The blog has been nice and maybe I will pick it up again if I feel like my life is interesting enough for it. Thank you so much for reading it and taking an interest in me.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Bye Bye Blog
To my loyal followers....I'm sorry. I've decided to discontinue my blog. In its place, Hunter is now on facebook. He is a modern baby and blogs are just so yesterday. Not really. Its more that writing in the blog has started to feel like a chore and 99% of our friends are on facebook and dont even read the blog so it just seems like a better place to post quick updates and photos. I know that a few of you really hate facebook and for you, I apologize. I will also be posting pictures to my picassa web album as I always have so at the very least, you can follow his progress there.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Welcome to the world, Hunter! Part 2
This is a continuation of the last post so you will want to read that one first.
I barely slept that night. I was so uncomfortable and I spent a lot of the night timing contractions which were between 5 and 15 minutes apart but still not overly painful. I was grateful to be in the city knowing that I could wait to go to the hospital until I was much further along. Well, I got up and had breakfast and after a while, Rob pulled into the hotel in a truck that the mine let him have. The mine was so great! They offered us some drivers for the day which we happily accepted and we hopped into another truck to pick my mom up from the airport. After all of my stress, by 11am I had my mother and husband with me and was feeling a lot better. My contractions had slowed down and I was thinking that we would be heading to the mine after my 2:30 appointment and that maybe all of this drama was for nothing.
We had a great lunch, which I am still thinking about, and then did some shopping until the appointment. No big deal. Rob got a day off and a chance to get to some stores that he had been wanting to go to, and I was feeling a little silly. The doctor was surprised to see my mom and we had a nice laugh about it and then I went for another pelvic exam. There had been no change in my dilation so we started discussing how to proceed. We would head home and I would go to the hospital here twice a day to have my blood pressure checked since it was kind of high that day. Before we left the office, we all crowded into one of the little rooms and he put me on the fetal monitor again. He hooked it up and had me roll onto my left side. The heartbeat slowed to 80 and the doctor had me roll back onto my back. We were all talking and discussing and the doctor very calmly said something like, "I'm not comfortable with this, I think that we should go ahead and do this now." Basically, that was it. He said he wanted us to head to the emergency room and that he wanted to do a c-section. Rob asked, "When?" and he said "Now". Oh....crap....we all kind of looked at each other. God I was glad that everyone was with me. It was amazing how calm we all were. We went to the doctor's desk where he wrote up a paper for us to give to the emergency room and off we went. Rob and my mom quickly formulated a plan that during the surgery, my mom would go check into the hotel and then return to the hospital. Rob would have to wait outside and I would go in for the c-section. Before I knew it, we were in the prep room and they were asking me questions and Rob went into admissions to fill out some forms. They put me on a gurney and wheeled me to the operating room. I'd never had surgery before and was trying to stay calm. Thankfully, I'd done that lamaze class the day before and boy did those breathing techniques come in handy as I started to realize what was happening. You have to keep in mind that my Spanish is still terrible and that I am in Honduras. Most of the doctors speak English and thankfully, the wonderful anesthesiologist spoke a bit of English, too. The whole surgery was fairly terrifying and I'd rather not relive it so I'm going to brush over it fairly quickly. I was awake but pretty numb. My doctor did the surgery with a good friend of his and they seemed to have the time of their life while I tried not to look at the reflection of their work in the light above my head. Eventually, I heard the women in the room all say "oooh" and then I heard "varon" which basically meant that its a boy! I didn't hear any crying or anything and got a bit scared. Then the pediatrician stepped up and grabbed the baby and took him to a table. Finally I heard my son screaming his little head off. It was as though I wasnt there. Finally someone looked at me and let me know that everything was good. I heard my doctor tell someone that the umbilical was wrapped around his neck and that was the problem. I started to feel better and after a while, they brought my screaming baby over to me and held him to my cheek for about a minute. I couldnt move my arms to hold him or touch him so all I could do was lay there and cry with relief. Then they took him away and the surgery continued. I was numb but it still was uncomfortable and there was a lot of work to do before it was finally over. The rest is unimportant. At about 3:30 on July 6 my doctor made the decision and by 5:45, Hunter was in the world. We are all healthy and happy. It is now Sunday night and after 3 days in the hospital, we are settled in at home. I'm still very sore and trying to get into the swing of things. My son is gorgeous and funny and we are all so happy that he is here.
I barely slept that night. I was so uncomfortable and I spent a lot of the night timing contractions which were between 5 and 15 minutes apart but still not overly painful. I was grateful to be in the city knowing that I could wait to go to the hospital until I was much further along. Well, I got up and had breakfast and after a while, Rob pulled into the hotel in a truck that the mine let him have. The mine was so great! They offered us some drivers for the day which we happily accepted and we hopped into another truck to pick my mom up from the airport. After all of my stress, by 11am I had my mother and husband with me and was feeling a lot better. My contractions had slowed down and I was thinking that we would be heading to the mine after my 2:30 appointment and that maybe all of this drama was for nothing.
We had a great lunch, which I am still thinking about, and then did some shopping until the appointment. No big deal. Rob got a day off and a chance to get to some stores that he had been wanting to go to, and I was feeling a little silly. The doctor was surprised to see my mom and we had a nice laugh about it and then I went for another pelvic exam. There had been no change in my dilation so we started discussing how to proceed. We would head home and I would go to the hospital here twice a day to have my blood pressure checked since it was kind of high that day. Before we left the office, we all crowded into one of the little rooms and he put me on the fetal monitor again. He hooked it up and had me roll onto my left side. The heartbeat slowed to 80 and the doctor had me roll back onto my back. We were all talking and discussing and the doctor very calmly said something like, "I'm not comfortable with this, I think that we should go ahead and do this now." Basically, that was it. He said he wanted us to head to the emergency room and that he wanted to do a c-section. Rob asked, "When?" and he said "Now". Oh....crap....we all kind of looked at each other. God I was glad that everyone was with me. It was amazing how calm we all were. We went to the doctor's desk where he wrote up a paper for us to give to the emergency room and off we went. Rob and my mom quickly formulated a plan that during the surgery, my mom would go check into the hotel and then return to the hospital. Rob would have to wait outside and I would go in for the c-section. Before I knew it, we were in the prep room and they were asking me questions and Rob went into admissions to fill out some forms. They put me on a gurney and wheeled me to the operating room. I'd never had surgery before and was trying to stay calm. Thankfully, I'd done that lamaze class the day before and boy did those breathing techniques come in handy as I started to realize what was happening. You have to keep in mind that my Spanish is still terrible and that I am in Honduras. Most of the doctors speak English and thankfully, the wonderful anesthesiologist spoke a bit of English, too. The whole surgery was fairly terrifying and I'd rather not relive it so I'm going to brush over it fairly quickly. I was awake but pretty numb. My doctor did the surgery with a good friend of his and they seemed to have the time of their life while I tried not to look at the reflection of their work in the light above my head. Eventually, I heard the women in the room all say "oooh" and then I heard "varon" which basically meant that its a boy! I didn't hear any crying or anything and got a bit scared. Then the pediatrician stepped up and grabbed the baby and took him to a table. Finally I heard my son screaming his little head off. It was as though I wasnt there. Finally someone looked at me and let me know that everything was good. I heard my doctor tell someone that the umbilical was wrapped around his neck and that was the problem. I started to feel better and after a while, they brought my screaming baby over to me and held him to my cheek for about a minute. I couldnt move my arms to hold him or touch him so all I could do was lay there and cry with relief. Then they took him away and the surgery continued. I was numb but it still was uncomfortable and there was a lot of work to do before it was finally over. The rest is unimportant. At about 3:30 on July 6 my doctor made the decision and by 5:45, Hunter was in the world. We are all healthy and happy. It is now Sunday night and after 3 days in the hospital, we are settled in at home. I'm still very sore and trying to get into the swing of things. My son is gorgeous and funny and we are all so happy that he is here.
Welcome to the world, Hunter! Part 1
Yep, thats right a lot has happened since my last post so here it is. Brace yourself, this will be long so I'm going to split it up into 2 posts.
On Tuesday, I headed into San Pedro. First of all, we got about halfway there and I had to have my driver pull over so that I could be car sick on the side of the road. It was actually the first time that I was sick like that the whole pregnancy. I really puked my brains out, though, and I think that maybe it kicked up my braxton hicks a bit.
I had an appointment in the morning with a lamaze coach to get some information about what to expect at the birth. The appointment was great and I got a lot of great information about the birth and breastfeeding and what I can expect at the hospital. It was something that I wasnt too excited about and I only really did it to appease my mother...well she was right, as usual. There were some interesting little hints about what was to come but they didnt mean anything at the time. We were talking about contractions and I mentioned that I was having very frequent braxton-hicks. She dismissed it that some of it was probably the baby moving. Based on my past experiences with having no clue of what is going on with my body, I believed her. No biggie. I was still feeling ok and after the appointment, ate a quick lunch and then headed to Pricesmart (like Sams) to stock up on as much good meat as possible realizing that I probably wouldnt feel like doing big shopping in the last 2 weeks of the pregnancy. I got a ton of stuff, filling up the cooler and didnt have time to get to the grocery store before my doctor appointment. I told the driver that we would go ahead and stop at the grocery store after my appointment on our way out of town and went into the doctor. He had been out of town for over a week so the place was very busy. He sent me into the directly into the little room and hooked me up on the fetal monitor while he saw a couple of other patients. I dont know if they use these in the States but they put some sensors on my belly that track his heartrate, his movements and any contractions. They also give me a button that I'm supposed to push when I feel the baby move. The machine blasts the sound of the baby's heartbeat which put me to sleep instantly. I never pushed the button and when the doctor came in 20 minutes later, I'd had about 4 contractions. No big deal, they were braxton hicks and not painful at all. After that, we went in for my first pelvic exam. He felt my cervix and told me that I was about 2 cm and as he pulled out his hand, I felt liquid leak out. He looked at me and said, "I expect that I will hear from you in the next day or 2." WHAT???? Yeah, he asked, "Is your husband here with you?" WHAT????? no, Rob is at work 2 hours away. Oh my god, oh my god. The rest of the visit was a blur. He sent me to clean myself up and we went for the ultrasound. The baby was in position. At my last ultrasound, the umbilical cord was near the baby's neck but the doctor wasnt too concerned as it didnt seem tight. We checked that again and the cord was still there but he still wasnt worried about it. I'm sure that he told me many things during that visit but in my head I was freaking out. My thoughts were something like this....I'm not ready....I need to call Rob....I need to call my mom....I need to get a hotel room and stay here in town....I'm not ready....I dont have any clothes....I dont have my toothbrush. I told the doctor that I would get a hotel room and he was very happy to hear that. He told me that he wanted to see me the next afternoon if he didnt hear from me sooner and we would decide at that point if I would go back home or stay longer in the city. No problem. I can do this. I wont cry. I went outside and told the driver the new plan and I called Rob. "You ready?" "For what?" "For the baby" "Whatever. Stop messing with me." "No really, I'm freaking out and heading to a hotel." My poor driver, who by this time must have been really worried, kept his cool. He drove me to the Hilton since I had already decided that I was going to stay in style. Well, the Hilton only had Executive suites available which was not quite in my budget. Thankfully, the driver took me to a great hotel that the mine uses. When I checked in the nice girl at the counter asked how many days I would be there and I got to explain that my doctor thinks I will be having a baby any day now. I'll tell you what...if you want good service at a hotel, make them think that you are about to have a baby. While this was going on, I also called my mom and let her know that she needed to change her plane tickets and try to get down here. She quickly changed her ticket to the next morning and let me know that she would be flying in the next morning. I then headed to the mall to kill some time and buy some clean underwear, pajamas and a toothbrush. So there I was, wandering the mall in San Pedro Sula Honduras, having contractions, by myself. After a little while I decided that if I was going to have this baby tomorrow, I would go to a restaurant and eat a meal. I went to the Applebees and ordered and appetizer and as I was eating it, I had this thought....I must be totally crazy, what the heck am I doing? I quickly headed back to the hotel to call my family and friends and try to find a little sanity and eventually I went to sleep.
On Tuesday, I headed into San Pedro. First of all, we got about halfway there and I had to have my driver pull over so that I could be car sick on the side of the road. It was actually the first time that I was sick like that the whole pregnancy. I really puked my brains out, though, and I think that maybe it kicked up my braxton hicks a bit.
I had an appointment in the morning with a lamaze coach to get some information about what to expect at the birth. The appointment was great and I got a lot of great information about the birth and breastfeeding and what I can expect at the hospital. It was something that I wasnt too excited about and I only really did it to appease my mother...well she was right, as usual. There were some interesting little hints about what was to come but they didnt mean anything at the time. We were talking about contractions and I mentioned that I was having very frequent braxton-hicks. She dismissed it that some of it was probably the baby moving. Based on my past experiences with having no clue of what is going on with my body, I believed her. No biggie. I was still feeling ok and after the appointment, ate a quick lunch and then headed to Pricesmart (like Sams) to stock up on as much good meat as possible realizing that I probably wouldnt feel like doing big shopping in the last 2 weeks of the pregnancy. I got a ton of stuff, filling up the cooler and didnt have time to get to the grocery store before my doctor appointment. I told the driver that we would go ahead and stop at the grocery store after my appointment on our way out of town and went into the doctor. He had been out of town for over a week so the place was very busy. He sent me into the directly into the little room and hooked me up on the fetal monitor while he saw a couple of other patients. I dont know if they use these in the States but they put some sensors on my belly that track his heartrate, his movements and any contractions. They also give me a button that I'm supposed to push when I feel the baby move. The machine blasts the sound of the baby's heartbeat which put me to sleep instantly. I never pushed the button and when the doctor came in 20 minutes later, I'd had about 4 contractions. No big deal, they were braxton hicks and not painful at all. After that, we went in for my first pelvic exam. He felt my cervix and told me that I was about 2 cm and as he pulled out his hand, I felt liquid leak out. He looked at me and said, "I expect that I will hear from you in the next day or 2." WHAT???? Yeah, he asked, "Is your husband here with you?" WHAT????? no, Rob is at work 2 hours away. Oh my god, oh my god. The rest of the visit was a blur. He sent me to clean myself up and we went for the ultrasound. The baby was in position. At my last ultrasound, the umbilical cord was near the baby's neck but the doctor wasnt too concerned as it didnt seem tight. We checked that again and the cord was still there but he still wasnt worried about it. I'm sure that he told me many things during that visit but in my head I was freaking out. My thoughts were something like this....I'm not ready....I need to call Rob....I need to call my mom....I need to get a hotel room and stay here in town....I'm not ready....I dont have any clothes....I dont have my toothbrush. I told the doctor that I would get a hotel room and he was very happy to hear that. He told me that he wanted to see me the next afternoon if he didnt hear from me sooner and we would decide at that point if I would go back home or stay longer in the city. No problem. I can do this. I wont cry. I went outside and told the driver the new plan and I called Rob. "You ready?" "For what?" "For the baby" "Whatever. Stop messing with me." "No really, I'm freaking out and heading to a hotel." My poor driver, who by this time must have been really worried, kept his cool. He drove me to the Hilton since I had already decided that I was going to stay in style. Well, the Hilton only had Executive suites available which was not quite in my budget. Thankfully, the driver took me to a great hotel that the mine uses. When I checked in the nice girl at the counter asked how many days I would be there and I got to explain that my doctor thinks I will be having a baby any day now. I'll tell you what...if you want good service at a hotel, make them think that you are about to have a baby. While this was going on, I also called my mom and let her know that she needed to change her plane tickets and try to get down here. She quickly changed her ticket to the next morning and let me know that she would be flying in the next morning. I then headed to the mall to kill some time and buy some clean underwear, pajamas and a toothbrush. So there I was, wandering the mall in San Pedro Sula Honduras, having contractions, by myself. After a little while I decided that if I was going to have this baby tomorrow, I would go to a restaurant and eat a meal. I went to the Applebees and ordered and appetizer and as I was eating it, I had this thought....I must be totally crazy, what the heck am I doing? I quickly headed back to the hotel to call my family and friends and try to find a little sanity and eventually I went to sleep.
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