A Rebirth

Here we go again! I am nearly eight weeks pregnant so it's time to resurrect the blog. My first pregnancy was fairly uneventful but baby #2 is spicing things up in more than one way. First off, I miscarried in May 2010 so this is really my third baby. Other than that huge difference here are some others:

• I'm sick! Morning sickness struck two weeks ago and is still going strong. It ebbs and flows all day and though I haven't actually thrown up, I can't seem to find anything to really shake it. Ginger tea helps a little.
  
• Can I really be showing already? My less than firm belly is already pooching out, and I'm trying to hold off on pulling out those maternity pants. I was ecstatic when I started showing with Desmond. This time it brings tears.
• This little bean is measuring smaller than where I think I'm at whereas Desmond measured big the whole way. At least this way I might actually give birth before it's 12 days past my due date.
• I'm seeing a perinatologist and a cardiologist next month and may actually be considered high risk since I went into atrial fibrillation last week and spent two days in the hospital. I'm also on heart medication that can lead to a low birth weight baby, but since Desmond was 9lbs, 6oz I'm hopeful that I may have a little wiggle room on that.
• Chasing around a toddler brings all new challenges. Desmond has started to say his tummy is sick because I'm saying that all the time. I feel bad when I just can't find the energy to play chase. We're watching too much TV, but I hope the second trimester will bring fresh energy. I have a long list of things I want to accomplish before this baby arrives.

For the first time ever the fleeting thought has crossed my mind that I may not want to do this a third time. Of course, time will tell and you can't make that kind of decision on a bad day. God is gracious in providing our family with this new life, and I know he will provide for all my physical and emotional needs.

End of the Pregnancy Blog

The bun is out of the oven! For all our current family news and updates, check out our blog http://thestuders.blogspot.com/.

Our Birth Story

It has taken awhile to get this posted because it is rare that I have two hands free these days. Here are all the details about how Desmond arrived.

It Starts
Sunday night (July 20th) before we went to bed, I noticed that my last few contractions were 20 minutes apart and actually felt a little bit uncomfortable. At 12:30 a contraction woke me up and I kept trying to go back to sleep, but they were waking me up almost every 5 minutes. Davin woke up at 2:30 and officially starting timing them. By 5 am we decided to get up and start getting ready because they'd stayed around 5 minutes apart the whole morning. We called labor and delivery at 7 am to see if we should come in or wait it out a bit. They said to wait especially since we wanted to go all natural. All throughout the day we waited for contractions to get more intense. Sometimes I'd have to pause what I was doing to have a contraction. We even walked around campus a bit to encourage things along. Of course, everyone who sees me still pregnant is like, "When is that baby coming?" This time we could say it would definitely be soon. We also took a nap that afternoon to get as much rest as possible. It was a bit hard for me to rest since every contraction was impossible to ignore.

Going to the Hospital
We went in for my nonstress test at 3:45. During one contraction baby's heart rate went down a bit so they sent me to labor and delivery to have extended monitoring. My midwife, Tom Lloyd was just ending his shift so he came in to talk to me. He said since I was so overdue anything like this is probably signaling that it's really time to get the baby out. He wanted to induce me. I was happy to tell him that I was already in early labor, and so off we went to get checked in around 6pm. Here we go! We called family and a few friends to spread the news. Gina came over and brought us dinner. They checked to see where I was at and I was 3 cm and 100% effaced. Great! Only 7 cm to go. (The longest little distance ever!)

Laboring Away
So things continued to intensify throughout the night and early morning. At 6 am on Tuesday morning they checked me and I had only progressed to 3.5 cm so they broke my water... which is a very weird feeling by the way. They found a little meconium staining. I told him not to poop before he was out, but he didn't listen to me. An hour later I was up to 5 cm. Whoohoo! Things are moving along. Contractions were getting very, very intense. I definitely couldn't move or talk when one came. At first I could relax with deep breathing, but by this point I was having to make a lot of noise to make it through. I'd focus intensely on just relaxing my forehead, hands, and feet (my tense areas) and moaning with as low tones as possible. If we were up walking around I'd lean on Davin. He and Gina were amazing at helping me through. I couldn't have done it without them.

Throwing the Birth Plan out the Window
At 2 pm they checked me again and I was only 6 cm. What? Hours of intense contractions and only 1 cm to show for it? They said my contractions probably weren't strong enough so they wanted to start pitocin. I nearly lost it at this point because I was really struggling through each contraction. They were definitely hard! I knew I couldn't take anything more intense so I'd need an epidural if we were going to do pitocin. So the all natural birth plan went out the window and they got me hooked up with an epidural. Wow. Why didn't I get that earlier? What sweet relief to not feel pain for the first time in a day and a half! I was able to sleep for 2 hours. At one point I kinda freaked out because all these people rushed into the room and they put an oxygen mask on me, had me flip to my other side, and they turned off the pitocin. Baby's heart rate had dropped from the 130's down to 80. With only 6 ccs of pitocin I had had 8 contractions one on top of the other and he was being deprived of oxygen. They got his heart rate stabilized quickly and we eventually started up pitocin again. An hour or so later I was finally to 7 cm. At 8:30 pm they checked me again and I was actually back down to a 6. My cervix was swelling shut. Our baby was going to be born by cesarean. Once I knew they were going to cut me open, I started shaking uncontrollably. They prepped me quickly and got Davin into scrubs. I was wheeled away to the operating room under all the bright lights surrounded by masked doctors and nurses. I was freaking out, but trying very hard to calm down. After some more prep they tested my feeling in my abdomen. Ouch! I could feel it! That's what I was worried about. After two more tries I was anesthetized enough for the process to begin. Davin was right by my face encouraging me all the while.

Our Son is Born
Soon I could feel the pressure of some strong tugging and I knew he was coming out. I couldn't see because of the screen they put up, but then at 9:44 pm I heard the sweetest cry ever. There was my baby boy! At that moment he was so real to me, and I couldn't help but cry tears of joy. They checked him out and wiped him down a bit and then handed him to Davin. Once he was next to me my shaking stopped, and I couldn't stop staring at him and saying, "He's amazing!" Davin went with Desmond to the recovery room and after they stitched me up (which felt like it took forever) I followed. We were finally checked into our postpartum room and showing off our boy to our parents and Gina around midnight. On July 22nd after a 48 hour journey, Desmond Eadric Danger Studer had made his entrance into the world. (9 lbs 6.1 oz, 21 inches long)

Nonstress Test

Baby missed our anniversary! Whew! We were worried that we might have to share our day with his birthday for the rest of our lives. Normally we take an overnight trip somewhere for our anniversary, but this year we celebrated by staying close to home and going to Claim Jumper. Here's to four wonderful years!

I had my first non-stress test yesterday afternoon. They monitored baby's heart rate for 20-30 minutes and he passed with flying colors. Then they did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels and again, everything looked good. It was fun seeing him for the first time since February. He's much bigger now, and you could see him doing his fetal breathing and he was even sucking his thumb! He looked very content in there. The nurse confirmed that he was a boy. Funny how we start to wonder if they could have possibly made a mistake, but it was quite obvious... at least to the nurse. (It's hard to decipher those blobs.) If you use your imagination you might be able to make out his thumb sucking picture.
They took my blood pressure at the very end and for some reason it was a bit high. The nurse got the doctor to come in and talk to me. They were concerned because I'm 41 weeks and this is my first high blood pressure which they think could be a sign of preeclampsia although my urine was fine. I felt like once again I had to talk them out of rushing into an induction and explained why I'm really not due until this weekend. Man, if I hadn't been charting my cycle so that I knew I ovulated late, they'd be stressing me out right now. The doctor finally agreed that my due date is iffy so she told me to take it easy this weekend and call right away if I have any other warning signs that something's wrong. Good grief! I'm fine. They told the lady right before me that she had to go straight to labor and delivery because her baby's heart rate was dropping with contractions. Scary! (I actually had a dream last night that that happened to me.)

I hope he really does come this weekend. Too many more doctor's visits and they'll have me convinced I need induced!

New Due Date

My midwife, Tom, was surprised to see me today. I just had to smile. I showed him my October chart again to remind him why I think baby really isn't due quite yet. We talked it over and he agreed that we could be pushing it if we tried inducing in the next few days. He said if we induce before it's really time, my chances of needing a c-section are greatly increased. Precisely why I don't want to be induced! He said we could try an induction and if nothing is happening they could send me home to wait some more. Yeah, I'd rather just wait. He checked me to see how far along my cervix was. I'm now about 1.5 cm dilated... whoohoo! A whole .5 cm more! I was also effaced some, and he was trying to give it a percentage, but somehow the subject changed, and we never got back to how much effacement he thinks there is. Oh well. Basically, the point is that stuff is happening, but it's not time yet. We could keep the scheduled induction if I wanted to, and Tom even said I could come in tomorrow morning if I just couldn't wait. Wow. Tempting, but I've told myself all along that impatience isn't a good enough reason to rush the baby before he's ready. As much as I don't like it, I'll go ahead and wait. Now I need to have non-stress tests twice a week until he comes just to make sure everything's okay. That makes me feel better too. I'm pretty sure baby and I are both fine and normal, but at least we'll be checked to make sure waiting isn't a bad thing.

So, based on my calculations. Baby is due on Sunday, July 20th. I should have told everyone that due date all along so I wouldn't feel like such an oddity every time I show up somewhere still pregnant. Now... I really hope he's not late past that! Although first time babies usually are a week overdue. Ack! I don't want to think about it.

Gotta be Getting Closer

So I'm now 5 days past the doctor's due date. I told them he wasn't really due on the 10th! But they preferred to go with the ultrasound measurements over my 12 months of charting my cycle. Go figure. I just hope he shows up before they freak out that he's too overdue according to their date. I lost some of my mucus plug this morning. (Sorry if that's TMI, but you are reading a pregnancy blog.) :) Hopefully that means I'm dilating more. In some cases that can mean labor is just around the corner, although some women loose it weeks before. As with all things related to the female body, nothing is a clear science. However, I can't be too far off now. I also noticed an increase in Braxton Hicks yesterday. Some of them were even slightly uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure we'll have a baby within a week.

Due Date +1

Even though I've been thinking all along that he'd be later than the doctors thought, I am a bit disappointed to see the due date come and go. Oh well. We're still ready and waiting. Any day now!