Wednesday 24 April 2013

Pregnancy Update: Week 21


Well I figure now is as good a time as any to start giving updates on my twin pregnancy. I will try to update once a week, should be on Mondays. We are keeping the twins names quiet for right now and may not announce until they are born.

How far along: 21 weeks
Size of babies: Carrots
Total weight gain/loss:  -11 lbs. I am down still from my pre pregnancy weight, but slowly gaining a pound a week.
Gender: 2 Girls.
Maternity clothes: Completely in maternity clothes.
Stretch marks: One of my previous stretch marks from my pregnancy with Miranda has a purple top.
Belly Button: An innie, slowly getting shallow. I never did pop out with Miranda so I am hoping I do this time
Sleep: This past week there has been a lot of tossing and turning. I am finding that Baby A likes to  sit on my sciatic nerve and that causes a lot of pain. OR if I try to stretch out my legs I get a bad cramp from under my belly then off to the sides.
Symptoms: I am measuring at 31 weeks for a singleton. I am very tired all the time, and the sleep issues do not help. Trying to pick up my 18 month old over and over wears me down very quickly, so I do have to sit and relax a lot. And my belly gets sore when I am walking or on my feet for a prolonged period of time.
What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach. Other than that would be being able to do things without getting sore or tired right away.
Cravings: My cravings change on a daily basis. Some of my cravings have been Sausage rolls, chocolate covered pretzels, McDonalds, and CHOCOLATE 
Aversions: Nothing in specific... mostly everything. But that has slowed down and am finally gaining weight again.
Best Moment: The first time I felt Baby A kick from the outside and then a couple days later felt baby B
What I am looking forward to: Hopefully seeing my belly be kicked into weird shapes and my belly button popping out.

Monday 22 April 2013

Labor and Delivery...


October 18, 2011
We arrived at the hospital at 1:35am, and as soon as the security man saw us he showed us where to get registered. I signed all the papers and we were off to the maternity ward.
When we got to the maternity floor the put us in a room and checked me to make sure that my water broke and then hooked me up to a machine to check my contractions. After 20 min on the machine they checked everything, I was only 3cm dilated, and then off to the Labor and Delivery room I went. 
The nurse told me to walk a bit to progress my labor, and showed me a couple of different ways to labor. So after about half an hour I started to have really bad back labor. We then decided to try the walking thing. Down the hall we headed and we got to the elevators, I turned to Ben and said “I think I am going to puke”. We found a recycling bin and I braced myself over it. Nothing happened so I said I was fine and we headed back to the L&D room so I could lay back down. We took maybe 5 steps and up came my dinner, all over the floor and wall and Ben and my feet. Ben went to the Nurses Station and asked if there was a mop or anything he could clean up the mess. The nurses told us to just go back to the room and they would clean it up.
We get back to the room and again I threw up. Every time I moved I threw up. The contractions pain was so intense that was all I could do to stay sane. The nurses gave me two shots of Morphine and one shot of Gravol. It really didn't help. By 5:00am I was begging for an epidural. The nurses told me that I had to wait till 8:00 am at the earliest because that was when the Anesthesiologist would be at the hospital. Every time I had a contraction I would start to shake.
At 8:00am I finally got the epidural, I was still at 3cm dilated. Then they started pumping Oxytocin through IV. About 5 minutes into the epidural medication I felt nothing. I was so relieved. I could hardly feel the contractions. They had to replace the epidural medication twice before my angel arrived.
Ben called my parents and his mom around 8:30am and my parents came right away. My mother was in the room with us. We then made sure that the rest of our family was told right after. My younger sister and her bf came shortly after, and then the rest of the family came later in the evening when I was almost ready to deliver.
couldn't believe how slow my labor was progressing. At the nurses shift change, around 6:30pm, I was at 8 cm and the new nurse got me to start pushing. I was pushing for an hour and a half before my doctor came in the room at 8:00pm. I was so exhausted by this time.
My Dr. gave me some more freezing and then gave me an episiotomy. Ben said he couldn't believe how much blood I lost. Then at 8:56pm my little Miranda Grace was born.
For anyone calculating how many hours I was in labor from when my water broke… 21 hours. More than worth it!!

Saturday 20 April 2013

Preparing for the Hospital...


(Continuation from last post) This post is very descriptive and is not for the easily grossed out. Read at your own discretion.
October 17, 2011When I got home from my parents I started to “nest”, which is cleaning up and getting ready for baby. I also was doing my thank you cards from the baby shower. I went to the bathroom, at 11: 50 pm, and noticed slime in the toilet (TMI), then realizing that I just lost part of my mucus plug. I immediately rushed to my computer to check how long it takes to go into labor once you lose your mucus plug. The site I was looking on someone had said they went into labor 2 weeks after they lost their mucus plug. I was devastated that it could still be another two weeks but very excited that my little angel was on her way.
About 5 min after my water broke… all over my couch. I ran to the bathroom because I thought I just lost control of my bladder. By the time I got to the bathroom my PJ’s were soaked and the hall had wet spots leading to the bathroom. I was so excited but didn't want to get up till Ben came home from work (He works till midnight). 
After my water broke I had the most painful contractions I could have imagined. They lasted about a min and were about 5 - 7 min apart. I started to pack my hospital bag and was freaking out because I was so excited. Ben calmed me down and let me know that it might be awhile till she came. So, we decided to play some Lego: Batman on the Xbox for a bit until I could not handle the contractions.
At around 1:30am I could not handle them any longer. So I had a shower, we finished packing the bag and off to the hospital we went.

Friday 19 April 2013

The Road to Labor...

I will start by telling the story of the birth of my first daughter Miranda. This will be done in three parts.


***WARNING - To all expectant mothers, this was not the easiest L&D but worth every moment***


October 17, 2011
I woke up very impatient for Miranda’s arrival. For a couple weeks I had been in a lot of pain from Braxton Hicks and just the weight of her pushing down on my bladder and being so far out front. I was also concerned about Miranda coming on Halloween.
I couldn’t spend the day in our apartment, so I called my sister Candice to see if she wanted to do anything. Maybe walking would help get my darling daughter out. 
Candice picked me up and we went to the mall. While walking around I told her that I found online that pineapple would help start labor. On Friday Oct. 14th we had my Baby Shower and my parents had a lot of pineapple left over. So, we decided to go and raid my parents fridge and I would eat all of the pineapple.
After eating dinner at the mall we headed to my parents house. I started eating the pineapple and jokingly said “If I go into labor tonight I will laugh”. No one had ever heard of pineapple starting labor, so my family kept telling me that I was only making my mouth raw and nothing would come of it.

Thursday 18 April 2013

New to the blogging world.

Well here I am. After a very long time thinking about starting up a blog I am finally doing it. But where to start?

A little about our family:
Myself: Alicia - 23 years old, Stay at home mommy
Husband: Ben - 27 years old, Night Support Manager
Daughter: Miranda - 18 months old

B and myself met back in 2006 when we were working at RCSS. I was a cute cashier and he was the Electronics Manager. It was pretty much love at first sight. At first B did his hardest to have me notice him by packing groceries at my till and getting his returns for his department every chance he could get. Slowly it lead to coffee dates, then me breaking his heart a number of times, then marriage. We were married October 8th, 2010 and had our first daughter on October 18th, 2011. We are currently expecting twin girls due August 2013. I hope B does not go grey to quickly.