happens. Hell, they might do it earlier than 39 weeks because I'm looking at possibly not being allowed to go past my due date because of the diabetes. So they might do it earlier to give her time to drop? I dunno. Worst case scenario is that she's stubborn, my team gets impatient and the OB that I must now consult with due to the diabetes declares that I need a c-section. Makes me shudder thinking about it, but there is time yet!

Speaking of an OB, I now have to see one along with my midwives because my endocrinologist put me on insulin for my diabetes. At first I thought it was a bold leap that ended up changing my prenatal care in a way that I wasn't happy with at all, but now that a few weeks have gone by and I'm recording my glucose numbers I now believe that it is necessary. My hormones are messing with me, man! Anyway, the insulin opens a whole new can of worms. I need an OB because I'm now considered high risk, but my midwife can still deliver my baby for me (phew!). I see this OB on Monday. I really need to ask her this whole induction thing my midwife mentioned. She said that the OB may not let me go overdue and I could be looking at a possible induction. I don't want an induction. I don't want to be hooked up to an IV and given Oxytocin so I can have a horribly more painful labor than is necessary and one that could go royally south because baby girl wasn't ready. All this uncertainty is KILLING me. I really wish I had a solid answer: will I be allowed to go into labor on my own or am I looking at a scheduled induction? It is so important to me that things run their course and it's pissing me off that medical system is getting in the way of that. Anyway I have this ultrasound on Friday to check baby's position, but I'm more interested in going to find out how big she is. I think it might help the decision making factor about my delivery one way or the other. If she's big I might be screwed, if she's measuring right on I might be okay. I highly doubt she's measuring small. This blog post aside, I'm trying not to think too hard about it because I still have 5 weeks to go and I'm doing all that I can to keep my sugars under control. There is still time even though everything seems like it's right around the corner.

In other baby news my last day of work is Thursday. I'm so excited! I'm just so happy to be done work. I don't hate my job, but it will be nice to get away from the customers and all of their retarded comments like, "Oh! You look like you're gonna go any day now!" Thanks a-fucking-lot, asshole. Just say I look huge. Anyway when I first got pregnant I thought I'd take it to the end because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had this extra time. Well, I have a month and I know exactly what I'm going to do with myself: take it easy, take care of a few last minute things, go to my appointments, and get some daily exercise. Oh, and wait anxiously, lol, like every woman does at that stage of pregnancy. I'm getting to the point of being done, but at least I can feel that way leisurely and not add undue stress from work.

Man, it feels like this pregnancy keeps going downhill, but I try to be optimistic and remind myself that at least I'm not dealing with preterm labor or, god forbid, problems with my baby. My baby girl is doing just fine. She's been quiet today, but had hiccups twice and I even felt her breathing. It was a very cool moment to say the least. She's moved around a little, but seems to fall back asleep after a short period. I'm not concerned. I listened to her heartbeat on the doppler and it was strong and beautiful and the same rate it always has been.

Dealing with this gestational diabetes thing has been both a cinch and a challenge. It's getting frustrating not being able to eat whatever I want. I miss eating treats and cereal and sushi. Lord knows, I'd like to pack a muffin and eat it after baby girl is born. Actually, I could probably get away with eating whatever in the early labor since I will need the energy for hard labor. I betcha carbo-loading for hard labor would be effective provided that labor itself doesn't cause nausea and vomiting. I was told that a woman will burn about 40% more energy during labor, it's that intense. Anyway, it's been a cinch at the same time because I've found foods that I like and some things that I can still get away with eating. I have been put on insulin, which I take before eating dinner so that my bedtime numbers are lower so that I can eat a bedtime snack so that my morning numbers are lower. It's a fascinating chain reaction that carries over to the next day. I don't mind taking the insulin itself except...

It's a total game changer.

Little did I know, being put on insulin officially makes me high risk and now my midwives must subsidize my care with an OB, just in case. Just in case of what, I have no fucking idea. I think it's a waste of time. My midwife still gets to deliver my baby and ultimately she and the nurses will take care of me, regardless of my diabetic status. So why the fuck do I need some useless OB? Can you tell this pisses me off? lol My prenatal care has become a legal issue at this point. My midwives regulatory college dictates that once a pregnancy is considered high risk they can no longer be the sole care providers. So I've become trapped in some medical political bullshit that's only complicating things. My anger is not directed at my midwives or the OB I will be referred to. If anything my anger is directed to the system and, perhaps, my endocrinologist for putting me on insulin like it's no big deal. Well, it is a big deal if it's going to change the course of my prenatal care.

My midwife also hipped me to the possibility of an induction because they may not want me going past my due date. Neither do I, but they can fuck right off with that. I am not letting them potentially ruining my birthing experience with a shitty drug induced labor that is more likely to lead to the use of instruments or a Caesarian to get her out because she was not ready. The good news is that she may have only mentioned that because my diabetes puts me at a higher risk for pre-eclampsia so they may only induce if I happen to develop that. However, she could have told me because they just don't want her getting too big. Based on the size of my belly I can't see myself giving birth to a 9 lb baby. This is a detail that I have to clear up with them at my next appointment.

On the other hand I am leaving work at 37 weeks when I am full term, so I will have three weeks to get labor going on my own. At 36 weeks I plan on getting an exercise ball and using that to help her drop as well as drinking the raspberry leaf tea and perhaps doing a few other things to get a head start. But it sounded like my midwives are on board with helping me get the ball rolling once I hit 37 weeks to avoid any unnecessary complications and to encourage my baby to come on her own.

Oh, AND I get to go for another ultrasound. I'm excited about this part. They don't know for sure what position she's in, though they suspect she's breech. So I will have an ultrasound done to check her position as well as fluid levels and her weight. I can't wait see her again and I'm dying to get a better approximation of her weight.