He's Here! Chase's Birth 4/3/13

I can't believe he is finally here! And so perfect! Chase made his grand entrance on Wednesday, April 3rd at 12:41 pm via scheduled c-section. He weighed a whopping 8 lb. 8 oz! This is big for a baby 2 weeks early but definitely not as big as we expected which proves those ultrasounds can be off by up to a pound or 2. At my last ultrasound 2 weeks before delivery, he was measuring 8 lb. 4 oz. so to have only gained 4 oz in two weeks is pretty unlikely so they were off a bit (thank goodness lol). Unfortunately, he lost a pound in the first 3 days so he dropped to 7 lb 8 oz and was only up an ounce on Tuesday at his well baby check up.

Now for the big story :-) ...

Due to the MTHFR and his expected size, the docs decided he needed to come 2 weeks early so we scheduled for Wed the 3rd. We arrived at the hospital that morning around 9:30 and they started prepping me. At this point I wasn't really worried (although my anxiety had been high all week, I was surprisingly calm) but my sweet hubby was terrified. Even though he's been through 4 births, he felt as though it were just like the first. But I think it was the fact that we were having a c-section (and all of the other children were vaginal deliveries) was what he was so worried about. At about 12:15, they had me ready to go and the doc was all set up in the OR. They wheeled me in by myself and had me get on the table and sit sideways while the anesthesiologist administered the spinal. This was AWFUL!!! I remember my epidural with my first and it was nothing..this was so painful! Once he had that done of course everything started going numb and they had me lay flat with my arms stretched out to the side. What I was not prepared for was the awful feeling that set in. It was like I was on the verge of a major panic attack and needing to vomit at the same time and not being able to breathe either. It felt like a ton of bricks were sitting on my chest and the more I tried to breathe the harder it was and the worse I felt. I never want to have that feeling again, it was extremely scary! But my anesthesiologist was awesome, he talked me down and did his best to keep me calm. He gave me some oxygen which really helped and once my husband got to come in I was feeling a little better. Then the fun began. Once they started pulling, the whole table shook and it felt like my ribs were being pulled out. Very weird feeling! But I felt no pain at all and it took about 5 minutes to get him out.

His first cry... all I can say is it was the most amazing sound and all my fear fell away. My husband and I cried and cried and to see that little face when they brought him around for me to see before they swept him away to be cleaned and checked was just surreal. I don't remember being very emotional when my first was born for some reason. I was overjoyed but I didn't cry. This time I bawled! I felt like all of the emotional roller coasters we had been on from the struggle to conceive to being high risk were all so worth it. Nothing in this world compares to seeing your baby for the first time. God is so amazing to give us that experience and it's just beyond amazing!

We were so thrilled that he was breathing good and all checked out perfect so hubs got to carry him back to the recovery room where the family waited. Of course that 20 minutes or so it took to close me up felt like an eternity! When I got back to the room I know I looked like I was in shock lol. They handed my little guy and OH how beautiful! He has his own look but looks alot like his big brother did. We are still trying to figure out who he looks like more lol.

Now for the not so fun part...recovery. I swear I've never been through anything more difficult and more painful in my life. Not to scare anyone but I think I would go through natural childbirth with no epidural 10 times over before going through a c-section again. But my case is probably a bit different with my back problems. Something about that spinal really messed up my back and I think that pain was even worse than the incision pain. When all the anesthesia wore off and they had me up and walking I thought I would just die! Even on percocet and ibuprofen 600, nothing even touched the pain. They finally gave me Lor.tab 10 and that took the edge off just for a little while. I was in the hospital for 3 days and I thought it would never end. The bed was too short so I could never get comfortable and needing to feed every 2 hours meant I got zero sleep. I think I literally slept a total of 45 minutes overall. To sum it all up, it was not fun and I hope I never have to do it again but it was all worth it. If we happen to have another child, I will fight for a vbac with all I've got for sure!

Today I am much better which is why I was finally able to post. I've been able to get up and down without too much pain and caring for Chase is getting easier. He is such a good baby! He never cries unless he's extremely hungry and I really think he would sleep through the night if I let him. Compared to his brother as a newborn, the difference is night and day! But we are so very thankful and I can't wait for his daddy to come home tomorrow. With his work schedule, he had to leave the day after we came home and has been gone all week. So this next week is going to be wonderful with him home!

We are just so overjoyed and blessed!

1 week 4 days to go!

I can't believe I am less than 2 weeks from delivery, WOW! And not only that but this little (or big!) guy is literally as big or bigger than an average full term baby at only 36 weeks! He weighs 8 lbs 4 oz according to the perinatologist on Tuesday of this week. Like OMG! My first son was 7 lb 14 oz at birth and he was born at 39 1/2 weeks! So I am officially bigger with this one now than I was with him at full term. Geez! And boy does my poor pelvis and back feel it! Moving around is getting really difficult, rolling over at night requires an act of Congress, forget bending over to pick something up OR to even put on a shoe...and talk about active! My entire body seems to shift when he rolls over! So funny and so weird to watch!

We are just beside ourselves with excitement now and I feel like there's no way I will get everything done on time. My OCD nesting is at an all time high but I can't do much at one time because I just wear out and my legs and back give out after about 30 minutes of cleaning. So frustrating...
We are installing new carpet in all 3 bedrooms (great timing huh?) and I am chomping at the bit to get it done. With hubs only home every other week it's very difficult to schedule such a task. We are having it installed by the store we bought it from but getting their schedule to work with ours is not easy. Hoping we can get it done before bubs comes home but it's not looking likely right now. Really wanted to avoid all the new carpet "fumes" and debris floating in the air! Not sure what we're gonna do....

But anyhoo...here we are, hurry up and wait. Seems like the last week always drags by no matter what. Hubs is out of town for work this week so that makes it even longer but we at least have something amazing to look forward to when he comes home. All our kiddo's are just beside themselves and I'm so very glad they are looking forward to his arrival and not dreading having yet another sibling to deal with lol. At least I know Cayden isn't for sure since he is practically an "only child" most of the time since the others don't live with us. But he is definitely seeming to hone in on the fact that he won't be the baby anymore. It's hard and some days I just cry thinking about it and when he has a bad day at school I feel so guilty for some reason. Like I'm not doing enough to let him know he is still my baby and always will be. So just praying that all goes smoothly on that front. As well as delivery. Having a scheduled C-section is new territory for me and I'm a little freaked out but I know God's taking care of us and all should be well. Just not looking forward to the recovery but I guess the upside is I will get 2 extra weeks home with my new snugglebunny. Yay!

Hope everyone is doing great, I know I'm following a few ladies that are due close to the same time. Keeping you all in my prayers! :-)

Delivering 38 weeks!

So we saw my perinatologist yesterday and I asked the big question that no one has brought up yet: "When can I deliver?" His very quick response was "You need to be pregnant for 27 more days so I recommend delivery at 38 weeks". WOW! All this time I've assumed he would be a week early just so we made sure my husband was off of work (in the oil field, there's no such thing as vacation, sick days, or paternity leave) which we originally thought would be the week of April 8th. Well, I popped out of bed yesterday morning and the first thing to cross my mind was OH NO! I got his days off all mixed up! So he will be off the first week of April and not the second week which really got us to worrying since we have not been sure what the docs wanted to do about delivering early due to the baby's hugeness. And boy does he feel huge! At our last appointment he was 6 lb at nearly 33 weeks and he has consistently gained half a pound a week for the last 2 months it seems. For some reason they did not measure him yesterday so we don't know how much he weighs right now but I would bet close to 7 lbs. My first son was 7 lb 14 oz when he was born at 40 weeks....yeah, huge difference and absolutely NO explanation for it! I am 6' tall and my husband is 5'11" so we are both fairly big people and it may just be a genetics thing. My husband's aunt had 4 babies, her smallest was 10 lbs and the largest was 14 lbs (Holy Cow!!) and she had them all naturally...ouch! And she is only 5'2". Craziness... So I dunno, all of my husbands kids have been under 9 lbs at birth so I don't necesarily think it's his genes so probably mine. My mom and her sister were both over 9 at birth. But regardless, here we are with monster kid but he is healthy and active so I'm not too worried. Some kids are just big!

So, April 2 is the BIG DAY for right now. I thought it might be super neat to have him on April 1st and make it a great April Fool's prank to tell the family that instead of the huge boy we were expecting, it's a girl lol. Only because every person in my family (with the exception of my mom) was so sure this would be a girl  so they'd get a good kick out of that. But we are pretty sure it will be the 2nd and that is totally cool with me. Now I know there are a lot of people that will argue that choosing to have a baby early due to size is not a good idea and if I thought I could handle the last two weeks I would but I trust my doctors exclusively and they know way more about my medical conditions and what could or couldn't happen than I do. I've never once met a person who had a baby 2 weeks early (full term is technically 37 weeks) and had any problems or who have less than a perfectly normal baby. I'm really not worried at all. Well I guess I can't say "not at all" because I have so many weird medical issues, I worry that something could go wrong but I'd worry anyway no matter what. It's hard not being able to see and hold your baby and not know what's going on inside your body but I think that is something most moms worry about anyway. I'm just going to trust God and know that He's got this, we're good!

Speaking of medical issues, my oh so wonderful back and pelvis that have held up so well this entire time are starting to give out on me. At my babyshower last Saturday (which was awesome btw!) I started having the old familiar twinge in my right butt cheek. That spot right next to where your leg connects to your hip socket. Kind of hard to explain but sends pain into the center of the butt cheek and when my chiro fixes it, I always have to be on my stomach for her to get to it. Well, now I can't lie on my stomach on her table so she has to try to adjust me from the front and it just doesn't do the trick. So each night for the last 2 nights I have been barely able to walk at all, it's excruciating. Not only that spot but my entire pelvis and lower back just feel like they've been pummeled with a sledge hammer. During the day, my stomach muscles and ligaments right in front of my hips hurt so bad that walking is a major chore. Not fun...But nothing much I can do about it. It's what I've expected all along and I'm so amazed I've gone this long but I'm thankful that I am in the home stretch and if I can manage to stretch and exercise and not over do it, I think I can hold out. Well I have to lol. Ugh, but it isn't fun!

I guess that's all for now. All I can think about now is in 26 days I will be holding my little man finally!!! It't starting to feel so much more real! And I have to figure out how to get everything done!!

Praying for my fellow mama's out there, hope everyone is doing great! :-)

Giant Baby!!!

So we saw the perinatologist today an this little guy is still huge! The ultrasound tech kept re measuring and saying how crazy it is that he is 3 1/2 weeks ahead! He weighs 5 lb 14 oz which is the size of a 36 week baby and I am only 32 weeks. Like Holy Moly!! If he keeps going at this rate they will consider taking him early. Could be good, could be bad..I dunno. Just gonna wait n see.

But otherwise he his super healthy, no blood clots for me or him which is what they've been watching me for. Thank God for that!

Guess that's all I got for today, been a pretty boring week. Just ready for this kid to get here :-)

Did You Know Babies CAN'T Digest Cereal?

I get a weekly newsletter from a blog called Thank Your Body | A Journey to Real Health. There are always interesting tidbits about living healthy and organics. I'm sort of an "organic wannabe" since I have not yet figured out how to incorporate and switch to organics/whole foods completely yet but I study it extensively! One of the reasons I want so badly to make the switch is because of my autoimmune disorder. Everything that goes into our bodies affects our health and what we put into our bodies at an early age affects what disorders/problems we may have as adults. One of the most common byproducts of poor nutrition and consuming processed foods is autoimmune disorders. I am fully convinced that the processed foods we as a culture consume on a massive scale are responsible for most of the ailments we are constantly trying to treat/heal when we aren't recognizing the source. Correct the root of the problem (food) and the results will improve the outcome. Instead, we keep consuming this processed junk that our bodies were not designed to handle and then we feed it to our children as babies and wonder why they have frequent ear infections, need to go to the doctor with every virus that goes around, need glasses, need braces, end up with juvenile diabetes or even cancer! It's ludicrous! And the answer is pretty simple but we refuse to change what we've always known. So I'm on a journey to do just that: change the way I and my family eat and reduce the amount of toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis. I want to be healthy and I want my family to be healthy because our bodies are God's temple and we should take care of them!

In my most recent newsletter from Thank Your Body titled "Do You Want a Beautiful Baby?", she introduces a book called Beautiful Babies by Kristen Michaelis who also has a blog, Food Renegade. If you pre-order the book, you get free access to Food Renegade's online course, Beautiful Babies. This book and course go into all kinds of nutritional information about fertility, pregnancy nutrition, breastfeeding (and why it's so important), and what to feed your baby so that they are healthy for life. Some of the information will amaze you! We've been told by pediatricians for decades that to calm a fussy baby or help them sleep longer we should give them rice cereal as early as 3 months! I cannot stress enough how WRONG this is! Babies cannot digest cereal. Their little tummies do not produce amylase (the enzyme needed for grain digestion) until after 6 months of age and even then they don't produce enough of it to properly break down grains. I found another article on the topic here: why babies can't digest cereal. It also gives some great info on why they can't have grains until after a year old and what other foods they shouldn't have and when it's ok to introduce certain foods into their diet. I'd love to be able to go back to my first pregnancy and have this information! If I had known that cereal literally just ROTS in their tummies, I would have looked at my pediatrician like he was nuts when he suggested giving my 2 month old rice cereal for his acid reflux (which he may not have even had if I had eaten properly during pregnancy and breastfed exclusively!).

If you can pre-order the book ($15) before March 18, you get the online course (a $199 value!) for FREE! I am so excited to read the book and take the course. I'd give anything to prevent my little one from going through what I have with my body and my health and what so many children and adults deal with today. So there it is ya'll, I hope you find the information as enlightening as I did!

30 weeks...already?!

I've been completely lazy about posting lately but oh well, I'm pregnant tired and totally ready to be done! lol But I will miss it. My first pregnancy I moaned and groaned the entire time "Why would anyone ever say they enjoy this!?"...but now I really do. I don't know if it's because we were so afraid it wouldn't happen again or if this is just an easier pregnancy but I am enjoying it this time. I can sit on the toilet like a normal person without one of those granny seats that's up high (which I had almost my entire first pregnancy, couldn't get up off the toilet with my own strength!) and I can sleep lying down (had to sleep completely upright with my first) and I am not dealing with much back pain at all. I would have thought this time around would be much worse because I have so many medical conditions that I did not have with my first but I'm knocking on wood  and counting my blessings that all those seem to be "dormant" for now and I hope they stay that way!

I can't believe I am now 30 weeks. 3/4 of the way through!! WOO HOO! The closer it gets the more time slows down it seems but I know it will be here before we know it. Still hoping they choose to let me have him a week or 2 early since he is so big but if not that's ok. I will just have to bite the bullet and have a c-section if they make me wait for full-term. I hope that doesn't sound awfully selfish of me to want him here earlier. I have to remind myself that there is a reason they stay in there for 40 weeks and even though 37 is considered full term there must still be alot going on in there for the weeks after that for God to have decided  they should be in there that long. I just can't wait to finally have him in my arms!

On other fronts, had a second GD test done and all was fine. I passed the first but since we did it earlier than usual (due to his size) my doc wanted to do it again at 29. BP is good which is a relief since I started out with high BP at night earlier on but that seems to have cleared up. Hopefully it won't come back! My legs and ankles stay pretty swollen which is new for me since I didn't have that with my first but it's more of a minor nuisance than anything to worry about unless it gets worse then I'll start worrying about pre-eclampsia but I'm not going to go there yet. All in all I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I haven't had any significant anxiety at all which is amazing because I was a complete basket case before and right after I got pregnant. Another thing I pray doesn't come back! I had some post partum depression with my first but I'm praying and claiming that it won't be as bad this time! It's the worst feeling in the world to have a new precious baby and have thoughts and images of something happening to or hurting that baby go through your mind of no doing of your own. It's terrifying! But I also was home alone a lot with my first for a while and that contributed to it. This time I will have my husband home with me every other week during maternity leave and my 8 year old every afternoon when hub isn't home so that will break up the monotony and hopefully keep me focused and happy and not down in the dumps freaking out.

But anyways, here we are and so happy and so excited! Got a ton of stuff to get done before he arrives and I'm hoping I hold out until the very day before delivery so I get my entire 6 or 8 weeks off with my baby boy :-) God bless and hope all my fellow mamas-to-be are doing great!

27 weeks ~ 3rd Tri!

I can't believe how fast the first 2 trimesters flew by (of course they didn't feel like they were going by fast while in them!) and now I'm going into the home stretch. I know technically 28 weeks is the third tri but since  I reached 27 weeks all my phone apps say I'm in the first week of the 3rd tri so I'm just claiming it anyway! I am so excited and can't wait for the next 2 months to go by. We are looking at an end of March delivery right now due to his size but we really don't know for sure. My last appt at the perinatologist's office was last Thursday and according to their measurements he is 3 lbs (maybe a little more by now) and above the 95% percentile. SO he went from being 2 weeks ahead to 3 weeks WAH!! We're growing a giant baby here folks. If he continues at this rate, his birth weight will be 10 lbs....at least. UM wow! I can't imagine a baby that big, like ohmuhgosh! They better have a plan cuz I don't think I'll be pushing that out lol. As much as I want a vaginal delivery, I will take the C-section over screwing up my back even more. My doc agrees with me and says we will watch and wait and if it looks like he's going to weigh that much at full term we might deliver a couple of weeks early. Not sure how I feel about that but I trust their judgement so we shall see.

Lots of moving going on! He is head down so his feet are under my ribs and hands and head down low. So hiccups are really weird, feels like he's punching my cervix from the inside over and over..not too comfortable! But I enjoy it all no matter how I have to re-adjust my sitting position lol.

I'm feeling pretty good overall, starting to get some of that familiar fatigue back but I'm managing to stay busy. It's so tempting to just be lazy but that's a trap and I refuse to fall back into it because that is so miserable! I'm all about nesting now and have started a major whole house organization project that is keeping me occupied daily. Some days I'd rather just veg out in front of the TV but I know I don't have much time left so I'm trying hard to keep going. You never realize how much clutter and unnecessary junk you have until you start trying to re-organize! The baby room is my focus this week because we have to have the window replaced and the carpet before he gets here. It has been our junk room for a while so getting it cleared out and the closet redone is not an easy task! But I'm getting there!

All in all I'd say things are going much better than anticipated. Going into this pregnancy I had visions of being immobile from back pain and arthritis by this point so I'm totally overjoyed that I have almost no back pain (knock on wood) and my arthritis is staying at a minimum. That may all change in a month but for now I'm feeling good and staying busy! Hope all my other mama's out there are doing great! God Bless!

A New Year & 3 months left!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone is safe and healthy and happy! It's hard to believe we are in 2013 and of course lived through the end of the world again! (ha!) It's hard to be very optimistic about this year. Well, with our little one coming we are so thrilled and looking forward to his arrival but I can't help but think about the world he is coming into. With the "fiscal cliff" looming and all the mess that is going on in Washington, it seems that we aren't in Kansas anymore ToTo. Things have changed drastically for our country and I fear for our freedom and the future that our little ones will have to be burdened with. Nonetheless, God says "Do not worry about tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of it's own". It's hard to stick to that verse since worry seems to be my constant companion but I must try. I know that no matter what I face, God will get me through it. I just hope I can instill that same security into my children and pray that they will turn to God in their times of need.

Well on a brighter note, we are now approaching week 26! In just 3 months, we will meet our little guy! Technically it's 14 weeks but I like to round down lol. I think right now he is somewhere around 2 lbs. (according to my iphone app) and 14 in (i think?). He sure feels alot bigger. His kicks and rolls are getting stronger and we can now see him moving from the outside, yay! It's so neat to watch and to know that there is a real person in there! These next 3 months are going to drag by I'm sure!

Most of my symptoms are minor now. Nausea is gone, heartburn hanging on somewhat, fatigue minor. Well, with the exception of Monday and yesterday, I was so tired and could not get motivated to do much of anything and that was not fun. I feel better today but still a little worn down. The holidays have just zapped me I guess. Time to get back into the swing of things! I'm having some Braxton Hicks pretty frequently which is very different from my first pregnancy. They actually hurt! I had an epidural pretty early with my first son so I didn't feel many contractions before I went numb but I do recall what they felt like and these BH feel very similar. I usually get 2 or 3 in a 30 minute period and they last about 15 seconds or so. But since that's the most I've had in a time span I don't usually worry about it. Let's see, what else...oh, swelling! My gosh do my feet swell! Another very new thing for me since I had zero swelling with my first one. At the end of the day (especially if I've worn socks) my ankles look like the Michelan man. It's so weird how every pregnancy is so different!

Arthritis is doing great I'm happy to report. My toes are still not 100% normal sized but the pain is minimal and I don't notice it much. They aren't extremely stiff either. Really hoping it all stays quiet at least until he gets here. And also really hoping I get to breastfeed for a few weeks at least. My rheumatologist says I will need to go back on meds immediately after delivery and won't be able to breastfeed but I'm thinking I will just bear with the flare-up however bad it is as long as I get to breastfeed for a while. I did with my son but not very much. My production was awful and I was only able to pump very little and he had latching trouble so I just pumped as much as possible and gave it to him that way. I hope this time we can make it work since I know more about it now. When my first was born, there was no one there to coach me (besides my mom) and I didn't know anything about keeping production up or anything. I just assumed my production level was nature's fault and not my own when it was probably because I didn't pump nearly enough (it's so painful!). And I had mastitis which is soo awful and painful! Hope I don't go through that again!

Well I guess that's all I got for now. Time to go work and attempt to stay awake!