So, my pregnancy was a little crazier than I anticipated it to be! I tell Jeff now that I loved being pregnant, and he just says "Are you CRAZY? It was horrible!" But when I say, I loved being pregnant, I mean I loved it between 18 weeks to 31 weeks. I was so sick up until like 18 weeks and then I was on bed rest at 32 weeks. So, I guess thats pretty normal to love being pregnant for the few months in the middle :) At the beginning, Jeff was so sweet to get me a big bowl in the middle of the night as I was throwing up and couldn't make it to the bathroom. He'd rub my feet every night when I got so swollen from working 10 hour days and tell me how proud he was of me for never calling in sick even when I couldn't keep down a few saltine crackers and watered down Gatorade. He was seriously so sympathetic toward me the whole time. One time I remember he randomly got nauseous for no reason at all (empathy pains, maybe?) and he couldn't stop telling me how now he understood what I feel like ALL day long and how sorry he felt for me. He was the sweetest.
When I was 12 weeks along, I was coming home from a girls trip in Utah with some friends and started to bleed. A lot. It was so scary because I was 11 weeks, 6 days along and remember being so excited because I was just about out of the woods with being nervous about miscarrying. That was my biggest fear after going through InVitro and having it be successful and then losing the baby. I was a wreck! I tried to stay calm when going to the hospital, but I was sure that I had lost our baby after seeing so much blood. After a horrible experience at the ER, it ended happily knowing that I still had our little miracle.
I switched doctors after I got pregnant, mostly because my dad wanted me to. He got so protective over this baby before I even got pregnant. He became so emotionally invested from the beginning and wanted the best for me, so I did it really to appease him, but so glad I did. He is the best! I was so fortunate that my new OB, Dr. Bohman, was already a high risk doctor and someone who I've known since I was little! He was our family's hometeacher in my old ward growing up. I saw Dr. Bohman every two weeks my whole pregnancy. I had something called "placenta previa", which is what caused me to bleed throughout my pregnancy. I didn't have any bleeding episodes from 12 weeks to 32 weeks. At 32 weeks, I was put at home bed rest for a week because of that, and then he gave me the ok to go back to work but then I had 2 more major bleeding episodes within 10 days. So after going to the hospital for the 3rd time, he told me that I needed to stay there until I delivered the baby.
Hospital bed rest was really hard for us to hear, because we were not prepared for it. I was not ready to stop working so soon and not having that 2nd income and having the additional medical bills on top of it, but we knew it was for the best interest for me and our baby.
Being in the hospital for so long, was also a very humbling experience for me. I was on the receiving end of so much service. It was an incredibly stressful time for Jeff and I. Poor Jeff was just so exhausted all the time. He would wake up at 6:30am, go to work all day, get off at 6pm, go straight to the hospital because he knew I was bored, be there until 11pm, go home and wake up and do it all over again. I am really blessed to have such amazing friends, family and ward members who did so much for us during those weeks. I don't think I went a day without having someone visit me. People brought me care packages, home cooked meals, take-out, magazines, nail polish, games, etc. One of my best friends, Janae, even brought her wax pot and waxed my eye brows! It was the best! I felt so much better about myself after getting my brows done. People whom I barely knew even took time to pop in and visit with me. These times were so unexpected and so sweet. I was blown away at how much others truly cared about our situation. My mom was also someone who was so incredibly amazing. Since bed rest was so unexpected, she put together the nursery and washed and sorted all the clothes, did all the organizing, etc. My brothers and sisters-in-law all deep cleaned our house, just so we had a clean house to come home to with our brand new baby. I really learned a lot about service after this experience. I will forever be incredibly grateful for all the love I felt from so many people. It eased the stress from Jeff and I immensely.
Hospital bed rest of not fun to say the least! Although, I did really like all my nurses (for the most part) who I got to know really well :) I literally couldn't get out of bed unless it was to go to the bathroom that was about 6 ft away from my bed and then back to bed I went. I couldn't walk for fear of having a major bleeding episode, possible hemorrhaging and needing emergency surgery which could result in scary things like losing too much blood during the C-section and needed a blood transfusion, etc.
The absolute worst part of hospital bed rest for me, was my dreadful IVs! I had to get a new IV put in every 3 days and it was horrible! We had to do this, so in case of emergency C-section, I already had an IV in so we were good to go, instead of me possibly hemmorhaging, making sticking me with a needle hard to do. Through this process, I learned that my veins are small and I have lots of valves all around them making it really difficult to get an IV needle in. To this day, I still have scars from them. I ranked my love for the nurse based on their level of good IV handling. At one point, after several attempts from different nurses, and me being in so much pain, they finally got the anesthesiologist in my room doing it for me and numbing the area. It was heaven when he did it! I barely felt anything. I begged him to come back every 3 days to do it!
So this was my life in the hospital before Berkley's arrival!
This is what I looked like every day. Monitor around my belly, iPad in hand, with my cell phone being charged right next to me, and big cups of water and all my snacks on the little table.
Me at 34 weeks. I posted this in black and white because that is how I feel about being in the hospital. I know, so dramatic haha.
We have the best friends! These are the Pixley's. Chris and Natalie, or just Natalie, or Natalie and her kids, would come visit me seriously at least every other day the entire time I was there. They would bring me homecooked meals, Cafe Rio, etc when I insisted I didn't need it! We played Phase10 many a nights. I couldn't believe how much time they took from their busy lives to come see me all the time.
Mother's Day! Jeff brought me beautiful red roses and a sweet baby book so I could spend some time filling it out since I had all the time in the world! It was really cute.
Jeff wheeled me outside every now and again so I could get a little fresh air. This picture was the first time I had been outside in 10 days!! I felt like I was in a prison, except for prison was probably better, because at least the prisoners get recess every day :) A joke that Jeff did was as he'd wheel me through the halls, down the elevator, he'd tell me how the outside world had changed since I'd last seen it. Trees were extinct, cars now flew instead of drove, etc. It was so funny to me haha.
These are a few of the many gifts I received during my time at the hospital! Audrey gave me this bag full of snacks, socks to keep my feet warm, coloring books and so many things! It was so cute.
My mother-in-law, and sis-in-law, Sally, sent me such a thoughtful package of things to keep me busy! I made this baby beanie :)
My aunt made this cute bouquet with snacks like oranges, nuts crackers (since I couldn't have any sugar due to hypoglycemia), and headbands for baby girl! It was so cute.
And this was taken the night before having our little baby! I was 36 weeks exactly. In the background are some of my homemade cards I received! The poster was from my Activity Day girls :)
My pregnancy was not ideal, but we got through it and it just made Berkley's arrival that much sweeter. I will post the actual delivery in the next post.
Hospital bed rest was really hard for us to hear, because we were not prepared for it. I was not ready to stop working so soon and not having that 2nd income and having the additional medical bills on top of it, but we knew it was for the best interest for me and our baby.
Being in the hospital for so long, was also a very humbling experience for me. I was on the receiving end of so much service. It was an incredibly stressful time for Jeff and I. Poor Jeff was just so exhausted all the time. He would wake up at 6:30am, go to work all day, get off at 6pm, go straight to the hospital because he knew I was bored, be there until 11pm, go home and wake up and do it all over again. I am really blessed to have such amazing friends, family and ward members who did so much for us during those weeks. I don't think I went a day without having someone visit me. People brought me care packages, home cooked meals, take-out, magazines, nail polish, games, etc. One of my best friends, Janae, even brought her wax pot and waxed my eye brows! It was the best! I felt so much better about myself after getting my brows done. People whom I barely knew even took time to pop in and visit with me. These times were so unexpected and so sweet. I was blown away at how much others truly cared about our situation. My mom was also someone who was so incredibly amazing. Since bed rest was so unexpected, she put together the nursery and washed and sorted all the clothes, did all the organizing, etc. My brothers and sisters-in-law all deep cleaned our house, just so we had a clean house to come home to with our brand new baby. I really learned a lot about service after this experience. I will forever be incredibly grateful for all the love I felt from so many people. It eased the stress from Jeff and I immensely.
Hospital bed rest of not fun to say the least! Although, I did really like all my nurses (for the most part) who I got to know really well :) I literally couldn't get out of bed unless it was to go to the bathroom that was about 6 ft away from my bed and then back to bed I went. I couldn't walk for fear of having a major bleeding episode, possible hemorrhaging and needing emergency surgery which could result in scary things like losing too much blood during the C-section and needed a blood transfusion, etc.
The absolute worst part of hospital bed rest for me, was my dreadful IVs! I had to get a new IV put in every 3 days and it was horrible! We had to do this, so in case of emergency C-section, I already had an IV in so we were good to go, instead of me possibly hemmorhaging, making sticking me with a needle hard to do. Through this process, I learned that my veins are small and I have lots of valves all around them making it really difficult to get an IV needle in. To this day, I still have scars from them. I ranked my love for the nurse based on their level of good IV handling. At one point, after several attempts from different nurses, and me being in so much pain, they finally got the anesthesiologist in my room doing it for me and numbing the area. It was heaven when he did it! I barely felt anything. I begged him to come back every 3 days to do it!
So this was my life in the hospital before Berkley's arrival!
This is what I looked like every day. Monitor around my belly, iPad in hand, with my cell phone being charged right next to me, and big cups of water and all my snacks on the little table.
We have the best friends! These are the Pixley's. Chris and Natalie, or just Natalie, or Natalie and her kids, would come visit me seriously at least every other day the entire time I was there. They would bring me homecooked meals, Cafe Rio, etc when I insisted I didn't need it! We played Phase10 many a nights. I couldn't believe how much time they took from their busy lives to come see me all the time.
Mother's Day! Jeff brought me beautiful red roses and a sweet baby book so I could spend some time filling it out since I had all the time in the world! It was really cute.
Jeff wheeled me outside every now and again so I could get a little fresh air. This picture was the first time I had been outside in 10 days!! I felt like I was in a prison, except for prison was probably better, because at least the prisoners get recess every day :) A joke that Jeff did was as he'd wheel me through the halls, down the elevator, he'd tell me how the outside world had changed since I'd last seen it. Trees were extinct, cars now flew instead of drove, etc. It was so funny to me haha.
These are a few of the many gifts I received during my time at the hospital! Audrey gave me this bag full of snacks, socks to keep my feet warm, coloring books and so many things! It was so cute.
My aunt made this cute bouquet with snacks like oranges, nuts crackers (since I couldn't have any sugar due to hypoglycemia), and headbands for baby girl! It was so cute.
And this was taken the night before having our little baby! I was 36 weeks exactly. In the background are some of my homemade cards I received! The poster was from my Activity Day girls :)
My pregnancy was not ideal, but we got through it and it just made Berkley's arrival that much sweeter. I will post the actual delivery in the next post.
1 comments:
carrie i know we brieflt worked together and barley know each other but you are a very strong person for going what you went threw! had i known were in the hospital i wouldve stopped by and said hi! ur daughter is a beautiful mircle u are truly blessed w a wonderful hubby and famliy! :)
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