Week 35

 Week 35

How far along? 35 weeks
Maternity clothes?  I went to the wedding of a childhood friend on Saturday and the occasion required a dress.  I found a simple black maternity dress at a consignment shop for under $15.  Score! The pictures proved that black is slimming.  :)
Have you started to show?  I'm starting to feel like a freak show.  Strangers are now commenting.  I've had one "you look like you are about to pop" and a lady who was chatting with me through the changing room wall in the spa locker room.  I was there to get a prenatal massage (best baby shower gift ever!) and as I was getting undressed I hear a voice through the wall, "when are you due?"  Umm...why are you talking to me while I'm naked??
Symptoms:  During the wedding on Saturday I noticed some pain building in my chest, just below my heart.  I figured it was bad acid reflux, which I've had trouble with more and more in the past couple weeks.  We left the wedding early and I tried to sleep it off.  By morning I was feeling better and we ran to Babies R Us to try to pick up the last few things from our registry.  While we were there the pain returned.  I laid down when we got home but it seemed to be getting worse.  I called my OB's after hours line.  She suggested I try maalox but only gave me an hour to wait for it to kick in.  If not, it was going to mean another trip to the hospital.  And after the whole kidney stone ordeal, I really did not want to go back to the hospital.

But just over an hour later, that's where I found myself.  And I obviously was not enjoying my stay.

Going to the hospital ended up being a very smart decision.  And I'm so thankful that my doctor was onto something and only gave me an hour to see if the maalox would work.  Turns out it wasn't just heartburn.  After an EKG ruled out a heart attack (at least I wasn't crazy in thinking something was wrong with my heart.  I doubt they would have done an EKG just for funsies), an ultrasound ruled out gallstones.  When the pain in my chest radiated up into my right shoulder and arm and my blood pressure started to climb, the doctors started throwing around terms like "a form of pre-eclampsia" and "only cure is to deliver."  That's when my OB showed up.  Late on a Sunday night.  My mom (who was at the hospital with us and is a nurse) was the one to realize that things were getting serious if my own doctor decided she needed to see me and not just leave it to the senior resident.  I was realizing that the night was taking a strange turn when there was nothing they could give for the pain.  I was begging for the drugs they had given me during the kidney stone.  I didn't understand why I couldn't have anything until my doctor arrived.  My doctor is amazing and her calm demeanor kept me calm as she explained the diagnosis of HELLP Syndrome.  While she never said it, after Googling it later, we realized it is a life threatening diagnosis if not caught in time.   Meanwhile, Megatron was as happy as could be.  I was taking a serious turn for the worse yet he was just hanging out with good vitals and movement.  So I knew my doctor wasn't taking my condition lightly when she suggested that in order to keep him happy and healthy and to prevent me from getting sicker, I needed to deliver and I needed to deliver soon, even though it was 5 weeks too soon.

You could have scraped my jaw off the floor.  After going in for what I though was acute heart burn and to be told it was time to deliver a baby, I was stunned.  That was not even on my radar.  Ever since the ultrasound at 20 weeks revealed he was a pretty big baby, I've been worried about delivering a "monster baby."  And for the first time, I was incredibly thankful for how big he already was.  Delivering 5 weeks early, while still really early, was the best decision for my health and his. At that point, the risk to me staying pregnant far outweighed the risks of having a pre-term baby.

And so on Monday, July 15 at 8:01 am, The Pilot and I became a family of three with the addition of Megatron.

6 pounds, 20 inches

I'm still processing all that happened and not quite ready to dive into the rest of that story but I will share more about Megatron's arrival into the world soon. For know though, we are both doing much better!

As for Megatron's name?  No, that isn't his legal name.  Sorry but we won't be sharing that on the blog.  We didn't want him to Google his name later in life and come across all of his mother's confessions about parenthood.  Very much like the reasons I don't share The Pilot's name on the blog.  We didn't want to reveal too much about our family on the internet.  I mean, someone might want to run for office one day and we don't need any incriminating evidence floating around. ;)