Perinatology and a Peak Inside

Today I had my first perinatology appointment. The fun part of this was that they did another ultrasound. Wow, how the baby has changed and grown! He/she looks so perfectly formed whereas just four weeks ago you could barely make out general head and body blobs. I could see the arms and legs, the cute little head and beautiful beating heart. The baby was quite active and moved all over the place. He/she was face up most of the time but also ended up on his/her tummy and stood straight up at one point. Davin and Desmond were both there and it was fun to show Desmond the baby in my tummy rather than just say it's there. I also think it's starting to sink in a little more for Davin that we have another child who will be keeping us up at night very soon.

I learned last time that my uterus is tilted to the back and it made it a little hard to get measurements today. We measured from lots of different angles and the consensus was that this baby is due sooner than the first ultrasound showed. The first ultrasound showed that I was due May 7th. Based on my last period I'm due May 2nd. Today the baby measured older still with a due date at the end of April. I'm very happy to see that baby has grown so much in the last four weeks! The heart medication I'm on can hinder growth, but so far this baby's trucking right along. The doctor decided to stick with the May 2nd date which works for me. I don't want to expect this baby too soon and have everyone (including myself) freak out when I go past my due date. But I also want to have a vaginal birth so baby, don't get too big!

The conclusion from today's visit was that baby and I are both healthy and should have a normal pregnancy. I won't have to see the perinatologist again unless something happens, but I do need to keep taking my heart medication. During labor the doctor also recommends that I get an epidural to help keep the stress on my body and heart lower. I'm not too bummed about that because I know from experience what heavenly pain relief there is in an epidural. Thankfully I'm not considered "high risk" although I'm on the edge and they want to keep an eye on the baby's growth. I'll probably have an ultrasound every six weeks or so to check up on things. The next ultrasound will probably be the big gender reveal. Boy or girl?

It's fun to compare pictures from last time to this time.

First Hello

The other day I was laying on the couch talking about the baby and Desmond comes over unprompted, leans over my tummy and in a cute little voice says, "Hello." I got a little choked up hearing Desmond talk to the baby for the first time. He's going to be a good big brother!

Today I'm pretty sure I felt the baby for the first time. Two nights ago I thought I was feeling a few flutters, but I wasn't sure. As I was driving back from the zoo today I definitely felt a rolling sensation. I know the baby's only about an inch and a half long or so, but they say second time moms can recognize the movements sooner. Still it's really early and Davin's doubtful I could feel it yet, but I like to think that this period of feeling my baby is starting sooner.

My lower back is hurting today. It's been painful getting up and down off the floor playing with Desmond. I have some lower back issues now and then and when I was pregnant last time it got pretty bad at the end as my ligaments loosened up. Not too happy about the pain starting so soon.

Turning a Corner

Into week nine and I'm starting to feel better. I've tried ginger tea and ginger chews for my nausea but I think the B6 is what's really helping. Either that or my hormones are leveling out and this is when I'd start feeling better anyway. Let's just say I'm glad to have those four weeks behind me! I'm looking forward to feeling the baby move. Right now I don't "feel" pregnant other than a slightly bigger tummy, and it's comforting when you can feel the little kicks and hiccups and stuff.

I already have a little baby bump and I've made the switch from trying to hide it to trying to show it off. I gained five pounds rather quickly but I've been maintaining that weight for several weeks now which makes me feel better. I should start exercising again. It's so easy to put it off, and now I have a cold which is making me feel all achy.

I'm realizing my one-on-one time with Desmond is limited. What a sweet time these two years have been! I want to maximize our time for the remaining seven months and make some fun playdates and outings with him. I also want to find some good kid's books on welcoming a new sibling to the family and start reading those with him.

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!