Hello blog, I do like you, it's just that I have been busy. I have been spending time with the popular more shallow kid at school called "Facebook". It is easy to be friends with him but he doesn't quite have the depth that you do so I return to you for something a little more than a one nightstand.
The emotional last month of pregnancy:
My little guy is here! His beginnings have been nothing short of an ordeal. When I was 36 weeks pregnant I went to fetal diagnostic(FD)s 2/wk where they checked the heart rate for 20 minutes and checked the amniotic fluid by ultrasound. This was all done because the umbilical cord had only 2 vessels(normal one has 3). There has been nothing to cause any alarm this whole pregnancy it's just standard for someone with this condition. Much to my shock, on the second visit to FD my babies heart rate dropped. At first, I thought the monitor had simply moved and wasn't reading it right, so I buzzed the nurse to let her know it had moved but after a second and third nurse came in and practically had me upside down(I'm not kidding) I knew something wasn't right. Five minutes later the heart rate was back to normal. My amniotic fluid was also 5.5. If it is below a 5 they would induce but at 36 weeks the best thing for the baby was to keep him me for a bit longer. The doctor at FD wanted to monitor the heart rate overnight to make sure it wasn't dropping regularly so I spent the night in the hospital with an IV pumping fluid in me. I didn't even know that would help. I guess I wasn't drinking enough water for how active I was. I was freaked out and so was Jamin. We didn't know what to think. If the heart rate dropped again and was a problem the only option would be emergency C-section. Luckily the heart rate was fine all night and I got to go home but was put on strict bed rest. My doctor told me to drink as much water as I could and just get up to walk to the bathroom. Do they not know I have 2 kids? My nieces and my mom came and helped me with my kids. Doing nothing for 2 weeks got my fluids up to 15 and the hear rate was fine so I took myself off of bed rest. My kids were at my mom's in Bakersfield so I just had 5 days of "me" time. It was AWESOME! Jamin and I went out to dinner and to the movies. I sewed a car seat cover and basically de-stressed.
The delivery:
Of course my due date came and still no baby. If the last month hadn't happened I might not have been so annoyed. All of my kids are late and I really wanted to go into labor on my own but everyday he wasn't born was stressful. I just wanted him here healthy, safe in my arms. So, that was the 10th of April and on the 12th I went to FD knowing my fluids would probably be too low. How else am I going to go into labor if I don't walk around Disneyland and the mall and wherever else I can? I was right. The nurse doing my ultrasound didn't say anything at first but then said my fluids were 4.3 but would get a second nurse to see if she could find more and she did. It was 5.1 or 5.4. I can't remember but it was good enough for them. They were relieved(I wasn't) and told me to go home. That was like 9 am. At home, I decide that I going to give my baby and me positive labor thoughts by packing for the hospital. I have been semi-packed since the first hospitalization incidence but this time I packed it all. Around 11;30am the nurse called me and told me the doctor thought the fluids were too low and that I should get induced and to head over. Yes!! That is what I wanted to hear. I love this part! I love going to the hospital to have a baby. It might sound weird but the whole experience amazes me. My sister Dana came over and watched my kids till my mom arrived and I headed to the hospital when Jamin got home. It was probably 2pm. I was hooked up around 3pm and then the wait began. Jamin busted out the baby name book. Once again we had no name. I was dilated at 2/3 on arrival then around 7 only3/4. an hour or so later the nurse wants to stick something up inside me to get an accurate heart rate of the baby. She had turned the monitor so I couldn't see it anymore which I didn't understand why until later. Got epideral around 7:30. About 10pm I finally started to feel the pressure. An hour later the nurse is like,"don't push let me get the doctor" My doctor had pulled an all nighter the night before so wasn't there. Luckily the doctor on call was Dr. Braithwate(sp?) an outstanding OB who was in my sister's ward. When he came in he told me not to push either. No mirror was provided but he said that I was getting an epeziotomy right away b/c we needed to get the baby out very calmly. A beautiful baby boy was shortly after placed on my chest. I was in love and I had never seen a more beautiful newborn. The doctor said he had cut the cord already because it had been rapped around the baby's neck. OK that explained a lot!! Well all seemed well. I was so happy to have my baby finally here delivered vaginally without problems.
12 hours later
Names narrowed down to a combo of 6 names or so. He also has a huge cyst on his bellybutton my pediatrician wants a surgeon to look at. that's right, my newborn baby was transferred to children's hospital not even a day old and I was released from the hospital to follow him. I was no longer a patient with nurses to wait on me or take my baby so I could sleep but I through my maternity clothes on and hopped in an ambulance with my newborn. Worst day ever! The NICU was not a place for parents. There was a hard chair to sit on next to this tiny bed in a room with 8 other babies. All that was accomplished was an ultrasound was performed but couldn't be read until the morning. There was no place to sleep and having no sleep the night before went home for the night and slept and cried. I was so hung up on the hospital experience I didn't get to have. My kids didn't get to come the hospital and meet their new brother the way I had imagined it. The ultrasound proved to be nothing immediately serious but the nurse told the doctor that the baby wasn't eating well and my milk hadn't come in yet. I almost lost it on this lady. I did protest in an adult way however. I have done this two times before and my milk doesn't come in until the night I come home from the hospital. Lady, I do have an idea of what I'm doing!! I told the doctor this. What? They can't keep my baby, I was about to get up and walk out with my child and flip'em all off as I left. I just had a baby people! Stitches are new. Think of the big picture here. The doctor team(it was a team just like on Grey's Anatomy) listened to me and released Kian.
Choosing a name
While we were still at Hoag(my sanctuary) i stared at my new little baby and knowing that we would be separated for a time I thought he needed a name. I couldn't just leave him in the arms of all of these nurses as "Baby Duncan". Jamin kept throwing names out he knew I didn't even like. Zephyr and Milo to be exact. Fine names for other babies maybe but I wasn't feeling'em.
He seriously could have chosen any of the six names on our list but nothing was coming to him. So I chose Kian Cooper Duncan. The nurses at CHOC immediately called him by his name and I liked how it sounded. Jamin still wasn't sold, not sure why but he later went back to Hoag to fill out the birth certificate and changed his middle name to "Nash". When Jamin came back to CHOC from Hoag we were finally released to go home with our baby Kian Nash Duncan. I was relieved! My mom, Zoe and Jude greeted us when we got home. I don't even know how to describe the feeling other than, "my cup runneth over". I felt truly grateful for my little family.
