Our Journey: Life Before & After Our Miracle : December 2013

Thursday, December 19, 2013

We can breathe a sigh of relief!

Last Friday evening, around 6 p.m., I tripped on a step and fell. I landed on my left knee first, and then belly flopped right on my stomach. (probably looked just like a beached whale if I had to guess). Anyways, as soon as I fell, I had a sinking feeling that I had hurt Skylee. I decided to monitor her movement for the next couple hours, and just see how things went. I felt her move shortly after my fall, which was kind of relieving, but as the minutes went by I began to have lower back pain and I'd go through periods of my stomach having this weird tightening/pressure pain sensation. After about an hour, I called my doctor's office and got answering service. The doctor called me back right away. He said he figured I was fine, that these things happen all the time, but just to be on the safe side, I should go in to the Labor & Delivery department and get monitored. As soon as I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the machines and gave me lots of water to drink. About 45 minutes had gone by, and the nurse told me that things were looking really good and I'd probably be going home soon. 5 minutes later she checked the monitor again, and my body had started having contractions. They decided to keep me another hour and monitor the contractions, as some contractions are normal in pregnancy. Rule of thumb at this stage is not to have more than 6 in an hour. About half an hour after she restarted the hour of monitoring, she came in because I had already had 9 or 10 contractions. They gave me a pill and a shot in my arm to stop the contractions. The shot was probably one of the most painful shots I've ever been given, but the medicine worked and I stopped having contractions. They sent me home on bed rest orders, and told me to call if I had more than 4 contractions in one hour.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling absolutely miserable. I felt like I had been run over by a train. Crazy how a simple fall effected me so differently being pregnant! I stayed on the couch all day, and about mid-day I noticed that I had started having sporadic contractions. I kept a close eye on it, and around 6 I decided to call my doctor again because the past half hour I had 6-7 contractions. They brought me back in to the hospital, and gave me Procardia right away (a pill) to prevent contractions. Then they sent me for an ultrasound (which I must add how relieved I was to see little Skylee jumping around doing alright). Everything came back looking good on the ultrasound. I had several sporadic contractions after the ultrasound, and they decided to keep me overnight to monitor me. I got absolutely NO SLEEP that night! Every time I'd get comfortable and fall asleep, somehow I'd mess up the monitor and the nurse would have to come in, wake me up, and readjust them. Fortunately, I didn't have any more contractions. Daniel got off work around 7:30 a.m. and came right over to the hospital to sit with me. Around 9 the nurse came in and told me they were going to let me go home, but that I was to be on strict bed rest till the following day when I saw my regular OB doctor. They prescribed me the Procardia pill which I have to take now every 6 hours to prevent contractions. As soon as I got home, I went to bed and the rest of Sunday is kind of a blur! I was so exhausted.

Monday I got up and my doctor had me come in to get checked out. Thankfully, she said everything looked good with our little Skylee and that it seemed as if she was finally getting the message that it WASN'T TIME to come!!! She took me off of complete bed rest (which I am so incredibly thankful for, as it would have broken my heart to be away from our families for Christmas) and told me to just stay on pelvic rest for a week or two.

I am very, very thankful that Skylee is still safe and snug inside my tummy. While I know that at 28 weeks it's very possible for babies to survive, I would much rather her stay inside cooking for a little while longer :)

28 Week Photo :)

Skylee's Growth for Weeks 25-28

25 Weeks: How your baby's growing

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — 1 1/2 pounds — isn't much more than an average cauliflower, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

26 Weeks: How your baby's growing:

The network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. She's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when she's born and takes that first gulp of air. And she's continuing to put on baby fat. She now weighs about 1 2/3 pounds and measures around 14 inches (about the size of a head of lettuce) from head to heel.

27 Weeks: How your baby's growing:

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (about the size of a rutabaga) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

28 Weeks: How your baby's growing:

By this week, your baby weighs 2.6 pounds (about the size of a large eggplant) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

The Story of Our Struggle

We met in 2009, and were married in January, 2012. We both decided to wait to have a baby, so that we could enjoy being young and newly married. Surprisingly, even with our precautions, we discovered we were pregnant in May, 2012. Sadly, the pregnancy didn't last long, and I had a miscarriage at approximately 5 weeks pregnant. We were both devastated. I struggled with the question of how I could love a little one so much that I thought I "wasn't ready for". After the miscarriage, we decided to stop using precautions and to allow a baby to happen when the timing was right. Almost exactly a year later, on April 30th, I received the phone call from the doctor that my blood test came back positive. I was sure this time would be different. I painted a shell (with the words "will you be our baby's daddy") to announce the pregnancy to Daniel (just like he proposed to me). We made Mother's Day gifts to announce the pregnancy to our families on Mother's Day. The day before Mother's Day, however, I started bleeding, and on that following Monday I received miscarriage confirmation. The first miscarriage was hard, but this one truly devastated me. I didn't want to function. I literally wanted to just withdraw from everyone and spend each day in tears. Thankfully, as a few weeks went by, I felt stronger and my heart was healing. Daniel was my rock. He held me, cried with me, and walked me through a really hard time in my life.

The doctors had told me my uterus is extremely tilted back, which kind of explained why it had taken me exactly a year in between pregnancies to conceive again. Actually, I had two different doctors tell me that because of the extreme tilt, I could possibly never get pregnant. So, knowing that, I really didn't think a third pregnancy would happen......at all, or at least not any time soon.

Only a month and a half later, I tested positive again (on Daniel's 23rd birthday). I immediately sent a picture of the test to my family and his family. I saw no reason to try to make some kind of special reveal like I had with the last. That only made it harder when I lost that little one. I went to the doctor and got blood test confirmation, and they began having me come in every other day to have blood drawn to see if this baby was growing properly. Things looked good, and the weeks began to go by. I started making it to little milestones.
We found out when I was 17 weeks that we were having a baby girl. Words cannot describe the complete joy and happiness I felt making it to the ultrasound for gender determination. As the weeks continued to go by, I grew more and more comfortable in my pregnancy, and the anxiety started to lessen. After going through two recent losses, it kind of steals the joy of pregnancy because you are constantly worried about "what if". In December, when I was around 24-25 weeks, I tripped on some stairs and landed right on my stomach. Not long after I began having contractions, and my doctor sent me in to Labor and Delivery. My heart was terrified. I couldn't fathom making it all this way with this pregnancy and then losing her. They gave me a shot and some meds to stop the pre-term labor, and sent me home. The next day, the contractions continued to come, so back to the hospital we went. They gave me more meds, and kept me overnight to make sure the labor had stopped. When they sent me home, they prescribed me with a medication to take every 6 hours. I took that medication from week 25 all the way to week 36, and our little girl continued to healthily grow. Currently I am 38 weeks pregnant and we are beyond ready to meet our little miracle baby.

I've had alot of people give me "the side eye" for being pregnant at 22, and for not waiting till after I finished nursing school (which I am set to graduate in May 2015). That was my original plan. But I am living proof that plans don't always go the way you want them to. When we lost the first baby, we decided not to try to control when we would have our first child. Because I've had such a struggle with my body carrying a pregnancy, I didn't want to possibly miss my only chance to have a little one. We don't regret our decision for an instance. I still fully intend to make it through nursing school, and even though we are young, we are fully prepared to take on the responsibility of little miss Skylee Rae Hester.

Our Journey: Life Before & After Our Miracle

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