She's here!

Grace Anne was born on 8/18/11. Here is her story!

I was scheduled to be induced at 39w4d because of the issues I was having with the pregnancy. Most concerning was that my Crohn's Disease was beginning to flare. I was feeling so uncomfortable at best and in a lit of pain at worst. 

The morning of 39w3d I woke up at 4:30am to what I thought were the ongoing BH contractions I'd been having for months. I did notice a little bit more cramping in my lower back but nothing too noteworthy. I went to empty my bladder and noticed I'd just lost a lot of bloody mucous. I called my OB and she told me that it was probably false labor but to get in the shower and start timing my contractions. After about 30 minutes I realized they were getting painful and were 5 mins apart exactly. I called my OB back and she said to head to L&D.

We grabbed our bags and were in the car by 5:15am. We live about 40 mins from the hospital. Just after we'd left the house I began to feel gushes and realized my water had broken. We arrived at the hospital just before 6:00am, and I had to walk to L&D, amniotic fluid dripping down my leg! Once I informed the nurses of this they got my straight into bed to be checked. I was 5cm dilated, 100% effaced and baby was at a 0 station. Things got really frantic from there as everyone started flying around the room trying to get set up and get my IV started. I was GBS positive so I had to have antibiotics before the baby entered the birth canal. After 4 tries they got the IV in.

Soon after this my contractions really began to kick up and I was feeling a ton of pressure. I wanted to give birth without pain meds or an epidural, but I was starting to freak out from the pain and asked if I could have a very small amount of something to take the edge off, but still allow me to feel what was happening. They gave me a small amount of stadol and I labored another hour. They checked me again and in that hour i had gotten to almost 9cm, and the baby was entering the birth canal.

They set everything up and unfortunately by this time the effects of the stadol had worn off. I could feel soooo much pressure and pain and I knew it was time to push. I was freaking out about going through it without an epidural and thought I'd made a huge mistake in not just getting one when I arrived. The pushing was incredibly painful for me. I screamed and yelled and cried, and then kept apologizing because I couldn't believe the way I was acting! Unfortunately Grace had turned to the side and got stuck for a while. Her heart rate dropped very low and they had to put an oxygen mask on me.  We tried moving me onto my side, and eventually onto all fours, which is how I delivered her. My Midwife ended up having to cut a labial episiotomy because her head came out sideways as opposed to head-down. 

After 45 minutes of pushing, at 8:49am, just about 4 hours after my labor started, I heard "Look down! Here's your baby!" and I saw Grace flailing around underneath me. It didn't feel real. Mr. E cut the cord. He was so awesome during the whole thing. I felt like an absolute crazy person and he really helped me not to lose my mind or give up when I swore I couldn't push any harder.

After that, they took Grace to clean her up and I delivered the placenta and got stitches. The placenta didn't want to come out in one piece so the Midwife had to go in after it and that was unpleasant.  

Even though her delivery was fast, painful and kind of traumatic, I would do it 1000 times over just to hold this precious girl in my arms. I am so in love with her, it astonishes me. She's such a sweet and happy baby. She loves to snuggle, nurse and sleep and only cries when hungry. She is the light of our lives and I cannot believe she's ours forever. 

I'll post some pictures when I can get to a computer. Im posting from my phone.

Bump@39w2d

I can't believe this is my last time participating in HDBD (Hump Day Bump Day) on The Bump. Next week at this time I'll have an outside baby! It's bittersweet. I'll miss having my sweet girl all to myself.

Being induced on Friday!

Aaahhhhh! So nervous and excited! After a very honest conversation with my MW at my appointment yesterday it was decided that my Crohn's symptoms are becoming enough of a problem that it's time to induce. The MW consulted with the OB and they made the decision together. I'll be 39w4d, and I feel really great about it.

As of yesterday I am 4cm dilated, 80% effaced. There is a chance I could go into labor on my own before Friday so I am doing a lot of walking. I have some sadness that we'll be forcing my body to do something by inducing labor, however I feel better knowing that at least my body is trying to do this on it's own anyway. I just hope the induction is successful and goes as smoothly as possible.

In GREAT news, baby girl is measuring 7lbs, 7oz!!! I'm so proud of her! Such a healthy girl!! I'm also proud of myself for growing her :)

39 freaking weeks!

Baby is now the size of a: Baaaaaaaby!

Total weight gain: ? I'd lost a pound at my appointment on Friday.

Maternity clothes: Still a small selection of both. I'm really ready to not have a pregnant body anymore.

Sleep: Sleep stinks and I imagine it will not improve with an infant to care for.

Gender: Girl! I bought her some bow barrettes for her hair today.

Movement: Her movements are different because she's just plain run out of room.

Food cravings: I've been craving protein the last few days so my body must be gearing up for delivery. On Saturday I had greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast, 3 (!) eggs with cheese for lunch and pot roast with veggies for dinner. And I still craved more protein after that!

What I miss: I miss fitting into regular clothes and am lusting after them again. I also miss not being in a ton of pain and discomfort, which set in badly the last few days :(

What I'm looking forward to: Having the baby! This has been the longest pregnancy ever!

Milestones: Reaching another week. I said last Monday that I was feeling good and that I wanted to get to my due date. Well, things have really taken a turn for the worse pain-wise since then, and I am begging my body to go into labor on it's own. Saturday's full-moon only brought me a ton of Braxton-Hicks contractions which did nothing but make me even more uncomfortable. I've been experiencing some kind of Crohn's flare which I attribute to being just plain out of room, abdominally-speaking. I have so much scar tissue, so many adhesions, so many pelvic cysts and things do not stretch and move normally as they would in someone who hadn't had full-incision abdominal surgeries like I have.

Symptoms: Like I said, I'm now in pain, but there is still a whole list of terrible pregnancy symptoms I've found myself lucky enough to have avoided, such as big-time swelling, acne, hair growth, hemorrhoids, bladder leakage, constipation, heart burn and stretch marks. Not too shabby.

Waiting

Yesterday's follow-up appointment revealed mixed news. My urine doesn't have too much protein in it (good!) but my BP continues to rise (bad!). Additionally, I feel terrible physically. It's like a switch was flipped this week because I've felt pretty good until now.
The plan is fir me to hang in there over this weekend and if I don't deliver on my own, I go back to the OB on Tuesday and we decide on a plan. I do not feel comfortable letting this go on for much longer. My health is in decline and I'm not ok with that. I wanted to get this little girl to 40 weeks but if we have to evict her at some point during her 39th week, I have to be ok with it. It's not what I'd hoped for, but that's life.

This is getting ridiculous

I'm soooo close to the end of this pregnancy and yet I've managed to hit another bump in the road.

Over the last couple of days I'd noticed some swelling in the left side of my body - mostly in my left foot. I brought this up at my weekly appointment this morning and this tidbit of info, along with a higher-than-normal blood pressure reading and my admission to seeing some spots got me another 24 hours on bed rest with a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning. They are concerned I may be developing pre-eclampsia. I have to do the 24 hour urine catch as well and have bloodwork done. Am I done yet? :/

Bump@38w2d

38 weeks!

Baby is now the size of a: full term infant :) She should be over 6lbs now!!!

Total weight gain: I don't know because I stopped paying attention. It was only making me upset, and I know that I've done a good job of eating a balanced diet this pregnancy, so whatever my body put on, it needed to put on.

Maternity clothes: I'm in a combination of both still. But my options are getting pretty limited!

Sleep: Sleep is still not going that well. The contractions wake me up at night.

Gender: Girl!

Movement: Like I said last week, there has been a decrease in movement and I notice that she's sleeping a lot more, just like an outside baby would.

Food cravings: Fruit, and lemony-limely things.

What I miss: I feel pretty cumbersome these days, though not as cumbersome as I imagine a lot of women do at 9.5 months pregnant. I'm still getting up and down off the floor (I prefer to sit on the floor), painting my own toenails, going for long walks, etc. Still, my abdomen feels heavy and I'd like some relief from that.

What I'm looking forward to: Having the baby!

Milestones: I am now one week past full-term and I'm thrilled. I honestly didn't think there was any way I'd ever be seeing this happen. Now I feel like I could easily go to me due date or beyond. I'm really not in a big hurry to have her. However long she needs is fine with me, and my OB won't let me go much past 40 weeks anyway, so at the very max, I only have 3 more weeks of this.

Symptoms: I have to say, even at this late stage in the game, I still haven't gotten a lot of the pregnancy symptoms I've hear others talk about. And I'm not complaining.

Bump@37w2d

I call this my "circus tent dress". It's incredibly unflattering but it's HOT here and I just don't care anymore! :)

37 weeks = FULL TERM!!!

Baby is now the size of a: Watermelon! It's the last step in the fruit comparison chart! Holy crap, I can't believe it. I can't believe I'm full-term. This is awesome!

Total weight gain: No idea.

Maternity clothes: Still wearing some, but I got some great steals at Old Navy today on a couple of non-maternity maxi dresses. All I care about at this point is comfort.

Sleep: I think I officially have pregnancy insomnia. The good news is I seem to function well on very little sleep!

Gender: Girl :) The best girl in the world.

Movement: I have noticed a little decrease in movement. It feels as though she's running out of room a little bit. Get nice and plump, baby!

Food cravings: I still love all things lemon, lime and cold. I would loooooove a margarita right now.

What I miss: I miss feeling lighter on my feet. Lately it's hard just getting around, but I am absolutely THRILLED to be off of bed rest, and I have been going for walks. Today I even took a 4 hour trip to the mall with Mr. E and I feel OK. I think that's pretty darn good for 37 weeks.

What I'm looking forward to: I just want to hold my baby. Perhaps while enjoying that margarita...

Milestones: FULL TERM! FULL TERM!

Symptoms: Well, I think it's pretty hard to ignore the fact that I'm pregnant. I notice people looking at me now. While in the mall today one lady was eyeing me, and she said "You're so tiny! How far along are you?" I laughed (because I do NOT feel tiny) and said I was 37 weeks, and thanked her for the compliment!