H & H Assignment: Highs and Lows of Pregnancy

This is post two of the Homesteaders and Homeschoolers blog assignments we decided to do. :-)

The highs of my pregnancies were the same in all of them:

* To know that we were receiving a gift from God- the blessing of a child to love and raise.
* Feeling the baby move for the first time- that butterfly-like flutter.
* Feeling those soccer kicks as they got bigger.
* Finding out the gender each pregnancy I was having a girl, boy, girl, girl, respectively.
* The 8th month. The only month where I didn't have morning sickness anymore, but before the last month when I was so big and uncomfortable constantly.

Grace:

We found out we were pregnant with Grace when we were in Ireland. We had been trying and I held the news a couple days and told Brian on his birthday. I had bought a baby bib that said Daddy's.... and gave him that as a birthday present to tell him. Since we didn't have kids, we had also gone to Paris, France on that trip so Grace was quite the LITTLE jet-setter!

One of the lows of ALL my pregnancies was horrible morning sickness. Being pregnant was a great "diet" for me as I lost lots of weight the first trimesters. I puked a lot! There was no "morning" sickness, it was constant sickness. With Grace I was just so happy to be pregnant and they say the sickness is a good sign that all is going well, so I was okay with the constant puking. My OB was not. I had hyperemesis gravidarum. She put me on Zofran. She also had me get IVs of fluid during that first trimester. I remember commuting to my teaching job, (an hours drive) and puking on myself on the way there. A lovely visual I know. After that, I'd be sure to not leave my house without a barf bag! I'd also start to teach and then run down the hall to get sick all day long. I had my own office that had a bathroom in it so that was a very fortunate thing!

 I still threw up liquids a lot the 2nd trimester, but kept food down pretty well and that ended the IVs. It was a really weird thing- I couldn't keep down water AT ALL. If I tried to drink it, I would then ALWAYS throw it up. I ended up drinking Mountain Dew after my first trimester and did okay with that with the Zofran most of the 2nd trimester.  Around my 6th month, my OB also wanted me to get off the Zofran though. :-(

I like to joke that my girls were all high maintenance before they were even born. I had to be induced with all 3 girls, but all for different reasons. With Grace, my blood pressure was high, I had headaches, I was "seeing floaters", and I had swelling. Basically preeclampsia signs. She was due on March 15th, we were hoping for March 17th since my husband is from Ireland! She was induced on March 10th.

Cian

I found out I was pregnant with Cian on Grace's birthday! What an awesome present- to get to be a big sister!! I knew pretty quickly that I was having a boy. I had morning sickness, but it was not as quick to set in and not as bad. Perhaps something different with the hormones  I'm not sure why. I still had to be put on Zofran, but I think I only had one IV the whole pregnancy. It was just different and I had guessed I was having a boy and a few months later we found out I was right!

My pregnancy with Cian was pretty uneventful thankfully. He was due in late November. Since I was induced with Grace, I was very nervous about knowing what labor starting would feel like. (With Grace I was induced, and given Pitocin to start labor.) On his due date, he had STILL not arrived. The next day, I decided I was not going to just sit and wait and be bored. Solution- drive to a outlet mall half an hour away. So, I went shopping and on my way home my water broke. (I was thankful to Cian that he let me finish my shopping!!) 

My OB doctor was in a group practice with a couple other OB doctors. In that practice, there was only one doctor that everyone felt was "C-section happy." Yep, I got that doctor since it was my doctor's day off. He decided I "needed" pitocin to "hurry it up" since I had my water break, but wasn't too far dilated. I am forever grateful to the nurses I had as they also knew of his "style." The allowed me to push for quite a while before calling him. I think had they called him, he would have been bored and sent me for a C-section. I pushed for over an hour. Finally, Cian arrived. We then learned why he took his sweet time getting here: he was 9 lbs. 13.9 oz! Yep. A few weeks later, it was back to the outlet mall to return all the NB size clothing I bought, lol!

Zoe

My little diva Zoe. Poor thing, she was unfortunate enough to be in my belly when I had a jumbo kidney stone. As she grew, I kept having pain on my left side and couldn't figure out what was going on. When she was in the 3rd trimester, especially the last month, it was excruciating. I begged my doctor to induce me. My OB felt it was in the best interest of the baby to hospitalize me on the OB ward and give me a morphine drip instead. That happened twice. Finally, I begged and cried for her to stop drugging up the baby and just get her out! Zoe was due on January 22nd. I finally got my way on January 17th. She was perfect! My pain subsided quite a bit also. I had an x-ray a couple weeks later and they found stones in both kidneys. Both were partially obstructed and one stone was 8mm. I was breastfeeding exclusively so needing surgery with a tiny nursing baby did not excite me at all. The doctors weren't super breastfeeding friendly, but I did my research and found surgery antibiotics that were safe to cross and a way for it to happen. I had a really great urologist who agreed to do my surgery under a spinal instead of anesthesia. I pumped enough milk to be at the hospital all day, but she had never had a bottle before so I was a little nervous. I had the lithotripsy while wide awake and my doctor turned one of the big t.v. screens so I could watch! He said, "how many people get to see inside their bladder?" LOL! I chose not to take any pain meds, so it was a little rough, but thank goodness as Zoe HATED the bottle and basically was starving when I got home that day. My urologist said he was going to use me as an example as men constantly complain about the pain even while on strong meds, and I used nothing for the pain or the stint removal etc.. I found that funny! Of course, men never act wimpy when sick, lol!

Ellison

Ellison decided to give me scares throughout my pregnancy. First the hospital ultrasound tech told me it looked like I had placenta previa. I didn't. Then, I was so dehydrated with her (I should have received IVs and I didn't), that my amniotic fluid was really low. Another ultrasound tech when we did a 4D made sure to go tell my OB and she decided to "just keep an eye on it." However, near the end of my pregnancy, when doing kick counting - she was not moving much. I felt her every hour like only once. I kept making sure I felt her, but in hindsight, I wish I had just gone to the ER. It was a Sunday night and I was scheduled to see my OB the next morning, but that was just stupid on my part. Both Brian and my mom tried to get me to go and I didn't.  Knowing what I know now, Ellison could have just as easily died that night. If anyone ever has a baby not moving that much- PLEASE go see your doctor or go to the ER. I got a lecture that next morning from my OB doctor that we (patients) are not bothering them (doctors), they want us to tell them, and if the baby stops moving (dies), it is too late. I told my OB she was moving minimally as soon as she walked in the room and she sent me over to the ultrasound tech and they did a Biophysical Profile test. It measures 5 things: heart rate, breathing movement, body movement, muscle tone and amniotic fluid level. Each item should get a normal score of 2 for a total of 10 on a perfect score. (Below 6 is when they worry.) Ellison scored a "2" total. Hence, my 3rd daughter needing induced. 

So, some amazing, wonderful moments. Some not so great moments. Some simply terrifying moments. Overall, the best 4 things to ever happen to me in my whole life.