Bridget's Pregnancy Blog

I’ve been telling everyone that I think fetal hiccups are one of the cutest things ever. It was another one of those things that no one tells you about before you get pregnant (along with the fact that morning sickness can last all day and that you can actually see the baby moving sometimes when you are further along in pregnancy.)

Nonetheless, I’ve been amused and entertained by my baby’s fetal hiccups since I first experienced them a month or so ago. I looked up a lot of stuff about them, curious as to what was going on in there and found answers to some of my questions:

What are fetal hiccups?

Basically, fetal hiccups are when the baby is practicing breathing in the womb. He doesn’t have any air in there, so he’s taking amniotic fluid into his lungs and “breathing” it out again. This makes his diaphragm work hard and sometimes causes hiccups.

Are fetal hiccups a good thing?

Yep. Feeling your baby’s hiccups means that he’s getting practice using his lungs and diaphragm. This means the baby will be able to breathe effectively when he’s born. So fetal hiccups are good and show that the baby is healthy. Besides, they’re kinda cute.

How often do fetuses hiccup?

It depends. Sometimes the pregnant mom doesn’t feel it very often- maybe only a couple of times over the last few months of pregnancy. A few days ago, my baby got an attack of the hiccups three times in one day! So part of it depends on the baby and some on how the baby is positioned, since in some positions, the baby might be getting hiccups but the mom doesn’t feel it.

Can I stop fetal hiccups?

No. There’s pretty much nothing the mom can do about them- just ride it out. Some pregnant women find them annoying, but it’s better to try and think of them as a good, healthy thing. I think sometimes my baby gets frustrated by them, since after a few minutes of hiccupping, he will start squirming around a lot, like he’s trying to stop them or get rid of the sensation. I personally find this really funny, but I kinda feel sorry for him in a way if he’s not happy with his hiccupping!

Overall, I think fetal hiccups are another one of those things that is extremely cute and funny. I’ve heard that some babies who hiccup a lot in the womb will also hiccup a lot when they are newborns. I’m interested to see if my baby will be one of those frequent hiccupers after birth and whether he will get all squirmy and wriggly when he hiccups then like he does now!

Another of the decisions I’ve had to make for my birth plan was how to handle the umbilical cord. Now, you’d think that this wouldn’t require too much thought. After all, in movies they just cut the cord after birth and that’s about all the involvement anyone has with their umbilical cord.

But nowadays, there are apparently decisions to be made.

The two main things listed on my humongous birth plan questionnaire having to do with the umbilical cord were whether I wanted to bank the umbilical cord blood and whether I wanted delayed cord clamping, so I looked into both of these options.

Basically, umbilical cord banking is saving the baby’s blood from the umbilical cord for possible future use. Since this blood is rich in stem cells, it can potentially be used to treat diseases that the child may have later in life.

Delayed cord clamping is waiting until the cord has stopped pulsating before clamping and cutting it, usually about 5-20 minutes after birth. The benefits of this seem to be that the baby is less likely to develop things like anemia right after birth, since the blood that is in the cord goes back into the baby as it pulses.

While both of these things sound like good ideas, it usually comes down to a choice between the two. Because cord blood banking is collecting stem cells, they need as much blood as they can get, so they have to cut it immediately to ensure getting enough cells. If you choose to delay the cord clamping, the blood that could be banked is back in the baby, so the likelihood of getting enough cells for banking is low.

In the end, I’ve decided to go with the delayed cord clamping. After giving it a lot of thought, I think for us this is the best decision. The risk of diseases that would need umbilical cord blood is fairly low and the difficulty and expense of getting the cord blood from China if we should need it in the future (since we plan on eventually moving somewhere else) would probably outweigh the possible benefit for us.

On the other hand, delayed cord clamping is something easy for us to do and would benefit the baby right away by providing him with extra blood that might give him a boost in health at the start of his life. Since I’ve had some issues during this pregnancy with blood sugar levels and iron levels, this might make the difference between him needing some supplements after birth or not. So we’re going with the delayed cord clamping option.

I’d encourage every mom-to-be to look into both of these options as possibilities for dealing with the umbilical cord blood, since some hospitals and birth centers might not mention these things, but they might be something you could include on your birth plan.

I’ve been thinking that in some ways I’m pretty lucky having a lot of options about where I will give birth. I know in many places, geography or insurance restrictions limit the options to one or a small number of local hospitals.

Here in Beijing, there are basically public hospitals and private centers, which cater a lot to the expatriate foreign population and upper-middle class Chinese. I’m going with a private birth center, which only handles prenatal and birth, as opposed to a general hospital, which also has many other patients.

One of the considerations I had to think about was finding a place that would be fairly hand-off with regard to my birth experience. I’m planning on having a natural birth using relaxation and breathing techniques and wanted to avoid the common thing in hospitals where the doctors try to encourage meds to “ease pain” or “get things going faster.”

The center where I’m going to be birthing, Amcare in Beijing, seems to be pretty good about that. A friend of mine had her daughter there last year and was pleased with the experience. She told me that the staff was really good about letting her do things her way- not pushing meds and such- and mainly staying out of the way unless needed.

Other people look for other things- I know some women who want all of the latest drugs to take away pain, want to be induced or schedule a voluntary C-section and have their baby at a specific time and date, or have a water birth. I think choosing where to give birth is an important part of the whole process, since being somewhere that is uncomfortable or that has a birthing philosophy quite different from what you want or expect can be stressful to the mother, which in turn can cause the baby to become distressed, leading to potential complications.

To other moms-to-be, I would recommend thinking about what kind of birth experience you want early in the pregnancy, so you can decide where you might want to choose to have your baby. Talk to some of the doctors and/or midwives at the place you’re thinking about to help decide if it is a good fit for you.

Most importantly, I think being an advocate for your own care and the care of your baby is something every pregnant woman should be thinking about. If you want something particular, speak up and let the staff know. It’s far better to figure all these things out beforehand, but remember, things might not always go according to plan. So considering how you want to handle possible emergencies or complications is another thing to discuss with your potential birth center or hospital.

A few weeks ago, I had to make a last minute trip to Hong Kong from Beijing in order to take care of some visa issues before I got too pregnant to fly.  Most of the time, airlines won’t let a pregnant woman fly after 36 weeks, so I had a little while to go, but I also figured that the earlier I went, the more comfortable I would be.

That would seem to be the logical case for flying while pregnant, but it isn’t totally accurate. Many women, me included, would find the first trimester distinctly uncomfortable to be on a plane. I had a lot of morning sickness (or “all the time nausea” as I prefer to call it) during my first 12 weeks of pregnancy, along with a host of other minor discomforts– headaches, extreme fatigue, heartburn, etc. For women in similar circumstances, flying in the first trimester can be a huge problem.

Many doctors and experts say that the second trimester is the best time to travel, since you’re not so huge that moving around is problematic but you’re past all of the early uncomfortable things that occur before the placenta takes over many of the pregnancy functions. I heartily agree with this assessment. Traveling at 28 weeks was definitely not too pregnant to fly.

I do, however, have a few tips for anyone planning a trip during their second trimester.

First, make sure you ask for all the perks. I was occasionally hesitant to do this, but most of the airlines and airports are fairly accommodating to pregnant women and make things available to us that we wouldn’t get otherwise. I was routed into the special “VIP” line at customs, which helped me get through a lot quicker and prevented me from needing to stand around for a long time. Play the pregnancy card when asking if you can board the plane in the first group or if you can get a ride across the airport on one of those little carts to get to the other terminal and don’t feel bad about it!

Remember, you’re responsible for keeping yourself healthy and unstressed because it’s good for your baby, so asking for perks like these isn’t anything to worry about.

The second tip I’d give is to make sure you move around a bit when on the plane. It’s easy to just stay seated, but I made this mistake on one of my flights and ended up with swollen feet. If you do somehow manage to lose your ankles, don’t worry, the swelling will subside once you’re off the plane and back on solid ground. (Although I can’t promise you won’t see swelling again once third trimester hits!)

Lastly, stock up on healthy snacks. A few pieces of fruit and a small bag of nuts can go a long way to keeping you full without having to worry about the airline attendants’ schedule for providing snacks or how healthy those snacks may or may not be for your baby.  And while you’re snacking on your healthy fruit, don’t forget to request lots of water or juice from the attendants. Every time they came around, I would ask for a glass of juice and a glass of water, just to keep hydrated.

All in all, flying while pregnant doesn’t have to be a pain, especially not in the second trimester. If you have to or choose to fly during this time, enjoy your trip!

While in the process of making my birth plan, which I discussed in my last post, I have had to think a lot about what kinds of things I want throughout the entire labor and delivery experience.

I’ve mentioned already that I’m not planning on bringing any DVDs to watch during the first stage of labor, but I’ve been contemplating exactly what I want to be doing during early labor.

Usually, the first stage of labor is fairly uneventful. A lot of it seems to be waiting for the cervix to slowly stretch out to a large enough size for the baby to get through, which means having contractions at a steady pace over what could be a really long period of time. Some people go through literally days of first stage labor, and at the very beginning the hospital will even send people home unless they are already having contractions five minutes apart consistently and/or she isn’t five centimeters dilated.

So after thinking about it, I guess I can see why someone would want to bring something to do during that time, because while the contractions will take focus, the four minutes between each one probably get boring pretty quickly.

I’m probably going to bring my ipod with some relaxing music, but I’ll probably spend most of my time chatting with Justin and waiting for things to progress. Maybe a deck of cards will be worth dropping in the “hospital bag.”

Another thing on the list that I’ll be checking off is that I will want the freedom to walk around during labor. I’ll probably want to wander around the halls to help keep my mind busy as my body slowly prepares itself for my baby’s arrival.

I’ll be leaving my trusty laptop at home, but I’ve already warned Justin that I’ll probably be taking over his iphone to log on to Twitter and tweet my progress for everyone following along from the other side of the globe! He’s not too sure of that idea, but I’m kinda looking forward to tweeting my progress.

In other aspects of early labor, I’m still a little undecided about whether or not there’s anything else I will want. I’m a little worried about something I learned recently- that most hospitals won’t let you eat anything once you’ve checked in for labor. All most women are allowed to have is ice chips! If I end up having a long labor, I’m not sure how I’ll survive on just ice chips during the hard work part ahead! So I think I might be requesting being allowed to have a little fruit or something light during early labor (or making sure I’m well-fed before I head to the hospital!)

So now I think I’ve got most of what I want during early labor figured out. Only nine more pages of birth plan to go!

Last week, the birth center where I’m going to be having my baby gave me a birth plan questionnaire to fill out. The questionnaire they gave me was ten pages long!

For those who don’t know – a birth plan is basically a list of your preferences for birth. It covers things like whether you want pain relief medication or not, whether you prefer a vaginal birth or C-section, and who will be in the delivery room with you. Some hospitals and birth centers encourage the development of a birth plan to be shared with the doctor or midwife who will deliver the baby, while others don’t even mention the idea and just leave all choices up to the doctor in charge. My center is obviously one that encourages birth plans.

Before I got the questionnaire, I had been thinking a little about what to put in my birth plan. I had some idea of the basic things to be covered, but when I got my questionnaire, I immediately became curious about what else could be in there to take up ten pages.

After reading through the list, I found many things that I hadn’t really considered and might not have thought of without the questions, so I figured I’d share what it covered in case any of my readers are making up their own birth plan and might have overlooked something.

The first basic category was about the mother’s wishes for during labor. Some of the questions involved what I want to bring with me, such as music or DVDs, for the early part of labor that mostly involves a lot of sitting around. I have to decide whether I might want to do things like walk around, bring a light snack, or take a shower during that time.

As labor progresses, the questions move into things like the type of pain medication I want and whether I want to use breathing techniques or other methods to help ease labor pain and who will be there “coaching” me if I’m wanting that.

There’s a section on Cesareans and whether I want to go that route or what my wishes are if I end up needing an emergency C-section. This includes stuff like whether I want my partner in the room with me during a C-section and whether I’d prefer local or general anesthesia if it comes to that.

There’s a section on who will cut the umbilical cord, whether I’m planning on banking the blood and whether I want to wait until the cord has stopped pulsing before cutting the cord. There’s even a question about what to do with the placenta, since some people choose to take it home and others have the hospital dispose of it. (I’m checking off the one that says “I want to see the placenta first and then have the hospital dispose of it”- which Justin thinks is weird, but I was a biology major and when else am I going to get to take a look at a placenta?)

Another page involves post-birth questions, such as if the baby will be cleaned first or placed directly on me and a whole series of breastfeeding or formula feeding questions.

There are some questions about emergency situations, including requests that the father accompany the baby if an emergency occurs and the child has to go to ICU or be transported to another hospital. Not something anyone wants to think about, but I’m glad it was on there- just in case.

For the remainder of the list, I have to decide things like who will be allowed to come visit after the baby is born, whether I want hospital meals or to bring my own food and the level of involvement I want me and my partner to have with things like giving the baby baths.

All in all, the questions are pretty thorough and I’m glad I got the chance to think about all these things before the birth. I have been warned by pretty much everyone, though, that things never really go according to plan during birth. So I’m viewing the whole thing more as a loose set of guidelines.

Chinese women follow a fairly strict food regimen when pregnant. While we westerners are informed to avoid deli meat, soft serve ice cream and sushi, our Chinese compatriots in pregnancy have a lot more food restrictions.

On the flip side, there are also a lot of pregnancy-recommended foods and meals in the Chinese diet, some of which are quite delicious. I learned about this when one of my friends became pregnant about two months after me and started introducing me to some of the foods she is eating.

One thing in traditional Chinese culture is the idea of “hot” and “cold” foods. Since pregnancy is considered a “hot” condition, the mother is encouraged to eat “cold” foods to balance her body out. Balance is really important in traditional Chinese culture.

Even modern Chinese moms who don’t believe in the old ways often get gifts of food tailored to their condition given by their own mothers and grandmothers who want to ensure that the baby will be getting those traditional requirements met. One result of this attention on specific foods is the development of special pregnancy recipes, which include things that are supposed to help the baby grow and help the mother’s complexion, emotions and energy (something we moms-to-be can definitely appreciate, no matter what culture!)

One of my Chinese friends shared one example with me- a cold pregnancy soup traditionally given throughout pregnancy to balance those warm forces generated by the fetus. I thought it was quite good, and worth sharing with fellow western moms-to-be. Most of the ingredients are a little exotic, but can be easily found at Asian grocery stores or health food stores in the U.S. or U.K.

Cold Lotus Seed and Snow Fungus Pregnancy Soup

1 cup dried white fungus (also known as snow fungus)

2 Tablespoons Chinese wolfberries (also called goji berries)

1/2 cup dried lotus seeds

4 cups of water

1/2 cup rock sugar

Instructions:

Pre-wash all of the fungus, lotus seeds and wolfberries to get rid of dust from harvesting.

Soak the dried lotus seeds for 1 hour.

Soak the dried snow fungus for 15-20 minutes until it softens. Trim any parts that stay too hard. Cut the fungus into manageable pieces if it is too big.

Bring the water to a boil in a pot. Add the snow fungus and lotus seeds to the water and simmer 30 minutes.

Add the wolfberries and sugar and cook for two more minutes.

Put the soup in the fridge overnight to chill it. (Remember, this is a cold soup!)

Enjoy a bowl of cool soup the next day (or later that evening for impatient folks like me!)

Today I’m going to talk about umbilical cords. Mainly because my baby has had quite a few problems involving his.

He has thus far succeeded in twisting his cord into a knot, which he subsequently untied before the next ultrasound. Then he managed to wrap his cord all the way around himself, including around his neck, which he also managed to get himself out of by the ultrasound after that one- four weeks later.Sometimes it feels like every time we go for another ultrasound the baby has done something new and potentially dangerous with his cord!

Because his cord has become quite the obsession with me, I’ve done a lot of research and written a few articles for various publications about umbilical cord problems. (I figure it’s a good way to simultaneously ease my own mind and help others.)

Some of the things I’ve learned are:

1 – Umbilical cord problems are fairly frequent, but mostly resolve themselves or end up not being too serious. My baby is an example of this, having worried us by getting himself so tangled up more than once but getting himself out of trouble all by himself. Even in cases where the baby doesn’t untangle himself, things like knots and having a cord tangled around the neck or body doesn’t seem to hurt the baby most of the time. As long as the cord doesn’t pull too tight, it’s flexible enough to handle some knotting and twisting.

2 – Umbilical cords are pretty tough. Most of the time people think of the fetus in there as being fragile, and in some ways they are. But the mom’s body is really good at protecting that developing life, and the umbilical cord is one good example. A healthy umbilical cord can be twisted, compressed, knotted or bent and still manage to get enough nutrients and blood to the baby. It’s designed to handle a lot of stress, and apparently fetuses tend to put it through quite a lot, pulling, tugging and twisting it as they grow and explore their watery little world in there. It’s so tough, in fact, that the scissors or knife that the doctor (or the daddy) uses to cut it after birth has to be really sharp to work through it.

3 – There are some potentially major problems that can happen with an umbilical cord, like a too short cord or one that wraps around the neck too tightly right before birth. But doctors all know about these problems, and are really good these days at diagnosing them and immediately instituting measures to fix the problem or move the mom into an emergency C-section to bypass the issue. So even if a big problem does occur, it’s likely to be ok with quick action.

Learning so much about umbilical cords has made me feel a bit better about my baby’s apparent obsession with tangling up his own. In a cute turn of events dealing with the cord, one of the photos we got from his 20 week ultrasound shows him with his hands clenched above him. He was, as the doctor explained, holding onto the umbilical cord with both hands, checking out his lifeline and showing us on camera this strange thing that’s floating around in the amniotic sac with him.

I’ve never been a huge football fan, but I grew up in a family full of them. Now, faced with a due date in early January, I’m faced with the inevitable dilemma of who, exactly, the baby will be rooting for come playoffs, championship games and Superbowl.

In case you’re wondering why this would be relevant to someone who will be somewhere between newborn and a few weeks old when these games are played, the answer comes down to “sports team baby apparel.”

Apparently, there’s a whole wide world of baby booties, bibs, onesies and caps with team logos of everyone from NFL teams to colleges. My family is from New Orleans, whose Saints are doing phenomenally well this year in the football arena, so I’m suspecting in January I’ll need to be dressing my newborn son in Saints apparel on game days, even if only to take pictures to send my dad.

Meanwhile, my cousin is a student at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an alma mater of a few of my other cousins as well, so their team gear might also have to be in the baby wardrobe.

Unfortunately for me (or maybe hilariously for me), the arch-rivals of LSU are Tulane, a team my grandfather supported unerringly when he was alive. I’d feel wrong supporting LSU but not Tulane, so I’ll probably end up with some Tulane gear in the baby clothes, too.

He may have a slightly schizophrenic fashion sense, but I’ll feel like I’ve covered all his bases for when the older relatives in the family start trying to gain his support for one team or the other as he gets older. No matter who he chooses, he’ll be able to say “Look! I was a fan of them even at age 1 month!”

I suppose dressing my boy in any of the above will garner a few questions here in Beijing where I’m living, but maybe it will be an opportunity for some cultural exchange as I explain American football to my Chinese friends. I’m fairly certain that what he’s wearing won’t matter much to him in those first few months.

His version of a cheer will be something closer to spit-up and his awareness of clothing will probably amount to being too warm or too cold. But overall, the whole thing should be quite cute. And I think it will make me feel like he’s more connected to my hometown, something I’ve been trying to think of how to achieve while living so far away.

I guess I don’t have to worry about the start of baseball season a few months later, since New Orleans doesn’t have a baseball team. Although now that I think about it, I’m sure my friends from my eight year stint in Seattle will remind me that Seattle Mariners baseball baby gear is also available for overseas shipment.

Now that I’m at about 31 weeks, my baby’s movements have become strong enough to not only feel really strongly, but also to see. It’s pretty entertaining to watch my stomach move when he squirms or kicks. It’s also fun to show friends when he starts to really get going.

At first, the visible movements were a little creepy. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was quite cool to actually see him. But there’s still something strange and unnerving about watching your own belly move and poke out when you aren’t in control of it at all. As I’ve gotten more and more used to it, it’s become definitely more cool than creepy, though. I still do sometimes get the reaction of “That is so weird” from friends, however.

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered a new source of entertainment involving the baby. I’ve started to try to be interactive with his world by tapping or pushing back when he pushes out on me. If I feel a particularly hard thump, I’ll nudge him in the same spot. Sometimes he will go completely quiet, like he’s wondering what just happened. Other times, he will get even more active, pushing back again, as if to try and see if he can get another reaction from me.

Sometimes I vary the reaction and instead of nudging back, I start to sing or hum to him. This seems to stimulate him to react more, also. I’ve tried to avoid doing this too much in public, though, since I feel kind of silly randomly singing baby songs to my belly in a crowd of strangers.

When I first started this experimental playing back with baby, I was a little worried about whether poking or nudging would hurt the baby in any way, but I’ve since learned that he’s so well protected in there that anything I do would have to hurt me first before it could harm him. So, for moms-to-be who want to try and play interactively with their baby belly- go right ahead. Poking and pushing can’t harm the baby.

The one caveat to this is that I try to not poke him too much if he seems to be in his sleep phase, especially since I’m really starting to notice him shifting between times of inactivity and times of high activity. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt him, but I can’t imagine he’d be too happy if I kept disturbing his sleep!