One month old!

One month in, and I couldn't be happier. Right now I am listening to Max in his swing, humming along and making the cutest noises anyone could ever hear. Here are a few stats about our little blessing:
Current weight: 10 pounds 12 ounces
Likes: Max seems to really love tummy time. We do it every morning when he is the most active and he tries so hard. He likes lifting his head and kicking up his legs in attempt to turn over.
Dislikes: Max doesnt seem to like laying flat on his back. He can crash out in pretty much every position, except if I put him flat on his back. He flails his arms and legs and grunts a whole lot as soon as hes put down.
Sleeping habits: Up until the past few days, Max fell asleep around 11 pm, woke around 3, 5,7, and up for good around 9 am. Then he would fall back asleep around 1pm until 7pm and back asleep at 11pm again. But the last two days hes been thrown off and has only gotten up twice in the night, but one of those times hes up for about 2.5 hours which is not fun! But I always nap once a day, so the lack of sleep hasn't really fazed me. Max is also a really loud sleeper, he grunts a lot throughout the night!
Eating: Max is still nursing and its going really great. Next week we are going to introduce a bottle of my milk to him for when I start back up at work. I plan to nurse as long as possible, six months is essentially my main goal.

All-in-all our first month was amazing and flew by. I love this child more and more every day, and little by little his personality peeks its way out. Life is lovely!

Birth Story/ First days

I know our birth story was scheduled and well thought out, as opposed to the usual waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night/water-breaking/contractions-and-pushing stories that most can share, ours was still precious :) I woke up that morning, got showered, dressed, and walked the dogs and we headed out the door around 7 am. Once we finally got to the hospital, I got changed, my IV was started, blood was drawn, and my vitals were taken. I was completely relaxed, and STILL at this point I couldn't get it in my head that I was about to have a baby. The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me about what they were going to do, and at that point I was just extremely nervous. I was more concentrated on going in to surgery than having a baby and I was pretty shaky. Then they wheeled in the girl that was scheduled right before me, I saw her first, and then the dad wheeling in the baby on the cart. This was the first it REALLY hit me that I was about to meet my son, and I totally lost it. I could not stop crying, I was so happy. During this time, a student nurse was walking over to introduce herself, saw me crying and felt so bad because she thought I was scared. It was nice to tell her I was just so happy :)
Next they wheeled me in to my operating room so I could get my spinal, and get fully prepped for surgery. Part way in Jeremy was able to join me which was such a relief. All of the sudden my doctor says "dad you can stand up if you would like to watch your son being born." It was amazing to watch Jeremy watch our son being born, and as I heard his first cry I completely lost it. Just the sound of his cry alone made me the happiest person in the world, I was so overwhelmed with joy to get him here I couldn't keep the tears in. It felt like an eternity before I could see him. I heard them say he was 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. Then Jeremy brought him over and layed him on my chest and the tears flowed and I realized just how lucky I am to be this little boys mom.
Since birth, Max has been nothing short of amazing. In his first 12 hours he pooped 7 times- which is a sign on a very healthy baby. Usually they hope that a child poops once in 24 hours. He immediately picked up on breastfeeding, and he was able to escape getting jaundice like almost every baby gets. He only gets up twice during the night, usually around 1 and again around 5:30. I am sleeping better now than when I was pregnant! He rarely cries, but almost always does when hes being changed. Hes not a fan of being swaddled, hes very strong and can usually kick his blanket off in his sleep. When awake he loves to look around and almost always follows the sound of his mommy and daddy's voices. Hes simply perfect :)
I am recovering MUCH better than my last csection. I was able to get up and out of bed within 12 hours of surgery and was walking in the halls the next day. My only setback was when we got home I fell asleep on the couch and my 16 pound yorkie climbed on the back of the couch and leaped right on to my belly. It was definitely horrendous pain, but by that night Jeremy and I were able to take Max and the dogs for a lap around the park.
Life now just feels so complete. Everything we went through, and every bit of pain was worth it to get this little boy here safe. I know that Brody is watching over him, we still feel him so close. In moments, my entire life has changed, I have never known such a feeling of happiness in my entire life.

Last Post Before Max Arrives!

In less than two days I will be holding my baby boy, and I have never been more excited, happy, and nervous in my entire life. Even with a big, protruding belly, it almost seems unrealistic to me that Max will be here so soon. It feels like we have waited SO long to bring home our baby, we are very blessed to get to this point with no complications. I am proud to say I never developed preeclampsia and Max made it through July when many people thought he wouldn't. Looking back on previous posts, I can see how far we have come, what we have been through, and what we have done just to get Max here safe. I am very scared, though. I really don't have a clue as to what to do when Max actually gets here, but I do know that a baby needs love, and I know I will be AMAZING at giving that to him :).

As far as visiting us in the hospital/home:
I will be delivering Max around 10 am on Thursday, and we ask that only immediate family come up to the hospital that day. Friday and Saturday all are welcome to all as long as you are feeling 100% well and aren't coming at the crack of dawn ;). We really do want to show him off and want people to hold him and love on him, we just want to make sure hes not overwhelmed or exposed to sickness as well. We should be home on Sunday and people are welcome to come to the house as well- just please let us know when you are planning on coming over, AND if you feel like bringing a meal we wouldnt stop you ;) lol.

Updates/pictures:
I will probably be sending out a text on Thursday sometime with birth time, weight, and length and possibly a pic. If I dont have your number, and you want a text, send it to me on facebook or email it to me at abbymouch@gmail.com.
I also will NOT be putting any pictures up on this blog of Max, but I will be putting them up on facebook. I have various reasons for this, but if you are not on facebook and want to check him out, I will email some to you. Thanks for understanding!

Thank you so much to all those that have been a positive support system to Max and I throughout this entire pregnancy. We are finally here (in 40 hours)- how amazing!!

My last Doctor's Appointment and NST

After a little "scare" (and by scare I mean excitement that I might be going into labor) I am still here with Max in my tummy. Yesterday around three I started having contractions, which is something that has been pretty normal for the past month or so. This time seemed different, though, because they started out rather painful- so I decided to start timing them right away. They started out every fifteen minutes and after about 4 hours went to every ten minutes. From there they plateaued and didnt get any stronger or closer together so we waited it out at home until they eventually went away. It was very frustrating because no real progress was made. We were excited at first, and toward the end I was just annoyed because I wanted them to either get better or worse. BUT nothing happened and so we were able to make it to my appointment today.

Today was a rather boring day of appointments, which made me feel kind of bad for Jeremy since this was his first time to meet my doctor. We had to wait about 30 mins to get into my NST, which I think might have made Max a little upset because he refused to move again. We tried ice water, wiggling, and poking, but the only thing to get him to move was the little buzzer. I did have a real nice sized contraction during the process...they seem to creep up every now and then.

Then we met with the doctor to get everything squared away for the csection. We really didnt learn anything new here, just that I am not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before. I also found out that I will be getting staples again, which I was told at St. V's after I had Brody that most doctors to the glue stuff (I had staples with Brody, too, because of something with my tissue and being on bedrest so long). We are to get to the hospital at 8am, and Max will be delivered around 10 am August 5. We are SO excited and ready to meet this little guy in 9 days! Expect one more blog before I deliver next Thursday with all the details of visitation and whatnot :) If anything happens before then, I will definitely keep people updated through texts and phone calls.

36 weeks- 13 days left :)

With just under two weeks to go in my pregnancy, I went in for my second-to-last ob appointment and NST. Up to this point I have asked many questions- trying to keep up on my weight, blood pressure and whatnot...today I sat back and just enjoyed being there. My NST went really well- Max had NO trouble showing that he was perfectly able to move this time. Maybe the little buzzer scared him last time because he did not stop moving from the second I got in there. I had no contractions or any cramping, all went really well. I was able to have a really good talk with the nurse while I was in there being monitored, we eventually landed on the subject of blood clotting disorders and their link with so many miscarriages. One thing I learned is that my doctor doesnt check just anyone for MTHFR, just people with reoccurring miscarriages or losses. I also learned that up until about 6 years ago, they had no idea there was a correlation between blood clotting disorders and miscarriage. I am SO happy I was tested for this and I never had to go through another loss to figure out I had it. I am also very fortunate to live in these times, if I was older I might have never thought I could carry a baby.

My appointment with my ob was quick and easy. I found out that I will NOT be getting cervix checks at all- apparently there is no point to check me when we know I'm having a c-section. I know they aren't a walk in the park, so this made me rather happy. I am starting to realize there are some advantages to having a c-section I guess! We are just meeting once more next Tuesday to go over everything in complete detail. Hopefully Jeremy will be able to make it to this appointment and be able to meet my doctor.

Since it is a bit of a drive to get to Toledo, I like to save all my errands for one trip. Unfortunately, today was 98 degrees outside with a heat index of over 100! Thankfully people can be extremely sympathetic to a 9 month pregnant woman on days like today. One of my trips was to babies r us to get a baby book for Max. I have really enjoyed looking back at mine over the years and want to keep up on one for him (not like a boy is going to be that interested- but its good to have!) I opened it and started looking through the pages and immediately started crying in the store. I think it REALLY hit me then how close this is and just how much I am ready to love, nurture, and care for this baby. Yes I complain, feel huge, uncomfortable, and ready to be done- but that does NOT mean in any way that I don't appreciate this baby and pregnancy more than anything in the world. I am so fortunate that in less than two weeks I will be holding my very own crying, breathing, blinking, wiggling baby in my arms (that will probably look like exactly like his daddy, lol). It has been one hell of a journey to get here, but soon it will all pay off :)

Sorry, a little late!

So when I said I would update Thursday after my ultrasound, I really meant "Saturday night after a day in the pool" oops! This ultrasound was probably my most uneventful ultrasound because Max was head down, face down just like he should be- which made it extremely difficult to see his face. My mom was able to go with me and we saw a glimpse but nothing too exciting. We did get to see the hair on his head and found out that he weighs 6 pounds 3 ounces! This means all of my pregnancy goals have been met: I knew I had to make it past 24 weeks, and I knew I wanted him over 5 pounds. And obviously I want him healthy. So far so good!! I absolutely cannot wait to hold this baby in my arms :)

35 weeks/NST

Since I have an ultrasound and will be updating again on Thursday I will make this pretty short. I went in today for another weekly Non Stress Test and OB appointment. Last week they told me to eat right before to increase fetal movement, so I took that as an opportunity to enjoy my all time favorite breakfast: a cinnamon crunch bagel with raspberry cream cheese from Panara Bread- yummm! The entire trip there Max was wiggling all around, and then I ate and I think he fell asleep because he did not want to move for anything. The first 15 mins of my NST Max moved one time, and since they like to see at least two movements with accelerated heart rates, they had to make Max move. The nurse did this by putting a little buzzer on my tummy, and WOW did Max jump! It was so funny and cute to see my whole tummy move, and it made him even that more real. There was one point when he wiggled away from the monitor and the nurse had to gently put her hand on it to pick up his heartbeat- just like Brody made the nurses at St V's do...it put a smile on my face to hear her talk about how he was ornery and wanted special attention, it brought back a lot of memories of my "Dennis the Menace" 20 months ago.
I then had my tummy check and all looked well. I did lose 5 pounds since last week...I think a lot of my swelling has gone down which helped attribute to this weight loss. My doctor says "just because hes scheduled for August 5th doesnt mean he knows that, he might want to come sooner." Lets just hope he waits till Jeremy gets home!