People say you never know what to expect when giving birth no matter how much you prepare and they are right. The only things that I knew that it was going to hurt and be long and I got that part right.
It all started on January 7 when Lyndi had her appointment with the internal fetal medicine doctors from Driscoll's Children Hospital. Why did we meet with this practice - here is the back story:
Every month we met with this office to monitor her growth and development. Back in July, we had an appointment with them to check her heart and to make sure it was developing correctly since my dad's heart condition could be hereditary. We thought this appointment would be fairly routine because I knew that they would not be able to tell us much about her heart since all babies are born with a hole in their hearts and should close up within the first year. The doctor indicated that her PFO (hole in heart) looked good but...
She was labeled "high risk" when we moved to Corpus Christi because her ultrasound revealed that she had bright spots on her heart and intestines. The bright spot on her heart is loosely correlated with chromosome disorders including Down Syndrome, Trisomy 13, and Trisomy 18 and the bright spot on the intestine could indicate cerebral palsy or some severe infections. The only thing that I remember him saying was I "was 14 times more likely to have child with Down Syndrome." Needless to say this news was not expected and I did everything in my power to not have a huge breakdown in front of everyone. Instead it happened in the hallway corner. All I could think of was everything associated with my daddy and now I may have a child with special needs. After I compose myself I went down to give blood because Landon said that we were not going to have amniocentesis. This test would take my blood and separate the baby's blood from mine in order to determine if the right number of chromosomes were present and if any infections that may be present. I am so thankful that Landon was with me because he was able to make decisions in that moment that I couldn't. The only down side to this test is the wait time to get the results.
Landon and I decided that we were not going to tell anyone about this news until we found out the results. We did this because the last thing I wanted to do was cause unnecessary stress and worry to my family after the traumatic events of February. That weekend, we traveled to Houston and I ended up spilling everything to my mom because she was wanting to buy a ton of baby stuff and I didn't want to do any of it because I wasn't sure what the results of the test were going to be and if the baby would be a live for very long after delivery due to the possibility of Lyndi having a chromosome disorder.
After stressing over the possibilities, we got the results back after a week and half. Everything came back normal and I was so relieved and thankful. We were still considered high risk because the bright spots were still present so we continued to have high definition sonograms of her every month.
I must say that I really enjoyed getting to see her every month and look forward to it. Most people don't get to do this and I consider it to be a positive of being labeled "high risk". They would tell us approximately how much she weighed, monitor the bright spots, and tell us about different growth features. Because Landon and I decided that we were going to wait to find out the sex of Lyndi, they would turn off the TV so we could not that area when they were measuring her growth and checking her development. This was not hard for me because I have always wanted to keep it a surprise. The only thing was was always facing my spine or buried her head in the placenta - hence we never got a decent picture of her face even with the high definition sonogram.
Throughout the nine months, I went to physical therapy for my back. I think it was really helpful and I really enjoyed doing the exercises because I knew that it would help me with the weight gain and also help me during labor and delivery. For the most part my back cooperated because Lyndi was always facing my spine. I immediately could tell when she would turn over because my back would start hurting and I would need to lay down. I also experienced extreme fatigue during pregnancy and discovered that I was anemic and needed to take iron supplements. For example, there were times that I could not even pay bills online without having to take a break and lay down. Even though the supplements helped, I still was anemic throughout my pregnancy with her and was so glad that I was not working.
Fast forward to 36 weeks...
I started getting to checked to see if I was dilated and effaced. Each time I was checked, my OB doctor would tell me she would see me next week and that I had not progressed at all. At 38 weeks, she started discussing the possibility of being induced because Lyndi was measuring big and she didn't want her to get too big in order to avoid the possibility of a cesarean.
On January 7, I went to the internal fetal medicine people one last time. They measured her growth and checked development. Lyndi was finally ready for her photo shoot and we got to see a picture of her face for the first time. I really liked looking at it and wondering if she would be a boy or a girl and who she looked like. She was measuring close to 9 lbs (just an estimate) and since I was not dilated or effaced, they suggested to discuss being induced with my OB at my appointment with her the following day.
Landon and I went home that afternoon to discuss our options and to relax.
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| Getting ready for her entrance to the world... |
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