Today is the next milestone. At 23 weeks, my baby could be saved if I were to go into labor. She needs a few more weeks for my local hospital, but Inova Fairfax saves babies who have reached 23 weeks gestation.
Not that I want Dash making an appearance any time soon. I really am hoping to get to at least 29 weeks, but 35 would be even better!
I already know she's just a little on the small side, the the longer she has to grow in me, the better!
My anxiety Monday night was, quite honestly, out of control. I laid in bed for over an hour, hoping for the slightest movement but she was either not in a good position for me to feel her, or she was simply sleeping longer than normal.
I was able to keep my own breathing and heart rate under control, so it was quite a surprise to clock Dash's heartbeat at 160 bmp. Her normal is 140-145 bpm. So although she was certainly alive (and I could hear some minor movements with the doppler, too), it was clear that I needed to calm down quickly.
My own adrenaline was making her heart race and that just isn't good.
At all!
Try as I might, I wasn't able to fully settle down and relax until about 3pm, when her movements picked up their usual pattern. However, I know her heart rate was back to it's normal range around noon, because I checked it once the children were sleeping.
I have a few theories about why she seemed so still Monday night and into Tuesday morning. They're theories however, and I can't prove them.
I've begun doing a few Spinning Babies exercises. These are designed to help a mom and her baby work together to get into the ideal positioning for birth. They can also relieve many of the aches and pains associated with pregnancy.
One of the exercises is simply getting on my hands and knees and arching my back up, creating a "hammock" of sorts for Dash. The result is that she flips so that her back is against my belly and her feet and hands face my insides. In addition to relaxing my abdominal muscles, this positional switch means that much of her movement is muffled by our placenta. She needs to face my spine for an easier birth.
For now, she has plenty of room to move however she pleases, but it would be great if she could develop a preference for the ideal birthing position so that as she grows and runs out of room to flip around, she's in the correct position and not breech.
Fast forward to Tuesday evening, when my family and I went to our chiropractor. He's an amazing man who keeps up to date not just on spinal care and manipulation, but also on many of the things that impact health at the source. He believes in treating causes, not symptoms.
My 8 year old was diagnosed with scoliosis earlier this summer. She's using a device called a cantilever to manipulate her spine and retrain her muscles as well as taking some supplements to balance her neurotransmitters.
Her x-rays show some pretty remarkable improvement over the last 6 weeks.
At a recent conference, Dr. Randy learned more about spinal cord shortening in youth. He did a quick test on my daughter last night, which showed that she had some shortening and gave us a stretch for us to help her do.
He then started talking about a gene mutation that affects the body's ability to process folic acid and how parts of the scientific community are coming to realize just how devastating this mutation can be. The mutation (which I'm familiar with!) is known as MTHFR. It also appears that this mutation has a direct impact on neurotransmitters.
MTHFR is a mutation that approximately 40% of the American population has at least one copy of. But the part I find most fascinating? Roughly 98% of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder have the mutation.
Call me nuts, but don't you think that matters?!??
Testing for MTHFR is standard practice in the repeat pregnancy loss blood panel that I had run in June 2013. It showed that I do not have the mutation. Phew! It's a mutation that is well known in the infertility and pregnancy loss community because it really impacts fertility.
In a nutshell, when we consume folic acid, or vitamin B9, our bodies should create an enzyme as part multi-step process to build proteins and other usable and necessary compounds in our bodies. But if you have one or two copies of the MTHFR mutation, that multi-step process is broken because the enzyme either doesn't work well or isn't there. The result is a build-up of folic acid (and a few other things) in the body that poisons you.
That poisoning takes on a variety of forms, but just how important this mutation is is only beginning to come to light.
To know if either of my daughters has the mutation I'd need to have their blood drawn, which is something I will do at their next check-up. In the meantime, I'll be doing what I can to ensure they are getting adequate levels of l-methylfolate (the final compound in the multi-step process I mentioned before) and not folic acid.
So fortified cereals are out and the vitamins they take will also be monitored closely until we know for sure that they don't have a copy of the mutation. They'd have one copy, at MOST, since I have none.
It was then my turn to be adjusted. I gave Dr. Randy a rundown of the night and day that I'd had as well as talking about my spinning babies research and their mention of the psoas muscle. He's stretched my psoas twice before. It's horribly uncomfortable to have done, but the results feel pretty amazing and now I have additional information that states this stretching will need to be done if Dash is going to get into the proper position in the weeks to come.
He also took a look at my soft palate in response to my anxiety. I don't know what he saw, but based on his observation, he gave me a printout of left-brain activities to do. These should help balance the neurological impact of the anxiety I'm having, which appears to be triggered by my right-brain.
It's all about balance.
The activities are going to be pretty fun. One includes listening to music with a strong beat, not country, classical, or jazz, with only my earbud in the right ear for 10 minutes twice a day. Sound crosses brain hemispheres, so this activates the left brain. I'm also to work out some basic math problems on paper as well as doing two more physical activities that are very short and involve my eyes. I almost laughed at the math activities. I adore math so this will be a matter of doing my 8 year old daughter's homework on separate paper before she does it. Easy Peasy, but if it helps calm me down so that Dash can also stay healthy, then it'll be worth the silliness.
Dash doesn't need all the extra adrenaline running through her system.
By the time my spinal adjustment and muscles were stretched, I felt so much better. I slept really well, too, and it's clear that Dash had a better night as well. She wiggled and stretched often enough to keep me calm and sleeping well.
