Estimating the weight of a baby is an acquired skill.
We had a nurse practitioner who was an avid fisherman, and could eyeball a baby for length and weight with astonishing accuracy.
Doing it with an ultrasound image adds a level of difficulty for sure.
I feel like all the women I know who have recently given birth got told at one point their fetus was measuring ‘big’ or ‘small’ for dates. However all gave birth around their due dates to average-sized babies between 6 and 8.5 lbs.
No matter what you decide, my best wishes and prayers for you, your baby, and your husband.
Regards,
Shodan
She apparently ripped all the way to her anus. No nookie for six months.
She had two more kids, so apparently it didn’t scare her off forever.
As a mother, even through a terrifying pregnancy of my own, I learned to trust my instincts. Ultrasounds aren’t always right nor are doctors. Listen to that inner voice.
The doctor who delivered my first actually looked up at me from between my damn legs and said, “Wow. You tore clear to your anus!” like it was… I dunno. Ho hum, la dee da, let’s stitch you up. My delivery room looked like a crime scene. Thank God for epidurals. The baby was only 7 lbs 12 oz but I was young and dumb and pushed ineffectively but too hard at the same time and the staff kind of sucked in general and I was way too numb from the epidural and didn’t know what I was doing…
I’m pretty sure I was having sex before my 6 week check up. It itched like a son of a bitch for like a week and pooping sucked for a minute but it didn’t take that long to heal at all. Different folks. Age difference, maybe? I was 20.
My second was an 8 lbs 10 oz monster with a head circumference in the 96th percentile at birth and I wound up with a single stitch. But I had fewer drugs and a lot more knowledge (I went to nursing school between the two kids; the ob/peds section was a damned eye opener re: how to have a baby, I’ll tell you that) and my new doctor, with whom I had discussed in detail the nightmare that was my first L&D and who took great care to address each of my concerns, was fantastic.
I’m on my third and last right now. My doctor and I have discussed induction, c-section, etc. due to concerns about the baby’s size because of my last one but it’s more a “Let’s cover all our bases now while we’re all thinking clearly” thing. I don’t think either of us are particularly serious about it. I’d rather just wait and see what happens rather than try to push things.
Also, pitocin scares the hell out of me.
Why did you have to go to nursing school in order to get that information? What I’m really asking is, I don’t see the point of attending childbirth classes if you show up to deliver and don’t know what you’re doing anyway. So why don’t you get the information you needed in childbirth classes, that you didn’t get until you went to nursing school?
Because that’s not fair. Not everyone goes to nursing school, so why can’t the medical professionals help out the newbies?
My cousin is a nurse practitioner and her husband an MD, I suspect she had a pretty good idea what she was doing - age, yep, she had a few years on you. Twenty year olds do seem to heal fast. Different trauma and different person.
I never went to childbirth classes so I’m not sure what kind of information I could have gotten there but I’m sure now that it would have been better than the “none” information I had when the time came. Young and dumb, I didn’t think I needed them. I was never given enough information about the wheres and whens of them, and I didn’t bother to ask. I think childbirth classes are probably a good thing and I wish I had gone.
I don’t think you need nursing school to have a baby. But when you have a really terrible experience like I did and then learn how it’s supposed to be, it’s a real eye opener. That was more my point. Childbirth classes probably wouldn’t have gone into so much detail as ob/peds did but I bet it would have helped a lot.
Oh, okay, I see. Thanks for the clarification. I would probably have not thought I needed them as well. “Why? You just… push, right?” :dubious: So yeah, it’s probably a good idea that I didn’t and do not have babies.
Me: “Whatever. Animals do it all the time with a dozen babies. It’s instinctual!”
Wrong. So wrong.
Actually, it might be totally instinctual and the easiest thing ever (less the pain and general discomfort, of course) in a natural setting. Drugs designed to limit your sensation probably disrupt that whole process though.
I’m assuming that these babies were already born, though.
As for the OP, let’s just see what happens and she and her doctor will need to decide. I have a Facebook friend (former co-worker) who’s facing a similar dilemma at about the same time. Thing is, she’s not afraid of the whole thing, and I think that plays a big factor. ETA: The whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen, mostly WRT to the sperm donor (about whom we would all be better off if he just took off) but that’s another story.
I’d avoid inducing unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Nnnoooooo. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be the easiest thing ever in any setting.
What I mean is, without the effects of an epidural, do you know when to push? When to stop pushing? Not the “baby out the vagina” part, that probably really sucks a lot without drugs, but knowing WTF you’re doing isn’t easier even with sensation? None of that just comes to you? Because I’ve never thought about it before but it seems like it would. Seriously, cats pull it off all the time.
Despite the horror of my first epidural and subsequent delivery, I still had an epidural with my second and plan to with this one. I will never have any idea what actual childbirth is like and I am entirely okay with that. My sister had a single shot of Demerol and 9 lbs 2 oz baby her first time. I still think she’s insane.
I’m a total pansy. 
I just have to say it’s not always that bad. My first birth was great. She was a week overdue BUT she was only about six hours of labor from start to finish with a minor tear and pain so mild I was able to manage without an epi. The nurses told my husband to go home and get some rest because it would take awhile. It didn’t. He got a frenetic call about three hours later and then rushed to my side about three minutes before his first daughter tumbled into the world. The look on his face when he showed up was hysterically funny.
Have you picked out a name yet? I would shy away from anything in the top ten over the last five years unless you’re really, really in love with it. We went with Serena in honor of my great-grandmother Szerena and Charlotte just because it was so pretty, easily spelled and historic without being too common as well as honoring a Charles and Chaim in our families. As it happened Charlotte was the 27th most popular name the year of her birth. I was glad it wasn’t in the top twenty and I can hardly blame other parents for liking it so much.
Studies have shown that allowing the mother without an epidural to push when she feels like it (after she’s reached full dilation and effacement) gets the baby out as quickly or quicker than coached pushing ("PUSH!..kep pushing…little more…)
But every OB nurse I know still does coaches pushing. When I ask why and mention the studies, they just make a face and say this is how they do it.
There’s a reason I’m not an OB nurse.
We have huge heads in our family anyway, then my nephew was 10-11 lbs(sorry, can’t remember the exact weight, it was 16 years ago. When it came time for his sister to be born three years later, she was delivered like two weeks early. She was still 9-10 lbs. They were both c-sections, I believe.
No kids myself, but I’ve got two adorable nieces. When my sister had her last few checkups, the doctor told her the same thing that’s been posted up thread: “kid’s currently at 8 lbs, can gain up to a half pound a week.” We did the math, and she was going to have like 10+ pound babies! Yikes!
She didn’t. Both came out at pret’ near 8 lbs on the dot. Neither was a vaginal birth (for differing reasons), but both were way way under what was predicted. Take the prediction with a grain of salt, is what I’m saying.
I was the runt at 8lb 13oz. My three siblings were 10 2, 10 3 and 10 4. Mom had all of us vaginally. I wouldn’t say a c-section is necessarily required just because of a ten pounder. Of course that’s up to you and your doctor.
:eek: