The day has been set....

Tomorrow, October 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm, I am scheduled for a C-section delivery.

Today's Dr appt was the "same ol" news with elevated BP, protein in my urine. My cervix STILL hadn't progressed any to be favorable towards induction. Avery is fine inside of me - meaning she's thriving.

The Dr hooked me up to a NST monitor for over an hour where they look at baby's heartbeat, any signs of fetal stress, monitor movement and any contractions. In the hour and a half I was hooked up to the monitor, I had 2 contractions - and they weren't even "real" contractions but rather little 'practice' ones. Avery was very active and not under any stress.

Then Dr. D said the inevitable. C SECTION. He's worried that because of her size (8 pounds now) and my cervix being "non-induceable" AND the looming Pre-E/Toxemia, that if he were to wait until Cervix was ready, she would be too big or I would have developed more severe case of this pre-e crap and if he were to induce now, that the cervix isn't ripe enough to open and I would be in a lot of pain for a long time without getting anywhere fast and more than likely (75% likely) to end up w/ a C-section after hours of labor.

Here's the Rock... here's the hard place...

So - I asked to schedule the surgery for Wednesday - to allow my mom to fly in... Apparently late week surgeries are popular because the only opening was for tomorrow at 12:00 pm. And the dr didn't feel comfortable letting me wait until Saturday.

It's done... it's scheduled...

It's not what I wanted but I feel better knowing we have a definitive plan in place now and I won't get toxemia and Avery won't be in any danger.

Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow. I have never gone through any major surgery until now and I'm scared to death about it. I don't like needles, I don't like drugs, I don't like the idea of being awake while I'm being opened up.

However... that being said, I am so so so excited to meet my daughter tomorrow and become a MOTHER. How freaking cool is that????

When will she arrive????

The last few weeks have been a little eventful for our pregnancy. I am on the verge of "going toxic"... let me explain.

There is a condition called pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH) that can lead to a worse condition called Pre-Eclampsia or Toxemia. Drs aren't really sure what exactly causes it but the 'cure' for it is usually delivery of the baby. Symptoms include elevated blood pressure, protein in your urine, swelling in feet, hands and face. More severe cases include basically a shutting down of your liver and kidneys.

Up until recently, my blood pressure has been phenomenal and perfect. However about 2 weeks ago - it was 132/88 - not terrible but higher than it HAS BEEN. They did a recheck of my BP while I laid down and it went down to 100/60... no big deal.

Last Tuesday, my blood pressure was again elevated and this time I had protein in my urine. The doctor sent me in for blood work at the lab and had me come back in on Wednesday. My blood work came back "perfect" meaning I didn't have the Pre-E...yet... and on Wednesday, although my BP was elevated, the protein went down to just a trace amount. Dr. D scheduled another appt on Friday. The doctor had mentioned induction so when we came back on Wednesday our bags were packed and we were ready to go...JUST IN CASE. But since everything was "OK" we were just told to come back on Friday.

On Friday I went in and my BP was 148/100 (VERY HIGH!) and I still had trace protein levels. The nurse said "we need to deliver this baby now!"

When they did a recheck of my BP, it was 136/90 - still really high. The doctor ordered an ultrasound and did an exam. Well miss Avery is measuring about 8 pounds, and looks really good. Then he sent me to Labor & Delivery for monitoring and another round of blood work. Robert and I were not really ready to have this baby, and talked about all the things that were still at home and not packed permanently in the car.

I got situated in L&D and my BP stayed in the 130's/80's. Then right before the dr came in, it went down to 124/76. He told me to lay on my left side, and 5 minutes later, my BP was 110/72. At that time my blood work came back and in the ~1 hour the trace protein had gone to nothing and the blood work was normal.

He sent me home.

The other issue that we're facing is that my body has not started to prepare for childbirth yet. Avery is still VERY high and has not dropped. My cervix (yes, we're talking lady parts now) is still very high, not soft and not thinned out/effaced. Forget about dilation... Avery is still locked up tight.

I have spent the last 9 months worried that I'd lose this baby and now I can't get my body to let her out... irony at its best.

And because of my cervix's stubborn state, combined with the size of this baby (who'da thunk that I could grow such a biggun!??) and the fact that my body is TRYING to go toxic, we're now looking at the possibility of having a C-section.

This is NOT what I wanted... I wanted to go through the excitement of being at home, starting to feel contractions, laboring at home, going to the hospital at some strange hour of the night. I wanted to ATTEMPT to go au natural - no epidural, however now that (if ol' steely the cervix cooperates) I am induced, I am not sure I am disciplined/prepared enough to go sans epidural.

I don't feel like I am getting the support I need about the idea of having a c-section. The mere mention of it to my mom and I get the following reaction "OOOOOH!!! no! you don't want a c-section!!!" Well at this point I'm not sure if I have a choice if I keep on swelling, High BP and no ripening going on.

Today is my due date. I have done nothing but "rest" according to the doctor's orders. I'm tired of resting. I haven't had any contractions, a few cramping feelings here and there, but nothing promising. I have started a regimen of Evening Primrose Oil as directed by Lauren.

So... when will she be here??? How big will she be???

I'm guessing I get induced or a scheduled C-section - I'm going to plan on Wednesday 10/8/08. I think she's going to be 7 pounds 12 oz.

Crimson has arrived...

Football season is officially here... that also means that I needed something to wear while we rooted for the Crimson Tide Alabama Football team. So off I went to Motherhood Maternity and I found a "crimson" colored top. This will be my football outfit each Saturday until I have this baby. SO... of course I thought it would be interesting to measure my belly progress in the same outfit each week.

~35 weeks - on our way to friends' house. You can tell, I actually had my hair straightened and make up on. ~36 weeks - No makeup - I think I'm getting homely looking... ~37 weeks - Ok, seriously need to pay more attention to my appearance. I'll be cute next week :) Does it look like I'm getting bigger? lower? No progress at all???

Bama Baby Shower

Last Saturday (August 16, 2008) I had four wonderful women throw me a baby shower. It was EVERYTHING an expecting mother could ask for. I had friends, family and food! Um, my belly is as big as Robert's Grandmother... The Loot! For as many very cute clothes and much appreciated gift cards I received at my shower in Portland, I received all the stuff from my registry for this one. It was fantastic and I ended up with EVERYTHING that my daughter will need! Of course they played the "how big is the belly game" - using TOILET paper! I think Lisa missed the memo about how I feel about that, but it wasn't ALL that humiliating and I was able to endure it. For the record - 12 - it took 12 sheets of toilet paper to go around my belly. Me, concentrating on opening gifts. My FABULOUS hostesses. From Left to Right - Karin - MIL, Lisa - SIL, ME - how can you miss me?, Tammy - we met riding horses. She just had a baby 3 months ago! and finally Lisa - my "first" friend here in Huntsville. I'm SO sad she lives in Atlanta now! These ladies were WONDERFUL. The spread - it was PHENOMENAL! Reused Diaper cake from the first shower! YUMMY Petit Fours - If you look closely the pink portion is in the shape of baby booties!!!

The early tour of L&D...

Tuesday was our 2nd "Prepared Childbirth Class" The night started off ok, we picked up a burger at burger king (ok, not so healthy but we're out of groceries and I'm knocked up), enjoyed our evening talking about C-sections, Pain Meds and breathing exercises. Robert thoroughly impressed me with how interested he is in childbirth. I'm very proud of him. While other husbands were poking and prodding their wives during the "therapeutic" massage portion of our evening, Robert gave me a great massage and didn't crack one single joke. He is going to be a great labor coach.

After the class ended, we went home and pretty much went to bed. When I got into bed, I was really uncomfortable, like little miss was IN THE WAY. ugh! but just chalked it up to pregnancy and went to sleep. At 2 am I got up for my standard trip to the bathroom (the joys of pregnancy) and was in a lot of pain... no contractions and baby was kicking just fine but my entire upper body had sharp constant pain. My back hurt, my upper abdomen hurt, everything from belly button up hurt. I didn't think it was indigestion because I didn't have a sour stomach or anything and I didn't feel any gas at all, just felt like my entire gut had been wrapped up in a gigantic knot.

I called the on-call nurse and she told me to take some tums and drink something fizzy. I did that, and took a Tylenol and didn't feel great but I was able to fall asleep on the couch. At 5:00 am I rolled over on the couch and HOLYMOTHEROFGOD! I was in INTENSE pain! It was unbearable! I got all sweaty and threw up but I wasn't really nauseated, I think I puked because of the pain. The nurse told me to go to L&D if it didn't subside or get better... so off we went. They strapped me in, baby hated the monitors and kicked at them for hours. My pain subsided from a 10 to probably a 7-8 (9 at times). The nurse gave me some pepcid and out of exhaustion I fell asleep. By the time the Doctor came by my pain was gone (I'm still sore - like someone has been punching me in the gut and back) but she told me that it was probably my gallbladder and there was nothing we could do right now and I just need to be very careful about eating fatty foods (no more whoppers!)

So now I'm home... I feel a little stupid about going to L&D over indigestion but I can honestly say that I have NEVER been in that much pain in my entire life. And... the dr didn't make me feel stupid at all - in fact she told me that when she was pregnant, she went in after she had accidentally peed on herself thinking her water broke and she is an OB!!!

Also, I feel very "ready" for labor now. I kept telling myself that at least with contractions, there is some sort of reprieve whereas with this pain, there was NONE. It was persistant pain for essentially 6 hours straight. I am proud of myself for handling it as calmly as I did. I used to go a little (Ok, a lot) hysterical when I had a lot of pain (especially when I was younger suffering menstrual cramps). But I breathed through it and managed to stay calm. There were times I started feeling like I was out of control but Robert helped remind me to breathe and calm down.

Of course upon us returning home from the hospital (after a braless visit to Costco - I can't believe I actually did that!), I googled "Gallbladder and pregnancy" - and found this quote "I thought that I was dying. It hurts as much as childbirth, but unlike contractions, the pain doesn't go away," I kept telling Robert that while we were in the hospital... I'm glad someone else who had gone through this felt the same way... If I can handle that, I can handle giving birth!

29 weeks!

I seriously cannot believe that I'm already 29 weeks along! This was taken on Friday night when we got home from our friend's birthday dinner.

Portland Baby Shower

My trip to Portland was EXHAUSTING but so much fun. Thursday was a little rough starting - Atlanta Airport basically shut down for 4 hours and I ended up missing my flight and going back home and starting over. Friday mom picked me up from the airport and we bought a few groceries, picked up my friend Erik from the train station and headed home. We probably had about 40 people show up and visit. As you can see everyone had a nice time sitting and relaxing with one another. It was great to see everyone but I think next time I go home, I wouldn't mind just having one on one visits with our friends.

Kids jumping on trampoline Eleanor, Some lady I can't remember, Vicki and Eleanor's Brother Dexter, Harvey, Jeff - sitting, relaxing on the deck

My friend/coworker Erik came down from Seattle to visit. While he was here, he did so much work! It was so appreciated and he ended up "manning the grill". It was funny though, a huge 24 pack of HUGE hot dogs got left out and my mom's two dogs got a hold of them. The next day they had the worst food hangover EVER.

Saturday was BUSY! We dropped Erik off at the train station, then Laurel, Mary and I went to go get pedicures at Spa-La-La in Portland. Afterwards we had lunch at the Old Wives Tale. After lunch Laurel and I hung out and went to some cute consignment shops around Portland. I bought some VERY cute items for our baby girl to wear next year. I can't wait to see her in them!

Later that afternoon, My roommate from college (Meaghan) drove up from Klamath Falls Saturday evening. We ended up going to Rock Creek Tavern . I really missed the beer while I was there :( It was great to catch up with her!

Sunday - My friends Mary and Lauren threw me an awesome baby shower! It was more than I could have ever asked for. Baby Girl received a TON of clothes and in all different sizes so we should be set for a VERY long time. I haven't had a chance to take pictures of some of my favorite items (I will do that in the next few days). Here are a few pictures from the shower.

Laurel made this cute quilt for us! I especially love it because it's made of a soft flannel and it's USABLE - meaning I will be able wash it and lay the baby on it. I love quilts but usually don't see a use for when they are so pretty you can't actually use them.

This picture cracks me up because no one is paying attention...HILARIOUS Becca and I Beaverton Bakery Cupcakes and a cute cute diaper cake!

My belly went on a growth spurt between the time I wen to bed on Friday night and the time I woke up on Saturday.

Mary, Donna, Laurel, Me, Meaghan - the "bouquet" is made of onesies and baby socks

My lovely hostesses Lauren and Mary - Thank you girls so much!!!

See that huge belly? I was 28 weeks!

This is such a great picture of Mike and his daughter Grace. This is Lauren's hubby and baby. This is why we bought the Nikon - I LOVE this picture! Everyone enjoying themselves

After the shower we went to my mom's friend's house to visit a while. Their dog Libby likes to smile - but only at people she likes - apparently she REALLY likes Becca!
On Monday I got to FINALLY see my friend LaRina and her new baby girl Samantha. She's such a sweet sweet baby. I think this is the first time ever that my hair is actually longer than LaRina's! WOW!!! I really like this picture. It makes my hair look like I spent hours with a curling iron but this is all "natural" - with the exception of a quick flat iron to my bangs. I love my hair dresser!!! My mom is SOOOOOO ready to be a grandma!!! She put Samantha to sleep immediately and she slept in our arms for nearly 2 hours!

Easy Mac to the Rescue!

According to the "Nest" - I am 29 weeks today - (28 weeks, 4 days to be exact) and I have been sick. I woke up this morning with a sour stomach, gagged a little and was "ok". I was ok until got to work and ended up puking everything I ate this morning (glass of milk and a nutrigrain bar). And FYI - Sour Stomach + Milk = curdled milk vomit :D So - I ate Easy Mac at 10 am... Lovely - I'm reverting back to my 1st Trimester ways when I ate Easy Mac for breakfast and lived off of cottage cheese. Hey, maybe that means I can convince Robert to get Soft Taco Supremes for dinner tonight!??!! I haven't updated in a while, I promise to update more tonight. But for a sneak preview of my shower... Here is a very cute picture of my sister copping a feel of the baby belly.