39.5

My last blog left you with a bit of a conspiracy on my hands. The doctors versus the nurses and I was stuck in the middle. What was I to do?

We checked into the hospital (I'm making it sound like a hotel or something). I went upstairs (no wheelchair, thank you, I'm doing just fine) and then I kept my mouth shut. Before I knew it I was in a room, then switch to an even larger room (maybe this is a hotel) and was brought something to eat (sorry, I didn't eat breakfast or lunch).

Dr. Lampert visited me and confirmed that Dr. Hernandez told her about my situation and then helped things along. Holy crap. Any mom knows what I'm talking about. The word "gush" doesn't even describe it. Needless to say, I'm very glad Aaron went to the cafeteria just before Dr. Lampert arrived. After that happened, Ella was on her way...eventually.

Dr. Lampert wished me luck and told me that Dr. Vincent was the next doctor on call and go figure, this was the one doctor I didn't meet during all of my pre-natal appointments. Great.

I still felt great and was talking to the nurses, hanging out with Aaron, texting, etc. Contractions started to kick in a bit more heavily at 4pm when they started the pitocin but Ella did not like it very well at all and I was barely on that. I ended up getting an epi around 5pm when I was about 6-7cm. From here until pushing started it was pretty relaxing, I didn’t even know I was having contractions…Aaron needed to tell me. We watched a bit of TV and just hung out. Aaron turned off the TV and turned on the music later on…I’m glad he did or else Ella would have been born to “Family Guy.”

I was fully dilated and she was low enough at 10pm. I started pushing at 11pm (though technically they count the hour before b/c I was full dilated and ready to go...). They said I was a great pusher and gave me a mirror so I could watch (even though I didn’t want one original…I was ok with it coming in. When the Dr. came I could barely see anything since she was right in front of it anyway). When I pushed I did four sets of pushes rather than the usual three…just because I wanted to. Ha.

So at about midnight Dr. Vincent came in and tried to turn Ella since she was sunnyside up (which is why my lower back was hurting so much…). She got her to turn but then had to leave and when she came back she was already turned around again. She tried one more time and had to keep her hand there for the rest of the time in order to keep her from turning again. Yes, that's way TMI but eh, whatever.

I kept pushing but she did not want to come down on her own…she was being very finicky and already showing her stubbornness (which she – admittedly – gets from her mom). After a few more sets of pushes she told me they would have to do a vacuum assist and I said that was fine…after all of this pushing (and time…) I didn’t want to have a c-section but if I had to…I had to. I’m glad the Dr. even offered the vacuum…she said that if I wasn’t such a good pusher she wouldn’t have offered and we’d be in the O.R.

During the second to last set of pushes I could feel her very close to coming out. At this point there were about 10 other people in the room including some doctors to help Ella. Since I had a fever and we were doing a vacuum Ella needed to go straight to her little bed and be checked by the doctors. During that last set of pushes I could tell everyone was getting a bit ready for a c-section but I looked at Aaron and said, “This has got to work.” I knew she would be out on the next set of pushes.

When the contraction came (which were now every 5 minutes giving me not much opportunity for pushing…) I really needed to dig deep and get this little one born! During that last set I pushed and saw her arrive…I immediately leaned back, said, “Thank God!” and kissed Aaron. My little Ella was taken away to her bed and checked over as daddy grabbed his camera and followed.

In all seriousness everything -- despite it being not the easiest delivery -- was so much better than I expected. The Dr. said it was amount her top 10 vacuum deliveries...I said we aim to be in the top of everything. She started cracking up. :)

It was such an enjoyable experience and everyone at the hospital was so wonderful. I was so proud of Aaron for being so strong during everything as well; he was so supportive and perfect.

I wish I could do it all over again tomorrow and I'm not sure if that makes me crazy or not, but it's 100% true.

My little angel is nearly 20-weeks old now and it's flying by. I never realized how quickly newborns grow up, but they grow up so damn quickly. Part of me is so happy to see her change each day and part of me wishes she'd slow down so I can let it soak in a bit more. No luck though, she's going to 18 before I know it (God, help me).

36...37...38...

The last few weeks of pregnancy are perhaps the most annoying and most wonderful. I loved them and I hated them at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I loved being pregnant and even at the end I was completely fine with lasting to the 40-week mark. I didn't mind being huge or seeing the scale hit a number that I had never come close to in my entire life. I didn't mind the fact that I couldn't go long distances in the car, or the fact that it was literally one of the hottest summers on record in Boston (thank you, central air). What I minded was not knowing when she would arrive. Yes, is the annoying part of pregnancy that every mother has to deal with.

My last post mentioned how I was told that I could go "any day now" fairly early on. I think it was week 36 or week 37 when I was first told that Ella was basically ready to go. I was 100% effaced and 3cm dilated and my doctor even said, "I'm at the hospital this weekend!" with a smile. And she's conservative. The conservative doctor who never indicates anything that might mean I'm remotely close to delivering said I might see her this weekend. "Oh my God," I thought, "I'm going to be a mom this weekend!"

Nope.

The anticipation was getting to me. Everyone expected me to go early, a week or two at least. They would call or e-mail or post messages on Facebook about when I was going to deliver. My response: "still pregnant." I didn't mind that they were asking, heck, I'd ask me, too. And, I kinda like that they were asking because it meant that they were excited about me delivering. And, that only added to the anticipation. But, my husband will tell you, I'm horrible with surprise. I love them and I absolutely hate them at the same time. I kept waking up every morning wondering if that was the day I was going to become a mom. I kept wondering where I would be when my water would break...or if it would break at all. I will tell you, that freaked me out more than anything. Not knowing then liters of water would come rushing out of you was weird...and scary.

But yes, I was "still pregnant." And I would be pregnant for a while, until that weird and scary moment happened.

My Life Will Never Be the Same Again

I mentioned in my last blog that I knew I was pregnant a day before I told my husband. I didn't tell him the day before because I wanted to be 100% sure before I told him. I remember driving home that day...the I-have-a-secret day and thinking to myself, "My life will never be the same again." And, I got a little emotional about it. My eyes welled and a tear formed...and so did a smile. I had a life growing inside of me and was now responsible for my body in a whole new way.

I had a wonderful pregnancy -- beyond wonderful. Besides being a little dizzy and queasy at night in the early weeks, I had no "morning" sickness (moms will know why there are quotes), no heartburn (despite giving birth to a girl with a full head of hear...2" long), no stretch marks, no crazy weight gain, no acne, no mask of pregnancy, no nothing.

Until week 34.

I went to the doctor's office for an exam and learned that Ella had finally turned in the right direction -- thank God. After weeks of reading about ECVs and debating about whether or not I should go see a chiropractor for the Webster technique or for acupuncture, Ella got a clue and figured out that she needed to do a flip. So, with a little good news comes some bad. My doctor did an exam and then asked me, "So, what do you do for work?" Immediately I knew what was happening -- bed rest. I said, "I own my own company and work at home...why?" "Well," she said, "let's just say if you worked at an office I'd tell you to stay home." She went on to tell me that I had to be on modified bed rest. This meant that I could get up to use the restroom (glamorous), make some lunch, and get back down on the couch. Lovely. My body was at 37 weeks rather than 34 weeks so I needed to try my best to keep the pregnancy going. Luckily my coworkers are all fabulous and completely understood and so did my husband. Aaron did just about everything around the house -- the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, the dishes, everything. My mom also helped on her days off from work which was a huge help.

When you're on bed rest you feel like a burden to everyone. I knew -- and so did everyone else -- that I had no other option and had no problem doing whatever I needed to do to take care of my body (and my baby). But, still, you feel like a burden. Somebody is cleaning your house, cooking your meals, taking care of your puppy, going grocery shopping, doing errands, canceling plans because you can't make it....blah blah blah. But, that's what needed to be done. At 37 weeks my doctor took me off bed rest but told me not to drive or go long distances -- freedom at last. I immediately got my hair colored and cut and did some shopping. Thank the good Lord. I was 3cm and 100% effaced and was told I could go any day now.

What a tease.

Hello, I'm Stephanie

I don't even know why I'm doing a post about who I am, because pretty much all of you know who I am already. But, here I go.

Hi. I'm Stephanie. Sorry I didn't say so in the first post, but better late than never. This actually reminds me of when I "met" my husband. Yes, we met on www.match.com. We e-mailed each other constantly one day and I realized I didn't even know his first name, so by the end of the day I asked him and he said, "Oh, I'm Aaron. My mother would be so ashamed that I didn't tell you that by now." Or...something like that. I immediately thought to myself, "Nice name...I could totally get used to saying that every day for the rest of my life." Sigh...I know. We knew 2-weeks into dating that we wanted to marry each other. I won't even tell you what he texted me the day after we went out on our first date (it wasn't anything inappropriate, it was actually a very sweet foreshadowing of the little girl we call Ella).

Ella is our 3-month old baby girl who is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen in my life. I know, I'm completely biased, but other people have told me the same thing so I'm going with it. It's a year ago right now that I found out I was pregnant (I have a pet peeve when people say "we're pregnant"). I remember testing and thinking I saw two lines but thought I was crazy because I tested early. But sure enough, the next day yielded a darker line and the blood test from the doctor's proved I was indeed pregnant. Now I had a secret that I had to wait to share with my husband until he got home from work. Did I also mention that I had a meeting at my husband's company that day with Embryo? Yeah, that made for an interesting meeting. All I could think about the whole time was, "I'm pregnant! You're sitting across the table from me and you're going to be a dad but you don't know it yet!" So, I had to hold my breath at the meeting as well as the entire ride home from the commuter rail where I picked-up Aaron at the end of the work day.

We walked into the house and I picked up a present under the Christmas tree and said, "Here, Santa left this for you." I said, "I know it's too small for you, but I know someone who can wear this in 9 months." It was a baby hat from his favorite band Phish that I had purchased a month before. Needless to say, we hugged and I told him about how I knew yesterday and it nearly killed me keeping this secret from him but I wanted to be 100% sure. I admit, it was quite thrilling knowing something so huge and keeping it a secret.

Since it was Christmastime we shared the news with our parents who were overjoyed. After the 10-week mark when we heard the heartbeat, we shared the news with our siblings who probably weren't too surprised, but were very excited for both of us. Aaron and I have seven (and counting) nieces and nephews so we were very excited to add to the family. Being an Aunt and Uncle to so many wonderful kiddos gave us some great practice for parenthood...or so we thought.

Next time...more about my nearly trouble-free pregnancy.