10-10-2008 - Hello - Can I tell you my Story?

My mood while writing this blog: Wired

Hi All. After over a year of visiting this site almost daily, I’ve decided to join. What took me so long to join … well … I was a little nervous about getting addicted. Guess that happened anyway.

I first started looking at this site after I had a miscarriage. This site contains great information about what happened to me. I also found support by reading about the joys and sorrows of mothers on this site.

Then after MANY months of TTC again, the magic happened and I was finally going to have a little one. Our plan was to wait until the birth to find out the sex of the baby. We love surprises at our house.

Things went great for me (although I was worried since I was older, 34) during my pregnancy. Baby was growing great, had the hiccups a lot, and only kicked me in my belly button – not in my bladder or ribs. The only thing we had to worry about was that the baby’s ultrasound showed enlarged kidneys. My OB/GYN said that the kidney problem should resolve itself so don’t worry about it but as a precaution I would be getting lots more ultrasounds. I liked to be able to see the baby more often. The Dr also told us it was going to be a girl – since we would need this info to determine what to do if the kidney issue didn’t resolve. So much for our “surprise”. I started buying baby dresses as soon as we got home from the Dr. DH was so pleased to see the credit card bill!

Things continued to go fine until week 35. I went in for a routine check-up and my BP was high. I was sent home to do a 24 hour urine collection. The next day my OB/GYN called and had me go straight to the hospital. I was on put on bed rest immediately due to mild pre-eclampsia. I didn’t expect anything like that to happen! Good thing I have such a great doctor to take care of me and the baby. After the amniocentesis showed that her lungs weren’t ready at 36 weeks, we were induced at 37 weeks. Two weeks of bed rest wasn’t so bad. The nurses were wonderful and I had awesome visitors. Plus, I kept thinking about the other women on bed rest who were there for months trying to stay pregnant for a few more weeks or days or hours or any more time to have a healthier baby. Keeping a positive attitude is one secret to living a happy life.

After the induction I had a bit of a hard time…induction drugs started on Friday night ended in a C-section on Sunday night. I had to have the C-section because the baby’s heartbeat dropped to 50 during contractions. This was probably caused by 1) cord wrapped 2x around neck, 2) aged placenta due to the pre-eclampsia, and 3) baby was tired after being squished for 2 days. After all that, my DD is just PERFECT. She is a wonderful baby – eats and sleeps great. She is a baldy and I’m excited to see her hair come it. We won’t be able to determine if her kidney problem is fixed until we get another ultrasound of her at 6 months. I’ve healed up great from the C-section. Besides becoming a mom (which I hope to write more about later), the biggest things I learned about the process of giving birth is 1) be flexible in your expectations of your birth experience, 2) gain trust in your doctors by asking lots of questions, and 3) there is no greater experience than bringing a child into the world.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my story. I’ll be updating more soon. I’d love to make new friends through this site.