OUR FIRST HOSPITAL VISIT

Tim snapped some pics of me in my jammies under my gown because he thought it was cute..haha. OH us.  

I dreamt about hitting 26 weeks well before I was even pregnant. 26 weeks means fetal viability can be anywhere between 60-90% (knock on every piece of wood possible) should anything happen before week 37 and I knew just how momentous this week was. My pregnancy has been smooth, I mean once we got over the dramatic first 3 months, the nausea, the vomiting, the severe food aversions and the requirement to sleep at least 20 out of the 24 hours a day has to offer. I have been really blessed. I think a lot of it has to do with my perspective because I truly am the most grateful person after everything we’ve gone through.

I’ve obviously updated you guys so much with how the bump has been progressing…I mean I can’t help myself. I am just so proud of how much we have overcome and so excited to meet our little bundle of joy. There have however been some things I’ve kept to myself. Mostly because the last thing in the world I wanted to do was over react and scream to the world I was scared and being all sorts of melodramatic but hey, it’s time for an update on how I’m doing and what happened!

I hadn’t hit 26 weeks yet and I woke up one morning feeling a lot of pressure down there. I mentioned it to Tim but didn’t think much else of it. I went on with my day, went grocery shopping, cleaned the house, made dinner and then by the time 11 pm hit that night the pressure was getting pretty bad. Bad enough where I didn’t want to talk or do anything so I sat down and put my feet up. Tim could see I was really worried and kept asking if I was okay, and I kept nodding my head saying yes. He told me that it’s okay to not feel okay even though we’ve experienced infertility and even though I’m super grateful I can still express worry or something that just doesn’t feel right.

I’ve been super cautious in how I respond to the negative aspects of pregnancy because I know that nothing is more frustrating, hurtful or more painful than infertility was. So when I have bad days, I generally just keep those feelings to myself because I know how much I feared never ever getting to experience this. A child of our own, carried by my body. For this reason I truly appreciate it all…even the not so good moments.

Anyways, I noticed that my stomach was hardening for about 30 seconds at a time and relaxing but it wasn’t consistent nor was it regular so I just sat sit and waited for these to pass. I’m quite familiar with Braxton-Hicks but didn’t know about these combined with pressure and change in fetal movements.  Time went on and the pressure got so bad and the relaxing and contracting feelings weren’t going away so Tim was eager to give the maternal health link a call. I noticed she was moving like I’ve never seen her move before and when the girl asked Tim on the phone if she is either moving more or less than normal, and he replied yes way more, she urged us to run over to Labor and Delivery.

I was that girl; the paranoid first time mom. Part of me felt like an idiot because I know I am a worrier naturally and I do believe it’s better to be safe than sorry but this time it felt different. It didn’t just have to do with me, it was my little girl and I wanted to do everything to make sure she was ok. My gut told me something was going on so I just had to listen to it (based on my past experience and me being basically psychic as it is).

They admitted me, made me change into a gown and started checking on baby.

She was moving so much the nurse could not grab a heart rate. She would literally punch it out of the way every time she placed it. The nurse was kind of giggling because she moved somewhere between 30-40 times in a one minute period and this made me feel a lot better.  She didn’t seem worried and smiled and me and said, ‘we love lots of baby movements’. My blood pressure was pretty high for me and naturally I was worrying especially because the pressure I was feeling was so strong. They made me provide a urine sample and said the doctor would be right in to check out my cervix. It didn’t appear that I was in premature labor (thank heavens) but she said I would have to stay there all night to be monitored.

Oh my, poor Tim. He was so worried and even more concerned they wouldn’t let us go home right away. The nurse came in quite often to check the babies heart rate once she slowed down and the doctor came every two hours. No progression, I knew then we were going to be okay.

The doctor then figured out I was severely dehydrated which was what was causing my uterus to contract ( I forget the medical term) and the pressure I was feeling. They had to give me fluids and kept monitoring until finally everything just stopped. I thought about it and honestly could not remember the last time I had a glass of water. I’m usually so good about hydrating myself but for some reason in the past couple of days I hadn’t been.

Such a simple fix to what could have otherwise been a very stressful situation. I was so grateful baby girl was okay and equally as embarrassed. I kept apologizing to the staff saying how frustrating dealing with people like me must be but they kept reminding me nothing is too safe when it comes to well being of your baby and had I not gone in I may have never known I was dehydrated and things could have gotten a lot worse. Part of me remembered being in their position sincerely not caring about helping people no matter how tedious and insignificant it might have been and I appreciated their understanding and compassionate care.

My mom and dad were in Greece at the time and my brother had just been hospitalized the night before requiring emergency surgery after being attacked on a job by a cute little pit-bull so they were a little worried from overseas. We both sure made them excited to get home! I guess you never stop worrying hey?

Tim kept telling me how excited he is for baby girl and how much he loves the both of us so I felt not so annoying and just so grateful.

Other than that, I have been doing good. As I’ve mentioned on snap chat and Facebook my weight gain has been quite a bit higher than I ever thought I would experience so that has been a little hard. I haven’t felt too bad about it other than when people comment (doctors…randoms) asking if I’m having twins or saying I must be due any day. It has made me a little self-conscious only because it makes me question the health of my baby, but I think we are okay. You guys have been so reassuring and as long as my baby is healthy that is all I’m really worried about. I know gaining too much weight can be dangerous for both baby and I, but until it gets to that point, I’m just going to embrace what my body is doing to create this little miracle. Like all forms of life, she truly is a miracle.

I have to say, I have been absolutely blown away by all the love and support from you all. It’s seriously so amazing to see such encouraging, positive, confident humans supporting another woman’s journey in life.  You tell me to post more bump pics, you message me to ask how I’m doing, you encourage me during the not so sure moments and you share your stories with me.  That is what human interactions are about. You’ve all added so much to this experience and I’m so happy that by sharing our story we have been able to provide hope to those of you still trying and encouragement to those of you going through pregnancy with us.  We love you tons! Hugs, E