The joys of pregnancy

Shortly after we found out we were expecting, the joys of pregnancy began.

I could get really long and in detail, but I won’t bore you that much. Let’s just say, for as much I wanted to be pregnant, I definitely did not relish the “joys” of pregnancy. Some women have wonderful pregnancies. Some women will say, “Oh, I just loved being pregnant”. These women make the other 95% of women who do not enjoy being pregnant feel like total losers and terrible mothers for hating it. I wanted to punch them in the face, to be quite honest. Don’t get me wrong; I wanted the tiny baby inside my belly more than anything I have ever wanted in my entire life. I do not take one second for granted. I realize that I am incredibly blessed for being able to carry him to term without any complications. I, if anyone, fully and totally realize this. I worked in an environment where, on an almost daily basis, I dealt with high-risk women and their pregnancies, which were not as fortunate and had complicated pregnancies in one way, or another. Trust me when I say that I fully realized my blessing, then and now. Fully. That does not; however, mean that I felt like I was in a bed of daisies day in and day out!!! No, much the opposite, to be completely honest. From the nausea, to the sciatic pain; the heartburn to the rib crushing. I remember, on more than one occasion, during my 12-hour shifts, having to just stop walking, in the middle of the hallway, because I could not move my leg without feeling like someone was taking a sledgehammer to my leg. The daily aches and ridiculous pains that no one tells you about… holy cow! Then the kid gets big enough and it feels like there is some kind of alien trying to escape from your insides! Oh, how I miss that sometimes. Truly, there is nothing more awesome than feeling your baby move inside of you. I used to sit with the remote control on my belly just watching him kick it. Then he got big enough and I didn’t need a remote to see him kicking. You could see parts moving… elbows, knees, and butt. Very entertaining, it was.

I was blessed not to have morning sickness that involved puking. I did, however, have terrible nausea. A couple stories stick out in my mind that had to do with my bouts of nausea. Now, during the first trimester, it is recommended to lay off of caffeine as much as possible. So, I quit the caffeine, but I could not quit the carbonation! Oh, sweet stingy bubbly. Mmm… I had stopped at Sonic on my way to work one evening. Prior to pregnancy, I didn’t really have too big of a problem drinking a diet drink. When ordering my drink that day, I thought about all that sugar that was in a soda, so I ordered a diet cherry limeade. No big deal, right? Well, apparently pregnancy did not like diet. I took a few sips out of it, it was gross, but I figured it was the gum making it taste weird. I got rid of the gum, got to the unit and was getting report. I was taking report and sipping on my limeade (Route 44, mind you) I was not hearing a single word that the nurse, Tracy, was saying during report. All of the sudden, Tracy said, “Are you ok?” The room was spinning as I tried to focus in on her and what she was saying. “You’re really pale, are you ok?” she said. Somehow I got some crackers. I’m not sure if she got them, or someone else. But after a few saltines, and no more diet soda, the nausea spell had passed. Afterwards, we were both laughing about it. I gave my Route 44 away, and to this day I cannot drink a diet soda without being repulsed.

Another funny was when I was around 20 weeks pregnant. Now, I did not start obviously showing until I was around 28 weeks pregnant, especially not in scrubs. While I was at work, I did not discuss my pregnancy with my patients because I wanted the experience to be about them. There are several things that are almost always asked about you when you spend 12 hours with a laboring woman and her family. They will usually ask if you’re married, if you have ever been pregnant or have kids, and where you’re from. I didn’t lie to them if they asked if I had ever been pregnant before. If they brought it up, I’d talk about it. But I didn’t go into the room ready to talk about me. I’d answer the question and quickly direct it back to them. After all, this was their time, not mine. Well, I guess I didn’t discuss it in front of a lot of physicians when they were on the unit, either. That and, they have way more on their minds to keep up with than the lowly nurses on the unit, and especially not a night nurse. J Well, one night, around my 20-week mark, I was pushing with a patient (if that isn’t spelled out enough, she was fully dilated and I was coaching her while she was pushing, it is referred to as “pushing with the patient”). Now, up until pregnancy, I had no problem with any smells or sights the human body provided. No problem, at all. Pregnancy makes you do weird things you’ve never done. That being said, certain smells occur during the second-stage of labor, aka: the pushing part. Ok, come on, sometimes women have a BM during pushing, don’t be surprised… it happens… a lot, actually. It’s very normal. Part of the nurse’s job is to keep that area clean. Well, up until this pregnancy I never… EVER… had an issue with it. Ok, so I had been pushing with the patient and this had been occurring. The doctor decided to come in and check the progress, when she entered the room I was taking said cleaned up smell to the bathroom. I felt it coming on, so I closed the door behind me and dry heaved. (This happened a lot in 9 months, this certain situation just sticks out in my mind). The doctor was pleased with the progress and left the room shortly thereafter. She returned about 15 minutes later to check our progress again. She was “pushing with the patient” and I was coaching, when between pushes she nonchalantly leaned over and said, “congratulations”. I said, “for what?” She said, “I didn’t know you were pregnant, but all the commotion in the bathroom was a dead give-away. When I left the room, I asked the girls at the nurse’s station if you were expecting because you’d just dry heaved in the bathroom after cleaning up”. We all laughed about it and I apologized profusely. I didn’t think it was that audible, but apparently it was. K

Again, I was at work. I cannot remember how far along I was. Not past 30 weeks, because the patient could not tell that I was pregnant. The sweet patient had vomited after an epidural. It’s not uncommon, due to blood pressure changes and all, to vomit after the epidural. Well, she vomited all over the place; I mean ALL OVER herself. I was going to need to change the sheets and everything. I knew, due to past experiences that I would not be able to handle it alone, so I asked another nurse to come help me. The sweet girl was completely numb, so changing the sheets was no simple task. Combine that with puke that makes me dry heave… eh, I’ll take a little assistance, please. My dear sweet nurse-friend, Alyssa, came in to help me. She voluntarily took the “bad” side with all the yucky. Sweet, huh? J Well, we went to roll the patient toward me so we could get the sheets out from underneath her, so she and I were pretty much face-to-face. Alyssa was moving the sheets around on her side when I caught a huuuuuge whiff of puke-smell. If you don’t already know, pregnant women have super-human smelling abilities. As soon as it hit my face I tried to stop it, I tried so hard. The patient was just precious and I didn’t wanna humiliate her by making her think she was gross. L I tried to stifle it, I really tried. But BAM, there it was. Right in her face, I started to dry heave. I apologized profusely again. She smiled and said, “are you pregnant?” We all got a kick out of it. She kept telling me the rest of the night that she couldn’t believe I never told her and that she completely understood. After that, I began to “show”. Since it was obvious to everyone that I didn’t have a basketball in my shirt, I’d just start off each possible encounter with an apology ahead of time, telling them that I have been unable to control my gagging and dry-heaving and it has shown up in some terribly humiliating for everyone situations, so forgive me if it happened. All pregnant women (which were all my patients) completely understood, and as far as I know, never took offense to any of my incredibly embarrassing gagging events.

I was pregnant for 278 days. You know how when you were a kid and you were going on a long trip, it seemed like it took FOREVER to get there? But going back home it seemed like the same trip was just cut in half! Is it that when we are really looking forward to something that time practically stands still until we get to that awesome place we were headed, then time FLIES. Well, as a grown up, that eternal trip that I thought would NEVER end was pregnancy. And that awesome destination I looked forward to getting to, was life with my baby. Which absolutely seems to fly by. The most awesome part though, is that the awesome destination (life with a child) is permanent!! It’s like going on vacation as a kid and getting to stay forever. Okay, maybe not as awesome as vacation, but you get the point!

On February 6^th, after having been pregnant for 278 days, the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes upon was born into this world. All the annoyances, all the aches, the pains, the nausea, and heartburn… all of it was so, so worth it. I’d do it all again, ten-fold, just to receive such a blessing.

Late at night at work on Friday, August 14th, we found out that we were expecting a BOY! I was 14 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

27 weeks pregnant, just before I "popped"

29 weeks in the doctor's office. My belly had finally "popped".

36 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Would you believe, 3 weeks after this photo was taken, I delivered an 8lb 2oz child?! I wouldn't have believed you if you told me I was carrying that much around.

My favorite maternity portrait. I love pregnant bellies!

Tomorrow, my friends, the best day of my life… our labor story. I can’t wait!!