Category: Parenting

Name Game

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I thought naming our dog was hard, I was wrong. Naming our peanut was so hard and stressful. He didn’t have a name until when we were getting ready to be discharged from the hospital and I had to tell Carl to pick. Our top name was taken by a relative in the family and we had to go back to square one on our list. We had about 3-5 names  and Cameron was in our top 3. That was the name that fit our little man the best. We wanted a name that when we were yelling his name in the neighborhood it would sound good. We wanted a name that when it was being announced at sporting events it would sound solid. So Cameron it is! His middle name is Carl’s middle name and Carl’s dad’s first name. When we picked Cameron, we didn’t know too many of them now we hear that name everywhere. He definitely looks like a Cameron. 🙂

We are so in love!

Almost 29 Hours Later….

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Tuesday 1/3/17 at 1:30pm checked into the hospital.

2:00pm we were in our labor room, I was in the awesome hospital gown, monitors hooked up to me, IV in arm and waiting for doctor. They don’t mess around. My body was not showing any signs of labor signs. My OB said we need to trick your body into thinking its in labor. So the plan was to do the cervical ripening pills, in order to break my water and then pitocin. My OB did a order for 6 pills, she said most woman don’t need more than 3 pills to get the show on the road. Well, I have never been like the majority, so why would I start now and my labor wouldn’t be. I had to have 5 pills, they put one in every 4 hours, I had to lay flat for the first hour after they put it in. They checked on me and baby almost every half hour.

This is still Tuesday 1/3/17-remember.

It was finally on Wednesday 1/4/17 around noon when my OB checked and I was only 1cm dilated, she broke my water. We thought ok shouldn’t be much longer-NOT!!! They started the pitocin it was then we started having problems. I had bad back pain, from the crappy bed and contractions. I haven’t slept at all because they kept coming in to check on me and baby. It was finally 2:00pm Wednesday that I said I would like the epidural, I needed to rest. I was so tired and exhausted when the guy was trying to administer it, I was falling asleep and I remember crying and saying I was sorry for falling to sleep. Once it was in and hit-holy crap-instant relief.

I was getting pitocin through the IV and baby was getting stressed from the contractions. I was on oxygen and fluids for baby  probably 80% of the time during this process. It was Wednesday evening, when the nurses saw every time I had a contraction baby’s heart rate would drop and have to work hard to get back to normal.

At 6:30pm the on-call OB came in and said she isn’t liking what she sees and baby is becoming distressed that we are going to do an “immediate” c-section. AKA emergency c-section, the only reason they didn’t call it emergency was because they could schedule it. It was scheduled for 7:00pm.

I remember when the OB said this Carl looked at me and I saw tears in his eyes and he said holy cow, he’s coming, its real now. I told Carl he couldn’t cry, because I had to stay calm. He was a great partner during this whole process.

At 7:20pm on Wednesday 1/4/17 our beautiful healthy baby boy was born. He weighed 6lbs 5oz and was 19 3/4in in length.

     

      

We are so blessed beyond words!

“Hey Lady, Looks Like We’re Going to Have a Baby!!!”

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If you have been following my pregnancy story, over the last 10 weeks I have been going to the doctor twice a week to do BPP ultrasounds to check on baby. I was sick the Thursday before and stayed home Friday. All sick I went to my weekly appointment, peanut passed all of his points in the ultrasound. The sickness took over me through the weekend, good thing Monday was a holiday. Back to work on Tuesday and another ultrasound appointment that morning. Our peanut did not pass all of his ultrasound points and they had to fit me into my OB’s schedule that morning, I was not scheduled to see her. Little did I know what was going to happen next.

My OB walked into the room and said, “Hey Lady, looks like we are going to have a baby”!

My reaction: I started laughing and said serious?! She was very serious. She said my amniotic fluid was low at about a 4 (I was at an 11 the Friday before), it dropped because my placenta was starting to age, therefore not getting the vital nutrients to peanut. It was now about 10:30am and she asked when I could be back to the hospital to get checked in to be induced; I said 3pm, she said no sooner, I said 2pm and we agreed. I WAS IN SHOCK! 8| I had to stop by work to pack up my desk and then go home to get Carl.

I only called my sister on the way home to ask her to get Arie. I felt like my emotions were in check the whole pregnancy; however, when we packed up the car and had to leave Arie home, I cried. He looked at us and knew something was up, he wouldn’t take the treat. He stuck close to me the whole weekend when I was sick, I’m sure he knew peanut was coming. I called our parents on the way to the hospital.

Let’s get ready for the roller coaster that is coming next!

 

Baby Shower #1-Wild Rumpus Here…

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Our first baby shower was hosted by my mom and I know my pa helped a little! 🙂 I have called baby wild thing because he really likes to move and wiggle. My mom took that and wanted to do the Where The Wild Things Are theme for the shower, it turned out great! She was so creative and worked hard to find the cool decorations! We decided on soup, bread, veggies, hot apple cider and sangria. The guests had a lot of fun.  My mom out did herself and it was such a special day! Our peanut is loved by so many and he doesn’t know it yet! 🙂

Here are some fun photos from the shower!

 

Thank You Mom and Pa for throwing us a fun baby shower!

We are so grateful!

The Journey Begins…

Blondie1 Comment

Based on the consult I had back at the end of 2015, the specialist from the U of M OB’s and my autoimmune specialist said that I would be considered a high risk pregnancy because the baby is at risk for congenital heart block due to my positive SSA/SSB antibodies. During a certain timeframe during pregnancy baby would be at the highest risk for me to pass those antibodies; so he needs to be watched carefully. My care team consists of the OB’s from the U of M, the Pediatric Cardiologist team from Children’s and then my high-risk OB at my clinic. The U of M team and the Pediatric Cardiologist team are who set the plan for baby’s care.

My plan consists of the following:

  1. Weekly doptones to assess fetal heart rate starting at 16 weeks to 32 weeks
  2. Fetal Echocardiograms every 2 weeks from 19 weeks to 28 weeks- this recommendation had just been increased by the pediatric cardiologist board. So in the off weeks I would have to go in to do the doptone testing
  3. Fetal growth ultrasounds every 4 weeks starting at 23 weeks
  4. Weekly Biophysical profile ultrasounds starting at 28 weeks
  5. 2x weekly Biophysical profiles ultrasounds starting at 30 weeks

Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time at the doctors office. We are very fortunate that they are watching baby very closely. It does seem that when someone new looks at my chart and the recommendations, they are surprised at how often I am in the office. Since 16 weeks, baby has seen a doctor at least once a week and I have seen baby on an ultrasound.

I have conflicted feelings about the frequency of the appointments- yes, we are grateful and it’s exciting, but every appointment I walk in to, I still hold my breath and hope everything is ok and have to wait for the doctors to tell us so. It makes me anxious, it is stressful and exciting all at the same time. There were times we would have to wait at minimum for an hour during an echocardiogram so they could get the right angle of baby’s heart to get the picture they want. It’s a little intense!

This is quite the journey that we are embarking on.

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Here are a couple of photos from our fetal growth ultrasounds. It is pretty crazy the technology they have so you can see babies!

 

 

Gender Reveal

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We had a September cookout with our families. That is when we decided to do our gender reveal of our little peanut and we used cupcakes with the colored buttercream filling. I connected with a local girl who bakes cupcakes and cakes and was fabulous.

We had a fun afternoon, we did a cookout with our parents and siblings. We used the cupcakes as our “dessert”! It was so much fun to be able to share this moment with our families and have them be apart of it! My sister did a great job of keeping the secret. She worked with the baker to have the cupcakes made. This was rather emotional for me, because before, I had baby BUT know I am learning that it is a boy or girl that I have to raise, that’s a tall order! We had my little sister video tape the reveal so we could message it to family who couldn’t be there with us.

Here are a few photos that were snapped by family.

We are so excited for our little boy! 🙂 ❤

Little Peanut

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We had our 8 week appt the beginning of June and our 12 week appt at the beginning of July. We kept it a secret from family and friends until we finished our 12 week appt. At the 12 week appt, I did the genetic testing to make sure that nothing was present that we didn’t know about it as I am adopted and don’t know my family history. After we got our results back, we asked the nurse to put them in an envelope so we wouldn’t know the gender and decided to do a gender reveal with our family in September.

One of my sisters was bummed that we didn’t let her know sooner; so we decided to make her the keeper of the gender for the reveal. We decided to do the reveal with cupcakes. My sister had stayed at our house to watch Arie and we left the envelope for her and she left a gift for Carl. She said it was hard to open the envelope and actually know what the gender is and she had to keep a secret for a few weeks.

 

The unexpected can be expected…

Blondie1 Comment

I have shared the health stuff that I have encountered over the last few years. 5 years ago I was diagnosed with Celiac’s and more recently, 3 years ago I was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome. This causes dry mouth and dry eyes and can be accompanied by RA or Lupus. When I have flare-upsI have to go on a steroid and everything hurts, I get chest pains, dry sore throat, joint/nerve pain and inflammation.

Last winter, I had asked my specialist if there is any risk if I were to get pregnant. He said because I have SSA+ and SSB+ which is the blood test that diagnosed me with the syndrome. The SSA and SSB can be transferred to the baby and put the baby at risk for congenital heart block. He also would consider me a high-risk pregnancy if I were to become pregnant. Also on top of it with Celiac’s you could have troubles getting pregnant in general. This made me nervous, scared and apprehensive.

So back in May, when we had our housewarming party/Carl’s 30th party, which was a blast. However, that Sunday morning I had a feeling and also heartburn, which was probably from all the jello shots my brother made and the elk cheese dip my sister made.

That Monday May 9th when I got home I took a pregnancy test and guess what?

That test was POSITIVE!!!

I texted my best friend a picture of the test who is also pregnant and asked her if they lie. She said, nope they don’t.

I was so conflicted, Carl’s birthday was the next day, but his sister’s wedding was that weekend, I did not want to say something and then it slips out. So I kept the secret my own for a 1 week. It was hard, I was tired, hungry and always having to pee. I know Carl wondered what was wrong with me. lol

When we got back, that Monday, 1 week later I took another test to be sure. It was also positive. I decided to put a little present together for Carl and pretend it was a birthday gift someone left. I put to cute notes in there, the positive tests and a Pink Floyd onesie-one of his favorite groups and a bag of peanut M&M’s but I ate those.

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This was a major surprise to us because we were not sure what our fate was. We will discover that we have a long road ahead of us.

We are beyond blessed with this miracle we were given!