A Baby Story

It was September 2010 and Josh and I were playing Tennis. I yelled from across the court that I needed to take a break because I was loosing so we met up at the half court, sat down, drank some water and rested. I was very distraught and anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE loosing! As we were sitting there, Josh said, "I think I am ready to start having babies."

I had been wanting to start a family since Josh had returned from his 2nd deployment from Afghanistan. I hadn't really thought about the details but just knew that I loved this man and wanted to have his babies. Josh was not completely against the idea when I would bring it up but was much more rational about it and just wanted a little more time, just him and I, before we started trying. He has always been the more level headed of us, so I was okay with this.

We started by getting all of the "What to expect when you are expecting?" books. I did some pre-pregnancy lab work and when we met up after work we would sit and read the books together. I loved this time we had together. Josh had so many questions and even though I learned the material at one point in nursing school, there was A LOT I had forgot.

It didn't take us too long before Baby Rud came along.
(Photo at 4 weeks pregnant) One morning, I decided that I was going to go take a pregnancy test just for fun. I hadn't missed my period yet (I was still 5 days away from even getting it) but knew that I could test this early. So I did but nothing happened. Josh went to work and so did I. When I got home I took the same pregnacny test (that I had left in the bathroom) and looked at it again. This time I saw a faint pink line running across the screen. I thought this might have been in my head so I said I was going to wait until the next morning to make sure....to which I ran out and got the digital pregnancy test that would flash "pregnant" or "not pregnant." Turns out I couldn't even wait until the morning and at 1:30 AM I went to take the test. "Pregnant" it read....I woke up Josh and we called our parents. This was one of the best days ever...we were sooo excited!!

I went to the clinic to draw more labs and it didn't turn out to be all good. My thyroid levels had increased drastically since I had my prenatal lab work. The provider wasn't sure what to think so decided to not take any action. I took it upon myself to see another provider. She was very concerned and so drew more labs and contacted an Endocrinologist. After about 1 week and many tears I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashimoto's_thyroiditis).

This was a very scarey time for Josh and myself. I questioned God why would I be pregnant right now? I was scared, mad and very nervous for the baby. I truly believe that God always has a plan (even though we may not always understand it) so that was what kept us going.

Because of the last provider I had seen, I was quickly seeing both Endocrinology and an MFM doctor(Maternal Fetal Medicine- they typcially deal with the high risk pregnancies). My care was exceptional and together those two doctors worked very hard to stabalize my thyroid via medication and frequent lab work.

The first 14 weeks of the pregnancy were very hard on me. I woke up STARVING and found that after I ate I became very sick. Some Saturdays and Sundays I would lay on the couch until the sickness went away and the frustrating part was the sickness would turn into hunger and I would eat again only to find the nausea came right back. This continued till week 14. Most nights I would not have the energy to make dinner so we did cereal for dinner. Josh loved this...I just was getting through the days. There were even a few nights where I was in bed at 5:30 PM...immediately following dinner. You would think one would not be able to sleep through the night but I did. I was EXHAUSTED. ALL. THE. TIME.

Around the 18 week mark, my left leg started to go numb....to a point where I would be walking and would collapse because I would get these sharp stabbing pains from the numbness. I was soo scared but thankfully my sister is one of the most intelligent people I know and being a chiropractor she did a lot of work on me. After I saw her I felt a million times better until a few hours later and it would act up again. I questioned how I would ever get through the last 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Then the pregnancy changed. It was around the time we left Germany in March. I started getting much more energy. My leg started to get better and I was even able to find a way to start running again which lasted all the way up till 31 weeks! The baby was growing and I was finally starting to get a baby bump...which was much more exciting than I had imagined! Up to this point it was so hard to embrace the growth but once I saw the weight going to her it made all the difference in the world.

So I thought I would post some pictures on this blog before the baby gets here....we are now only days away! Also, before I forgot about everything I wanted to post some things I have loved and not so liked about being pregnant.


32 weeks pregant


34 weeks pregant


36 weeks

FULL TERM BEGINS!

37 weeks

38 weeks

38 1/2 weeks

39 weeks


Things I have really enjoyed about being pregnant:
- My hair NEVER falls out. I feel that right now my hair is the thickest it will ever be. I sometimes style it just because. They say this will happen when one is pregant but I literally have to brush the heck of out of my hair even to get one stray strand. I am going to continue to love this embrace this for as long as I can because they say you loose a lot of your hair once you have the baby. Not. looking. forward. to. that.
-Anytime I crave something, i.e. chocolate chip cookie, it is not my fault. Little Rylie needs her bits of sweetness and I can't say no to a sweet and innocent baby girl. Josh says he can't wait for the day when I can't blame every bad thing I eat on her....little does he know I will be breastfeeding and I will still have that excuse.
-Gaining weight is not such a bad thing. In the beginning of pregnancy it was hard to see the numbers on the scale increase but only because it wasn't going to a baby bump. Infact, I felt that it was going anywhere but my belly. Which is where it does go in the first few months. Your blood supply increases immensely and other parts of your body grow very rapidly in preparation of the baby. Now it is fun to see how much she grows week to week.
-My fingernails grow really fast. I have always been a nail biter but with a little bit of nail polish I have managed to stop this (unless I have a bad day or I get really anxious). My nails are prettier than ever. Thank you Rylie.:)
-Every morning when Josh wakes up, Rylie wakes up. This could be because I have to use the bathroom at this time too but I always blame her waking up on Josh. When I crawl back in bed I place my hand on her and love feeling her move to find her comfy place again. I can't help but smile everytime I feel her move. Makes me soo excited to meet her.
-Which leads me to my last but most favorite thing about being pregnant. Sweet Rylie kicks. Sometimes they aren't so sweet and hurt but most of the times it is just so neat to see her wiggle all around in there. In the past couple weeks I have been able to outline her foot and it is the absolute coolest feeling!

Things that have been not so fun about pregnancy:
Before starting this list I would like to say that I had a very hard/bad first half of pregnancy. I feel that this is partly because of the Hashimoto's disease, the fatiuge and nausea combination. I can honestly say that the 2nd half of pregnancy has been completely opposite and has even allowed me to forget how terrible the first half of pregnancy was.
-The nausea which carried up till 14 weeks. I had to eat every 2-3 hours at this point and sometimes even that wasn't enough. I always woke up STARVING and most mornings after breakfast I found myself regreting ever eating because of the intense nausea that followed the meal. I had to eat dinner EARLY 5 pm at the latest, so for about a month Josh and I weren't able to have dinner together. And if I could wait that long to eat, it was a bowl of cereal that we would have.
-I had absolutely NO energy. Hence the bowl of cereal for dinner. The literature said that in the beginning of pregnancy the woman's body is running a marathon everyday with the rapid replication of the embryo cells. Some days I felt that I had ran 2 marathons- minus the runners high.
-Brushing my teeth. I had to try 3 different toothpastes before I could even consider doing it once a day. Some mornings I would skip the process all together. I believe I have PTSD from this because I still don't enjoy it even though no nausea accompanies the process.
- Chewing gum...I HATE IT. This is also very odd and unexpected because I use to easily go through a pack of gum a day. Now the thought or smell of it still hurts me to think about. In the end, this is a good thing because my gum addiction was a problem and baby Rylie has helped me to officially break that habit.

So there it is....our baby story. And now we just can't wait to meet the little Monkey!:)