One Month!!! (a few days late)

I absolutely cannot believe I'm writing this post already....but Thomas is one month old!!! Time after pregnancy is going much faster than it did when I was pregnant. One month pregnancy time felt like 6 months normal time whereas one month Thomas time feels like a week. He's been such a joy and light to our lives and I'm so, so happy being his mommy.

Recovery Update-
At my 2 week post partum date, I had my incision check. Up until that date I hadn't been able to drive (regardless that I had stopped taking the high level pain meds over a week prior) and Jim was driving me everywhere. Thankfully my incision looked great and was given the clearance to drive and regain light/moderate activity. Naturally, knowing me, that means throw strollers into the trunk, carry heavy boxes of Summer clothes up three flights of stairs, etc. etc...etc.... LOL , I'm a very fidgety person can you tell?

So now I'm almost 5 weeks post partum!!  In another week I have my 6 week checkup and will hopefully get the ok to do more exercise. Although, I think regardless of what he says I may just ease into it. I took Thomas for a walk in his stroller around the block the other day.

 

I shouldn't say it was a walk around the block though because.... Mommy got tired and had to turn around, LOL. It was more of a walk down the block and turn around to come home. Haha.

However, carrying him around in general and/or in his carseat plus getting rid of all the fluid from the C-section I'm officially now 6lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight. Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure my stomach is flatter now than it was before I got pregnant. I'm seriously a freak of nature, for real. Anything pregnancy related that "should" happen, with me the opposite happens....good or bad. Although now that I can eat whatever I want again I'm sure this wont last long!!!  For the moment though, I'm enjoying this skinny mommy body :)

Thomas sees the world-
Thomas has been out and about with his Momma quite a bit lately. We try to limit ourselves to one "adventure" a day because taking him around to too many places doesn't really make him too happy. We've ventured out to Target numerous times and have gone couponing at CVS as well. We have been attempting to babywear and he seems to like it!!

Reflux-
About 2 weeks ago Jim went back to work and its been really difficult. Actually difficult is an understatement....its been pretty brutal. Basically since he's on midnights I'm up with Thomas all night (which I'll delve into next) and then I have him all day while Jim sleeps. I'm ex-freakin-hausted. The getting up periodically for feedings wouldn't be quite so bad but Thomas seems to have silent reflux and we've been working on making things a little more comfortable for him. His pediatrician at first switched his formula to a sensitive one and suggested we try gas drops when at first it seemed like just a gas issue. That didn't work so great and then he started then coughing and struggling to drink his bottle (which he's still on a relatively small amount... like 2-2.5 oz per bottle). Plus afterwards he makes the most heartbreaking noises like he's so uncomfortable! It just breaks my heart that he's having a tough time! His pediatrician then gave us a script for baby Zantac but over the course of the four days he took it, his symptoms got progressively worse until last night finally I just didn't give him the nighttime dose. He's not sleeping well, not eating well, so it doesn't seem like its working for him. Instead, tonight we gave him a little dose of Gripe Water and we'll see how he does with that instead. So far...while I'm typing, after the dose I put him in his swing (which I finally put batteries in and can use the vibration feature!!!) he fell asleep right away and has been asleep 2 hours! Eeeep!!!  After last night's 8 hour scream fest...yes 8 hours.... we BOTH could use a decent nights sleep. If the combo gripe water and swing work then tomorrow the swing is moving from our living room to the bedroom so momma can sleep in her own bed!! Fingers crossed!!

One month updates-
Random nicknames for Thomas include: "Tdog"  "Tbone" the up and coming in popularity "Toot Toot Thomas" or "Toots" for short. Also up and coming "Chubbalub" or "Chubs" and according to Jim and his family "Tommy Boy".

So what's Thomas up to now that he's a month old already you may wonder?? Besides being awake all the time of course, LOL!!!  He's smiling a lot more!!!  A lot of smiles are when he's asleep but he has started smiling for us when he's awake.

He's also showing interest in holding his own bottle!!

He weighs 7lbs 2oz and is 19 inches long now. His current weight is what we anticipated him weighing last month at birth! He has moved out of the preemie clothes and fits pretty decently into newborn clothes. He's still swimming in newborn onesies and I finally found that the Circo brand at Target has pants that fit his little skinny legs so now he has pants! We'd like to start making a schedule or routine for him for when I go back to work but at this point, just getting him to sleep at night is good enough for me. The rest we'll figure out later I suppose!! Here are some random monthly pictures of our little Thomas!

 

Thomas and Jack-
Although Thomas does have a brother he clearly won't be able to have the same relationship that most brothers do. That doesn't mean that it cant be special in its own way. We have a Molly Bear on order hopefully arriving by the end of this month. I'm going to be having Thomas' monthly pictures have the Molly Bear included with him. That way its as close as possible to having Jack in his pictures with him. I snapped this photo a few weeks ago of my two boys.

I'm honestly starting to get the pangs of sadness coming in again though, they come and go like the tide with the ebb and flow. Its not quite as overwhelming now that Thomas is here and I have so much to be thankful for with him in my life. Its still there though ready to pop up when I least expect it. Recently, I realized next week would have been Jack's 1st birthday. Suddenly the sadness popped up again. Honestly, I wonder if those moments will ever go away completely. There is always going to be something that comes up that Jack should have been doing and wont get the chance to. Its a strange feeling being an Earth mom and an Angel mom trying to balance your mind between both children. I am looking forward to watching Thomas grow and talking to him about his big brother Jack so that he's a part of his life even though he can't be present for it.

We left the hospital with a baby this time

One week later after being discharged from the hospital and it hit me....albeit a little late....we actually left the hospital this time and got to bring our baby home. The feeling is so surreal I can't even explain it....but I think I'm liking this whole "Earth Mommy" thing.

So recovery.... after my hour spent in the actual recovery room, although not fully recovered clearly, they moved a motionless me to Mother Baby. As soon as we were situated, both sets of our parents and my SIL were allowed to come into the room and meet their grandson/nephew Thomas.

Around 4:30pm , my patient tech for the evening came to visit me and told me I had to get out of bed. My response was pretty much something along the lines of, "I'msorrywhat?". I had heard that they get you up and moving pretty quick but I've been hearing that quick=next day and NOT 8 hours after surgery. Holy crap! Is this even allowed?? She assured me that I was still under the Morphine dose and it wouldn't be all that bad. She was mostly right...it wasn't, it just felt really, really weird. As soon as she helped me stand up, she walked me over to the bathroom which was confusing since I still had my catheter in. She gave me a squirt bottle full of warm water and explained to me how to give myself what I've now come to have read online is the "vaginal car wash". Yes folks, you gotta spray that thing down even though the baby came out the belly. I suppose it makes sense because the bleeding has to go somewhere and that is the closest point of exit but the idea of it was very strange. Apparently this would be my life the next few days every time I went to the bathroom. In addition to the car wash, I also was wrapped up by the nurses like a little sausage in my hospital grade binder. Oh my, what a wonderful invention that is :)   Around that time I also began itching incessantly which was apparently a lovely left over from the Morphine as well. I already have itchy skin, as I have external mast cells on me, so that was a ton of fun let me tell you. The lovely nurses pumped my IV full of Benedryl and that seemed to help but it also knocked me out and left me pretty loopy even into the next morning. Needless to say, that was the one and only dose of Benedryl I took.


Most of my day Tuesday was spent thinking to myself,  "Wow, this recovery isn't pleasant but its not that bad either". Little did I know, LOL. With the spinal block, they also inject a 24 hour dose of Morphine as well. I totally forgot that it would eventually wear off until I woke up on Wednesday morning and then.... Oh yeah, this sucks, everyone was right. Around 4:30am that morning the patient care tech came to visit and give me my Norco, which I had finally conceded to take, and asked me if I wanted to get out of bed and go to the bathroom. Honestly, I thought she was just being nice and asking me so I told her maybe later. Well, apparently she had a list of women to get their catethers out and make sure they went to the bathroom and I was first on the list. So she said, ok fine well I'll be back for you later. Sure enough about an hour later she was back!!! Catheter came out and to the bathroom I went!!! The nurse came in a little later and locked my IV but left it in me just in case. After I went to the bathroom twice, she did come back in and remove it completely.

The rest of our time there we spent getting to know our little boy a little better. He slept in the nursery the first two nights but stayed in our room on Thursday night. He also had a lot of visitors!!!  Great Grandma Shirley, Uncle John and Aunt Jill, Jim and Donna, "Auntie" Laura, and Mommy's cousins Mike and Donna. We also had a complimentary photo shoot with Bella Baby but after she left, I took a picture of my own with his brothers blanket. We have a newborn shoot scheduled with the photographer that did our maternity photos soon so we'll have more to share soon as the Bella Baby ones were pretty expensive!!

 

 

Finally the day we were looking forward to most arrived. The day we all go home together!!!  What I didn't anticipate was how small Thomas would be and the outfit I brought for him to go home in was WAY too big!!!  So we had to improvise. We got the bags down to the car, Thomas strapped into his car seat, and we were on our way!!

 

 

To start off the "We're Home Now" portion of the blog post, we need to start with a "40 week" bump shot since Thomas was born at 39w2d. I tried as best as I could to hold him in the exact position he was when I was pregnant....this is pretty close :)

 

Unfortunately with all the fluids they pumped into me with my csection, I actually came home from the hospital weighing MORE than I did while pregnant. I am, however, happy to report that less than 2 weeks after Thomas was born I now weigh LESS than I did BEFORE I got pregnant. Thank you GD!!  You made me absolutely insane and crazy while pregnant worrying about the safety of my little Thomas but now that he's here and perfect and healthy.... I'm kinda liking the fact that I'm the size I am. Instead of working off baby weight I can focus on losing the weight I didn't get a chance to lose before getting pregnant with T. Phew! If....and that is a big if.... I get pregnant again someday, whether I have GD or not I'm going to follow the diet again. Matter of fact...I think I'm going to sort of stay on it now to try and lose the 15-20lbs that I'd have liked to have lost last year. We'll see, LOL

Thomas was due on Easter Sunday but he got to spend Easter with us at home. However, our Easter Sunday started with.....would you be expecting anything other than..... a trip to the ER. The massive amount of swelling was so out of control and my legs hurt so bad and when I took my blood pressure the cuff said 160/100. The day after I got home from the hospital with Jack is when my blood pressure spiked to 170/100 so this wasn't too far off and I made Jim take me back to the hospital to get checked out. My MIL came over to watch Thomas and off we went. When we got there my pressure was only something like 152/85, which is still wonky but not as bad. They drew labs, took a urine sample, hooked me up to another IV and blood pressure cuff. Labs came back normal , urine normal, and as I sat there blood pressure came back down so they unhooked me and I went home! We had originally planned on going to my IL's for dinner but after such an adventure of a morning, plus my recovery was going pretty slow at that point (yikes....they say Csection recovery is a PITA but you have no idea unless you've been there, lol!!!!) so we ended up spending Easter at home just the three of us. Thomas got all dressed up with his humungo bunny ears and everything!!

 



So now we're home and we've been hanging in there pretty good a little over a week with our little miracle of a rainbow baby. I can't help but just stare at him all day and shake my head because I cant even wrap my head around the fact that he's here and healthy and safe in our arms. Thomas (knock on wood) is a good sleeper and although we did have some trouble getting him to eat the 2oz the nurses said he should be eating, we recently discovered his preference for Similac. Now he's gulping down 2-2.5oz with each bottle.

He had his first pediatrician appointment last week and he dropped a few ounces. The doctor isn't worried since he left the hospital at 5lbs 15oz and weighed 5lbs 9oz at her office, since there is usually a difference in scale and it wasn't that substantial of a loss in weight she just wanted him to come back next week for a follow up weight check just so we have it on the same scales. With how much he's been eating the last week I'm sure he's gained weight by now!! He is actually so teeny tiny that all of his newborn clothes that we had for him were too big!! 

My MIL was nice enough to go preemie clothes shopping and get him a few outfits to get him through until his first growth spurt. And here I was worried that he'd be too big and not have a chance to wear his clothes....and now he'll be wearing newborn clothes when he's not a newborn anymore at this rate! Even his no scratch mittens are huge on him....

He has been able to nap in his crib a few afternoons and averaged about an hour which I was really proud of him!!  I, of course, stared at him on the monitor for the entire hour while I had my coffee and/or showered which is one of two things I have been doing while he naps. He looked so small and tiny in his crib I had to take his picture...especially with his "King of all Wild Things" painting above him, heehee

 





You're probably all wondering what Chesney thinks of Thomas. Well, we're not too sure what she thinks. She seems to be overly concerned though with him when he cries and gets waaaaay too excited when someone holds him. I think she's already starved for attention. Poor dog its not going to get any better, haha. She likes to get as close to the edge of the couch and peek in on Thomas when he's in his Rock n' Play. Honestly, I'm worried one of these times she'll try and jump in there with him. Therefore, she is not allowed to be alone with him in the room. She looks pretty cute though in this picture watching over him.

Last update of our new adventures of being home.....bath time. He hated it in the hospital and clearly he hates it at home too, haha

That's about all for now I guess!!!  We will update again soon I promise!!

Thomas' Birth Story and events leading up to it!

April 5th, aka Easter 2015, was Thomas' official due date. Thanks to the laundry list of pregnancy complications, he was born on Tuesday, March 31st, 5 days before his due date!!  His birth, much like the pregnancy, was no walk in the park, quite frankly it was a very traumatic experience all around which is partly the reason why its taken me so long to post this blog. However, if I was strong enough to blog about Jack's birth story then I can blog about Thomas'. I will say however, that I'm glad its over and we're all safe and home and Thomas is healthy and my recovery, while slow and painful, is going well and in the right direction.

Our last weekend sans baby in the house, Jim and I decided to take advantage of that opportunity and grab a bite to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant followed by a couple hours at Barnes and Noble. It was nice to get out of the house and just sit in quiet while reading magazines. I had a little bit of money left on a gift card so I bought Thomas two board books! The first one is "Stellaluna" about a baby bat. I had to read it in a Children's Lit class I took in college and that was always my favorite :)  The other one was "Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You" and since it made me cry standing in the children's section reading it, I had to get it for him.

Monday morning I woke up to THE worst case of diarrhea ever....seriously....EVER!!!  I was sure labor would be coming on its own. Yes, it was that bad. I don't know how I made it the car ride to the MFM office!!  My parents were in town and I wanted my mom to see Thomas on the screen once before actually meeting him. My MIL had the chance to come and see him back in December so I was glad that my mom got the chance too....even if it was the day before he was born, haha. At any rate, it was my usual BPP and it went pretty much as usual. Thomas was sleeping and not wanting to wake up. The MFM came in after the tech was done scanning me to look over the results. Apparently the fluid level was low (a little under 5) and from what he said he was seeing on the screen, if I wasn't scheduled for the csection in the morning, he'd be recommending delivery that day or the next anyways. So of course, that is reassuring information to be given when you still have 24 hours before the baby is born and you can confirm he's safe. All night long I poked my belly because I was so so afraid that his fluid would be gone by morning and something would go wrong with his delivery because of it. Needless to say, I didn't sleep too much Monday night.

The alarm went off at 4am Tuesday morning. I turned it off really quick and just sat there a minute to take in the realization that in a few hours I'd be having a baby. Would he be ok? How big would he be? Would he scream when he came out? Also I was wondering about the csection itself.... "Would I panic thinking about Jack's delivery?" "What would recovery be like"  "Would I be ok with not having a vaginal birth and/or going into labor on my own?" "Would we still be able to bond properly?".... but I put all thoughts, concerns, and fears aside and we got into the car and headed to Dunkin Donuts to pick up donuts and coffee for the L&D nurses. Bribery at its finest :)

The nurses were pleasantly surprised when we arrived with the goodies and after we chatted with them all for a few minutes we were escorted back to the first room to get prepped for the csection. It only took two tries to get my IV in which was a great start to the day in my opinion. One nurse asked me all the questions about my health history while the other one got everything situated to get me into the OR. The shift change happened and our new nurse came in to take me over to the ER.

My fears of hyperventilating were probably not as crazy as I thought because the second I walked into the OR I began freaking out. Everyone was in full OR gear, masks over their faces I couldn't tell who anyone was. It was cold. It was extremely bright. It felt like going in for my D&C after Jack. My nurse that was walking me in rubbed my shoulders and told me it would be ok. I asked her to just talk to me (I did let them know I had been through a loss) because I hyperventilate when I get nervous or scared. I got up on the table and she explained the position I needed to get into for the anesthesiologist to get the spinal block in my back. Basically you sit on the edge of the table, hunch your shoulders forward and lean forward. She would grab my shoulders and almost bear hug me and pull me further forward so my spine was most accessible for the block. I'd feel a small sting, which was the numbing agent, then they'd put the larger needle into my spine and inject the block as well as a 24 hour dose of Morphine.

I assumed the position. I felt the small sting. Yet, I felt the larger needle. Then he started moving it around. I yelped and said that I could feel it. The anesthesiologist said he was having some trouble getting the block in. Again, small sting. Again, felt the larger needle. This went on and on....poke, poke, poke, poke. At one point he hit a nerve which sent a firework like pain down my left leg. It happened so suddenly it actually made me kick the nurse holding me in position. I yelped again!  He asked what side I felt it on..... tried again....same thing only on the right. The anesthesiologist told me that he was having a problem because the vertebrae in my spine were extremely close together and there wasn't enough space between the bones to  allow him to place the block. At this point he said he was going to go get the other anesthesiologist to try. He said that guy has put in so many more spinal blocks in the Chicago land area and he was the best, so he left the room and I was allowed to sit up straight on the table. I started crying because this was becoming a problem. The nurse assured me that although they hardly ever have trouble getting the needle in and placing the block, when they do have a problem this is usually the reason why and they'd be able to get it in, she was sure of it.

The second anesthesiologist came in and I resumed the position so he could resume the poking. All of a sudden a warm feeling started traveling down my legs. "He got it!" I heard them yelling! Quickly, the nurses picked up my legs (they were starting to get numb already and fast!) and swung them onto the table. Up went the sheet and no sooner did that all happen that I realized the numb feeling was not only heading down my legs but also up my back......then my arms.....then my chest......and I couldn't breathe. I grabbed the anesthesiologist and said I couldn't breathe. He assured me that this was normal (he did explain this feeling might happen before they took me into the OR room) and they were monitoring my oxygen intake and it was at 99% which was excellent. He asked if I wanted my head raised a little, which I said yes. He raised my head....it didn't help. Now the numbness was headed into my throat....I could barely talk. It took all my breath to say "Help me please...I cant breathe".  It traveled into my neck and I couldn't move my head. My OB was asking me if I could feel the pinching to make sure I was numb. I couldn't even move my head enough. The anesthesiologist came over with a bag and began bagging me but since I was aware what was going on I started panicking having air pumped into my throat for me. I could hear every nurse and doctor in the OR running around and yelling things I didn't understand because they were speaking in medical codes. Something like, "We have a C16 over here , get so and so in here NOW!!!" .....and then someone said "Do we need the husband in here?" the response was "NO, do NOT let the husband in here at all". All I could think was, "I'm going to die right here right now..... I went through so much to get to this moment and see my baby and he's not even going to see me, or me see him". That was the last thing I remember as they had to put me under general sedation immediately.

Apparently they got Thomas out pretty damn quick because his birth time was 8:42am (my section time was scheduled for 8:15am). He had just a little bit of the anesthesia so they gave him a little oxygen but he was fine. While they sutured me up, they wheeled out Thomas to Jim (who had NO idea what was going on in there...only that no one came to get him and suddenly he just heard Thomas screaming). Jim went with Thomas to get his first bath and stayed with him until I got into recovery.

I woke up in recovery with nurses around me, Jim and Thomas. I can't begin to even tell you how overwhelming it was to know that not only was I still alive but I had a beautiful baby sitting just feet away from me who was alive as well. I wanted so badly to hold him but the block was still in effect and my arms were numb. While I laid there, I watched my arms flop upward without me even realizing I was moving my arms. It was the weirdest feeling ever. My cannula (tube that provides oxygen) was loose so I thought I'd attempt to fix it but ended up literally smacking myself in the face due to lack of control over my arms. The nurse was nice enough to place Thomas on my chest and move my arm for me to place it over him. We sat in recovery about an hour but even by the time we left for my Mother Baby room, I still didn't have full feeling of my legs.

It's been so long without a blog post and I don't want to overwhelm the blog readers with a novel so I'll break this up into a birth post and do another post for recovery and the last week!!    :)

Last bump shot!!! 39 weeks

This last week actually didn't go by quite as slow as I thought it would....that's not to say it went by quick by any means.

I've officially gone on maternity leave as of last Friday and honestly.... I think I'm equally excited about having 12 weeks off work as I am bringing Thomas home! Granted, I'm not too excited about not being PAAAAAID for 12 weeks but ya know :)

Monday was supposed to be the first BPP of the week but as I was getting ready to leave for the doctor's office, 4 inches of snow just randomly dropped from the sky. I figured if I could just get out of our subdivision it would be ok, since the plows don't seem to have our address. Wrong....the plows weren't even out yet so the entire town was full of yucky sticky snow and my car was having none of that. I figured it was probably more important to stay home and alive and not risk sliding off the road than going to the BPP, so I called and rescheduled for Tuesday instead.

Tuesday....back to the old routine my boy was. He gave me quite the fright when I first saw him on the screen and he wasn't moving. Instantly my mind went to a dark place and all I could think was "No no, not again" but turns out he was just sleeping. Apparently the tech could see the look of dread on my face and quickly moved the wand to his chest and said "He's breathing....see?" . OMG, thank you lady. He eventually woke up enough to pass the BPP but the tech marked on the chart that he was "sluggish". Blood flow looked good , fluid was fine, so we left for the day.

Thursday, he was a little more responsive which was good. Passed the BPP again....got the talk from the MFM that even though we're days away from csection that still I need to be alert for any changes of movement. I know they're being precautious but really I don't need to hear that because now that's all I can think about again. Thankfully since we've been home Thursday he's been bopping around a little bit (even let his Daddy see him do some alien moves this weekend!!!). We actually got a picture of him too!! Usually we don't get pictures during the BPP!

After the BPP at the MFM, we headed over to the OB for my last prenatal appointment/pre-op visit with the OB doing my csection. He went over all the details about the procedure which made me feel a little more calm about this whole event. The only thing that made me kind of sad is that they don't allow phones or cameras in the operating room. So that traditional picture of the dad holding baby by the mom's head while she's being sewn up? Nope, we wont get it :(     Granted, I'll probably look much better once I'm sitting up and able to hold him myself so those pictures at least I'll be more coherent but still.... for us, I would have liked that picture. Oh well. If I'm getting a baby that screams and breathes when he's taken out than I guess I don't have much right to complain about not getting one type of picture right?!?

This weekend I've been trying to think of things to do baby free to celebrate my last weekend that I don't need a sitter and/or extra muscle strength to cart Thomas with me. First I went to BBB, yes yes I know I hate that place and swore I was done buuuut, being on unpaid leave for 12 weeks got me thinking I should get shower and birthday gifts for those that fall during the leave now while I'm still bringing some cash in!!  I was smart about it though and ordered everything on BBB online for instore pickup so all I had to do was go to Customer Service and pay for my bag and leave. PHEW, so much easier!!!

Then I went to Target, stocked up on food for the house and snacks for our hospital room. Funny story, when I came home and started unloading the bags into the living room I happened to notice a small trail of water droplets behind me on the floor. Immediately I thought "OMGGGGGG this is it....my water broke!!!!!"  until I realized....." Wait... my pants aren't even wet..." ummm yeah, one of the gifts for one of the showers exploded in the bag and was leaking. LOL. Major bummer.... thankfully it was still salvageable and still can be given as part of the gift.....because I'm not going back to BBB now for sure, LOL

Today, Sunday, to celebrate 39 weeks and last bump shot day. I am headed to an early Easter brunch at my family's house. I decided to get a little dressed up in one of my maternity dresses which I coincidentally never wore during this pregnancy! Guess that's what happens when you work from home and yoga pants become business casual wear :)   Later today I think Jim and I are going to hang out at Barnes and Noble just for some quality us time and quiet time alone. He is officially on leave with me for the next 3 weeks and I'm sure he's pretty excited about that as well...he gets paid of course though, LOL 

Well.... I must be going now!!  Next blog post will be a welcome Thomas post either way :)

38 weeks.... single digit DAY countdown begun

The crazy birth dreams have started and this has already been a long week but I feel this upcoming week will be longer....  Two dreams were nightmares.

One of which I was on bed rest and no one could even come to see me so I was lying in bed alone.

Another, I couldn't find Thomas' heartbeat and rushed to L&D, only to have them tell me that although they found his heartbeat something was very wrong and I was being rushed in for an emergency Csection and Jim wasn't even there yet.

The other night's dream was just funny.... I'm wondering about pain levels of after having a csection so I guess my mind is wandering. I dreamt that the hospital bed was more like a waterbed and the nurse had to come in with big buckets of water and keep filling it up. Also, there was a special section for water that I could drink. It was like a little tubing off the mattress that reached my mouth so if I was thirsty, since I couldn't sit up in the dream, I could just reach over to the tube and take a little drink. LOL.

The last week has been ok compared to previous weeks I suppose. Monday I had my NST followed by the BPP. The nurses all came in to find out why I had a BPP scheduled the same day as the NST because apparently you're supposed to schedule them for alternate days. Well, the MFM purposely scheduled them for Monday after the NST because I was constantly getting sent to see her. That way, at least, I was already on the schedule. So the nurses at the OB office still didn't like that answer....yet then proceeded to tell me that it was good I had the BPP scheduled because he was failing the NST again and we'd be sent to MFM. :::SIGH::::  Really? LOL.

On a side note.... I was happy to see I had gained a pound, which put me back up to my weight at Thanksgiving when I plateaued. It made me so happy and put me in a great mood!! Until I got in the elevator to head over to MFM. Since the weather is warmer, I didn't have a coat on and so its pretty obvious that I'm pregnant by now. The lady that was on the elevator with me said "Aww, when are you due".  I told her "Technically April 5th, but will be having a csection at 39 weeks on March 31st....sooooo TWO WEEKS, YAY!!!"  She looked at my belly and back at me and said "Two weeks???? You're too small to be having a baby in two weeks!!!".  Bubble burst. Thanks a lot lady.

My deflated ego and I headed over to MFM for this BPP. Of course little stinker passed with flying colors as he likes to do. While I was there, I asked the nurses at the MFM if it wouldn't make more sense to just cancel the NSTs and come there twice a week for the BPPs instead? They agreed and so they put me on their schedule for two BPPs a week and we cancelled the NSTs. It just made more sense.... if I'm going to sit on the monitor over at OB and tie up the room for an hour and half, only to get sent to MFM, why not just go right to MFM?

Thursday I went into the OB for my regular appointment....and had to explain why the NSTs were cancelled, that was interesting conversation, haha. Anywho, appointment went well. Unfortunately between Monday and Thursday that one pound was gone again. Guess the Muscle Milk isn't bulking me up like I hoped it would.

As of Thursday there was no dilation and no effacement, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I was having a couple contractions the day before. Oh well, as long as everything is sealed up tight for now that's ok if there are just a couple. My Group B Strep swab came back negative which is good news!! Urine and blood pressure still looking good!

Following the OB appointment, I headed back over to MFM for our second BPP of the week. Since Wednesday, he's been actually pretty active. He was not only wiggling around on the monitor (which he usually does but I cant feel) but also doing little moves that I could see on my belly. Oh this kid....why must he drive me so insane?? He now seems to be back to his usual schedule and movements which makes me feel A LOT better and (somewhat) less nervous. I'm pretty sure (call it mothers intuition) that he just didn't want the monitor on him so he was purposely so uncooperative to get us the BPPs instead. Haha.  He still wont do his alien style moves when Jim's watching....although I think its just because Jim gets tired of staring at my belly for so long and looks away just as he moves :)

Last couple days have been super looooong. Been getting migraines, cramping is picking up, I just feel sick to my stomach and generally not feeling well. So we will see what the next week holds.....either next Sunday's post will be a "Hey I had a baby" post or "OMG two more days" post. Scary either way :)


Here's 38 weeks!!

37 weeks

I like to come up with funny nicknames for Thomas, my usual one is "T-dog", however yesterday I realized another funny nickname. "T Payne"...get it? Like T Pain?  lol So I think when I'm getting Thomas' bottles ready I'll sing to him "Let Me 'Make' You A Drank"....haha, just kidding. :)

On with the week...

Monday morning I had my usual NST. Technically he passed the NST but since I had mentioned decreased movements they thought it was best I go over to the MFM to get another BPP done just to be sure everything was ok. When the MFM was finally able to see me, see did the BPP which he passed thank goodness. However, she did note that his stomach was measuring small....8th percentile to be exact. She considers anything under 10th and over 90th to be of concern, plus he now is weighing 5lbs 7oz, which is fine but puts him only in the 20th percentile as a whole which is down from the 29th at his last scan. Since I was not feeling him moving around as much, she will have me come in Mondays after my NSTs for BPPs just to keep an eye on him. As far as she can tell she didn't see anything wrong but given my history and the circumstances she wants to be extra careful. She told me "You already lost Jack....we don't want anything to happen to Thomas". Yes, thank you. She mentioned that she's had woman come into the office for an NST or BPP and be sent right from the appointment to L&D so I will from now on be traveling with my hospital bag just in case!

Tuesday I got a call from the OB's office to schedule my C-section! I asked for March 30th but apparently that is a busy day of C-sections, go figure, so March 31st it is. Provided Thomas doesn't pull any funny business and/or he grows properly between now and then, his birthday will be March 31st. They did offer April 1st to me as well but something about having a baby on April Fools.....mmmm yeah no.

Thursday, was NST #2 of the week. Thomas earned himself another BPP for non-cooperation. His heart rate is elevating on the monitor but I'm not feeling him so the OB came in while I was on the monitor to chat. He buzzed him a bunch more times....heart rate up then heart rate back down and back to sleep, LOL. The OB ran another BPP on him which he passed, again!, but he's in a funny position almost on a diagonal so its possible that he's punching/kicking inward and I'm not feeling it as much. I feel a little better seeing him on the screen and seeing him moving and breathing but I swear this child is giving me massive amounts of anxiety. 19 days at most and I can see his sweet little face. I really need to see him in person not on a screen.

Yesterday I treated myself to a little pre-baby pampering. After my chiropractor appointment, I got a mani/pedi done so my nails look nice while I'm laying on the csection table, LOL....oh and for newborn photos in the hospital too of course. I ran a few errands in between chiro and the salon and by the time I got home yikes, my feet/ankles were sooooo swollen. I've had a couple "off" blood pressure readings last couple days at home (despite the OB nurses telling me they're hearing it at a crazy low reading). It comes back down to close to normal after laying around for awhile but being up and about seems to make it creep up. Its not scary numbers (yesterday was something like 126/92 if I remember....night before was around 134/88) but definitely not my usual readings. On the plus side, there hasn't been protein (so far....knock on wood) in my urine, no blurred vision, so I'm thinking/hopeful that its just a 37 weekers woes. Regardless, even if its not a normal woe, he's considered full term today, even at his peanut weight, so it makes me feel better that we're in a much better position should pree rear its ugly head on me again.

So yes today is full term....37 weeks. Where did this day come from....it went so slow yet snuck up on me so fast. Tomorrow I'll be going back to the MFM after our NST for our now weekly BPP. I've got my hospital bag in the car just in case....speaking of just in case....just in case this is my last "bump" shot, here's 37 weeks. Yikes, I think my belly actually grew this week for a change!!

36 weeks....Whoops!

Sorry folks....I took so long to blog my 36 week post that I'm almost at the 37 week mark!!

36 weeks and we're getting closer to meeting little Thomas.

My 36th week wasn't too eventful for a change. It was, however, the looooooongest week ever. I think after being in L&D the week before and seeing those contractions on the monitor I was sure I wasn't going to make it to my shower that Sunday. But we did!

We had two NSTs that week, which Thomas eventually passed but needed his usual ridiculous amount of buzzing to do so.

Strange enough, lately my blood sugars have been getting low. Weird huh? Saturday evening, my parents got into town for the shower and came over for dinner. While I was standing there talking to my mom I didn't feel very well all of a sudden. I asked Jim to bring me my Accucheck and sure enough.... 63!!!  WTF, 63?? It was only 6pm and although I didn't have a TON to eat that day, I sure did eat breakfast and lunch! I popped 4 glucose tabs and chugged a big glass of water. I don't like those tabs though I've decided. They made my face feel really warm and in hindsight maybe I should have only taken two? When I checked my sugar 15minutes later like my Endo instructed in these situations, it was 123. Ugh, what?  Then 2 hours after dinner it was 116. So yeah, I think I messed up my sugar equilibrium pretty bad there. Since then, I've had low sugars but not that low and its been manageable.

Sunday was the big day!!! Friends and family came into town and we all celebrated the arrival of little T . As with Jim's family shower, we were overwhelmed by all the love for our little boy and overly crowded living room for a second time. My little cousins all picked out their favorite books from their own collections and gave them to Thomas. He's going to be the best dressed little boy and he has no excuse to cry for no reason because of all the rocking devices we have now, LOL. You can see the pictures on our family website if you'd like https://katespage.shutterfly.com/9007   password is jimandkate

So anywho.... yes almost 37 weeks at this point. Not a traditional "bump" shot but here was me on Sunday before the shower at 36 weeks exactly.

 



 

See you in a few days! LOL