Posted on

Christmas Baby! (Part 2)

Later on the 27th (the day we came home), my parents visited us for a little while that night. My neck was really bothering me; it seriously felt like whiplash from a car accident or something. It just hurt so bad to keep my head upright. So we exchanged Christmas gifts while I laid down on the couch and opened all of my gifts sideways. I was really starting to question whether or not I did have side effects from the botched epidural #1.

Peter and I decided that we would take “shifts” to get some sleep on the first night home, but I felt so weak that I stayed on the first floor with the baby. My neck was killing me, I had a small headache starting, I was exhausted, my boobs were soooo sore, and I remember thinking that this was the worst night of my life :(. It had nothing to do with the baby, but taking care of a baby on top of all of that made me feel extra terrible. How do you take care of a baby when you are barely taking care of yourself?

I know this sounds weird, but my neck hurt so bad that I really don’t remember a lot of the Christmas gifts that I got. I even tried to take a shower on the morning of the 28th, but I felt so dizzy during the shower that I had to sit down while showering. I was so nervous that I would fall over, and I had to call Peter into the bathroom to make sure I could get out of the shower without falling over. Worst shower of my life. When I walked into the bedroom, I actually fell face first onto the bed because everything started to turn white, and I got really tired and scared that I would faint.

We decided to call my mom and dad that night to babysit, so Peter and I could go to the ER. It just got to the point where I felt useless. Peter had been taking care of Emma all day, and I just laid on the couch in pain. I know this sounds dumb, but I really hate overreacting to things, and I hate when people are overly dramatic about things. I didn’t want to admit that this was a reaction to the epidural. I just figured, “Hey, it’s childbirth. Everyone says it sucks. This must be normal,” but it was so hard to see other friends of mine who have just given birth making posts on Facebook about how they are taking the baby on a walk, going to visit people, etc. I felt like if they could do it, I could to. I know, I know. I am stupid.

So we went to the ER around 7pm, and when we walked in, there were no seats open, and the place was PACKED. Everyone had the flu.

Peter checked me in, and they said it would be a while. I stood in the ER waiting area for about 20 minutes and cried in pain because my neck hurt so much to stand upright. The nurses and patients were looking at me like I was crazy. Finally, a nurse said I could lay down in the car, and Peter could call me when it was my turn to be seen. So I went to the car and slept in the front reclined seat for four hours. Yes, 4 HOURS. 🙁

Wet Tap (spinal fluid leak)

Finally Peter called my phone, and I went back inside. They took me to a room where I could lay on a bed. The doctor came in and said it definitely was from the “wet tap” epidural #1. Then she told me that the anesthesiologist wasn’t available to the ER at night, so I could either:

  1. Stay overnight at the hospital. They would give me a caffeine drip and Motrin until 11am when he might be able to fit me in.
  2. Come back to the ER tomorrow at 8am, sign in again, and wait to be seen. 
For someone in excruciating pain, both of these are terrible options.
While I laid in the room crying, Peter and I talked about option #1. Who would want to come back to the ER and wait again for 4 hours? I hurt so much that I honestly didn’t even care if I couldn’t see the baby for a day. 
Then all of a sudden, this wonderful man in green can into the room and introduced himself. One of the ER nurses saw me and knew what the problem was, so she ran upstairs and told the one anesthesiologist who was working that I was in pain. He said he wasn’t busy and thought that the hospital’s policy on not working in the ER was stupid. He told me that his wife had a wet tap epidural and he knew how badly she hurt, so he couldn’t let me lay there in pain for a day while he was upstairs doing nothing. Apparently the procedure to fix the problem only takes 5 minutes, and he was ready to go. He didn’t even care that my boobs were leaking all over the place. Oh, child birth. Yay.
Now I don’t say this kind of thing ever, but this man was honestly an angel in disguise. I cried from being so happy that he was there to help me feel better. He was so reassuring and told me that he would have to give me another epidural to fix the pain (yep, epidural #3). He wanted to perform a blood patch, which is when they give you an epidural and inject your blood into your spinal cavity to patch up the previous hole that is leaking.
Getting an epidural is a scary thing. I was terrified because only 1% of people have complications with epidurals. What if I was going to be in the 1% again? He performed the procedure in the 5 minutes as promised and talked me through it to calm my nerves. He kept saying, “I am doing this…and it is textbook perfect so far! Ok, now I did this, and I did it perfectly again!” It was really helpful that he was talking me through it because it really did calm my nerves. 
I had to lie on the bed for 30 minutes after the procedure to allow a blood clot to form in the hole. After the half-hour, he slowly sat me up, and for the first time in 4 days, I was able to sit up without feeling like I was hit by a train. Peter had switched places with my mom at this time, so she was waiting with me in the ER room now. When I sat up, it was immediate relief. I think I thanked the doctor 50 times and told my mom that he really was an angel. 
I had to take it easy for the next 24 hours to make sure that the blood clot stayed in place, but the difference was night and day. I was able to sit up and hold the baby, feed her, stand up, take a shower, stand up, etc. 
Even with all of the epidural stuff, I would get another epidural in a heartbeat for the next baby we have. It helped so much during labor, and I am still an epidural advocate! 
Thank you to my mom, dad, husband, and the wonderful doctor who helped me that night!
Posted on

Christmas Baby! (Part 1)

Since I had reached my due date and nothing was going on, we decided to make as many plans as we wanted for the Christmas Holiday. We went to my company party on the 22nd, cleaned the house for guests on the 23rd and 24th, went to a Christmas Eve dinner, attended Christmas Eve mass, and (baked and) bought lots of food for Christmas Day when both of our families were supposed to come over.

So when I woke up at 12:30 am on Christmas Day with cramps that seemed to come and go, I thought, “Oh, no….”  The cramps were like period cramps, but this was the first time that they had a start and stop to them. I tried to go back to bed, since the cramping was minimal at that point, but then I kept waking up every 20 minutes or so. Finally at 2:30, I decided to wake Peter up and said, “How would you like to stay awake with me for a while?”

He knew what that meant and downloaded an app on his tablet to time the contractions. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed a tiny bit of blood, and I just started laughing. I knew my Christmas plans were out the window now!

The app was actually pretty neat because it alerted you when to call the hospital based on the duration and frequency of the contractions. Things were about 4-5 minutes apart, but I felt like I could talk through them for the most part. The hospital said to come on in and get checked out anyway. By this time, it was 4:30 when we arrived at the ER. I noticed that the pain of the contractions had definitely increased to the point where I did NOT want to talk anymore.

They wheeled me into a room where they put monitors on my belly and started monitoring the baby’s heartbeat and the frequency of my contractions. I was 2cm dilated when we came in, and they wanted to watch things for the next 2 hours. The plan changed when a nurse came in and said that the baby’s heartbeat was responding to my contractions, so they were keeping me at the hospital.

They gave me some Cervadil, and from there things progressed rather quickly (or at least it felt quick) with dilation. Once I was 7cm, they moved me to a Labor & Delivery room, which was like a fancy penthouse room. My water broke while I was laying there on the bed, but it wasn’t like a crazy explosion or anything.

Finally the doctor came in and told me that she wanted to make my contractions more regular, since they weren’t consistently spaced. She said they were going to put me on a tiny bit of Pitocin, so I said, “Then let’s get that epidural BEFORE these contractions get worse!” It seriously felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach with a sword at this point.

The anesthesiologist came in, and I was terrified. Like absolutely terrified to the point where I was shaking. Poor Peter…he was such a trooper. He tried so hard to calm me down, but I was almost crying from being afraid of the epidural. The doctor numbed my back, which was the worst part of the epidural, and I jumped a little when I felt it. When the doctor actually put the epidural needle in, we heard, “Oh, no…I just nicked your spine. Yea…you’re probably going to hurt tomorrow.” I could tell that he felt really bad about it, but I don’t blame him. He then had to give me another epidural in another spot, and that one took effect in about 5 minutes. It was wooooonderful, and I couldn’t feel the contractions anymore! The one thing I did notice about the epidural was that I had the shakes after I got it. I don’t know if it was my nerves or if it was an effect of the epidural, but I felt like I had nervous shakes.

The doctor came in a little while later, and I was 9cm. She said I should start pushing when I “felt the urge.” I had no idea what that meant, but I understood soon enough. The pushing wasn’t horrible…not until a head came out. Holy bajeez. No epidural can stop you from feeling THAT. My throat was soooo dry from all of the deep breathing. The nurses kept promising me that they would get me whatever I wanted as soon as she was born. All I could think about was a nice big Diet Coke — cold and bubbly! So at 4:06 pm on Christmas Day, Emma Rose was born!

She cried a little for about 30 seconds, and then they whisked her off to the corner of the room to clean her off and weigh her. Peter got to hold her first, since I got to hold her for 9 months. I think he was hooked :). I remember looking at her thinking, “Who does she look like? I want a Coke now.” And at this point, I really didn’t care that it was Christmas Day anymore. The hard work was basically over!

The nurses took her back to the corner for a while, so the doctor could give me a few stitches. Yes. Va-jay-jay stitches. I don’t care what they say; the sewing might have been worse than the childbirth. I was slightly terrified, so I sang songs while I held Peter’s hand tightly, “When will it stop? I don’t like this. This is horrible. I want to be dooooone! I thought the pain was ooooover.” Those were the lyrics to my song.

Soon after, my parents came into the room, and Peter finally announced the baby’s name. We had been keeping her name a secret until birth because we wanted a little surprise factor. I think everyone was so excited about Emma’s birth that they didn’t have many opinions on her name…but we are big fans :). Peter’s mom and Jim also came in shortly after, and they were just as excited about baby Emma. Emma’s first gifts were a teddy bear from Grandmom & Grandpop C. and an owl from Grandmom and Grandpop McC.

  

After that, I remember the nurses taking the baby up to the nursery to clean her off more, and a nurse helped me pee for the first time. Talk about an experience. I have never had to use so much equipment to help me pee before. Two weeks later, things are finally starting to get less complicated in the bathroom department.

After a pee, they wheeled me up into the Mother Baby floor, and lots of family greeted Peter and me there. I honestly don’t really remember much of the conversations that we had or what people gave us. I was dead tired at this point. I do remember being happy that my brother and his wife were able to be there, since they were flying out of the country on Dec. 26 to go on their honeymoon in Jamaica.

 

The next few days in the hospital were extremely tiring…mostly because the nurses, doctors, consultants, etc. kept coming into the room every 20 minutes, so we never got any sleep. I started to get a headache/neck ache which I definitely thought was a result of lack of sleep and labor pushing (–you tense up every muscle in your body, so I expected that was why my neck hurt). I had never birthed a child before, so I didn’t think anything of it when I felt like I had been hit by a train.

On Thursday, Dec. 27., we were scheduled to go home. Before we left, an anesthesiologist came in to check on me and see how I was doing. He started to give me funny looks when I told him that I had a strange neck pain when I stood or sat. He said it sounded like the result of the botched epidural #1, but if I could live with the pain, then it would go away in about a week.

We packed all of our stuff up, and I was wheeled out to the car. The wheelchair was excruciating for my neck, since I had to sit up. The car ride home was also absolutely horrible for my neck. Once we got home, I flopped on the couch to lie down.

But we were happy to be home! The dogs were happy, too. Lily was curious enough to give a good lick to Emma’s head. Lennon was (and still is) very interested whenever Emma makes a noise. We are fine to have them sniff and lick her, but we are trying to manage Lennon’s interest level by giving her billions of toys to keep her busy.

Part 2 to come later!

Posted on

Belly Pics – 39 weeks and 5 days

We went to the doctor yesterday, and she said I am not dilated at all, but the baby’s head is in position. So basically, we are just waiting on me now! She suggested going for a lot of walks, but it is tough with the pelvic pain that I have been having. I am trying though!

39 weeks and 5 days
The past few days the pressure on my bladder has been ridiculous! I feel like there is a person doing break dancing head spins on it. Not even kidding. My stomach looks like it is having a tsunami; there is some crazy action going on. Pretty much the only positions that are comfortable are sitting on my yoga ball and laying in bed on my side. Getting up from those positions is another story :). 
Since the doctor pretty much told us that she doesn’t expect a baby before Christmas (although she reminds us that she could be wrong), we are getting ready for the holidays as normal. I probably won’t be moving around town much though, which is fine by me.
I am kind of excited that it is Friday. Now I can start my “Christmas Break,” however long I might get….
I have been loving the Lifetime Channel app for my iPad and the Netflix app. I can watch Hallmark, sappy Christmas movies in bed in the middle of the night when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. 
I am still having some sappiness this week. It seems to have trailed over from last week. I was discouraged/frustrated at the doctor’s office this week, so I cried. I felt bad for the doctor because it was not her fault at all. I guess a few weeks of emotional craziness at the end of 9 months isn’t that bad. 
Posted on

4 Days Left

You never think about how your changing figure affects the things you do everyday.

  • When I get out of the shower, I have to turn to the side to fit out of the glass sliding door. 
  • Peter and I usually brush our teeth together at night, but I can’t scoot behind him in the bathroom when I finish brushing first. I just don’t fit.
  • I keep forgetting my stomach’s radius, which makes it hard to open doors without slamming them into my gut. Ow. This baby is going to come out with a dent in her head. 
  • I need a hand getting off the comfy couch, unless I just want to weeble wobble my way off the couch.
  • Putting the pregnancy pillow between my legs before bed makes it nearly impossible to then cover myself in a blanket.
  • Don’t even think about using a laptop in the 9th month of pregnancy. It is nearly impossible.
  • Wiping your female area becomes really hard. There is this large obstacle in the way.
  • You just start naturally folding clothes on your stomach because the extra surface area is there.
  • You don’t want to sit in a booth at a restaurant because it takes too long to scoot out of the booth when you have to pee 90 times.
  • People let you cross the street when they are in their car.
  • Mothers yell at their younger sons if they don’t hold the door open for you. Poor Isaiah Michael.
I am excited about going to the doctor tomorrow. Maybe I will know something by then. She is going to peek in and see if there is any dilation this week. I feel like the menstrual cramps I’ve been having have been purposeless pain. That is the worst kind. Pain with no benefit! 
Worst case scenario, if nothing is happening, then she is going to set an induction date for next week. I am just hoping this kid comes on the 19, 20, or 21… or AFTER Christmas. Just not on. *crosses fingers*
Posted on

Feeling Bleh

A watermelon in my gut! No wonder it has felt like I’m carrying around a billion pounds lately. 
Feeling slightly discouraged at not having any signs of anything happening except for menstrual cramps. And no, there is no pattern. Just cramps that last for hours — just like regular cramps.
I don’t want to be in the hospital on Christmas :(, and I don’t want to sit on my couch all day on Christmas not being able to bend over and do anything. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I look forward to it all year. I love Christmas music, Christmas lights, and everything Christmas. I feel jipped of my Christmas experience this year. 
Thanks for letting me mope in this post. 

Posted on

Belly Picture – Week 39

We went to the doctor this past week (38 weeks and 4 days), and the doctor said things are looking good! Wonderful amniotic fluid, baby’s weight looks good (41st percentile; approx 7 pounds but the estimates usually run a little high), and everything looks great on the ultrasound.

The ultrasound technician at our doctor’s office absolutely loves her job, and you can tell. She gets so excited when she gets a good picture of the baby, and she prints it out right away for us. This week, the baby was already in the head-down position, so the technician was having a hard time getting a good 2-D shot. She seemed defeated, but then she pulled out the 4-D wand and gave us a few pics.

I always think the 4-D ultrasounds are really creepy, so I wasn’t quite prepared to see puffy little Peter lips on the giant, flat screen, 52″ ultrasound TV.

The 4-D ultrasounds have lots of amniotic fluid and blobs floating by, which make it even weirder as you are watching. I imagine she wasn’t too happy with the technician poking and prodding around for 20 minutes. We will see if she still looks grumpy after birth :). 

39 Weeks

During the physical part of the exam, the doctor said softening is starting but no dilation. Her prediction is a late baby, so we will just see what happens! She wants us to prove her wrong, but we are going to discuss a possible induction if we make it to the appointment this Thursday, the 20th. I would be happy with a December 20th or 21st baby, but she may end up being a late-comer. We’ll just wait and see!

Posted on

Hormones. Gah.

I have been pretty impressed with my emotional stability through the whole pregnancy. For the most part, I’ve only had maybe a day a month that has been sappy. That’s not too bad for a female. We always have 1 emotional day a month. I would even venture to say that society has made us think that pregnant women are always these emotionally unstable people who cannot have feelings without them being the result of pregnancy. This, for the most part, is simply not true. Not in my experience anyway.

But this past week, I am totally having a huge hormone shift — keep in mind that I have like 10 days left until my due date. This week there have been these random times when I get soooooo sad for no reason at all…other than crazy hormones. I will be sitting there watching a funny TV show, and then I will just feel so sad that I want to cry. My husband is a saint for putting up with me.

With all of that going on, I am very happy to say that I will be working from home next week! YAY! When I work from home, I sit at the dining room table. And guess what??? The bathroom is only 10 feet away!

Posted on

Baby’s Room

Since I haven’t felt a definitive “nesting” period, I am content with the level of preparedness for baby. I feel like we have all the “stuff”… That is as ready as we’re ever going to be able to get, since we have no idea what to expect.

I am not mentally ready for labor.

Posted on

Holiday Parties

This year the holidays are kind of a crapshoot. We’re not really sure what is going to happen, so we’ve been taking every opportunity to have holiday celebrations.

Since I am not sure if I will be pushing out a baby for Christmas, my mom and I took my grandmom out to holiday tea. I had to work Friday, so we squeezed a quick tea luncheon in. I had a delicious lobster bisque and egg salad sandwich. Yum!

Blurry but what a gut shot!
37 weeks and 5 days

This weekend Peter decided to invite some people over (very spontaneously) for a holiday party. I love Christmas parties so much. I seriously look forward to them all year long. I think it’s so fun to get to the end of the year and have something fun to dress up for, eat yummy food, and have a great time with people. Our work party falls the day before our due date though, so we pretty much are thinking it’s a “no.”

We had a good showing for a last minute get-together, played games, ate food, and laughed a bunch. Perfect! 
And today, Peter and my coworkers had a nice little surprise Christmas luncheon/baby shower for us. It was so nice and so unexpected! Everyone bought us a Christmas book and wrote a little message. Our child will be well-read :). Here are some of the awesome books we got:

Thanks to everyone! We had a great time over the past few days. This rest of this week is now all about getting work done at work, seeing what happens at the ultrasound & physical appointment on Thursday, and getting a new freezer, so we can stock up on easy-to-make food before the baby comes.

Posted on

37 Weeks and 4 Days

Well, sleep is getting difficult. Twice this week I woke up waaaay before my alarm went off and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. My mind just goes crazy with weird thoughts. I am not actively worrying or thinking about something, but as soon as I fall asleep, my mind decides to fixate on something. Anything really. If I watched it on TV before bed, I dream about it.

This week’s doctor appointment was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, I guess. The baby’s heartbeat was 138 (normal). I didn’t gain any weight this week, but I honestly think it’s because my stomach feels more squished this week. The doctor asked me if I was having any symptoms or complaints this week, and I told her, “No, it’s been a pretty bland week for pregnancy.” She thought this was really funny. *shrug*

This week has been an abusive week for my hips though. It feels like she is pummeling me from the inside. I would swear sometimes she is trying to punch her way out.

I have also noticed an increase in my fatigue. I get exhausted sooo easily. If I get up and walk into another room, I feel like I carried a 200 pound man on my back. Needless to say, I have been spending an increasing amount of time on the couch. My heart beats a million beats a minute from just sitting. It’s crazy!

Hiccups are still happening daily. Also, I think my child is part golden retriever. Every so often I feel this spastic shaking inside my stomach, and it feels like the movement a dog makes when they scratch their ear really fast. Sometimes I think it’s the dog on the couch or on the bed, but then I realize it’s coming from inside my body. I have no idea what’s going on in there.

We got new carpet! It is so nice and soft…and hopefully not as much of a dog hair magnet as the crappy carpet we had before. Bonus: this carpet is not 20 years old AND is not green, so these are giant pluses.

We went to a parenting class this week, and it was pretty useful. A pediatrician was there, and she answered all of the questions everyone had. We also got a fancy poster of baby poop. Peter couldn’t look at it. Ha.

I was talking to a friend today on Facebook. We are both actually due on December 23rd, so it’s nice to compare stories. I can’t tell you how hilarious and comforting it is to hear that someone else doesn’t realize they have crumbs and stains on their clothes. These boobs…they hide the view of all the junk that lands on the belly.

I’ve been trying to wrap all of the Christmas gifts this week. It has been slow going, since I get tired after wrapping 4 gifts. Wrapping involves lots of leaning and stretching. Tough stuff!