First Trimester: This was fairly similar to last pregnancy, but I had a lot more nausea. I never threw up though, so consider myself lucky there! I was so glad to have a job where I could frequently work from home, so that helped out a lot...and then I sipped loads of ginger ale. I still had frequent headaches, but my prescription was awesome and would immediately knock them out. I was much more tired and lethargic this time-- probably because a certain Mr. L. sucks everything out of me! My weight started out the exact same as last time- at 131 pounds.
Second Trimester: Unfortunately with my first pregnancy I had to deal with moving, but then what were the chances that it happened again! This kind of caught us as a surprise, but it was a really good opportunity for Dustin's career, so we decided to move from Missouri to Texas. We wanted to act fast and get established in our new house before the baby arrived. That added a lot of stress to these few months of selling our house (which was a complete nightmare and makes me never want to move again). We came down to Texas for one house hunting trip and just pulled the trigger on a newly built house that was almost exactly what we were looking for. Overall I felt pretty good, but think I may have just been too busy and stressed over the house to really think about the baby or how I felt! I really thought my stomach would grow much larger/faster this time around, but I basically was always right on par with the first pregnancy or slightly smaller. At the 18 week u/s, the technician had said everything looked good; however, the nurse called a few days later saying not to worry but they found a possible shadow on the baby's heart. So in 4 weeks I would need to go for another u/s with better equipment. Of course, we start freaking out and researching this online (which I've determined is NEVER good to do with any sort of medical issue). Luckily it turned out to be nothing or fine, but just caused us 4 weeks of worry on top of everything else! In order to find out the sex of the baby, we had a picnic at the park and opened a box of balloons...and I really was so surprised to see pink! I was excited, but a crazy part of me was a little sad because I felt like Lachlan may be happier having a brother than sister. Hopefully they get along and are best buds though :)
Third Trimester: So, I was still uncomfortable, but not near as bad as last time. Thank goodness I didn't have the horrid rib pain I dealt with before. I think it has helped that we have some much more quality furniture in the family room now and a new firmer mattress. And I will have almost 2 weeks less time of being pregnant...woohoo! We moved at the start of the trimester, so I started with my new doctor's office. They structured it differently where they want you to meet with all the doctors in the practice since you don't know who will be on call when you deliver. I liked all the doctors, but it got a little frustrating feeling like I was constantly a new patient-- I finally just stopped doing it and scheduled all my appts with the same doctor. We also had to deal with deciding on a hospital- there were 3 options. We toured the first one together and I HATED it. It was small and very outdated- I'm talking VCRs in the room and just horrible decor. They also just had really strong philosophies on things that weren't me-- for example, basically force you to keep the baby in your room at all times. Um hello- my plan is that I would like a LITTLE bit of rest while there, even if that means the baby has to go to the nursery. We decided on Baylor McKinney to deliver at- the hospital was just opened last year and was really nice. At 38 weeks, think I had some sort of flu and had to cancel my dr appt that day.
Night Before Delivery: It is the night before the c-section and it's hard to believe that the time is truly here and tomorrow we'll be holding a little girl! The last few weeks have had some rough days and some easy days, but overall I am so done with being pregnant. I've had the rib pain/pressure again, but at least it isn't constant...but seems when I don't have that then I have pain down lower and frequently extends into my right leg. We are sleeping on a mattress on the floor cause the movers and my husband broke the bed. I am so nervous cause really need it fixed by the time I'm home from the hospital or I don't know what is going to happen. I am really interested to see how Lachlan reacts to the baby- we've been trying to prep him as much as possible during the last few weeks, but I don't think he comprehends much. I think it helps that he now sees a crib and room getting ready. He has really enjoyed trying to climb into the baby toys- loves to rock in the carseat and getting in the whale bathtub. He has my old cabbage patch doll that he roughly tosses around and plays with- no concept of gentle at all. I'm just very nervous he will have no concept and try to pick up the baby or something...and he doesn't really listen when we say "no." So I just don't know what to think of how he'll be! I also hope he does well with visiting us at the hospital and understands it is just temporary and we'll be back home soon. So it seems by default we have settled on Makenzie as the name-- we both just haven't put a lot of effort into looking and seems easy that we agreed on this one. Been debating the spelling the last couple days, but I kind of like it without the 'c.' We decided to bank the cord blood, but then last minute (aka night before delivery) I decided we should just do the cord lining/tissue too. This whole topic actually stressed me out, but at the end of the day felt like it was worth it to pay to do this cause I'd be kicking myself later if God forbid we could have used it. I still need to pack the suitcase in the morning, but pretty much have most things together to bring to the hospital. I'm excited to meet her, but also just so nervous that she'll be healthy, so just need her to arrive and get that reassurance!! I am looking forward to the hospital stay which I refer to as my "vacation"-- i really feel like I just need some time to rest and have people wait on me. My final weight is 149, so only gained 18 lbs, which is less than last time....pretty pleased with that!
Here are our baby guesses (Spoiler alert: Dustin won again getting closer on 2 of the 3 categories)...
Weight: Amy- 8 lbs; Dustin- 7 lb 3 oz
Length: Amy- 21.5 inches; Dustin- 20.5
Time: Amy- 12:13 pm; Dustin- 1:17
Birth Day and Hospital Stay!
Picture with Lachs just before we headed out the door-
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| Swimming in this onesie |
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| Bringing little sister home! |
My Recovery
All I can say here is it was a BIG FAT AWFUL! Why on Earth would it have been so much worse this time around?! I was in so much pain in the hospital most days and could barely walk-- the nurses had to really force me out of bed to walk around. With Lachlan's birth I as voluntarily up and moving around the room with no issues or pain really at all! Then I got home and the first days at home were awful and lots of tears. The pain continued on for a couple weeks before it was fully gone. I really don't know what makes the difference, but with Lachlan I had used Percocet and this time they gave me 1 Percocet and then the rest Norco. I basically felt like I had no pain meds in me though cause it didn't make a difference when taking them. The other difference was with Lachlan they would wake me to give me the pain meds and this time they would just tell me to call whenever I woke up or wanted them...so I think maybe the pain just got out of control at the beginning and then I could just never get ahead of it and keep it reasonable?? This time around they also installed some "pain ball" that was supposed to be awesome and was in for the few days after the surgery...obviously wasn't so awesome for me. I really don't even know how to describe the pain, but it just burned very very very badly and was sore/tender and very hard to go from laying down to sitting up. I really don't know what I would do if I had another baby- the recovery was so bad that I don't know that I would want to try a c-section again...it wouldn't be a no-brainer decision like it was this time around!
