I've got about 15 minutes until we have to leave to take the dog to Camp Bow Wow for his stay and then head to the hospital, so typing in my blog is a wonderful distraction from watching the clock. And since I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight, this is also keeping me from dreaming of a nice cup of decaf.
OMG, DH and I barely slept a wink last night! Between excitement and nerves and our lack of sleep, I think we're both going to be exhausted later. At 5am, I finally gave up on trying to get back to sleep. I rolled over, snuggled up to DH, and what did I do? I started crying. Then I got out of bed, got in the shower, and cried even more. They were all happy tears mind you, but the tears were flowing nonetheless.
I just can't believe we made it to this day. Three years ago, I was anxiously anticipating my tubal reversal surgery that was coming up in August. I had no idea that we'd go through the chemical pregnancy, the 2 ectopics, losing my tubes and an ovary, moving onto IVF, and having the TAC surgery. And yet here we are, almost 3 years after we started this TTC journey - only hours away from meeting our little girl.
I'm sure there will be more happy tears today, lots of smiles, and lots of hugs and kisses for my DH and my little girl. For now though, I better do one last check of the hospital bag and off we'll go. Talk to you all later!
Us
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
38w4d - Tomorrow is Maribel's eviction day!
Hopefully Maribel is enjoying her last evening in my comfy, cozy uterus because tomorrow morning she's going to have quite the experience...being born. What an experience that must be. Seeing a slice of light come in through as the abdomen and uterus are opened, being pulled out into the cold air and bright lights of the operating room, taking those first breaths, making those first crying sounds, having your nose and throat suctioned, getting all cleaned up, and trying to adjust to all of the sights and sounds and smells before snuggling up to the two people who will love you forever. Amazing stuff!
I couldn't sleep past 3am this morning. Technically my itchy eczema woke me up but then my excitement prevented me from getting back to sleep. Around 6:30am I was able to nap for about another hour but I have a feeling I won't get too much sleep tonight either. Approximately 16 hours until our time in the OR is here...we're so close now!
So below is my final belly shot from this morning. My final weight gain is 19 pounds and the tape measure showed my waistline is 47.25 inches! I can't wait to see how much of that weight and waistline is really Maribel.
I'm hoping to post tomorrow evening or Wednesday while Daddy is at the hospital snuggling with the little one. It's hard to believe our time has finally come but it has and I'm so glad you all stayed along for the ride, bumps and all.
I couldn't sleep past 3am this morning. Technically my itchy eczema woke me up but then my excitement prevented me from getting back to sleep. Around 6:30am I was able to nap for about another hour but I have a feeling I won't get too much sleep tonight either. Approximately 16 hours until our time in the OR is here...we're so close now!
So below is my final belly shot from this morning. My final weight gain is 19 pounds and the tape measure showed my waistline is 47.25 inches! I can't wait to see how much of that weight and waistline is really Maribel.
I'm hoping to post tomorrow evening or Wednesday while Daddy is at the hospital snuggling with the little one. It's hard to believe our time has finally come but it has and I'm so glad you all stayed along for the ride, bumps and all.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
38w3d - Resting after nesting (and an anxiety fest too)
Approximately 39 hours until we're due to report to the hospital - AWESOME!!
The weekend has been largely uneventful for the most part. My Saturday started off with a scare as my power steering went out while I was driving home from completing errands. I pulled into the library parking lot to pop the hood of my car and saw my power steering fluid was empty. And when I looked under the car, I saw the last bits of power steering fluid dripping onto my front tire and the pavement so it was obvious that something blew out. Thank goodness for Tires Plus right around the corner from our house. I strong-arm steered my car there and thankfully they could get my car in yesterday and fix it. Giant phew!! Then DH & I spent the rest of the day cleaning so I guess we had another round of nesting happening. Laundry, dusting, scrubbing the kitchen, bathtub, toilet, sinks, etc. all got done. Then we had an early dinner at Friday's and settled in for the night.
DH also helped me through a yucky meltdown late last night. I won't go into my usual level of great detail here into why the topic came up because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make certain people uncomfortable or upset. That's definitely NOT what I want to do. But to loosely broach the subject, ever since I was a kid I've had a great deal of anxiety in certain social situations. I'm actually a pretty shy person. I always have been (though most people who know me would never believe this) and I get myself so worked up before certain social situations, I may worry about a gathering or visit for days beforehand, perhaps even weeks. I may spend hours in my mind playing the "what if" game over and over. It's not a pleasant experience whatsoever. I hate it!
It's not even that I only experience this anxiety with strangers. In fact, I actually have a much easier time with strangers than I do with people I know. In my younger years I would experience this uneasieness and anxiety before going to friends' birthday parties or school functions and even more so before holiday gatherings with extended family. Now mind you, it doesn't always happen and over the years I've gotten better at keeping the anxiety at bay, but it still can sneak up on me and make me get my panties in a bunch over nothing. One of the personal benefits of my job over the last 3.5 years was that it forced me to find ways to deal with my anxiety. Walking into a room of attendees at a client's training, taking control of the room to teach, and making small talk with attendees during breaks and lunch all helped me become more comfortable with myself and helped change how I reacted when anxiety arose in a social situation. I can sometimes use what I've learned over the years to help me through a situation and sometimes I just can't.
So back to last night - rather than focusing on the joy that Tuesday will bring as we meet our daughter, I spent a good amount of the evening worrying about certain social interactions that will occur after Maribel arrives. To try to combat this, I meditated to try to clear my mind of the ridiculous worry and negative feelings this anxiety was bringing me. When that didn't help I prayed. I'm not a super religious person but I do feel like it helped somewhat at calming my feelings and gave me an outlet to admit that I need some guidance in getting through the negative feelings. Then breaking down in tears and talking it through with DH really got me through the rest of my muck. I felt TONS better after our conversation as DH was not only a great comfort but he had logical responses to my worries and concerns. And when dealing with anxiety, where I know my thoughts or worries aren't logical whatsoever, to have a logical, reasonable voice counter each of my ridiculous worries really helped. So once again, my thanks go out to DH. Oh, how I love you.
For whatever reason - whether it was all that cleaning yesterday or the emotional exhaustion from last night's anxiety fest, today I was beat. My dog & I napped almost the whole afternoon away. And even after napping, I'm still just soooo tired! I'm glad I took advantage of this lazy Sunday since it will probably be my last lazy Sunday for a long, long time. And I may as well rest up today because I have a feeling that I'll get very little sleep tomorrow night.
So I'll leave you for now and I'll report back in tomorrow - my last full day of pregnancy. I'll do a final belly shot, a final weigh-in, and we'll grab the tape measure to see how big around my waistline is. I haven't done that yet this pregnancy and I'm anxious to see how big around I am currently (my belly is now actually hitting the bottom of my steering wheel when I drive so it's no small belly, that's for sure!)
The weekend has been largely uneventful for the most part. My Saturday started off with a scare as my power steering went out while I was driving home from completing errands. I pulled into the library parking lot to pop the hood of my car and saw my power steering fluid was empty. And when I looked under the car, I saw the last bits of power steering fluid dripping onto my front tire and the pavement so it was obvious that something blew out. Thank goodness for Tires Plus right around the corner from our house. I strong-arm steered my car there and thankfully they could get my car in yesterday and fix it. Giant phew!! Then DH & I spent the rest of the day cleaning so I guess we had another round of nesting happening. Laundry, dusting, scrubbing the kitchen, bathtub, toilet, sinks, etc. all got done. Then we had an early dinner at Friday's and settled in for the night.
DH also helped me through a yucky meltdown late last night. I won't go into my usual level of great detail here into why the topic came up because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make certain people uncomfortable or upset. That's definitely NOT what I want to do. But to loosely broach the subject, ever since I was a kid I've had a great deal of anxiety in certain social situations. I'm actually a pretty shy person. I always have been (though most people who know me would never believe this) and I get myself so worked up before certain social situations, I may worry about a gathering or visit for days beforehand, perhaps even weeks. I may spend hours in my mind playing the "what if" game over and over. It's not a pleasant experience whatsoever. I hate it!
It's not even that I only experience this anxiety with strangers. In fact, I actually have a much easier time with strangers than I do with people I know. In my younger years I would experience this uneasieness and anxiety before going to friends' birthday parties or school functions and even more so before holiday gatherings with extended family. Now mind you, it doesn't always happen and over the years I've gotten better at keeping the anxiety at bay, but it still can sneak up on me and make me get my panties in a bunch over nothing. One of the personal benefits of my job over the last 3.5 years was that it forced me to find ways to deal with my anxiety. Walking into a room of attendees at a client's training, taking control of the room to teach, and making small talk with attendees during breaks and lunch all helped me become more comfortable with myself and helped change how I reacted when anxiety arose in a social situation. I can sometimes use what I've learned over the years to help me through a situation and sometimes I just can't.
So back to last night - rather than focusing on the joy that Tuesday will bring as we meet our daughter, I spent a good amount of the evening worrying about certain social interactions that will occur after Maribel arrives. To try to combat this, I meditated to try to clear my mind of the ridiculous worry and negative feelings this anxiety was bringing me. When that didn't help I prayed. I'm not a super religious person but I do feel like it helped somewhat at calming my feelings and gave me an outlet to admit that I need some guidance in getting through the negative feelings. Then breaking down in tears and talking it through with DH really got me through the rest of my muck. I felt TONS better after our conversation as DH was not only a great comfort but he had logical responses to my worries and concerns. And when dealing with anxiety, where I know my thoughts or worries aren't logical whatsoever, to have a logical, reasonable voice counter each of my ridiculous worries really helped. So once again, my thanks go out to DH. Oh, how I love you.
For whatever reason - whether it was all that cleaning yesterday or the emotional exhaustion from last night's anxiety fest, today I was beat. My dog & I napped almost the whole afternoon away. And even after napping, I'm still just soooo tired! I'm glad I took advantage of this lazy Sunday since it will probably be my last lazy Sunday for a long, long time. And I may as well rest up today because I have a feeling that I'll get very little sleep tomorrow night.
So I'll leave you for now and I'll report back in tomorrow - my last full day of pregnancy. I'll do a final belly shot, a final weigh-in, and we'll grab the tape measure to see how big around my waistline is. I haven't done that yet this pregnancy and I'm anxious to see how big around I am currently (my belly is now actually hitting the bottom of my steering wheel when I drive so it's no small belly, that's for sure!)
Friday, July 1, 2011
38w1d - Final preparations underway (4 days to go!)
We've now passed the 38 week mark! And I'm still amazed by this. Who would have thought we'd make it this far after all we've been through the last couple of years?
Last night was a fun night for DH & me. I asked DH if he wanted to practice swaddling. His reaction - what's swaddling? Too cute! Why practice the fine art of swaddling a newborn when I've had 2 babies, many nieces and a nephew, and 2 grandchildren? Well, it's always wonderful to see a baby calm down their fussing with a nice swaddle and to be honest I've always been a TERRIBLE swaddler. I mean horrible!! I don't know why but my swaddles are always too loose and come undone so easily. And what's funny is guys I know seem to have a real knack for swaddling babies. Both my brother and BIL are excellent swaddlers and as I found out last night, DH is right up there with them.
So after dinner, I grabbed us each a stuffed animal of Maribel's (DH had a teddy bear and I got Winnie-the-Pooh) and we each took a receiving blanket from the stack. Then we went on youtube and watched a few videos, each showing different methods of swaddling. Then it was practice time! DH & I both laid out the receiving blankets (while our dog hungrily eyed the stuffed animals) and of course, DH's swaddle was awesome on the very first try. I naturally struggled with my swaddle, watched the video again, and again struggled with my swaddle. Meanwhile DH's was perfectly holding that teddy bear in like a little sausage. What is my malfunction with this art? In the end, DH came over to help me with my swaddle and after his fine tutorial mine was almost as good as his...almost.
Next came diaper practice for DH since he hadn't diapered a baby in years. Again, perfection - though I don't think Maribel will lay as still as teddy the bear did. And I must say as DH held his swaddled little teddy bear and pretended to burp it and pretended to diaper it, it made me even more anxious for Tuesday to get here. He is seriously going to be one amazing daddy!!
Today it's off to the grocery store. My first mission is to make sure I've got enough easy fixings for DH to feed himself while I'm at the hospital. In other words, I need to stock the freezer with frozen pizzas, chicken skewers, corn dogs, and fries and make sure I've got his other favorite things to fix for himself when I'm not here - bacon & eggs, croissants, and Honey Nut Cheerios.
My second mission is to make sure I have healthy food for me when I come home from the hospital. I think my in-laws will be visiting and while I'm sure they'll bring yummy Colombian food, I better skip all of that fried yumminess and stick with my own high fiber, low fat options. As you recall from previous posts with my last 2 surgeries - me + painkillers + surgery = major constipation. So all of those fried foods and cheesy pastries would NOT be a good idea for me. I'll have DH go out and grab fresh produce for me when I get home from the hospital so I can partake in salads & lots of fruits and veggies and today I'll just grab some easy, high fiber meal options that I can cook myself or have DH cook for me those first few days home from the hospital.
So with that I'm off to Shop-Rite to complete my mission. Only 4 more days to go and I think they're going to fly by now!
Last night was a fun night for DH & me. I asked DH if he wanted to practice swaddling. His reaction - what's swaddling? Too cute! Why practice the fine art of swaddling a newborn when I've had 2 babies, many nieces and a nephew, and 2 grandchildren? Well, it's always wonderful to see a baby calm down their fussing with a nice swaddle and to be honest I've always been a TERRIBLE swaddler. I mean horrible!! I don't know why but my swaddles are always too loose and come undone so easily. And what's funny is guys I know seem to have a real knack for swaddling babies. Both my brother and BIL are excellent swaddlers and as I found out last night, DH is right up there with them.
So after dinner, I grabbed us each a stuffed animal of Maribel's (DH had a teddy bear and I got Winnie-the-Pooh) and we each took a receiving blanket from the stack. Then we went on youtube and watched a few videos, each showing different methods of swaddling. Then it was practice time! DH & I both laid out the receiving blankets (while our dog hungrily eyed the stuffed animals) and of course, DH's swaddle was awesome on the very first try. I naturally struggled with my swaddle, watched the video again, and again struggled with my swaddle. Meanwhile DH's was perfectly holding that teddy bear in like a little sausage. What is my malfunction with this art? In the end, DH came over to help me with my swaddle and after his fine tutorial mine was almost as good as his...almost.
Next came diaper practice for DH since he hadn't diapered a baby in years. Again, perfection - though I don't think Maribel will lay as still as teddy the bear did. And I must say as DH held his swaddled little teddy bear and pretended to burp it and pretended to diaper it, it made me even more anxious for Tuesday to get here. He is seriously going to be one amazing daddy!!
Today it's off to the grocery store. My first mission is to make sure I've got enough easy fixings for DH to feed himself while I'm at the hospital. In other words, I need to stock the freezer with frozen pizzas, chicken skewers, corn dogs, and fries and make sure I've got his other favorite things to fix for himself when I'm not here - bacon & eggs, croissants, and Honey Nut Cheerios.
My second mission is to make sure I have healthy food for me when I come home from the hospital. I think my in-laws will be visiting and while I'm sure they'll bring yummy Colombian food, I better skip all of that fried yumminess and stick with my own high fiber, low fat options. As you recall from previous posts with my last 2 surgeries - me + painkillers + surgery = major constipation. So all of those fried foods and cheesy pastries would NOT be a good idea for me. I'll have DH go out and grab fresh produce for me when I get home from the hospital so I can partake in salads & lots of fruits and veggies and today I'll just grab some easy, high fiber meal options that I can cook myself or have DH cook for me those first few days home from the hospital.
So with that I'm off to Shop-Rite to complete my mission. Only 4 more days to go and I think they're going to fly by now!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
38 weeks - Now only 5 days to go!!!
38 weeks today and our c-section date has been moved up to Tuesday, July 5th!! Woo-hoo!!! And it's not because anything is bad. It's just because the hospital had a scheduling conflict for the 7th and therefore, Dr D decided to go ahead with the section on the 5th. Can anyone say EXCITED????
So before I got this exciting news I had an ok morning. I was super tired because I literally got just under 4 hours of sleep last night thanks to some wicked heartburn and insomnia. I've been really lucky only having had heartburn the last couple of days (versus my SIL who had it relentlessly during her pregnancy) so I can't complain too much. I got to the doctor's and started with my NST. Maribel was not cooperating much this morning with activity. They had me lay on my side, had me chug water, and even used a little thing to "buzz" my belly to try to get her to move more - yeah, she just wasn't having it. She'd move a little and then go back to being lazy. So I probably spent a good 35 minutes on the monitor today until they were satisfied with her activity level.
Then I moved onto the u/s room to have them check my amniotic fluid level. That was looking good today and to double check on her, since she was somewhat sluggish on the monitor, they used the u/s machine to watch her breathe. It still fascinates me that she's in there, with fluid all around her and yet she's in there making breathing movements. Amazing! After watching her breathe from different angles they were happy with the results and I was free to go wait for Dr D.
Now remember, Dr D was actually out of the office this week but was going to come in for my appointment. They were going to call him so I waited in the waiting room, thankful for having remembered to bring my library book. After an hour I checked at the desk to make sure someone really had called him and the receptionist (who I've never seen before and who I think just liked to yap on the phone rather than work) said "Oh are you Amanda? Dr Davis called twice to see if you were still here but I told him you'd come and gone." I was like "Um I'm still here. I've been here since 8am (it was now 10:30) and have been in the waiting room since they finished my u/s at 9:30." Not once did that woman call my name and she knew it. She said "Dr Davis wanted me to give you his cell phone number" to which I replied "Already have it" and gave her a partially evil glare. Then in front of her I called him and before walking away to talk to him, I said "I've been here all along" so she'd hear it.
So anyways, Dr D couldn't make it in but no worries since everything ended up looking good in the end - NST, u/s, urine, BP, etc. And as we talked, that was when he told me the good news about moving the c-section date. His first words, after apologizing for the receptionist not calling my name to see if I was still out there waiting, were "We can't do your c-section on the 7th." I will admit tears filled my eyes as I thought I was getting pushed out beyond the 7th. But then he said, "How would you like to have that baby 2 days earlier instead?" Hell yeah!!! I'm all for it!! So we're scheduled for the 5th at 11am. We discussed what time we should arrive, the no eating/drinking after midnight, etc, and then we'll just finish up the hospital paperwork on the 5th.
I am beyond excited I tell you!!! Only 5 days until our little girl is here!!!! Sorry I'm so exclamation point happy but damn, I cannot wipe the smile off of my face right now.
So before I got this exciting news I had an ok morning. I was super tired because I literally got just under 4 hours of sleep last night thanks to some wicked heartburn and insomnia. I've been really lucky only having had heartburn the last couple of days (versus my SIL who had it relentlessly during her pregnancy) so I can't complain too much. I got to the doctor's and started with my NST. Maribel was not cooperating much this morning with activity. They had me lay on my side, had me chug water, and even used a little thing to "buzz" my belly to try to get her to move more - yeah, she just wasn't having it. She'd move a little and then go back to being lazy. So I probably spent a good 35 minutes on the monitor today until they were satisfied with her activity level.
Then I moved onto the u/s room to have them check my amniotic fluid level. That was looking good today and to double check on her, since she was somewhat sluggish on the monitor, they used the u/s machine to watch her breathe. It still fascinates me that she's in there, with fluid all around her and yet she's in there making breathing movements. Amazing! After watching her breathe from different angles they were happy with the results and I was free to go wait for Dr D.
Now remember, Dr D was actually out of the office this week but was going to come in for my appointment. They were going to call him so I waited in the waiting room, thankful for having remembered to bring my library book. After an hour I checked at the desk to make sure someone really had called him and the receptionist (who I've never seen before and who I think just liked to yap on the phone rather than work) said "Oh are you Amanda? Dr Davis called twice to see if you were still here but I told him you'd come and gone." I was like "Um I'm still here. I've been here since 8am (it was now 10:30) and have been in the waiting room since they finished my u/s at 9:30." Not once did that woman call my name and she knew it. She said "Dr Davis wanted me to give you his cell phone number" to which I replied "Already have it" and gave her a partially evil glare. Then in front of her I called him and before walking away to talk to him, I said "I've been here all along" so she'd hear it.
So anyways, Dr D couldn't make it in but no worries since everything ended up looking good in the end - NST, u/s, urine, BP, etc. And as we talked, that was when he told me the good news about moving the c-section date. His first words, after apologizing for the receptionist not calling my name to see if I was still out there waiting, were "We can't do your c-section on the 7th." I will admit tears filled my eyes as I thought I was getting pushed out beyond the 7th. But then he said, "How would you like to have that baby 2 days earlier instead?" Hell yeah!!! I'm all for it!! So we're scheduled for the 5th at 11am. We discussed what time we should arrive, the no eating/drinking after midnight, etc, and then we'll just finish up the hospital paperwork on the 5th.
I am beyond excited I tell you!!! Only 5 days until our little girl is here!!!! Sorry I'm so exclamation point happy but damn, I cannot wipe the smile off of my face right now.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
37w6d - Meet the pediatrician day
Hello all! Let me start by saying today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. Ten fold, a hundred fold, a million times better - I felt like myself today, thank goodness! And this afternoon I spent a leisurely hour-plus sitting on my patio with a nice breeze, a cold glass of decaf iced tea, and a book of crossword puzzles...ahhhh relaxation at its finest!
So this evening I went to meet one of the pedatricians at a practice just down the road - literally one quarter mile away. I liked the office a lot. The doctor I met with spoke about the practice and gave me an opportunity to ask my questions and I just felt really comfortable there. The practice has 4 male docs and 4 female docs. They have a call-in hour from 8am-9am each morning in case you just have general questions you want to ask a nurse and/or doc (nutritional, behavioral, etc) which is really nice. Two nights a week they're open until 7pm at our nearby office and another two nights a week they're open until 7pm at their other office in the next town over. They're also open for sick visits on Saturday and Sunday mornings (HUGE plus!) And you can talk to their lactation counselor M-F between 8am-5pm (again, nice!) So we'll see the hospital's pediatrician where we'll deliver and then when we're discharged we'll start going to this practice I visited for Maribel's care.
Now, onto two other bits of good news that I must share. First, I told you about my former IVF cycle buddy N - her u/s today went great! She and her DH were able to see their little bean on the screen with a beautiful heartbeat of 142. I kept refreshing my screen all afternoon waiting for her message to come in and I was overjoyed at the news. So big congratulations to N & her DH!
My other congratulations goes out to K. K is the message board friend who originally saw my post about my non-existent cervix and sent me a message telling me about the TAC and recommending I reach out to Dr D to discuss it with him. She had her TAC placed in September after previously losing twins to incompetent cervix in the 2nd trimester. If it weren't for her noticing my post that day and giving me Dr D's contact information, well, I don't know if we'd be here today just 1 day shy of 38 weeks pregnant. Anyways, K just had her baby this past week. She delivered a little early, at 34w3d, and her little girl needed a little help breathing from the NICU but the fact of the matter is, she has a baby girl that she'll be bringing home. Another TAC success story.
The other soon-to-be TAC success story on my IVF board is A who had almost all of her cervix removed when she had cervical cancer. She's due a few weeks behind me and while her cervix has shortened and she's on Procardia & strict bedrest, she's at the 32 week mark so it looks like all 3 of us TAC sisters are going to be success stories. And I think back to that stupid OB/GYN that I first saw who said their practice "doesn't believe in cerclages." God I'm so glad I ditched that practice in a hurry and took the aggressive approach!
Ahhh, it felt good to write about good stuff today, especially after yesterday's toxicity. First thing tomorrow I have my appointment with Dr D so I should have some details on next week's c-section. Just think, a week from tonight I'll be double checking my hospital bag, eating my last food before the cutoff of no food/drink, and wondering if I'll sleep a wink that night. It's really only a week away...WOW!!
So this evening I went to meet one of the pedatricians at a practice just down the road - literally one quarter mile away. I liked the office a lot. The doctor I met with spoke about the practice and gave me an opportunity to ask my questions and I just felt really comfortable there. The practice has 4 male docs and 4 female docs. They have a call-in hour from 8am-9am each morning in case you just have general questions you want to ask a nurse and/or doc (nutritional, behavioral, etc) which is really nice. Two nights a week they're open until 7pm at our nearby office and another two nights a week they're open until 7pm at their other office in the next town over. They're also open for sick visits on Saturday and Sunday mornings (HUGE plus!) And you can talk to their lactation counselor M-F between 8am-5pm (again, nice!) So we'll see the hospital's pediatrician where we'll deliver and then when we're discharged we'll start going to this practice I visited for Maribel's care.
Now, onto two other bits of good news that I must share. First, I told you about my former IVF cycle buddy N - her u/s today went great! She and her DH were able to see their little bean on the screen with a beautiful heartbeat of 142. I kept refreshing my screen all afternoon waiting for her message to come in and I was overjoyed at the news. So big congratulations to N & her DH!
My other congratulations goes out to K. K is the message board friend who originally saw my post about my non-existent cervix and sent me a message telling me about the TAC and recommending I reach out to Dr D to discuss it with him. She had her TAC placed in September after previously losing twins to incompetent cervix in the 2nd trimester. If it weren't for her noticing my post that day and giving me Dr D's contact information, well, I don't know if we'd be here today just 1 day shy of 38 weeks pregnant. Anyways, K just had her baby this past week. She delivered a little early, at 34w3d, and her little girl needed a little help breathing from the NICU but the fact of the matter is, she has a baby girl that she'll be bringing home. Another TAC success story.
The other soon-to-be TAC success story on my IVF board is A who had almost all of her cervix removed when she had cervical cancer. She's due a few weeks behind me and while her cervix has shortened and she's on Procardia & strict bedrest, she's at the 32 week mark so it looks like all 3 of us TAC sisters are going to be success stories. And I think back to that stupid OB/GYN that I first saw who said their practice "doesn't believe in cerclages." God I'm so glad I ditched that practice in a hurry and took the aggressive approach!
Ahhh, it felt good to write about good stuff today, especially after yesterday's toxicity. First thing tomorrow I have my appointment with Dr D so I should have some details on next week's c-section. Just think, a week from tonight I'll be double checking my hospital bag, eating my last food before the cutoff of no food/drink, and wondering if I'll sleep a wink that night. It's really only a week away...WOW!!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
37w5d - A peek into the mind of a hormonal pregnant woman
Oh boy, today was not a pleasant day and I'm blaming pregnancy hormones. Some people may not realize just how crazy these hormones can make a woman feel and act so to get an insider's perspective, simply read on.
The day started just fine. I woke up, walked the dog, drank my 2 cups of decaf, ate my peanut butter toast and string cheese, watched the Today show. All normal things. Then I completed my project of the day, changing out pictures in my collage frames around the house. All the pictures I had in those frames previously were soooo old. They needed some more recent pictures and I was so happy to now see current pictures of the kids, grandkids, and the rest of the family now filling those frames. Ahhh, wonderful!
Then the day went to hell in a handbasket...
There is no explicable reason, nothing that set off the downward spiral - it just happened. As I got up to go to the bathroom after lunch, I was in so much pain I felt frustrated and angry and damn I'm just tired of feeling so sore. This led to me looking at DH with daggers as I thought "dammit, if it were up to me, I'd be having an amnio tomorrow and having Maribel on Thursday. You bastard you!" This led to me feeling guilty and ashamed for even thinking this as I know he made a logical decision when deciding our c-section date where my decision would have been driven by my physical desire to be out of pain. Well, that guilt and shame led me straight to the kitchen where I grabbed a giant piece of carrot cake. Now, we all know with my GD, I should not be eating an enormous slab of carrot cake as my afternoon snack. But did this stop me? No, in fact after eating that I proceeded to have some frozen grapes AND a bowl of Rice Krispies!! WTF is wrong with me?!?!
Well, my pigout brought more guilt so I tried to take a nap in hopes that I would wake up with a fresh, new take on the day. Nope! I coudn't sleep a wink. My dog could sleep (as he cuddled up next to me) and DH could sleep, as I eventually found him napping on the couch and now I'm angry and envious that they can both just conk out in seconds and I've spent the last two hours trying to fall asleep. In addition to the envy, I started feeling teary because it suddenly hit me that in 9 days Maribel will be here and I'm afraid I'm going to be an awful mother. What if she's better off in my uterus? It's not like I can stuff her back in there when I fail miserably. Now in addition to my sadness over knowing I'm going to be a terrible mother, I felt even more guilt than earlier over my pigout and not only that but I was now convinced I'm just a fat fuck who's going to have a really hard time working this weight off if these pigouts continue. So as I lay down to let a contraction pass I did 10 leg lifts (like 10 leg lifts is going to do anything at all to combat the ginormous slice of carrot cake I ate, ha!)
Dinnertime came and I was in no way motivated to think of something clever and delicious to cook so it ended up being a fried eggs, toast, and sausage links dinner. The sausage links tasted incredibly salty tonight and before I knew it, I was crying. I don't know exactly why. Part of it was just sheer mental exhaustion from the afternoon. Part of it was because I don't have any friends down here where we live and that in itself is pretty sad. But regardless of the reason, I cried for the rest of the meal, feeding the dog my sausage (he was a big fan of it) and continued my crying while DH cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher.
Eventually I stopped crying and decided to walk the dog. He nearly pulled me down the last few steps to go after a dog he saw out back and at that very moment I think I would have been happy to give my dog away. Which of course led to more anger and guilt as I stormed down the sidewalk, dog and husband following behind me. I also decided at this time that I'd better do a walk around the block to combat the evil carrot cake. Of course by the time we got back to our apartment I'm in loads of pain but you know what? Who cares? I'd be in pain if we didn't go for the walk. I'd be contracting even if we didn't go for the walk. So I told myself to suck it up and shut up. And I guess telling myself that made me feel better because I've refrained from crying since then.
Ok, so after reading about my afternoon and evening you may have many thoughts going through your head. If you've ever been pregnant you may be thinking back to that late pregnancy stage and be able to relate perfectly to my story. Or you may be thinking "Wow this lady is off her rocker!" or "Who is this crazy person and what has she done with Amanda?" or maybe even "Oh my, I feel so bad for her DH and dog. How do they tolerate her?" Whatever you may think, you know I don't bother sugarcoating anything on this blog so it's only fair for me to give you honest insight into how pregnancy hormones can make me, a pretty average woman, feel like a lunatic. And I tell you - I seriously felt like shipping myself off to the funny farm today.
So here's to hoping that today is long forgotten and that tomorrow is a much better day. Tomorrow night I go meet the pediatrician (since I was in the hospital the last time I had that scheduled) and Thursday morning is my next (and last) NST/prenatal visit. Both of those are some good positive things to look forward to so I'm optimistic that tomorrow will be a great day, or as the Brady Bunch would say a Sunshine Day! And as a Brady Bunch fanatic, there is no way in hell I could say that and not include a link to the Brady Bunch singing Sunshine Day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCCG7QkM_c
Enjoy!!
The day started just fine. I woke up, walked the dog, drank my 2 cups of decaf, ate my peanut butter toast and string cheese, watched the Today show. All normal things. Then I completed my project of the day, changing out pictures in my collage frames around the house. All the pictures I had in those frames previously were soooo old. They needed some more recent pictures and I was so happy to now see current pictures of the kids, grandkids, and the rest of the family now filling those frames. Ahhh, wonderful!
Then the day went to hell in a handbasket...
There is no explicable reason, nothing that set off the downward spiral - it just happened. As I got up to go to the bathroom after lunch, I was in so much pain I felt frustrated and angry and damn I'm just tired of feeling so sore. This led to me looking at DH with daggers as I thought "dammit, if it were up to me, I'd be having an amnio tomorrow and having Maribel on Thursday. You bastard you!" This led to me feeling guilty and ashamed for even thinking this as I know he made a logical decision when deciding our c-section date where my decision would have been driven by my physical desire to be out of pain. Well, that guilt and shame led me straight to the kitchen where I grabbed a giant piece of carrot cake. Now, we all know with my GD, I should not be eating an enormous slab of carrot cake as my afternoon snack. But did this stop me? No, in fact after eating that I proceeded to have some frozen grapes AND a bowl of Rice Krispies!! WTF is wrong with me?!?!
Well, my pigout brought more guilt so I tried to take a nap in hopes that I would wake up with a fresh, new take on the day. Nope! I coudn't sleep a wink. My dog could sleep (as he cuddled up next to me) and DH could sleep, as I eventually found him napping on the couch and now I'm angry and envious that they can both just conk out in seconds and I've spent the last two hours trying to fall asleep. In addition to the envy, I started feeling teary because it suddenly hit me that in 9 days Maribel will be here and I'm afraid I'm going to be an awful mother. What if she's better off in my uterus? It's not like I can stuff her back in there when I fail miserably. Now in addition to my sadness over knowing I'm going to be a terrible mother, I felt even more guilt than earlier over my pigout and not only that but I was now convinced I'm just a fat fuck who's going to have a really hard time working this weight off if these pigouts continue. So as I lay down to let a contraction pass I did 10 leg lifts (like 10 leg lifts is going to do anything at all to combat the ginormous slice of carrot cake I ate, ha!)
Dinnertime came and I was in no way motivated to think of something clever and delicious to cook so it ended up being a fried eggs, toast, and sausage links dinner. The sausage links tasted incredibly salty tonight and before I knew it, I was crying. I don't know exactly why. Part of it was just sheer mental exhaustion from the afternoon. Part of it was because I don't have any friends down here where we live and that in itself is pretty sad. But regardless of the reason, I cried for the rest of the meal, feeding the dog my sausage (he was a big fan of it) and continued my crying while DH cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher.
Eventually I stopped crying and decided to walk the dog. He nearly pulled me down the last few steps to go after a dog he saw out back and at that very moment I think I would have been happy to give my dog away. Which of course led to more anger and guilt as I stormed down the sidewalk, dog and husband following behind me. I also decided at this time that I'd better do a walk around the block to combat the evil carrot cake. Of course by the time we got back to our apartment I'm in loads of pain but you know what? Who cares? I'd be in pain if we didn't go for the walk. I'd be contracting even if we didn't go for the walk. So I told myself to suck it up and shut up. And I guess telling myself that made me feel better because I've refrained from crying since then.
Ok, so after reading about my afternoon and evening you may have many thoughts going through your head. If you've ever been pregnant you may be thinking back to that late pregnancy stage and be able to relate perfectly to my story. Or you may be thinking "Wow this lady is off her rocker!" or "Who is this crazy person and what has she done with Amanda?" or maybe even "Oh my, I feel so bad for her DH and dog. How do they tolerate her?" Whatever you may think, you know I don't bother sugarcoating anything on this blog so it's only fair for me to give you honest insight into how pregnancy hormones can make me, a pretty average woman, feel like a lunatic. And I tell you - I seriously felt like shipping myself off to the funny farm today.
So here's to hoping that today is long forgotten and that tomorrow is a much better day. Tomorrow night I go meet the pediatrician (since I was in the hospital the last time I had that scheduled) and Thursday morning is my next (and last) NST/prenatal visit. Both of those are some good positive things to look forward to so I'm optimistic that tomorrow will be a great day, or as the Brady Bunch would say a Sunshine Day! And as a Brady Bunch fanatic, there is no way in hell I could say that and not include a link to the Brady Bunch singing Sunshine Day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCCG7QkM_c
Enjoy!!
Monday, June 27, 2011
37w4d - 10 more sleeps to go!
I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning because then we'll be in a single digit countdown - woo-hoo!!! Yeah baby!! What's really crazy is I remember my pregnancy ticker when the pregnancy first started and it was saying I had 243 days or so to go. Now knowing that we're going to deliver in only 10 more sleeps, well, that's just plain mind boggling - in a good way!
This weekend was pretty uneventful. DH & I went out for a nice lunch on Saturday and talked about how this may be one of our last lunches with just the two of us. Next time we go we'll have our little princess with us and be timing our lunch date around breastfeeding.
Sunday was pretty tough as I had painful contractions for a good 10 hours. And DH was gone from 6am until almost 10pm so I had dog walking honors all day. Let me just say, it's definitely a challenge to walk a dog with contractions that stop you in your tracks. There were a few times where I just had to tell pup to stop and bend over for a couple minutes to let the contraction pass. At some points during the day, I contemplated calling Dr D but then the contractions would go all irregular again. In the end I'm glad I didn't bother the good doc because by the time I went to bed, they'd let up considerably. Today, DH has another long day so I'm the dog walking queen again but it's been much, much easier with more of the "normal" contractions that I'm used to. So now I just wait for my appointment on Thursday morning.
On another note, I'm really excited for one of my message board friends "N". Now, back when we did our IVF cycle, N was my cycle buddy. We both joined the summer cycle group thread in June/July but by the time we both went through our testing and prep ended up moving on to the fall cycle group thread. We were both self-pay so we could relate to the fear of spending soooo much money and not having anything to show for it. We started our stims one day apart and had our egg retrieval on the same day, October 21st. I had a 3-day transfer, while she had enough embies to try a 5-day transfer. Throughout our cycle we messaged each other numerous times a day - cheering each other on and keeping each other positive through the worry. As we all know, I got my BFP but N got a BFN. I was so, so sad for her as I'd really hoped we'd be able to go through our pregnancies together. And yet while she was going through such a painful time, she always stayed supportive of my pregnancy. (That couldn't have been easy for her.)
N & her DH took some time away to contemplate whether to try another fresh cycle or do a frozen embryo transfer (FET) with the one embryo that made it to the freezing stage. An FET is considerably cheaper since there is no retrieval and no stims necessary, but N was so afraid that the embie wouldn't survive the thaw (around 70% survive thawing) or that just transferring 1 would not take. They decided to do their FET, the embie survived the thaw and was transferred, and then N's wait began. I had 23 internet cheapie pregnancy tests leftover so after her FET, I mailed her the sticks so she'd have plenty of HPTs to test with. And she got a BFP! Beautiful 2nd lines over and over until she went for her b/w and then her betas have been fabulous. This Wednesday she goes for her first u/s. I've been praying for her daily that when she goes on Wednesday she & her DH will see a beautiful sac with a beautiful heartbeat in there. That wait for the first u/s is worse than the wait for the betas. We've seen so many women post that there was no heartbeat, that it was just a blighted ovum, or that it's an ectopic so seeing the heartbeat is what a fertility clinic (and us pregnant women) take as "really pregnant!" So the wait for the first u/s is an emotionally draining time, I know!
So to my former cycle buddy and friend N in Tennessee, good luck on Wednesday. The prayers and positive thoughts will keep coming and I can't wait to follow your pregnancy!
This weekend was pretty uneventful. DH & I went out for a nice lunch on Saturday and talked about how this may be one of our last lunches with just the two of us. Next time we go we'll have our little princess with us and be timing our lunch date around breastfeeding.
Sunday was pretty tough as I had painful contractions for a good 10 hours. And DH was gone from 6am until almost 10pm so I had dog walking honors all day. Let me just say, it's definitely a challenge to walk a dog with contractions that stop you in your tracks. There were a few times where I just had to tell pup to stop and bend over for a couple minutes to let the contraction pass. At some points during the day, I contemplated calling Dr D but then the contractions would go all irregular again. In the end I'm glad I didn't bother the good doc because by the time I went to bed, they'd let up considerably. Today, DH has another long day so I'm the dog walking queen again but it's been much, much easier with more of the "normal" contractions that I'm used to. So now I just wait for my appointment on Thursday morning.
On another note, I'm really excited for one of my message board friends "N". Now, back when we did our IVF cycle, N was my cycle buddy. We both joined the summer cycle group thread in June/July but by the time we both went through our testing and prep ended up moving on to the fall cycle group thread. We were both self-pay so we could relate to the fear of spending soooo much money and not having anything to show for it. We started our stims one day apart and had our egg retrieval on the same day, October 21st. I had a 3-day transfer, while she had enough embies to try a 5-day transfer. Throughout our cycle we messaged each other numerous times a day - cheering each other on and keeping each other positive through the worry. As we all know, I got my BFP but N got a BFN. I was so, so sad for her as I'd really hoped we'd be able to go through our pregnancies together. And yet while she was going through such a painful time, she always stayed supportive of my pregnancy. (That couldn't have been easy for her.)
N & her DH took some time away to contemplate whether to try another fresh cycle or do a frozen embryo transfer (FET) with the one embryo that made it to the freezing stage. An FET is considerably cheaper since there is no retrieval and no stims necessary, but N was so afraid that the embie wouldn't survive the thaw (around 70% survive thawing) or that just transferring 1 would not take. They decided to do their FET, the embie survived the thaw and was transferred, and then N's wait began. I had 23 internet cheapie pregnancy tests leftover so after her FET, I mailed her the sticks so she'd have plenty of HPTs to test with. And she got a BFP! Beautiful 2nd lines over and over until she went for her b/w and then her betas have been fabulous. This Wednesday she goes for her first u/s. I've been praying for her daily that when she goes on Wednesday she & her DH will see a beautiful sac with a beautiful heartbeat in there. That wait for the first u/s is worse than the wait for the betas. We've seen so many women post that there was no heartbeat, that it was just a blighted ovum, or that it's an ectopic so seeing the heartbeat is what a fertility clinic (and us pregnant women) take as "really pregnant!" So the wait for the first u/s is an emotionally draining time, I know!
So to my former cycle buddy and friend N in Tennessee, good luck on Wednesday. The prayers and positive thoughts will keep coming and I can't wait to follow your pregnancy!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
37 weeks - only 2 weeks to go!!!
37 weeks today!! Two weeks from now I should be holding Maribel, or nursing her, or watching DH snuggle up with her...oh, I cannot wait!! DH told me that it really hit him yesterday - that his thoughts are always "When Maribel arrives..." and now that "when" is really just two weeks away he got extra excited and nervous at the same time.
My days now fluctuate. Yesterday I was pretty miserable, just because I was sore, uncomfortable, and itchy. It probably didn't help that I felt the need to vacuum the entire house yesterday - dining/living room, our room, baby's room, hallway and moving light furnishings out of the way to do so. Yeah, probably not the wisest decision I've made but nesting was in full force so once I started I just couldn't stop. Today, I've been feeling a lot better. I limited my activities today to dog walking and grocery shopping (though carrying those grocery bags up the stairs temporarily kicked my ass.)
So as I waiver between cherishing every remaining moment of my pregnancy and crying to the heavens to please just let me have her now so I can stop feeling so uncomfortable, I think about things I love about being pregnant and things I won't miss.
I will miss feeling her kick and squirm inside of me, especially when I'm talking to her. It's like a communication only she & I have and I'll miss that.
I will NOT miss peeing numerous times each hour, nor will I miss having a contraction the moment I get up to pee. It's hard enough to walk with a contraction and a belly out to here, but add in squeezing the legs together to avoid an accident on the way to the bathroom and my patience thins.
I will miss people being so friendly. Yes, people are REALLY nice to pregnant women. They smile at pregnant women, they strike up a quick conversation (usually just asking when I'm due or whether it's a boy or girl), and you actually feel like you're no longer completely invisible to the rest of society.
I will NOT miss pricking my finger 4 times a day or having to schedule meals and activities around when I need to test my blood. I will also NOT miss having to take my Procardia every 6 hours (I really hate that 2am alarm with a passion.)
I will miss my hubby talking to my belly, rubbing it, and telling me almost daily how beautiful my bump is.
I will NOT miss both of us being too nervous to have sex, or having to wear a condom during sex, or being told we have to refrain from sex (which happened at the beginning, middle, and end of pregnancy.) You always hear "pregnant sex is great". In our pregnancy it was pretty much non-existent so we are both anxious to get the all clear at my post-partum visit and get that party started. [Insert cheesy porn music here]
I will miss the wonder and anticipation - what will she look like? Will she have DH's cute lips and big brown eyes? Will she have my high arches or his flat feet? What will she weigh? What will she sound like when she cries? What will her personality be like?
I will NOT miss the worry. We've made it through the pregnancy in baby steps. The entire IVF process was a series of baby steps - stim enough to get eggs, retrieve them, wait to hear how many fertilized, get the call each day to see if they're still growing, transfer them, wait to see if we get a BFP, wait for the u/s, wait for the 2nd u/s to see if we had heartbeats. Then it was wait for the TAC surgery to make sure the baby made it through that. Then it was get to 20 weeks, then 24 (where viability is greater), then 25 where it's even greater, then 28 where we take our first breath that a baby would have a really, really good chance if born then. Then 30, then getting past our pre-term contraction scare at 33+ weeks (knowing the baby would be fine but still knowing there could be a NICU stay), and now at 37 weeks we've made it to full-term. I've always said I'll really breathe a sigh of relief when they do that c-section, I hear her cry, and they tell me she's great. Of course, as parents you never stop worrying but I just want to be past the point of worrying that we'll be able to bring our baby home.
I'm sure there are lots more things I'll miss and not miss but those are my main ones. Anyways, 2 more weeks...I still can't believe it! Well, here is my picture from this evening at 37 weeks. Only 2 more belly shots to go - one next week and one the morning of delivery. WOW!!!!
My days now fluctuate. Yesterday I was pretty miserable, just because I was sore, uncomfortable, and itchy. It probably didn't help that I felt the need to vacuum the entire house yesterday - dining/living room, our room, baby's room, hallway and moving light furnishings out of the way to do so. Yeah, probably not the wisest decision I've made but nesting was in full force so once I started I just couldn't stop. Today, I've been feeling a lot better. I limited my activities today to dog walking and grocery shopping (though carrying those grocery bags up the stairs temporarily kicked my ass.)
So as I waiver between cherishing every remaining moment of my pregnancy and crying to the heavens to please just let me have her now so I can stop feeling so uncomfortable, I think about things I love about being pregnant and things I won't miss.
I will miss feeling her kick and squirm inside of me, especially when I'm talking to her. It's like a communication only she & I have and I'll miss that.
I will NOT miss peeing numerous times each hour, nor will I miss having a contraction the moment I get up to pee. It's hard enough to walk with a contraction and a belly out to here, but add in squeezing the legs together to avoid an accident on the way to the bathroom and my patience thins.
I will miss people being so friendly. Yes, people are REALLY nice to pregnant women. They smile at pregnant women, they strike up a quick conversation (usually just asking when I'm due or whether it's a boy or girl), and you actually feel like you're no longer completely invisible to the rest of society.
I will NOT miss pricking my finger 4 times a day or having to schedule meals and activities around when I need to test my blood. I will also NOT miss having to take my Procardia every 6 hours (I really hate that 2am alarm with a passion.)
I will miss my hubby talking to my belly, rubbing it, and telling me almost daily how beautiful my bump is.
I will NOT miss both of us being too nervous to have sex, or having to wear a condom during sex, or being told we have to refrain from sex (which happened at the beginning, middle, and end of pregnancy.) You always hear "pregnant sex is great". In our pregnancy it was pretty much non-existent so we are both anxious to get the all clear at my post-partum visit and get that party started. [Insert cheesy porn music here]
I will miss the wonder and anticipation - what will she look like? Will she have DH's cute lips and big brown eyes? Will she have my high arches or his flat feet? What will she weigh? What will she sound like when she cries? What will her personality be like?
I will NOT miss the worry. We've made it through the pregnancy in baby steps. The entire IVF process was a series of baby steps - stim enough to get eggs, retrieve them, wait to hear how many fertilized, get the call each day to see if they're still growing, transfer them, wait to see if we get a BFP, wait for the u/s, wait for the 2nd u/s to see if we had heartbeats. Then it was wait for the TAC surgery to make sure the baby made it through that. Then it was get to 20 weeks, then 24 (where viability is greater), then 25 where it's even greater, then 28 where we take our first breath that a baby would have a really, really good chance if born then. Then 30, then getting past our pre-term contraction scare at 33+ weeks (knowing the baby would be fine but still knowing there could be a NICU stay), and now at 37 weeks we've made it to full-term. I've always said I'll really breathe a sigh of relief when they do that c-section, I hear her cry, and they tell me she's great. Of course, as parents you never stop worrying but I just want to be past the point of worrying that we'll be able to bring our baby home.
I'm sure there are lots more things I'll miss and not miss but those are my main ones. Anyways, 2 more weeks...I still can't believe it! Well, here is my picture from this evening at 37 weeks. Only 2 more belly shots to go - one next week and one the morning of delivery. WOW!!!!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
36w5d - 16 more sleeps!
Hello all! As the title of today's post, we have 16 more sleeps until c-section day. It's funny when you're counting down to a big day. You try to find the one that sounds like the shortest amount of time. 2 weeks & 2 days? 16 days? 16 sleeps? 2 weeks from Thursday? While my answer changes depending on my mood, today I think 16 sleeps sounds best. 16 days makes me think of 16 long days. Anything with "weeks" in it just seems like forever. Sleeps are generally 6 hours or less these days so 16 of those seems like a short amount of time. (Mind you, yesterday I preferred to think of it as 2 weeks & 3 days instead of 17 days or 17 sleeps. That's why I said it seems to vary depending on my mood.) So which do you think is the shortest sounding?
Today's doctor's visit went well for the most part. The worst part was my weight. Somehow I gained 3.4 pounds in one week!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? Yes, that deserved to be spelled out instead off my usual abbreviation of WTF!! I have no idea why but my guess is that my activity level being greatly cut since starting this modified bedrest probably contributed. That and I'm feeling a little puffy lately so I have a feeling some of it is water weight. Whatever it is, I have to work extra hard over the next week to make sure I stay put on that freaking scale. Total weight gain thanks to packing on the pounds this week = 18.8 pounds. Still acceptable overall of course, it's just hard to see a gain like that when I can't even eat all of the foods I'd like to be eating. Ah well, let it go Amanda, let it go.
My NST was good. Some contractions but nothing major. Maribel racing her heart away at first and then calming down into a nice pattern. My AFI was good at 16.93 - so even higher than the original reading 2 weeks ago. BP was awesome at 120/86. Pulse, temp, & urine all fine too. Doc pushed on a few parts of my lower legs to make sure I wasn't having pitting edema with that weight gain but everything looked good there too.
So then we discussed our final decision for our c-section date. He again ran through our options - deliver next week, but just do an amnio beforehand to make sure her lungs are mature or deliver at 39 weeks on 7/7. OMG, how I wanted to say let's deliver next week. I really, really wanted to say that. But instead I told him how DH & I discussed it and we'd (well, mostly DH) like to shoot for 39 weeks. He chuckled as I said I'd like DH to carry a bowling ball in his shirt for this last week so he feels my pain (mind you, I was semi-serious.) He called over to the hospital to tell them to put me on the schedule for 7/7 for my c-section. Wow, hearing him make that call made it all feel very real.
Next week, instead of going for my NST/prenatal visit on Tuesday, I'll go on Thursday. That will be exactly 38 weeks and will be 1 week before my c-section. Doc will do the hospital paperwork with me that day and it can only be done one week prior to my surgery (pre-op vitals and such) so this will allow me to just have one appointment next week instead of having one appointment on Tuesday and then going in Thursday for the paperwork portion. That works for me! And that means I only have ONE more doctor visit before we deliver. One! Wow! During next week's appointment he'll go through all of the details for the surgery - what to expect, what time to be there, pre-op instructions, etc. I can't believe we're this close now! I've used a lot of exclamation points in the last few sentences so I think you can sense my excitement.
So that's it for today. Thursday will be 37 weeks so I'll be sure to post a new belly shot. Until then, I hope you're all having a great week and happy first day of summer!
Today's doctor's visit went well for the most part. The worst part was my weight. Somehow I gained 3.4 pounds in one week!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? Yes, that deserved to be spelled out instead off my usual abbreviation of WTF!! I have no idea why but my guess is that my activity level being greatly cut since starting this modified bedrest probably contributed. That and I'm feeling a little puffy lately so I have a feeling some of it is water weight. Whatever it is, I have to work extra hard over the next week to make sure I stay put on that freaking scale. Total weight gain thanks to packing on the pounds this week = 18.8 pounds. Still acceptable overall of course, it's just hard to see a gain like that when I can't even eat all of the foods I'd like to be eating. Ah well, let it go Amanda, let it go.
My NST was good. Some contractions but nothing major. Maribel racing her heart away at first and then calming down into a nice pattern. My AFI was good at 16.93 - so even higher than the original reading 2 weeks ago. BP was awesome at 120/86. Pulse, temp, & urine all fine too. Doc pushed on a few parts of my lower legs to make sure I wasn't having pitting edema with that weight gain but everything looked good there too.
So then we discussed our final decision for our c-section date. He again ran through our options - deliver next week, but just do an amnio beforehand to make sure her lungs are mature or deliver at 39 weeks on 7/7. OMG, how I wanted to say let's deliver next week. I really, really wanted to say that. But instead I told him how DH & I discussed it and we'd (well, mostly DH) like to shoot for 39 weeks. He chuckled as I said I'd like DH to carry a bowling ball in his shirt for this last week so he feels my pain (mind you, I was semi-serious.) He called over to the hospital to tell them to put me on the schedule for 7/7 for my c-section. Wow, hearing him make that call made it all feel very real.
Next week, instead of going for my NST/prenatal visit on Tuesday, I'll go on Thursday. That will be exactly 38 weeks and will be 1 week before my c-section. Doc will do the hospital paperwork with me that day and it can only be done one week prior to my surgery (pre-op vitals and such) so this will allow me to just have one appointment next week instead of having one appointment on Tuesday and then going in Thursday for the paperwork portion. That works for me! And that means I only have ONE more doctor visit before we deliver. One! Wow! During next week's appointment he'll go through all of the details for the surgery - what to expect, what time to be there, pre-op instructions, etc. I can't believe we're this close now! I've used a lot of exclamation points in the last few sentences so I think you can sense my excitement.
So that's it for today. Thursday will be 37 weeks so I'll be sure to post a new belly shot. Until then, I hope you're all having a great week and happy first day of summer!
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