I’m posting these notes because I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and just assume that I’ve got rosy memories because they are glossed over by many years.
Pregnancy #1 (Mary)- I was violently sick this first pregnancy. I saw my OB for my first visit and then she went out on maternity leave for three months. When she came back, I was four months along. She asked me how I was doing and I told her I was doing fine. A few minutes later, as she’s looking over my records, she turns to me, in an alarmed voice and says “Kelly! You’ve lost 26 lbs.!! What in the world is going on??” I told her how I was sick, throwing up, all day long, every day. I’d throw up 20+ times a day to the point where I was simply dry heaving. She said, “why did you just tell me you were fine?”. I thought that was normal!! You always hear that everyone throws up when they are pregnant so I assumed this was normal behavior and that everything was fine. Ha! No, my dr. assured me, that throwing up that many times a day and losing that much weight in pregnancy was NOT normal! We tried several different things to calm the nausea, none of which worked. Finally I went on a prescription drug, Reglan, which did help the nausea immensely. I believe I only gained 9 lbs. or so by the end of the pregnancy. I had excruciating back pain the last 2 months of the pregnancy. I was constantly moving, changing position, anything to get comfortable and nothing worked. After 6 weeks, (2 weeks prior to having Mary) the pain totally disappeared. It was around 6pm one evening when I stood up and I FELT Mary drop into position! My back pain immediately disappeared and I was fine the last two weeks. One other note about this pregnancy- during the first ultrasound, we found out that Mary had a twin, who had already died. I’ve always thought that the baby was another girl. Such a devastating loss.
I requested a scheduled induction. The doctor admitted me to the hospital the night before so I could get a good nights rest. They started the induction the following morning, around 8am. I had a wonderful, wonderful L&D nurse, Connie Peach, who was a Holiness lady. Since I was brought up Holiness in my early years she was a great comfort to me. I had narcotics first- stadol and fentinol and then later had a epidural. I slept most of the day until Connie woke me around 5:15 to start pushing. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to have Mary. It was surprisingly painless- the epidural worked fabulously and I felt nothing. Connie had to tell me when it was time to push. My legs worked fine though and I was up & walking around 15 minutes after I had Mary. I could have gone home that night! In fact, immediately after I had Mary, while I was still in the L&D room, I said to Kip & Connie that I was ready to do this again and hoped to see Connie next year! Several hours after having Mary, I had a choking incident on a piece of cantaloupe. My poor Mother completely freaked out- she had known someone who choked to death soon after having a baby and thought that was happening to me. Luckily my sister was in the room and was cool-headed. She ran out for a nurse and they were able to dislodge the cantaloupe before any serious harm was done.
Also, about a week after Mary was born I started hemorraging at home. I went in to the OB’s office and had to see a different doctor because mine was not in at the time. He did a mini D&C on me, in the office, with no anesthesia, one week after having a baby. Absolutely the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced. Totally barbaric. Unfortunately this was the same doctor who was on call when I had to have an emergency D&C during my miscarriage in 2006. I informed the nurses what he had done and demanded not to be left alone with him for any reason and also instructed them to watch every move he made during the procedure. Awful, awful man.
Pregnancy #2 (Nathan)- Perfectly routine pregnancy. I started feeling terribly sick early on but immediately went on Reglan and was able to function normally as long as I continued taking it every 12 hours. Which was a good thing considering I got pregnant with Nathan when Mary was only 2 months old! Like Mary, I never had any of the other typical pregnancy symptoms- no swelling, heartburn, etc. I felt great up until the end when I was of course uncomfortable but nothing out of the ordinary. I requested another scheduled induction. We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 6am- we dropped Mary off at my sister’s house at 5:15am. As I was carrying Mary into the house I took a HARD fall outside on the sidewalk. I was allright though. The induction was started around 8am, with Connie Peach attending again! A few weeks before I had a dream that Nathan would be born at 3:21pm and would be 7 1/2 lbs. I had another great epidural and was in no hurry to have him (my philosophy is to push around a level 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. No point in rushing and then unnecessarily tearing, etc. ). I pushed for about 20 minutes and had him at 3:23pm and he weighed 7lbs. 10oz. I said to Kip, if I had known what time it was I would have hurried up a little to have him at 3:21! I want to note that after having Nathan, I had a second choking incident- I don’t remember now what I was choking on. These are the only two times that I’ve ever choked.
Pregnancy #3- I should have known from the very beginning that something was wrong with this pregnancy because I never got violently sick like I had the first two times. I never even needed the Reglan, which should have been a big clue that things were not right. We had closed on our new home on 7/28. Moving day was Saturday, 7/29 and I started spotting. I tried laying down & taking it easy as much as possible when it is moving day and you have an 18 month old and a 2 1/2 year old. I continued spotting Sunday and I knew something was really, really wrong. Monday morning I went in to the OB and they did an immediately ultrasound which confirmed the loss of the baby. I was totally devastated. In my mind, I’ve always thought of this baby as “Jamie”.
Pregnancy #4 (Savannah)- I had to wait 2 months after the miscarriage (because I had a D&C) to get pregnant. We got pregnant in November and found out in December, which was a wonderful Christmas surprise. Like Mary & Nathan, I was sick early on, started the Reglan and felt better. I do not remember what my weight gain was with Nathan & Savannah- I do know that the most I gained in any pregnancy was 14lbs. and that was either with Nathan or Savannah. Again, no swelling, heartburn, back pain, etc. I went in for another scheduled induction, this time without Connie because she was away at a summer camp serving as the camp nurse. For some reason there was a huge mix up with my paperwork & it was lost. I was scheduled to be there at 5am and the induction should have started around 7am. Instead, it was 10am before it was started. Instead of Stadol & Fentinol, this time I had Nubane, followed by an epidural. Savvy was born at 6:28pm. Had the induction started on time she would have been born around 3:28pm- almost the same time as Nathan (and later, Lyra!) Although Savannah’s labor was peaceful, her delivery was not. She was born with the cord wrapped around her neck three times. When Dr. Lathrop tried to unwrap the cord from Savvy’s neck, it completely disintegrated in her hands. She and Donna (my L&D nurse) got real quiet, real fast. They literally tossed Savvy up onto my stomach and went to work. I was apparently bleeding out. They fixed things fairly quickly but Dr. Lathrop said she had NEVER seen anything like this happen before and she had no explanation as to what it was or why it occurred. After I was moved to the Mother & Baby room I think I went into shock. I started shaking uncontrollably, I was so cold & my teeth were chattering so hard I was literally unable to speak. I was shaking and throwing up. Thank goodness my Mother was there as she was able to hold Savannah for two hours as I was not able to hold her at all. My Mother told me later that Kip was beside himself- he really thought I was not going to make it.
Pregnancy #5 (Lrya)- After 2+ long years of secondary infertility (we had suffered 3 years of primary infertility, unexplained, prior to Mary) we FINALLY got pregnant with Lyra. I was initially unsure as I got two very, very faint positive lines- so faint they were hard to see. I made an appointment with my dr. to have a blood pregnancy test done on Thursday, 7/16 and had to wait a very long 24 hours for the results. (Mary is the only positive pee stick pregnancy test I’ve ever gotten. All the others were negative pee sticks that showed positive on a blood test. No clue why this is) The doctor called me with the good news and I couldn’t wait to tell Kip, because it was 7/17/09, our TENTH anniversary! What perfect timing God has! Lyra was another easy pregnancy- again, no swelling, heartburn, etc. I only gained 6lbs. total. Another super easy labor- I think I went back to Stadol & Fentinol because I slept better with those than with Nubane. Followed by another excellent epidural. This was the only time that I experienced numbness in my legs after an epidural but it only lasted a short time. Lyra was born at 3:09pm after about 8 or 9 minutes of easy pushing. This was the only L&D that was not followed by any drama afterwards- no choking incidents or cord issues. What a nice change!
There are many times that I look around and wonder what it would be like if our two lost children were here- it’s a funny thing to think that I really should have six children! And the oldest a set of twins. Wouldn’t that have been something?!! I’m so thankful for the four precious ones I do have- each one is such a blessing and a joy to me. I am far from a perfect mother, and wish so often to be BETTER. I love motherhood though, and am so thankful that I get to experience it. Children are a wonderful thing- a true blessing from the Lord.
It was such a beautiful party and I was so blessed by the generosity of my friends.
