Good: The OB this morning said that M's herky/jerky fish-out-water fetal movements are normal neurological development and she'll do this sometimes when she's a newborn too.
Bad: I think I might have a UTI; definitely I didn't drink enough water yesterday and that's been a little funky on my bladder.
Good: The OB said that we don't have to come to the hospital with a birth plan, or if we want, just make the birth plan a list of requests or things about us that it'd be nice for the nurses to know. I was starting to think I am weird not to have strong opinions about the labor & delivery. I keep thinking it's better if I don't make any specific plans or get my hopes set on any specific birth experience. The OB kind of confirmed that this is totally ok.
Bad: I got to work and found out that one of the freezers in a shared lab space 4 floors away broke, maybe a week ago, and we lost ALL of our samples for DNA research. This includes ALL of the samples for one of my graduate student's PhD project. She spent all fall collecting them and has a fellowship for this spring to do the genetics work, which is now completely ruined. Oh, and last week, someone in another lab accidentally threw out all of her specimens for a subset of her project that were stored in another freezer. She hasn't completely lost it yet, which is amazing.
Good: Thanks to the readjustment in my priorities I'm mad about it but not angry to the core, as I would have been a year ago.
Bad: We have to clean out a really disgusting and stinky broken freezer.
Good: Since I'm pregnant I can't help.
Funny: M had hiccups this morning and again this afternoon. What a very weird thing...
SHIT!!!!!!! Oh my God, I am so, so upset for you and your graduate student! That is one of the worst things I've ever heard. I can't believe she hasn't lost it-- I think I'd be in a week-long alcohol binge right now if I were her. On the other hand, maybe she wasn't looking forward to the molecular work so much.... I know I hate it.
ReplyDeletep.s. I just commented on your last post (again!), too... in response to your highly hilarious comment!!
Also, I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling sort of indecisive about all of this birth stuff.
I don't know about you, but I am also highly unmotivated to get involved at any level, for some reason. Like, Ceejay mentioned prenatal massage and such. It overwhelms me to even look into this stuff. I did a google search a few days ago on local massage places, and just trying to read some of the place pages made me exhausted and wanting to give up on the whole enterprise. Thus no massage for me. It would be too much trouble to pick a place and make an appointment!! Ha!
Oh, no! Your poor graduate student! But I'm glad that you and she haven't lost it yet.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's useful to have a list of requests ... the thing I found about birth the first time through was that I quickly became disempowered because I didn't express myself enough, didn't ask enough questions, felt cowed into doing what they told me to, and then felt completely out of the loop. If you're anything like me (e.g. type A control freak), it's not pleasant to be out of the loop.
Drink cranberry juice and lots of water ... and hang in there.
From my first experience of being induced. It didn't go as planned, not really bad (read dangerous) just different. I had a plan and some things I could stick to but some I could not.
ReplyDeleteI was glad I had a few things down cause it's kind of hard to think when in pain. But I think it is also important to be flexible and hopefully you trust your docs.
I agree with Justine, ask questions and stick up for yourself.
Looking forward to you seeing the jerky movements and hiccups in person - they do continue into newborn-dom.
ReplyDeleteAnd your poor grad student. I'd lose it if my dissertation data was lost like that. How in the world is she keeping it together??
This (freezer breakdown while I was away researching and advisor was on sabbatical, and none of the morons who shared the lab realized what happened until it started to smell) happened to me when I was a PhD student, but luckily I was done with enough analyses that I could still defend. I was still devastated to lose all that work--don't know how your student is managing to hold it together.
ReplyDeleteNow I have a $500 device on my freezers that calls me when the power goes out. It's annoying during an electrical storm or building work, but if I'm not in the lab I know to go check on the freezer. More false alarms than anything, but it's a great piece of mind, especially during breaks.
OMG your poor graduate student that is horrific! I can't believe she's staying sane in the midst of all of that, she is obviously a very patient strong person!
ReplyDeleteNo need to have a birth plan. I delivered my two in two different states, drastically different experiences. First case, I was strapped to the monitors the entire time, birth plan would have been ridiculous, no one ever asked me what I wanted. The second time around they would have accommodated me more, I think, I just never prepped anything and went with the flow. It's not like the baby will stay in there if you don't have a plan! :) Listen to your body and go along with it. You'll do great!
ReplyDeleteHave you taken any birth preparation classes yet? perhaps after you do
ReplyDeletethem you may find more things you wish to have, or not. A great book I always recommend is The Birth Partner, there is TONS of information in there on what can be offered to you at the hospital with descriptions of the pros & cons and how you may feel after their use. It really lets you know what you may or may not want for your birth. I make birth plans for a living, so of course I think they are amazing for educational purposes, but I think what is more important is you and your partner both knowing what is important to you, for example if you want an epidural right away, or no epidural at all your partner can see to it that it happens, because you will be busy. Being able to move and change positions freely is also really important for coping with labour. Ok, now I'm talking to much, but birthplans (for some reason) are a big passion of mine, if you want any help with one contact me at natasha@bebomia.com
Hey there - I've nominated you for the versatile blogger award. you can check out the details here: http://ferventlywishing.blogspot.com/2011/02/cutting-myself-some-slack.html
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