It's funny what is said in the middle of a C-Section

I figured when I had my C-section with my son, it was just a funny happenstance that they were talking about weird things that were completely and utterly unrelated to them cutting my abdomen open, but after going through a second one, and having listened to another completely unrelated to the procedure conversation, I guess it's more common than one would think. I guess if you do it all the time, you can talk about other things while stitching one's uterus.

With my son, I listened to conversations about:
The Daytona 500

People who had puked while getting a C-section

My son being the Miami Dolphins next Linebacker (He was a big baby.)

and lastly, the numerous jokes that my anesthesiologist was making which I, regrettaly, can't remember the majority of due to the drugs I was on. Stupid Demerol.



But I would have to say the comments made during my daugher's C-section takes the cake.

They talked about cooties. My doctor was recently pulled over and he kept trying to hit on her, but his name was Sgt. Cootie and she said that no matter how enamored she could be with him, she couldn't bring herself to be Dr. Cootie.

She talked about how it was so hard to stitch up floppy skin. (Thanks, Dr. Greene)

But the best part was what she was singing while the nurses counted off the instruments. During surgery, every five or ten minutes, the nurses have to count off the instruments to make sure they are all accounted for and while she was rambling off "Scalpel: one, two, three, four, five. Clamps: one, two, three, four, five in use, six in use..." so on and so on, my doctor was singing this:

Happy Birth Day, Little Lady!

Our sweet daughter made her first appearance Wednesday, 7 October 2009.
Monday before I started having a lot of Braxton-Hicks and that evening we went over to Thomas' brother's house to have dinner and while I was cooking, the contractions went from just tightening of my stomach muscles to front to back cramping. They continued throughout the night and in the morning they were 15-25 minutes apart, lasting anywhere between 30 and 50 seconds. I called my midwife and she said that since they were still that far apart, and I had an appointment that afternoon at 3.00, just to wait until the appointment, unless they get closer. After lunchtime, we decided that we were going to drop Aiden off at Robbie and Michelle's and Thomas would go with me to the appointment in case they wanted me to stay and monitor me for a little bit. With all the running around of getting a nursing bra, just in case, and dropping Aiden off, my contractions jumped to 7-10 minutes apart.
At my appointment, I was taken back, and had an internal. She said that I definitely had dropped and I was effaced, but hadn't dilated any, but she would talk to the doctor to see what they thought was best. A few minutes later, she comes back into the room and tells us to go to the hospital because I will be having a C-section in two and a half hours.
We rush over to the hospital and get dressed in the flowy gown, we take a "last day pregnant" picture and Thomas gives me a blessing that everything would go well with the delivery and that Mommy and baby would be safe.
We get all ready, and then the nurse comes in and tells us that the doctor called and decided we would have the C-section performed in the morning, instead of that night. She wasn't sure of the reason behind this because she wasn't there when the doctor called, but I suspect it was so it'd be easier to monitor me if I did, in fact, have placenta accreta and have a lot of hemorrhaging. I'd rather be monitored during the day by more nurses and doctors than through the night when staff is at a minimum. So the longest night ever started.
The bed was terrible and plastic and hot. I was strapped up to lots of monitors and couldn't really fidget as much as I wanted and/or needed because it would make the monitors stop working. At 5 a.m. I gave up trying to sleep and just started getting ready for the day.
We got ready and they took me back to the Operating Room. Most everything went fine during the surgery. I threw up, which was a hard and difficult thing to do. I had no stomach muscles to push it out, so it kind of just dripped out of my mouth and down the side of my face the first time. After that, I spit it into the little bowl Thomas was holding for me, but some of it overshot the bowl and got all over Thomas' hand. Oh, the things you do for love.
While they were cutting me open, Cecilia's head was pressed up right against the uterine wall, and they cut her head a little bit. It was very superficial and stopped bleeding with just the pressure of gauze and the little hat's babies get from the hospital.
Afterwards, they took me back to the recovery room and I was able to hold Celia and nurse her right away. She latched on immediately and we were on our way.
The rest of our hospital stay went by fairly quickly. I was in much better shape this C-section than last and was even able to walk to my new room just 12 hours after surgery. It was slow going, but I did it.
I am so grateful our little girl is here and I am excited to finally be able to get to know the person who so tormented me from inside for the past eight and a half months.

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor

If you guys couldn't tell, I'm pregnant. Wasn't sure if you were getting that vibe from my recent posts or not, just thought I'd make that clear.

I went to my OB again. Nothing changed. Not my weight (still at 23# total pregnant weight gain), not my fundus height (still at 36 cm), not Celia's heartbeat (still in the low 140's). All the same. I was in and out in a flash. I signed in, they took me back immediately just to get my vitals, but turned out the doctor (not my midwife) could see me right then, so I peed super fast into a Dixie Cup, she checked out my bare belly, gave me some candy, made me laugh a lot while she was trying to hear the baby's heartbeat, which is completely counter productive, but she just kept carrying on with the jokes, so it's her fault, then I made myself decent again and was on my way.

Next appointment is Tuesday, maybe I'll have some more information as far as pre-op and whatnot goes. I should also get an internal exam - fun! At least I'll have some more stats as far as effacement, dialation, station of the baby and whatnot.

We'll see, we'll see.

Pregnancy Cravings

I've officially reached the point where I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore. Mostly because I cannot sleep at night. I toss and turn all night long, although that actually makes it sound like it is a fast process. I'm more like a steamroller. I eventually turn over, but it's a slow, exhausting act to try to flip over to the other side. Luckily, I have the most hideous, fantastic pajama bottoms in the world. They are nice and slippery to make it easier to turn over in bed, but nice and stretchy to accommodate my still-growing belly. Fortunately, they are just pajamas, because they are absolutely the most hideous things I have ever seen in my life, but I love them and I hope they last throughout the rest of my pregnancies.
Through all these steamrolling sessions, I have found that recently I have had the most off-the-wall cravings. Luckily for my weight gain, I would never have that combination in my house on a normal day and my husband is on night shift so I can't go run to the store real quick because no matter how bad these cravings are, they are not worth waking up my 20-month-old, teething son. For example, last night, I woke up at 1:34 a.m. wanting to eat beef jerky with cheese whiz. Can't explain it, I have no idea why that sounded good to me, even now it kinda makes my stomach writhe, but in my sleepy stupor, that was the most amazing sounding snack I could have ever thought of.
With my son, I can't say that I really had any strong cravings. There were certainly times that a particular dinner sounded really good, but it was a normal thing, like steak and fries, and I really could have done without it if I had to, it just sounded really good.
But this pregnancy is entirely different.
I have had a new craving almost on a monthly basis. Most of them were fairly normal things, I just had to have them all the time. The first trimester I ate a lot of quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and loaded hot dogs. That is mostly because those are the only things that didn't make me want to vomit at the thought of it. Then it moved on to spaghetti or macaroni and tomatoes. After that was apples sliced up and dipped in peanut butter. Then it was Twizzlers. Most of the time when my husband and I go grocery shopping, we would get Twizzlers for our son because it's a fairly un-messy snack, and I would always end up eating 3/4 of the package. I've even come to the point where I pass the 4 pound bucket of twizzlers down the candy aisle and ultimately decide not to get it because I don't need to eat that many pounds of Twizzlers in one sitting. I can almost guarantee that is what would happen. Right now I am in a Buffalo Wing state of craving. In the last week, we have had wings at least 4 times.
I wonder if anything else will pop up in the next 16 days.

As a kind of related side note, I am officially done being pregnant because my belly button has popped out. It's like the thing you put in Turkey's, when it pops, it's done.

The Day Shift/Night Shift Debate

My husband and I continually butt heads over his work schedule. There's nothing we can do about it, it changes on a monthly basis most of the time, but I am a big fan of day shift and he is very much a fan of night shift.
I wish I could be fair and balanced in this, but since Thomas doesn't blog, and I do, I have a feeling this will be a little one sided.
I can understand that night shift as a cop is much more interesting because that's when you get to deal with the underbelly of society instead of monotonous traffic tickets and accidents which equates to lots of paperwork and traffic court. I understand that, especially for a night person, 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. goes a lot slower than the flip side of that. I understand that during Florida summers, driving around in a patrol car, wearing a polyester uniform with a bullet proof vest while sitting on pretty much plastic seats is extremely hot and quickly drains any energy you have.
Despite all that, I prefer day shift and love that it has to come around once in a while. I love the days he has off and the mornings we spend together. Actually wondering what I will make for breakfast because when it's just my 20 month old son who eats disgusting stuff on a regular basis, and myself, why make anything fancier than a bowl of cereal? If I do feel fancy that day, I'll cut up a banana and throw it in the cereal, but when Thomas has a day off, I can dream of breakfast of French Toast or Waffles or even a delicious breakfast burrito because it's worth the effort to do that for my husband. I love that when he is on day shift I can lay in bed when I hear Aiden wake up and be able to say, "It's your turn to get him", so I can lie in bed a little bit longer without the guilt of leaving my adorable son in his crib while I am trying to find motivation to lug my giant, pregnant belly out of bed and immediately to the bathroom because I have a bad case of pregnant-lady-stand-up-pee's. I love that I have an entire day with him on his days off, as opposed to just the afternoon hours because he is sleeping all morning long. I love that, even on the days he works, I can look forward to having lunch and dinner with him instead of making him lunch when he wakes up, two hours after I have eaten my lunch, and making him dinner while trying to get Aiden ready for bed, two hours after I have eaten dinner. I frequently have PB&J or a ham sandwich for dinner when he is on night shift because I get tired of making so many individual meals throughout the day which adds up to a lot of dishes to do everyday.
Most of all, I love day shift because he has normal sleeping hours, which means I don't have to fight my son all morning long from waking up Daddy. I don't have to try to explain to my toddler that Daddy needs his sleep and you can't play with him right now, no matter how pathetic his cries. I love that Daddy is his best friend and he so desperately yearns to be with him and play with him, but it breaks my heart when I have to pull him away from our bedroom door every 30, 15, 2 minutes to try to explain to him that Daddy can't wrestle or make him fly or throw him onto the bed, but he will after nap time.

How in the world do you accomplish that? Maybe someday I will have the motivation to actually get out of the house and play at the park or go for a walk to kill some of the long morning hours, but as of right now, Florida is just too humid and too hot and I am too pregnant to even entertain the idea of going someplace outside to kill some time. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment.

I Saw My Baby Doctor Again Today

Ya know, my baby doctor, as opposed to my baby daddy.

Anyways.

I am measuring right at 36 weeks, which I will be tomorrow. Heartbeat was the same: in the 140's. I gained another three pounds in the past three weeks which puts me to a total pregnancy gain of 23 lbs. I'm hoping to keep it at 25, so I can only gain two pounds in the next three weeks, I think I can do it because I had a salty dinner last night so I was retaining water today.

My C-section is set to be scheduled on October 16, 2009 at 0730, which means I will need to be there at like 5.00 am to get signed in and get my blood work done and all the other stuff you do when you go to the hospital to be cut open. They will let me know what I need to do as far as having a pre-op appointment and whatnot at my next appointment which next Wednesday, Sept 30.

Things are going along smoothly and I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore.

OB Again.

I had another appointment with my OB yesterday and can you believe I was in and out in 40 minutes?! Incredible. That even included time figuring out a bill I had received.
From the ultrasound they still couldn't rule out Placenta Accreta (Placenta implanting itself in the uterine wall), but if I do have it, it is just a mild case. I will be having a C-section and the tentative date is October 16. Only 6 weeks away! It's not set in stone yet because as the date gets closer, we have to look at the doctor's surgery schedule, but it seems that'll be the date.
The heartbeat was in the low 140's, the fundus height was 34 cm, and I have only gained 18 lbs this pregnancy and was commended for how well I was doing. Huge pat on the back for me.
My next appointment is in three weeks and then after that I will start my weekly visits until the baby is born. I absolutely cannot wait!

OB yet again.

Sorry I'm so behind. I get on here almost daily to read the blogs of others and to update my own with cute litte stories of Aiden that I know I'll forget, but by the time I am done reading all the other blogs, I go on to reading the news and forget all about posting my own.
My last OB appointment was on July 28. I had an ultrasound beforehand to see where the placenta was. I had thought they were checking to see if I just had an anterior placenta (placenta in the front of the uterus instead of the top) but what they were actually checking was to see if I had Placenta Accreta. My midwife had explained it to me in layman's terms, and I took those layman terms to find the medical term and came up with the wrong one. Placenta Accreta is where the placenta actually implants itself in the uterus wall and when I deliver, either the placenta won't come out, or it'll tear, causing hemmoraging, which if bad enough, could lead to a hysterectomy. Very unlikely, absolute worst case scenario but possible. You can imagine the nightmares that I had after that. The rest of that week went by very, very slowly because everytime I fell asleep I'd have terrible dreams of hemmoraging and whatnot, but I am okay with it now. If I do have it, I am just that much more likely to have a C-section (I know I'll have one, I just always have that little hope in the back of my mind that I won't have to go through that again because it was quite possibly the one of the worst times in my life). If they perform a C-section, they will be able to cut it out instead of having it tear out and they can better control the bleeding.
But I'm not even sure I have it, I will find out at my next appointment at the end of August.
The baby is still a girl and she looks perfectly healthy. She is 2 lbs, 11 oz +/- 6 oz. So essentially right on track, just a tad bit bigger than average, but that'll happen. I measured 29 weeks, one week ahead, so everything looks fine. I'm doing much better with my weight this go around. I'm sure the incredible amounts of sweating I do throughout the day in this Florida humidity and heat help with that. Also the fact that I lost like 5-10 lbs my first trimester helps keep the overall weight gain down, as well.
I do have to take iron pills because I am "slightly anemic", but that's it. I will find out more at my next appointment, which I believe will be with the doctor that will be performing the C-section instead of with my midwife.

Beauty and the Beast

So I have been so excited for this past Thursday to come for the past couple of weeks. Brad and his girlfriend, Brandi, invited Thomas and I to see Beauty and the Beast in Jacksonville. I had everything all planned out and we get all ready to go, Thomas takes Aiden out to Robbie and Michelle's and while he is gone, our little window A/C unit falls out of the window and breaks, so Thomas comes back and is all upset that he has to deal with this while in his nice, dressy clothes. Luckily we had one in the shed that we could use in the meantime in our bedroom because there's just no sleeping in there without an A/C, but as he is carrying it inside, all the water drips down onto his clothes, but we noticed quickly and it was all the clean water that got on him, so he didn't have stained clothes or anything.
So we get that in, and they come and we drive out to Jacksonville. We finally get out there and as we are walking around The Landing, trying to find someplace to eat, I start having terrible contractions. I was walking in heels, it was hot and humid, and I hadn't had enough water to drink that afternoon. All the things that you are supposed to avoid doing if you don't want to deal with Braxton-Hicks. Also, keep in mind that I just had a straight C-section with Aiden. Never started labor, never was induced, just cut open. So this is the first time I've felt contractions like this. It sucked. A lot!
So we eat at a nice restaurant and then it's time to walk to the Times Union Theater just a couple blocks away. Entire time I'm fighting through contractions. We get there and there is no one there. Period. No. One. Brad knocks on the door and a security guard answers and it's obvious he's had to deal with this all night because he tells us that it's not at this theater, but the FCCJ South Campus twenty minutes away.
Fantastic.
The website we bought the tickets from gave us directions to the Times Union Theater. Not the FCCJ Theater. So we decide that we're just going to miss the play because by the time I walked (ever so slowly) back to the truck and got in, drove there, found a parking place, it would probably had been 45-60 minutes later and then we wouldn't be let in until intermission and we would have missed half the show.
So we went to Orange Park and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again. It was awesome, again, but more awesome this time because it was a nice theater and the tickets were only 5 dollars! Hooray!
Then by the time we got home, it was about midnight, so we decided to leave Aiden at Robbie and Michelle's and I would pick him up the next day. It was very disconcerning. It wasn't like he wasn't well taken-care of, he absolutely was in very capable hands, it was just weird to have my house so empty. Who knew that the absence of 28 pounds could make a house feel so barren?
All in all, it was a fantastic night, despite stupid websites.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Yesterday I had another OB check up and just as I got there, my midwife was delivering a baby and then had to set up an induction after that. So we waited in the lobby for about 45 minutes before we were called back, and then we waited in the room for another hour before my midwife came in. Everything is fine. My fundus height (how "tall" my uterus is) is 24 cm, which is right on track considering tomorrow I will be 24 weeks along. The heartbeat was in the 140's which is down a little bit from last month but not too surprising considering I chose to skip lunch until after my appointment so as to not add to my already-over-the-weight-limit monthly gain. Then afterwards I had to go to the hospital to get some blood work done because one of the kids I teach in Primary was diagnosed with Fifths disease, and since that poses a risk to pregnant women, I had to go get blood work first to see if I had a natural immunity to it. So I get to the hospital and right as I get there, the power goes out and so I have to wait FOREVER just to get checked in. In total I was waiting either at my OB's office or at the hospital for a total of 3 hours. Long, freaking, afternoon.
I should find out the results of the blood work soon. If I am not immune to it, they will contact me and I will have further testing.
I have my next appointment July 28 which will be immediately following another ultrasound to get this possible anterior placenta checked out.
So all in all, we're all healthy, with minor complications. Hooray!

OB Appointment

Yesterday I had another OB appointment. It was all good news. This past month I had my blood work done and an ultrasound. Everything checked out with both of those. The baby is spot on where she should be and all the blood work came back normal. There was one little possible complication. The placenta may have attached in the front of my uterus which kind of complicates a C-Section because that's where they will be cutting. It is of no harm whatsoever to the baby or myself, so I'm not worried about it. I have to have another ultrasound in 8-12 weeks to see if it did, in fact, attach on the front, and that is just to give the doctor a heads up so they are informed of what they have to do and then we will take it from there.
Her heart beat was in the 150's and I am feeling her kick all the time now.
The doctor also showed me some stretches I can do to help with my sciatic nerve flaring up and prescribed me some wrist splints to wear at night to help with my carpal tunnel.
Overall, everything is fine, I just need to drink more water! I have mild cramping and swelling in my extremities because I am not drinking enough fluids. Or rather, I'm not realizing just how much I sweat during the hot, humid, Florida summer days and am not compensating enough for it.
So here's to another appointment with good news that mom and baby are happy and healthy!

It's a girl!!

Thomas and I found out today what this baby will be: a little girl! We had a pretty good hunch that's what it was going to be, so we weren't too surprised and Thomas was just trying to calm Aiden down and stay awake. My poor husband got home from work this morning at 6:45 to sleep for about two and a half hours just to wake up and drive to Lake City with me for the ultrasound.
Everything, from what I could tell, looked fine. She was measuring within a couple days of her expected due date, so as of right now, she doesn't seem to be an abnormally large Faller baby. Her heart beat was 139 and she absolutely does not move around as much as Aiden did. She just kind of twitched her legs and hands around a little bit but wasn't the acrobat that Aiden was.
I will post the ultrasound pictures as soon as I can get them scanned.

Doctor's Appointments

Aiden had his 15 month check up yesterday. He is 25 lbs even putting him in the 55th percentile for weight and 34 1/4 inches tall, putting him in the 97th percentile for height. Everything checked out fine, closest thing to a problem which didn't even come close to a real problem is his lymph nodes were a little swollen but that's because he has seasonal allergies. I couldn't give him any anti-Florida antibodies because I don't have them myself. He did receive two more shots which, on top of his still teething, has made him the most miserable baby ever. He just wants to sit in my lap and fuss and toss and turn and when I'm not holding him, he is at my feet trying to get picked up.
Today I had another OB appointment. All my blood work came back as they should. My exam went well and we heard the baby's heart beat for the first time! :D During the entire appointment Aiden was fussy and not content with anything especially because I couldn't hold him, but when we heard the heartbeat, he turned toward me and with the biggest eyes in the world said, "Oh, wow!!" He knows how to be adorable at just the right time to make up for all the fussiness. The heartbeat was in the 140's, so as far as old wives tales go, it looks like a boy, but we will officially find out two weeks from today on May 12 when I go in for my ultrasound.
I'll let you know more when I get more information.