Doctor's Appointment Today
I had my 37-week appointment today with Dr. Gabriel. He is one of the doctor's in the Bond Clinic practice and I am making my rounds through them since I don't know who might be on call when I go into labor. I really liked him and his sense of humor. It's not that he told jokes or anything like that, but he seemed to be quick with a smile and encouragement. That's a good thing because I found out today that my body is colonized with group b strep (GBS).
Now, before your go and get all alarmed like I did, let me tell you a little about GBS. Anywhere from 30-40% of all adults carry this bacteria. For the average adult, this means nothing. Everyone has all sorts of bacteria crawling around their bodies. This is why skin to skin contact with a baby is so beneficial, it helps to colonate the baby's body with the mother's bacteria and develop resistance for the baby early on. However when GBS is found in the birth canal some medical precautions are needed.
Modern medicine has reduced the incidence of GBS transfer from mother to newborn to almost nothing (something like 1-2 in 1000 births). This is done by delivering antibiotics to the mother once labor begins or once the water breaks. Typically, the antibiotic is delivered via IV every 4 hours once labor begins until the baby is born. This ensures the antibiotic (usually penicillin) crosses the placenta and is in the baby's system prior to passing through the birth canal and coming into contact with the bacteria.
From my own research, no one knows how GBS is transferred from one person to another. It just hops around like any other bacteria and really only presents a problem for newborns and the elderly. The CDC has as much information as any other website and it is easy to understand if you want to know more than my very brief, amateur summary.
In other news, we did buy a car yesterday. I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by posting pictures of the car. Here you can see just how cute the car is and just how big my belly has become! It is a 2007 Ford Focus for which we negotiated an excellent deal.
Dr. Gabriel estimated that Baby Sabin is about 7 pounds now. He thinks we can reasonably expect to have an 8 lb baby. I'm not sure what I think about that except that lots of women have delivered 8 lb babies and I won't be the first! Belly Monster has been playing a lot of sports recently (mostly volleyball and basketball) so I am hopeful this is the start of a healthy life for him or her.
Finally, I got my hair cut today. I wasn't able to grow it out for Locks of Love just yet, but I am still working towards that goal. I took some pictures to post my new cut, but upon review they were just too unflattering to share. I need to put some make-up on and tone down the frizz before I share my new do with you. The woman who cut my hair did not put enough anti-frizz goop in my hair for the FL humidity. Someone should really design a frizz serum specifically for Florida's near 100% humidity summers!
Now, before your go and get all alarmed like I did, let me tell you a little about GBS. Anywhere from 30-40% of all adults carry this bacteria. For the average adult, this means nothing. Everyone has all sorts of bacteria crawling around their bodies. This is why skin to skin contact with a baby is so beneficial, it helps to colonate the baby's body with the mother's bacteria and develop resistance for the baby early on. However when GBS is found in the birth canal some medical precautions are needed.
Modern medicine has reduced the incidence of GBS transfer from mother to newborn to almost nothing (something like 1-2 in 1000 births). This is done by delivering antibiotics to the mother once labor begins or once the water breaks. Typically, the antibiotic is delivered via IV every 4 hours once labor begins until the baby is born. This ensures the antibiotic (usually penicillin) crosses the placenta and is in the baby's system prior to passing through the birth canal and coming into contact with the bacteria.
From my own research, no one knows how GBS is transferred from one person to another. It just hops around like any other bacteria and really only presents a problem for newborns and the elderly. The CDC has as much information as any other website and it is easy to understand if you want to know more than my very brief, amateur summary.
In other news, we did buy a car yesterday. I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by posting pictures of the car. Here you can see just how cute the car is and just how big my belly has become! It is a 2007 Ford Focus for which we negotiated an excellent deal.
Dr. Gabriel estimated that Baby Sabin is about 7 pounds now. He thinks we can reasonably expect to have an 8 lb baby. I'm not sure what I think about that except that lots of women have delivered 8 lb babies and I won't be the first! Belly Monster has been playing a lot of sports recently (mostly volleyball and basketball) so I am hopeful this is the start of a healthy life for him or her.
Finally, I got my hair cut today. I wasn't able to grow it out for Locks of Love just yet, but I am still working towards that goal. I took some pictures to post my new cut, but upon review they were just too unflattering to share. I need to put some make-up on and tone down the frizz before I share my new do with you. The woman who cut my hair did not put enough anti-frizz goop in my hair for the FL humidity. Someone should really design a frizz serum specifically for Florida's near 100% humidity summers!
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