Anyway, first I got to see my little baby. He's gotten so much bigger in the last month! He doesn't even fit in one frame anymore. Although, I have to admit, my doctor's ultrasound machine is not as good as Fetal Studio's so the pictures aren't quite as clear, but you can still see him. Here are two from the ultrasound. And in case you were wondering, he's still a boy. :)
He was moving around a ton during the ultrasound. It was actually pretty funny because every time the doctor pushed a little harder on my belly and poked him, the baby would hit or kick at where he had just been poked. I guess he doesn't like being poked. The good thing with that is when I want to feel him kick when he's a bit further along, I'll just poke him to get him to hit or kick me. Who knows, that might work when he's out of me too. I know I hit or kick someone if they poke me, so why wouldn't he?
So, now to the second reason I went to the doctor, my awful stomach pains. The funny thing is, the morning before I went I was having these lovely pains and I text messaged my sister-in-law Amber, who is an expert at being pregnant (she's pregnant right now with her fourth), and asked her if the pain was normal and what it was. Her first response was it might be my gallbladder. She had problems with her gallbladder in her last pregnancy and even got it removed after her last baby. So as you might guess now, after I explained my pain to my doctor he said he thinks it's probably my gallbladder. Apparently it's pretty common for pregnancy to aggravate one's gallbladder. And yes, Amber is pretty awesome to be able to diagnose me over the phone!
Anyway, the bad news is that the only thing the doctors can do for a gallbladder problem is surgery, which is not advisable during pregnancy. The doctor continued to explain that this means I have to wait until 6 weeks after the baby is born and then have the surgery. So I'll get to become really familiar with the hospital. First major procedure to have the baby, second another fun procedure to take care of my gallbladder. I didn't think about this until I got home, but I'm thinking that I won't be able to breastfeed after the surgery for a few days until the anesthesia from the surgery is out of my system. So, that means a fun few days for Adam when he has a newborn and a wife recovering from two major medical procedures. Good thing Adam is a patient man! And it's probably also a good thing we'll be very close to a lot of family who can help out (hint, hint family, we'll need your help!).
So, the good news, baby is doing perfectly. The bad news, I am not doing so hot, but for the sake of baby, I get to suffer for the next four and a half months (although I'm voting only 4 months because I'm going to push to be enduced early). Honestly though, I'm okay with it. At least the baby is doing fine and the gallbladder will basically only bother me and not him. I'll just really need that prenatal yoga now to help me manage my stress and pain. Oh well, what's 4 months to the rest of my life anyway?
The gallbladder thing -- exact same thing happened to me! They put me on a fat free diet for my whole third trimester (no more than 4 grams in any given meal) to keep the gallbladder from flairing up . . . the nice side effect was I only gained 15 lbs. that pregnancy . . . unlike 40 in my next pregnancy :-)
ReplyDeleteI had my gallbladder out at 6 weeks postpartum. I had pumped breastmilk the whole time and had it in the freezer for Annie. But, when it came time for me to do the whole '24 hours with no breastfeeding', she wouldn't take a bottle really well at all (we'd tried to practice the couple weeks before, but she never would use a bottle). After talking with my doctor and anestesiologist, they OKed me to start nursing again around hour 8 . . . as long as I pumped and dumped the first feeding, they said most of the medicine was out of my system by then, and the trace amounts she got from there were perfectly safe and "not anything we haven't given a baby before." The doctor even joked the worst that would happen is my colicky baby might sleep a little better than normal (made no difference). Took the pressure off so much! MOST babies though, can easily switch for a day or two, or go back and forth between bottle and breast with few problems. Just make sure you're pumping the whole time, to keep your milk up!
Also, I had the surgery on a Friday morning and we had Annie blessed that Sunday, and had the whole 50-60 person luncheon after with all our family . . . I was fine. Tired, but fine. Unless you have problems, it's typically a really easy surgery to recover from! Good luck! I promise, it all went way better than I could've ever hoped for with mine.
I have a pump you can borrow if you need one!