Um...hi?

Yeah....so obviously I fell off of the blogging wagon. Where shall I begin? I will start with July....

I went to my 33week appointment and had increased blood pressure, which was extremely strange for me, so the Doctor sent me over to L&D for some monitoring and lab work. Once hooked up to the monitors, my blood pressure soon dropped into normal range and the baby looked excellent, they were getting ready to let me go when the lab work came back reporting that my potassium levels were low. I asked the nurse what that meant and she told me to just "google it" when I got home...okayyyy. I was discharged with instructions to be on temporary bed rest, do a 24 hour urine collection and return the next afternoon for follow up lab work. Like a good little (obv that's a figurative term) pregnantt lady I did as I was told, returning the next day with my now full jugs, and completed another round of labs, I asked if I should stay but was told "Nah! Head home, just call your doctor Monday!". Pshhh. I wasn't home ten minutes and I got a call from the doctor saying I needed to head BACK to the hospital for a bag of potassium (K rider). Let me just tell you, if you EVER need potassium intravenously ask them to mix Lidocane in the bag because that stuff burns SO  badly. I finally left the hospital around 2am Sunday morning and was told to stay on bed rest and see my doctor Monday. I was diagnosed with Pre-E and told that we would likely be delivering at 37 weeks....whaaaat?! That was a short 3 weeks away! I will spare you the specifics, but I spent almost every other day in the hospital on the L&D floor receiving K riders and having my blood pressure and labs monitored. The last week of my pregnancy was hell, I was incredibly swollen, I was itchy all over my body due to increased liver enzymes, my blood pressure was still high despite the maximum dose of pregnancy safe blood pressure medication. On the bright side, I got to know the nursing staff at my hospital very well and developed a great repor with them (which I didn't realize how useful that would be during labor!).

On Thursday August 5th I went to the doctor trying to hold back tears of pure exhaustion. When the nurse took my blood pressure her eyes almost popped out of her head... 115/167...uh oh. The doctor came in and talked with me about my labs that had declined dramatically, did a cervical check (OUCH!...it's never good when the doctor says, "Man, your where is your cervix?! China?! Your throat?!") and told me that "Today is the day!". I was excited....and terrified. I was 36 weeks 3 days, and I couldn't help but wonder if everything would be okay. I think my biggest fear was that the hospital I was delivering had a nursery but no NICU, so if anything was wrong they would med flight him to a larger hospital about 40 minutes away. Nervous as I was, I calmly called my husband and told him to meet me at home, it was time to go to the hospital! We grabbed our bags and stopped for a sandwich before heading in (good choice), and I was greeted at the door to the floor by a nurse that I had gotten to know, telling me she already had my room set up...and she gave me the best room on the floor!

The Induction begins....
At 12:00pm the nurse got my IV started, which was easier said than done due to the fact that my veins were pathetic from the high blood pressure. Cytotec was placed and I was told not to expect anything for the next several hours, just to rest up. Leave it to me to be difficult...I began contracting immediately, one right after another with no break between. The contractions weren't unbearable, just exhausting as they went on for hours with out so much as a 30 second break between them, but at least I would start dilating quickly right? Wrong. The Cytotec lasted 4 hours...except they gave me 3 more doses. Hello 4am, no sleep, and I was dilated a finger tip...less than 1 cm. Perfect. The doctor explained that my uterus wasn't contracting in  a nice even pattern but rather was having crazy spasms. They decided to give me a 30 minute break (Thank you Lord!) and then began the Pitocin. At first the Pit was almost better than the Cytotec, I was having much stronger contractions however there was a 2-3 minute break between them so I could at least collect myself and be ready for the next one. My husband was fantastic at helping me breathe through each contraction. I had fully planned on using the Bradley Method and not using pain meds, however because of the pitocin and high blood pressure I had to remain on the monitors and in bed. NOT ideal. I was so tired at this point I accepted Stadol (IV drug) around 2 pm. This did nothing but make me feel like I had too much to drink. Around 4pm my blood pressure began to rise and the doctor asked that I go ahead with the epidural to help reduce my blood pressure, at that point I was just fine with that decision. The first epidural was administered, and the anesthesiologist did a wonderful job. They laid me flat and I felt amazing...for about 45 minutes. The pain came back despite rolling me from one side to the other, so the Dr was called back in to see what was going on. He gave me two boluses to no avail, so he inspected the epidural site and discovered that it must have slipped out of place. Another epidural was preformed, again with no problems, and I had pain relief for about an hour. At that time the pain came back so strong it was hard to breathe. The nurse checked me around 8pm and I was at 8.5cm, woo hoo!! I had a pretty full room, my dad, his girlfriend (I hate that term, she is my sons GiGi), my aunt, my cousin and my husband, oh and my sister was on skype the whole time! That is obviously way too many people as I was allowed 3 maximum, but that's where knowing the nurses came in mighty handy! I decided I could get through the pain and just keep going. Around 11pm I was at 8 cm...that's right...less! The pain was completely out of control and it was then we realized the baby was stuck. It was C-section time, and I have to say, I was ready to beg for it if they hadn't offered it. Everything moved very quickly my husband was brought in and my family actually got to watch through a window, they were unable to numb me (epidural still wasn't working properly...obviously), so I was given a drug that made me so out of it I probably couldn't have told you my name, but despite all of that....

At 11:33 pm....

After 35 hours of labor....

Our son was born! Jackson Eric Hageman....6lbs 5.5oz and 18.75 inches!

Obviously that is just the beginning of the story...but I will have to post more tomorrow!

Big and Stretchy.

That about sums up how I am feeling. Little man must be growing because I definitely feel the skin on my stomach pulling...I feel like I am going to burst sometimes! But all is well around here, my shower is in two weeks and more importantly, my sister comes up here in two weeks!! I may have to wear a "Hello my name is" sticker to the airport seeing as though I have this giant beach ball under my shirt!

Hard to believe I am almost 29 weeks along...only 11 weeks to go! I am getting really excited for him to be here, but also really anxious to get the nursery put together and to just feel "ready". Then again who am I kidding? Will we ever feel "ready" ? Probably not.

"You're Crazy!"

Well at least that seems to be the resounding cry that I get whenever I answer questions about the fact that we plan to cloth diaper, labor naturally (fingers crossed) and make baby food. I guess I don't get it, maybe don't ask if you don't want my answer? I am not walking around proclaiming these plans, but when someone asks me about it, I am certainly not going to lie to make you more comfortable! I would never say "our way is better" heck, I am not even a mom yet! We are just making plans for what we are most comfortable with and what we think will work in our lives. A blog I read ALL the time is making the switch to Cloth and of course is having plenty of people tell her she is crazy, so I guess it inspired me to talk about this subject as well. ANYWAYS! About that cloth diaper thing, can I even just tell you HOW excited I am to be doing this? I LOVE them, and I think many have a serious misconception of what a cloth diaper even is or how it works (the new ones). We are not talking about difficult folding and giant pins getting precariously close to a wriggly baby, it is just some snaps or a couple pieces of hefty Velcro. Look:

(photo from the weewilliewinks.com website)

And...

Normal looking right? See I told ya! Anyways, I am lucky to have a husband who is on board, and my father-in-law will be watching Jax during the day when we are at work and has agreed to do these as well. I cannot wait until my little fluff butt is here!

Bad I know!

I am a terrible blogger, lets just get that out there. Ok? We good now? Ok. I found this on someone else's blog and thought it was fun...kind of high school with a giant pregnant belly twist ;)

Name: Shannon


Age:: 24

Birthday:: December 6th

Birth Place:: Naperville, IL

Height:: 5’3...ish



FIRSTS:

Is this your first pregnancy?: Yes.

How did you find out you were pregnant?: Home pregnancy test...before I missed my cyle...because I am impatient.

What kind of pregnancy test did you take?: First Response..... times 3....

How many?: See above.

What were your first symptoms?: I actually thought I wasn't...just took it on a whim! (or a hope and a prayer!)

Who did you tell first?: Dave

Who was with you when you found out?: Just me

Was baby planned?: Yes!

When was baby conceived?: Um, thats awkward. My Dad reads this.

How far were you when you found out?: Right at 4 weeks.


My BABY:



Due date:: August 27th

Do you want to know the sex?: I know!

Do you know the sex?: Yes!

If so, boy or girl?:. Boy!

Any names?: Jackson Eric

Any ultrasounds?: 3.

Have you heard the heartbeat?: Yes.

Baby ethnicity?: Caucasian.

Who do you think baby will look like?: No idea, I am most interested to see his hair and eye color, Dave and I are both Brown/Brown but when Dave was a baby he had Blond hair, so we shall see!

Will baby have any siblings?: Yes...several....like 8. (ok ok maybe 3)

Have you and dad felt baby move?: Yes and yes. This baby is a MOVER! And I love every minute of it! I think sometimes it's easy to start to complain about how active he is and how he keeps me up at night...but I love it, I love to watch my belly move and feel him flipping around.



MISCELLANEOUS:

Did you have morning sickness?: YES!!! I was sick for a long time. Yuck. But it's over now!

Did you have any cravings?: Yes, nothing really strange other than honey mustard for a while. Other than that, I have craved fruit since the beginning!

Did you have any mood swings?: I can cry at the drop of a hat...and a bit irrational. But at least I accept it...right?
Are you a high risk pregnancy?: No, and I pray that does not change.

Any complications?: Just swelling! I had a bit of high blood pressure a few weeks back, but that seems to have evened out and I am doing great now!

Formula or breastfeeding?: Breastfeeding

Have you bought anything for baby yet?: Yes, we still need a few big things and a TON of little things though! It’s overwhelming- I try not to think about it.

When did you start to show?: I swear my stomach ballooned the second the test was positive! Just bloat though I suppose, I dont know probably around 17-18 weeks my stomach started rounding out.

How long could you wear your regular clothes?: I could not fit into my regular jeans at eight weeks. Most likely due to water retention, at least thats my story.

Are you excited?: Yes!!!

Who will help with baby after their born?: Dave...and I am sure eveyone else in our families!

What is your favorite thing about being pregnant?: Feeling him move and having Dave feel it too.

What is the worst thing about being pregnant?: That it suddently became ok to tell a woman "wow you are huge!" I really would like to say... "wow you too!"

What one thing do you miss doing since being pregnant? Margaritas.

Any days you wish you weren’t pregnant?: Not even for a second.

Are you ready for baby?: Is anyone ever really ready? **ask me again at 41 weeks when I am ready to preform my own C-section**

Do you have insurance?: Yes

How many kids do you want?: Several. AKA as many as we can afford.

Do you talk to your baby?: All the time. I read to him too.

Do you still feel attractive?: Yes...most days!

Have you had your baby shower yet?: Not yet...but soon!!!

Do you like kids?: LOVE them.

How far along are you now?: 27 weeks and 1 day!

One last thing on Infertility Week...

National Infertility Awareness Week

Disclaimer: This post will be rather blunt and not so "puppies and rainbows". Feel free to skip on to a different one.


Infertility. What a nasty bitch. I don't know how else to put it. I think many have no idea how prevalent infertility is in our society...I know I didn't. And then I saw it affect someone I love, I have watched her handle it with grace and optimisim. But nomatter how you hash it, infertility sucks. It takes away a lot from a person, from a couple, from a marraige. We were lucky, my husband and I were able to get pregnant after a relatively short period of time. And through all of the sickness and aches and pains, the reality is, we are SO lucky. But why us? Why is it easy for us and not for someone who is just as deserving... I guess those are questions that can never be answered...at least not in this life.

I could fill you up with facts and numbers and try to explain everything that goes in to not just the treatments but the tests to even decide the course of treatment. But instead, I will tell you this, nomatter how many needles, biopsies, tests, surgeries...I am willing to say none of them match the pain of a negative pregnancy test month after month. So why do these women continue to go through all of this? Because in the end, if they are able to become parents, nomatter the method...none of it matters.

So start talking about it, talk about it until you are blue in the face. Tell anyone that will listen. The best thing we can do is to make people aware, because eventually awareness leads to cures.

Approaching 22 weeks...

And it feels like time is flying. I cannot believe I am more than halfway through my pregnancy, whenever I feel him kick I am reminded of just how soon he will be here. Around 2AM this morning I woke up to the beat of a little foot tapping away at my bladder. Thanks buddy! I am beginning to wonder when this little guy sleeps, he is active at night, he is active during the day....hmmmmm. Dave seems pretty pleased about this, whenever I mention how active Jackson is, Dave smiles and says "he is busy!". Either way, I certainly feel blessed, I am growing this little guy and he is letting Mommy know that he is getting bigger and stronger everyday!

Linds and I are planning the shower more every day, I cannot believe all the adorable ideas she has come up with, it is going to be so much fun!! Other than that, life has kept me fairly busy. Work is busy as usual, Dave's work is pretty busy as expected. But mostly we are just enjoying the last couple months of it being "just us" and excitedly awaiting our little man's arrival!