While our excitement and thankfulness has remained high about the fact that I'm blessed to have the opportunity of being pregnant...pregnancy is nothing like I had anticipated. Its been much more difficult than I ever had imagined. During the 1st trimester, I spent 8 weeks unable to leave the house as I was sick with morning sickness 7-8 times a day, EVERYDAY. Until reaching a peak at 10 weeks pregnant in which I threw up 15 times, resulting in getting dehydrated. It was a very rough time. However, at 12 1/2 weeks, the sickness tapered down to me throwing up every two weeks for two days at a time. It was like clock work. So while I was still sick, I was able to function again and feel like a person. That pattern continued until 20 weeks pregnant, when it changed from every two weeks, to me throwing up 1 day every single week. This continued to 26 weeks pregnant, in which I caught a flu stomach bug (as if I hadn't been throwing up enough right?) Between throwing up and having a fever, I was a mess. My doctor had called in a prescription for me to help stop the throwing up, but I still wasn't able to replace the fluids I had lost already. So Josh took me to the hospital and they kept me overnight to monitor contractions since I was so dehydrated. They hooked me up to a heart monitor to monitor Jackson and this ended up being a very nice distraction from how bad I was feeling. Because Jackson began playing with the monitor. It was hooked up on the outside of my stomach, but he began kicking and bouncing off of it. It was so funny to be able to feel him kick it, hear it through the monitor and then see it as the doppler bounced up and down every time he kicked it. He did it for over an hour before I felt him settle and fall sleep. He tends to sleep in the same position often. I know this from previous ultrasounds and he was always sleeping on his face with his little feet tucked under. and also when he settles to sleep, he tends to curl up in a way that makes me a bit short of breath, lol. I'm definately able to breathe easier when he is moving around. I love being able to see his little personality already as he has started to react to loud nosies (particularly our coon hound Lucy, lol) and started pushing back when Josh gently pushes my stomach. Without fail, I smile every time I feel him move. :-)
After spending the night in the hospital, I was released to go home with instructions for rest and lots and lots of fluids until the virus ran its course. My doctor told me I might get a few contractions, but that she wouldn't be worried unless I had too many close together. Thankfully, I only ended up getting 2 contractions (ow!) and that was it. So 6 days and 6 lbs lighter, I finally kicked the virus and felt better. YAY! Now that I'm in the last week of my 2nd trimester, I have no idea what the 3rd trimester is going to bring. I'm hoping its a break from morning sickness, but based on how the past two trimesters have been...I doubt its likely. But we'll see.
Despite me having a difficult time being pregnant, I'm incredibly thrilled and grateful that Jackson has done wonderfully so far. He's growing right on track and we haven't had any scares or reasons to worry about his health. My doctor has been very happy with my overall health and I've had no major complications as of yet. So we have a lot to be thankful for. :-)
After researching it, we decided that I'm not going to be using an epidural as a way of coping during the labor and delivery process. I just couldn't feel comfortable with it even after taking a class at the hospital about it. So I talked to Josh and we decided to investigate what other options I had in the form of pain management and laboring through a more natural process. I believe that God designed my body with the ability to give birth, but I'm a big believer that preparation paired with instincts bring the best results, so I definitely wanted to do my best to be prepared. After researching, we decided that we wanted to hire a doula to go to the hospital with us to help be a support during the labor and delivery process. From what we read, births that have the support of a doula tend to progress quicker, have less stress induced reactions, less interventions, and easier transitions learning/adjusting to breastfeeding. Which are all goals of mine. Both Josh and I try to do least intervention possible when it comes to medicine (we seek out medical care, but we try to live a healthy lifestyle and make adjustments first instead of just popping a pill). So since this is the 1st time that we're going down this road, we thought having the extra support of a doula would be a great idea. So I found a lady that has been working as a doula for the past 5 years and even has 4 children of her own. So she's pretty experienced in this area. We've set up to interview her in a week and I'm pretty excited about it. I know that labor and delivery are not going to be easy for me to go through, and so I figure there can't be too many encouraging people around when I'm reaching a point of exhaustion. Josh is excited to meet her as well since its just one more step closer to meeting our little boy. :-)
Just 90 more days to go! :-)
this was me 3 weeks ago at 24 weeks pregnant.
