Just a few weeks after we found out the gender (YAY ANOTHER GIRL!!!) I started noticing that I was not feeling as many movements as I should have, at first I figured she was just too small to feel much but when I mentioned it to my doctor she decided that we should get me in to be monitored just to be safe. When I went in to be monitored I met Tina, she soon became a very good friend of mine and a great support through the coming months, she is a nurse at my doctors office. We found that Mila's heart rate was irregular, she did not have accelerations (rise in her heart rate) like she was supposed to. Her heart was beating too consistently, it is important to see fluctuations in the heart rate of the babies. I was referred to a Perinatologist (high risk pregnancy doctor) they ran a whole bunch of tests and came back with a similar response. He said that because everything else looked good his best guess was that we had a lazy baby....I am not joking that's what he said to us! Unfortunately, this did nothing to comfort me.
Jumping forward again in November I started having contractions...not braxton hicks...full on contractions. I was contracting about every 5-10 minutes. I was not far enough along for this to be happening. I was about 31 weeks pregnant...talk about scary! I was dilated to a 2 and I was in the early stages of labor, my doctor acted fast and had me start taking a medication every 3 hours that would help reduce my contractions and relax my uterus. It sort of helped, I was still contracting but they were much lighter and they stopped me from dilating further. Unfortunately I was put on bed rest, which was a lot of fun with a toddler at home...NOT! Poor Claire, she spent a lot of time in the house watching movies while I tried to rest and not do anything strenuous. Since I am married to a medical student I did not get much help during the day but Eric is amazing, he would come home from a long day of school and make us dinner, clean up the house and play with Claire! Not only did Eric take over a lot of my responsibilities at home but he also managed to maintain good grades in school...I married the greatest man on the planet...no joke, I love him to pieces!
My mom was a huge support through this whole process, she listened to me cry to her for many hours on the phone and helped me stay positive through all the trials we had. My family was already planning on coming to Las Vegas for Christmas but my mom took time off work to come out early because my doctor was fairly sure I would have our little girl when I stopped taking the meds that controlled my contractions. She came out here and went straight to work, she took care of Claire, cleaned my house, cooked our meals, did our grocery shopping and came to my doctors appointments with me! I love my mom! Of course when I stopped taking the medication my contractions came back with vengeance but I was not dilating. I had strong painful contractions that were 5 minutes apart for weeks on end. I went to the hospital multiple times thinking that she was coming only to be sent home hours later saying that I had not progressed enough to schedule my C-section (yes, we were planning a repeat c-section). I finally got an Amniocentesis when I was 38 weeks to make sure that her lungs were developed enough to deliver, the test came back positive and we scheduled her delivery for 7:30am on January 5, 2015!
When I first saw my beautiful Mila I couldn't hold back a flood of built up emotions, I bawled like a baby which was an odd experience because I was still in surgery being put back together, I was exhausted, relieved, happy, scared and most of all excited to welcome my beautiful daughter to this world. Needless to say I am so grateful to all of my friends who brought dinners while I was on bed rest and again after she was born and to my friends who would just come and keep me company when I was going stir crazy! I am eternally grateful for the blessing of my daughters and for the lessons I have learned from them and continue to learn from them! Anyway, getting off my soapbox here are some amazing pictures that my sweet friend Sarah took for us as we welcomed Mila to our crazy family!
My mom was a huge support through this whole process, she listened to me cry to her for many hours on the phone and helped me stay positive through all the trials we had. My family was already planning on coming to Las Vegas for Christmas but my mom took time off work to come out early because my doctor was fairly sure I would have our little girl when I stopped taking the meds that controlled my contractions. She came out here and went straight to work, she took care of Claire, cleaned my house, cooked our meals, did our grocery shopping and came to my doctors appointments with me! I love my mom! Of course when I stopped taking the medication my contractions came back with vengeance but I was not dilating. I had strong painful contractions that were 5 minutes apart for weeks on end. I went to the hospital multiple times thinking that she was coming only to be sent home hours later saying that I had not progressed enough to schedule my C-section (yes, we were planning a repeat c-section). I finally got an Amniocentesis when I was 38 weeks to make sure that her lungs were developed enough to deliver, the test came back positive and we scheduled her delivery for 7:30am on January 5, 2015!
When I first saw my beautiful Mila I couldn't hold back a flood of built up emotions, I bawled like a baby which was an odd experience because I was still in surgery being put back together, I was exhausted, relieved, happy, scared and most of all excited to welcome my beautiful daughter to this world. Needless to say I am so grateful to all of my friends who brought dinners while I was on bed rest and again after she was born and to my friends who would just come and keep me company when I was going stir crazy! I am eternally grateful for the blessing of my daughters and for the lessons I have learned from them and continue to learn from them! Anyway, getting off my soapbox here are some amazing pictures that my sweet friend Sarah took for us as we welcomed Mila to our crazy family!
