My Pregnancy Journal

The following is basically copy/pasted out of a word document that I kept during my pregnancy, when I wasn't too busy to actually write in it!

Feb. 1, 2012

Symptoms:                        Nauseous the past 3 days, all day long

                                         Sore/tender breasts for the past few weeks

Pregnancy Test:                 4:47pm- 2 pink lines = Pregnant

                                         1^st Phone Call- Dr’s office to make appt.

                                         2^nd Phone Call- 4:50pm- Jason, to tell him I was pregnant

                                         Jason’s reaction: “Oh boy... My heart is racing right now, I’m excited”

Feb. 2, 2012

Symptoms:                       Dry heaving from 6am-12pm; missed my first full day of work since Nov. 1, 2010

                                        Exhausted, waking up at night

Pregnancy Test:                2^nd Pregnancy Test, still Positive

                                        Dr. Appt. at 3pm- lots of questions, blood drawn

Preparation:                      Pregnancy Food- water, grape juice, ginger-ale, bagels, crackers

                                        Took picture of stomach, to track changes in belly bump

                                        Prenatal Vitamin

Food:                               Cereal, bagel, Pasta with Brocolli/Carrots + Olive Oil, Crackers

Feb. 3, 2012

Symptoms:                        Exhausted, waking up at night

                                         Dry heaving once around 930am

Preparation:                      Journal and Scale- to keep track of pregnancy stages, Prenatal Vitamin

Food:                               Cereal, Graham Crackers, Bagel, Pasta w/ Sauce

Worries:                           Miscarriage—have 6 more weeks to go, until I feel safer about having a successful pregnancy.  Scares me really bad to know I could lose the baby

                                         Parenting—Will Jason overcome his behavior issues, will I be a good mom

                                      Location—I want the baby to grow up around my parents, I want my dad to coach him or her in baseball and hockey, I want to be around Katie’s baby so they can be friends. Jason’s job is an hour away- need to find a compromise between the 2 places.

TO DO:                         Meet with OB/GYN

                                      Ultrasound for heartbeat around 8 weeks

                                      Set up pictures for baby bump, and family pics from 7-9 months

                                      Continue to take pictures of belly once a week

                                      Create baby scrapbook

                                      Save Money for Furniture, Diapers, Food, etc.

                                      Figure out location and job

                                      Tell parents on my birthday- will be 14 weeks by then

Feb. 5, 2012

Symptoms:                      Woke up at 430am with morning sickness, until 530am

                                       Fell back to sleep until 9am, with dry heaves once around 1pm

                                       Was finally able to eat without feeling sick

Food:                              Cereal, graham crackers, banana, scrambled eggs, pasta w/ pesto, pizza

TO DO:                          Call Ruth about making ultrasound appt. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012

Feb. 6, 2012

Symptoms:                     Threw up last night, around midnight for the first time since my symptoms began a week ago, last Monday

                                      Still extremely exhausted- went to the grocery store yesterday to get some more food and hardly made it back to the house without collapsing

Food:                                Still having a hard time eating without forcing myself

                                         MultiGrain Cheerios, Water

Other:                             Am going to try to go into work today; if I make it through the day, the part that I’m not looking forward to is lunch- going in the cafeteria is going to trigger scents that make my stomach uneasy

Prep:                           I have decided to wait until after a possible baby shower to start buying anything- makes sense to save my money until after I know what I’m not getting.  I look forward to having the cradle that my dad made- I think he made it when Michelle was born, but I believe all of the cousins have pretty much used it, I’ll have to ask

                                       Waiting to tell people, waiting for a baby shower, and waiting for the Ultra-Sound- I am not a patient person when it comes to this kind of stuff!  I want the baby to be here, but instead I have another 7.5 months- through the entire summer.  That’s a long time!! 

                                   Still don’t know what I’m going to do about my job, but I told Will- he said we would make it work, and I told him I was most likely going to move back down towards home to be close to my parents and family.

                                     Was looking forward to my baby growing up with Katie’s, but she says she will most likely be moving to New Hampshire in 1-2 years to be closer to Larry’s job.  Makes sense for them, but makes me sad! 

     I would love to move into my old neighborhood- built in babysitters with Grace and Abby, just use my parent’s pool, hottub, etc.  That would be amazing.  Plus I know the area, I loved it growing up, and I feel safe there… if only someone was moving out next door sooner than they planned- I’ll have to convince them!

Worries:                          I’m really sad that my Nana and Grampa won’t be here for this.  Glad that I don’t have to tell them that I’m having a baby without being married- but sad that nana won’t be there to bundle the baby after like she did with all the cousins, Shy, and Molly.

                                       I hope that Mat will hold the baby- he has never wanted to before with other ones, like Willow, but hopefully he’ll feel different about mine 

Feb 11, 2012

I’m exhausted, I can’t sleep, and I’m so hungry but I can’t eat!  Morning sickness has caused me to miss 3 days of work in the past 8, and I don’t get to see the heartbeat for another 3 weeks!!

Apr. 9, 2012

I’m 16 weeks pregnant, and have missed 2 months of updates in this pregnancy journal.  I’ve had 2 ultrasounds, one at 7 weeks and one at 10 weeks.  In the first one, the baby wasn’t even an inch long and all I could see was the heartbeat at about 155/160 beats per minute.  

 The 2^nd one, the baby was about an inch and a half- the ultrasound creates vibrations to detect the baby’s size and shape, and apparently the babies can feel it because “it” started moving and looked like it was doing a snow angel- wicked cute.  A month later (a few weeks ago), I heard the heartbeat for the first time, still at 155/160 beats per minute.  I will be having another heartbeat exam on Apr. 23, and then a few weeks after that we’ll find out the sex of the baby!

My morning sickness (dry heaving and throwing up) went away about 3-4 weeks ago.. I still get random feelings like I want to throw up, especially when I’m hungry or brushing my teeth.

I can see my baby belly a little bit, but the doctor says it’s mostly intestines and my bladder being pushed out of the way by the growing uterus.  My jeans still fit, but my mom says that she didn’t start showing until about 8 months.  Most start around 5-6. 

Worries:                 I haven’t been able to eat that many vegetables, but I’m trying to eat as healthy as I can. 

Apr. 24, 2012

At 18 weeks, I’m starting to show more consistently, and when people actually look at my belly they tell me that they can see it.  I still don’t know if I want a boy or a girl; I was much easier than my brother, but in general, boys are better than girls.  As long as the baby is healthy, I should be fine with what it ends up being!  I will know in a month, on my next appointment (May 21, 2012).  The ultrasound should take about 90 minutes for the doctors to look at all of the baby’s characteristics to be sure of the health.  I haven’t felt my baby move yet either, but it’s normal for pregnant woman to not feel it until they’re anywhere from 18-22 weeks, so I still have some time.  As for names, we have come up with Kaidence Marie, Raine or Rayne Marie, and Baylee Lawrence.  I’m not in love with any of them, so I will continue to search and listen for more.  Marie and Lawrence/Lincoln are definite middle names.  I’ve been able to eat more normally now- peanut butter sandwiches and eggs have helped with my protein, and I get my veggies as much as I can, especially when Jason is around.  He’s been great through all of this, taking care of me, cooking me supper, coming to visit every week he has off; he’s really excited for a baby, and I think he wants daddy’s little girl.  He likes the names Kaidence and Baylee, but of course, he’s the one who came up with them!  Mat told me a few weeks ago that I “better not name the baby anything stupid,” and suggested the name Mat for both boy and girl.  Lindsay also told me that Mat has said “I’m going to be an uncle,” and sounded pretty excited about it.  So I’m happy about that.  My pregnancy is finally public; all of my family know, and most of my friends- facebook pictures of my 18 wk belly helped with that one.  I hope that I keep up with this journal and taking pictures of my belly and my baby; I’m sure that I’ll have my camera with me at all times. 

May. 22, 2012

We had the gender ultrasound yesterday, May 21, and found out that it’s a girl!  She is very healthy, “beautiful,” and “long”, according to the technicians.  I was so relieved when I found out she was healthy.  She was very cooperative, and the ultrasound was almost over within 30 minutes (instead of 1.5 hrs), until they tried to get a picture of the skin over her tailbone area to rule out complete spinabifida; she did not move, and was pretty much sleeping the entire time.

As soon as we knew we were having a girl, Jason and I went to the baby store and bought our first gifts for her- a pink monkey and a 300 (ish) page Peter Rabbit storybook.

I have been feeling her move around/kick a lot more, and can tell that it is actually her kicking instead of just my stomach rumbling.  Today, I actually saw the kicks through my stomach. 

For Mothers day, Jason got me 2 pairs of shoes (blue and pink) because we didn’t know what we were having yet.  We also went to Bar Harbor this past weekend, and bought a homemade Sesame Street burp/shoulder “rag”.

New Blog Beginnings

The reason for this "blog" is that I find myself wanting to keep a journal online, basically.  I find myself having OCD-tendencies at times, and so a journal that I write in is great for instant memories and to have that personal feeling to it, but if I have bad hand-writing or put something down that's incorrect I need to start over!  So, online, there is no hand-writing and I can always come back, edit, or delete.

My journal that I have started is about, and for, my daughter.

I gave birth to a baby girl a little more than 3 weeks ago, on June 16, 2012.  On June 17th, my boyfriend, Jason, and I decided to name her Adalyn; after finding out that she was a girl a month prior, Adalyn had become my favorite out of the few choices that we had come up with. 

We found out that she was a girl only a month before she was born because Adalyn was born at 25 weeks, almost 4 months premature!  The day that I was sitting at home researching the different types of Lamaze classes, and looking up a professional photographer for my third trimester baby-bump, was the day that I started having contractions (Tuesday, June 12, 2012). 
I wasn't sure what was happening, all it was was a slight tightening of the abdominal muscles.  I had been bleeding for about 10 days before this happened, however, so I called the doctor just to be sure I was fine.  When I had called them a week before about the bleeding, I went in and everything checked out okay.  They said it was fine, as long as I didn't start cramping.  This abdominal tightening wasn't exactly what I would've called cramping, but it was accompanied by lower back pain, and that couldn't have been a good sign.  As soon as I called, they told me to come in and get checked out to be sure that my water wasn't broken....
"Water broken, at 24 weeks?  But no "water" is coming out of me, how can it be broken, I thought that was a pretty obvious occurrence?"
At the hospital, I had a lab test done to reveal if my water had broken, which came back negative- "thank you!"  Then the doctor came in, and decided to do it herself.. and it came back positive.  My water was broken at 24, almost 25 weeks.  They informed me that I needed to be sent to a different hospital (Maine Medical Center) which had more capabilities of helping a 25 week old premature baby survive.  The only way that they would allow me out of the hospital was by ambulance, in case I went into full-blown labor.  Yes, this hospital's nurses definitely knew how to scare somebody!  My contractions were about 2 minutes apart, but weren't very strong; at least, they couldn't be strong, because these didn't hurt at all!  "Is this the 'pain' that women complain about?  Can't be, this doesn't hurt!"  (I later found out, on June 16, that it wasn't!). 
I was given steroids to help my baby's lungs, and a medicine that would slow my contractions.  By the time my ambulance ride had started, they were about 5 minutes apart, and by the time it ended, they had stopped altogether. 
As soon as I found out my water broke, I called Jason, who drove down from an hour away immediately!  I also thought that the ambulance would be there quicker than it was, so while I waited an hour for him, I called my mom to ride in the ambulance with me.  However, I didn't leave for another hour and a half, so Jason was able to ride with me while my mom picked up my dad and headed to MMC in their own vehicle.  My brother also met me down at the hospital when I arrived, what a nice surprise for a 19 year old boy to leave his girlfriend's house and come to the hospital for his older sister!
I could tell that Jason was freaking out; his eyes were all red, and he called me several times while he was on the road- "PLEASE drive safe, she needs a dad when she's born!" 
When we arrived at Maine Medical Center, the nurses did more tests to be sure my water had broken, started me on antibiotics for fighting infections, and ordered me to bed rest for 10 weeks!  "10 weeks?  The nurses at the other hospital basically told me I was going into labor!"  No, Maine Med assured me that I could very well go in to labor at any point, but that they hope to keep me pregnant until 34 weeks gestation.  The possibility of continuing with the pregnancy, and not going into labor this minute, was definitely a relief for myself and Jason to hear!
For 4 days, I was on bed rest, with an hour of wheelchair time a day.  I was allowed to get up and go to the bathroom, and take a shower.  Jason stayed with me the whole time, only leaving to get his lunches and suppers from the cafeteria.  My parents came down a couple of times, took me on a tour of the hospital wing that I was on, brought me clothes, etc.. Other family members, such as cousins, aunts, and uncles, came to visit.  I learned that the March of Dimes donates supplies such as premie and newborn onesies, so that moms and dads could make their own, and keep busy a little bit out of the room if their nurses allowed it. 

Newborn on the left, Premie on the right

There are 4 floors in this section of the hospital- premature labor floor, which I was on for 2 days before my contractions started (12th-14th); labor and delivery, which I was on for 2 days before I gave birth (15th-16th); mother and baby care, which I was on for 4 days until I was discharged after my c-section (16th-20th); and the NICU and CCN, which my daughter is being taken care of on for the next 3 or so months. 
When I was moved to labor and delivery, the nurses were saying how they hoped my contractions would stop so that I could come back to the premature labor area still pregnant!  They were moving me just in case I went into labor however, so that I would be closer. 
On June 16, I started having contractions around 4pm, that were about 5-2 minutes apart.  For a few hours, this was how it continued.  Until the last hour, around 8pm, when they were around 1 minute-30 seconds apart and I felt the pain that people talk about!  Jason said he could tell when I was having a contraction just because I would basically curl up in a ball on the bed.  After a little while of this, a nurse said I was about 1 cm dilated, and that my baby wasn't handling the contractions well so they needed to deliver me.  Within 30 seconds, there were about 5 people in my room including a few doctors and the anesthesiologist. 
They needed to put me completely under, and Jason wasn't allowed in the room!  They didn't have time for any other way of delivery- "would I wake up, and what are the complications of having a regular surgery versus a c-section?".  When I woke up, I learned that our baby was doing fine and that Jason had been freaking out sitting in the room all by himself for an hour after they rushed me out.  He had called my parents and his parents when the doctors said they needed to deliver; they came down, along with my brother, and 2 of my aunts. 
Adalyn was born at 9:51pm on June 16, 2012 weighing 1lb 13oz, and measuring 13.3" long.  They actually said she was big for her size (Jason and I are both over 6 feet tall, so it makes sense that she would be!).  I just met a mother the other day who gave birth 5 months ago, also at 25 weeks gestation, whose son was 1lb 5oz. 

Past Blogging Mini-Adventure

I tried writing a blog before, a little more than a year ago; I didn't keep up with it though.  Written notes didn't transform into actual sentences on paper that I thought people may be interested in if they came across it!  However, here are the few segments that I wrote back in 2011, before I start my new blog.

June 4, 2011
My first two blogs were about finding extra things in life that you can do to make the world a better place.  In the past week, though, I haven't really done anything worth sharing.  My days pretty much consist of going to work, eating, sleeping, and watching my favorite shows: The Bachelorette, So You Think You can Dance, America's Got Talent, Bones, The Voice, etc.!  I also teach swim lessons and help to coach the swim team.  I'm a TV junkie, you could say- when I am out and about, or I start reading outside during the summer, I can't put the books down and I completely forget about the tv.  But all of my favorite shows are on all the time, I'm working on my computer with the tv on in the background, and it fills my day up with comedy!  Luckily, next weekend I'll be getting a break because it's the Relay for Life!  My mom got diagnosed with breast cancer about 5 years ago, so she has hit her 5yr mark of being a survivor.  My family: my dad, my brother, and I, started going to the RFL that summer.  A couple of my other family members showed up as well: aunts and cousins.  Now, it has become a yearly thing for all of us- all of my cousins and aunts, and uncles, come to the Relay for Life- we dance to the DJ's music, help raise money, and show support for my mom.
My Nana passed away a few years ago with a brain tumor; my Grampa 6 months later from a broken heart, but also from lung cancer.  My uncle died because his cancer was found too late; by the time they figured out he had cancer, he was already at stage 4.  Several other family members have passed away fighting it in the past few years.  It seems like whatever we do, we just can't avoid it.  All of the chemicals in the air, pollution, unnatural things in the food, and bad habits that we all develop: smoking, not exercising, eating processed foods, etc.  We're all just hoping for a healthier future, a cure, or to bring awareness.
For me personally, I think one thing that I may do this year at the Relay is put together a little list about things people can do to "help avoid" cancer.  Nothing we do will guarantee that it's prevented, but it could help, better than doing nothing!  So on Saturday, my family and I will gather at the track to help raise money for the American Cancer Society to recognize survivors and caregivers, and to walk in memory of those who lost their fight.
To those of you who don't attend these relays, please think about it!  Or at least donate :) 

May 21, 2011
I ordered a pizza tonight for dinner- mushrooms, spinach, and buffalo sauce.  When I took my first bite, I realized that onions, tomatoes, and red pizza sauce were also on my pizza- so, I brought it back to get it replaced.  When the cashier went to take the pizza from me, I asked what they were going to do with it- throw it away most likely?  Yes..  So, I asked if I could keep it.  Not for myself though- I brought it to the homeless shelter down the road.  A woman came to answer the door and I explained that the pizza place got my order wrong, so would they like it?  What use is a perfectly good pizza when it's just thrown in the garbage?  I've always asked restaurants if they could store their unused food and bring it to a shelter. Most are unwilling or unable, but it's always a good thing to put the idea in someone's head- at least then, maybe they'll bring it up to the manager. 

May 20, 2011
Winters in Maine are rough- when I was a kid, CMP workers were fixing a light outside of my house, and my mom and I made some hot cocoa for them.  A small act of kindness that I will always remember because of the way that the CMP workers responded to us when we brought it out, and they took a break and warmed up!
Just a smile can make somebody's day better, so try and remember to be the best person you can be.  I was driving down the highway last week and as I was passing a truck, the driver looked over at me and had a huge smile on his face as he waved- it made the rest of my day; whenever I thought about it, it made me smile all over again!
It's the acts of kindness that people will remember-- do I remember the horrible things that people do? Yes, but vaguely.  It's a woman at the post office that I remember, who, when I forgot my wallet, was willing to pay some money for me.  It happens that she is a religious woman, and gave me a small token to take with me as she passed over a couple of dollars.  It is a mini book that states Let Not Your Heart be Troubled.  Although I am not religious, this booklet is hanging by my door because it had been a long time that I had seen anyone perform an act of kindness- it reminds me of this everyday when I see it.