I'm starting to believe fully that this whole second kid syndrome thing is a real thing. Up until about 2 weeks ago there has been little to no evidence that there is a baby on the way from the outside world's perspective. Don't get me wrong, I love this little girl, but with a now 16 month old who is constantly on the run, documenting and prepping for her entrance has looked dramatically different!! I thought I would help this baby girl out a bit, so that she can look back in a few years and see that she wasn't adopted and that she is in fact Kyle and my biological child!
First things, first...Belly photo. After taking a photo every week with Jaden and comparing them side by side, 38.4 weeks into this pregnancy..... I finally took my first belly bump picture, at the hospital, about to get induced! It's a terrible picture, but there you go, Abigial Riley, 8 hours before you were born! This pregnancy I gained 40 and I have eaten all the "off limit" items for pregnant women...like hot dogs, cold cut meats, sushi, blue cheese, and even a daily cup of coffee.... Rebel! We have a healthy baby girl, and I was able to enjoy a chili cheese hot dog with no regrets! Doctor even commented on how healthy the cord looked...a lot of "off limits" food created that cord!
Next thing, a nursery. My little sister Jacee came about 2 weeks ago to help get a nursery together. We came up with a theme and My older sister Kylie painted a sign to go on the wall. 5 days into her life and the nursery is still not complete, but it's on the list of things to do before she turns 6. I chose the age 6, because that is the age I have a few memories that I can remember today, so we have a few years until an unfinished nursery has any lasting effects! Thanks to my sisters and Kyle, she will not be Sleeping in a bathtub so that's a parenting win!
Final thing, her grand entrance!! Seeing how Jaden was evicted from the womb because he was two weeks late, I had the expectation that although 38 weeks along, I still had a good month before I needed to pack a hospital bag or get a diaper bag ready, plus every appointment I went to, she was always measuring a little small so I thought they might have the due date wrong anyways (more on that measuring small bit later)
Last week, on Monday, my close friends threw me a surprise dinner with pizza (my favorite) and a few presents to get Abby started.
One of my friends was having an allergic reaction, and as I was watching her scratch her arms, I started noticing how itchy my palms were! I thought this is the greatest hypochondriac scratching I've ever seen! Empathy scratching perhaps? I went home that night and my belly itched, my feet felt like they were on fire and as I was scratching my palms late into the night, Kyle woke up annoyed that I was scratching so furiously that it woke him up...sarcastically and in pure 9 month pregnancy, waking every 2 hours, fashion, I snapped back saying something along the lines of "Ohhhh, so you can't sleep...really, you poor thing, please excuse the inconvenience." (He got me ice cream the next day for the comment, good man!)
I then did what anyone one looking for sound, logical, and medically correct advice would do, and I turned to google! After googling everything with Jaden and coming up with full diagnosis for him almost daily during my pregnancy, I have actually been good about staying away from Google this pregnancy! The itchy was so crazy that I needed to know what medication I could take to get some sleep!
First thing that popped up, is that itchy palms is a superstition you are about to lose money (for once those superstitions werent off with her birthday being tax day!)
Next thing that popped up was something called cholestasis in pregnancy, and after 2 hours of research, I had self diagnosed myself!! Apparently, it is something in the liver that blocks up bile in the last few weeks of pregnancy and although not harmful to me, is link to stillbirths and dangerous for the baby! At 4am in the morning that's the perfect thing to read!! I called my doctor first thing and changed my appointment for the morning. She said cholestasis is rare and the itching is a common side effect for pregnancy when everything gets swollen, but she ran my liver bile numbers just to be safe. Feeling better, I continued on with my day, thinking about how weird pregnancy is and all the crazy symptoms that come along with it! The doctor said the labs wouldn't be in until Thursday, but by this time I was now convinced it was just a swollen pregnancy thing anyways.
Thursday comes around and the labs weren't in and the nurse said it could be Friday or Monday before we knew. I was gathering my things at work getting ready to go home and kicking students out the door, when the doctor called saying she pushed for the labs to be stat and the results were I have significantly high liver bile levels and we needed to get baby out within the next 24hours! Hello, i still had a month to prepare, what do you mean we are inducing ASAP!?! The doctor explained that with Cholestasis there is no way to monitor the baby, one moment there could be heart tones and another moment they could be gone!
We ran home, packed our bags, forgot abby's bag, (which goes to show all the prep isnt nessesary, we had one change of clothes for her to come home in, and that's it, and that's all we really needed!) We waited for Kyle's parents, Gram and Pops to get to our house to take Jaden, and we headed off. Saying goodbye to Jaden was way more emotional than I expected. I knew this was the last time I would see him as my little baby and only child.
At the hospital, they started the induction around 8 and I was already 3cm, so in my mind I thought, we would be having this baby in the next few hours....8 hours later, I was at 5cm and still could not feel a single contraction. At 3am, they broke my water and cranked the pitosin up triple the amount. Suddenly, those non-existance contraction popped up and I asked for my new best friend, Dr. Yay, to visit. Dr. Yay is the anesthesiologist who gave me my epidural and I couldn't think of a better name for that man to have! I thought, if this baby turns out to be a boy, we should name him after the Epidural guy!
Epidural was perfect, and the rest was near perfect delivery. We played "pocket tanks" and "ticket to ride" board games a few times, which I won of course. Around 7am, I felt pressure and the need to push. My nurse, Nurse Mary, who is also a friend of ours from church and the one who helped delivery Jaden was there and she had me push for 5 seconds and told me to stop because Abigail was coming. The doctor arrived, I pushed one more time and Abigail Riley David entered the world! Full head of black hair (not sure where that came from), 20.5 inches and 8lbs 15oz *yay, they told me she was going to be small*. She is in the 95% in height and weight and 100% in head circumference.Big Dom!
I just think it's crazy that all this began because of itchy palms. I had never heard of Cholestasis before and really couldn't even pronounce it until a day ago, but it's out there and it exists. Many babies have been stillborn because of it, so if you or anyone you know are pregnant and start itching get a simple blood test because it could save your baby's life! So thankful for our happy baby girl!
Jaden has been in top form on the hilarity scale!! I wish I could follow him around with a video camera to capture this stage forever. I love how much he is learning and growing. He cracks up laughing about everything, loves dancing and singing, and has recently gotten into Elmo! He talks up a storm, and I am always curious to what he is saying. He can say all his animal sounds now, which is nice because for awhile there, his answer was "Moo" or "RAAR" for every animal. He knows how to ask for his favorite foods "nana", "apple", and "cookie" and of course he ask for "more" everytime he eats. He eats bigger portions than me! I have also made sure to teach him the essentials like "Texas Tech" and how to put his "Guns up" and when I ask him who his best friend is, he always answers "Abby." So far this is the most fun stage!
Although the circumstances have not been ideal with Kyle in between jobs, we have had the best time enjoying the time as a family of 4! We go to the park, to Mt. Charleston, or walk through model homes dreaming of living life as millionaires. I'm sad that this is the last couple of days as Kyle starts his new job on Wednesday and I return to work for a few weeks on Tuesday!
