My pregnancy with Carissa was a doozy. My mother was a nervous wreck for nine months over it. Because of Maleah's preterm birth and a few other health problems, the main one being high blood pressure, I was considered high risk. Dr. Whightsel in Effingham had told me that there was no way he would take me on again. I was fine with that because I really thought hell would freeze over before I let myself get loaded onto another ambulance when I was in labor. I decided to doctor at the same hospital where I delivered Maleah, St. John's Mercy in West St. Louis County. There is an awesome practice of high risk doctors there and a great NICU if I were to need it again. The downside is that it takes two and a half hours to get there and that is a long drive for a pregnant lady who has to pee a lot. Dr. Bartelsmeyer kept a really close eye on me and got me to 38 weeks. There were a couple of hospital stays prior to that but I always ended up going back home still pregnant. I really wasn't prepared to have a full term baby. I hadn't really considered that it would really happen. But one day it occurred to me, "Hey, you're 38 weeks, you're going to get to take your baby home with you when you leave the hospital!" My next thought was "Oh my gosh! I don't know how to get a baby on a schedule!". Maleah came home on a strict every four hour eating schedule. Every minute of her little life was scheduled thanks to those NICU nurses. What was I going to do now?? Worrying over that probably didn't help my blood pressure which was already through the roof and continuing to climb despite the bedrest I was on. Eventually they had to induce me because of the high blood pressure. It was a little ironic that I had been having to get a shot in my backside (thanks, Jeana!!) for the last six months to prevent me from going into labor and now they were suddenly giving me medicine to make me go into labor. But whatever. At that point, I didn't care.
I went in to the hospital on Wednesday night, the 25th of March. It took them about 12 hours to get my blood pressure down enough to start inducing me. The next morning they started giving me pitocin in an iv to get my labor started. I could tell from the monitor that I was having lots of regular contractions but I couldn't feel them. Then they started to be too close together and the baby was stressing so then they would back off of the pitocin. Then a little while later they would give me a little more pitocin and the same thing would happen again. This went on all day. I still hadn't felt a thing. Then they decided to break my water. An hour and half later, at 5:31 p.m., little Carissa Faith made her way into the world. I went from 2 cm to 10 cm in about an hour. I was determined to have another natural birth like Maleah's. I sort of did. Sort of didn't. The labor came on so fast and so furious that I was having trouble focusing to put it mildly. I remember telling my mother "What was I thinking??". They checked me and I was at a 5. I remember thinking that there is no way I can do this. I wasn't even at transition yet and it was too much. So I asked for the epidural (something I swore I wouldn't do). The anesthesiologist was there and had it in within five minutes I think. The whole time he was doing it I felt like I needed to push. The nurse said something like "well, I just checked you but I'll check you again." Lo and behold, I was completely dialated and ready to push. It happened that fast. So much for the epidural. It kicked in about twenty minutes after Carissa was born. The nurse told me not to push because she had to call for the doctor. She told me it was going to be 10 minutes before he could get there. Do you know how hard it is not to push when your body is saying "push, push!"? Extremely hard!! Ten minutes turned into twenty and my body was pushing and I couldn't control it. I was sure that the nurse was going to deliver the baby. The doctor walked in and within two more pushes (Jason thinks three) Carissa was born. She was 6 lbs, 11 oz. and perfectly healthy. I got to hold her right away and nobody rushed off with her to the NICU or anything. It was so peaceful and there was only four or five people in the room. So so different than Maleah's birth. Here are some of her first pictures.
But that was a whole year ago. And now I have a little girl who is talking and almost walking. Her new word this week is bird. She says "burr? burr?". So cute! We celebrated her birthday Friday night with the Cooper side of the family. Jason's Mom and Dad and his brother, Craig, and his wife, LuAnn, came over for cake and ice cream. It was fun and Maleah got to open Carissa's presents because Carissa didn't have a clue as to what she was supposed to do with them and because Maleah was dying to open them anyway. She got a cute little ride-on turtle from her Grandma and Grandpa and a gold bracelet from Craig and LuAnn. It looks so pretty on her! She got her own little cake to eat and guess what?? She didn't eat it! Are you surprised? The kid who doesn't like anything doesn't like birthday cake too much either. It was pretty and had polka dots all over it. She would take one finger and lightly touch a dot, then she would lick her finger. She ate most of the dots off the cake and that's it. The cake and the rest of the icing weren't even touched. But she still needed a bath afterwards because apparently she didn't like her finger being sticky because she kept trying to wipe the extra icing off in her hair and on her cheeks. So she did get messy but nothing like her sister did on her first birthday.
Then on Sunday we celebrated with my side of the family. My best friend from Harrisburg, Jessi, and her mom Becky also came to the party. It was a lot of fun and Maleah and Carissa both got a lot of presents. We had another big cake and Carissa had another little cake. Same thing happened again. She ate the dots. That was it. She somehow managed to get icing in her ear but did not require an immediate bath. I have some great party pictures to share with you. But, I can't find my camera! I swear I'm going to have to get an alarm for that thing. You know how you can hit a button on the base of your cordless phone and it will help you track down the phone? I need something like that for my camera. As soon as I find it, I will post pics!
On Saturday Jason and I took the girls to Cracker Barrel to eat. Maleah loves to eat and to shop there. She was mad at me that I cut her shopping short though and made her go to the car. On the way home Jason and I were holding hands and from the backseat we could hear her say "Oh brother! There is too much romance in this car." Even though I couldn't see her I know she was rolling her eyes. She sounded somewhat amused, somewhat disgusted with us. Jason and I got a kick out of it.
Maleah is on spring break this week and she is so bummed about it. She loves school and is disappointed that she doesn't get to go again until next Tuesday. Hopefully I can think of some fun things that we can do at home so that she doesn't realize how much she's missing school.
I am also proud to say that I weigh fifty pounds less than I did at this time last year. Yay for me! A lot of that baby weight came off pretty quick but a lot of it didn't. I started Weight Watchers in November and have lost over 25 pounds since then. I am almost to my goal weight and am feeling great! I've been able to cut way back on my blood pressure medicine too, so that makes me really happy. I really want to be a healthy and active mother to my kids and I'm getting there. Slowly but surely!
Have a Happy Easter everybody!!!
I personally love Birthing stories, so thanks for sharing yours! Great job on your weight loss!! You are doing great!
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