What A Week!

Baby Girl -

Well, 26 weeks went by quickly and without anything interesting happening.  Then week 26 came and everything changed.

At 26 weeks, I began to have a sharp pain in my side.  Not that I really cared about the pain and felt like, maybe I was just being whiny, I only cared about you.  My mom talked me into calling the doctor's office.  They suggested I go to a local hospital and let them check you out and make sure everything was going ok.  Luckily, you were doing GREAT!  Your heartbeat was around 140 and you were movin' and groovin'.  However, after getting to the hospital and being hooked up to several monitors, they realized I was having contractions.

At 26 weeks, this is not good.  You were not ready to come, and neither your daddy nor me were ready for you to come.  They gave me shots that night to try to stop the contractions with no avail.  Finally, realizing I wasn't going anywhere for the night, I settled into my hospital bed expecting to go back to work next week and continue with my "normal" pregnancy.

The next morning, my OB stopped by to see me and wanted to have an ultrasound run one more time (we had already had one the night before - we found out that you were 2 lbs and growing!).  So one more ultrasound, another shot to stop contractions and a test to make sure I wasn't going to deliver you at that point, the oncall doctor said my OB wanted me in Huntsville.  I was not excited, but told her I would call my mom to come get me and take me straight to the hospital.  She laughed at me and told me that we (you and I) would be going by ambulance.  This made me realize things were a little more serious than I thought!

Our ambulance ride was very exciting.  We rode all the way with the lights on going 85-87 mph.  On the way we had a "follower."  The ambulance drivers felt she was making the situation more dangerous than it needed to be and ended up calling the police to report her.  Once we arrived at the hospital, we were taken to triage.  Here, they hooked me back up to monitors (you were doing great) and realized I was still contracting.  They gave me two more sets of shots to try to stop them but they continued.  They gave me 2 steroid shots to help develop your lungs in case you decided to grace us with your presence, and magnesium sulfate to try to stop the contractions.  This led to an interesting string of events for the night, but luckily I didn't respond as badly to the "mag" as they had anticipated.  The next day they moved us to yet another room (3 at this hospital, and 4 if you count the the stay in the local hospital). My OB was very concerned that we would not even make it to 32 weeks with you (normally it is 40).  You have found your home very, VERY low in my tummy.  You have always been this low, but now it has started to cause a few problems. We were here for the long haul.  It was Labor Day weekend and we weren't going anywhere until at least Tuesday.

We had family and friends come visit every day to try to make the stay more "comfortable."  Your daddy stayed with us every night and brought us breakfast, lunch, and dinner (We are picky eaters - hopefully you will not be).

Finally, Tuesday came and we were released - on bed rest - to our house.  So for the next (now 12 weeks) we would be on bed rest, except when we had to go to the doctor each week.  Bed rest is not as luxurious as it sounds!  We have done a lot of reading, sleeping, word searches, and TV watching.  Bentley and Zoey (your four-legged siblings) have kept us company each day.  This made me very sad, because there were a lot of things I needed to get done before you made your grand debut!

Luckily, you are being blessed into a wonderful family who has come to help at every chance.  Nanny and Papaw have brought food and got your nursery furniture here for us.  Your daddy, my mom (we don't have a name for her yet), and your Aunt Jenelle helped paint your nursery.  Friends have sent gift cards and brought food for us to eat (which really helped your daddy).

We have now made it 29 weeks (still on bed rest) and you are doing well.  The doctor told us Tuesday we could go out to eat or to a movie every once in a while.  She feels more confident that you will at least make it to 32 weeks.  So, we will continue to sit here and see exactly how long past 32 weeks you will make us wait.  Don't get me wrong, your daddy and I can't wait to meet you, but we want you to grow strong and healthy and stay in as long as you can!  So far now, we are waiting until October 5 (our next doctor's appointment) to see where we go from here.  Hopefully, you will still be doing well and will stay in for a little longer.

I may have given up some hope that you will be born in December, but I am hoping you will make it to 34-36 weeks.  Your due date is December 5, 2012.  You have proven to be stubborn so far and, even after this scare and 12 weeks of bedrest and worrying, you will probably make it that far!

Love,

Mommy

Week By Week

Baby Girl,

Knowing about you so early, your Daddy and I were afraid this pregnancy would go on forever before we got to meet you.  We found out we were pregnant when you were only 4 weeks old (which is early)!  We spent the first 13 weeks going back and forth to ART to monitor you.  I am happy to tell you, you have always been a healthy little girl.

Let me see if I can recap what happened on a week-to-week basis:

Week 4 - We found out we were pregnant!

Week 12 - We went for our genetic testing with Dr. Gonzalez.  He and his ultrasound tech were great!  They took lots of measurements of you to make sure you were growing healthy.  Daddy and I were so excited about finding out what you would be, a girl or boy.  We were so afraid someone would tell us one thing and we would find out later you were something else.  The ultrasound tech and Dr. Gonzalez felt 95% certain they knew what you were at this point and put their prediction in a sealed envelope for us to hold on to.  Here is one of your first pictures....

Week 13 - We were release from ART!  This week we went to our regular OB for our first real appointment.

Week 17 - They told me we were suppose to find out what you were this week.  However, when we got to the Doctor's office, they told us it was too soon.  Luckily Mommy's doctor was willing to do a "sneak peak" for us!  They sealed the picture in an envelope and after our appointment we took it to a bakery for our Gender Party.

June 29, 2012 -  Your Gender Party!!  We decided to find out with close family and friends what we would be having.  After our doctor's appointment that morning, we took your picture to a bakery.  They would bake us a cake and the inside would be pink or blue.  Here is a picture of your cake...

Didn't they do a great job?  We finished cleaning the house and tried to keep ourselves busy for the remainder of the day (it was very hard)!  Finally at 6:00 your family and close friends came over to find out what you would be with us.Your daddy grilled for everyone.....

  Everyone was asked to dress in pink, if they thought you were a girl, and blue if they thought you were a boy.  Here are pictures of "Team Pink" and "Team Blue."

 

 

And finally, here is your daddy and me cutting into the cake....

 

Week 20 - We went back to the doctor for an appointment to check your anatomy.  They took lots of measurements and this is the first time we realized you may be a little stubborn.  You are upside down, and very hard to get to.  It took the tech 30 minutes to get measurements of your head. 

Week 22 - I started to feel you move!  This is an absolute amazing feeling and definitely my favorite part of being pregnant.  Since this point you have been extremely active each day, letting us know you are still there!

I guess that gets us almost up to date.  Up to this point pregnancy has been fantastic.  I haven't been sick and we have been able to enjoy each milestone with you. 

Love,
Mommy

Where To Start

Baby Girl -

The whole point of this blog is to help you understand and remember life before you can remember it.  So let me catch you up to speed. Your daddy and I have been married for 4 1/2 years and can not wait to meet you, but getting here has not been easy!  After we had been married for a year we decided we wanted to have a baby.  After trying for about a year we were still unsuccessful.  This included surgery, shots, and fertility pills.  After all this, the doctor decided to send us to a specialist.  She gave us a list of doctors to choose from and we chose ART (Alabama Reproductive Technologies).  We started seeing them in May of 2011.

This experience was extremely overwhelming and your dad and I walked out the first time, both in tears I think (this happened more than once).  However, we were up for the challenge because we knew we wanted you.  After some testing we found, what we thought was, the problem and began procedures each month to try to get you.  We went through different fertility shots (which I was completely terrified of until this process) throughout the course of the year (we had to take some breaks a long the way)!  Our insurance only covered so much of the cost of drugs, which we quickly met, and didn't know what we were going to do from this point.  We also had IUI's which stands for IntraUterine Inseminations each time we took fertility medicines.

After the 2011 Christmas holiday, and the 5th time of being told our pregnancy test was negative, we looked into the idea of IVF.  This path proved to also be costly and we were back to square one.  Luckily, we were given one more chance with a different fertility shot we had not tried yet and one more IUI between February and March. 

March 26, 2012 was the longest day of my life.  Typically the doctor would call about 3:00 while I was still at school.  However, leaving school about 3:15 that day I still had not heard from the doctor.  When I got home, your daddy was waiting anxiously for news that I didn't have yet.  Trying to calm my nerves and go on with our afternoon we decided to sit down and watch some TV.  Finally, about 4:00 or 4:30 we got the phone call we were waiting on.  The only words I remember saying when they told me we had a positive was "Shutup" (which wasn't nice)!  I didn't know what to say because I was so use to hearing the word "negative" on the other end of the line.  Positive was definitely something new!!  Because of my reaction, your daddy immediately knew what was going on.  I don't remember anything the nurse on the line told me because both of us were crying (infact, I had to call back the next day to get all the details).  March 26, 2012 is a day your daddy and I will NEVER forget!

I credit my doctor and the doctors at ART with a lot.  They were absolutely amazing and I can't thank them enough for the encouragement and help they gave us throughout this process.  I would recommend them to anyone and can't wait to introduce you to them.  But please know that we prayed for you every night!! You are a blessing from GOD and He is the one who gave us you.  Without Him and our faith in Him, we wouldn't have you right now, no matter how much the doctors did for us.  Please know you will always be our biggest blessing and we will continue to thank God every night for you.
Love,
Mommy

First Post

To Anyone Who Decides To Read This -

I was totally against writing a blog.  I am a 3rd grade teacher (which keeps me busy enough), and on top of that, am expecting my first child, a daughter, in December.  However, my best friend was adamant that I write one to help remember the memories that were soon to be made.  This has been an ongoing battle for a while between the two of us and it looks like she has won out.  Hopefully Baby Girl will be thankful to her one day for her persistence.

So if you choose to read this, please know that my intention is to write this blog as Letters to Baby Girl.  Hopefully I will be able to keep this up once she gets here so that she will have the memories she will be too young to remember.

There may be one other reason that helped get this going....bed rest!! While this sounds fantastic as a pregnant woman, please know, IT IS NOT!  So being bored may have also helped to inspire me to begin writing a blog.  While on bed rest hopefully I will learn how to use this (with a little help from a friend), and by the time she gets here it will be easy and quick to update (seeing as how I won't have all this time on my hands anymore).