Adventures of Baby Making

The trials and tribulations of our journey to make a baby.

I would die for that.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

6 months!!!

Where did half a year go???
I know, I suck. I never blog. No one probably even follows this anymore. I am sooo swamped with being back at work and taking classes for a second Master's Degree... and well.. the baby!!
So, I will share some super cute pictures and then say that I probably won't be writing on this blog too much longer. I still check back to see how people are doing from time to time.. But, Honestly, when life is going good... there isn't much to blog about! Weird, right?
Thanks to everyone who provided me with such wonderful support and provided a feeling of community when I felt so alone. Infertility is a pretty dark place and finding blogging helped me to get through with my sanity intact. Love you to all. :)












Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Wowzers.

It's been a long time since I updated on here! I guess when things are going good... I've got nothing to write about.

Liam is doing wonderful (sans the stuffy nose and slight slight fever) but, overall wonderful. Mommyhood is fantastic. He started smiling last week. That is the best sight in the world. It's still not all day smiles like I saw my friends 4 month old doing yesterday. Only a few a day. But, he's getting there. Q-T-PIE.
I have to make a doctors appointment for next to try weaning off the blood pressure meds. Hopefully it works out well.

Here's the only picture we have been able to get of the smile, so far. Even that is kind of mid smile.. mid laugh.


And some other pics. Check out my post-baby hair chop!
Liam's first trip to the beach. He was thrilled. ;)

* Yes, I know that bathing suit doesn't even come close to containing the girls. I promptly bought a new once as soon as I saw this picture! LOL

Monday, June 8, 2009

Thyroid results are normal.

YEAH!!!
So, now I just stay on the BP meds for a few months and then we try weaing me off of them. In the meantime, I just relax and enjoy my baby. I'm feeling so much healthier. I am getting a bit frustrated by this lack of weight loss. I got down about 23 pounds with 12 to go. But each time I go down a pound, I swear, I am up two the next day. I guess it's just water weight fluctuations. But, it would be SOOO nice to wear a pair of jeans without the maternity waist band.

Nothing goes over my hips, if it does, the zippers won't even come close to each other.
Maybe I will suck it up and after payday, buy one pair of jeans, cheap, that I can wear until I get back into my old ones.


Baby boy is great. I think he may have a little diaper rash. Today, he had some belly gas and it broke my heart. He couldn't eat and just kept burping. He was trying so hard to push it out, from you know where (immature giggle) but, he just couldn't. So, I just rubbed his belly until he feel back to sleep. Hopefully, when he wakes up he can eat a little.

He is loving his tummy time and has suddenly taken an interest in his play mat. He LOVES to stare at himself in the mirror. He must know how cute he is. :)

He rolled himself from his front to his back twice. I think he even suprised himself!

We tried infant massage last night. How cute. He loved that too.

We went for a walk yesterday at a big historical mansion. It was fun for us. He slept. But, he was hella cute. No?

Sunday, May 31, 2009

A little update.

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Things have been nuts. But, I am feeling a bit better. I am finally on the right med and the right dosage. This one controls both the high blood pressure and my racing heart. But, then I got some weird thyroid results.

So, I this weekend, I wore a holter monitor, got a thyroid sono and some more blood work (my poor veins). Now, I have to make an appointment with an endocrinologist.

But, I am feeling much better. We even took Liam to the beach today for a nice slow two mile walk on the boardwalk. He slept through it and didn't think it was too impressive. But, we were so peaceful and happy. Dh and I held hands and relaxed the whole way.

However, 5 weeks of bedrest, high blood pressure, medication and giving birth (not to mention sleep deprivation) have turned me to mush. I am so tired from the walk and my legs are so sore. I guess I have some work to do in order to get back into shape. We bought a year long empire pass so now I can get into all the state parks this summer without paying a fee (hence, no excuse to not go out and walk!)

Liam is doing amazing. I have been blessed with the sweetest baby God ever created. He is so good. Seriously, he sleeps so much, only really cried when he's hungry, (okay sure, his little fussy time is later in the evening.. but, that's still pretty low key). Nursing is good. He is so healthy. He gained a pound in a week. He is now 7 pounds at 2 weeks old! He is filling out his clothes well. It's so funny when people tell me how small he is... I feel like he looks so much bigger than when he was born!

So, here's some pictures of the "L-man".


Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Not out of the woods yet.

I spent Monday night in the ER, away from my baby, with super high blood pressures. They were talking about keeping me over night since I could have a stroke.. But, they got my pressure down, sent me home. By the next morning it was even higher. So the doctor started me on procardia, 30 mg, once a day. It worked last night but, this morning it was back up, way up, again. So, now I am taking 60 mg a day. I am so so scared. I just keeping thinking that I will die and leave my baby without a Mother. Please pray that this dosage is what it takes to get me better. I feel so sick and I am back on strict bedrest. I don't even know how to handle all this. Thank God that Stephen gets two weeks paternity leave. I don't know what I would do without him. My MIL is coming this weekend from TN and I am so glad. We have a bunch of out of town guests coming and she can do all the cooking and cleaning and entertaining while I rest on the couch or in bed.

But, seriously, I really need some prayers. The doctors are taking this very seriously. All I want to do is feel good and enjoy my sweet baby without wondering if each headache is the one that will give me a stroke.
:(......

Monday, May 18, 2009

Okay here goes!!
My 54 hours of induced labor!! It's a long post. Grab a drink and prepare for a crazy story!

As you know, I was dealing with gestational hypertension and classic signs of pre-eclampsia, although my lab work was normal. Two different docs (the first doctor I saw and the amazing doctor that I saw for the second opinion) and my midwife recommended an induction at somewhere around 37 weeks. I started taking Evening Primrose Oil to ripen my cervix. Well, 2 days before I hit that point I went to the doctor for my bi-weekly NST and BPP and all the drama began.

Monday: At the doctor my BP was really high ( I can't remember the number but, it was higher than it had ever been). They put me on the monitors and I was having painless BH contractions every 2-3 minutes. Well, at that point a call was made to my midwife. It was decided rather quickly that it wasn't safe to continue with the pregnancy any futher and that an induction would probably work tonight because of the contractions.

Soooo, off to the hospital I headed. By the time I got there my pressures were above like 155/105 and the contraction had started to hurt. Not bad though. I was laughing and talking through them. They were pretty regular and they were unable to give my cytotec to ripen my cervix because, I was having too many contractions and it would hyperstimulate me. I was only a fingertip dialated and 50% effaced. So, they decided to let me contract through the night and see what happened with those contractions.

Tuesday: I got zero sleep and I woke up to find... no change. But, I was still contracting so they started me on a low dose of pitocin. They upped it by 2 every half hour. I only got to 10, a very low dose, before the baby started have heart rate drops after some of the contractions. When they lowered it... the heart rates were okay.. but, the contractions got much less painful and spread out. We did that all day. Up and down. Up and down. I only progressed to 1 cm. because, my cervix wasn't ready for pitocin. Eventually they decided to do one last try at upping the Pit and the baby showed a bunch of "lates" (heart rate drops after the contraction). It was decided that if the baby couldn't handle these Pit contractions, he would never be able to get me to a higher level and they would never be able to induce full labor. So, they called for a c-section. I was really upset but, I was also so tired, as it was past the 24 hour point, with no food and no sleep. So I agreed, we called everyone and got ready for the section.

Well, then, the WONDERFUL Dr. who I saw for the second opinion pops in and says "No section". These "lates" are not showing up frequent enough and you need to give an early induction for a first time Mom at least 2-3 days. We were all shocked to hear the midwives calling for a section and the doc opposing it!!! After some tears and a lot of explanations and planning I agreed with him as did the rest of my "team".S o, they stopped the Pit and decided to do a Foley Balloon Catheter in my cervix. You can do this if you are 1 cm or more dialated. Basically, they use a catheter to insert a balloon through your cervix into the uterus, just below the membranes. They fill the balloon with saline fluid and hang it through your cervix. There is a string attached to it that comes out and gets taped to your leg with some tension. Once the balloon falls out, you are 4cm dialted. Then, they can rupture your membranes or start Pit. Usually, Pit is given at a very low dose with the balloon but, since my baby wasn't tolerating it at this point.. we didn't want to do that for me. I felt so excited by this glimmer of hope. But, It turns out I was only dialted to 1 cm on the outside of my cervix and not the inside. They tried to insert this balloon for about 20 minutes. and let me tell you I was seeing STARS... They had to stop. It just wouldn't go through my cervix.

So, feeling very upset they decided to get me a shower, give me a sleeping pill and see, again, what my natural contractions started doing.

Wednesday: Late in the night, they woke me to tell me that my contractions had fizzled out and they were able to now start inserting the cytotec (same kind of thing as cervidal except it has a higher chance of stimulating labor contractions along with ripening your cervix) So, they inserted and checked me in 4 hours, 3 times. By the time they finished the 3rd dose I was at 2 cms and 70% effaced and having some nice contractions again! They were then able to successfully put the balloon in and they never gave me any more Pit. In about an hour and a half the balloon fell out while I was peeing in the bathroom. I'm not gunna lie.. it was very crampy the whole time it was in. So crampy that I couldn't feel the "strong contractions" that the monitor showed I was having. I also used a bunch of homeopathic stuff that my midwife gave me. I know that one was Belladonna.. but, the other two, I can't remember. But, at the point that it fell out... I WAS 4 CMS!! Finally some progress.

This was about 6pm. They broke my water and I started hard labor right away on my own!!!!!!!!! They started off pretty intense but, I used the techinques I learned in my Bradley class to the best of my ability, being that I was strapped to monitors in bed. Most postioning and too much movement was pretty much impossible. But, I was allowed bathroom rights since I wasn't on Pit. After each bathroom trip I was allowed off the monitor for a while to stand and do some of the standing techniques that Dh and I learned. I like the dancing one the best. My midwives were amazing. I started out the first 36 hours with Susan by my side every minute. Then Dale came to relieve her for the second part. They are working with a new midwife Julie and she was in and out the whole time also. Each of them were so valuable to me for thier own techniques and personalities.
But, the hero, was my hubby. Once Hard Labor started, he was there to anticipate my every need. Bradley Classes taught him so much. He was able to take the lessons we learned and adapt them to be used in our "more medical childbirth scene" He was really amazing!

That part of labor.. NO JOKE!! I mean it was bad. I vomited the whole time. Really vomited a lot. But, in the end that hard wretching was what helped move the baby down. He was still really high up when they broke my water. I started begging for drugs during transition.. At least I thought I was begging. In my mind I was screaming like a lunatic. Of course I didn't know that I was in transition. DH and my Mom said that, in reality, I quietly asked for them like twice.. But, once you are in transition you are sooo close to the end. They wouldn't have been able to even give me an epi because, the labor was too fast at that point.

Thursday: So around Midnight, I started to push.. The midwives were like.. What are you doing?? They didn't believe it was time yet. They all thought it would take me so long to get to that point since it took me two days to progress 1 cm. I honestly couldn't control the urge to push. I wasn't even trying. My body was just doing it and I couldn't stop it. They told me to try to go to the bathroom. I told them I couldn't because I would have the baby in the toilet. LOL Clearly, they did not believe it was time to push. So, I went to the bathroom with my midwife and when she saw how hard I was pushing.. she believed me. I was fully dialated and was allowed to push.

It took almost 2 hours. He was still really high up. Everyone was convinced he had the cord wrapped around something. At one point he got stuck with his head halfway out for a long time.. OMG, OUCH!! It was awful. I was begging for an episotomy and they were discussing actually giving it to me. He was stuck for a long time. I had no energy left to push. But, With some "not so gentle" encouragement, I pushed through it and I got to meet my baby.

Turns out he had a super duper short cord. They couldn't even place him on my chest! So that's why he was so high up and that's why he took so long to push out!

1:26 am I delivered my beautiful son!!! Liam Thomas. No epidural!!!! He is a teeny tiny peanut. 5 lbs. 15 oz and 19 inches long. But, he is honestly the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on!

Disclaimer: For someone who wanted a water birth.. and induction was so upsetting to me. I knew it was for the best for me and the baby but, I was scared to death of the Pit and really sad to give up my dream for natural childbirth. I can only thank God that baby didn't tolerate it and that my wonderful Midwives and the Dr. found other ways to induce my labor.

Okay.. now that it's all typed out.. I'm off to stare at my son.

I'm still not feeling so good. My pressure is still up and I am really just not feeling that great. I am still at risk for eclampsia which, after delivery can come on pretty quickly. So, I need to listen to my body and take it really easy.