Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Oops! 6 months later


Wow, I haven’t posted a blog since I was 25 weeks pregnant, and here we are, Silas is not only here, but he’s 3 months old!  So let’s start back with the rest of the pregnancy.

Let’s see, the first trimester I thought for sure we were having a girl.  All signs pointed to girl.  Then the second trimester, I swore we were having a boy.  Then after that, I was so confused, I just didn’t know.  And I gotta say, I really did want a boy SOOOO much!  When Silas came out, and they shouted It’s A Boy, my fist shot up into the air, and I said over & over, literally for the first two MONTHS of him being here, “I cant believe we had a boy, I cant believe we had a boy! Thank you Jesus!  I’m so happy we had a boy!”  I’ve wanted to girls & two boys my entire life!  God is SO GOOD!!!

Ok, that wasn’t about the pregnancy, ha! … Since I didn’t document much, all I can recall at the moment is that it was pretty smooth sailing after the migraines were done!  Those shooting pains I got in my tights that I got with Sayda did happen this pregnancy too, but definitely not as many or as often. 

I was still planning on going after my due date, since I always had before, and when I went in for my check up at 39 weeks, I was not expecting what happened then!  I believe I was one cm at the appointment the week before, and then not surprised to find out that the same was true of this day.  I did want to inquire about Dr. Warner’s availability, to see if there was a way to make sure she was the doctor who delivered Silas, since I had such a wonderful experience with her last time!  (I also need to note that when I saw Dr. Warner earlier in the pregnancy, I planned to tell her how much I loved her & reintroduce myself and remind her that she delivered my last child… but as I walked in, she said, “I’m Dr. Warner, I delivered your last child.”  I was like, “I know! I love you!  I’m surprised you remembered that!”  She replied, “well it was quite memorable.”  How cool!!!  I also saw her out one day, at Shades Beach and she made a point to say hello and to chat for a few.  This woman is very special to me!) So I was at my appointment on a Monday.  They told me that Dr. Warner’s only availability to deliver was the very next day! …or not again until the following Tuesday.  So I had about ten minutes to call Jake and my mom, and to decide if we were going to be induced tomorrow (a week early!) or see if we could wait another whole week!  We all agreed that tomorrow would be best, to play it safely.  It was a bit of an interesting feeling to us, going early instead of late, and I even had a bit of apprehension about it, but I was still confident in our decision.  I had felt for the past 2 weeks or so, at that point, that this baby was fully developed, and taking up so much of my being, so I guess I felt ready to have him, even though I still battled with feelings of letting him come closer to his due date.  We decided that having a good experience with the doctor who delivered was important to us, so they sent us home to get ready, and back to the Women’s Center in a few hours! 

They planned to give me cervadil for the evening, which would prep for me induction early the next morning.  Well, I sat in the hospital for about 4 hours until a doctor came to see me!  But when she checked me, I had gotten from 1 cm to 2cm, so they decided against the cervadil.  Cool for me though, I night off from cooking & cleaning at home, plus sit in bed, free meals, AND Danielle came to visit me!  Not a bad night, hehe!  So they began the Pitocin in the morning, and I’ll just note a few labor details here.  Dr. Warner was amazing, as usual!  My mom & jake were wonderful coaches, as usual.  I do remember being upset with myself a bit, after delivery, that I didn’t do as well as I expected myself to.  Which, of course, the docor and mom and Jake thought was absurd.  One thing I will mention, during pushing, I had a sciatic spasm.  My right leg straightened, and I felt, well, like a nerve spam shooting through my hip, belly, back, leg… and I believe I said, “Ah! My hip! Belly! Back! Leg!”  This, then, later resulted in my not being able to walk properly for an entire day, and almost two.  I could use the leg, and move it forward, I just couldn’t lift it off the ground to take a step.  I would take a step with my left leg, and then drag my right leg.  I was a very helpless and debilitating feeling, to need help to walk!  So it was about 6 hours of labor, and 7 minutes of pushing.  Silas was born at 1:23pm.  Weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz.  Measuring 21.5” long (same as Sayda).  As I said earlier, we could not have been more thrilled that we got another boy!!!

Here’s a quick story of how we got his middle name.  It was about two weeks before he was born, and we were still undecided on a boy’s middle name.  I was in the sunroom, Jake’s guitar case was sitting out there.  Diella walked in and said, “daddy, what does that word say?”  He replied, “Gibson.” And then he looked at me, and excitedly said, “Silas Gibson!” and I replied, “I was just thinking the SAME thing!” And there ya have it.

After we had Sayda, we were going through a VERY difficult year.  We were trying to decide if we wanted to go ahead and have a forth child, like we’ve always wanted, during this difficult time.  We also didn’t want to wait and have a forth one later either.  When we were trying to decide, I remember thinking, “I didn’t really enjoy my pregnancy with Sayda as though it was our last one.  I didn’t savor her infancy in a way that I would never have this again…. Like I would have it I had known for sure that it was our last… since I always planned to have a forth.”  We had originally planned to try to get pregnant in December, and as it was approaching, we were still deciding if that was going to be what we were set on or not… having the forth baby.  And then we got pregnant in November instead, ha!

As I’m looking at my notes here, I’m going to have to refer back to a few things about my pregnancy with Silas.  I could not drink ice water.  Well, I could, but Silas would go nuts in there!  I had to drink room temperature water, which I actually prefer anyway, but I just found it funny that it happened every single time I had ice water!  Silas was probably as active in my belly as Diella was!

One night during pregnancy, Jake and I were laying in bed, watching a movie.  Silas was being Very active, so I had Jake place his hand on my belly to feel it.  Jake left his hand there for some time as we both smiled & giggled as the rolling & kicking continued, and continued, and continued!!!  I watched the clock throughout, and Jake’s hand remained there.  Silas was crazy active for over an hour!  It never gets old, even the forth time around.  It was a wonderful experience for us!

Silas was rolling from tummy to back, pretty much always.  As a brand newborn, when I would put him on his tummy, once or twice did he roll to his back.  I thought it was most likely a fluke, but he did it often!  He continued to do it each week, and hasn’t stopped!  He is my only baby who has really enjoyed being on his belly.  The other kids didn’t hate it, but Silas seems to really like it!  Even now (just turned 3 months old), while on his tummy, the amount of movement is pretty amazing!  He rolls from side to side until he’s turned over.   He also kicks his very strong legs, very often!  What a little mover already!

When he was 6 weeks old is when we noticed that he started to be very attentive!  Around 11 weeks old he slept 6 hours straight!  But this hasn’t been completely consistent.  Now, at 3 months old, he usually will do 4 hour stretches at night, and sometimes 5, but he has almost always slept at night, only waking up to eat twice, and lately only once.  Then he goes right back to sleep after eating.  He has only kept me up all night maybe 3 times ever.  Up until a few weeks ago, this kid slept like a newborn!  So Much!  Now I’ve totally noticed a pattern.  After he’s awake for a little over an hour in the morning, he’ll take a nap around 2 hours, then he’ll be awake for another 2 hours or so, then he takes a long 3-4 hour nap usually, and then is awake almost the rest of the evening, except for maybe a short cat nap, and then to be later around 10-11pm.  No complaints here!

Silas really doesn’t like the hiccups.  Well, they don’t seem to bother him as much as they used to.  He doesn’t cry, but he just gets so wiggly.  The first few months he was a pretty gassy baby, like Sayda, ALWAYS burping, tooting, hiccupping, wiggling, but its getting better now!  Now that he’s doing so much less of those things, the gassiness is being displayed as spit up, but its not much, so eh, whatever.

Silas, like Sayda, did not like the binky at first.  Just like with his sister, we strongly encouraged (ok, forced) him to take it.  It took some time, but now he’s a fan!

The nickname that caught on pretty fast when he was born, was Handsome.  I called him that all the time, but then I started to call him Mister, and that’s the one that has stuck.  He’s my little Mister!!!

I’m noticing lately that he is very “handsy” like Ethan was.  Grabbing at things, and hands by his face.  He also is pretty cuddly.  Once in a while he buries his face into my neck, which I think is adorable!

It really seems as though Silas loves Diella!  She plays with him often, and can almost always make him smile.  It’s a joy to watch the two of them enjoy each other!

I know all babies are “momma’s boy/girl” but I really felt he was one night after I came home from Chi Alpha.  He was 2 months old.  When I came home, and picked him up, he pressed into me So closely, and was grabbing onto me desperately, and it was as though he was trying to melt his body into mine, like he couldn’t get close enough to me.  It was a great thing to come home to!

Up until shortly after he turned 3 months old, Silas went to Chi Alpha with us every Thursday, and one week our friend Tiffany was doing this thing she does to make us laugh.  She is a great singer, but she can sing off key on purpose, and it’s so funny!  Well I was holding Silas, and just a moment after she started, he began to cry.  It was hilarious!  I’m thinking he already has a good ear, and just couldn’t stand the sound of the off-pitch singing! HA!

Right when he turned 3 months is when Silas started to laugh for real.  I don’t remember any of the other kids laughing as hard as he did that young!  SO entertaining! 

When he turned 4 months old is when he discovered his feet & loved to play with them!  Also at 4 months is when my milk supply (even though I’ve been taking both Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle), was getting progressively lower, and I had to introduce formula.  I hate that it’s come to this, but I’m doing all I can.  We’re still hanging on, and he’s still nursing the majority of the time.  He takes only one bottle a day, and the rest of the feedings are nursing.  We’ll hold on as long as we can!

Ever since the day he was born, when we look at him, we think & say the same things we did when we looked at Diella as a newborn.  “Gorgeous, just SO Gorgeous!!!”  Any time anyone asks me, “how’s the baby?” my reply has been, “I’m just SO in love with him!”  I am truly soaking up him being our last baby, and enjoying him so much! 







Saturday, April 14, 2012

Last Time Around





The top picture is the most recent, about 25 weeks. The middle one is about 20 weeks, and the bottom one is 14 weeks.

So our plan was to get pregnant in December, 2011. We found out in November that we were expecting a month sooner than we intended. Our due date was August 4th, but after an appointment at about 18 weeks along, the doctors changed it to July 27th, but I know better… all my kids have arrived later than their due date, so I’m going to be ready to go as early as July 27th, but wont expect to go any time before August 4th.

The first trimester was a whole lot of being VERY tired! Then right around the approach of the second trimester, began the severe & uncontrollable migraines. I am copy/pasting an email I sent before, explaining some of that…

**I’ve had a history of headaches since I was 9. I’ve also had occasional migraines over the years. During each pregnancy, they are severely intensified. Of course, there are few medicines I can take to fix the problem. So Friday (jan27) I had the migraine of all migraines… one that was unable to be cured by any medicine, or any remedy we tried. So when a call to the doctor got me sent to the ER, they got me better and sent me home with some medicine. I was a little better on Saturday, but Sunday got bad again, and the medicine they gave me did little to nothing. Monday returned this same evil, uncontrollable migraine. So after going to the OB doc, and after maybe 3 questions, they sent me back over to the hospital. The new women’s hospital, NICE place!!! So they had me talk with neurologists all day, kept me over night, I got an MRI… both good news results… its not neurological & MRI was clear! In the hospital, they gave me IV to hydrate me of course, but also a dose of morphine, a steroid, and zofran. They sent me home with a steroid to take for only one week. But there are other natural ways I need to avoid these from happening again… less computer screen time, working on getting better sleep each night, TONS & TONS of water, and also need to cut a few random things out of my diet that could possibly be triggers.

some of these I eat as healthy snacks like every day - peanut butter banana, and a torilla for lunch with beans, cheese, and guacamole... cant have ANY of that! :(

ok with all THAT said... SINCE my visit to the hospital, (well wait, first... the "pain scale" for migraines... I rate childbirth a 10, and migraines a 9... ) , so since then, I've had at LEAST three 7 pain scale headaches, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday... the thing that has been working Miracles is Tons of water! ...

as far as medicine goes.... sigh* ... ok... the stuff the ER gave me does very little to nothing. And I'm allowed to take Acetametophine whenever, but that rarely helps too. So luckily, most of the natural remedies (and sometimes a little caffeine) have been helping.... but here's the thing (that I Hate) with what to do when nothing else works.... The ER docs and the OB docs have always said to not take Excedrine, which I know. The neurologist asked me to have a discussion with the OBs about what to take when nothing else works... so in came my FAVE doc who delivered Sayda!!! :) ... she and I talked about what options there were when all else fails. She explained the affects to a fetus, of ibuprofen compared to excedrine... and actually told me she'd prefer I take excedrine (only in desperate cases of course) over ibuprofen. That ibuprofen can affect baby's heart, and the only risk in excedrine is the asprin in it, which only has RISK for causing bleeding, but that if i'm not bleeding, then its the safest option, over ibuprofen. But of course that if I were to ever bleed, then stop taking it, and research other options.

So yea, most days, when I have a headache, I drink tons of water & a little acetametphine has done the trick! and i am avoiding excedrine as much as possible. But prayer is still needed, because this has been VERY debilitating!

The CAUSE of the migraines, is simply the hormones... because I've done all else to prevent them (the water, the weird diet, etc.) ... because the migraines come when I wake up... not after I eat something, or whatever else... I've also been taking care of my horrible neck (that i've been having problems with) at the chiropractor, trying new pillows, etc. but laying down, neck pain, etc. plays a part in the headaches. It turned out none of those foods were triggers, because the headaches were coming regardless. The ONE fix was all the water I was drinking! I wasn’t completely surprised (because I know I don’t drink enough water), but I WAS glad it was such an easy fix!**

There is one more instance from that hospital visit that I must document. Mom was at work, and Jake was able to be home with the kids the day I went in. And when they admitted me, and I got into the gown, I kept my socks on. The nurse came in and told me to put on the hospital socks instead. I did so, curiously, but not asking why. Then she further explained that they were safer for the OR. I was even MORE curious at this, and gave her a puzzled look. I finally said, “wait, what will be happening in the OR?” and she replied, “your DNC.” Unfortunately, I didn’t know what that was, but I also wasn’t about to just go along with something I was unaware of, so I asked what that was! She explained that it’s a scraping of the inside of the uterus. And I thought that that was a strange procedure for curing headaches! So I told her I knew nothing about that. So when she left the room to apparently check records and check with the doctor, I called mom. When I told her, she of course panicked, and said, “I’ll be right there!” The nurse came back in, apologizing over and over that she had confused me with another patient. I wasn’t angry, because nothing bad had actually taken place, and she was very remorseful. So I called mom, and stopped her from her dangerous speedy drive across town. The visit in the hospital was tough because I was there, and in severe pain for 6 hours before they gave me anything to help with the pain. (I believe they did this so that they could get accurate information WHILE the pain was still present.) And it wasn’t til about an hour after they gave me the morphine, and eventually the steroid, that I finally felt relief. Needless to say, once the pain was gone, I was able to happily stuff myself with a few meals, and chat with a few friends who visited! It was a memorable experience for sure!

The headaches & migraines finally ceased after a lot of prayer, and gallons of water! Unfortunately, then I started to deal with constipation, but we will leave the details of that Out! Now, at 25 weeks, all of those things are through with, and I’m feeling great!