The Beginning

Okay so I don’t want to forget this (although it’s already been 8 months as of this coming Sunday!) so I thought maybe I could write some things down…

My pregnancy was an awesome pregnancy!  Seriously.  I was extremely tired the first trimester.  I would go to my car and nap at lunch and sometimes even doze off while at my desk.  Uh oh… haha.  Anyway, no morning sickness, no back pain, just hungry.  I craved steak and salad for the first few months.  After that it turned to anything orange.  Orange juice, oranges, orange popsicles, etc.  My the time I’d reached my third trimester I wanted fruit and milk.  Oh my goodness did I want milk.  I would go through a gallon by. my. self. within 2-3 days.  It was pretty crazy. 

I was big but very happy.  I worked out and did pre-natal water aerobics and even got a personal trainer when I was over 30 weeks along.  After a while I couldn’t go because I got way to uncomfortable to get on the elliptical and other machines. 

I tested just fine for gestational diabetes (aka, didn’t have it) but when I was 36 weeks along I was diagnosed with gestation hypertension.  My blood pressure wasn’t way off the charts but it was high and I was feeling crappy.  So I was put on bed rest. 

It was really difficult at first.  I’m so used to just being all go go go and here I had to stop.  The first week was hard but then I got used to it.  I’d play video games and read and I got a lot of things done that I kept putting off (like organize my address book). 

I started having contractions Saturday morning July 30^th.  At first I thought it was just gas that was stuck.  It hurt but then went away.  After about an hour I thought, hmmm maybe this isn’t gas and I started timing. I realized that I was starting to contract every 15 to 20 minutes!  I tried to go about my normal day (of laying around :p) and ended up going to Target with The Bage just to move around some and see if I couldn’t help things along.  We were at Target for a long time where I (luckily) had a shopping cart to lean on.  I just slowly waddled around there stopping when I needed too.  I felt like this all day and it went into the night when we called the doctor’s office when the contractions were 5-7 minutes apart.  They said not to call or go to the hospital until I was 2-3 minutes apart. 

Sunday morning I woke up and they were gone.  It was sort of disappointing but this time we decided to go to the mall and walk around.  We were barely in there 15 minutes when I just had to leave.  I wasn’t contracting but I was SO uncomfortable.  Plus, I didn’t have anything to lean my large self on.  The contractions stayed away for the remainder of afternoon and most of the evening.  Well, they decided to pick up again that night.  They were harder and more frequent out of the blue.  I started timing them and they were around 5 minutes but by the time 1:00am rolled around they were 2-3 minutes. So, we headed to the hospital!

They checked me into triage and determined I was indeed in the early stages of labor so they got me admitted and into my room.

The remainder of the morning I spent walking around the floor, bouncing on a ball and spent a good hour in the shower dozing in and out.  Finally the time came though when I was having 2 to 3 contractions back to back that I gave in and got the epidural.

That (in my opinion) was the worst thing in the world.  I could feel the needle IN MY BACK!  I pass out getting blood drawn mind you so yeah, not cool!  The anesthesiologist yelled at me because I kept jumping and flinching.  Finally she got it in and it was like night and day.  I could breath.  That was the big thing; I could breath and relax for a second.  And you know, for as wonderful as that felt I will still try and go natural with my second baby. 

I think I’ll save the rest for later.  I’m getting tired of typing!  I’m wordy, can you tell??

Pace,

Megan