Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pregnancy/Baby Update - Third Trimester

Well, I've been away for way too long!  I didn't realize how long it had been until I got to thinking today about all the blogs I used to read and thinking about what I would like to write about.

My pregnancy was, although not easy by any means, was a success!   We have a perfect healthy baby boy names Tyler James born on June 4, 2012 at 6:33pm.
I have just started catching up on all of the blogs I had kept up with when I was home a lot during my pregnancy and I was excited to see some of your new additions and also saddened to see some new losses.

I will just begin with my third trimester.  I got so much more confident and excited as I got further and further along in my pregnancy.  I started working again and being more active.  I was still not doing any heavy lifting of course but I was feeling great and so excited!
Feeling him move more and more was just amazing.  When I was able to see his movement, an arm or a leg drag across my stomach or just seeing him shift was one of my favorite things to do.  Who could ever get bored when you have that to watch!?

I had horrible heartburn, my back hurt, my hips and pelvis hurt, my feet hurt, I couldn't sleep and couldn't get comfortable, I had to pee ALL the time, but truthfully, I don't really remember any details of all of that!  It is true, you kind of forget about the hard parts of pregnancy and all the anxiety and waiting once they are finally here.  However, it really pisses you off when people tell you that when you are still pregnant so if you are still pregnant when you are reading this just do what you need to do to get through each day.  It's okay to yell or scream sometimes :)  For me, it was a day at the spa that helped me calm down and refocus, so I would highly recommend that if that is an option for you, otherwise just spending a day at home by yourself doing whatever you feel like doing is a great thing too!  Naps work wonders if you have the time!

A little known fact about my pregnancy was that I had gestational diabetes.  I was so mad and so upset and embarrassed about it that I told no one, well, barely anyone.  It's  true, I failed my glucose test, both of them.  My first one I was over by a few numbers and was told it was unlikely I would fail the second one.  The second was is more elaborate and you have to fast at least 8 hours, then drink twice as much disgusting sugary drink then wait around for 3 hours getting your blood drawn each hour for 3 hours.  My fasting number was too high and my last number was just at the number it was supposed to be below so I "failed".  I was so devastated by this, I literally bawled my eyes out for a good hour....just another complication.  They set me up to see an nutritionist and I had to test my blood sugar levels in the morning and then after each meal.  I had to count carbs and stick to a strict diet.  The good thing was that I never had to be on any meds and that mostly my morning fasting numbers were the only thing that was higher than normal.  I only saw the nutritionist twice because she was condescending and frankly, uneducated in my opinion.  She tried to put me on meds and when I asked the doctors they said there was no reason so when I told her that she acted like I was refusing treatment and went on the list how I was/could hurt myself and my baby by refusing to do anything.  I think both dh and I were pretty furious with her and avoided her the rest of my pregnancy!  I turned in my numbers to my midwife each week and the doctors would check them as well.  My baby turned out to be perfect anyway, a good weight, no health problems or complications so obviously everything was just fine!
I did eat a very chocolatey dessert a few days after delivery to make up for all the dessert I had skipped the last 3 months of my pregnancy!

 This is Tyler at about 36 weeks.  No, his nose was not really huge when he was born (that's what everyone commented on "Oh his nose is so big!" but it's actually just how the photo was taken!
Here he is at 2 months old!

I got my 17P injections until I was 34 weeks.  They stopped them at that time and I was scheduled to get my cerclage out at 36 weeks.  I was so nervous about the cerclage removal, I had two of them and they kept telling me how simple it was but after talking to people on one of my forums about it, some of them found it to be painful or not so quick.  Mine ended up being not so easy.  My doc tried and said she couldn't do it so we would just have to wait until my water broke or I started bleeding/tearing.  I told her I really didn't want to do that, I was terrified that I could rip my cervix or cause damage to something else if they stayed in too long.  So, my doc took an unusual approach and gave me some meds to calm me down and dull the pain I was having.  Got them out relatively quickly (well 30 minutes).  Then I had to stay in the hospital for most of the day which I am not sure why really because they said the baby wasn't moving enough although he was moving normally to me!  He was kicking and squirming within an hour after getting the stitches out and I could see it on the monitor too.  I guess the main thing was that we got them out and I was able to start progressing towards labor!

I have to work in the morning so I need to go to sleep!  I will be back again soon to finish my update!