22w5d appt

We had an OB appt today... It was kind of disappointing. The baby is fine, so no worries there. She's been using my bladder as a trampoline lately, which is slightly annoying, considering I got up and peed 5, yes, 5 times last night between 11pm-7am. When we saw her on the u/s, she's laying sideways in a piked position though, so maybe she's actually punching me in the bladder, I'm not sure. But I always feel her movement way down low, underneath my belly. Her heart rate was 161bpm, and everything looked good. We got one picture of her, but it's really not that good. Oh well. I'll post it later.

My blood pressure was 155/91. The dr wants me to stop by base sometime this week to get it taken there. I think we're just going to get a blood pressure machine so I can start checking it at home, since hypertension runs in my family. It makes me worry every time I go to the dr and see it that high. They took it again as we were leaving, and it was still much higher than it should be - 149/90 I think... Stresses me out.

However, the appointment didn't really help my blood pressure situation... We talked to him about how to find a more "natural friendly" dr in AZ, and his answers disappointed us both. He said we should focus on finding a good doctor and then worrying about delivering naturally after that (which I can agree with). He went on to say that his c-section rate is around 45%, and that is typical of this area. (OMG!!! I thought he was kidding at first, but he wasn't.) And THEN he said you basically get to chose between a c-section or them using the vacuum/forceps, because apparently here in OK babies can't physically be born without some sort of doctor intervention.... I think at that point I was like "I hope you're not planning on taking my blood pressure again because I can guarantee it's not going to be any lower." He said if people focused half as much on being parents as they do researching the birth process that things would be much better and that at the kids HS graduation it's not going to matter if she was delivered vaginally or by c-section. I agree with that to an extent, but I also found it kind of insulting - like he was saying I needed to just forget about the birth because that, according to him, was the easy part, and I needed to just go with the flow. I understand that the birth isn't much in the grand scheme of raising a child, but why shouldn't I still educate myself on what options are out there, and why can't I have a plan in mind, even if it goes all the hell once the time comes, and why do I have to chose between a c-section and using the vacuum/forceps?? I was just really frustrated hearing what he had to say, and it almost made me glad that he's not going to be the one delivering our baby if that's his viewpoint on everything. He also contradicted himself some by saying that in 95% of births he's probably not even needed, and that it's the 5% of them you have to worry about. Well if your c-section rate is 45%, that seems like you're needed in closer to 50% of them.... He said in August 2008, he had 10 deliveries and all of them were c-sections. Ugh. Oh, and he said that he could think of better things to spend our money on instead of hiring a doula.

So now that I didn't get many answers from him, I'm still trying to figure out how to ask questions to potential OB's to figure out if they're pro-natural births or if they have a 45% c-section rate also. It all just stresses me out. No wonder I have high blood pressure.

Oh, and she's still a girl. We didn't see a wiener. Thank God.