Will's first week at home- early November

Our little tax deduction

Heading home from the hospital- my first ride!

So we finally made it home after I think it was 3 nights in the hospital. They had to make sure my blood levels were back up and good before releasing me.

My mom had a cute sign waiting for us when we got home, announcing Will's birth.

We had lots of visitors and just enjoyed our time with Will. He slept in the bassinet in our room. He did have jaundice, so we had to do a few different trips to the doctor and to the hospital for more blood tests. after a week, it finally got better. He was losing weight slowly, so the doctor was concerned and we had to start supplementing more with formula.

Sleeping in my bassinet


Me and Daddy!




Ally holds her cousin

I

Birth day- why did I do this again?

RUB MY BACK please~!




Chilling at the hospital

Really it wasn't that bad. So my induction was scheduled for Oct 29th. We did it this way because if i had Will one week before my due date of Nov 6th, then it meant I got a few weeks more off work- due to how the holidays fell. Otherwise, my leave would be up and I'd have to return before the holidays, instead of just having off straight through them. He was already a big baby and in great shape, so the doc okayed an induction at 39weeks. I was relieved I wouldn't have to be overdue too. I was pretty miserable at that point.

So on Monday, Oct 29th, we checked into the hospital at 5pm. I was placed in a room and given cervadil to soften my cervix. I was already dilated to almost a 2cm for weeks as it was. I was monitored overnight and given an IV etc. Alan stayed the night and went and got us some dinner- it would be my last meal until after Will was born. By 5am on Tuesday morning- they checked me again and removed the cervadil. It had done its job and they started the pitocin iv to start contractions. By 9am, the contractions were going good and I was just slightly uncomfortable, but nothing too bad between 5am-9am. They checked me at 9am and she decided to break my water to move things along, since i was about a 3cm.

time for a nap! this is hard work!

Well after she broke my water, which was a strange feeling.....the contractions really got bad. By 10am, i was ready for the ever popular epidural. I figured I had been poked and prodded enough through the last year and in pain, i was ready to get some pain relief, why suffer if I didn't have to. So they came and gave me the epi which was not bad at all. Everyone was kicked out the room except Alan which they kept asking him if he was okay, which he was. but i guess many fathers to be don't do well watching that huge needle go in their wife's back. I was so happy and relaxed after the epi. My family was all there- my parents, cousin Nancy and Alan's mom. I slept off and on for the next few hours and we all had fun watching the contractions on the monitor. They did give me oxygen when they noticed some irregularity. But no big deal. Everything still looked good.

They continued to check me all day and the pelvic checks were pure torture. They actually hurt worse than actually delivering the baby! The doctor came and checked me at about 3pm or so. I was having more pain, the epi was wearing off and the back pain was getting severe and unbearable again. So the 'happy doctor' or anisthesiologist came back and upped my dose. While the new pain relief was good, it was also a little too much. I literally could not feel my legs or thighs. Someone could have stabbed me in the thight and I would have had no clue! it was like jello. The doctor was okay with the extra epi, since I was only about a 5 or 6cm then. She said it would be many more hours before I was ready to push- probably around 8pm or later. So we all settled in for a long wait.

they came and checked me again at about 4pm and surprise! I was a full 10cm. I had fully dilated within an hour! I guess those stronger painful contractions were doing their job. The bad news- I couldn't feel a thing. The doctor kicked everyone out of the room except Alan and my mom- as I was only allowed 2 people in there. They prepped everything and I was ready to push by about 4;45pm. The nurse told me how and we did some practice runs. They had to tell me when to push, since i couldn't feel the contractions at all. good thing we had become pros at watching the monitor! Alan and my mom had to physically lift my legs up for me- i could not move them at all. I was like- how am I supposed to push if I can't feel anything??? The nurse said just to try and she acted like i was doing a good job. So I pushed, or so I think.......i don't really know, as I couldn't feel. The time flew, it seemed like i pushed for only 30 minutes maybe, but it was closer to 2 hours. Finally around 6;18pm, little Will was born. I felt a small 'pop' as his head made its appearance, but nothing painful. We heard his wonderful little cry! he weighed in at 8.6 and 20inches and was healthy as can be. They brought him over to me and let Alan hold him. We were so thrilled to finally meet our little miracle!

Alan sharing the good news in the waiting room

8 lbs, 6 oz, 20 inches



Our 'almost' halloween baby!

Welcome William!
At this point, is where the horror picture started. Of course most people don't think about the afterbirth----they had to do the unfortunate job of delivering the placenta and massaging my uterus back down to normal size. This is when the pain started. I endured about 12 hours of labor and a vaginal delivery with no problem and not much pain.....but oh, this made up for it. They realized I had a bleed......and couldn't find where it was or how to stop it. so I was bleeding out everywhere. I remember the doctor asking for more help and sounding panicked, which made me panic a little, but not too much as I was too busy being in the most severe pain of my life. They spent from 6:30-8pm trying to get me all fixed up. it was not pleasant and I hate that i missed what is a normal 'after the baby is born' moment where you get to have your family come in, hold the baby and take pictures. I was too busy almost bleeding to death. I couldnt' see what was going on, but Alan said it looked like a horror movie there was so much blood. They finally got the internal laceration sewed up and the episiotomy. the pain from massaging my uterus down was undescribable. I wanted to die. They had to give me hemoglobin shots and other pain meds from losing so much blood, so i was totally out of it. I was dying of thirst too, but they would not let me have any water or ice in case they needed to rush me to surgery. My family tried to come in at certain points, but only got to peek in. They didn't move the baby to the nursery until i was fixed up, so that was after 8pm. Needless to say my family was tired from waiting all day.



Dad and Will are exhausted!
My lungs work really well!


Alan and his mom stayed while they prepared to move me to my postpartum room. I was so so sick and felt nauseous. They wheeled me down to the other wing and I hardly remember it, I was so sick and clueless from the meds. It was just horrible. I got settled in and conked out. They brought Will to breastfeed shortly thereafter, but i was so out of it that Alan sent them back to bottlefeed him instead for his first feeding. Later on at 2am, i felt better and was able to breastfeed then finally. And finally eat some jello which was heaven! who knew jello could be so yummy?

So that is the birth story.....labor and deliver-----a cinch! afterbirth------a nightmare! But it was all totally worth it, pain or not for the little miracle we had been waiting for for years!!! William Reed Peters!

Third Trimester- are we there yet?

this car ride is getting awfully long- are we there yet Mommy? nope? how much longer? Well the end is in sight at least. The last trimester is filled with more pains and complaints. Sleeping comfortably is a long forgotten dream.....if only i could get a good's night rest to actually dream! Back is killer- i have to use coats and pillows to pad my chair at work. And the belly- it is getting huge! It just plain gets in the way. I can't see my toes anymore. We finally have most of the nursery finished and I have 2 baby showers! All the appts are going well and we finally had the doctor schedule an induction date- October 29th I go in for the cervadil and we should have Will by the 30th- just in time for halloween. I foresee many halloween/birthday parties in our future! So other than feeling pretty bad, things are good. Little Will is kicking up a storm and constantly has the hiccups!

Second trimester- this is a cinch!

So the second tri was much better than the first. While not totally without some miserable side effects- I was still able to make it through a day without having to barf or feel like little army men were playing tug o war with my insides. I had the usual stuff- weird cravings (pickles), weird things I had to avoid (barbeque and seafood- yuck!) and even red meat which i usually love! The back aches started slowly so i started seeing a chiro. The usual headaches and just overall discomfort, but definitely a cinch compared to trimester one. We also found out the sex------ at our NT scan they discovered that we do in fact have a little boy. Alan was thrilled to say the least. The shotgun can stay put up for now since we aren't having a girl. Everything looked great at the scan, no markers for down syndrome or anything. totally healthy and happy. I started feeling him kick around week week 20 or so. What a strange sensation! he is a little soccer player in there!

We also started the nursery- and had his letters put up. Of course we had decided on a first name- William- or Will for short.

First Trimester- I think I am dying!

So we finally achieved our goal, I was 33 and pregnant with our first child! I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't know it would be so miserable either. I had the most horrible morning sickness either. At week 7 it started and by week 8, it was just unbearable. I wasn't throwing up a ton, just felt like i had the stomach flu 24/7. My stomach was in constant knots. I couldn't even just sit at my desk and work, i was so sick. And of course I had to travel to Vegas for a tradeshow during week 8 when it was peaking. I was miserable and didn't get to enjoy it at all. At the Wynn Steakhouse, i had to order chicken broth, forget the filet! My morning sickness continued on through week 13 when it finally subsided. I was on zofran and phenegran to help control it, but neither totally did the job. I just had to suffer through and I was so thankful when it subsided, but the 6 weeks or so that I had it were just absolutely miserable! Not sure I will be doing that again! Let's just move on to much happier times.....say the second trimester.....

Finally Pregnant!

Jan 2007- we started the long journey down one of our last options to conceive, the IVF journey, otherwise known as in vitro. After trying on our own for a while, then enduring a year of other fertility treatments, starting in March 2006--including 6 months of clomid, a laprascopy for endometriosis and then 4 IUIs (intrauterine insemination or artificial insemination), not to mention the litany of tests...........we finally bit the bullet and decided to do IVF.

The overall process is 6 weeks of shots, pills, raging hormones, huge medical bills and more. It isn't a cake walk, that's for sure. But we made the committment and started our journey. The first 4 weeks are birth control pills to give your ovaries a break/rest. I also had to inject lupron nightly into my thigh to suppress ovulation. Then aunt flo made her lovely visit, and for once in my life i was happy to see her. It meant we were that much closer to our goal of doing IVF. Next step was to torture myself further by injecting 2 more shots a night- menopur and follistim. Alan helped by doing some of the injections and mixing them for me. They really weren't bad, and I became used to being the human pin cushion! These shots were 'stims', designed to stimulate ovulation and growth of more than just one egg (which is what a normal woman has each month). Ideally they are looking for you to produce multiple eggs of good quality. I went in for the countless doctors appointments, I felt like i could use his office as a secondary address, I was there so often for sonograms to monitor the growth of my eggs. Things looked good- I had 13 eggs. Only 7 appeared viable- meaning they would be the right size/maturity.

So on Feb 15th, the day after Valentine's day, i was ready. We went in for the 'egg retrieval' and I was put under. It is a quick day surgery where they remove the eggs from me and transfer them to the lab to be fertilized and grow. We expected 7 eggs, they removed 8 that were viable! I was in some pain after, but recovered at home for 2 days. The next 5 days were critical. Now it was up to the egg and sperm to do their job under the watchful eye of the embryology lab at Presby Plano. We got the call the second day that all 8 of my eggs fertiltized on their own. That's a big step and a great percentage. Usually only 75% of the eggs fertilize. We had 100%! Alan's boys did their job!

The lab lets the embryos grow for 3-5 days depending on how they are developing. Ours were doing great, so they went with 5 days. The goal is for each fertilized egg to continue having its cells split more and more. Each day you should have more cells- by day 3- 8 cells. Ours were looking good and by day 5, all were still alive. Many die or stop growing during this time. We still had all 8 on day five, but only two of them were good quality blastocysts. A blastocysts is what you want- it has the most cells and is ready to be implanted into the uterus. We had 2 grade B blasts. So on day 5, Feb 20th, we went back in for the embryo transfer. I was not put under for this and Alan was allowed in the room. he had to gear up in smock and all, since it is a clean room and they have to keep the embryos totally sterile. They then proceeded to implant the 2 tiny embryos into my uterus. The embryologist comes in and the embryos are microscopic of course and in a little tube used to implant them. A few minutes later and I was officially pregnant- meaning I had 2 embryos in there. Now it was up to them to 'stick' and implant, another challenge on the road to becoming pregnant.

After you are 'implanted' and are waiting to take a pregnancy test, they call it the 2WW or the two week wait. You can't really test until 2 weeks after ovulation (which was the date of my egg retrieval). Otherwise, you won't get an accurate result. So i finally tested at home, I couldn't wait until the scheduled beta blood test with the doc on March 1st. and it came up positive- or a BFP- big fat positive! the March 1st doctor's test confirmed it- I was officially with child after many years, many negative tests and many tears. My beta level as like 132, about average for an IVF pregnancy for that point. It didn't appear so high that they thought it might be twins- it was more along the lines of a singleton pregnancy. Our first ultrasound at 7 weeks along confirmed it was just one baby. Alan was relieved! so now the real journey begins........