Wow… I don’t even know where to begin.  I gave birth Thursday morning, at 11:10am.  I was only in labor for 4 hours (from induction to delivery).  I only had hard contractions for about an hour… so all in all, things went really fast.  I did get an epidural, the pain was more than I wanted to deal with, but unfortunately, the only thing that went numb was my toes… the epidural didn’t kick in until about half an hour after Damian was born.  Damian weighed 6lbs and 4oz, and came out with a head full of black hair! He was 19″ long according to the hospital (but according to the pediatrician, he is actually 20 inches long).  He is perfect in every way, and he is a very beautiful baby — he looks exactly like his daddy.  I had a few complications myself, and wasn’t able to leave the hospital until Saturday, and I’ve not been feeling well since I came home, although things are slowly getting better.  Damain left the hospital weighing 5lbs 13oz, but at his weight check yesterday, he weighed 6lbs 2oz!!  He is a very good baby, and doesn’t hardly cry at all.  He is also a very social baby, he loves sitting in everyone’s lap, and looking around the room.  He turned over today… and has started to hold up his head.  He is very strong to only be 5 days old!!  He really is perfect, I only wish you could all be here to see him, and hold him.  I can’t believe how much having a baby changes your life, not just the lack of sleep, but the immense amount of love you have for someone you’ve only known a couple of seconds.  We finally have our miracle, and he is absolutely perfect.

I will be adding pictures to this website as often as I can, so that you can all see how perfect he is!  I am still recovering, so this will be a slow process for now.

I saw both of my doctors today.  I had contractions this afternoon, but they have stopped for now.  The baby weighs 5lbs and 11ozs.  Everything looks really good as far as the baby is concerned, but my placenta is still getting worse.  I am 36 weeks and 4 days along, and the doctors are both afraid that things could go bad if they let me go all the way to 40 weeks.  So the doctors have decided to induce my labor, next Thursday, on April 17th.  If Damian doesn’t come before then, I’ll go in to the hospital the morning of the 17th, and they will induce my labor.  So he will be born that day, or early the next morning.  I can’t believe that he’s going to be here within eight days!!  I am very excited, quite nervous, but I can’t wait to hold him in my arms.  He is definitely our little angel, he has made it through so much to get this far, and we are so very grateful that the end/beginning is so near!  I’ll go back to the regular doctor tomorrow, for a Non-Stress Test, then I’ll get checked next Monday and Wednesday just to monitor my progress.  I’ll keep updating the site with each appointment, and after Damian is born I will put pictures of him up here.  🙂

I had two doctors appointments this week.  One on Monday, and one today.  I saw my regular doctor for both appointments.  Monday’s appointment I just got hooked up to the fetal monitors, and had some routine tests done.  Everything was fine.  Today was basically the same thing, I was hooked up to the monitor for about an hour, and I had no contractions, and the baby’s heartbeat was great.  The doctor and I did some talking, and he is thinking of inducing my labor.  I’ll be 36 weeks on Sunday, and they consider 37 weeks full term, even though most people go to 40 weeks.  He is thinking of inducing because of my placenta being in bad shape, and because of my cervix being so short, and because I’m dilated… he thinks I may be at risk for an infection because of all that.  I will go see my high risk doctor on Wednesday, to find out again how much the baby weighs, and after that appointment I’ll go back to my regular doctor.  He will decide then if he is going to induce labor.  If he does, it would probably happen at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week.  I’ll update the site next Wednesday and let you all know what he decides.

I went to see the high risk doctor today.  They checked Damian’s growth, and he now weighs about 5lbs 2ozs.  He’s getting really big really quick!!  He looked absolutely fantastic.  My placenta shows a bit more wear, but Damian is obviously still getting his nutrients, they also checked to make sure I didn’t have any blockage in the umbilical cord, and that looked great too.  Everything looks really good, and I’ll go back and see him in 2 weeks if I’m still pregnant!

Well, this has been quite an eventful week!!  I went to see my regular doctor on Monday, and while I was hooked up to the fetal monitors, I started having contractions.  The doctor sent me right over to labor and delivery at the hospital, and apparently my cervix had already started thinning out, and I was almost 1cm dilated.  So, labor had officially begun!  My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart by this point, and I will admit that I was scared to death!  The doctor wasn’t ready for Damian to be born yet, he wanted to get a round of steroids in my system before Damian was born, to help mature his lungs.  So, the first thing they did was hook me up to an IV to get fluids and antibiotics pumped into me, and then they started me on magnesium sulfate.  I was receiving a relatively small amount of magnesium, not enough to stop the labor, but enough to slow it down.  The steroids they give you are 2 shots, 12 hours apart, and they take 24 hours to be fully effective.  So the goal was to get me slowed down for at least 24 hours to get the steroids in and give them a chance to begin working.  My labor was pretty strong, and it kept “breaking through” the magnesium, making the doctors increase the amount of mag I was receiving.  If you’ve ever known anyone on mag, this stuff makes you pretty sick, and usually effects the baby in negative ways.  However, I took the meds pretty well, felt crummy but didn’t get really sick like they thought, and Damian took it like a champ!  After my 24 hours of magnesium, they took me off of it, and the idea was that I would go right back into labor and be ready to deliver.  They did an ultrasound to check on Damian, and he was looking fantastic.  They estimated his weight on Tuesday at about 4 1/2 lbs.  But as anxious as he was to be born on Monday, apparently by Tuesday night he had changed his mind!!  My labor stopped, and I was told they were going to monitor me until Wednesday afternoon and then send me home.  Wednesday morning I had an asthma attack (I haven’t had one in years!!)  Things settled back down after I got a breathing treatment.  And, about half an hour before being sent home on Wednesday, I went back into labor again!!  I was actually hoping Damian would go ahead and make his grand entrance this day, because not only was it my birthday, but it was also mine and Rob’s anniversary!!  This time they were going to just let me go ahead and have the baby… so they kept me overnight again to keep an eye on things.  But by Thursday Damian had again changed his mind!  Labor again stopped, completely this time.  So the doctors released me yesterday to come home, on VERY STRICT bedrest.  I am now just waiting for labor to kick back in, which the doctors think will be any day!  I am having contractions off and on now, and sleeping alot.  My 4 days in the hospital really wore me out, so I’m trying to catch up on lost sleep, and reserve some strength for when Damian decides to try this again.  I’ll be 34 weeks on Sunday, full term is between 37-42 weeks, so Damain will be considered a preemie if born now, but the doctors feel confident that Damian is strong enough to be born now and be just fine.  I’m not longer taking things day by day, now it’s more like hour by hour!!  Damian will probably be here very, very soon!  I will go back and see my high risk doctor on Tuesday to check growth again, IF I make it until then!