About a week before I took this test, I had a dream that I was breastfeeding a baby girl with brown hair, so naturally this is how I pictured the baby in my belly. I went to the Dr on December 7th and got to see my little blob baby!
I was already in love. I started getting morning sickness shortly after that, and it didn't get better until July, after I had her. The entire time I was pregnant, all I wanted was fruit! I ate so much pineapple that my tongue was burnt often. I just couldn't get enough. I wrote this on another site when I was 14 weeks:
I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant (I'll be 15 weeks on Monday) and still waiting for the tiniest little hint of a bump to show. It's still early, but I'm getting very impatient. I'm ready to look pregnant and not FAT!
My morning sickness started to subside about 2 weeks ago, thankfully. I still feel sick to my stomach and puke every once in a while, but I'll take that over 24hours straight of sour stomach any day! I've also got major heartburn, but whaddaya do?
On the other hand, it's really setting in. The fact that I'm going to be somebodys "mommy". The fact that I get to go back and experience everything new through somebody elses eyes is amazing to me. I get to take my baby to the zoo and watch Disney movies with him or her. I get to teach the baby how to count to ten and learn their ABC's. I get to give him or her a bath and cuddle up while I read a book before bedtime. I get to change dirty diapers and clean up vomit. I'm so excited that I GET to do these things. I cannot wait to be someones mom. I cannot wait for Preston to be someones dad. I can't wait to do this together.
We had our ultrasound on March 4th to find out what the sex was! My gut feeling was right, and we found out we were having a beautiful baby girl!
My pregnancy was pretty uneventful other than the constant morning sickness. She kicked and had the hiccups all the time and grew perfectly. Through my whole pregnancy I gained 20 pounds exactly, which I was very happy with! I never ended up waddling or waking up during the night not being able to sleep. I think I was very fortunate!
22 weeks
23 weeks
24 weeks
28 weeks
32 weeks
36 weeks
(About a week and 2 days before I had her!)
In early May we went for our 4d scan. She was stubborn the entire time and tried to keep her face covered so we couldn't see her! I should have known then that I'd be in trouble :)
I really thought she was allll Preston here.
Her perfect baby foot.
I threw up my entire pregnancy. Around 12 weeks the morning sickness went away, but 2 weeks later it came back and was completely different! I now know that it was due to heartburn. Somedays I would get sick 3 and 4 times and others I'd be perfectly fine. I learned to stay far away from granola, oatmeal, peanut butter, ketchup, chili and 90% of other foods. No wonder I didn't gain much! I started feeling her around 16 weeks. I wasn't sure it was her at first, but as time went on I figured it out. It felt like a fish bumping into a fish bowl most of the time. It was cute trying to imagine her inside of my belly moving around. At the beginning of June we had maternity pictures taken so that we could always remember this time in our lives.
I had 2 babyshowers, thanks to my mom, my aunt Crystal and my grandma Ruth. They all did A LOT for us and I'm so thankful!
I wasn't anxious for Maci to come until my Dr. appointment at 37 weeks when they checked me and told me that I was 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. From that point on it's all I could think about. I bought an exercise ball to bounce and rock on, I walked curbs and stairs, among other things. Nothing was working, so I decided to just forget about it. She'd come when she was ready and I wasn't in a rush. On Sunday, July 10th, Preston and I took his grandma out for lunch and then I went to my moms house for dessert. My uncle kept telling me "You need to drink castor oil". I have always said that I'd never do that because it sounds disgusting, but I decided to try one last thing. I didn't think it'd hurt, especially since I didn't believe it'd work. So, I went to 5 different stores til I found it. It was so disgustingly hot out that if I hadn't found it at Walgreens, I was going home to forget about it. When the shopping was finished, I drank it with about a gallon of orange juice (puke) and waited. 2 hours later it started to take affect (ha). I stayed out of bed so I wouldn't keep waking Preston up since he had to get up at 4:30am for work. So I layed on the couch for a while, playing on facebook and then decided to go to the bathroom one last time before I went back to bed. When I went to the bathroom I pulled down my pants and I was bleeding a lot (sorry). It was dripping everywhere and it really freaked me out, so I called my mom crying. I just kept thinking "What have I done!"
My mom told me to call the hospital and they said to come in (not sure what I expected them to say). When I stood up off the toilet water started running down my legs. I knew I wasn't peeing, but I wasn't hurting either, so I didn't think it could be my water. My cousin insisted that it was though and that this was it! I woke Preston up and told him we had to go. I kept saying "oh yeah, water is still coming out, hurry up we need to go!". I didn't think I was in labor though for some reason, so I told him we didn't need to grab the bags. I'd just been to the OB unit the night before, so I thought for sure they'd send me home again. So we left to go to the hospital and on the way there I started having contractions. They were 2 minutes apart. We got to the hospital and I was indeed in labor! They checked me and I was at a 3. They wouldn't let me walk for some reason, which I was not happy about, and when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom (castor oil, hello! I had to go NOW) they weren't happy with me. I was hurting, but not too bad yet. I could still breathe through them without tensing up too much. When they checked me again a couple hours later I was still a 3, but that must have triggered something. All of a sudden the contractions got realllly bad. I was moaning and couldn't stay relaxed through them so they gave me Stadol through my IV until my epi got there. That's the part I regret the most. It instantly made me dizzy and feel like i was going to puke. I couldn't stay awake. I was having dreams that I was talking to Preston and I was talking out loud. Every once in a while I'd wake up and say "did I fart?" hahah. It was bad though. It's like it put ME to sleep and it made somebody else come out to handle the pain. Every once in a while I'd wake up screaming and moaning and at one point I remember saying "I need to punch something!" and hitting the bed rails. I also remember saying "My boyfriends going to break up with me!" because I was acting like such a psycho. They checked me 45 minutes later and I'd gone from a 3 to an 8. My mom left to go get my grandma and I thought for sure she was going to miss it because once she left I felt like I needed to push. I kept sitting up in bed saying "okay, okay I need to wake up or I'm going to miss her birth". I was trying so hard to wake myself up. I'd waited so long for this!
I got an epidural at 8 cm (I really debated with myself). I wanted to see how long I could go without one and I was already an 8, so I really wanted to go the rest of the way, but at this point I was attacking the bed rails and thrashing around (at least, this is what I remember happening. Preston says I wasn't. Weird). So I went ahead and got it. I remember crying and saying "he's going to paralyze meeee", because I couldn't sit still. It's amazing though, because when it came time, I sure did! My mom made it back and I started really pushing. I pushed for about 20 minutes before they told me to hold it (for the dr). I started going crazy. I couldn't calm down. I remember crying without tears it hurt so bad. I remember looking at my mom and she was almost in tears. She told me that the look on my face was pure horror just trying to hold her in. I remember it didn't feel very good! I kept saying "Where is she! (The dr) Hurry! Come on!" and it seemed like she was just taking her sweet time. Pushing was different. I liked it because it helped with the contractions and I felt like I could get my aggression out, but it was so tiring. I pushed her out and remember seeing Preston cut the cord and them asking me if I wanted to do skin to skin, and the whole time I did she had her hand up on my face. It didn't seem real that she was actually in my arms.
My mom told me to call the hospital and they said to come in (not sure what I expected them to say). When I stood up off the toilet water started running down my legs. I knew I wasn't peeing, but I wasn't hurting either, so I didn't think it could be my water. My cousin insisted that it was though and that this was it! I woke Preston up and told him we had to go. I kept saying "oh yeah, water is still coming out, hurry up we need to go!". I didn't think I was in labor though for some reason, so I told him we didn't need to grab the bags. I'd just been to the OB unit the night before, so I thought for sure they'd send me home again. So we left to go to the hospital and on the way there I started having contractions. They were 2 minutes apart. We got to the hospital and I was indeed in labor! They checked me and I was at a 3. They wouldn't let me walk for some reason, which I was not happy about, and when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom (castor oil, hello! I had to go NOW) they weren't happy with me. I was hurting, but not too bad yet. I could still breathe through them without tensing up too much. When they checked me again a couple hours later I was still a 3, but that must have triggered something. All of a sudden the contractions got realllly bad. I was moaning and couldn't stay relaxed through them so they gave me Stadol through my IV until my epi got there. That's the part I regret the most. It instantly made me dizzy and feel like i was going to puke. I couldn't stay awake. I was having dreams that I was talking to Preston and I was talking out loud. Every once in a while I'd wake up and say "did I fart?" hahah. It was bad though. It's like it put ME to sleep and it made somebody else come out to handle the pain. Every once in a while I'd wake up screaming and moaning and at one point I remember saying "I need to punch something!" and hitting the bed rails. I also remember saying "My boyfriends going to break up with me!" because I was acting like such a psycho. They checked me 45 minutes later and I'd gone from a 3 to an 8. My mom left to go get my grandma and I thought for sure she was going to miss it because once she left I felt like I needed to push. I kept sitting up in bed saying "okay, okay I need to wake up or I'm going to miss her birth". I was trying so hard to wake myself up. I'd waited so long for this!
I got an epidural at 8 cm (I really debated with myself). I wanted to see how long I could go without one and I was already an 8, so I really wanted to go the rest of the way, but at this point I was attacking the bed rails and thrashing around (at least, this is what I remember happening. Preston says I wasn't. Weird). So I went ahead and got it. I remember crying and saying "he's going to paralyze meeee", because I couldn't sit still. It's amazing though, because when it came time, I sure did! My mom made it back and I started really pushing. I pushed for about 20 minutes before they told me to hold it (for the dr). I started going crazy. I couldn't calm down. I remember crying without tears it hurt so bad. I remember looking at my mom and she was almost in tears. She told me that the look on my face was pure horror just trying to hold her in. I remember it didn't feel very good! I kept saying "Where is she! (The dr) Hurry! Come on!" and it seemed like she was just taking her sweet time. Pushing was different. I liked it because it helped with the contractions and I felt like I could get my aggression out, but it was so tiring. I pushed her out and remember seeing Preston cut the cord and them asking me if I wanted to do skin to skin, and the whole time I did she had her hand up on my face. It didn't seem real that she was actually in my arms.
I don't remember much after that, which really makes me sad because I feel like I was robbed. I don't remember hearing her cry after she was born. I don't remember even seeing her after she was born, I just know that she was in my arms and I had them take her because I was nodding off. I'll never get the IV meds again! I ended up having 1 stitch from my 5 pound 11 ounce 19.5 inch baby girl. I love her more than anything in the world. I can't believe that my first born is already here. I've already been pregnant and had my first child! I love having her here so much. They had me supplement with formula through a tube for a few days because they said she was too small to wait for my milk to come in and if she dropped too much weight she'd have to stay in the hospital. I'm not sure how much I agree with that, but now we're all boob and no tube! I can't believe I'm a mother.
Maci Elizabeth Burton, July 11, 2011
5 pounds 11 ounces 19.5 inches
