Monday, January 23, 2012
Quick Post...Huge Milestone
I just need to document a huge milestone! Last night Macy slept from about 10:30pm to 7:00am!! Woohoo! Let's hope this will be a regular thing. I'll be going back to work before long and I would love if she could keep this up and let momma get some sleep. And on that note, I am off to bed. Sweet dreams!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Where has the time gone?
I thought my maternity leave was going to be a nice, relaxing time at home with my baby girl. I thought I would be able to catch up on housework, get things organized, keep my blog updated, keep up on pictures...boy was I wrong! Macy will be 5 weeks old tomorrow, I have had 5 weeks off work and I feel like I have been off about a week! Christmas is a complete blur, did it really happen?? We have been so busy and I feel like we are just getting into a routine, barely... So here is a little update of what I remember from the past 5 weeks!
When Macy was 4 days old we had to bring her to Children's Hospital Heart Center to have an EKG and an ultrasound of her heart. While I was pregnant with her her heartrate was always very high and after she was born she had a murmur, so her doctor wanted to be sure that it was a normal murmur and nothing to be worried about. Macy did really well hooked up to all those machines and in the end it was found that she had 2 small holes in her heart, but they are nothing to be worried about. It's possible that one of the holes will close over time. We go back when she is 2 months old to have her checked again. Another thing that happened while we were here - they measured Macy and found that she was 18", but she was measured 21" at birth... so yeah, pretty sure that her length listed on her birth certificate is wrong. At 3.5 weeks she is only 19.5 inches, oh well...
While we were at Children's we also had to go to the lab area to have her blood drawn to check her bilirubin levels since they had been elevated. The results came back very high! Her numbers went something like this from the day she was born 8.5 - 13 - 16.4, so they were rising, and rising pretty quickly. It was determined at this point that she needed to have a biliblanket to help break down the bilirubin in her system, so a biliblanket was delivered to our house that night. We hooked her up to the blanket and had to go back to the hospital on Saturday (the following day) to have her blood drawn again. Let me tell you this - having blood drawn from your tiny little newborn baby is the hardest thing to watch! And she had to have it done day after day. So we stopped at the hospital on Saturday hoping for a real quick in and out visit. First of all, we couldn't get to floor 3 where the Children's lab was. No one mentioned to us that the Children's lab was closed on Saturdays. After wandering around trying multiple elevators and not being able to get to the third floor we finally found some people to ask and found out that we had to go to the lab downstairs.. ugh! Why do things have to be so difficult? Her levels from this day were up to 17.8 - so she got to stay on the biliblanket for at least another day. She ended up being on the blanket for almost a full week. Finally on the following Wednesday her levels were starting to go down, so the doctor decided that she could come off the blanket. Saturday was also the day of the Adams' Family Christmas - so after our adventure at the hospital we drove out to Ramsey to celebrate Christmas and let Macy meet the Adams' Family. Christmas was a lot of fun and both Macy and Kara did great - thank goodness for Aunty Em keeping an eye on Kara for us!! :)
At 6 days old Auntie Emily came out to our house to do Macy's first photo shoot. Of course this is the day that Macy decided she didn't want to sleep, because we wanted a sleeping baby in pictures. It's ok though, cause Emily got amazing pictures as always!
At 8 days old I had commented to Joe that I was so proud that we hadn't had to supplement any formula for Macy, she was 100% breastfed - which was huge cause I had some serious troubles breastfeeding Kara. I was really proud of the fact that breastfeeding was going so well. Yes, it was hard when she wanted to clusterfeed and be attached to me for hours at a time, but I knew that that was an important part of supply and demand, and I knew that breastfed babies should be fed on demand, so I dealt with it. Then day 9 rolled around. I had horrible chills to the point that I was shaking uncontrollably, my whole body ached, I felt completely miserable. I would go from having the chills to being incredibly hot and sweaty, it was horrible. After the second day of feeling like this I knew that I had mastitis. Mastitis is what made me quit breastfeeding with Kara. I got it when she was about 4 weeks old and it killed my supply, I tried for 2 weeks to build my supply back up, but it wasn't happening, so I gave up. I was able to continue breastfeeding and pumping with Macy and made it through the 10 days of antibiotics and was still breastfeeding. We did have to start supplementing with 1 or 2 bottles of formula a day, but for the most part she was getting breastmilk. And then 1 week after finishing the antibiotics I started feeling really sick again, it came out of nowhere, but I knew instantly that it was mastitis AGAIN! UGH! This happened on a Friday night, I figured I would just call the on call Dr the next morning and get an antibiotic, well guess what, apparently the answering service for my doctor's office doesn't take messages on the weekend for prescriptions.. WTF? They wouldn't let me leave a message, they told me I could go to the ER or wait until Monday. I am still a little pissed about this and plan on talking to my doctor and the clinic manager, but I haven't had time for that yet. I am almost done with my second round of antibiotics, and I'm really scared to be done with them, I just have this feeling that I am going to get sick again right when I come off them...
Other than all of the above, life has been great with two girls. Macy is a great baby. She really only cries when she needs a diaper change or needs to be fed, she sleeps good at night, she is just a good baby! I really love the newborn stage, they are so cute and snugly, I could snuggle her all day long!
Kara is an amazing big sister. When she came to the hospital to meet Macy she couldn't get in the room quick enough - she couldn't wait to hold her, it was adorable! She loves to hold Macy, help me wash bottles, she brings Macy toys, blankets, pacifiers, etc.. She calls her 'her baby' and you can't just say that Kara is her sister, you have to say 'big sister'. She does great with Macy, but has been acting out towards Joe and I.. for the most part she is good, but she definitely has her bad moments, which is to be expected I guess.
At 5 weeks post partum I have lost about 18 of the 50 pounds that I gained. So now I get to try to lose 30 pounds, that should be fun! I want to try to get into running again, I'm thinking I'll start the couch to 5k program as soon as I can. I don't have a gym membership anymore, so I will have to run outside, and that's no fun when it's cold and icy. Eventually I will get back into all my pre-pregnancy clothes, until then I will continue to wear the one pair of jeans that fit me every single day :)
Joe will be laid off as of Tuesday. It will be nice having him home more, but it will be hard living off two limited incomes.
When Macy was 4 days old we had to bring her to Children's Hospital Heart Center to have an EKG and an ultrasound of her heart. While I was pregnant with her her heartrate was always very high and after she was born she had a murmur, so her doctor wanted to be sure that it was a normal murmur and nothing to be worried about. Macy did really well hooked up to all those machines and in the end it was found that she had 2 small holes in her heart, but they are nothing to be worried about. It's possible that one of the holes will close over time. We go back when she is 2 months old to have her checked again. Another thing that happened while we were here - they measured Macy and found that she was 18", but she was measured 21" at birth... so yeah, pretty sure that her length listed on her birth certificate is wrong. At 3.5 weeks she is only 19.5 inches, oh well...
Macy in her biliblanket
At 6 days old Auntie Emily came out to our house to do Macy's first photo shoot. Of course this is the day that Macy decided she didn't want to sleep, because we wanted a sleeping baby in pictures. It's ok though, cause Emily got amazing pictures as always!
One of my favorite shots from the photo shoot
You can view all the images here
At 8 days old I had commented to Joe that I was so proud that we hadn't had to supplement any formula for Macy, she was 100% breastfed - which was huge cause I had some serious troubles breastfeeding Kara. I was really proud of the fact that breastfeeding was going so well. Yes, it was hard when she wanted to clusterfeed and be attached to me for hours at a time, but I knew that that was an important part of supply and demand, and I knew that breastfed babies should be fed on demand, so I dealt with it. Then day 9 rolled around. I had horrible chills to the point that I was shaking uncontrollably, my whole body ached, I felt completely miserable. I would go from having the chills to being incredibly hot and sweaty, it was horrible. After the second day of feeling like this I knew that I had mastitis. Mastitis is what made me quit breastfeeding with Kara. I got it when she was about 4 weeks old and it killed my supply, I tried for 2 weeks to build my supply back up, but it wasn't happening, so I gave up. I was able to continue breastfeeding and pumping with Macy and made it through the 10 days of antibiotics and was still breastfeeding. We did have to start supplementing with 1 or 2 bottles of formula a day, but for the most part she was getting breastmilk. And then 1 week after finishing the antibiotics I started feeling really sick again, it came out of nowhere, but I knew instantly that it was mastitis AGAIN! UGH! This happened on a Friday night, I figured I would just call the on call Dr the next morning and get an antibiotic, well guess what, apparently the answering service for my doctor's office doesn't take messages on the weekend for prescriptions.. WTF? They wouldn't let me leave a message, they told me I could go to the ER or wait until Monday. I am still a little pissed about this and plan on talking to my doctor and the clinic manager, but I haven't had time for that yet. I am almost done with my second round of antibiotics, and I'm really scared to be done with them, I just have this feeling that I am going to get sick again right when I come off them...
Other than all of the above, life has been great with two girls. Macy is a great baby. She really only cries when she needs a diaper change or needs to be fed, she sleeps good at night, she is just a good baby! I really love the newborn stage, they are so cute and snugly, I could snuggle her all day long!
Kara is an amazing big sister. When she came to the hospital to meet Macy she couldn't get in the room quick enough - she couldn't wait to hold her, it was adorable! She loves to hold Macy, help me wash bottles, she brings Macy toys, blankets, pacifiers, etc.. She calls her 'her baby' and you can't just say that Kara is her sister, you have to say 'big sister'. She does great with Macy, but has been acting out towards Joe and I.. for the most part she is good, but she definitely has her bad moments, which is to be expected I guess.
At 5 weeks post partum I have lost about 18 of the 50 pounds that I gained. So now I get to try to lose 30 pounds, that should be fun! I want to try to get into running again, I'm thinking I'll start the couch to 5k program as soon as I can. I don't have a gym membership anymore, so I will have to run outside, and that's no fun when it's cold and icy. Eventually I will get back into all my pre-pregnancy clothes, until then I will continue to wear the one pair of jeans that fit me every single day :)
Me and my lil babe
Joe will be laid off as of Tuesday. It will be nice having him home more, but it will be hard living off two limited incomes.
Joe with Macy on her first visit to Surly Brewing Co.
Macy in her Surly shirt
Thursday, December 22, 2011
{Macy Amelia 12.12.11}
Monday, December 12th was my first day of maternity leave and I was 39 weeks 2 days pregnant. I woke up early so that I could make it to the hospital by 7:30 am for a BPP and NST. Before I left the house I was sitting at the kitchen table eating some cereal when I heard Kara open her bedroom door and she came and joined me for breakfast. I told her that as soon as I was done eating she would have to go snuggle up in bed with daddy cause I had to go to the hospital to check on baby. At that point Kara told me that the baby was going to be born today and asked who would pick her up from daycare. I told her that grandma would pick her up, but only if the baby was born, if the baby wasn't born mommy would be picking her up... she told me that grandma would be there to pick her up, she also told Beth, our daycare provider, that grandma would be picking her up today cause the baby was going to be born. I think she has some psychic abilities.
7:30 am - Arrived at hospital. Started with the BPP, which is the ultrasound that they do to check on the baby. I told the ultrasound tech that my 3 year old had predicted that the baby would be born today, she said she didn't like to hear that. During the ultrasound she found barely any amniotic fluid, in the end the total measurement was just under 2cm, but the baby also had a full bladder and belly, so there was some additional fluid. Then I had to move on to the NST where they monitor the baby's heart rate and my contractions, while I was having this done the doctor was reviewing the ultrasound and determined that today was the day! So I had to call Joe and let him know not to start working cause he had to come to the hospital! I didn't get to leave to go home and get my things, I got to go straight to labor and delivery. Of course my doctor was on vacation, so the nurse had to try to figure out who was on call and let them know that I was being admitted.
9:00 am - admitted to labor and delivery. I was brought straight back to a delivery room to have an induction started. The plan was to get me on cervidil which softens your cervix and makes it more favorable for an induction. I was about 2 cm dilated at this point, and when the nurse hooked me up to the monitors she discovered that I was contracting every 1-2 minutes, and I wasn't feeling anything! This changed the plan, because they won't use cervidil if you are having regular contractions, so I got to wait while they figured out what they were going to do with me.
10:30 am - An IV and pitocin were started, and Joe finally arrived at the hospital. He had to do lots of running around and pick up all of our hospital bags, get Kara's stuff packed up, etc... but he was finally at the hospital with me.
11:30 am - The only thing in the world that I could think about at this point was food. I had only had a small bowl of cereal before I went in for my appointment, and I wasn't allowed to eat anything. I could drink water up until I decided to have an epidural, but that was it. I wanted a Davanni's hoagie incredibly bad. I tweeted "I sure hope my baby is born before Davanni's closes. I want a hoagie after I give birth." and guess what.. they responded and ended up sending me out 2 coupons for free hoagies and a Davanni's baby bib!! Oh the power of social media!
1:30 pm - A doctor came in and broke my water and they inserted an internal monitor to better monitor the contractions, this gives a much more accurate reading of the strength of the contractions. It was around this point that I started getting really uncomfortable and the contractions were getting pretty painful, but I wasn't sure that I was ready for an epidural yet.
2:45pm - 3 cm dilated and ready for my epidural! Getting the epidural hurt like hell - I don't remember feeling pain when I had an epidural with Kara, but this was baaaaad. I don't know if it was cause I was having contractions while I was getting the epidural or what, but it was a burning, stinging, sharp pain... I don't ever want to deal with that again! I did learn that when men get epidurals they get morphine prior to the epidural to help with the pain, women just get a small bit of numbing medicine.. WTF, not fair! Anyway, the epidural hurt like hell, but of course ended up being a life saver!
4:00 pm - 4 cm dilated, feeling much happier now that the epidural is working like a charm. Between checks from the nurse I was trying to sleep. It had already been a long day, and I was feeling pretty worn out.
6:00 pm - 5 cm dilated. Not much else to report at this time.... other than I was getting sick of only progressing 1 cm every two hours, I really thought things would move quicker. Thank God they had cable in the hospital.. I got to watch all the crappy reality tv shows that I no longer get to watch at home!
8:00 pm - STILL 5 cm dilated. At this point I was pretty sure that I was not going to be having my baby on 12/12. The doctor who was going to be delivering Macy came in at this point and decided to stop the pitocin for a while and see what my body would do on it's own. She also decided to have me sit up in bed for a while to hopefully help the baby move down, as she was still quite high. The doctor decided to head home because she didn't think that I would be ready to push anytime soon.
8:30 pm - Extreme nausea. Joe was trying to find something for me to puke in, and trying to call the nurse. The nurse came in and I told her that I felt really sick so she had me lay back down on my side. She said sometimes sitting up with all those meds can make you feel like that, so back to laying down I went.
9:00 pm - The contractions started to become extremely painful again, it almost felt like the epidural wasn't working at all. I called the nurse again, she came in and I told her what was going on, so she checked me and guess what... I was fully dilated and effaced and ready to push! So in one hour I went from 5cm with the baby still high to completely dilated and ready to push, no wonder I felt to sick! The nurse called the doctor and told her to head back to the hospital cause it was time!
9:43 pm - I started pushing. With Kara I pushed for 3.5 hours, so I was hoping for a much shorter time this time around! At this point in the day I was so worn out and didn't want to push at all, let alone for 3 hours! I pushed and pushed and pushed... it felt like I wasn't doing anything, even though the doctor and nurse said I was. It was a lot harder to push this time around and I think it was cause I could feel the pain, I have no idea how or why women decide to give birth without pain meds... maybe I just have a super low tolerance for pain, but man, I couldn't imagine going all that time without any pain meds.
10:09 pm - 26 minutes of pushing and Macy made her screaming entrance into the world! She looked so tiny to me, and exactly like her big sister! She was very covered in vernix (the white slimy stuff), she was so covered cause my amniotic fluid was so low, but she was my tiny, slimy, beautiful, perfect baby girl! She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 21 inches long. This may be TMI, but it's a part of the birth story... so I had an episiotomy (if you don't know what that is, don't google it - you don't want to know) anyway - I am glad that they allow you to hold your new baby and ooh and aah over the baby while they stitch you back up, it's a good distraction from the pain...and that's all I'm going to say about that.
7:30 am - Arrived at hospital. Started with the BPP, which is the ultrasound that they do to check on the baby. I told the ultrasound tech that my 3 year old had predicted that the baby would be born today, she said she didn't like to hear that. During the ultrasound she found barely any amniotic fluid, in the end the total measurement was just under 2cm, but the baby also had a full bladder and belly, so there was some additional fluid. Then I had to move on to the NST where they monitor the baby's heart rate and my contractions, while I was having this done the doctor was reviewing the ultrasound and determined that today was the day! So I had to call Joe and let him know not to start working cause he had to come to the hospital! I didn't get to leave to go home and get my things, I got to go straight to labor and delivery. Of course my doctor was on vacation, so the nurse had to try to figure out who was on call and let them know that I was being admitted.
9:00 am - admitted to labor and delivery. I was brought straight back to a delivery room to have an induction started. The plan was to get me on cervidil which softens your cervix and makes it more favorable for an induction. I was about 2 cm dilated at this point, and when the nurse hooked me up to the monitors she discovered that I was contracting every 1-2 minutes, and I wasn't feeling anything! This changed the plan, because they won't use cervidil if you are having regular contractions, so I got to wait while they figured out what they were going to do with me.
10:30 am - An IV and pitocin were started, and Joe finally arrived at the hospital. He had to do lots of running around and pick up all of our hospital bags, get Kara's stuff packed up, etc... but he was finally at the hospital with me.
11:30 am - The only thing in the world that I could think about at this point was food. I had only had a small bowl of cereal before I went in for my appointment, and I wasn't allowed to eat anything. I could drink water up until I decided to have an epidural, but that was it. I wanted a Davanni's hoagie incredibly bad. I tweeted "I sure hope my baby is born before Davanni's closes. I want a hoagie after I give birth." and guess what.. they responded and ended up sending me out 2 coupons for free hoagies and a Davanni's baby bib!! Oh the power of social media!
1:30 pm - A doctor came in and broke my water and they inserted an internal monitor to better monitor the contractions, this gives a much more accurate reading of the strength of the contractions. It was around this point that I started getting really uncomfortable and the contractions were getting pretty painful, but I wasn't sure that I was ready for an epidural yet.
2:45pm - 3 cm dilated and ready for my epidural! Getting the epidural hurt like hell - I don't remember feeling pain when I had an epidural with Kara, but this was baaaaad. I don't know if it was cause I was having contractions while I was getting the epidural or what, but it was a burning, stinging, sharp pain... I don't ever want to deal with that again! I did learn that when men get epidurals they get morphine prior to the epidural to help with the pain, women just get a small bit of numbing medicine.. WTF, not fair! Anyway, the epidural hurt like hell, but of course ended up being a life saver!
4:00 pm - 4 cm dilated, feeling much happier now that the epidural is working like a charm. Between checks from the nurse I was trying to sleep. It had already been a long day, and I was feeling pretty worn out.
6:00 pm - 5 cm dilated. Not much else to report at this time.... other than I was getting sick of only progressing 1 cm every two hours, I really thought things would move quicker. Thank God they had cable in the hospital.. I got to watch all the crappy reality tv shows that I no longer get to watch at home!
8:00 pm - STILL 5 cm dilated. At this point I was pretty sure that I was not going to be having my baby on 12/12. The doctor who was going to be delivering Macy came in at this point and decided to stop the pitocin for a while and see what my body would do on it's own. She also decided to have me sit up in bed for a while to hopefully help the baby move down, as she was still quite high. The doctor decided to head home because she didn't think that I would be ready to push anytime soon.
8:30 pm - Extreme nausea. Joe was trying to find something for me to puke in, and trying to call the nurse. The nurse came in and I told her that I felt really sick so she had me lay back down on my side. She said sometimes sitting up with all those meds can make you feel like that, so back to laying down I went.
9:00 pm - The contractions started to become extremely painful again, it almost felt like the epidural wasn't working at all. I called the nurse again, she came in and I told her what was going on, so she checked me and guess what... I was fully dilated and effaced and ready to push! So in one hour I went from 5cm with the baby still high to completely dilated and ready to push, no wonder I felt to sick! The nurse called the doctor and told her to head back to the hospital cause it was time!
9:43 pm - I started pushing. With Kara I pushed for 3.5 hours, so I was hoping for a much shorter time this time around! At this point in the day I was so worn out and didn't want to push at all, let alone for 3 hours! I pushed and pushed and pushed... it felt like I wasn't doing anything, even though the doctor and nurse said I was. It was a lot harder to push this time around and I think it was cause I could feel the pain, I have no idea how or why women decide to give birth without pain meds... maybe I just have a super low tolerance for pain, but man, I couldn't imagine going all that time without any pain meds.
10:09 pm - 26 minutes of pushing and Macy made her screaming entrance into the world! She looked so tiny to me, and exactly like her big sister! She was very covered in vernix (the white slimy stuff), she was so covered cause my amniotic fluid was so low, but she was my tiny, slimy, beautiful, perfect baby girl! She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 21 inches long. This may be TMI, but it's a part of the birth story... so I had an episiotomy (if you don't know what that is, don't google it - you don't want to know) anyway - I am glad that they allow you to hold your new baby and ooh and aah over the baby while they stitch you back up, it's a good distraction from the pain...and that's all I'm going to say about that.
Holding my sweet new baby girl.
Screaming baby on the scale
Proud Daddy
Proud Mommy
Big sister Kara meeting Macy for the first time
Our first family picture
And another of the proud big sister
So there is the birth story and a few pictures for ya. Macy is now 10 days old.. so I will start a new post on how the last week and a half has gone, it's been pretty hectic and the time is just flying by! We are loving our sweet little Macy and trying to settle in to what it's like to be a family of four!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
I'm trying so hard to enjoy these last few (hopefully) days of pregnancy, but it's just so hard. This last 2 weeks have been insanely stressful, so on top of all of the third trimester discomforts of pregnancy, I am also completely stressed out.
It all started the weekend after Thanksgiving, I could barely stay out of bed on Saturday and Sunday, I chalked this up to being 37 weeks pregnant and exhausted. I was literally out of bed for 2 hours, in bed for 2 hours all weekend long. I woke up Sunday night/Monday morning with a bit of a scratchy throat, went to work on Monday and felt like crap the whole day. I ended up going to After Hours care after work and found out that I had strep throat - so I stayed home Tuesday to take meds, be non-contagious and try to get some rest.
Wednesday I had my weekly Dr. appointment to check on baby. At the checkup Macy's heart rate was 175 and going as high as 195 - my doctor had been concerned with her fast heart rate the previous few visits, but it was always within the normal range, so she didn't take any further action, but 175-195 was definitely fast. My doctor said "I am going to make a few phone calls, you are going to go to the hospital tonight to have the baby monitored. Bring your bags with, if things aren't looking good you will be induced tonight. If things are ok you will be going in for a Biophysical profile and Non-Stress Test tomorrow. Either way you are not going to work tomorrow." So now I had Thursday off work too. I sent Joe a text while I was waiting for the doctor to make calls - I said pack a bag for Kara, we are going to the hospital tonight. Once I got home I frantically threw together a bag for me and a bag for Macy, luckily I had started to accumulate piles of things for our hospital bags, so I at least had a general idea of what to pack and where it was.
We sat at the hospital to be monitored for about 2 - 2.5 hours. Macy's heart rate was fast the whole time, it got up to about 210 for a period of time. While I was hooked up to the monitors they also did some labs, I'm not 100% sure what they were checking for with the labs, but they all came back negative.. so that's good... They also gave me a liter of fluid, I think mostly in preparation of possibly inducing me. In the end we were sent home and the constant appointments began.
Thursday, December 1st I had my first Biophysical Profile and Non-Stress Test, which I had to go back to the hospital for, because of course there were no appointments available at the clinic down the road from my house (with free parking). At the BPP it was discovered that my amniotic fluid level was low (more stress...). My level was at 5.9cm - I later discovered that 5cm to 25cm is considered normal, and if you get to 5cm they will induce you immediately. Other than the low fluid the BPP went perfectly, they have 30 mins to do the ultrasound and check for certain things, they saw everything they needed within the first 3 mins, so baby seemed fine! The NST went fine as well. Baby's heart rate was still high, but they were seeing the accelerations and decelerations that they wanted to see and everything else seemed perfectly fine, and I got sent home once again.
Over the weekend I developed this horrible itch all over my body, no rash or anything, just insanely itchy. It got worse overnight, to the point that I couldn't sleep - the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet itched like crazy, it was not cool, and of course nothing that I tried did anything to help. Put in a call to the on-call doctor, and they suggested I see my doctor first thing Monday morning. So I rescheduled my Wednesday evening appt for an early morning appt on Monday. On Monday I went in, my blood pressure was high, baby's heart rate was still high, I was still itchy, but the doctor explained that they were not concerned with the BPP and NSTs other than the low fluid.. so they would now be monitoring my fluid levels very closely. My doctor also told me she wanted me to be done working, mostly cause of the stress level I was feeling, but I told her I couldn't be off work until I was closer to my due date. I couldn't afford to take off two weeks before my due date and have the possibility of going overdue. At that time she told me that she can't see me making it to my due date, that she thought that I would have to be induced within the next week and a half due to the fluid levels, but of course she couldn't make any guarantees... Oh yeah, and she also told me that she would be out of state from Thursday thru Tuesday.... She missed Kara's birth because she was on vacation!
Tuesday, December 6th I got to go back to the hospital for another BPP and NST. Fluid level was at 7.4 and the NST was fine again, so once again, I was sent home.
Thursday, December 8th I was back to the hospital again. During the BPP they couldn't find much fluid at first, like 3.5cm at most. The lady doing the ultrasound asked if I had brought my bags with me and said that it wasn't looking very promising that I would be leaving the hospital. Well, guess what, she found another pocket of fluid that measured about 3.5cm, so that put me at 7cm...ugh! The NST went fine, baby did what they needed her to do right away, and once again I was sent home.
As you can imagine all of these extra appointments have been very draining on me, psychically, mentally, they have me very stressed out. It's very hard to try to work full time and manage these appointments in the middle of the day. I ended up having to use quite a bit of sick time, which also stressed me out cause it was cutting into my paid time that I would get for maternity leave. But I decided that Friday, December 9th would be my last day of work - I needed to take something off my plate. I am hoping that Macy decides to arrive in the next week so that I don't have to take more than a week off work before she's here.
I get to go back to the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning for another BPP and NST - I am SO hoping that they will just keep me this time and let me have my dang baby! If things are fine, I see my doctor on Wednesday evening... at which point I will beg, cry, do whatever I need to do to make her induce me!!!!
When I was pregnant with Kara I didn't mind being overdue, I worked past my due date, and I was for the most part pretty happy - at least approachable ;) This time around things are very, very different. I cannot wait to be done, and hopefully we don't have to wait too much longer!
And a few pictures...
I finally got around to adding Macy's name to the quilt that I made for her (and I also recently discovered that my husband doesn't care for Mae as a middle name...so yeah, we are trying to find a new middle name!)
One last thing - my amazing sister in law took some maternity pics for us when I was 36 weeks along. I wasn't sure that I wanted maternity pics, but I figure this will be my last time being pregnant, and at some point in my life I will miss it and I should probably have some pics. Here is the link to the full album, and below are a few of my favs!
It all started the weekend after Thanksgiving, I could barely stay out of bed on Saturday and Sunday, I chalked this up to being 37 weeks pregnant and exhausted. I was literally out of bed for 2 hours, in bed for 2 hours all weekend long. I woke up Sunday night/Monday morning with a bit of a scratchy throat, went to work on Monday and felt like crap the whole day. I ended up going to After Hours care after work and found out that I had strep throat - so I stayed home Tuesday to take meds, be non-contagious and try to get some rest.
Wednesday I had my weekly Dr. appointment to check on baby. At the checkup Macy's heart rate was 175 and going as high as 195 - my doctor had been concerned with her fast heart rate the previous few visits, but it was always within the normal range, so she didn't take any further action, but 175-195 was definitely fast. My doctor said "I am going to make a few phone calls, you are going to go to the hospital tonight to have the baby monitored. Bring your bags with, if things aren't looking good you will be induced tonight. If things are ok you will be going in for a Biophysical profile and Non-Stress Test tomorrow. Either way you are not going to work tomorrow." So now I had Thursday off work too. I sent Joe a text while I was waiting for the doctor to make calls - I said pack a bag for Kara, we are going to the hospital tonight. Once I got home I frantically threw together a bag for me and a bag for Macy, luckily I had started to accumulate piles of things for our hospital bags, so I at least had a general idea of what to pack and where it was.
We sat at the hospital to be monitored for about 2 - 2.5 hours. Macy's heart rate was fast the whole time, it got up to about 210 for a period of time. While I was hooked up to the monitors they also did some labs, I'm not 100% sure what they were checking for with the labs, but they all came back negative.. so that's good... They also gave me a liter of fluid, I think mostly in preparation of possibly inducing me. In the end we were sent home and the constant appointments began.
Thursday, December 1st I had my first Biophysical Profile and Non-Stress Test, which I had to go back to the hospital for, because of course there were no appointments available at the clinic down the road from my house (with free parking). At the BPP it was discovered that my amniotic fluid level was low (more stress...). My level was at 5.9cm - I later discovered that 5cm to 25cm is considered normal, and if you get to 5cm they will induce you immediately. Other than the low fluid the BPP went perfectly, they have 30 mins to do the ultrasound and check for certain things, they saw everything they needed within the first 3 mins, so baby seemed fine! The NST went fine as well. Baby's heart rate was still high, but they were seeing the accelerations and decelerations that they wanted to see and everything else seemed perfectly fine, and I got sent home once again.
Over the weekend I developed this horrible itch all over my body, no rash or anything, just insanely itchy. It got worse overnight, to the point that I couldn't sleep - the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet itched like crazy, it was not cool, and of course nothing that I tried did anything to help. Put in a call to the on-call doctor, and they suggested I see my doctor first thing Monday morning. So I rescheduled my Wednesday evening appt for an early morning appt on Monday. On Monday I went in, my blood pressure was high, baby's heart rate was still high, I was still itchy, but the doctor explained that they were not concerned with the BPP and NSTs other than the low fluid.. so they would now be monitoring my fluid levels very closely. My doctor also told me she wanted me to be done working, mostly cause of the stress level I was feeling, but I told her I couldn't be off work until I was closer to my due date. I couldn't afford to take off two weeks before my due date and have the possibility of going overdue. At that time she told me that she can't see me making it to my due date, that she thought that I would have to be induced within the next week and a half due to the fluid levels, but of course she couldn't make any guarantees... Oh yeah, and she also told me that she would be out of state from Thursday thru Tuesday.... She missed Kara's birth because she was on vacation!
Tuesday, December 6th I got to go back to the hospital for another BPP and NST. Fluid level was at 7.4 and the NST was fine again, so once again, I was sent home.
Thursday, December 8th I was back to the hospital again. During the BPP they couldn't find much fluid at first, like 3.5cm at most. The lady doing the ultrasound asked if I had brought my bags with me and said that it wasn't looking very promising that I would be leaving the hospital. Well, guess what, she found another pocket of fluid that measured about 3.5cm, so that put me at 7cm...ugh! The NST went fine, baby did what they needed her to do right away, and once again I was sent home.
As you can imagine all of these extra appointments have been very draining on me, psychically, mentally, they have me very stressed out. It's very hard to try to work full time and manage these appointments in the middle of the day. I ended up having to use quite a bit of sick time, which also stressed me out cause it was cutting into my paid time that I would get for maternity leave. But I decided that Friday, December 9th would be my last day of work - I needed to take something off my plate. I am hoping that Macy decides to arrive in the next week so that I don't have to take more than a week off work before she's here.
I get to go back to the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning for another BPP and NST - I am SO hoping that they will just keep me this time and let me have my dang baby! If things are fine, I see my doctor on Wednesday evening... at which point I will beg, cry, do whatever I need to do to make her induce me!!!!
When I was pregnant with Kara I didn't mind being overdue, I worked past my due date, and I was for the most part pretty happy - at least approachable ;) This time around things are very, very different. I cannot wait to be done, and hopefully we don't have to wait too much longer!
And a few pictures...
I finally got around to adding Macy's name to the quilt that I made for her (and I also recently discovered that my husband doesn't care for Mae as a middle name...so yeah, we are trying to find a new middle name!)
Kara went to see Santa yesterday! I was pretty shocked when she decided that she wanted to wear her dress and picked out a cute little clip to put in her hair! When we got to the mall to see Santa we had to wait in line for about 45 mins. Of course the two kids in front of us threw huge fits and were screaming and crying, so I thought we were doomed... but Kara still sat on Santa's lap and even told him that she wanted a firetruck with glitter on it! She let us take a few different pictures, sat there and talked to him, it was adorable!
Friday, November 18, 2011
The Countdown Has Begun!!
29 days and counting until baby Macy is due!! These last fifteen seven months feel like they have gone by really fast, but it also feels like I have been pregnant FOREVER! Only 4 more weeks to go though.. I can do it!
This pregnancy has been pretty non-eventful. My last couple of visits Macy's heart rate has been kind of fast, but it's still within the normal range, so nothing to worry about. I have started to prepare Kara's room to be a room for two. Kara wants to play with everything that we get or take out though - she likes to be a mommy to all her little stuffed animals, so all the tiny stuff for Macy has become accessories for Kara's babies. Which is totally ok with me at this point, I just hope we don't have a struggle when Macy is born and we need to take all these things back from Kara...
Like we don't have enough on our plates trying to get ready for a new baby in our house right around the busiest time of year.... we now get to do a total remodel of our downstairs bathroom! Joe had noticed that the toilet was leaking water, he thought it just needed a new seal at the base of the toilet - well guess what, he was wrong... water had leaked under the tiles, so he had to pull up all the tiles and take out the vanity. Our bathroom looks a little like this:
Pretty, huh? Joe took the day off work today to deal with this.. lucky him! He bought new tile last night, so hopefully we will have a nice, new, unleaky bathroom soon!
A few other random thoughts:
This pregnancy has been pretty non-eventful. My last couple of visits Macy's heart rate has been kind of fast, but it's still within the normal range, so nothing to worry about. I have started to prepare Kara's room to be a room for two. Kara wants to play with everything that we get or take out though - she likes to be a mommy to all her little stuffed animals, so all the tiny stuff for Macy has become accessories for Kara's babies. Which is totally ok with me at this point, I just hope we don't have a struggle when Macy is born and we need to take all these things back from Kara...
Like we don't have enough on our plates trying to get ready for a new baby in our house right around the busiest time of year.... we now get to do a total remodel of our downstairs bathroom! Joe had noticed that the toilet was leaking water, he thought it just needed a new seal at the base of the toilet - well guess what, he was wrong... water had leaked under the tiles, so he had to pull up all the tiles and take out the vanity. Our bathroom looks a little like this:
A few other random thoughts:
Kara was Scooby Doo for Halloween - isn't she adorable??
MY child picked out a DRESS to wear for pictures.... willingly.. it was actually her idea!!
Now the challenge is to get her to wear it for pictures and have her cooperate
for pictures. I think she can do it!
And, how cute are these matching I <3 Santa shirts I got for the girls??
I have to hope that Macy doesn't come too late, otherwise she may not be here in time for Christmas, but I'm still planning on having her early, so it's all good.
I really truly cannot wait to be done being pregnant. I can't wait to stop having crazy cravings, I'm totally over the hip and sciatic nerve pain, I want to see Macy, I want to start running again, I want to do the 30 day Shred again, and I want to have a dang beer already!!
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