Baby Hernandez's Wild Ride

So the past month of this pregnancy went from fairly normal to a crazy ride very quickly. 3 weeks ago I went into labor and delivery at 3am for bad cramping and consistent contractions, and it was then that they realized that my blood pressure was about 162/92 (normal is around 120/80). I stayed until the next day and was told to go home and be checking my blood pressure, and if it went over 140/90 that I needed to go in. Two days later it was 173/90, and I was admitted again. My labs came back normal so I was sent home again to complete a 24 hour urine sample at home. Three days after that I went in for a checkup and was admitted again for high bp, and told I needed to stay the night this time. While there, I began feeling really crampy and they started seeing that I was beginning to have contractions, so now they were faced with a medicine dilemma because the medicine to usually stop contractions raises your blood pressure. I was sent home the next day on bed rest, and on a medicine that is meant for helping with the contractions but also happens to help with high blood pressure. I was also told that should I make it to 39 weeks that they would have to induce me because of the blood pressure issues (which I researched at home, and I guess induction is necessary because of the rate of maternal deaths when waiting even that extra week for a natural birth). I made it through the week and my next check up, but then at my check up yesterday I was admitted again because all week long my bp had been around 145/90-95 consistently. It was then that they decided to send me to see a maternal and fetal medicine high-risk specialist and get a second opinion on how to proceed from here.

Which brings me to today, I met with the specialist and had some good news and some not so good news. The good news is, our little Mikah is 5 pounds and 5 ounces so far, and she has big lips and a head of hair :) Oh, and they did a test on her that she needed to pass (and they said it can take up to 3o minutes for babies to complete everything they need to do to pass), and she passed it in about 2 minutes. Jason will be so proud :)

My diagnosis right now is gestational hypertension. The doctor is concerned that it is preceeding preeclampsia. I am also having placental issues because of the high blood pressure, so I am going to need to see the high-risk doctor and my regular doctor each once a week to be checked and monitored and have my blood taken (so every monday and thursday I'll be hanging out at the hospital)...in the doctor's words, "let's just see how long we can keep you" (from needing to deliver).

So we are taking things one day at a time, and my husband has been absolutely amazing at taking care of me and Luca, and really being there for us through this. Jason and I have had to pray, a LOT, to be able to get through the stress and worry that this has put on both of us and our life right now..if we didn't have God, we would honestly both be a complete wreck. But because of God, we have been able to get closer together through this and closer to him. So for those of you who have been praying for us, thank you, we really appreciate it and we really need it.

I can't wait to meet my baby girl

And I was so excited...

so I am (roughly) in my 8th week of pregnancy, and have yet to have had my first OB appointment. I was waiting on insurance, and once that went through, I was super excited to make my first appointment with a midwife. So I made the appointment, and it was set for today. Well, there must have been a mix-up on google, because the place I made an appointment with was called "all kids" when we pulled up (not midwest midwifery)...but I thought, maybe it has a different name. So I gave it the benefit of the doubt. The doctor we saw made me realize within 2 minutes that this was nothing close to a midwife. He was a rude older gentleman that had no interest in my concerns, was dismissive, intimidating, he swore every 2-3 words, and he made me feel like I was in a prison. Uh, this was not what I had envisioned for my first appointment with a midwife. In fact, my doctors that I had last time (who I hadn't been satisfied with), put this guy to shame in the caring/niceness department! After a pap smear and about 6 tubes of blood work, I left a very unhappy camper. Thank God I was able to get some great references this afternoon and set up an appointment on thursday with an actual midwife group. And not only that, but I will have an ultrasound too so I'll be able to see little baby hernandez finally! On a separate note about today, I woke up with some craaazy morning sickness. I never threw up with Luca, and while I've been feeling fairly nauseous these past few weeks, it was nothing like today. About 30 minutes before our appointment I threw up 3 lovely times. really. lovely. For those who know me very very well, you know that I HATE throwing up. And yes, I realize it's not a fun time for anyone, but literally, my vision of what hell is, is puking. Soooo today kind of just wasn't very good at all (especially bc I was pretty much out for the count the rest of the day just feeling totally nauseous). BUT one good thing from this (and just the past few weeks)...is seeing what an amazing and supportive husband I have. He has cooked, cleaned, bought groceries, taken care of me, and done whatever he can to help me and make sure I'm ok. And saying thank you to him 30 times a day doesn't even come close to how thankful I actually am that he loves me so much. So what I'm hoping for in the next post is 1. a PICTURE of little baby hernandez, and 2. a WONDERFUL report of my amazing new doctors (pray please!)...hopefully we'll have a much happier post this weekend! :)

Starting from the beginning 6 weeks in...

Helloooooo everybody! We've decided to start this pregnancy blog as a chance to have a mini online scrap-book of the whole pregnancy experience for baby #2; as a chance to keep family and friends updated on what's going on in our lives; and as an outlet for this pregnant mommy when the going gets tough :). And as a disclaimer: This blog is about our life and my random thoughts and opinions on things. If there is something you disagree with (and i'm putting this disclaimer out there because I'm going to be very honest with this blog), then I may suggest just not following it anymore. Now back to business...I figured I would start out this first post by backing up a bit to the beginning (because there was a beginning of things...no surprises here). For those who don't know, Jason and I waited until marriage to "be together" because of our faith and out of discipline to God. There were many other reasons on top of that but those are the main ones. Well this led to a discussion as we prepared for marriage on how we were going to approach family planning and protection, etc. After praying about it for a while, we both felt that we needed to step up and live out our faith. If we truly believe that God is all powerful, then we need to believe and trust that HE and he alone is the giver of life. And that HE and he alone will bless us with a life when the time is right. All of this meaning that we were choosing to not use protection. This was not an easy decision to come to, because it sincerely tested our trust in God. Even after that decision was made, and even after we were married, this was something that we prayed about daily because those fears and non-trusting thoughts come in (are we ready to have a baby, are we crazy for doing this, etc.) God proved that he was in charge from the get-go, and it got easier trusting him in this area as time went one. I remember the first time I had a feeling that I was pregnant about a month ago, and of course being the crazy person I am took about 50 pregnancy tests until I finally got a solid (not faint!) line. The nice thing about trusting in God is that anxiousness and worry were not a part of the joy Jason and I had when we knew for sure we were expecting a baby. If God thinks that it is the right time, then we can be rest-assured that we have nothing to fear. So to throw Jason under the bus now, I do have to say that the week after we found out, he had moments where he would just look at my stomach and start crying because he was so happy (and while I may laugh because he's such a big mush, it was really, really, really sweet). Since we have found out, I have made my biggest decision yet: I scheduled an appointment with a midwife and not a doctor. I was not happy at all with my experience delivering Luca. Or any of the appointments leading up to that. I felt like all control was taken out of my hands and the main goal was to get me in and out as quickly as possible. I had a pretty excruciating back labor on top of an already injured tailbone that most likely got pushed even further out of place. The epidural paralyzed me and only numbed the areas of my body that were not hurting. So I felt all the pain and was strapped to a bed unable to move for 12 hours. It literally was the worst and best day of my life all rolled into one. So I have a few goals this time around: 1. To allow my body to go into natural labor. NO pitocin. Even if my water breaks like it did the last time. 2. To be able to use water as a pain reliever for the contractions. Whether it be a shower or a bath, warm water calms me down and I would like the option to use this. 3. To use different forms of pain relief besides an epidural. I am not opposed to medicine, however I had a bad experience not only with the epidural but also the injection of the epidural (which was done wrong initially and had to be put in twice). I know other forms of pain medicine are out there and I would not be opposed to looking into those. 4. To remember that labor is as hard for the baby as it is for me. I didn't even think about luca when I was in labor until I physically saw him after he was born. I want to be more aware of the work we are both doing. 5. To be caaaaaallllmmmm. Now given the fact that things in my life are 180 degrees different this time around than the last, I'm hoping this shouldn't be hard to achieve. Having the support of Jason alone already calms my fears about delivery. As far as my goals for the pregnancy itself goes, here they are too: 1. To NOT gain 75 pounds like I did with Luca. 2. To not drink coffee (done and done) OR pop (a lot less intake but not 100% there), and a LOT more water (doing fairly good on this too). 3. To treat my body like I actually have a baby in it and be more careful about things like stress, work, etc. 4. To have fun this time. I didn't have fun last time. 5. To keep up as good of a baby book as I did with Luca so this baby won't feel jealous :) I've pretty much got a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm really excited about this journey. And to be able to experience it in a different life I have where I feel safe, cared for, not depressed, and with God's help is more than I could have ever dreamed for. Until the next post! :)