I Have OFFICIALLY Beaten IC!!!!!!!!!!

I am thrilled beyond words to announce that we now have another boy to join our family! Our little miracle cerclage baby arrived on Monday September 5th at 38 weeks 6 days!!!!

The day was absolutely PERFECT and labor and delivery could not have been any better to be honest. I truly feel like my experience was so wonderful to make up for all of the hard times that we have been through.

My mom arrived here at the house to pick up hubby and I at about 7am. I was very surprised because I was not nervous at all and even said to my mom that I was more nervous on the day that we were heading to hospital for me to have my cerclage placed. Hubby was more nervous than me I think, but I think his excitement played into this big time.

We arrived at labour and delivery at 8am and we were immediately placed into the room that I would be in for delivery. I met my two nurses and WOW was I ever impressed. They were incredible with me and very understanding and compassionate. I was very lucky to end up with the two nurses that I had. I honestly believe that my doctor had talked to them prior to me arriving. At 8:45am my amazing doctor came in to break my water. She asked if I wanted to start pitocin as well but I said I wanted to just see what my body would do on its own first and go from there. She was absolutely fine with that.

Off we went to walk the halls to try and bring on the contractions. I really wanted to avoid pitocin if at all possible. However I was told that most times more than one method is needed for a successful induction so I knew it was always a possibility.

I have to say I am glad it was a holiday because the hospital is always deserted on holidays and therefore my walks and dealing with contractions were not on public display. I was relaxed and trying to just enjoy what I could. On our first walk of the halls I had seven contractions. We had to go back to the room to check baby on the half hour, so our walks by the time checks were done, were only about 20 minutes each. Second walk I think I had about 9 contractions. Third walk they were definitely coming on faster and lasting longer. On my check after that, the nurse told me they were still the mild ones and that they would only get stronger. I thought to myself, "how do you know they are mild?!" LOL!!! They were NOT mild and I knew labour was progressing quickly. The next time we went to walk, it just wasn't going to happen. Contractions were pretty much on top of each other.

By 10:30am I was extremely uncomfortable. The nurse asked me at 10:45am if I wanted an epidural and I told her no. She told me that the the anesthesiologist was going to be going in to a c section at 11am and would be at least an hour. That meant if I did want an epidural during that time, I would have to wait. After a few more contractions I decided to just do it so I could rest and be comfortable.

Epidural was placed however I was still feeling the contractions. They were not as intense, but definitely still there. Turns out about an hour later they realized that the pump that the epidural was running through was not working right. After a change of the pump things settled down.

At 1:30pm I was 6cms dilated and a half hour later I was 8cms. By 3pm I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. After just over an hour, I got to lay eyes on my beautiful, full term, healthy baby boy. I cannot even put into words how that moment felt. I had been asked by the nurses if I wanted the NICU team to be there for delivery to check baby over (for my peace of mind) or if I wanted to take the baby straight to my chest. That was a very easy decision for me to make. I wanted to experience everything I never had in the past.

At 4:14pm our beautiful son Lachlan Benjamin entered the world. He came out screaming and pink. He weighed in at 7lbs 11oz (much smaller than we were expecting for sure!) and was 19 inches long. Lachlan was a name that daddy really liked but to be honest it did take me a little while to have it grow on me. I didn't like it at all at first when he mentioned it but really grew to love it.

Benjamin was brought up by hubby as well a couple months ago. I had not really even thought of middle names at all yet for boys. Benjamin is my dads name and was also my grandpas. I of course loved the idea of using his name as our boys middle name because he has been one of our biggest supporters over the years and with the pregnancy of Lachlan.

And how incredible to be wheeled out of labour and delivery holding my new baby in my arms as we are taken to our room TOGETHER!!!!!!! I was really hoping to go home the next day however his bilirubin levels were in the high risk category so we had to wait until the following day to have the blood work redone. Thankfully the next day the levels were down but still in the intermediate risk zone. But we were still allowed to go home. Only TWO short days after giving birth!!! Our little man A was 227 days so this was just amazing for us to experience!

Speaking of little man, he was in the waiting room with everyone else while his baby brother was being born. This was the first pictures of them meeting each other.

Since coming home, A has been doing really well with his baby brother joining this household. Actually much better than I thought he would honestly. He already looks at him when you ask where his brother is and when you ask if he loves his brother, he smiles. I am so excited that he will now have a brother to grow up with!

I am loving every single second of being a mommy to two. It is really a big adjustment, but a wonderful one that I wouldn't change for anything. The toughest part has been the getting up in the middle of the night to feed, but the breastfeeding is again something that I always wanted to experience. The bond that I feel with him is again something that I can't even explain.

I really can't believe how good I feel either. I mean I really honestly don't feel like I just had a baby at all. The first few days my arms and shoulders were VERY sorewhich is a common complaint they said because of holding up your legs and pushing so hard. The only pain now that I have is down below if I walk too much or sit a certain way. This is expected though as I did have severe tearing that required lots and lots of stitching. But for just going through something so huge, I feel AWESOME!

Hubby and I are just totally in love. Lachlan is a definite blessing to our lives and one that we really thought at one time would never happen. Thanks to my main high risk doctor (who is in the picture with us below) our dream of having a healthy full term baby came true. It was definitely not an easy road, but the important thing is that he is here and we did it!!!

38 Weeks & Some Exciting News!!!!!!!!

Well, its official! We have a date for this baby to join the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Monday September 5th 2011 I will be getting induced!!!!!!!!!! Yes, labour day!!! haha

 

I had my regular Monday doctors appointment last week with an ultrasound first. Baby was estimated at 6.9lbs! So hard to believe since that is what A weighed on his first Christmas at the age 6.5 months. I was happy to hear this estimate as baby's growth seems to have slowed compared to what we thought it was going to end up being upon birth. Baby also scored 8/8 on its assessment that they do for breathing on its own and movements....again very exciting!

The doctor never did check my cervix last week or yesterday. The initial plan for yesterdays appointment was to do a stretch and sweep to maybe kick start labor, however I have a pretty bad cold and really did not want to try and get things going feeling this way. I don't think giving birth and meeting your baby for the first time while sick would be much fun at all!

So yesterdays appointment is when we decided on the "plan". And the best part of this plan, besides of course finally getting to hold this little one in my arms?! It is going to be my absolute FAVORITE doctor doing the delivery!!!!!!!!

Monday morning at 6am I will call labor and delivery and will be told what time to come in. She said normally to be ready to leave by 7am to be there for 8am. I think we are going to start with just breaking my water and hoping that contractions will start on their own seeing I am already 4cms dilated. Doctor said we could do that and give it a couple hours to see how things go and if things don't progress they will start the drip of pitocin. Or her other option was to do both at the same time to really get things going. However I am hoping to avoid the pitocin if I can so I will stick with option number one.

She also mentioned that I only have to stay for six hours after delivery and then we can head home. However I do not think I will be comfortable with this at all and plan on staying the one night in hospital.

I can hardly believe that this full term pregnancy journey is almost to an end! I never in a million years thought I would get this far and I feel so blessed! So, looks like 6 days from now we will become the family of FOUR that we have been dreaming about!!!!!!!!!!!!

32 Weeks, Lion Safari & The Wiggles

So, I am now at 32 weeks and 3 days! So crazy! I can't believe that in less than 53 days we will be welcoming our new baby into our lives. It began to feel very real Tuesday night when I ended up heading into labor and delivery to be seen as I was having a TON of pressure and I was very crampy when standing. I felt at times that the baby was going to actually fall out.

I had called our local hospital and asked the nurse that was on if they would be comfortable just checking a cerclage and she said yes. I told her what was going on and she definitely felt that I needed to be checked. She did tell me that if anything was going on that I would be sent by ambulance to my regular hospital anyways as I am pre term. She did say she thought I should call them and see what they said so I did that too. The nurse there told me it was pretty normal to feel pressure at 32 weeks but I knew that the feelings were NEW and uncomfortable.

I figured since it was already late that we would just head to our local hospital instead of going 45 minutes to the hospital out of town where I see high risk. I did know that the doctor on call was one that I never wanted to deal with when it came to any of my pregnancies (he was actually the whole reason I went with a midwife for A) but figured he would just be checking my cerclage and nothing else so I would suck it up.

We were in and settled by 9:45pm. The nurse was absolutely wonderful with us and knew that with our history we were pretty nervous about what could be going on. As great as it is to be 32 weeks along, we know that the baby is still not officially ready for this world and want him/her to wait as long as they can.

I was placed on a monitor and the little munchkin was crazy in there! This is the second time I have been hooked up to a monitor and it must like it because it then starts to move non stop. The nurse had asked me prior to placing me on the monitor if I was having any contractions and I told her no. Well what do you know, I had five in the 45 minutes I was hooked up! It was so wonderful to lay there and listen to the baby move around, his/her heart rate and feeling them move at once.

Turns out going there wasn't quicker because the doctor ended up doing a surgery and then a c section. It wasn't until 1:30am that he finally came in. By this point I honestly felt a TON better but figured for peace of mind to let him check me. Well, let me tell you it was HORRID. I have had three exams with the cerclage in place by my team and not ONCE did it EVER hurt like that. I was ready to honestly hit him it hurt so bad. It felt like he was ripping my stitch out with his bare hands. I can honestly say that I feel like he violated me. It was totally uncalled for. I would never in a million years let this man touch me again. I would rather give birth alone here at home than to have him deliver my child.

Turns out that all is fine and I was not dilated at all which is a great thing!

It kind of sucks because I have been thinking a lot lately about when I go into labor. With how fast I have gone in the past this is kind of a concern and a 45 minute car ride would be a long way to go while in hard/fast labor. So I had started thinking that MAYBE I would just end up going to Guelph, but the other night just changed my mind. There is no way on earth that I would allow this man to deliver my baby and my luck he would be the one on call. With all that I have been through in the past and with this pregnancy, I want things to go smoothly and I want this to be a wonderful memory, not something horrible and scary. So I just hope that I have enough time to get to the hospital and not have the baby in the vehicle!

I have been having tons of contractions yesterday and today so not too sure what to think of that, but so far obviously the stitch is doing its job, as I hope it continues to do! I see my team again on Monday and I am pretty nervous because this will be the day that we do another growth scan of baby and talk about the stitch removal. We are getting close to the home stretch!!!!!!!!!!

I can tell that the baby is definitely getting bigger as the movements are now getting to be uncomfortable at times. Baby is getting stronger too with those kicks and punches.

The past couple of days I have been having issues again with my breathing and heart rate but I see cardiology again on Monday so we will see if they want to increase my dose of meds again.

Tuesday we headed to the African Lion Safari for a nice family day. We got in for a super price as it was a camp day for kiddos that are part of CNIB. We met a lot of great new people! We all had a great time and think next year we may just have to get season passes as a family!!

Heading out on the boat safari

Train ride time!

The bus safari tour....

Little man riding an elephant with daddy!!!

As you can see we had an AWESOME time!!!

And in some other great news, The Wiggles 20th birthday....

Last Sunday I saw a commercial that The Wiggles were on tour. I had wanted to take A last year but it never worked out. I got onto the website for them and decided to fire off an email to them. After sending it, I was given a message that said that there was a very high volume of emails that The Wiggles received each week (thousands!) and therefore not every email would be replied to, but all would be read at some point. I figured I would never hear from them at all to be honest.

Well less than 24 hours later I received an email from their manager!!!! So what is the exciting news?! She has asked us to come on Sunday prior to the show so that A can meet The Wiggles in person backstage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was soooo excited when I got this email!!! I immediately text hubby and asked him what he thought about going and he said for sure. So Sunday we are off to TO to meet The Wiggles and see them live in concert! I cannot WAIT to see A's reaction!!!!

The Wiggles were the ONLY DVD played during his whole entire ICU stay for his trach. It was on almost 24/7 and just played over and over and over. Heck, we were even able to do an ultrasound of his heart with this video as the nurse danced and sang along. A stayed still for the entire procedure! hahaha

After receiving this email from the manager, this is just another reason that I know there are still wonderful people in this world who want to do what they can to make someone smile. And that she has already done!!!!