Thursday, August 07, 2008

Needles

Well, hm. Where to start?

I guess the main point (ha! point!) is that the needles don't exactly hurt. Though I'll take a nice long massage over doing it all again any day.

I showed up at the office, which was in a really cool part of Chelsea. The neighborhood was seriously nice.

(P.S. Off topic: Good Morning America just showed a bunch of kids on a "mission trip" during the weather break. This totally explains the onslaught of Mormons in my neighborhood this week. I mean, seriously - a couple days ago I passed at least 15 in the span of ONE BLOCK. No one stopped me though. Which is good. I'm not so tolerant or chatty nowadays ...)

ANYWAY ... the neighborhood. Very cool. Brownstones, trees. It was really nice. So, noted.

Alas, when I got to the office the a/c wasn't so much with the air nor the conditioning. This usually isn't a problem for me except during this last month - being hot has not been on my list of pleasurables. But fine, I just drank a ton of water and read my book. My whole attitude at this point with pregnancy is it's just a series of increasingly uncomfortable situations with a baby at the end. It seems to be working for me. (This is where I admit I haven't been all that uncomfortable, which is probably helping my plan quite a bit.)

So, the acupuncturist comes out of her little room. She's very nice, incredibly straight-forward, very down to earth. (I'm not sure what I was expecting ... crazy hippy? eldery mom-type? but she was more preppy-my-age-wow-I'm-getting-to-a-weird-age.) I fill out this great big packet of forms about my medical history while she explains what we'll be doing.

Essentially, what we're doing is putting needles in me. At least that's the majority of what I heard. Needles ...needles ... needles... I'm sure she said other stuff, but, um, I was nervous. But she was kind and before I knew it I was laying on the table with new-agey music playing and she was putting needles in my hands, ankles and lower back.

It was really strange, but completely benign. Putting the needles in was the worst part - not so much cause it was painful, but because it was just so weird. A little pressure-ey, warm. And it felt like she "tapped" them in, which creeped me out. I very firmly concentrated on NOT LOOKING AT MY HANDS as to pretend there were, in fact, no needles in them. Which, surprisingly worked.

The worst part was the lower back. Putting the needles in was uncomfortable, and then she attached an electric pulse to two of them. Nothing major, but for sure annoying. It felt kind of like a lame tattoo. That whole pulsing feeling you get with the needle. I spent a lot fo time thinking about how much more my tattoo hurt and how worth it that was. And, well, how this would be SO WORTH it to have a chance to give labor like I want.

I mean, acupuncture vs. pitocin really isn't much of a choice at all.

So 45 minutes later -which actually went by faster than I expected- she took out the needles, gave me a list of herbs a mile long to begin taking (one which involves mixing Castor oil with vodka and orange juice - can we talk about how suddenly castor oil didn't seem so bad? though it is still a very last last last resort), magnets on certain acupressure points and an appointment reminder for this afternoon.

That's right, I'm going back. (I'm saving up for the massage still, though, don't worry.) I'm determined to do this all naturally. And, well, you know.

One uncomfortable situation after another. Then, baby.

It seems fair.

4 comments:

Brandi said...

Acupuncture is really normal here in Germany. I had 10 sessions done last year for migraines, and it is a really freaky sensation. But it worked! Anyway, most women have acupuncture done here about 4 weeks or so before the baby’s born because it’s supposed to make labor shorter. And that whole mixing castor-oil-with-stuff thing is also a “normal” thing here in Germany. But then again, what’s normal? Lot’s of German women don’t shave their armpits, and that is not, in my book, normal.
I’m sure your baby will be on her way soon enough. And then the real question is: What are the rest of us going to do without something to wait for? :-)

~m said...

Ha. Yeah, she said most of her clients come in before they're past their due date.

Ah, well. :)

And yeah - the castor oil thing. Ugh. NOTHING appeals to me about that and I was TOTALLY against it until my midwife mentioned it yesterday. She said most people get sick off of it because they just do it on their own.

Ha. Just pouring it on pizza or in root beer. Apparently for me the comfort level came in the form of the recipe for a spiked screwdriver. Living with Sam has affected me in crazy ways ... :)

And no worries, after she's here perhaps I can entertain you for a while with photos. Then, well, YOU will have to keep us on edge with the waiting!

Anonymous said...

I lived near the town of Eighty-Eight, KY (8.8 miles to be exact) on 8/8/88. They threw a big party to celebrate, um, I guess the symmetry of the dates. GMA came and did a story for the show.

I hope your girl is born tomorrow. 080808 would be a great birthdate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighty_Eight,_Kentucky

em said...

I told you the castor oil thing really works - I like the vodka idea way better than a blizzard from DQ but then again I was seriously into ice cream at the time. It definitely got the labor going! My midwife was the one who suggested it to me also. Good Luck!