Details & A Mother's Nightmare

DETAILS:

I don't think that there is a pregnant woman in this world that hasn't thought "I'd love to have this baby a little early." But you know what? When it comes right down to it, it's scary & nerve-racking (and not even a little exciting) to have to deliver early when you weren't expecting it.

So last Friday started out like pretty much every other day last week. We woke up in our own sweet time & took our time getting ready for my Dr's appt. I took a shower, thought about shaving my legs, put on makeup, got dressed & headed out the door. Andrew & I took separate cars to town because he had to go to work that night. I felt fine all morning, but by the time I got to the Dr's office, I almost couldn't even see the road in front of the car. Andrew helped me into the office, and I had to immediately lay down. The Dr had warned me that I could go from feeling crappy to really sick in a really big hurry, but I never believed her. But let me tell you, it can happen fast!

Needless to say, I knew that something was wrong, and was not surprised at all when my Dr said that I had to go over to the hospital & get checked out. I was shocked, however, when she came into my room singing "Guess who gets to have a baby today!" I had not prepared myself for that at all- I was only 37 1/2 weeks along! I guess I figured that I would end up laying in bed for another couple of weeks, and go in nice & scheduled to have this kid. But when Mommy gets too sick, I guess it's time for baby to come. (I was really wishing about then that I'd taken the time to shave my legs that morning!) They induced me at about 1:00 pm, and by 6:15 pm, he was here! I felt so blessed that my fears about my tailbone went unfounded. No pain at all from that- lucky me! I usually labor for hours & push for what seems like an eternity to get my kids here. But this time, I went from being dialated to a 7 to complete in 20 minutes! We had to page Andy overhead to find him somewhere in the hospital, and wait for the Dr to get there, too. Then it only took 5 pushes for little Jack to make his entrance into the world. I guess he was ready!

Do I look as crappy as I felt?

I was amazed at how sick I was on Friday, and then how great I felt on Saturday. The difference was night & day. It's true when they say that the only cure for high blood pressure during pregnancy is delivery. I got well in a hurry! We had a nice stay in the hospital while Nana continued babysitting duties here at our house. Let me tell you- my kids are SOOOOOO excited to have this baby here. Emma spends all of her time checking on him, covering him, and singing to him to calm him. Frank wasn't too interested at first, but now he's decided that little baby Jack is "the best", and won't get too far from him. I was worried about the transition, but it really couldn't have been smoother.

Thank you so much to Nana for all your help these last couple of weeks. Since we don't have too many people here in town that can just take our kids, it's been very nice to know that the kids were happy & safe wherever they were.

Now we're all home, happy & healthy. Jack is easy-going & very content. He eats like a horse & has already gained back all of his weight. He weighs just 1 ounce shy of his birthweight in only 4 days! The nights haven't been too bad so far, and luckily I have a great hubby that's doing all sorts of stuff to make life easy on me. Thanks to a very easy delivery, I feel fantastic and have to remind myself to take it slow. Great times!

A MOTHER'S NIGHTMARE

Everything has been going so great at our house. So when we were getting ready to go to Jack's first Dr's appt this morning, we were not prepared for what happened.

I was nursing the baby while Andy got the other kids dressed. Jack is kind of sloppy, so I keep a rag tucked under his chin when he eats. When I was done nursing him, I sat him up to burp him, and the rag was soaked in BLOOD! I thought I was seeing things. I showed Andrew, and we decided that we needed to leave early for the Dr. I thought that the blood could be coming from me- nursing hurts, after all. But the real shocker was when Andrew put Jack into his carseat & he VOMITED blood. Not diluted or anything. Bright red, goopy blood. I thought that I was literally going to faint. It was a VERY LONG trip into town to the Dr's office.

I was driving, and on the verge of breaking down the whole time. Like I told the nurse once we got to the Dr's, I was "this close to being hysterical." We skipped the check-in paperwork & insurance crap & were taken straight back. Thank heavens for that, because I would've probably strangled anyone that got in my way.

Well, long story short, after the Dr examined Jack, he determined that he is "healthy as a horse", "vigorous", and completely fine. Apparently he's such a good eater that he's broken a blood vessel inside my breast, and that's the blood that he was spitting up. Who knew that could even happen? I may have 3 kids, but I felt like a scared teenager as I begged the Dr to reassure me over & over again that the baby was fine. And he is! No more blood this afternoon, and everyone's OK.

I can't even tell you the horror & fear that I endured this morning. So many horrible thoughts went through my brain, and I know that I've never felt that kind of fear before. It was awful. We're trying to put it behind us, but I know that neither Andrew or myself will forget how we felt today. Just the thought of something being really wrong with one of our kids was enough to age us by about 10 years. I just pray that we won't have to endure that again!

WRAP-UP:

I know that this is a long post, whew! Thanks to the 2 of you that read it!

Our family is 1 person larger, but we've already multiplied the love in our home by about 20. I was really afraid of the challenge of adding another child to our brood, but it's been better than I could've ever expected. If I can survive this stage of my milk coming in, then I'll be an even more happy woman- if that's even possible!