Beth's Birth

I actually get to write an UN-eventful birth story!  Bethany arrived March 23, 2011 at 14:14 weighing in at 9 lbs 6 oz and measuring 21 inches at 38 weeks.  I got to the hospital Wednesday at 11:00 having not eaten anything since midnight and waited and waited...they were behind.  I finally got prepped for surgery and headed in.  Right before they were getting me ready, I totally freaked out.  I was getting super scared for the spinal and having a mini panic attack.  I told Greg we were done having kids...and then I actually had the surgery...

Yeah, it's not that bad.  The spinal is seriously not that bad...the actual pain is about 5 seconds.  And they give you all these warnings about pressure and such, but again, not that bad.  Recovery, not so great, but manageable.  For any future c-sectioners, here are my tips:

1) Seriously, it's not that bad.
2) Make sure they do the catheter after the spinal.
3) Ask for a binder (or bring your own) and wear it as soon as you can.  Seriously, makes a WORLD of difference.
4) Ask your nurses to write on your board the next time you can take your pain meds.  They won't come and tell you it's time, it's up to you to ask and stay on top of it.
5) Take all pain meds offered and take them at the right times, don't wait until you're in pain....that's with one caveat, I will NEVER take morphine again.  I itched and itched for 2 days after that stuff, NOT fun.
6) Seriously, it's not that bad.

Having Bethany in my room was incredible.  I had no idea it was supposed to be that way.  It was so fun having her there!  Getting to feed her soon after birth, getting to hold her all day, letting guests get to see her, all the stuff I didn't get to do with Bruce.  By the time Saturday came around, I was ready to get home and see my family.

Bruce is adjusting well.  He LOVES Bethany, but is definitely acting out.  He's not really had specific jealousy issues, but he has started referring to me as "my mommy" and he is having way more fits then he used to.  He's getting better though...

And as for me, I'm recovering.  Still in some pain, but getting markedly better every day.  I've completely weaned off all narcotic medication and now just take mega Ibuprofen.  Also, I am officially below my pre-pregnancy weight.  Yay!  Nursing is going well, Bethany sleeps a lot so she has to be woken up to eat, but otherwise, life at home is going well.  I will enjoy my 10 weeks off from work!

Here are a few pictures:
Before:

 First picture:

 Bruce is a big brother!

 Arriving home to our sweet sign!

 Bruce getting to hold her:

It has been an eventful week!

I went Wednesday for my 37 week appointment.  I was scheduled for a sonogram and an appointment.  I was already prepared for the "holy cow, your baby is huge!" talk that I would get from the sonographer (she was measuring over 10 lbs and the sonographer said she thinks that was even on the low side because she couldn't get all the measurements as big as Bethany was).  I got that all the time last time with Bruce.  I was not prepared to hear her say, "whoa, her heartrate is really high, I think the dr might make you deliver today!"  Of course Greg was not with me because he had stayed home to watch Bruce...I told him not to worry about coming because it should be a pretty routine appointment...should have known better!

Next comes waiting FOREVER in the waiting room with "chatty cathy" telling me all about the wedding of a mutual friend.  I really didn't care about the wedding, and it was just an annoying conversation...especially since I was typing out emails to my parents on my iPad, texting my sisters on my phone, and emailing work on my blackberry all while trying to act somewhat interested (AKA be polite) to this lady sitting next to me.  They finally get me back in a room and take my blood pressure and it is super high.  I did tell the nurse that it likely had something to do with the fact that the sonographer had just told me I would probably be having a baby that day...she agreed to let me lay down and come back and take it a bit later.  When she came back it had gone down a lot, but was still really high.

Then comes in Dr. Askew.  She's concerned about the blood pressure and more concerned with Bethany's heartrate.  She then tells them to get me all hooked up to the non-stress test machine.  I get all hooked up and Bethany's heartrate continues to hover in the 190's...but she is moving like crazy.  Eventually she settles down some and her heartrate goes back down to the 160's/170's.  And then...I get forgotten about.  I'm sitting in a little closet (AKA NST room), in what basically looks like an dentist's chair with stirrups just waiting and waiting.  Luckily Bethany saved the day by getting hiccups which were so loud on the machine they remembered me!  Askew made it back in, agreed to let me go home as long as I promised to be on STRICT bedrest.  Yay.  Oh well, at least I got to go home!  I also had to do the 24 hour urine collection again.  Yay.  Again, just glad I got to go home. She also said we'd move the csection date up to 38 weeks instead of 39.

Then yesterday (Friday), I called the office because I realized they never actually scheduled my csection...they just scheduled my followup appointment on the day I was supposed to have a csection. The nurse was pretty rude and just brushed me off saying they'd call me back, I pushed her and made her guarantee someone would call me back that day.  Well then I started realizing I wasn't feeling great and took my temperature.  I had a low grade fever, and I took my BP again and it had gotten pretty high (167/90), and I had the dull headache and squiggly eye things.  So I called the office again and they told me to head over to labor and delivery.  I first took a shower (in case Bethany was making her grand entrance), we got Bruce all dropped off at Mom's (she came back early) and got all checked in at the hospital.  They got me all hooked up to the machines.  Bethany's heartrate looked good, my BP was high but not outrageous, and I still just had a low grade fever.  I was having contractions, but not steadily.  Askew came by and we chatted, she said she was happy to deliver her today if I wanted.  I did not.  I do not want to do the NICU thing again if we can avoid it.  Ultimately we spent about 3 hours at the hospital, but the good news is they sent me back home.  I also felt better because we got my csection all scheduled at the hospital and I'm all ready to go!

So, very long story to say: Bethany will be making her grand entrance on February 23rd at approximately 1:00 pm!  (all assuming I don't go into labor...)

Still here, still pregnant...

I'm almost to the 37 week mark, just a few days away! Can't believe it's getting so close! The plan for now is still to go to 39 weeks (March 2nd). I go Wednesday for an ultrasound to look at her weight again and we'll go from there. I'm definitely feeling d-u-n...ready to have her and be done with work and all that. I guess that's the only silver lining in the mandatory bed rest from last time around! At the same time I guess it might be better to wait a little longer since my parents decided to take a trip to Germany and don't get home until right at the 38 week mark! Yes, interesting timing! Oh well, will post more after Wednesday!

Thanks to those of you who came to my shower. It was a lot of fun, and I was very touched by your thoughtfulness!

33 weeks and friend's new blog

Whelp, I had my 33 week appt today.  Things went SUPER well! Blood pressure was completely normal!  Who'd have thought? I was super happy and so was Dr. Askew.  I also had an ultrasound before my appointment to see how big "baby Beff" is (how Bruce refers to her).  She's apparently not wanting to be shown up by her big brother.  She weighed in at 6.5 lbs...and she's breech and I still have technically 7 weeks to go.  The breech part is no big deal since I'm having a csection anyway...it just explains A LOT in terms of what I'm feeling.  It also explains the enormous amount of pressure I'm feeling and why its so dang hard to bend over.  The 6.5 lb part is pretty par for the course for my babies, but still...yeah.

Dr. Askew said as of now she wants to let me go to 39 weeks.  I did then remind her that Bruce was almost 11 lbs at 37 weeks and told her I did not want to be setting any new San Antonio records for huge babies.  She laughed and agreed that we could consider going earlier if we needed to.  That being said, I am officially on the calendar for a c-section March 2nd.  I like March 2nd, the birth date being: 3-2-11.  Kind of fun.  I think I might not be so fond of it in a few weeks...may be thinking a date starting with a "2" sounds a lot better!  Oh well, we'll just see how it goes.  I also showed her the picture of my "hotdog feet" from my blog back in the day.  That was only a few days away from where I am now...and I am no where near that this time!  Yay!  Overall, a great day and great appt.

In other news, my friend from high school started this fun blog: http://dinnerparties101.com/.  She has lots of cute ideas for dinner parties, decorations, food and such.  I'm excited to see where it goes.  She also has a fun giveaway for you wine drinkers out there.  Feel free to go look around!

Update

Life is going well, we've all calmed down a lot since the holiday's.  The pregnancy is still moving along fine.  I'm 32 weeks tomorrow so only 7 weeks until c-section date!  I had a slight scare the other day when I hadn't felt the baby move all day.  I drank a Dr. Pepper, waited a while longer and called the dr.  They told me to head to labor and delivery...it is kind of annoying that that's their default response for everything.  My former dr would at least just have you come on in and not do the emergency room route.  Oh well, we got Bruce dropped off at my mom's and headed towards the hospital only to have her start putting on a big show...belly moving all around and all that...so all the panic for nothing.

My blood pressure was actually only in the high "normal-ish" range the other day at the dr...so the pre-eclampsia is still holding off.  I also haven't had nearly the swelling of hands and feet like I did with Bruce, but I guess there's still time for all that!  I'm still measuring 3-4 weeks ahead so I have an ultrasound next Thursday to get a size estimate.  I do have to laugh a little at those...they never seem to be that accurate.  I mean I know they tell you there's a variance of up to a pound, but they notoriously seem to be really wrong.  I mean they were really wrong with Bruce...had him a whole pound and a half less than he was the day before he was born!  Oh well, still happy to get to have another U/S...it seemed like I had tons with Bruce, but not nearly as many this time.  That's okay though, I'm kind of enjoying the lower level of panic this time around.

Things around the house are good, Bruce is so funny.  The things he comes up with crack us up all the time.  He got a new Little Tikes truck (like the Cozy Coupe, but a truck) from my brother in law for Christmas and it is definitely a hit in the house.  The other day he told us he was going to "pick up chicks" in his truck.  We know where he learned that, but still funny that he associated his truck with his "Uncle" Tom's truck... Poor kid is being hit hard by this crazy cedar we're having, we went to see Dr. Gulde yesterday and he was cracking me up.  First, he's been asking to go see him for a few months now...I told him we had to at least wait until he was sick!  Then he was so excited when he came in the room, you'd have thought it was his long lost best friend.  Ran right up and climbed in his lap, I joked with Dr. Gulde that we were working on his shyness... Well turns out he has an ear infection, but after our long string of ear infections this is the first one in a long time, so that's good!

Other funny things he's told us recently: "Mommy, I spilled my boogers"  referring to his dripping nose.  "I just don't wike (like) it..." referring to whatever it is he doesn't like (socks, carseat, food, the couch, and other random things). Putting on his "wobble goggles" to "take a closer look" like Scott in Imagination Movers. Greg telling him they should call Auntie "L" and Bruce yelling out "Ohhhh Toooodles" to bring a tool.  And there are more, but I wanted to get down a few so we don't forget them someday!

Update

Well it's been a while.  Not for lack of stuff, but more out of sheer laziness.  I have not been nearly as good at updating or quite as cynical this pregnancy as I was last time.  I just went back through and was reading about when I was pregnant with Bruce.  Really I was trying to remember when everything started going south in the pregnancy.

Looks like I'm heading down the "pre-e" (preeclampsia) road again.  I went to the dr a couple weeks ago and my blood pressure was elevated, very elevated and I had trace protein in my urine.  Yay.  So I got to do the 24 hour urinalysis...only good thing was I got to do it from home this time instead of in the hospital.  So I stayed home from church a few weekends back since I couldn't get very far away from my bathroom.  Yay again.  Well those results came back normal, for real yay now! :-)

Well I went back last Thursday (right before Christmas) and my BP was still high, even higher now.  But I really do have bad white coat syndrome, plus I was stressing myself out about how I really needed it to be lower and of course that doesn't help.  Well luckily I had bought a BP monitor and have been taking it at home and it's been significantly lower at home so Dr. Askew was cool with letting me postpone bedrest/modified work schedule a while longer.  I am officially 30 weeks today, only 9 weeks left until scheduled c-section (March 2nd), but we may have her earlier just like Bruce.  Here's hoping she stays in long enough to avoid the NICU.

Oh and since I never updated after my last post about GD, I don't have it.  Passed the 3 hour with no problems.

I FAILED!

The one hour glucose test that is.  Boooooo!  Now I have to find a minimum of three hours of my life to dedicate to the next one.  I forgot to ask how much I failed by so I have a call in to the nurse to see if I failed by a lot or a little...not looking forward to the three hour.  I did have to do it multiple times with Bruce, so I know it goes, but I also know I DO NOT enjoy it!  Oh well, now I'm just praying I don't actually have GD...