Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[mayerling]

Congratulations, Meg!

 

[Buttons]

Megumic congratulations and welcome baby Callan! What a beautiful name you chose for him! I am so sorry to hear about the emergency section, that must have been terrifying, but so glad you are both safe and well. Take your time to process and recovery now Mama,and enjoy your wee bairn - looking forward to seeing some pics on the newborn thread when you get a chance to catch your breath!

 

[Dandi]

Congratulations meg on the arrival of your spunky little man! I'm glad you're both doing so well!!!

 

[JGator]

Congratulations, Meg! I am glad your baby boy arrived safely despite the scare and the long wait!

 

[Prana]

AMC 3.5 hours of pushing sounds like great fun! You're a trooper, that's for sure. Congratulations on your new baby boy!

Meg I'm sorry that things were so traumatic for you, but glad that everyone is healthy and doing OK. Congratulations to you! Hope you're resting and enjoying your newest love.

FDL Welcome to the big girl thread! I think you and I are due right around the same time.

I hope everyone else is doing OK. Some of you are getting so close! You must be feeling so anxious and ready to get the ball rolling at this point in the game.

Haven Hoping you are OK...haven't seen much of you around lately.

AFM 19 weeks 1 day today. Still uneventful. Feeling more defined movement in there now, although still nothing I would consider 'measurable'. Wednesday I'll be halfway through, and that is just awesome. Made our baby registry without ever setting a foot into a baby store, although I still want to go and look at stuff. We set a date for my baby shower (it can't be a surprise because of mine and DH's work schedule) SIL is ordering the invites this weekend I guess... crazy! It's going by fast in many ways. My SIL is due any second now and I'm anxiously awaiting my first nephew. That's pretty much it.

 

[sunnyd]

Congrats Meg! Enjoy Callan!

 

[Missy0483]

AMC - The balloon is called a foley ballon or foley bulb. At least yours worked for you...mine only got me to 2 - 3cms and they had to take mine out after the 12 hours, so then I got the Cyotec which is probably the same thing you had (Cervidil). Anyway...thanks for sharing your story and good for you for pushing through it!! Inductions are not fun at all when they take so long! 60 hours was way more than enough for me and to end up having a c-section anyway after all that!

Meg - Congrats!!! I love his name!! Sorry about the c-section, but at least you were far enough along and he was big enough to be delivered early!

Missjae - I saw that earlier. I think it's silly that they had to recall them when really it's just because the parents sit them in the seat and don't watch them. But anyway...just to be on the safe side I'll get the repair kit!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Prana, congrats on almost being halfway there. Do you have your anatomy scan soon? Also, very exciting about the impending birth of your nephew! How fun that you'll have cousins close in age.

Hi to everyone else!

AFM, 32 weeks today! We had a refresher infant and child CPR class last night. I'm hoping that by doing it, we will ensure that we never have to use it. There were three other pregnant women there, and one of them was due the day before me, and she was freaking tiny (looked like she was about 24 weeks pregnant), which made me feel depressed. It's been a tough couple of weeks for me diet-wise, because we had our anniversary, my birthday, relatives visiting, and a wedding tomorrow. That all adds up to too much cake and eating out at restaurants! I'm getting dangerously close to gaining 30 pounds, and I don't even want to know how much more I'll add in the next 8 weeks. Sorry, for all the whining. I'm just feeling like a blimp today. But I'm loving feeling all the antics of my little guy. Makes me feel better knowing I'm gaining the weight (at least most of it) for him. Have a great weekend!

 

[JGator]

MP, congrats on 32 weeks. Your baby boy will be here before you know it. I'm going to be 29 weeks tomorrow. I gained 10 lbs in one month between my last visit and this visit. I about died when I was weighed so don't beat yourself up too much on the weight gain. Fortunately the doctor didn't say anything. I'm definitely going to be more conscious of what I am eating going forward though!

AFM, we had a 28 week growth scan yesterday since I have a slight thyroid issue and they wanted to do another check. The baby is measuring on track and weighs 3lbs! She was facing my back and her head and feet were up above my belly button. The technician didn't get any face or profile shots this time. We have a strip of pictures with 2 of the top of the head/skull and 1 of each foot! So, maybe we have a shy baby! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[monarch64]

Congrats Megumic and AMC!!!

 

[monkeyprincess]

JGator, glad to hear everything is right on track with your little one. Welcome to the third trimester! The weight gain blows, but what are you going to do? It seems like the bigger and more uncomfortable I get, the worse my food choices are (comfort eating I guess), so I am going to try to work on that the next few weeks. I just hope I'm able to kick my bad habits once the baby gets here!

Pretty quiet around here, but I hope everyone else is doing well.

AFM, we had an eventful weekend. On Friday night, DH and I were rear-ended on the way to dinner. It was relatively minor and I wasn't too concerned because I could feel the baby moving, but at dinner, DH got nervous, and wanted to go to the hospital to have the baby and me checked out. So I ended up in labor and delivery and having the baby monitored for 4 hours. It was probably unnecessary, but better safe than sorry. We didn't get home until after 1, and had to get up early the next morning to travel for a wedding, and then we had another late night at the wedding, so I'm exhausted. Oh, and our dryer stopped working yesterday, so pretty much all of my maternity clothes are hanging up in the laundry room right now. Hoping our bad luck streak is over!

 

[Buttons]

monkey so sorry to hear about you getting rear-ended and about your exhausting weekend on top of that! It was probably best to go in and get checked out, even if it was a PITA. So glad to hear all was well. Rest up now tonight if you can and get your energy back!!!

JGator my midwives don't even weigh me! My GP does but she never comments. I can't remember how much I have gained overall. I am not focussing on it. Just make sure you eat healthy and that you don't go hungry and it will all take care of itself. Glad to hear your scan went so well!

Prana congrats on being half way through! Yay!

===

AFM 36 weeks today!

Baby dropped a bit further over the weekend I think, I'm definitely feeling a lot more pressure lower down than before. Apparently this is very common with first babies and doesn't actually mean anything. It's a relief though not to be in pain from feet stuck in my ribs all the time My energy levels continue to ebb, I am just so tired all the time. I am taking multiple naps a day. I am such a lazy lump!

DH's sister came to visit over the weekend, which was lovely of her as it's a 4 hour drive for her to get to our house. She brought us so many presents - a Moby sling for me, and an Ergo for DH, and the most beautiful baby keepsake books for us and for my parents.

We took advantage of the unusual good weather and had a little BBQ on Saturday. My bridesmaids came over and brought a hamper of baby goodies - nappies, baby toiletries, the most adorable little hat and booties, and one of those baby towels you can clip around your neck and use like a sling. They also played this game where they melted different kinds of chocolate bars into nappies and then brought the warm gooey parcels out to me for 'inspection' - they made me taste them and guess what they were - I haven't laughed so hard in weeks

 

[lulu66]

hi, everyone!! i know last time i posted (over a month ago) i promised that i was going to contribute more to this thread. but, here i am, a month later finally checking back in.

congrats to PPM, AMC, and Meg on the new arrivals!!

Meg sorry to hear your birth did not go as planned but so happy that both you & callan are healthy & safe!

FDL welcome & i feel the exact same as you...concerning myself with the trivial stuff: what do i want the nursery to look like, what "things" will this baby actually need, reading reviews of all the baby gear, instead of worrying about the actual birth, breastfeeding, how to care for this baby out of my womb.


AFM, 23.3 today. we had a dr appt last week and got confirmation that this little one is a GIRL! we were told at 12 wks that it was more than likely a boy, then at 17 wks that is was probably a girl (but the little legs were crossed for most of the u/s), but this time we got confirmation! we're excited. i thought it was a girl from the beginning but willingly believed once we were told boy. so, now onto the name game... the dr also told us right now she's in breech position. as dh asked what that meant going forward. doc explained only about a 5% chance she'll stay this way; then i piped in that i was breech when i was born and he said, "ohhh, we'll see then." so, there's that. i'm not terribly afraid of a c-section though. my mother had 3 kids, all of us through c-section. i understand concerns & the painful recovery, but if it has to happen, i think i'll be ok.

also, attempting to register as i have a shower coming up in a few weeks (will travel from california to kentucky for it). i exclusively registered on amazon; DH helped pretty much zero (that's also how we did our wedding registry which turned out great). but i used any/every registry guide i could find, synthesized them, used a little bit of my own common sense of us to decide what to put on there. it took days, i tell you (really weeks). then last night MIL calls, "i hate to even bring it up but those little kimono shirts on the registry? they ride up on the baby, you really just need the onesies." then i proceed to explain how i read they are good for when the still have the umbilical cord, blah, blah. she humored me, all the while probably thinking, "what does she know about clothing a baby? i've clothed 3. she doesn't need those kimono tops, only onesies." ...the conversation goes on...then she says, "how did you get so big so fast?" [all of our families live across the country, so i've been posting bump pics to fb about every 3 weeks & i had just posted one that day.] ummmmmmm. i played it off & laughed. got off the phone & told DH, your mother basically told me i'm fat. not really the best thing to say to me right now. i was already paranoid after a pretty big weight gain at my drs appt.

ohhh and i finally can tell the baby's moving. everyone has been asking for weeks, "can you feel the baby?" maybe i could, maybe i couldn't. i felt "things" but didn't know if it was the baby or gas or who knows what else. now i feel pronounced kicks. mostly on my lower left side of the belly.

sorry for the novel!! work really has slowed down, so maybe now i will be able to contribute more frequently than once a month!

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Finally, finally I am back with a birth story! Our little girl is now two weeks old and life is mostly swell, but there have been plenty of struggles thus-far. Anyway, without further adieu... (and sorry it's so long!)

Most of you know that I was planning a med-free birth center birth, but baby reached the 42 week point and I had to transfer care to a hospital and on OB. We went to the hospital on Friday night to start our induction. I was about four cm dilated, but my cervix was VERY high and posterior. The OB ordered Cervadill and the nurse hooked me up to the (annoying) fetal monitors. I got a hep lock, but refused IV fluids at this point. I was given some Ambien and tried to sleep... which really didn't work. The next morning there was no change, so shortly after 10 AM Pitocin was started as well as IV fluids. I was so, so frustrated at this point. The hospital staff was less than stellar (our second L & D nurse was driving me CRAZY!), and the induction was just dragging along... and I was tethered to the IV pole. I kept unhooking my monitors to take trips to the bathroom, which was frustrating the nurses The problem was that baby was still VERY high and my foolish nurse was encouraging me to stay in the bed. Well, laying down certainly won't help a baby descend into the pelvis! I managed to get on a birth ball to sit, and DH and I played some word games and watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey. DH also ordered some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns, which he fed to me in stealth-mode (to hide from nurses). This was a decision I later came to regret, in part.

Around 2 PM things started to get real. I realized I was feeling contractions for the first time. I could talk through them, but they were uncomfortable and happening every four minutes or so. Things just progressed from there. I lost track of time, but around 4 PM I called our on-call doula, who neither DH nor I had met before, and asked her to come to the hospital because I felt like things were going to progress quickly. This on-call doula, by the way, ended up being a total godsend! DH and I really benefitted from her advocacy, support and expertise. The doula arrived by 5:20 PM, and by then I was moaning through contractions. I sounded much like a wild animal! My ditz of a L & D nurse kept walking in our room and talking to me through contractions, asking stupid questions right when the discomfort was peaking. I just started moaning, "Nooooooooooooo!" and m DH finally told her to stop talking!

At 6ish the OB came in to check me. I was 6 cm dilated and he broke my bag of waters (without asking, I might add). There was some meconium in the fluid, but not much. Still, I got the spiel about how the NICU might have to take the baby after delivery. We requested that our Pit be turned OFF at this point, as contractions were just insane at this point, and a nurse curtly told me, "It's not like jump starting a car. When you begin Pit, you generally use it throughout the whole labor." Their compromise was that they turned it down a little bit. Well, within 10 minutes of my water breaking and the Pit being turned down, I was practically begging that someone would turn the IV off. Our nurse bustled into the room and just as DH opened his mouth to ask AGAIN that the Pit be stopped, she said, "We saw on the monitor that she's having back-to-back contractions, so we're going to turn the Pit off." I was really close to slapping her.

No Pit meant no monitors! I got off the bed and into the bathtub. The water was nice but the tub was too small for me to get comfortable. I started to mentally lose my lead on the contractions. The pressure was crazy... I felt like I wanted to crawl out of my own body, and in between contractions I didn't rest because I started to dread the beginning of the next surge of pressure. I don't know how much time passed, but DH and our doula kept asking me to make it through "one more" contraction. But I had had enough. I told them I wanted an epi. Our doula said, "The next time they check you, if you're still at 6 you can get it. If you're at 8, you wont." Shortly after that my Jimmy Johns sandwich made a return appearance, and I got a crazy case of the shakes. Clear signs of transition! Boy was it intense... and DH cleaned out the vomit basins so, so quickly because he was afraid our L & D nurse would see and know that we snuck in food At my next internal, whenever that was, I was 7 cm. I blurted out, "I WANT THE EPI! We didn't say anything about 7 cm, so I WANT IT!" DH and I foolishly didn't discuss this possibility before going to the hospital (assuming I'd just want a natural birth, like would happen at the birth center), so he didn't know if he was supposed to dissuade me or not. I looked him right in the eyes and said, "I'm done with this. I want some relief. Don't talk me out of it." So he didn't. Thank goodness.

The epi was a godsend for me. It slowed down labor and I was stuck to the bed and IV again, but I could feel and move my legs and feel the pressure of each contraction... and I was able to relax and rest for a bit. Thankfully our baby handled the Pit and epi very, very well. Her heart rate was stable and strong, and this was one of the main reasons I wanted to avoid drugs during labor. Around 10 PM the pressure I felt on the left side of my bottom was really intense and not subsiding. I asked for an internal and, lo and behold, was 10 cm! The nurse said we should allow for passive descent during this time, which dragged out until midnight. Then we waited for the OB to wake up from his slumber... and pushing started shortly before 1 AM. I pushed for one hour (pushing is HARD work!!!) and Elosie was born! I ended up with a 2nd degree tear but had an unusual amount of bruising and swelling and a bit of blood loss. Terrible L & D nurse #2 wanted to give Pitocin after the birth but DH and I didn't want it unless absolutely necessary... And so she turned off my IV. Including my epi. I started writhing on the bed while the OB was stitching up my tears and our great doula was the one who said, "PPM, you shouldn't be feeling this. You look like you're in a lot of pain..." and when she went to check out my IV saw it had been turned off She stopped the OB and asked for someone to get a local anesthetic. Our OB was pretty angry it had been turned off and he had to ask twice who/why it happened until the nurse fessed up. But once the local kicked in, I was able to pay attention to the darling little person on my chest (who thankfully didn't have to go to the NICU!)

Life post partum is a mixed bag. I'm still a bit weepy and emotional and breastfeeding is just exhausting and not easy work. It still hurts like mad and her latch is getting worse, despite being awesome after birth. I don't think my supply is quite where it needs to be... I suspect I'm barely meeting Elosie's needs... but she's slowly gaining some weight and has enough wet and poopy diapers. She was 7lbs 14 oz at birth and was 7 lbs 12 oz at her two-week checkup today. The sleep deprivation is nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, and I'm loving having DH around and co-parenting with him. I'm really dreading his return to work next week and dreading my return to work even more (come mid September)... Anyway... that's the novel! And here's a photo of sweet Eloise.

 

[pancake]

Congrats Meg (I'm sorry your birth experience wasn't what you had hoped for, but the choice was totally taken out of your hands in the end, so feel good that you did what you could, and that you and your beautiful baby are well in the end!) and AMC (that is one long baby you have there!)!

PPM - Eloise is just beautiful!

Hope you will all join us in the newborn-12m thread soon!

And happy baking to all the other mamas-to-be...

 

[Dandi]

Oh my goodness PPM, Eloise is stunning!!!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Oh my goodness PPM, Eloise is stunning!!!

Agreed! She's a very beautiful baby. Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry to hear it didn't go as planned, but as we repeatedly see in this thread, it rarely does! Enjoy your lovely little girl.

Lulu, congrats on your little girl news! Don't you just love how people feel free to comment on your size now? Get used to it The funny thing is that I often get completely opposite comments in one day. One person will say I don't look 8 months pregnant at all, and then later someone will say, wow, you must have a big baby in there. Oh well, I know most people mean well and are just trying to make conversation.

Buttons, 36 weeks already? Exciting! Are you about ready for all of this to be over and to meet your baby? I'm getting to that point now, but I still have 7.5 weeks to go!

 

[bibiloves]

Hi everyone!

I'm mainly a silent reader in this thread but I thought I should start posting. So here it goes. This is my first pregnancy and I'm currently at 20 wks and 2 days. I had the anatomy scan yesterday and found out that we're having a boy. Everything has been going very well so far except for the fact that I have hyperthyroid. I've been taking PTU for hyperthyroid during my prenancy so far but my thyroid level is still high so the doctor just upped my doses as of yesterday. I know that I have to get my thyroid level under control as antibodies can cross the placenta and affects the baby's thyroid but I'm still very worry about the side effects of taking PTU during my pregnancy. Does anyone else have hyperthyroid? I would love to hear from you. I guess I just need some sort of assurance that this would be all ok.

 

[Missy0483]

PPM - She is beautiful!!! And wow to your birth story. Long inductions are so draining! I seriously feel like I lost a whole day...so much happened and I can't remember timeframes of when certain things occured! So my birth story is sort of lacking details.

 

[mayerling]

Welcome, bibiloves.

PPM, thanks for sharing. Eloise (do you pronounce it el-oh-EASE?) is gorgeous! Look forward to seeing you on the newborn thread.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Hi Bibiloves! No firsthand experience with hyperthyroidism as of now so hopefully someone else will weigh in shortly, but I'm also in week 20 and wanted to welcome you to the land beyond lurkdom. How is your pregnancy going otherwise? Do you feel large at this point, or just beginning to show?

 

[fleur-de-lis]

PPM, that is one beautiful baby. Congratulations!

 

[Prana]

PPM Congratulations on your BEAUTIFUL baby girl! Sorry your birth didn't go as you wished. But she really is a very pretty little girl!

 

[lliang_chi]

PPM and Meg, big congrats on your beautiful babies!

PPM, Eloise is gorgeous! Glad you had a good doula on your side

Meg, sorry things weren't ask you planned but your beautiful Callan more than makes up for it I'm sure. Enjoy him!

 

[megumic]

Hi everyone!

I'm mainly a silent reader in this thread but I thought I should start posting. So here it goes. This is my first pregnancy and I'm currently at 20 wks and 2 days. I had the anatomy scan yesterday and found out that we're having a boy. Everything has been going very well so far except for the fact that I have hyperthyroid. I've been taking PTU for hyperthyroid during my prenancy so far but my thyroid level is still high so the doctor just upped my doses as of yesterday. I know that I have to get my thyroid level under control as antibodies can cross the placenta and affects the baby's thyroid but I'm still very worry about the side effects of taking PTU during my pregnancy. Does anyone else have hyperthyroid? I would love to hear from you. I guess I just need some sort of assurance that this would be all ok.

Hi bibi, welcome and congrats in your pregnancy. I just had a healthy baby boy last week and I too am hyperthyroid. I was on PTU for 12 weeks of my preg. Are you working with a good endocrinologist and an MFM? You really want someone monitoring you who knows what they are doing. Do you know the cause of your hyperthyroid? Often that is telling as to how it should be treated in the long term as well. I suggest checking out the thyroid issues and concerns board over on baby center. Lots of great info over there. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[JGator]

PPM, congrats on your beautiful little girl!

Bibi, I have the opposite problem as you. I am hypothyroid in pregnancy. I am taking Synthroid - 25mcg daily, and my levels have remained stable throughout the pregnancy. You really need to see an endocrinologist monthly during pregnancy and keep getting your thyroid checked as the need for medication could vary over the pregnancy. Also, the levels that are normal during pregnancy are stricter than most labs suggest. Here is an interview with my doctor on pregnancy/thyroid - he is now at GWU in Washington, DC - http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-hypothyroidism-expert.html?pagewanted=all

 

[lulu66]

PPM Eloise is so beautiful! thanks for sharing your birth story!

monkeyprincess yea, people who talk before they think mixed with pregnancy hormones aren't always the best combination. i would just think that anyone who's been pregnant would realize that NO pregnant woman wants to hear how big she is.

bibiloves welcome i'm at 23wks, so we are very close. i look forward to getting to know you better!

afm, not much today. we have been tossing around names. so far i like ellie (elizabeth) claire. we both have grandmothers who were named elizabeth. i also like emerson leigh. however, dh is not sold on that one at.all. and my mother said, "emerson?? for a girl?" so....that one's probably not going to be the winner. my husbands contributions thus far to the name game: lenny (for a girl???) and my middle name, julia, which was after my great grandmother.

when we thought this baby was a boy, we were ready to go with a name: nash joseph. of course, since we both agreed on a name, this LO had to turn out to be a girl...

 

[sunnyd]

PPM, Eloise is beautiful! OYYY to your birth story, that sounds like quite the uh...wild ride! But she's here, and hopefully she'll get the latching thing down pat soon!

Hi everyone! Chugging along at 31.5 weeks. Tonight is our breastfeeding class, which I'm looking forward to!In the last week, baby girl seems to have run out of room. There's less kicking, more rolling happening in there. Which feels really weird, by the way. It's crazy to think that there's 3.5lbs of baby in there!

 

[amc80]

PPM- be happy you snuck the food in. I was barfing up stomach acid while pushing because I hadn't eaten anything. You know, because pushing out a baby isn't rough enough on its own!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Sunnyd, how did the BF class go? I'm curious, did most of the husbands/fathers attend the class? We're signed up for one in a few weeks, and I'm planning to have DH come along, but he's all worried that he'll be uncomfortable and the only guy there. I hear you on the less kicking, more rolling. I'm also starting to be able to feel more distinctive baby parts, and when I feel that hard little bulge of a body (what I assume is his back), I'm just so amazed that I'm actually feeling my baby, and I'll be able to see and hold that little body in my arms in less than two months. It truly is amazing.

Lulu, ha, again, don't you just love comments on your name choices? DH shared with my MIL for the first time the other night which name we're probably going to use. I thought she'd be thrilled because it is my DH's, and was his dad's and grandfather's, middle name. But her reaction was really muted, and pretty much all she said was, "Well, it is a strong name." I'm guessing she would have preferred we stuck with the middle name tradition, but both DH and I really like it as a first name. Also, I totally agree with you that it is not acceptable for people to go around telling pregnant woman that they look big. Last time I saw her, my mom repeatedly told me she thinks I'm going to have a big sized baby. It really started to irk me because for all we know, he'll be small, and she's pretty much just saying that I'm big and round. I mentioned something about how having a short torso meant that everything just sticks straight out, and her response was that she didn't think torso size had anything to do with it. Thanks a lot, mom. That helped.

Welcome bibi, and congratulations to you on your little boy news. Sorry, I don't have any advice on the thyroid issue. Just make sure you are researching the issue, so you can be a good advocate for yourself and your baby.

Attaching a 32.5 week picture, since I haven't done that in awhile. Ugh, I'm scared of how big I'll be in the end.