Jumping In

Welcome Baby Jack!

Jack is here!  He arrived on January 20th at 12:42pm weighing 8lbs 1.5ozs and measuring 21 inches long.  I can't believe how big he was!  I'm only 5ft tall and around 110lbs when not pregnant!  Most importantly, Jack is perfectly healthy!  I'm just in awe that a year ago yesterday was my ectopic surgery and here I am now holding a brand new baby--MY brand new baby!

Here is Jack's Birth Story:

I got up and called maternity at 6am on Friday the 19th, but they postponed me to the next day.  On Saturday I called at the same time and they told me to come right along.  We arrived around 7:20 and were put right in a room so the nurse could get me hooked up to the monitors and start my IV.  The doctor came in a bit after 8 and broke my water and then they started the Pitocin.  I started around 3cm dialated.  She kept gradually turning up the Pitocin, and after a couple hours I was in much more pain and the nurse said I was only about 4cm, but that he was "right there" at a +2 station and that she was going to page the doctor.  I told her if it was going to be another couple hours I wanted something for the pain so I could relax between contractions.  She said there was no way it would be very long at all and that the worst was probably over.  I asked to get up and use the bathroom again, but she said the reason I felt like I needed to go so frequently was because of the pressure from the baby.  I had found it very helpful to use the bathroom during this induction and with Hannah's because it gets you up when otherwise you wouldn't be able.  With Hannah I had an induction, but had some Nubain at one point, which I really didn't like and wanted to avoid if possible this time.  What I don't remember from last time was having the intense rectal pressure I had this time.  I knew it was from the baby like the nurse said, but I really did have to pee all those times with all the fluids they were pumping into me! 

Soon she went to see why the doctor hadn't called back yet and as soon as she left I had my husband unhook my monitors so I could use the bathroom one last time, lol.  Before she left she turned me on my side saying that five or ten minutes on each side should get my cervix completely dialted.  I couldn't tolerate my side though, the contractions were too painful.  Another thing that was very different this time was that the contractions were all the way down into my thighs as well.  The nurse returned saying the docter had left a message that he was going to come once I tried a couple practice pushes first.  The nurse said she didn't get paid enough for delivering a baby and no way was I going to practice push because delivering a baby would be exacly what she'd be doing!  She checked me again, said I was completely dialated now, and they started running around getting everything set up.  She said I couldn't have any pain medication at that point anyway because it could effect the baby, which was fine with me as long as I didn't have hours left to go!

I had no idea you could go from 4cm to 10cm so quickly, but it was certainly alright with me!  I still thought they were rushing things a tad because I didn't have the urge to push or anything, but that changed as soon as the doctor came in.  As he appeared in the doorway I literally had that uncontrollable urge to push.  He told me I could start at anytime, but my body was doing it on its own at that point.  I started pushing at 12:38pm and pushed twice while they were helping the doctor get his gown on.  He had just enough time to sit down at the end of the bed for those last couple pushes to catch Jack at 12:42pm, just 4 minutes after I started pushing! The nurse sure was right, had the doctor been just a few minutes later, he would have missed the birth.  I had no idea how quickly he was coming because I had my eyes closed, but I did at one point hear the doctor say, "the head is coming" and I assumed he meant it was visible, but just starting to crown, but with the next push he said "okay, that was one shoulder" and Jack was born.  I couldn't see him because they didn't take the bed apart and he was resting him on the bed to suction him.  Finally he said that it was a boy as advertised and put him on my chest.  I was so relieved he was healthy and looked so great after the scare we had with his ultrasound over the summer.  His apgars were 9 and 9, though he looked so purple to me at birth!  They left him on me for quite awhile (he came so quickly the nurses were still getting everything for him set up!) until I actually asked how big everyone thought he was.  The nurse said we should get him weighed and the doctor had declared me all set, no tears or anything, yeah!  It was just over four hours from the start of the Pitocin to Jack's birth, not bad!  With Hannah they had to take her to the nursery to give her a bath, etc, but this time they did everything right in the room, which was nice. 

I was very glad to be able to do it completely medication and epidural free this time, as I truly think it probably makes recovery so much easier.  However, it was very intense (though I don't know how it is without Pitocin!) and I wouldn't have wanted to do it much longer.  I was fine as long as I knew I was making good progress.  My big surprise though was how much the afterpains hurt this time!  The first day and a half they were awful!  I'd say they were easily up there with some of my more intense contractions, which really sucked.  I eventually decided to use percocet after talking to my doctor because they were waking me up in the night and the ibuprofen wasn't touching them.  By the time I came home they were much better though.  Our nurse took Jack to the desk the first night after awhile because he was choking and spitting a good deal and it was making me too nervous to sleep.  They said it was because he was born so fast and didn't have enough time to get the fluid squeezed out.  It's hard to tell what kind of baby Jack is still, he's had some really good spells and some really bad ones.  Overall he seems to be more calm than Hannah was thankfully!  He's keeping me busy cluster feeding though.  The visiting nurse has been out because he lost a pound, but in the 24 hours after my milk started coming in he had already gained 4ozs back!  He's certainly keeping me busy, mostly wanting to nurse nonstop!  Hannah just loves him (so far), but is definitely feeling her routine off.  She was very upset that I wasn't taking her to school as usual, etc, but she's very sweet with him!

Almost Baby Time

I can hardly believe it, but I am 38 weeks 5 days pregnant!  I can't believe it's almost time to meet our little guy.  Even though I'm certainly at that done being pregnant stage, I can honestly say I've enjoyed and appreciated every second of this pregnancy and feel incredibly blessed to be in this situation.  A year ago I had just found out I was pregnant with my ectopic and had no idea what was in store.  A couple weeks later I wasn't sure if we'd be able to have another baby or not.  And here we are!

Today was my 38 week appointment and everything is going well.  I'm about 1cm dialated and though I've had many bouts of regular contractions, I don't feel like anything is going to happen too soon.  One concern I've had throughout this pregnancy is getting stuck with that doctor who told me to have a D&C at the beginning of this pregnancy and told me there was a ZERO percent chance the pregnancy would progress.  He's in the same call group as my doctor and I really am not comfortable with him at all.  Because of that, I have agreed to an induction next Friday with my own doctor (I'll be 39 weeks, 6 days) if the baby doesn't come on his own before that.  In the meantime of course I could go into labor at any time and have that doctor I don't want, but there is really not much I can do about it so I'm trying not to think about it. 

My next post should be announcing our still un-named little guy's birth!

28 Weeks Pregnant

Only 12 weeks to go!  I can say this pregnancy has gone by unbelievably fast, but I may change my mind on that one a couple months from now.  So far so good though.  The only issue I've had is that scare with the Choroid Plexus Cysts.  Of course I won't be over that one either until my little guy is born and I can see for myself that he's healthy.

This (still nameless) baby is one active little thing!  I love feeling him kicking, punching, and squirming around in there.  His active time is at night, just as I'm laying down trying to get some sleep.  Maybe I just don't remember it as detailed as I think I do, but it seems to me this baby is much stronger than Hannah was.  He can kick! 

Baby preparations are full swing in our house now.  Hannah has been pleading with us to set up the crib for weeks, so we finally gave in and did so earlier this week.  I also went through all the bins of clothes I have from her and pulled out anything that could possibly be used for a boy.  I put that bin in his room as well, plus set up the Pack N Play to let it air out in there.  Hannah has been in her glory using that as her own personal doll room.  She dresses her baby dolls in her old newborn clothes, rocks them in the rocking chair, changes them on the Pack N Play changer, and puts them to bed in the crib or PNP basinette insert.  She will literally spend HOURS in there happily playing.  I'm psyched she's so into the whole baby thing and am wholeheartedly hoping it continues once her brother arrives!  I've really enjoyed her being old enough to understand and enjoy this pregnancy with me. 

I will keep updating through the birth of this little guy, but then I'm going to close this blog.  I had intended on keeping it as a TTC blog, especially after my ectopic since I really couldn't find much on the subject of conceiving after losing a tube.  However, since I conceived so quickly (thankfully), it didn't turn out to be much of a TTC blog afterall.  I know many people find this site in search engines though, so I'll leave it up long after.  If there is anyone that I know has been following us since our iParenting days and wishes to have our family website address, just drop me an email.  That one I actually do keep up with and update a couple times a week.  I'll keep this one current though at least until the little Mr. is born! 

Good News & Not So Good News

Good news first:  It's a BOY!!!!  I can hardly believe it!  I didn't think my family was capable of producing boys after about a dozen girls in a row.

The bad news hopefully isn't bad actually, just worrisome. I called the morning after my ultrasound to get the results of my ultrasound and AFP quad screen. The AFP came back fine thankfully, but the ultrasound wasn't in the computer yet. Soon after that the hospital's radiology dept called and asked me to come back in for additional images. They said not to worry, just that there were some pictures that weren't good enough quality and/or missing that they needed. To make up for having to go back in they said they'd give me more pictures, lol.

Turns out they did see something questionable though. The baby (still definitely a boy, lol) has a choroid plexus cyst on each side of his brain. The radiologist talked to me himself and said that all the other images look good, so it was most likely nothing to worry about. He said to call my OB on Monday and they may just have me do a followup ultrasound in a few weeks to see if the cysts have resolved or he may have me go to Boston for a level II ultrasound. If I did that he said odds are by the time they book the appt and I get the u/s done the cysts will probably be gone. Usually they mean nothing unless coupled with other issues seen on the ultrasound. Here is a link: http://www.obfocus.com/high-risk/bir...roidplexus.htm .   There were no other issues on the ultrasound thankfully, the heart, spine, and everything else looked great.

It still makes me nervous of course though. I just wanted to hear that all was well and be able to tell Hannah and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy. Now I'll be sitting on pins and needles even longer and I still don't feel like I should tell her. Maybe I'll feel better after talking to my OB on Monday, who knows. My AFP being good is a very positive thing, now I'm very glad I did it.

Another interesting tidbit is that the u/s tech said the baby is very low. She had me empty my bladder and lowered the head of the stretcher way down trying to dislodge him from where he was to no avail. This is exactly how all our head troubles started with Hannah! She was very low at both u/s's I had and was born with a misshapen head b/c of it.  I'm not stressed about that at all though b/c I know it's very fixable and we've been there and done that. The only stressful thing about it is the helmets are $3,000.00 each! I just want him to be healthy, even if he does have a wonky shaped head! 

I did call and talk to my OB this morning and he told me with the good AFP that the chances of something genetic being wrong are about 1 in 400, so the odds are definitely in our favor.  He will get me set up for the level II ultrasound this week or next though to hopefully help put our minds at ease.  It's always something, huh?!

I'm Feeling Movement!

I'm 16 weeks now and about a week and a half about I started thinking I was feeling flutters.  Within a few days I was positive of it, and now I'm feeling them regularly throughout the day.  I was even actually able to see one!  The movement makes me feel much more at ease for sure, but I'm still a nervous wreck.

Today I had blood drawn for the AFP quad screen and next Thursday night is my big ultrasound.  Then maybe after I get the results of those I can relax?  I hope so!  We have actually decided to find ouf the sex of the baby this time as well.  I'm second guessing that decision still, but practical me definitely thinks it's for the better. 

The last few days I've been woken up during the night with that same sharp stabbing pain on my lower left side that I had earlier in pregnancy.  I'm going in tomorrow to see what they suggest.  It's keeping me up at night, which is not what I need on top of having to get up and pee a few times.  I could be a cyst, adhesions from my ectopic surgery, or they suggested on the phone maybe round ligament pain.  It seems too severe to be ligament pain, but who knows. 

Another thing catching me off guard this time around is Braxton Hicks contractions, which started at about 14 weeks!  I don't remember them until much later with Hannah, but my doc assures me it's okay in second pregnancies.  I get at least a half dozen a day though, sometimes many more.

I definitely won't wait so long to update with my next post!  I've got a lot going on the next couple weeks!

12 Weeks!

I never thought I'd make 12 weeks with this pregnancy after the super rocky start it had, but here I am!  I'm 12 weeks, 2 days pregnant!  I have my next OB appointment next week where we'll most likely schedule my big ultrasound even. 

  Unbelievably enough, I've already had someone ask me when I'm due!  I was only like 11 weeks, so it was a little horrifying really.  It wasn't a complete stranger, but rather someone I see at a story hour with Hannah weekly, so she knows I don't usually have the gut I have currently.  I'm sure most strangers just think I have a gut, but I was still off caught off guard by someone being able to tell I'm pregnant without me saying so.  I know I'm much bigger now than I was with Hannah at this stage for sure, so I thought I must be gaining more weight as well.  I looked back at the pregnancy calendar I kept with her though and was relieved to see that I weighed 115lbs at 13weeks, and now I think I'm 116lbs at 12 weeks.  I'm not sure if you're supposed to gain the 5-6lbs that I did in the first trimester or not, but I don't care as long as I'm not too far off where I was with Hannah's pregnancy.   This picture was taken around ten weeks, but I think you can still see my little baby bump.  That is a maternity shirt too!  I picked up a maternity tank top that I figured I could wear for all my pictures for the whole pregnancy, but it certainly doesn't feel like it will fit that long!

Because Things Were A Bit Too Quiet...

I think my body decided things had calmed down too much in this pregnancy and decided to throw me a curve over the weekend.  I got a sudden sharp pain in my lower left side that was quite intense.  At first I kept reminding myself that my OB told me I could get pain in the location of my surgical scars from strictures developing as a result of the surgery.

This pain was worse than my ectopic though and after a couple hours I called and talked to the OB on call, who of course was the same one I dealt with in the beginning of this pregnancy who had wanted me to have a D&C and gave me the 0% chance of the pregnancy progressing.  Anyway, I told him I did know I have that corpus luteum cyst on that side, so I asked if that could be the culprit.  He thought the cyst either ruptured or caused my ovary to twist, but said I could try and wait out the weekend as long as I didn't get any new symptoms or worsening pain.  He said the other possibility was a heterotopic pregnancy (one in the tube and one in the uterus), which I didn't say but concluded on my own that his theory would make far more sense if I had a tube on the side my pain was in!  Did I mention how much this doctor impresses me?

By Monday morning I was 95% better, mostly just having pain when rolling over.  I called to get in with my OB and they in turn tried sticking me in with that doctor I love so much from the weekend.  After how arrogant he was about this pregnancy I will not see him again, and if he's on call the night I go into labor I'd seriously go to a different hospital.  I'm a bit superstitious I guess and that "0% chance" just would haunt me the whole time I was in labor knowing he'd be the one to deliver the baby.  No thank you.  Anyway, I told the nurse I'd rather see my own doctor or a nurse and she kept saying how he didn't have any appointments until the end of the week, his schedule was full, etc.  I finally said, "I'm sure you remember, but I won't see this doctor because he told me to terminate this pregnancy because he was 100% sure it was either an ectopic or blighted ovum".  Her answer was, "oh, right, so your doctor will be okay at 3:15?"  Heh, that's what I thought!  Am I overreacting?  I don't know, maybe, but right now I really can't even handle the thought of how many women might have unknowingly terminated their pregnancies b/c of Dr. Know-it-all's absolute percentages.  He kept telling me, "I'd have you wait if there was even a 1 or 2% chance that I thought this pregnancy was viable, but I don't"  Grrr.

So, I saw my doctor who concurred with my assumption that it was probably a ruptured cyst, though he did say the twisted ovary was a definite possibility as well and that I might get pain again before the next couple weeks are over.  Then he found the heartbeat fluttering away, well worth the pain of the weekend to hear that again. 

One Tube? No Problem!

I had my first full OB appointment on Friday at 9 weeks.  He assured me that everything looks really good and gave me my official due date of January 20, 2006.  He said we were probably a bit early to hear the heartbeat but he'd give it a try since I'm "skinny".  It took him a few minutes, but we did indeed hear the heartbeat thumping away at 160 bpm.  I'm so glad I didn't have to wait for my newt appointment a whole month away to hear it! 

He also looked over my last couple ultrasound reports and said the growth was perfect and the dates look good and I won't need another scan until the standard 18 week one he orders.  That would have been the one and only ultrasound I had with Hannah except that they couldn't get her head circumference and had me come back in two weeks.  He also confirmed that I did indeed ovulate from my left ovary this time, and despite the fact that I have no left fallopian tube I got pregnant anyway.  So, my right tube is definitely a little superhero juggling both sides, lol.  Though I knew it was a possibility, I still find that so odd! 

My belly has suddenly popped as well.  I normally have a basically flat stomach and can suck it in to make it cave in sort of.  Sucking it in now does nothing but make it stick out slightly less.  With this being my second pregnancy making it this far, I've never experienced the whole "showing" earlier.  With Hannah I was due in December, so I was a month further along during the summer, and I was able to wear my regular clothes all summer.  We just went to Florida in April and no way can I button the shorts I bought for that trip anymore!  I'd seriously wonder if I was having twins if I hadn't already had four ultrasounds.  I'm going to try and hold off buying any maternity clothes until the summer season is over.  I'll have to search my drawers to see if I have any drawstring shorts to get me through the summer.  I'm wearing scrubs for work most days of the week anyway.  Maybe I'll buy one of those belly band things that let you wear your regular clothes as maternity if I have to. 

I'm just SO grateful everything is going well and so badly hope that it continues.  I'm hoping that my conceiving from my bad side and then declining the recommended D&C only to find a heartbeat the next week are all signs this pregnancy is going to work out perfectly. 

Cute For A Blob

I was finally able to get the pictures downloaded from my ultrasound, and here they are:

And one with the heart rate:

 

My OB office said the ultrasound report was fine this time.  I have a prenatal on Friday, when I'll be 8wks 5days.  This first trimester can't get over with quick enough.  I'm so much more stressed this time than I was with Hannah.  I feel like I really need to get to that big ultrasound at 16 or 18 weeks to find out that this baby is indeed healthy.  Then maybe, just maybe, I can relax a tad. 

We are starting to talk about the future with this pregnancy and baby some, so I don't have all bad thoughts by any means.  We've talked about what we need to buy and if we'll find out the sex of the baby this time.  We still have another couple months to get that figured out, but with Hannah we literally decided in the waiting room before the ultrasound that we wanted to know what we were having.  Then of course the tech couldn't tell anyway, which now I'm glad about.  Not knowing was definitely fun!  Planner Sarah is trying to take over already though and I'm thinking I'm leaning towards finding out.

In other news my pants are getting tight.  At home I'm walking around with my jeans unbuttoned already and my belly is definitely pooching out a bit.  I can usually tell if I gain even a pound or two though because I'm fairly petite and my size doesn't usually differ all that much.  I also hate to jinx myself, but today was the first day I've felt close to human again in the all day sickness and dizziness front, so I really hope that is part of a trend.  Instead of laying on the couch all day I actually cleaned some and vacuumed out my car.  Look out!

Ultrasound #4

I can't believe I've already had four ultrasounds and I'm only 7 weeks pregnant.  I only had two total with Hannah, well two official ones (I worked in an office with an ultrasound machine much too handy at the time).  On the plus side I've only had my blood drawn 3 times, which is far better than the probably two dozen times I had with my ectopic.

Because my ultrasound was at the hospital, I was fully prepared for their no talking policy.  However, she did let me watch this time.  The heartbeat was much more visible this time and she measured it at 153bpm.  The CRL measurement put me at 7wks 2days, perfect over my 6wks 1day of last Tuesday morning's ultrasound.  That is about as much as my untrained eye could figure out though.  For the rest of the detailed report I've got to call my doctor.  They should have the report by tomorrow so I'll call in the morning.  I'll also fill out a records release at the hospital, which (because I'm an employee)  gives me online access to my own records.  I can "illegally" look at them now, but I could lose my job because of it.  I still didn't get a picture, but with my online access I can view the images and will certainly try to see if I can save them to my desktop. 

On my way out I got all my standard OB labs drawn.  Now I should be good to go for a regular non-high risk pregnancy for the rest of the time I hope!  My next appointment is next Friday where I'll have my first official OB exam with this pregnancy.  Sounds kind of comical considering I've already been to the office a few times in the last couple weeks.  Whether or not I'll have another ultrasound before the standard 16 week one I guess will depend on how satisfied they were with the one last night.  They only did a regular abdominal scan, and then she said she had to go show the radiologist the pictures to see if they were good enough or not.  When she came back she said they were fine and we didn't have to do another transvaginal.  That was another sign that things probably went okay, as in all my previous ones the barely got a half a swipe across my belly before telling me to go empty my bladder for the transvaginal scan. 

My morning all day sickness was a tad better today, but this sinus infection or whatever I have is making everything worse.  My head and ears are so blocked up that it's making me feel dizzy and my hearing is funky.  I've already been on an antibiotic for 6 days, so if it doesn't improve soon I'm dragging myself back to my doctor's office that I hate.