Whew, that was a nice break! Here’s a nice long post to let you know why I’ve been gone, then I’ll get to work soon to start catching you up with what’s been happening since then!
The last time I posted, everything was going wonderfully (it still is!). Soon after that last post back in September, I started feeling super tired and super sick. I thought I had caught something going around and just knew it’d be gone in a couple days, since I am rarely sick. A week later, I was getting worse, not better. Hmmm.
I was so caught up in being sick plus trying to keep up with my very energetic 15 month old, I didn’t even realize my “monthly visitor” was a little late. I decided to wait it out a couple more days, because it could have just been thrown off due to me being so sick. A week later…nothing.
After talking to Cesar about it and waiting a couple more days, I started to consider the fact that I was more than a little late. By the time I was almost two weeks late, we bit the bullet and bought a pregnancy test. I was pretty anxious about it by this point, so I rushed to the bathroom as soon as we got home. A mere 3 minutes later, we wandered in on a big ol’ fat “+“!
From the very beginning of this pregnancy, I was super sick. I was throwing up multiple times a day. Like, 15 times a day. I was not able to keep any food or liquids down at all. I even ended up in the emergency room several times due to dehydration.
The first time, they pumped me full of fluids and gave me some Zofran through my IV (which made me feel a lot better!) then sent me on my way with my prescription for Zofran in hand. I was so excited to finally start feeling better! Little did I know that taking Zofran orally would do me absolutely no good at all. A few more trips to the ER later, I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (which later became a much more well-known phenomenon after Kate Middleton was diagnosed with the same thing). After realizing Zofran wouldn’t do the trick, I was given a prescription for Reglan, then later for Phenergan- neither of which helped at all either. I was told by my doctor that hyperemesis gradidarum often lasts throughout the whole pregnancy, so I pretty much gave up all hope of ever feeling better.
The only thing that provided a little- and I do mean the tiniest bit- of relief was sniffing the cinnamon broom my mom bought me at the grocery store. Fortunately for me, the only guests we had over during this time were our immediate families, so they got used to the fact that I had a cinnamon broom hanging on a hook in the middle of my white living room wall, and I could oftentimes be found with my face buried inside of it trying not to puke my guts up yet again.
Luckily, by time I was about 13 weeks pregnant, the vomiting and nausea started to subside, and by 16 weeks, it was gone completely. From that point on, my pregnancy was pretty much perfect! No high blood pressure or low amniotic fluid levels like I had with Sophia, no more nausea, no swelling…just a whole bunch of heartburn and what the ultrasound tech said was going to be a 9.5lb. baby!
Fast forward a couple months to June…
Because I was going to have such a large baby, the doctor did not want me to go past 40 weeks, so he told me if I didn’t go into labor on my own by 40 weeks, he’d like me to consider an induction. Well, 39 weeks came and went, and on 39w5d, I had an appointment where we decided I’d go in to the hospital the next night.
I went to the hospital the following evening to get ready for my induction at 40 weeks on the dot. The next morning, the induction was in full swing. Seven hours and a fairly easy labor later, we welcomed our second little girl, Emma. Luckily for me, she was nowhere near 9.5 pounds. She was a perfect 7lb. 10oz. with a full head of hair, and beautiful like her big sister!
We are so excited to have her here with us finally and Sophia has been the absolute best big sister we could have ever imagined! Our lives have changed so much now that we have two kids (we are never on time for anything!), but it has certainly been for the better. Cesar and I both love being parents, especially to our two perfect little girls!
So…I hope you can forgive me for my absence over the last several months, but I personally think I have a pretty dang good excuse! 🙂