I Survived :-)

I had my IUD insertion done yesterday while being put to sleep and it was amazing. Amazing cause I don't remember a thing! When I got to the hospital everything went too fast that Naty didn't even make it till after the procedure was done. The nurse came and gave me a shot of something to make me happy and boy did it! So on my way to the OR I seen Dr. Tsai and he hangs over me and says, "you wanna see the IUD?" and I say yeah, so he shows me and all I can see is the words MIRENA!!!!! NOOOOOOOO In my head for a quick second I think...hmmmm...maybe he's just showing me that cause it's a sample or something well...Thank God I say, "is that the one you're inserting in me?" and he says, "Yeah". I started getting really out of it and I say, "that's not the one I wanted!" This is the first time I was disappointed with him cause he says, "wait! we've talked about this on several occasions and this is the one you said you wanted," then he askes the nurse, "wait did you give her the medication already?" and he's like DAMMIT! I can see it all over his face. He was like super annoyed and wanted to jump on me, I just didn't say anything cause I didn't really have the strength and then he says, "oh wait! yeah you're right Marlene you did want the Paragard, Ok I'll put that" and it was OVER!!! I woke up who knows how long after with a pain in my throat. I wanted to cough it out so bad and I was talking out of my ass about school and how I did this so I can finish and if I wanted kids later I can always get it out! OMG! poor nurse was prob. like, STFU already! hah! after the medication started wearing off I started thinking to myself, WHAT AN IDIOT! hahahahaha I can't believe I shared my whole life with these people that could prob. care less! hahahaha So after I was very aware I seen my nurse sitting right next to me and she was soooooooooooo cool. We hit it off imediately and we were messing around and laughing at everything and anything. Then when Naty walked in, it was over! they hit it off and were talking about the history of the hospital and other stuff. She told me if I hit it big in Vegas to remember her. So Naty wheels me out and I'm still feeling LOOPY but super hungry. So we hit up Sizzler and eat like beasts kings, it was soooooo YUMMY. We ate and had a good conversation since we didn't have kids around (oh BTW, the kids were with my MIL!) and right after we went to my catechism class and I felt like passing out in there. I kept strong and got through it and then we picked up the kids and came home.
I've been having slight bleeding but nothing bad and hardly any pain so I'm very happy. Nurse said do nothing for 2 days and no sex for a week, I had to be dilated so thats why. The instrument they use usually can open you up but I didn't budge so thats why the restrictions. But everything is fine and I pray it doesn't give me problems!

3 Month Postpartum (all about ME!)

Ok, I thought I'd be selfish for a bit and talk about myself :-)

It's been 3 months since having the little turkey and I feel great. I think alot of it has to do with my weight loss. I'm now down.......35 lbs. from my highest weight (before I gave birth) and that puts me at about 21 lbs. less than I was Pre-pregnancy. In the beginning I wasn't eating much, mostly cause I was too busy and I had no appetite. Then I got stuck at the same weight for a long time and decided to do something about it and started the Weight Watcher's Breastfeeding Program. I would get 25 points if I wasn't BF-ing but since I am I get 35 pts. It seems like a lot BUT I'm still hungry cause Nate takes alot from me. I read somewhere that for each ounce you make you burn 20 calories and I think he's eating about 4 ounces every 2-3 hours right now.

As for my surgery I feel completely healed but know in reality that I'm not and should still take it easy. Dr. Tsai couldn't believe how great I healed on the outside and said he couldn't even see a scar. I don't think I ever posted about my incision on here but it was clear across my bottom stomach, from one end to the next, it was awful. One day after coming home from the hospital I decided to look down there and to my great surprise I had staples from one end to the other, I was horrified and I think I even cried. I was horrified by my black stomach, it was so bruised that it looked DEAD. I remember Dr. Tsai telling me that I had alot of bruising but didn't think it was this bad. He said it was from the D&C cause the doctor had to push on my stomach to get everything out...OUCH (thank God they put me to sleep!). I don't remember the exact number but Naty counted about 17 staples but when I got them out the nurse said I had about 20! that's alot.

When I got home from the hospital I didn't relax like I should have. I was giving others advice about not doing too much and how they shouldn't worry about house duties.......but I didn't take my own advice, once again. I really thought I would be able to control myself and rest but it was so hard. I was going daily to Naty's parents new house and hauling Nathaniel back and forth. I was up and down and even went shopping the day after I got home from the hospital. I could NOT stay still. I'm not a sitting around type person, I get too antsy and need to do something. I did take medicine a little longer than my previous c-sections but that was expected with a bigger incision that I didn't know about.

So now, 3 months later, I feel amazing and blame it all on weight loss. I honestly believe that if I didn't lose this much weight I would be miserable still. I'd probably be needing the occasional motrin for my back or stomach (scar tissue) but I don't feel any of that.

Again, I don't think I mentioned it here but I tried getting an IUD inserted when I went for my 6 week PP appt. and it was unsuccessful. It was way too painful and my doctor called off the procedure after I was shaking and crying from the pain. He said he'd surgically insert it if I wanted so I said YES and I have a surgery date for Nov. 17th. Please say a little prayer for me since I'll be put under, it's nothing major but the being put to sleep part is scary. Which brings me to another thing I forgot to mention, after talking with Dr. Tsai he said my uterus is healthy enough to carry another baby and said I can do that if I wanted in the future. Who knows?!? I want another baby, I want TONS but I've got to focus on the ones we have now. They deserve all of our attention and sometimes it's hard to give it to them 3 so maybe in the future if we get brave enough we might have 1 more and that will be it. I always wanted 4 children but Naty said he's happy already. I'm not 100% on what our decision is but only time will tell.

You know what's the strangest thing?!?!? I don't remember being pregnant w/Nate. I remember it wasn't bad till the last weeks. It's so weird that it just happened and it's completely out of my head already. I think a week after I had him I felt this way. I don't remember my belly, the moving, anything. I know I had a big belly and the baby moved but I just don't remember my belly popping out while I sat around or walked around, its really weird. I even went back in my posts to read and it made me feel alot better cause I hate not remembering. I'm so glad I did this blog, I really need to save it somewhere so I never lose this. It's the only way I can go back and remember...ok I'm getting choked up. I better stop.


My Mom and Nathaniel

Going HOME!

We got to leave on Day 4 (Aug. 6th) from the hospital since my bleeding slowed down, I felt great with the transfusion and Naty took another day off work and I love him for that! I was still having lots of pain but did NOT want to mention that to anyone cause I wanted OUT! Naty and I were so antsy to leave that we started taking stuff to the car and cleaning our room. We were just waiting for Dr. Tsai to come in and give me the OK to leave and he wasn't coming so I jumped in the shower really fast, when I was getting out of the shower I heard his voice in the room so I ran out of the shower and didn't even dry myself cause I didn't want to wait again for him, LOL! He checked me and gave me the boot! woooooooo hoooooo! so I continued getting ready and waited, and waited, and waited some more and finally called the nurse to see what was taking them! They said we had to wait for the nurse practioner to come check the baby, dammit! So once she came in she said Nathaniel's murmur had gone away and he was PERFECT! So again we waited and waited for our discharge and my nurse came in and helped me put a band around my belly and it felt so good, I felt alot more stable and able to walk a lot better. Then it was time to go!! One of the nurses came and wheeled me away, I can't think of his name right now but he was the nicest man ever! He helped alot during my stay and would bring me juice and water and even changed my bed, lol, he was amazing, here he is:

Naty packed us in the car and we were on our merry way home:


We got home and the kids and in laws were waiting for us outside, the kids were so excited to see the baby, Audrey was even trying to get his carseat out of the car, lol. I had to yell at the poor guy a couple of times but I understood that she was just excited to have her little brother home.

Our Delivery Story (4)

Somewhere in between all this mess, Nathaniel was taken by the nurse practioner and had his tongue tie problem fixed, they cut the little string under his tongue cause it was stuck and it would be best to do it for breastfeeding and talking purposes. He didn't cry and did great.

After I almost passed out, the nurses told my doctor that I was changing color and very weak, once I hit the bed I felt wasted, like I had the life sucked out of me. That is when they told me I would need the blood transfusion ASAP, so I agreed and signed away. Before the big blood transfusion I was waiting for the kids to show up with the in laws, they never came so the nurse gives me benadryl right before she starts the transfusion and that made me super loopy, I was slowly falling into a deep sleep and thats when the kids came in, poor things, I wish they didn't see me like this. I can remember some things while I was slowly drifting away, (I really think this is what dying feels like), my in laws were just staring at me and OUT I went. The benadryl was used to avoid any reactions to the blood. So I wake up who knows how long later and the room is empty and dark. I kept looking around and see a bag of blood connected to me, then I hear a little noise and realize my mother in law was sitting by my side the whole time, she was holding Nathaniel while I was knocked out and everyone else was in the cafeteria. The nurse came and put a whole new bag of blood to connect me to. This is when I had horrible pain in my hand, it was a nasty burning pain that was KILLING ME, so I called the nurse right back and wanted to rip the IV out of me, she came right away and tried to get the blood going but it wasn't budging and was burning me so bad. She decided to pull my IV out for me and had to start a new one (this was the 3rd one to go bad on me by now). She said I was probably having pain the whole time I was asleep but obviously didn't feel it. I was already feeling a lot better and had a lot more color in my face, I was glad I got the transfusion.

The rest of this day was spent resting and loving on our boy, I took lots of pics of him from my bed, here's one...LOL

Our Delivery Story (3)

Since the bleeding wouldn't stop they said I'd have to go back into surgery and have a D&C. My blood level was at 6 and dropping every hour so I had to have it done fast. At this time the kids had come to meet the baby so I got to see them see their brother for the first time before they took me. The kids were so excited and Audrey looked amazed and could not believe it was a real baby. Bubbs just kept smiling, he was def. happy. Before you know it I'm being wheeled back into the same OR (operating room)where I just gave birth and the last I remember, people were talking all around me.

When I woke up I had a tube down my throat and felt some pain, that's when the nurse told me she was going to give me Demerol soon. Once that medicine went in I felt great all over again. They told me that I had a balloon filled with water in my uterus that would help my uteurs contract and it would come out in a day or two. I was wheeled back into my room where Naty and the baby were waiting for me. The kids were gone already because it was late and thats when the nurse told me that my son was bigger than we all thought. She explained to us that the OR scale was off by almost one pound and they re-weighed him about 2 hours after birth and he weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz. So I'm pretty sure he weighed a little more than that at birth but I'll stick with 8 lbs. 9 oz. They notified other parents that had their babies in that same OR and re-weighed them, lol.

Now, I was able to rest and enjoy my baby except he would not stop crying the whole first night. At that time I was BF and pretty sure he was hungry but I did not want to give him a bottle so he was nursing every hour and just crying most of the time.

DAY 2
I was constantly sleeping with the baby at this point cause I was exhausted from both surgeries and him not sleeping but he finally calmed down at this point and was letting us have a break. Naty and I took turns holding him and at this point Naty had changed all his diapers, I still hadn't changed one. Naty was amazing and would jump at any sound he'd make. This day went pretty smooth till the nurse said she wanted me to try getting up when I was ready. I told her I was ready cause I was determined to stand up, but at the same time my blood was still low and they weren't sure if I should get up yet but I told them I wanted to. So with lots of pain and struggling I got to sit at the edge of the bed, I waited a little and stood straight up. The nurse was all in my face asking me if I felt ok, I kept saying yes and starting walking to the bathroom to clean up. I looked at myself in the mirror and I was GREEN! I mean a weird color and the nurse kept asking if I felt dizzy, so I walk out of the room and everything started spinning so they made me go back to my room and lay down...that felt awful......



TO BE CONTINUED...

Our Delivery Story (2)

**Us in the recovery room**

When the doctor's began stitching me back up together the nurses kept calling Naty to go see his son but he didn't want to leave my side, lol so I had to yell at him and say, "Naty! go with the baby, I'm ok!" and that's when he got up and started taking pictures of the baby. After they were done they wheeled me over to recovery where they monitored me and I got to love on my little Nathaniel. Recovery is usually an hour BUT since I had a big surgery (I didn't know what they meant by that till waaaaaaaaaay later) they wanted to monitor me more so I got out of there in about 2 hours. I felt bad for Naty cause he hadn't ate (I hadn't either) and he said he wanted to suffer like I was and wasn't going to eat till I can, LOL! That's when I told him to LEAVE and get something NOW.

So I finally get wheeled into my room and I'm surrounded by nurses that swear they're going to be able to move me into my bed, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!! I said, don't bother I'll move myself so I scooted my big self over with little effort and they were all shocked and could not believe I had so much mobility. One nurse even said, "Wow! ur ready for another c-section" and that's when I slapped her. JK! But anyway, Nate and I just waited for Naty to come back and he was there in a flash, I even asked him if he ate cause it was so fast.

My nurse came in and she was amazing! soooooo nice and caring. She told us that she would take Nate his first bath in our room so we got our cameras ready and here's a pic.




So everything was fine for a while till I started to feel something pour out of me....I told Naty that I felt like I was giving birth to something and he called the nurse. She came and said everything was fine and I'm passing the blood and clots that I should be, but then I noticed she kept coming in frequently and changing me and not saying a word, I knew something was wrong but she wouldn't say. I was hurting and just pooling in my own blood. I could feel myself get weaker and weaker and that's when the doctor came in and I heard her telling him that I'm bleeding excessively while she showed him all my monster hospital pads in the bathroom. I can hear him talking and saying I'll need to go back in surgery if he can't stop it with medication, that scared the crap out of me. My nurse came back in and said, "Marlene your bleeding is really bad and we've gotta try to stop it so we're gonna connect you to pitocin and give you an injection through your IV to try to stop it." So they get me all set up and now I'm contracting on top of everything else, it was horrible. A little later on the doctor (on-call, not mine) came in to check on me again and decided to manually remove these clots from me (use ur imagination) while he did this he was pushing on my stomach really hard, mind you I just had a c-section and this man is doing push-ups on my stomach. My nurse was amazing and held my hand, when she did that I tried to focus on something else while he did this and he said everything that he tried wasn't going to work and that I would need more surgery....

TO BE CONTINUED...

Our Delivery Story

**I get in deep detail here, not to bore you BUT to remember these days in the future and to have this to look back on.**

First of all, this might take me a while to write because a lot went on during those four days in the hospital. Despite it ALL I'm still very thankful and blessed to have had an experience where God gave me the ability to have another child. I would do it all over again.

The two days before the big day we were in East LA while Naty helped his dad prepare one of their rental properties for new renters. I was exhausted sitting there and was officially DONE and OVER IT. We left the kids with my in laws and I was so afraid that I would never see them again. At that point I was starting to get scared and was thinking maybe I'm not ready, LOL! I begged Naty to leave that Sunday cause I wanted to have our final meal, lol but he ended up there late and we ended up at Olive Garden right before they closed. I stuffed myself with fettuccine alfredo before a major surgery, Gross! It was all worth it though ;-)

It all started at 7am that Monday, August 3rd I woke up to Naty detailing my car and just getting things done before our 9am arrival. I quickly cleaned up some of the mess we had laying around the house and dyed my hair. We started running late and got to the hospital at 9:10AM. We were greeted by this perky man that was trying to crack jokes with us while we waited for the nurse to come get us. Then finally a nurse came and just started getting down to business, she was putting a hair net on me, slapped the wristband on me, took me to my room and said get naked, we're having a baby.

The nurse tried to get an IV in me but was unsuccessful and it hurt! she then got another lady to do another one and that one wasn't painful at all. They started the antibiotics and made me drink that nasty buffer stuff to settle the acid in my stomach. While we waited, Naty and I just chatted and talked about how we could NOT believe that the day had finally come. That's when the nurse came in and said we were on schedule and almost ready to go in. I honestly don't remember the time but when I got to the OR, people were chatting about their weekend and listening to music while they prepared everything. Then a young guy comes up to me and says he'll be puncturing my spine! WTH!!! uuuhhhhhh......YOU? he was so nice (and HOT) that I went with the flow, well....that nice and HOT guy pricked my spine 3 times with numbing medicine and about 5 times with the spinal needle and by that time I wanted the OLD man touching me! So the old real doctor came shoved it in and in one shot it was in. The good thing is that the needles didn't hurt that bad but it was uncomfortable arching my back with a big belly in front of me. Then thats when I felt the warmness hit my feet, aaaaahhh soothing, it felt odd and good at the same time. Before you know it Naty walked and was freaked out, he kept asking me if I was ok cause I felt like barfing but they gave me something through my IV to take that feeling away, which worked instantly. I just laid there while the doctor tugged, pulled, cut, and again, over and over till it became an hour and longer....I was just waiting to see my baby that I lost track of time and started worrying about the medication. I asked them if it would wear off while being open on the operating table, they said if it did they would put me under. OMG! I got scared and prayed they'd hurry up. Meanwhile, I hear my doctor call for another doctor for a second opinion, huh?? so the doctor comes in and all I remember hearing my doctor say is, "is this her uterus or bladder?", that just freaked me out, I guess I had so much scar tissue that it made it impossible for them to distinguish what was what.

Then I hear the doctor announce that he's making the incision to my uterus at such and such time and then I hear the most wonderful sound....WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH, little Nate screaming his head off. I immediately fell in love and it reminded me of Audrey, she cried and cried for hours after being born. And to top it off, he looked exactly like Audrey. All the nurses and doctors where saying how big and cute he was then they weighed him and were shocked to see 7lbs 14oz., they weren't convinced.

TO BE CONTINUED....

25 weeks and less than 100 days left!

25 Weeks Pregnant

My ticker says 104 days but again, since I'll be having a c-section 1 week before I have 97 days left!

I had a little scare on friday and had to go to the L&D, I was hooked up to monitors and given IV for severe dehydration after crapping and barfing my brains out. All the labs came back really good and no sign of anything bad. So I'm not sure if it was caused by a bacteria or virus but I'm finally a lot better. The baby was very active and his heart was really strong. I managed to lose about 7-10 lbs. which I can see in my face. I don't know exactly how much I weighed before I got sick but I know it was more than my last appt. and according to my last appt. I'm down about 7 lbs. so it can be anywhere between 7 and 10. I see my doctor this thursday so I know he'll be upset that I lost weight, lol. In the beginning I wasn't gaining weight and he thought I was dieting or something, yeah right. Let's see what he thinks this time.

I recieved the cloth wipies last week but still haven't recieved the diapers. I can't wait! We're going to set up our room this weekend since we found out that the crib is ready for us. It's funny but we're setting up our room exactly how we had it when Audrey was born. The bed, crib, dresser and tv in the same exact spot. Oh and I'm happy to report that I now have a door to my bathroom. So I no longer have to run to the hallway bathroom in the middle of the night, Naty finally moved the wall over and attached the door so we can now enter our bathroom through our room! its not nice though but it will be soon!

I'll have to post pics of our room after we're done.