lets-manga
	Age: 23 Country: Province/region: City: Partner: Pete Children: Yes, 1 Pregnant: Not anymore Occupation: Special Ed. Teacher
	Online: 46 days ago. Last updated: 110 days ago. Member since: 230 days
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Hey Everyone!

My name is Kelly :) My husband, Pete, and I are expecting a little boy, due March 22 2008. We live and work in upstate NY, and just bought our first house. It was the most stressful thing ever... I don't recommend buying a house when you are pregnant.

I work as a special education teacher in a program for developmentally disabled 3 and 4 year olds, and I plan on working until the very end. I'm not sure if I am going to go back after the little one arrives, but I do love my job.

Pete and I also have a dog, Duncan, who is half pug and half jack russell terrier. We love him to death, you can see him in my pictures.

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April 4th 2008 - OUR BABY BOY WAS FINALLY BORN!!!! You can read his birth story on his page, or at the bottom of this page. He is PERFECT!
My labor was only 12 hours from my first painful contraction until he popped out, 8lbs 4 oz, 20 inches. He's beautiful and breastfeeding is going great. Definitely a commitment, and painful, but if you prepare yourself for it you can do it!!

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40 Weeks and counting... I was due 3 days ago, and had my appointment yesterday. still NO CHANGES! mild contractions that are irregular and that I can't feel - only went up to 25% on the monitor. Still only 1 cm. At this rate I am never going to get to see my little one in his cute newborn onesies because he is going to be like 10 lbs!

WOW - 38 Weeks already! I should have updated my page more, but I could never figure out what to say. Still getting bigger, still pregnant?! Well, I have outgrown most of my maternity clothes, and my husband is lucky if he gets to see me in anything other than sweatpants. At my last appointment the doctor told me I am still "all closed up" and have plenty of time. I try not to think of it as discouraging; my one hope is that I will be able to go in to labor on my own - without any interventions. I left work last Friday, and I am really cherishing these last days before the baby comes. My husband is anxious, but I keep telling him not to wish away these full nights of sleep and freedom! I go back to the doctor this Friday, so wish me luck!!

At 30 weeks I feel... tired. I may be tired because I wake up at least 3 or 4 times a night to reposition myself, lucky to get a wink of sleep past 6 am. I'm uncomfortable. My boobs have started to leak (which is hysterical to my husband). It makes me feel like the baby is almost here, but there are still 10 weeks left. My last day of work is Feb 29th. I CANT WAIT.

At 27 weeks I am still feeling pretty good. My stomach is feeling really tight! I feel like I am full all the time. Today is Christmas Eve and I fell on the ice, right on my bottom. It was horrible! Everything is okay though, my back is just sore. It's been really hard for me to sleep at night. I can't get comfortable. I'm in a 40 F bra size, up from a 34 D (prepregnancy). A few of my maternity jeans are already too tight in my stomach. I finally put a picture of my belly up today.


At 25 weeks I feel great, and I contribute a lot of that to my motherhood maternity sweat suits which I wear just about everyday. I hope everyone is feeling good, and staying comfortable : ) Let's Manga! (Let's eat!!!)


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BIRTH STORY

We were scheduled to go to the hospital on Thursday, April 3rd at 5pm to start the induction. We get there, get settled, and at 6pm the doctor put in the cervidil. Since I was hardly effaced and barely 1 cm she told me that the cervidil would HOPEFULLY soften my cervix and she would be back in the morning around 9am to start the pitocin drip. She told me that since my cervix wasn't favorable that I should prepare myself for every possible outcome. I was feeling pretty crappy because I felt like the cervidil probably wouldn't work and I would end up with a c-section. She told me to get a good nights sleep so that I would have enough energy the next day.

Courtney and Xavier came to visit and got there around 8 or so - and while they were visiting I started to feel contractions. They weren't too bad, but I could feel my stomach tighten. Around 9:30 they left, and Pete went back to the house to let the dog out. My contractions started to pick up, they were about every 8 minutes and began to get painful - but nothing that I couldn't handle. In the mean time the nurse came in to visit and she was AWESOME. She stayed with me for almost an hour and she was a real sweetheart. By the time Pete got back it was around 11. The nurse really urged me to get some sleep, but I told her that I wouldn't be able to sleep through the contractions. She checked me and I wasn't any more dilated or effaced - which was a HUGE disappointment.

At 12 she came in and was like you HAVE to get some sleep! I told her that the contractions were pretty strong! I felt like she didn't believe me, even though you could see them on the monitor, every 5 minutes. She gave me a shot of morphine, and said I should be asleep in no time - and that if I had to go to the bathroom to call her because I won't be able to walk around well. Between 12 and 3 I wasn't able to fall asleep, but the morphine made me feel good enough to relax a little. I timed the contractions continuously with a stop watch that keeps a log.

By 3 o'clock they were barely 2 minutes apart and the morphine had worn off. I called the nurse and I was like well... can I get some more?! The contractions felt really strong and they were so close together, but I thought well maybe I just feel that way because the morphine had worn off and all. At 4am the my contractions started tailed each other, which means that they only come half way down before starting again, so there is no break between. At this point I was like okay, I am seriously in labor here! On the monitor they were going up to 80 - 100 and only coming down to about 35-40. The nurse came in and asked if I was okay, and asked if she could check me - so she did. I was 3 cm and about 60% effacted (woohoo!). She was like WOW!! She told me that it was really rare for the cervadil to put someone in to labor like that, and that she was going to take it out because my contractions were tailing. I was like THANK GOD this is unbearable.

So at 4:15 she takes out the cervadil - about an hour and a half earlier than it was supposed to come out. I expected my contractions to stop tailing. NO LUCK. At 5am, only 45 minutes later I had to buzz her in because I was throwing up and dry heaving and shaking because of the pain. It was literally like one continuous contraction that never stopped. She helped me to the bathroom, which took literally about 30 minutes for me to get there, go and come back out. Around 6am I finally accepted the epidural because I kept dry heaving and shaking and at this point I was crying. I just remember saying "they said in lamaze that you would have a break! this isn't what they told me!" Pete was awesome through everything. He really did everything he could to help me and make me comfortable.

At 6:15 they nurse put on my IV and checked me. 4 CM!

The epidural was in place at 7am, and thank GOD for my awesome nurse who helped me through the whole thing. It took me SO LONG to get in to position because of the intensity of the contractions. She felt so bad for me, she actually stayed past her shift to help. After the epidural was in place, she checked me at 7:30. 8 cm and 90% effaced!!! She ran out to go call the doctor and let her know that I was getting close. By 8 I was a full 10 CM and 100% effaced, but the doctor still wasn't there, so I just hung out and waited and watched the morning news. The new nurses came in and talked to me for a while, and they were great too. One checked me and was like WOW your water is SO CLOSE to breaking! Lets try some practice pushing to see if we can get it to break so the baby will engage.

At 9am we started practice pushing, and at 9:30 the doctor FINALLY got there. It took her about 15 minutes to get ready, and my water still hadn't broken - so she broke my water. It was like 1 tablespoon. We started pushing and he was born at 10:38am!!! He was 8lbs 4oz, 20 inches long. I only had 1 stitch and no hemorrhoids and I didn't poop on the table (even though it felt like thats all I was doing the whole time I was pushing). My total labor was only about 12 hours from my first painful contractions until he was here. He was very clean and there was barely any fluid that came out when he was born, because he was 2 weeks late. I started breastfeeding about 40 minutes after he was born and he took right away. My milk came in before I even left the hospital, which was AWESOME - not even 2 days after he was born. When we left he weighed 7lbs 15 oz.