Everett's Debut

The first four or five months that I was pregnant with Mollie were very difficult for me. I had extreme nausea and had a very hard time eating and keeping food down. Even water made me feel sick! But the last four months of that pregnancy were really nice. Sure, it was uncomfortable carrying a 10.1 lb. baby inside of me towards the end, but really it wasn't so bad. I was on bed rest towards the end because my feet swelled so much that I couldn't wear shoes to work, and I needed to keep my feet up as much as possible. But I wasn't in pain or anything like that. My time home was actually really nice. I went swimming every day, and took the dog on short walks near our house. It was kind of like a mini vacation.

When Mollie turned 9 or 10 months, Jordan and I started talking about having another baby. We both liked the idea of having two children close in age so that they could grow up good friends. Mollie was such an easy baby (sleeping through the night almost right away), that the idea of another baby didn't feel overwhelming. The first month that Jordan and I started "trying," was the month we found out we were pregnant! We were at our friend's house (Dawn and Chris), who had just found out they were pregnant about a week earlier. I mentioned to her that I had been feeling a little funny, and she told me to go ahead and try one of her extra pregnancy tests. I ran to the bathroom, not really expecting it to say positive... and then it said positive! I ran out of the bathroom and showed it to Jordan and Dawn. We were blown away!

From the beginning this pregnancy was much different than my first. I only felt sick a handful of times. Before having that experience, I swore that people who claimed they didn't feel sick during their pregnancies were liars and that they were simply trying to make others feel inferior. But now I believe them. Regardless, this pregnancy was awesome for the first few months. I felt pretty great! When we went to get our first ultrasound, we were told that we were having a boy. I was thrilled! Honestly, I would have been thrilled either way. From my viewpoint, two girls close in age would have been a blast. Sweet little girls, dressing alike, best of friends, etc. On the other hand, how great it would be to have a girl and a boy! Having one of each is very exciting because you have Daddy's little man, and Mommy's little girl (though I am seeing that Mollie has Jordan wrapped around her little finger, and everyone who has a boy tells me that they end up being partial to Mommy... so we'll see). The only issue we were facing at this point was what we would name him!

Before we knew that Mollie was a girl, we started making a list of names. We had a ton of great names for girls, but only one name for a boy: Oliver. Luckily, when we found out were having a girl, we had plenty of names to choose from... but not this time! We couldn't name our baby boy Oliver, because it would just be silly to have a Mollie and an Ollie (not to mention our dogs name is Denali). Jordan had a huge list of names, but they were unreal. His favorite of course, was Leroy Washington Trowell. I am not kidding. There were many more names similar in caliber, but I won't list them in fear of hurting other people's feelings (God forbid I put a name on here that someone picked for their own child or something!). Of course we eventually settled on Everett Davis, but that wasn't until the third trimester.

Within the next week I started having bad cramping in my lower back. The doctor said there was some blood in my urine, and he immediately sent me to get another ultrasound to look for Kidney Stones. At 18 weeks, we learned that I had both kidney stone gravel and full placenta previa, a condition that can be quite serious. Basically, the normal placement of the placenta is on the top side wall of the womb, but mine was below the baby, completely covering the cervix. In many cases, placenta previa resolves itself because as the womb grows the placenta migrates to a higher location (think about drawing a dot on a balloon and then blowing the balloon up; the dot doesn't actually "move," but rather migrates). However, full placenta previa has a much lower chance of resolving than when it is partially covering the cervix. The doctor put me on pelvic rest (which I remained on for the duration of my pregnancy... God bless my husband), told me not to lift anything heavy, and to take it easy. This is not easy to do when you have a one year old!

I quickly found out how difficult this was going to be.

Jordan works a lot of Saturdays, and when he was gone I wasn't able to pick Mollie up to put her in her crib for nap time. I tried laying on the floor with her... yeah right. At 13 months old, I decided to change her crib into a toddler bed. It was the only way I was going to be able to get her in the bed when I was alone with her. Much to my amazement, she took to it like a champ. For the first two or three weekends, we had a difficult time trying to get her to stay in the bed for naps (luckily, she went right down for bed at night... sometimes telling us she was ready for bed (saying, "night, night") and just tucking herself in! But still, I had to go in a zillion times and put her back in bed for naps. But, after the first few weekends of this, she stopped getting out of bed and went right down for her nap! She has been in a toddler bed ever since. I know that 13 months is a very early age for such a transition, but I really didn't have another choice. Thank God it worked out!

So with the transition to the toddler bed, and Jordan now taking Mollie to daycare, I no longer had to lift anything heavy (Mollie). I mean, I still carried heavy bags to and from work, and I'm not going to lie... I sometimes still picked Mollie up because how could I not occasionally pick up and console my tiny crying child? But the more I did this, the more frequent the cramping became. I told my doctor, and he basically woke me up. He explained the seriousness of the previa. He said that in almost all cases, these babies are born between 28-36 weeks because most women experience contractions and bleeding off and on throughout the pregnancy until they can't control the bleeding and have to take the baby out. If I didn't stop putting pressure on my placenta (by picking up heavy things and by simply bending over), then the results could be grave. If I went into labor too soon, then I would either lose the baby or hemorrhage. Other concerns he had about the placement of the placenta were due to performing the actual c-section. Apparently the placenta is made up of veins that are as thick as your fingers. Because of the low placement, he was concerned that they would cut into one of those veins during the operation, thus causing me to hemorrhage. In addition to that, the placement of the placenta greatly increased the risk that the placenta could attach and grow deep inside the uterine wall, rendering it difficult to just pull it out at the time of surgery, and instead, having to surgically remove it causing me to have a hyterectomy. Another possibility, due to a repeat c-section, was that the lining of the uterus would become too thin (called a "window"), making it too dangerous to have more c-sections. If a window occurred, I would need to have my tubes tied. As you can imagine, this was a lot of information to process. The doctor (who I love DEARLY) wasn't trying to scare me, but he wanted to be honest about the risks. He said the goal was to make it to 37 weeks, and "at this point, every week is a gift." That sobered me up.

Every time I started having contractions, I sat and rested until they went away, or I went to the hospital. This started happening on and off from 18 weeks on. I must have gone to the hospital at least 8 times. I dreaded going to the bathroom because I was so afraid that I would see blood on the tissue. It only happened a couple of times, and it was very light. Still scary, but I know just how lucky I really am (especially after looking at support blogs for the condition and seeing so many postings from all these women who had severe bleeding throughout their pregnancies or who had lost their babies... God bless them!).

In December, I got a job working in the ESE department at district office (prior to this I was teaching in multiple classrooms). This job couldn't have come at a better time. Aside from it being my dream job, I was able to sit a LOT more. Because of this job change, I was able to work a lot longer than I would have if I had still been school based. At every appointment, the doctor would say, "and your on bed rest, right?" And I would reply, "No, I'm not in the classroom anymore. I sit a lot more now and am able to take it easy." He would always reply with a hesitant, "Hmmm... Ok. Well, we'll talk about it the next time I see you." I finally started feeling so uncomfortable and in pain that I stopped trying to convince him that I should keep working. He put me on bed rest the following week (on February 16th), two months before my due date.

The last two months were CRAZY.

Right after I was put on bed rest, my placenta migrated away from the cervix. It was still low lying, but at least it wasn't covering my cervix anymore! However, my blood count became low (adding to the concern for hemmoraging) and the baby was transverse. Apparently it's pretty difficult to get a sideways baby out. The doctor said they have to kind of reach in there and feel for body parts... lovely. I also started getting more frequent and painful contractions, causing me to go to the hospital several times a week to get shots of terbutaline to make them stop. I guess my body kept going into labor, but there were no changes in my cervix or anything like that because the baby was putting no pressure down below (because he was sideways). So I had to just keep going back to the hospital and have them settle my uterus down. On one of my visits they gave me an ultrasound and discovered that the amniotic fluid was really low, so I had to get fluids pumped through me for over 24 hours. Lots of scary stuff.

The morning of March 25th, I started having painful contractions once again. I had just been to the hospital three days prior to this visit and had received my two shots of terbutaline like I had needed in the past. I was a lot less nervous this time around because I knew I had finally made it to 37 weeks. However, I wasn't prepared to actually have the baby yet because I knew that the doctor really wanted me to get to 39 weeks to ensure the health of the baby. As you can imagine, when he walked into the room and said I would be having the baby within the next two hours, I was really surprised. I am definitely a planner and like to be prepared for big events such as this (which is why having a scheduled c-section with Mollie worked out very well for me).

I had a million things racing through my head as the nurses were walking me into the operating room, but I really tried to focus on staying calm and letting go of my fears. Everything was out of my control and I needed to put my trust in God's hands, which is what I did. As they laid me down on the table I asked what the results of my blood were, and they said my blood levels all came back completely normal. That was the first thing that made me start to feel a little more at ease. Then, after the doctor entered the womb, he told me that there was no "window." Soon after, I heard the baby crying. I had a lot less pressure this time around than I did with Mollie. Apparently, as I laid on the operating table, the baby's position moved from sideways, to head down. Keep in mind that he had been sideways for two months straight. Unbelieveable! Last but not least, the placenta came right off, and the doctor told me that he had missed cutting into it by a hair.

I really feel blessed that I was able to overcome the odds. Even more amazing to me is how everything rectified itself at the last minute. I really learned a wonderful lesson from God: Stop worrying, and put my trust and faith in Him. I also really believe in the power of prayer, as I had hundreds of people praying for me and the baby. Now we are blessed with a healthy baby boy who literally sleeps 23 and a half hours a day, and his sweet sister who loves him SO VERY MUCH.

My healing has been way faster this time, and I experienced a lot less pain. After a week and four days I had already lost 22 lbs,, and was able to start picking Mollie up again. As of today the little man is 2 weeks and 1 day old, and we are all doing awesome. We have all adjusted very easily, and once again I have a great sleeper on my hands (he only wakes up once a night!). Mollie and Everett are really so amazing. I am enjoying watching all the awesome milestones Mollie is hitting, while also having a newborn baby in the house again. Life is great!

(I haven't downloaded pictures yet, but I will soon.)