37 weeks

Picture it... It was a crispy Wednesday morning on the 5th of January 2011. I was excited to go to my drs appt because I was finally getting to see Dr. Carrington again. He had been out of town since December 17. He also thought for sure I wouldn't make it past Christmas. When he left for his vacation, I was 100% effaced, 3-3.5cm dilated, having contractions regularly and being medicated to stop my contractions as well as taking daily shots for my blood clotting disorder. So when I saw him on this day he was pretty shocked I was still pregnant but very happy I held out this long. That's not to say there weren't many scares which included hospital admits and shots to "shut down your active labor" along the way. Most recently I was trying to convince the other drs in the practice that I was leaking amniotic fluid. The week before the dr did two tests on me and one came back positive while the other came back negative for amniotic fluid so he ordered a biophysical profile on me. That's a fancy term for a long ultrasound where they measure and watch the baby for a long time. Everything looked great and the baby was doing great so after 5 hours of fetal monitoring I was discharged and got to go home. So I told dr Carrington all about what I'm sure he already read in my chart and I still felt like I was leaking so he ran the same tests as the week before got the same positive and negative results. He called for the same biophysical profile but this time we had the week prior to compare with and guess who's amniotic fluid was significantly lower than the week before and was bow sitting on the low end of normal when it came to amniotic fluid??? Me! I told you I was leaking... Anyway, Dr C then came in and said since we had battled long enough and 37 weeks was safe for the baby to come out because it was considered "term," since we were now taking a shot two times a day with different medicine that could be reversed in an IV if needed for my blood clotting disorder, and since I was now leaking fluid, he decided to schedule an induction for Sunday, January 9, 2011. That was a shocker to me but exciting. It's weird to think about the exact day you will become a mother and meet your child for the first time. There were several things we needed to do... Wait, rewind... Josh needed to do (I was still on bedrest) before we introduced our child to the world. The top of that list was grocery shopping! So we left that appointment knowing in 4 days our lives would be blessed with the birth of our child. We shared the news of the scheduled induction with everyone via phone calls, texts, and facebook. Josh got ready for work, I climbed back into bed, and we continued our normal Wednesday routine...

I'm back

So it's been well... A long time since I've updated this blog. And the truth of the matter was out of fear. After losing Alan early in 2010 and blogging about all of the excitement of the pregnancy and all of the heart break of the miscarriage, I found it scary to blog again on our second pregnancy. I was terrified that we would miscarry again. Looking back, I probably should have expressed my thoughts and fears through the blog but there was something about writing things down that make it too real. I suppose I didn't want to admit the fear I had during my pregnancy because I wanted to embrace the blessing of the pregnancy. So I guess where do we go from here? Well we quickly discuss the pregnancy..

First trimester: SCARY but amazing. I embraced every day that I vomited (through the first 16 weeks straight) I have a few great vomit stories that stick out in my head. The first one starts at the drs office. We had a great visit with Dr Kaufmann and were released to go to my regular OB because the pregnancy was doing great and I was 11 weeks along. So Josh and I decided to celebrate this huge milestone by going to eat at chilis. I found the corn chowder soup to be very appealing to my pregnancy cravings so I ordered that with chips and salsa. When my soup came out it was garnished with some fresh chives. It looked yummy and tasted yummy too. After we left chilis, I remembered we were out of dog food so I asked Josh to stop at Walmart on the way home. Walmart was about a 10 min drive from where we were. As Josh was safely waiting to turn against traffic into the parking lot of walmart I quickly piped up with GAS it NOW. He knew better than to waste time asking questions so he did as he was told! I yelled at him to stop the truck and when he was trying to safely pull into a spot I already had the door to the truck opened, me hanging on to not fall out and corn chowder spuing all over the asphalt. Since it was a cool 100 degree day in Texas the vomit quickly heated up and began to smell. Josh is completely grossed out at this point and yelling at me to close the door because he could smell it. This scene was very reminiscent of Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon in the movie Four Christmases when the baby spits up. So I turn to give Josh the evil eye long enough before round two of my upchucking begins. Josh is slowly creeping the truck toward in the parking lot to keep from smelling it. As I carry on my barf festival I hear Josh in the background yapping about people watching, the smells, etc. When I finally finish my puking I look up to see only two cars in the back lot of walmart... Ironically both being occupied by watchful eyes. One was at AT&T work truck with a guy clearly stopped and eating his lunch... Well he WAS eating his lunch until my free show came along and the other was some dude in a car starring at me. Josh pointed out he was watching me the whole time and as I gracefully wiped my chowdered up nose and mouth I said maybe he didn't see... At that point I looked at the guy who was looking at me and then he just cracked up laughing.. Yup, he saw and you know he wasn't thinking oh I bet she's pregnant.... Oh no, he was clearly thinking I was intoxicated puking my guts out in the walmart parking lot at 2pm on a sunny Thursday afternoon. Classy! Anyway, I have no shame so I told Josh to pull up a spot so I didn't have to step in my vomit and I got out of the truck with confidence and marched right in to get the dog food I came for... Well actually I stopped off at the restroom first to pull the chive that was wedged in my right nostril out while Josh got the dog food. The other two times that come to mind were at Target and Italian Inn. I actually made it through my shopping extravaganza before the urge to blow chunks came over me. I was actually walking to my car with my shopping cart when all of the sudden my walking turned into speed walking which then became jogging that turned into pushing the cart at full speed... That ended with me abandoning the cart and finding refuge in a grassy median with a lovely tree I fertilized for free. That was a comical showing for the many spectators none of which offered to retrieve my buggy or give me a napkin to wipe my face. Some people are just so inconsiderate... They could have at least tipped for the show. Geesh! Finally, the Italian Inn. It wasn't in front of anyone thank goodness I made it to the restroom in time but I will say half chewed spaghetti noodles exiting your body via your nostrils is an unpleasant feeling...

The second trimester was also SCARY because I was having random bleeding. The dr described it as "a nose bleed of the vagina." nice... Only me... Anyway, the 2nd trimester was pretty cool. I finally stopped puking and clearly looked pregnant instead of just hitting the local all you can eat joint. I felt pretty amazing and loved sporting my bump around town. I loved having a "bump" because prior to being pregnant I had a kangaroo pouch and a biscuit. But my biscuit turned into more of a dumpling when I lost some weight. People don't smile and comment on your "dumpling" or "marsupial pouch" like they do a "bump." for the first time ever it was cool to have random fat sticking off your body in weird places. I loved it!!! But the second trimester was short lived because eventually My bump got so big I couldn't reach around it!

That brings us to the third trimester. It was SCARY too. I started off big and ended enormous. I loved and embraced my waddle. I loved the fact that I could save time in the shower not shaving because I couldn't see my legs anyway. Between the "bump" in the front and the "blob" in the back I didn't realize I had legs or feet anymore. You can't possibly shave what you can't see... Hahah anyway, all was going well so I thought until around 28 weeks when I was diagnosed preterm and put on bed rest. Honestly, bed rest wasn't so bad but maybe it had to do more with my positive attitude about it. I was willing to do whatever it took to keep my baby safe. Even if that meant being on my sides at all times for weeks on end and through thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, and new years. I had many admissions and discharges from the hospital a long the way but we safely made it to 37 weeks... And that is where I will begin my story.