Counting Down the Days!

Gina- 36 weeks

I have no excuse for not updating this. I am at home on bed rest and absolutely HATE being trapped at home. I know it's what's best for me and baby, but man it stinks!

Currently I am 36 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I am being watched closely for preeclampsia due to high blood pressure and protein in my urine. I have been back and forth to the hospital to get IV fluids and have tests done about 3 times this last month. The good thing is that with rest and blood pressure medication, it seems to be controlled.

I really could have this baby any day! Depending on my blood pressure, I could be induced as early as 37 weeks and they won't let me go past 39 weeks. Pretty soon we'll get to meet our sweet baby girl. The longer she stays in the better, so hopefully she'll continue to cook for a little bit longer.

I can't believe it's already been a month since Jillian got to hold her baby boy in her arms for the first time. He is such a sweetie and she is a great mama! I am hoping they'll come visit me soon, so I can hold that little man in my arms. He really is a good looking baby!

Hopefully next time I update this, I'll have a birthing story to share. A good one I hope!

Here is a pic of us just before Jillian went into Labor - I can't wait for our babies to meet and fall in love :).

Dean William Anderson - A birth story

Jillian - Disclosure: This is a long post!!

Today is January 19th.  My due date. 

As I look over at my sleeping 3+ week old, I am still in awe that he his here and yet I already can't imagine my life without him.  

Here is the birth story of my little "December Dean."

I made it through Christmas, which was a big goal of mine, considering the difficulty of my pregnancy and how extremely uncomfortable I had been feeling.  Almost as if the baby could sense this, I woke up on the morning of the 26th to some bright red bleeding and immediately called my doctor. I went in to get checked out and was still only dialated about a finger tip and the nurse practitioner could not find any specific reason for the bleeding and since I was scheduled for both an ultrasound and NST the very next morning, I was sent home under the order that I should take a couple of benedryl (I was coming down with a cold) and get some sleep.  If only I had known that would be my last chance for sleep!! :)

I had been packing my suitcase for the hospital for a couple of weeks and that night, Eric saw me throw a couple of items in there, which prompted him to ask "hey, do you think I should pack a bag for the hospital too?"  Haha.  Thank goodness I said yes, because he packed up his duffle bag right then and there.      

I was SO uncomfortable and nervous all day and just feeling different, so I actually downloaded an app that times contractions, because I was having so many irregular braxton hicks (mind you, I had been having daily contractions since the 24th week of pregnancy, but I knew these were starting to feel different). 

At exactly 4 a.m. on Friday, December 27th, my eyes snapped open and I was overcome with terrible backpain that shot around to my front.  I grabbed my phone and started timing the intervals.  They were exactly 7 minutes a part, lasting 45 seconds a piece.    I layed in bed, too scared to move, and I timed the contractions for 2 hours, from 4 til 6 a.m.  I didn't want to wake up Eric, partly because I was in denial, but also because I knew his alarm was going to go off at 6 and I was trying to formulate a plan.  I made it til 6 and once his alarm went off, I told him that I thought the baby was going to come today and there was no way on earth I was going to make it to my 8:15 a.m. doctor's appointment and that he should go about his normal morning routine like usual, but speed it up by about 10.  As soon as I stood up out of bed, everything started progressing more intensely and I could barely make it into the bathroom.  There was more blood and my contactions jumped to 5 minutes apart.  I called the emergency line at my drs office and waited for a call back from the on-call dr.  I could barely speak when she called me back becuase I was in so much pain and obviously, she told me to head over to labor and delivery. 

Eric took the "back way" down Lyndale all the way to Abbott and I felt every single bump in the road as we drove along.  I thought I was going to die.  :)

Once I was checked in at the hospital, the nurse in maternal assesment checked my cervix and told me I was at a one.  At this point the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and I couldn't believe any of it was happening. The nurse proceeded to check me a little more thoroughly and I will never forget the look that came across her face when she told me she thought she felt my placenta and rushed off to call the on-call dr I had spoken to just an hour earlier.  She told me the doctor had just left the hospital was turning around and would be there in 5 minutes and would do an ultrasound.  At this point I started to panic, because all I could think about was placenta previa and how that would mean an emergency c-section and my Type A self was completely prepared and researched for a vaginal birth and not major abdominal surgery!  The doctor arrived within 5 minutes and was immediately performing an ultrasound where she broke the news to me that the nurse did not feel my placenta, she felt my sack of water and the baby's butt because he was frank breech!!! I was also now dialated to a 3 and my contractions were steady at 3 mins apart.  Becuase I was in full-blown labor at 36 weeks pregnant (statistically only 12% of women naturally go into labor before 37 weeks gestation), my doctor told me I was going to be having an emergency c section and they were adjusting the schedule so that I would be next (the OR was appatently booked solid this day as everyone wanted the tax deduction!!)!  I started bawling and just felt like everything was spiriling out of control.  I was so scared and never in a million years thought I would be having a c section because at all my visits my doctor kept telling me the baby was head down (boy, was she wrong) when in reality, he had been breech for maybe months and his head was jammed in my ribcage.  The super nice nurse who was with me in maternal assessment took my hand and told me a bunch of reasons why in the long run I would be happy I had a c section, and she did actually calm me down and make me feel better. :)

Eric quickly called our families and before I knew it, I was getting a spinal tap and being strapped to the table.  Eric watched everything from up by my head and even took pictures of the delivery (it took me a week to look at those pictures... you could see my insides)!  The whole experience was actually worse and longer than I thought it would be.  I cried when I heard my sweet baby's first little wails, but they took him away so fast and I sent Eric to be with him.  The meds they gave me made me very sick and I threw up while they were still sewing me back up.  I just wanted to hold and see my baby, but they only gave me a quick look before they took him away to Children's Special Care unit, as he came out with the cord around his neck and was having trouble breathing and his blood glucose was low.  They brought him over to me for a quick kiss and then I didn't get to see him again for several hours. 

 First glimpse of my sweet baby boy.  A healthy 6lbs 4oz for a late-term preemie.

 

 

The proud daddy and his whole family!

 

 

We were really in awe of how smoothly they have things running between Children's Hospital and Abbott's Mother Baby Center.  When I was finally able to leave recovery, they wheeled me in my bed directly into my baby's Special Care Unit and laid him on my chest so I could finally hold him for the first time!

My Family!

 

Our sweet little man spent 2 days in the Special Care unit receiving IV antibiotics and being monitored.  We LOVED the nursing staff at Children's.  They took SUCH good care of him and at the same time, the nursing staff at Mother Baby Center took such good care of ME.  Recovering from a c-section took a lot longer and was a lot more painful then I could have imagined.  We also loved that although these were 2 different hospitals, my room and my baby's room in Special Care were on the same floor.  Just down the hall and through 2 sets of doors and we were there!  Visitors were extremely restricted in the Special Care Nursery since it was the height of cold and flu season, but once Dean was discharged to us on our 3rd night in the hospital, we were able to have some more visitors. :)

Dean William Anderson went 2 full days without a name, but I'll get to that story in a later post. ;) 

Welcome to the world sweet boy.  The moment I looked into your eyes, I knew you were mine and I fell completely in love.  My life will never, ever be the same and I wouldn't want it any other way.