leading up to baby being born

39 weeks

what a week! Friday oct. 29 Dylan and I celebrated my 22 birthday and went out to Merrilville where Dylan suprised me by taking me to House of Kobe Japanese steakhouse, Babies R Us, and the movies to see Despicable Me, which was such a cute movie by the way! The whole night was so much fun! Although I had diabetes I was able to eat some steak and veggies which were SO good even though I had to shoot up with insulin in the bathroom stall which made me feel a little like a drug addict but it was well worth it :) thank you Dylan for such an awesome birthday date and for my presents. You are the best husband in the world! Saturday Oct. 30 was another fun day. Dylan and I were so excited to go pick up mom from the airport in Chicago. We haven't seen here since June and we were so grateful that she would come out here for the baby being born. Sunday Oct. 31 was a good birthday. We went to church and I started having contractions every 10 minutes. Not too bad but I knew something was starting when I lost my plug (that might be TMI but oh well). The Caggianos were nice and brought dinner over so that we didn't have to cook for my birthday and I was able to have some apple crisp with birthday candles. It was the best diabetic brithday cake I have ever had :) That night got interesting as I kept waking up with contractions. It was the most unique birthday I have ever had. Monday Nov. 1 was another "unique" day. I continued with my contractions all day and they were starting to get stronger but not closer together so we just went on with our day. Kay lynn Beeler came over with lunch and visited with mom and I for a couple of hours. It was fun but also embarrassing having contractions in front of her. That afternoon Mom and I started on the baby's quilt I wanted to make for him. I thought it would be cool to have a special blanket and although I am NOT very good at sewing, it was reallly fun to do that with my mom and I learned a lot. Dylan also helped out. It turned into a family project. That night the caggianos came up and we rented the movie Prince of Persia. The movie was good although no one really paid attention to it because I was getting some pretty strong contractions throughout the whole thing and we started timing them. As they were getting closer together everyone was getting nervous and excited and then I had one that REALLY hurt and lasted forever it seemed. We knew something was different and that it was time to go to the hospital. I was getting pretty scared at this point. I know that hearing "it's time to go to the hospital" is something you wait 9 months to hear but when you ACTUALLY see everyone running around grabbing bags and blankets and cameras you feel so shocked and unprepared. So Dylan, mom, and I took our car to the hospital while the Caggianos dropped off the movie we rented back to redbox, or atleast we thought that's what they were doing until they finally show up at the hospital and explain that they were late because they dropped the redbox movie at a blockbuster kiosk. It wouldn't go in easily and once they finally shoved it in they realized that it wasn't supposed to go in there, so there is Toni standing out there for 15 minutes with pencils trying to get the movie back out. Ha ha, I wish I was there to see that. But they finally get there after we got in and they check to see that I am dialated to a 4 and having strong contractions every 3-4 minutes. I didn't know when to get the epidural. I thought you had to wait until you were dialated to a certian point. I didn't know that you could be as pain free as possible for so much of the labor. So when they asked I was hurting really bad and asked to get it ASAP which they did within the next couple of hours and after that I was great! The anesthesiologist was this man from India and I could not understand anything he would say which made me even more nervous to trust this man with my spine, but thank goodness the nurses could somehow translate and show me what to do. I am so grateful that everything went perfectly and I was even able to get some sleep even though the monitor was showing that I was having crazy contractions that were super intense. ahh modern medicine. Everything was going well until I see Toni is upset with Eugene and then Dylan takes him out into the hall and talks to him and when he gets back Eugene was gone but when I asked what was going on, no one would tell me until a long time later I find out that Eugene had a gun in his vest and even though he has a permit and thought it was fine, it took Dylan taking him out in the hall and telling him that his baby was not going to be born the same time he is put in jail before he agreed to put his gun in the truck. If you haven't tried it yet I would recommend having a baby with the caggianos there, it is way more exciting and you get tons of great stories that you can laugh about at family reunions and cookouts. I'm not even being sarcastic. I'll be telling these stories for years. Things finally calmed down in the middle of the night, I don't even know what time but we told the family to get some sleep at our house and we would call them when something changes.

a stay in a hospital is not the same as a hotel!

on wednesday Dylan and I went to the doctor for a 36 week ultrasound. We were so excited to see little Dallas on the screen and it never once crossed our minds that something could be wrong. His organs and bones and everything are doing good but then I thought it was odd that the technician would ask if I ever feel leaking or anything. I told her yes but I thought it was normal at this stage of pregnancy and so she then asked us to wait in the lobby for a minute. That was the LONGEST "minute" of our lives! We had no idea what was going on, no one would say anything to us until finally we are asked to go into an office because the doctor wanted to talk to us. Doctor Murphy got straight to the point saying that the cut-off level for low amniotic fluid is a 6 and my level is at a 4 and so she wants me to go to the hospital and be induced. We were totally caught off guard! We were like "right NOW?" and my doctor says "is this not a good time?" haha. So we run home and throw some things together since I hadn't even packed my hospital bag yet and off we go. We were in such a numb daze when we got to the hospital. The nurses wasted no time in strapping me down in the bed with the NST belts that measured the baby's heartrate and my contractions, putting an IV in me and then the doctor inducing me with cervadil. My ultrasound appointment started at 4:35 and by 7:00 all of this had happened. We were told that I would spend the night and have another ultrasound at 7 am and check my dialation to see where to go from there. That night was so long and hard. The contractions became regular and they hurt! I was drinking SOOO much water that I had to pee every 15 min and it was such a chore to get out of that bed unplug the monitor in 3 different places and wheel my IV with me to the bathroom while having contractions. Even if i didn't have to do that the idea of sleeping was out of the question just because when I am in the bed I can't move at all or the monitor belt wont be able to pick up the baby's heartbeat. The whole time we were there we were thinking that Dallas would be coming in the next day which was an exciting and scary thought. We really didn't know what to think. We knew that my due date was still 4 weeks away and with the diabetes his lungs are more likely to be underdeveloped so the longer he could stay in there the better it would be for him but if he has no amniotic fluid in there then maybe he would survive better out of the womb. I was very emotional all night and worried. Dylan and I just kept praying that the doctors would be blessed with the knowledge of what would be blessed. So finally 7 am comes around and I am wheeled down into an ultrasound room still tethered to my IV. I felt like I was a cancer patient or something. It was weird. after a very nervous 15 minutes in there I was brought back up to my room and the nurse came in a little while later saying that the fluid was up to a 5.5 but the doctors decided that was good enough to discharge me since I was not dialated at all (which really annoyed me because I was having painful contractions and I didn't dialate at ALL. I must be such a wuss. How am I going to handle "real" contractions that make me dialate?!) But we were grateful that we could go home and rest and that Dallas was alright. I have been home resting ever since. I go from the bed to the bathroom often as I am still drinking as much water as possible. Dylan has been taking SUCH good care of us. Making sure I have everything I need withing reach. I should have taken a picture of me sitting in bed with all of the food, waterbottles, books, laptop, remotes, and phone right there in bed with me! Haha. I love Dylan. More than anything he has been such a positive supporter. I appreciate the two blessings he has given. One by himself before we left to the hospital and another with bishop's two councilors in the hospital. The relief society in our ward has also been SO sweet and have been bringing us dinner the past couple of nights. If there is one thing we are grateful for it is the love and support of so many! You realize how loved you are when you go through a trial like this. Everyone has been so sincere and encouraging with they words and prayers. We are grateful for having such wonderful family members and friends and ward! We are going back to the hospital to take another Non-Stress test and check the fluid again. So we hope it is all good and Dallas can hang out inside of mommy for just 2 more weeks after that when I will be induced and for sure have the baby.

halloweenie fun

We love fall!! It is so beautiful here in Valparaiso. The trees turn amazingly bright colors of red, orange, and yellow. The air gets that perfect fall crisp that requires a light jacket (although finding one for me to wear is getting harder to do with my ever growing belly). Decorations are getting put up and stores are decked out in costumes, isles of candy and different styles of pumpkins and gourds. It is such a fun, exciting, magical time! So to get into the spirit of fall Dylan and I got little pumpkins. We also went to the library and checked out "The Great Pumpkin" Charlie Brown special and watched it while we painted our pumpkins. It was so fun! I chose a more traditional route in decorating my pumpkins (we each had two) while Dylan wanted to do it more... Dylan-ish. one said "Go Sox" and was painted black and white. The other one is obviously Trogdor burning the world. On it he wrote "Burninating the world".

for my pumpkins I did one with black polka dots and a spiral top then I put glitter all over it. The other one is a scene of a dead tree and a black moon with whispy clouds and bats.they turned out great and I love doing fun little things with my hubby!!

Pregnancy is amazing, diabetes is a biotch!

I have loved being pregnant... for the most part. I haven't been too too sick or crazy (Dylan may say otherwise). I love feeling little Dallas kicking inside,I love getting ready for him by setting up the crib and buying tons of cute things. I love having Dylan read to my tummy and take care of me. He is so sweet and always wanting to do a craving run for me and putting my tennis shoes on now since I can't bend. It is so cute and has been so fun being pregnant. it really has, but the only time it started being really hard was when I found out that I have Gestational Diabetes. YUCK! It has been such a rollar coaster in every way. First of all diabetes brings more complications for the baby. My blood sugars that I check 4 times a day are supposed to stay within 80-120 and they were... for a while. It is SOOOO extremely frustrating when you are following exactly what your dietition allows you to eat and even though you're so hungry ALL the time you do it because you want what's best for your baby, but no matter what your sugar levels get worse and it's harder and harder to stabilize. I was eating like 12 grapes for breakfast or 1/2 a banana or 1 piece of dry toast, and dinner was 1/4 a Cup of pasta. It was miserable so my doctor decided that my diabetes was getting worse since any little thing i ate would spike my sugar level and she put me on Metphormine which is a pill form of insulin. I was instructed to take that 3 times a day, which i did, and it worked... for a while again. I hate hate hate checking my blood because i get so scared that it will be high because I feel like a bad mom and it breaks my heart. After a couple of weeks it was decided by my doctor that it is necessary I give myself insulin shots twice a day while continuing to take Metphormine 3 times a day. That was a whole new trial for me to overcome but after doing this for a few weeks now I am so happy to say that my blood sugars are stabilizing. It took a little while for the doctors to get my insuline units figured out. I was put on too much NPH at night time and it would cause me to wake up in middle of the night feeling SO weird and shaking uncontrollably and blacking out because my blood level would be so low! It felt horrible and scary. But it finally is getting so much better! it is worth giving myself shots in the stomach just to have the peace that my sugars aren't high and affecting my baby. Infact weekly Dylan and I go to the hospital to do a "non-stress test" to check the baby's heart rate and movement and my contractions and they say that the baby is doing so well! Oh my goodness does that news not make it all worth it?! We are so happy and I can eat more now which means we all win! :) We get to meet our son soon and then this will be over. I have a list of things I want to eat once the diabetes is over. so far the list includes a cinnabon, pumpkin cheescake from the bakery in Chesterton, a frozen hot chocolate from Dairy Queen, and PASTA AND BREAD!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't judge me when I gain weight right after, it doesn't matter though because I will be a happy camper.

blog it up baby!

our life is changing so fast that i decided that we need a blog to keep up with everything. I'm nervous about doing a blog given my past blogging history. recap- i am terrible at keeping up with a blog! But i feel like this time will be different because as of 4 weeks from today I will officially be a "stay at home mom". Dylan and I are so excited to be parents that I think at the start of our expanding family will be a good time to start a blog. So here it is. Wish me luck!