| Trying ... After trying to conceive for 1 1/2 years - looks like all the worrying was for nothing! We got pregnant with no 'outside' help at all. A little background... we tried au-natural for a year then i started going to the fertility doctor. (if anyone knows me, i'm a bit obsessive compulsive, so if something isn't going as *i* planned it, of course i have to do everything possible to get back on my schedule!) I had some surgery to check the insides in January - all was good. In a few more months, we then started on the clomid. 3 months - no luck. Then the next step was artificial insemination. Although my insurance pays for 50% of fertility treatments, they didn't cover the meds, which was $750 for one week!! So we decide due to the fact nothing is "wrong", we're going to take it easy for a bit and if we're still not pregnant in a year, we'll start treatments again. Then, of course, the NEXT MONTH it happened! I used to roll my eyes at all the women who said "just relax, you're trying to hard". Looks like they were right! |
We're Pregnant! ... The month started out as all other months before. I had all my classic pms symptoms, so I told Tom there was no way I was pregnant, but I was late. After 4 days of lateness, I started to ask around if anyone else had normal cramps when in fact, they were pregnant. Seems there was enough women who did, so I left work and bought a test. I couldn't wait to take it, so I took it in the drugstore bathroom. (eww!) Well, when that second pink line appeared, I was so shocked I didn't know what to do with myself. I practically ran out of the bathroom and declared I was pregnant to the entire pharmacy! |
Telling Tom ... Of course the first thing I did was call Tom on the cell phone. But there was no answer. I called his office to find him, but he was out on a work site up in the mountains, so I just had to wait for him to get service. After calling about 50 times (seriously), he answered. I wasn't really expecting him to answer, so he caught me off guard. All the different ways I could have told him disappeared from my brain and I blurted out "You need to come home right now", which apparently made him think something was wrong (there was talk of layoff where I worked). He immediately started asking what's wrong and I responded by simply saying I had some news. Not a good enough answer for him. After a few more "what's going on?" questions from him, I asked him if he could guess the news. He was suddenly silent and finally said "No. really? no. but. wait. you said you weren't. really? no. really?!?!" That went on for a few minutes. I could hear his smile through the phone. As soon as he was back in town, he came home and I showed him the pink line. He then said we need a second test to be sure. I told him there aren't many false positives compared to false negatives, but he needed to be sure before he got all his hopes up. Which was fine by me because the second test showed that same second pink line! |
Birth Story ... I had a very normal pregnancy. A little bit of nausea at the beginning, but nothing too bad. I actually felt great throughout the entire thing. I did go on bedrest for 2.5 weeks at the end due to high blood pressure, which was a *total* shock to me since I felt so good. So that did suck, but I would have done anything to keep my baby healthy. In my 39th week, my doctor wanted me to be induced early and Ella was born. Short Version - Ella Marie Leisher was born on Friday, April 23rd at 7:52pm. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. Long Version - Due to high blood pressure and placenta maturity, my doctor sent me in for induction on Thursday night, for a Friday delivery, which would put me at 39w4d. 10pm. I was having contrax all week, so I thought the inducement would be easy. At 10pm, they put in the cervidil pill and gave me a sleeping pill and said I'd be "soft" my morning and they'd start pitocin. I sent Tom home to sleep. Within 10 mins of the pill being inserted, I was having hard, painful contrax, 3 mins apart. I went through the entire night w/out sleep with the same intervals. Being so self reliant (and stubborn) I didn't even call Tom, I wanted to let him sleep! 7am, nurse checked me and I was ONLY **1 cm** !! Holy moly. I started crying. 8am. epidural. I was on the "natural" path up til now, but after 9 hours and only 1 cm, my mind changed quickly. 8:10am. Tom came back to hospital and was mad when he found out I've been doing everything alone and didn't call him. 8:15am. pitocin and water breakage. felt pressure, no pain. 9:30am. Doc came back and ordered "double" pitocin since I had an epidural and couldn't feel anything. Noon: something wrong w/ epidural. had a stubborn nurse who said 'epi's don't cover all the pain'. yeah, no crap. but they should cover some of it. 2pm. 6cm. Still feeling everything. Anesthesiologist came in and found the epi drip machine not even plugged in. Gave me another dose through my line. 3pm: still feeling *everything*. lots of pain. 6:30pm. 9 cm. And I was still feeling everything. Anesthesiologist gave me the "ice" test and come to find out something was in fact wrong w/ epidural - only my thighs down were feeling no pain! nice time to kick me in the knee, but not a good time to have no pain w/ childbirth. Too late for anything now. 7pm or so. started pushing. OUCH! But no episiotomy was needed! woohoo! 7:52pm - Ella Marie was born!!!!! |