Working toward my vba2c

First I better fill you in on what a vba2c is in case you don't know.  There is a lot of lingo surrounding this topic, and I had to look it all up to figure out what it was when I was planning Glory's birth.  

VBAC = Vaginal Birth After Cesarean

VBA2C= Vaginal Birth After 2 Cesareans (the most I have ever seen while researching this is VBA7C)

HBAC= Home Birth After Cesarean

CBAC= Cesarean Birth After Cesarean

WBAC= Water Birth After Cesarean (I haven't seen this term used often)

HWBAC= Home Water Birth After Cesarean (water birth usually isn't allowed in hospitals so a water birth would more than likely occur at home or in a birthing center)

Whats a birthing center?  It is a place usually staffed by midwives that has a home like environment.  It is not a hospital, and it doesn't offer drug pain relief.  They do it all natural!  Some people go to a birthing center instead of opting for a home birth because it may be closer to a hospital in case of an emergency, or because they feel more safe birthing in the birthing center than at home.  Unfortunately every state does not have birthing centers.  You can go to http://birthcenters.org to locate the closest birthing center.  One of my friends just contacted me via facebook and told me that her first birth was at a birthing center, and how she was so thankful she chose that option because she felt like the water helped her immensely.  She had a very long birth with a very big baby, and pushed for a long time.  In most hospitals and with most OB's they would have been pushing for a csection in that case.  She birthed vaginally!  

Alright now to what I'm working on at the moment.  I am not pregnant right now, but we want to have a baby within the next two years.  Most women in this case could just enjoy their time until they became pregnant, and then do their preggo thing! :)  I however have something that I'm working toward, and I want to make sure that I do everything I possibly can think of to achieve my goal.  My goal is to have a vaginal birth.  NO MORE SURGERY PLEASE!  

Here are the things that I am working on now:

Titled Pelvis and Back Pain/Injury:

If you know me than you know I love to run!  Sadly, I believe that by doing what I love, I can't have what I want ultimately.  No, I am not giving up running forever!  I am however, taking a break.  I truly believe that running has worsened or possibly caused a lot of my pelvis issues.  Running is a great cardiovascular exercise, and I also believe it is wonderful for the mind and spirit, but if you don't have excellent form (which most people don't) and you like to run a lot than it can be really hard on your body.  I'm not going to go into detail about the negative effects of running on a person's body because I seriously believe that running is more positive than negative.  For my specific instance at this very moment running would be more negative on my body than positive.  :(  

I talked to a yoga instructor recently that told me she has a lot of private classes with older women who have been running for a long time, and now have a lot of back, posture, and balance issues.  This is probably because of their tight psoas muscles, hamstrings, quads, calves.  If you are a runner it is very important to stretch each of your major muscle groups daily, and to do some cross training.  Most people don't do this.  She checked out my posture and noticed that I don't stand correctly.  Both of my feet point out, and one points out a lot more than the other.  I also don't hold my pelvis stable when I'm doing moves.  It is constantly jutting forward or too far backward depending on what im doing.  What causes this?  My muscles are playing tug of war on my pelvis.  Now, the prescription for this.  

1. No more running for awhile.  I will be taking walks, and making sure to stretch really well after each one.

2. Yoga: Hot yoga twice a week, women's health yoga dvd done 5 days a week.  This will help with my posture and balance.

3. Stretching: Every morning I stretch for about 30 minutes.  This helps a lot with my back which gets really tight and sore if I don't stretch.  I actually do the cobra stretch throughout the day to keep my back loose and mobile.  

4. Pelvic Rocking: This is actually like the cat pose/cow pose done in yoga.  With pelvic rocking you are only moving your pelvis not your upper back/shoulders.  This also feels really good on my lower back.  

5.  I practice Mountain pose all throughout the day.  The mountain pose is basically just standing with perfect posture and body alignment.  Everything I do throughout the day, especially when I'm standing still, I check my feet and make sure I have a stable pelvis, my back is straight, and my shoulders are down and back.  The space between your big toe and second toe should be aligned with your knees.  

6. Nutrition: This is the really hard part!  I have cut out sugar.  I also don't eat fried foods, fast foods, fatty meat such as beef, pork etc.  My diet consists of mostly vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, lean meant like chicken and turkey, and some venison (luckily my dad hunts deer!).  This isn't the hardest thing ever because I actually already ate pretty well, but I have a bad sugar addiction.  I would make good choices for the most part because that is my preference, but I would crave something sweet after lunch, after dinner, and then late at night.  Normally I ate something high in sugar at least once a day.  Its been three days and the only place I have gotten sugar is from fresh fruit, and a drink of orange juice.  I actually haven't craved it that bad yet.  It is more hard when it is around.  

Example:

Breakfast: one small cup of coffee with just a little bit of soy milk (because I can't even fathom giving that up!),  a bowl of plain oatmeal unsweetened with a little bit of soy milk in it.  

Lunch: A Lettuce/Veggie Wrap with a Whole Wheat tortilla shell, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomato, and a little bit of vinegar and oil.  

Dinner: 4-6oz or chicken breast baked with unsalted tomato sauce, a lot of steamed veggies seasoned but not salted, and mashed sweet potatoes (YUM)

Throughout the day I snack on plain almonds, greek yogurt with granola, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and if I feel really hungry I eat a piece of whole wheat toast or whole wheat english muffin with natural peanut butter on it.

I will keep you updated on how this is going…

WOW I'm late going where I have to go because this blog usually gets done when the kids are napping but I tried to multi task today for a second and Brayve wasn't having it!  So more to come later!