Yep, totally slacked on my blog, but for good reason.
Back in April, started feeling really terrible. Like all the time. Vomiting constantly, exhausted, just sick in general. Some days were better than others. Matt and I got to go away to
http://steelehillresorts.com/ for my birthday. We had a great time, enjoyed some awesome food. I got to go in the enormous hot tub and also took a bath in my jacuzzi.
In May, I continued to feel terrible. I made a doctor appointment because I started feeling like my ulcer had returned. I explained my issues and they sent me for blood work as well as xrays to rule out several things. When the results came back the doctor had found nothing, so they wanted me back for testing of some other things (celiac disease and another pregnancy test since there had been an issue with my first test). That same day, as I was about to walk into a bar for girls night out, I got a call from the doctor's office. The nurse said "your test results came back positive". So I asked for what, since I had been tested for everything under the sun. She said "you're pregnant". I immediately started crying, said thank you and hung up with the nurse. I said "holy fuck" and Kerri, the friend I was with, said "what is the matter?". I told her what the doctor had said. She asked if I was crying happy tears or sad tears, and I responded with "I DON'T KNOW!?"
We went inside for our girls night out, instead of ordering a margarita like I had planned, I ordered a ginger ale. I made it through the night and headed home. Matt was sitting at home playing video games or watching a movie or something mindless. I just sat on the couch for a bit trying to work up the courage to tell him. Finally I said, "well the doctor's office called me back to tell me they know what is wrong with me." He laughed and asked what. I said "apparently I am pregnant." He just started laughing and said "I'm 38 years old!". We were just both in complete shock.
The following Monday I called my OB for an appointment there. Since I had no idea how far along I could be, they scheduled me for an appointment with my doctor and the ultrasound tech. I went in to see the doctor on Tuesday. She guessed I was about 7 or 8 weeks. I thought that sounded about right since that was roughly how long I had been feeling miserable.
A few days later I went to the ultrasound tech. She asked me how far along I thought I was, I told her what my doctor thought and that I tended to agree. She proceeded to tell me that I was actually 13 weeks pregnant! Like holy shit, pretty already done with the whole first trimester.
Things went so quickly. At the end of June we found out that we were having a girl. ANOTHER girl. This would make 4 girls. YIKES. When the ultrasound technician said it was a girl we were both disappointed, but after the initial shock passed I started to get excited. I hadn't found out what I was having when I was pregnant with Brianna, so now I could do all the things to get ready for a girl that I never got to do with Brianna. I started buying pink things and cute dresses. It was very exciting.
The one thing that wasn't so exciting was picking a name. I had a whole list of names I liked and Matt did not like any of them. Matt had a whole list of names he liked and I did not like any of them. We agreed to disagree for a long while, then he finally suggested a name we could agree on then he killed it with a nickname.
We made it through the summer. Had a lot of fun, went to cookouts. I tended my garden. We went swimming and grilled outside. Then fall arrived. The girls went back to school. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes so I had to start watching what I was eating and keeping track of my blood sugars and going to more appointments than I had expected.
Once we hit October I thought for sure that this baby was going to make her appearance early. I started getting things ready at work for when I go out and I kept my fingers crossed that I would just make it to November 1, then she could come.
I made it to November 1 and she hadn't arrived yet. Then every day that passed I thought "today might be the day!" I was going to the doctor 2-3 times per week, but each time she checked me I hadn't progressed any. I was stuck at 1cm for weeks.
Our due date (November 19) came and went. Since I had been managing my diabetes with no issues, there was no medical reason to induce me before 41 weeks, so I was just waiting for this little one to decide to come out. She wasn't budging. On November 25 we went to the hospital for some cervical gel to try to get the process started. We did the application, I waited at the hospital for a couple of hours, then went home to let it work it's magic. Only it didn't do anything. I was supposed to go back the next morning at 8am for cervadil and pitocin, only I got a call that delayed my arrival. The hospital was understaffed and they said they would call at 1 to give me an arrival time. I hadn't heard back by 2 so I called them. They told me to just come tomorrow, which caused me to turn into a sobbing lunatic. The nurse put me on hold for a while. When she came back she told me I could come in at 4 and they would check me and come up with a plan for me then.
We arrived at 4, they checked me and surprise! I was at 1cm still. They decided to get me checked into my room and insert the cervadil and keep me there overnight. We would start pitocin in the morning as needed. So Matt and I spent the night at the hospital. I was hooked up to monitors, didn't have any contractions really and slept pretty well.
At about 7 am I had to get up to go to the bathroom, so I unhooked myself and went in to pee. At about that time I started having minor contractions. The nurse told me I had to be hooked up to the monitors while I had the cervadil and they would be taking that out at about 8:30. So I laid back in bed, still having contractions. The nurse had me order breakfast and told me I should take a shower after they took the cervadil out and unhooked me from the monitors. They took it out, checked me (I was at 3cm) and I did as I was told. Matt and I went into the bathroom so I could shower. The doctor asked what my plan for pain management was and I said I didn't really have a plan, but had decided I wanted to get an epidural this time around. I started having extremely intense contractions. Like I couldn't even stand up. I got stuck on the bathtub floor because I couldn't move. I was in the shower for maybe 30 minutes. When I got out they decided to check me again and I was at 8 cm! The problem with this is that both the on call doctor and the resident doctor had just gone in to emergency surgery so they had to find another doctor to deliver my baby. They brought in the back up from Dartmouth, Dr. Silveria. Unfortunately since everything happened so fast, there was no time for any pain meds for me. OUCH. I told everyone I thought it was time to push, so the doctor checked me and told me to go for it.
Since my water hadn't broken yet, they wanted me to start pushing to see if it would break on its own. It didn't. A few contractions in, the doctor broke it and there was a geyser in my room! Apparently as soon as they did that Matt saw all this hair sticking out of my vagina. Her head was right there! Two contractions later she was born!
Victoria Bridget was born at 11:02 am weighing in at 7 lb 9 oz and 20.5 inches long.
We spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. We came home on Friday and have been having tons of fun ever since. Victoria has been a good baby (with a few exceptions) and is three weeks old today.
I definitely didn't see this coming! Happy 2013!
