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View Full Version : Barbara Luke Book Has Me Freaked Out



Kindra178
03-25-2008, 01:51 PM
based on my previous thread, I bought several books recommended therein. I am quite impressed with Barbara Luke, and the statistics from the consortium on fewer preterms and bigger babies is truly compelling. However, I live in a vertical townhouse (tons of stairs), have a 30 pound 20 month old, and we are putting our house on the market. My doctor (not a high risk guy, by the way) wants me to exercise a ton and not worry about carrying my son. I feel like her advice is different, as she is into rest, rest, rest. I am really worried that I can't follow her advice. Any thoughts?

gatorsmom
03-25-2008, 06:02 PM
hmmm, I'll tell you, I have a TON of respect for my OB who has been there for 3 pregnancies. But this last pregnancy he didn't seem particularly concerned about watching the amount of activity. He also recommended that I watch how much I eat and as you can see from the Dr. Luke book, she basically says shuffle it in. In the end, I followed the books advice. I did not curb my appetite in any way, drank water like there was no tomorrow and even got a nanny for my 2 older children so that I could nap in the afternoons. In the beginning he didn't think that was necessary but after I delivered the babies he said that having the nanny was probably the reason I didn't go into labor earlier. And he kind of off-the-cuff commented that yeah, drinking more water could help stop early contractions.

My advice to you, based on my own experience, is that you should follow the book and YOU tell your doctor how you are running this pregnancy. hth

mjmamma
03-25-2008, 08:05 PM
I haven't read the book but my OB keeps stressing that fact that I should be resting as much as possible and not lifting...I have a preschooler and a toddler. I started to have back and sciatica problems but after two days of resting I can feel the difference. I think you can listen to your own body and it will steer you right. And eating right and drinking plenty of water cannot hurt either. Good luck.

jmorowitz
03-25-2008, 08:08 PM
i read dr. luke's book and i am trying to follow her advice, but not to the extreme. this is my first pregnancy and i want to do everything "right" and i am concerned about pre-term labor. i suscribe to the 'better safe than sorry" idea.

i have limited my exercise to yoga 2x a week plus the occasional walk if i feel up to it (my OB, who is not a hi-risk OB, told me not to break a sweat). i try to limit my stair climbing, or at least take it slow. i don't carry heavy groceries and i've started asking my husband to carry the laundry basket up from the basement.

i try to drink as much water as she recommends but i am a bit more lax about the food intake. i am doing what i can to stick to her recommendations but i also need to stay sane so sometimes i don't eat all the snacks, etc. my OB is also a big proponent of drinking a lot of water.

my advice would be, if you are going to keep carrying your son, then just listen to your body. don't ignore warning signs! and get as much rest as you can even if it's just a quick 10 minutes of laying down.

dsptwinmom
03-25-2008, 10:43 PM
I too have the Luke book and was worried about how to follow her advice. I have not lifted my four year old son since I found out I was pregnant with twins. Also, I cut my hours back at work when I was at 30 weeks so I could get some rest in the afternoons, after I started having dizzy spells. My dr. agreed with this but had never pushed me into cutting back. It was a good decision -- I am now at 35 weeks and hopefully will make it to 37. I'm not on bedrest but trying to rest when I can. If you listen to what your body is telling you and don't shrug off any warning signs, you should do fine.

dsptwinmom
03-25-2008, 10:43 PM
I too have the Luke book and was worried about how to follow her advice. I have not lifted my four year old son since I found out I was pregnant with twins. Also, I cut my hours back at work when I was at 30 weeks so I could get some rest in the afternoons, after I started having dizzy spells. My dr. agreed with this but had never pushed me into cutting back. It was a good decision -- I am now at 35 weeks and hopefully will make it to 37. I'm not on bedrest but trying to rest when I can. If you listen to what your body is telling you and don't shrug off any warning signs, you should do fine.

SammyeGail
03-29-2008, 04:51 PM
Hi! I read her book and it scared me too. Plus I have an older sister who had a loss with her twin pregnancy. Sorry to bring it up, I don't mean to bring anyone down or scare anyone, this was 20 years ago in a small town hospital, nothing like there is today. I just say it, along with the book made me a super paranoid pregnant woman.

I quit work at 16 weeks (it was very stressful). I put myself on part-time bed-rest around 20 weeks, I just took it real easy. I drank tons of water and ate super healthy. Everything was going great, the boys were doing great.

At around 23 weeks my DH was activated in the Army Reserves, he was in the process of retirement, but it didn't matter. Our world was turned upside down. There was no 'mission statement' so we had no idea what he was going to be doing. This was right after Katrina, we thought he might get sent down there.

My sister (a different one) begged me to come stay with her, I did because my dr said I couldn't stay home alone. DH was at Camp Shelby with no cell signel. I was under alot of stress/worry, but I was trying my best to cope with it because of the pregnancy. Things at my sisters house weren't very good. She KNEW that by then my doctor had me on part-time bed-rest, no more than 4 hours on my feet. She went on and on about how understanding she was about it, she wanted to be there for me. Yeah.

Once I was there I was a full-time nanny, cook, driver, any and everything you could name. My sister said she was stressed from her job (she was an elementary school librarian!) and had to have some down time, that was from the time she got home till 10PM, she was on the computer every nite. She had 2 DD, 4 and 9, they fended for themselves for food. I bought and set up everything for my neices 10th b'day party. My sis didn't want to do anything for her, she said just didn't want to bother, thats why I did it.

The Thur before the party while Erin and I were out buying decorations I could tell I was having contractions. I was 25 weeks then. I started checking them as often as I could like Dr. Luke explained, I was having 2-3 per hour. I gulped down water, my appt with my new dr was the next Wed. We live in the south and it was hitting 100 degrees daily. I had fun watching Erin enjoy her little party, she appreciated it. She, I and one of her friends cleaned up afterwards. My sis stayed in bed all day, but did come out twice, once when the few girls were being dropped off, with this fake happiness, and when the girls were being picked up.

I had more contractions that evening, but saw my 2 other sisters and it made me feel better. Sunday I had decided I was going back home to TN, I went and visited my parents. I went back to my sisters house, her DH was drunk and started a fight with me. He was saying all sorts of ugly things (they are now seperated, she has a restrainment order against him) and I was physically afraid of him. I totally freaked and locked myself in the bedroom I was staying in crying and checking my contractions. I had 10 in an hour. It was late and I waited till they went to bed. I was so scared and frantic, I packed a bag that later made no sense (what I put in there) and drove myself an hour to the hospital with a NICU in Birmingham, AL.

So I am one of those who went into pre-term labor at 25 weeks. It was physically doing too much, the heat (to save money they never set the thermostat below 80, I was SO hot) and mainly the stress. (I do to this day personally blame my sisters husband for my pre-term labor). I left DH a voice mail during the drive, he got it the next AM. They threw him on one of those little planes and he was there within a few hours. His unit was in B'ham, so they made ways to keep him around there, (we found a cute furnished apt) he never left during the pregnancy, just one Saturday to go home and get one of the baby beds and some other things. My new OB was great, so compassionate, kept great tabs on me, I went in at least once a week, DH always took me :love5:

I had to take terbutaline, it made me jittery but kept the contractions away, I would only have some every once in a while. I made it to 33.5 weeks, I had a fast onset of pre-eclampsia so I had to have an emergency c-section. The boys were perfect. All of my family came except that one sister. (there was lots of 'me leaving without telling them' drama) I guess she was too stubborn to come. Whatever, her loss. DH says if she showed her face there he would ask her to leave and if she didn't he would call hospital security. (She never saw anything wrong with what her husband did, plus was ugly about me just up and leaving--hello, I went to the hospital). She refused to come to any family gathering if I was going to be there, caused mom lots of greif (we drove 5 hours, she lived 5 minutes away, lol). We did agree to see each other last Father's Day and I do regret it. Seeing her interact with my boys just seemed wrong. I do not want to feel any anger towards her, any harsh feelings, I want to feel ok, but some things just may take years to heal. We didn't go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas this past year because we were going thru alot finding out Jonas had autism.

Sooo, I think I would have been fine if DH had not been activated, or if they put him in B'ham immediately and me not have had to stay with my sister.

If you are hot, set the thermostat on whatever you want, just dress DS in layers : ). I kept that apt on 63, lol! Take this time as a good opportunity to let DS learn to crawl up stairs. You can be right behind him supporting his little bum. This may sound silly, but you could consider one of those little harness for him, you could hold tight to the bear/dog/monkey on the back. If possible try making one floor, your main living area (?) where you stay most of the day. I hope you have a bathroom on each level, you'll use them, lol!

Take it as easy as you can. At 24-25 weeks I remember being able to play with my niece in the floor, but I remember at 30 weeks taking forever maneuvering out of bed ; ).

I personally think most twin pregnancies do just fine. There are those like mine that had extreme external circumstances and some womens bodies who just don't handle it well. My 2 oldest sisters both had identical twins. One's pregnancy was trouble to start with (full time bedrest at 20 weeks) while my other sister was as active as she could be till 35 weeks and delivered at 37 weeks. But....that was 22 years ago and she didn't know she was having twins till 35 weeks, lol!!

Check for contraction like in Dr. Lukes book. I think one of the best things was drinking 2 Boost a day. Buy a Prenatal Cradle, you'll be so happy the day it shows up in the mail, lol!

What kind of OB are you seeing? Someone in a big practice? I was at first, then thought, who would really deliver the babies? Then found a nice OB that had 3 drs. I meet them all. My newer OB had a 3 dr. practice, same thing. When DH and I went to the hospital (I was seeing stars, I knew something was wrong) the dr on call wasn't my regular (we'd met a few times) but he knew everything about my pregnancy by memory. That meant alot to me.

So sorry I rambled, but you will be ok. Do everything you can to take care of those babies:love2: . Dr. Luke knows what she's talking about, follow it the best you can : ).

Samantha
Noah and Jonas
2 yr old twin boys