Prenatal Care with a Midwife: Weeks 20-28

Continued from Prenatal Care with a Midwife: Weeks 4-18

For those curious, I wanted to share a quick follow up regarding what prenatal care with a midwife looks like and how it compares to seeing an OB! (And just in case I hadn't mentioned it before, I did want to point out that all of my prenatal appointments with my midwife are roughly an hour long. I just love the care and attention that midwives provide, and the personal relationship that forms during these times together is truly incomparable! Such a different feel and environment from the in-and-out experience in a solely medical-based setting!)

20 week ultrasound

Just like with an OB, at 20 weeks a full anatomy scan is done to count fingers and toes (and of course all the other parts too)! Since I work with a midwife through a local birth center, I go to the birth center where a sonographer performs the scan. The results are then sent off for full analysis! Since we chose not to know the gender, the sonographer checks those parts first (while Ryan, my midwife and I look away from the screen). No one knows the gender of our baby except the sonographer and God - it's even a surprise for our midwife! We saw baby opening and closing his/her mouth, with feet all the way up next to the head! Pictures and videos on our cell phones were welcome, so we have a few of those in addition to the printed out photos! (Also, even though masks are optional and I am fully vaccinated, I had a head cold for the anatomy scan and didn't want to infect the sonographer or my midwife so I wore a mask!)

22 week appointment

As I mentioned previously, "my" midwife now works alongside 2 other midwives at the birth center to form a team of 3, so of course there are a few appointments scheduled with these other 2 ladies so that I'm familiar with them as well, just in case they happen to be the ones to attend our birth! This week my appointment was with the "third" midwife BUT I actually already kind of know her, so it was still a familiar face! (Several years ago, she came to our house to do a "postpartum sealing ceremony" after my birth and PPD experience with Cami, my third. It was an AMAZING and truly healing experience!) I think it's so cool that she works at the birth center now, as she wasn't when I had met her previously! At this appointment, we reviewed the radiologists report regarding the anatomy scan (everything looks great!). Since Ryan and I also opted for genetic testing via blood work, we reviewed all of those results as well! Thankfully, everything there came back normal also. After reviewing all of the results, we proceeded with all the routine "check up" things - weight check, urinalysis, blood pressure check, fundal height measurement (measuring the size of the uterus) and listening to baby's heartbeat all included! My uterus measured closer to 20 weeks, but +/- 2 weeks is completely normal. 

26 week appointment

This time I met with my "main" midwife again. It was good to see her! Even though she was with us at the anatomy scan it felt like it have been forever since I had had a routine appointment with her! We did all the usual (checked weight, urine, BP, fundal height and baby's heartbeat) reviewed my diet and exercise routines and also talked about my emotional/mental health. We then discussed the glucose test which would take place at my next appointment (28 weeks). After this appointment, I would be switching to having appointments every 2 weeks - third trimester baby!! My midwife gave me the bottle of glucola to take home (the kool-aid-like drink you have to drink before the blood test) as well as instructions on what to eat that morning and when, what time to drink the glucola at home, and what time the blood draw at my next appointment would be! My midwife also felt for baby's position, and guessed that baby was still breach (not that it matters at all at this point it's just fun to know!)

28 week appointment

This week, I met with the "third" midwife again and did all the normal routine stuff. About halfway through the appointment, exactly 1 hour after I had ingested the glucola at home, she drew my blood for the glucose test. She also felt around for baby's position, and it seemed like baby might already be head down, though she didn't act 100% convinced quite yet (and again - doesn't matter knowing at this point it's just interesting/for fun!) 

A few days later, I found out that I did NOT pass the glucose test. This was a first for me as I have always passed first shot with my 4 previous pregnancies. It's definitely not uncommon to fail the first test but pass the second (longer) test, so I wasn't overly panicked but hopeful that the second test wouldn't show any issues. My midwife called to give me 2 options, (either use a blood glucose meter and check my blood sugar 3 times a day for a week OR come in and do a 2 or 3 hour glucose test). I ended up deciding to start with a 2 hour glucose test and see how that went. (I opted for 2 hours instead of 3 hours bc I would have all 4 kids with me that day!) I did this test completely fasting, went to the birth center for the baseline draw and to drink the glucola there this time. I drove around for an hour with the kids, then returned to the birth center for the next blood draw - exactly 1 hour after the baseline draw/glucola. After another hour of driving around we returned to the birth center for the next draw - exactly 2 hours after the baseline draw/glucola. After all was said and done I PASSED this time! Even though it felt like a very long and draining day, shuffling kids in and out of the birth center and just being out of the house, I was/am SO grateful!!

Just like with an OB, appointments will continue every 2 weeks, until we get to that last month of pregnancy (36 weeks) and then we will switch to weekly appointments! 

Up next: Weeks 30-34!