meet zane anthony!

so, this has been a very busy last few weeks. three weeks ago, i was measuring 40 cm in fundal height at my midwife appointment, and it was week 36, so the fundal height should've been 36 cm. the midwife recommended that i get an ultrasound to check on the size of the baby. i was hesitant to get one at first, because ultrasounds that late in the pregnancy tend to be really inaccurate. however, i changed my mind. so, at 37 weeks, the ultrasound showed that Junior was 8lbs, 14 oz. it also showed a huge torso/shoulder area, which is common in gestational diabetes babies. this can cause shoulder dystocia in labor - where the shoulders get stuck in delivery. sometimes it causes permanent paralysis. at that point, the midwife & perinatologist told me to just wait to go into labor, but if i hadn't delivered by my due date and an ultrasound showed his weight to be 5000g or above, they'd recommend a planned c-section. they also both told me to go back to testing the blood sugar levels 4 times a day. i had to start going to fetal monitoring twice a week, for a fetal non-stress test & amniotic fluid ultrasound. in addition to that, they recommended that i try acupuncture to induce labor. all of those appointments added up to a lot of time, creating conflicts with my teaching, so as of sept 30th, i stopped teaching. i was getting really tired, and just didn't have the energy to do anything more than go to appointments and deal with the information. at my 38 week appointment, the midwife decided my case was too complicated for them to deal with, and handed me off to the obgyn department. she also started me on glyburide, a sort of insulin in pill form. last wednesday, we met with the doctor for the first time (whom m, j's sister, knew very well from her ob rotation last month - she came highly recommended). the doctor gave us two options to consider, and she'd call us in the evening to find out our choice. the two options were to try natural labor, with the slight consequence of shoulder dystocia, and the huge likelihood that labor would not progress & i'd end up with an emergency c-section; OR to just have a planned c-section. after agonizing over both options & consulting with lots of friends, we decided to go for the section. we scheduled it for two days later. i was really really scared & upset about having to go through a c-section, but i got through it with the help of my wonderful hubby & our doula. the operation went perfectly. i can't belive we're parents! zane anthony was born on oct 10th, at 10:34am. he was 21 inches, and weighed 9 pounds, 13.2 ounces. it was a bit of a relief that he weighed so much, and the c-section WAS the correct decision. zane is very healthy & robust, and has a lot of strength. he has too much strength, actually. breastfeeding hasn't worked too well yet, but we're working on it. his suck is like a 3 month old baby, but his technique is that of a newborn's. it was really painful to try, and he damaged me a bit, so for now, i'm pumping, and then j or i finger feed him. i'm producing more & more each time i pump, and i'm starting to get ahead of him already. zane is a perfect baby! so beautiful. i look forward to being able to move about more easily. and it's really nice being able to eat normal food now. due to the narcotics i'm on, i don't quite have my normal appetite back, but it's getting better.