Pregnancy 2011- June

mom2pne

I find myself under (A) - wanting to drop some weight before trying to conceive (TTC).

I had a baby in September 2009 and had not lost much. Then I got pregnant this past February and found out on March 2nd. Three days later on March 5th I miscarried for the second time in less than three years. I got pregnant in March 2008 and miscarried at nearly 8 weeks on April 30th, 2008.

My dh and I have decided to wait until next Summer to ttc again. He feels that I will get pregnant with twins again. I had twins in April 2006 and it put me over 300 pounds and I could hardly walk. So my dh would like to see me lose weight in the mean time. As do I! I have never really showed a bump before as I had gained weight before I even got pregnant with my first. I weighed around 150-160ish.

MisdemeanorM

Finally on a computer not my phone! This will probably be long...

Wed I had high blood pressure at the Drs (something over 97), but I attributed it to the rush of getting to the apt 45 mins away only 50 minutes after I woke up! But it was still high when I was leaving the office and there was protein in my urine so I had to do a 24 hour urine analysis. When I took it in Thurs my BP was 136/90. They said 140 would have been considered preeclampsic even w.out the urine. I hoped that since they'd get the results back late on Fri they would not be able to call me until Monday so I'd hopefully have time to go into labor. Friday was a normal day - I swam my mile that morning and felt fine - but they called around 6 on Friday and asked when I could be there for induction. Protein of 300 or higher is preeclampsic, and mine was 600. They said don't wait until the morning or Sunday when we had someone to watch the boy. So we scrambled to get the rest of the stuff packed (I had all but some baby clothes ready, and hubby had nothing) and to call my mom in Chicago to have her come down to get the boy (we were planning to take him to my brother on Sunday). Hubby packed the boy's bag to go to grandmas and did an awful job I have to say. I think he ended up with a bunch of long sleeves and no toothbrush... I stopped to shave :laugh: Then we stopped for Chinese food. I thought fried rice would be nice and mild. Then we drove downtown and they began induction around 10pm. They stripped my membranes and tried to insert a folley ball to dilate me. Being a VBAC they couldn't use the chemical dilators. She ended up not being able to get the folley in, and I took pride in being her most difficult folley ball insertion attempt ever :laugh:. She'd mentioned I was the 2nd hardest and I said I was going for first hardest, which turns out I was. :laugh: She said my pain tolerance had to be pretty high to have tolerated all that digging and prodding. They started me on pitocin and I had to get a catheter and be on magnesium. Later they broke my water. We learned in the process that baby had a full head of hair! I don't remember how long until contractions started, they were not bad and they were very irregular in timing. It was a 24 hour process overall. I didn't sleep for like 36 hours or more. My parents were there for a little while on Saturday to get the boy. They did not stay too long. Sometime early morning Sat I got a headache which turned into a migraine - probably from the pic or the mag. The contractions were manageable but the headache was horrible! I also puked up all the fried rice, every bit of ice chips they let me have, and the popsicle they gave me. I threw up probably 6 or 7 times Saturday - from the migraine or the pit or the mag or the combo... I ended up getting an IV dose of something to kill the migraine to a manageable level. Other than that I made it up to about 8.5 w no meds. I was very thankful for the midwives, they did everything to give me a VBAC. Even when there were hours of no progression they tried a few different things before calling it quits. I think just about any other dr would have called a C/S, especially when the fetal HR would drop here and there with contractions. Instead they just adjusted the pit and did some other things to compensate. Around then the contractions were getting really strong and starting to spasm out my back a bit too so I asked them to get the nitrus so I could learn how to use it before I was pushing. The stuff is awesome! In little bursts it makes you a little woozy but you can still feel the pain nearly all the way - but in big constant breaths it takes you to a point where you think "will I pass out" but instead you just get numb and the room's background noise gets super quiet and people's talking turns crystal clear, it reminded me of movies where someone is awake in surgery and they are showing the point of view of the patient, where everything is fuzzy but they can hear everything going on but can't really respond. Around the time I figured out the nitrus and about when I thought that the contractions would not even out into any sort of pattern they got really bad. I keep feeling like pushing but then the contractions would go away for 8 or so minutes so I couldn't. Then I hear the midwife say "Melissa - are you pushing?!" I go "no. no i'm.... YES!!!" At that point I was NOT letting go of the nitrus! It really made it a great combination of not being able to feel a lot of pain and not caring about the pain I could feel. I was only the 2nd one in the hospital to try it. They just started offering it less than a week earlier so no one knew how it worked. I could follow instruction but I was not sure what was going on. After one part pushing and it hurt a ton I thought he crowned so I asked - is it born yet or should I keep pushing? Unfortunately, I had to keep pushing :laugh:. There was like a 10 second delay in what I heard and that I could react to it. One time my husband said something and I tried to hit him, but then he said something nice and my delay was so bad that by time I hit him it was after he said the nice thing :laugh:. I let them know that what would be really helpful for those on nitrus is telling them exactly what is going on. I wasn't sure when I was having a contraction or not or even if the baby was born and I was not about to let go of the nitrus. I was afraid that it would wear off and I would feel all the pain! I am sure I could have used it a lot less and been a lot more interactive or aware, but I really did not care to be! They teased me afterward about my death grip on the mask... Anyway... I'm told about 40 minutes of pushing (I remember thinking "this hurts like hell" but I don't actually remember hurting) and we got a baby boy! 10:32 pm, 6lb 1oz. I remember looking at my husband holding him and saying something along the lines of "what the hell are we going to do with that?". I needed some stitches and the catheter reinserted so I kept the nitrus going strong :laugh: It wore off pretty quickly after but I was exhausted from no sleep and the magnesium. I got to hold him for a little bit and then they took the boy to get cleaned up the rest of the way (hubby made sure there was no nasty baby dropped on my stomach! though they had to give him to hubby anyway not me, I would have dropped him). I decided he was pretty cute, for a baby - we still had no name picked out. Overall, a pretty good day.

Sunday on the other hand was I think the worst day of my life. Since I was bound to bed for 24 hours on the mag, baby was in the nursery. I was going to have them bring him to me to eat sometime but I was so tired. I slept a little here and there, but on mag they have to do a bunch of tests every hour that wake you up so I still didn't really sleep. I was a bit delirious at this point from the tiredness and the mag which makes you loopy anyway. I thought I dreamed that someone came by at 3am and said they noticed something was off with the baby so they wanted to take him to the children's hospital next door for some tests. But then they wheeled him into the room so I could see him before he left and I realized I wasn't dreaming. They said they'd probably know something in an hour or so. I called hubby (who'd headed home around 1) to tell him and that I would call him when they updated me. Around 6 they told me that they had heard a major heart murmur and did some scans and they came back "abnormal" but that they had to have a cardiologist look at them before they could tell me anything. I called hubby who came down. He got to go over to see him but they would not take me off the IVs until 24 hours. Sometime in the morning hubby came back with a cardiologist in tow who explained to us that baby has a congenetial heart defect where his heart ventricles didn't close (hole in the heart), a stiff aortic valve, and no pulmonary artery. It was a huge shock. He was breathing on his own, he looked normal... I think we cried all day long. My mom showed up midafternoon. After driving chicago to Nashville back to Chicago the day before she hopped on a plane as soon as we called her with the news. The fact that my husband (like the toughest guy ever) broke down on the phone trying to tell her probably let her know how serious it was. I had no idea what prognosis this had, and I couldn't go see him. All we knew at that point was it would require major surgery and soon and be an issue for the rest of his life - which, honestly, at that point we didn't know if that would be days, years, or longer. I got to see him in the NICU after they took my IVs out. Then I got to visit him the next two days. All we could do was "pet" him. I settled down a little in those days as far as the shock of hearing the news and learned that it should be very manageable. It will require major major surgery though and be a lifelong condition. There are tons of risks too, namely open heart surgery on an infant. On Tuesday I had to go home and he had to stay. That was rough. I cried a lot on Tuesday too. I sat in the NICU and kept thinking - we should be going home right now! But I have to leave him here! We've been going over and visiting him and on Wednesday we finally got to hold him which made me feel a bit better. He still seems like a normal baby - sleepy at times, very alert and looking all over at others. Thursday he had to get a cardio catherization where they put him under general anesthesia (a "routine" procedure, but general anesthesia on a 5 day old is scary). The good news is the cath confirmed what we knew and nothing more. They will need to go in and gather up little veins that grew off his aorta and shunt them together to build him a pulmonary artery. It's incredible that they can even do this! They will also have to go in and do open heart surgery to close the holes in his heart. The first surgery might be next week or they might try to wait a month or so until he is a little bigger. We haven't heard from the cardiac team yet on their suggestion. The next 1-3 surgeries will be before he is 1 yr old. He will probably need some more as he grows older and bigger. Sometimes I look at him and cry because I think of how perfect he looks and that he will soon have a giant scar down his tiny little chest. I'm happy though that at some point he should be "normal" and that we shouldn't have a sickly baby, just a long road and some really scary surgeries coming up. It's been a lot to absorb in the last few days. It's been hard being home and not having him here. It's a long commute to go see him but not too bad and we are thankful that we live near Vanderbilt - on of the top children's hospital in the country. They did start him on eating today though! I think he was a fan! I've been pumping (insurance sent me home with a pump!). It's a little hard to remember to do it when there is no baby crying to tell you it's time to eat! Anyway, that's where we are now - in a holding pattern waiting to hear about surgery. If it's next week then he will be in the PICU for probably 2 more weeks after that. If it's later they might send him home in a week. I think whenever they send him home I am going to be paranoid beyond belief. What he has is called pulmonary atresia with VSD (ventricular septal defect) and I forget what the stiff aortic valve is technically called. We're hopeful that everything will turn out OK though.

As for a name - we decided that Buck's official name is Gabriel Alexander. Turns out to be fitting as it means something along the line of mighty warrior, which he will need to be!
Check out his natural mowhawk!

joonzgurl

Oh mel I am so so sorry. I cried reading your post. I can only imagine what a roller coaster it has been for you and your husband over the past week. Thank goodness for modern technology and how they can do so much to help him. I bet you cannot wait until he gets to come home, I can understand why you would be paranoid as well.

I'll definitely be thinking of you and the rest of your family. I love his name.

sthorp1179

I'm in love with little Gabriel Alexander's name, I'm glad that you did so well with the birth. I agree the gas can make you spaced out and although you still feel the pain you don't seem to feel it as much. Sometimes when I had too much of the gas it used to make sounds and things sound broken up like your brain was doing things extra slow.

I'm so sorry that Gabriel hasn't been able to go home with you but I'm sure that he's a strong little boy if he's anything like his mother and you will all get through this together. Surgery is scary on a baby but if thats what it takes to give him the best start and future then I'm sure your in good hands.

I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers xxx

KatalynasMommy

Hey ladies! We are here in WI and *finally* have internet today! Three trips to Best Buy and Verizon.

Esca Eirnin was born last Thursday June 2nd just before noon. I caught him into my hands, in the pool, after an intense, quick labor starting w/ my waters breaking. He was born at 38 weeks even, weighed 8lbs 7.5oz. He is beautiful of course!

Congratulations!!! LOVE the name it's sooo cute!!!!

KatalynasMommy

Finally on a computer not my phone! This will probably be long...

Wed I had high blood pressure at the Drs (something over 97), but I attributed it to the rush of getting to the apt 45 mins away only 50 minutes after I woke up! But it was still high when I was leaving the office and there was protein in my urine so I had to do a 24 hour urine analysis. When I took it in Thurs my BP was 136/90. They said 140 would have been considered preeclampsic even w.out the urine. I hoped that since they'd get the results back late on Fri they would not be able to call me until Monday so I'd hopefully have time to go into labor. Friday was a normal day - I swam my mile that morning and felt fine - but they called around 6 on Friday and asked when I could be there for induction. Protein of 300 or higher is preeclampsic, and mine was 600. They said don't wait until the morning or Sunday when we had someone to watch the boy. So we scrambled to get the rest of the stuff packed (I had all but some baby clothes ready, and hubby had nothing) and to call my mom in Chicago to have her come down to get the boy (we were planning to take him to my brother on Sunday). Hubby packed the boy's bag to go to grandmas and did an awful job I have to say. I think he ended up with a bunch of long sleeves and no toothbrush... I stopped to shave :laugh: Then we stopped for Chinese food. I thought fried rice would be nice and mild. Then we drove downtown and they began induction around 10pm. They stripped my membranes and tried to insert a folley ball to dilate me. Being a VBAC they couldn't use the chemical dilators. She ended up not being able to get the folley in, and I took pride in being her most difficult folley ball insertion attempt ever :laugh:. She'd mentioned I was the 2nd hardest and I said I was going for first hardest, which turns out I was. :laugh: She said my pain tolerance had to be pretty high to have tolerated all that digging and prodding. They started me on pitocin and I had to get a catheter and be on magnesium. Later they broke my water. We learned in the process that baby had a full head of hair! I don't remember how long until contractions started, they were not bad and they were very irregular in timing. It was a 24 hour process overall. I didn't sleep for like 36 hours or more. My parents were there for a little while on Saturday to get the boy. They did not stay too long. Sometime early morning Sat I got a headache which turned into a migraine - probably from the pic or the mag. The contractions were manageable but the headache was horrible! I also puked up all the fried rice, every bit of ice chips they let me have, and the popsicle they gave me. I threw up probably 6 or 7 times Saturday - from the migraine or the pit or the mag or the combo... I ended up getting an IV dose of something to kill the migraine to a manageable level. Other than that I made it up to about 8.5 w no meds. I was very thankful for the midwives, they did everything to give me a VBAC. Even when there were hours of no progression they tried a few different things before calling it quits. I think just about any other dr would have called a C/S, especially when the fetal HR would drop here and there with contractions. Instead they just adjusted the pit and did some other things to compensate. Around then the contractions were getting really strong and starting to spasm out my back a bit too so I asked them to get the nitrus so I could learn how to use it before I was pushing. The stuff is awesome! In little bursts it makes you a little woozy but you can still feel the pain nearly all the way - but in big constant breaths it takes you to a point where you think "will I pass out" but instead you just get numb and the room's background noise gets super quiet and people's talking turns crystal clear, it reminded me of movies where someone is awake in surgery and they are showing the point of view of the patient, where everything is fuzzy but they can hear everything going on but can't really respond. Around the time I figured out the nitrus and about when I thought that the contractions would not even out into any sort of pattern they got really bad. I keep feeling like pushing but then the contractions would go away for 8 or so minutes so I couldn't. Then I hear the midwife say "Melissa - are you pushing?!" I go "no. no i'm.... YES!!!" At that point I was NOT letting go of the nitrus! It really made it a great combination of not being able to feel a lot of pain and not caring about the pain I could feel. I was only the 2nd one in the hospital to try it. They just started offering it less than a week earlier so no one knew how it worked. I could follow instruction but I was not sure what was going on. After one part pushing and it hurt a ton I thought he crowned so I asked - is it born yet or should I keep pushing? Unfortunately, I had to keep pushing :laugh:. There was like a 10 second delay in what I heard and that I could react to it. One time my husband said something and I tried to hit him, but then he said something nice and my delay was so bad that by time I hit him it was after he said the nice thing :laugh:. I let them know that what would be really helpful for those on nitrus is telling them exactly what is going on. I wasn't sure when I was having a contraction or not or even if the baby was born and I was not about to let go of the nitrus. I was afraid that it would wear off and I would feel all the pain! I am sure I could have used it a lot less and been a lot more interactive or aware, but I really did not care to be! They teased me afterward about my death grip on the mask... Anyway... I'm told about 40 minutes of pushing (I remember thinking "this hurts like hell" but I don't actually remember hurting) and we got a baby boy! 10:32 pm, 6lb 1oz. I remember looking at my husband holding him and saying something along the lines of "what the hell are we going to do with that?". I needed some stitches and the catheter reinserted so I kept the nitrus going strong :laugh: It wore off pretty quickly after but I was exhausted from no sleep and the magnesium. I got to hold him for a little bit and then they took the boy to get cleaned up the rest of the way (hubby made sure there was no nasty baby dropped on my stomach! though they had to give him to hubby anyway not me, I would have dropped him). I decided he was pretty cute, for a baby - we still had no name picked out. Overall, a pretty good day.

Sunday on the other hand was I think the worst day of my life. Since I was bound to bed for 24 hours on the mag, baby was in the nursery. I was going to have them bring him to me to eat sometime but I was so tired. I slept a little here and there, but on mag they have to do a bunch of tests every hour that wake you up so I still didn't really sleep. I was a bit delirious at this point from the tiredness and the mag which makes you loopy anyway. I thought I dreamed that someone came by at 3am and said they noticed something was off with the baby so they wanted to take him to the children's hospital next door for some tests. But then they wheeled him into the room so I could see him before he left and I realized I wasn't dreaming. They said they'd probably know something in an hour or so. I called hubby (who'd headed home around 1) to tell him and that I would call him when they updated me. Around 6 they told me that they had heard a major heart murmur and did some scans and they came back "abnormal" but that they had to have a cardiologist look at them before they could tell me anything. I called hubby who came down. He got to go over to see him but they would not take me off the IVs until 24 hours. Sometime in the morning hubby came back with a cardiologist in tow who explained to us that baby has a congenetial heart defect where his heart ventricles didn't close (hole in the heart), a stiff aortic valve, and no pulmonary artery. It was a huge shock. He was breathing on his own, he looked normal... I think we cried all day long. My mom showed up midafternoon. After driving chicago to Nashville back to Chicago the day before she hopped on a plane as soon as we called her with the news. The fact that my husband (like the toughest guy ever) broke down on the phone trying to tell her probably let her know how serious it was. I had no idea what prognosis this had, and I couldn't go see him. All we knew at that point was it would require major surgery and soon and be an issue for the rest of his life - which, honestly, at that point we didn't know if that would be days, years, or longer. I got to see him in the NICU after they took my IVs out. Then I got to visit him the next two days. All we could do was "pet" him. I settled down a little in those days as far as the shock of hearing the news and learned that it should be very manageable. It will require major major surgery though and be a lifelong condition. There are tons of risks too, namely open heart surgery on an infant. On Tuesday I had to go home and he had to stay. That was rough. I cried a lot on Tuesday too. I sat in the NICU and kept thinking - we should be going home right now! But I have to leave him here! We've been going over and visiting him and on Wednesday we finally got to hold him which made me feel a bit better. He still seems like a normal baby - sleepy at times, very alert and looking all over at others. Thursday he had to get a cardio catherization where they put him under general anesthesia (a "routine" procedure, but general anesthesia on a 5 day old is scary). The good news is the cath confirmed what we knew and nothing more. They will need to go in and gather up little veins that grew off his aorta and shunt them together to build him a pulmonary artery. It's incredible that they can even do this! They will also have to go in and do open heart surgery to close the holes in his heart. The first surgery might be next week or they might try to wait a month or so until he is a little bigger. We haven't heard from the cardiac team yet on their suggestion. The next 1-3 surgeries will be before he is 1 yr old. He will probably need some more as he grows older and bigger. Sometimes I look at him and cry because I think of how perfect he looks and that he will soon have a giant scar down his tiny little chest. I'm happy though that at some point he should be "normal" and that we shouldn't have a sickly baby, just a long road and some really scary surgeries coming up. It's been a lot to absorb in the last few days. It's been hard being home and not having him here. It's a long commute to go see him but not too bad and we are thankful that we live near Vanderbilt - on of the top children's hospital in the country. They did start him on eating today though! I think he was a fan! I've been pumping (insurance sent me home with a pump!). It's a little hard to remember to do it when there is no baby crying to tell you it's time to eat! Anyway, that's where we are now - in a holding pattern waiting to hear about surgery. If it's next week then he will be in the PICU for probably 2 more weeks after that. If it's later they might send him home in a week. I think whenever they send him home I am going to be paranoid beyond belief. What he has is called pulmonary atresia with VSD (ventricular septal defect) and I forget what the stiff aortic valve is technically called. We're hopeful that everything will turn out OK though.

As for a name - we decided that Buck's official name is Gabriel Alexander. Turns out to be fitting as it means something along the line of mighty warrior, which he will need to be!
Check out his natural mowhawk!

Congratulations!!!! He's sooo Cute love the Mohawk!! Take care of yourself!!

RFrick

Thanks for taking the time to share Mel!!! Makes my current issues seem really small!!! I have a friend that her baby had to have open heart surgery at least twice if not three times before he was a year. He's almost a year now and seems to be doing great. I can't remember what his problem was, but they were able to find out before he was born and prepare themselves a bit. It had to have been so very, very rough to just have all that sprung on you like that. Glad that things are seeming a bit more managable for you now. Hey, at least you don't have seven kids at home to take care of in addition to the baby like my friend did. Hope things continue to go better for you. And congrats on the VBAC!!! And the wayally is adorable!

ron2282

Annabelle – Congratulations and welcome back!!! I hope everything went well with the move and I can’t wait to see pictures of Esca!

Katrina – we all need to vent some days, don’t worry about it. I hope you can find some time to relax this weekend.

Jessica – welcome!! Just jump right in. This is a really active thread and it’s almost impossible to respond to ever single person.

Brittony – Glad you had a good shower. Now I want Mexican food at 9am! :laugh:

Mom2pne – welcome!

Mel – wow! First of all he’s adorable and I love his name! I’m so sorry he’s still in the hospital and dealing with those health issues, but it’s amazing what medicine can do now. You are both in my thoughts and prayers; please keep us updated on how he’s doing.

hkystar

Be strong Mel... He is so adorable. I have lots of T&P for you and Gabriel!

collinsclan

Mel-- THere are no words to express how I am feeling for you and I hope you know that you have a large group praying for you and Gabriel Alexander (I love the name!). It's good that you have near access to an excellent hospital.

dmdaigle17

What a beautiful baby boy you have Mel! His name is absolutely perfect and fitting, just like you said
Lots of thoughts and prayers for you and your family :flowerforyou:

dmdaigle17

Hey ladies! We are here in WI and *finally* have internet today! Three trips to Best Buy and Verizon.

Esca Eirnin was born last Thursday June 2nd just before noon. I caught him into my hands, in the pool, after an intense, quick labor starting w/ my waters breaking. He was born at 38 weeks even, weighed 8lbs 7.5oz. He is beautiful of course!

So glad to hear from you again! Yay for the move being over and congrats on the new baby boy :flowerforyou: Can't wait to hear more from you now that you are settled in a little

peggy1209

MEL-

thinking of you and gabriel, don't forget to take care of yourself too

thank you for shaing your story

Mamatoabunch

Hey ladies! We are here in WI and *finally* have internet today! Three trips to Best Buy and Verizon.

Esca Eirnin was born last Thursday June 2nd just before noon. I caught him into my hands, in the pool, after an intense, quick labor starting w/ my waters breaking. He was born at 38 weeks even, weighed 8lbs 7.5oz. He is beautiful of course!

We're all hoping for some pictures soon . . .

I just got up, nak at the computer, going to post pics now

Mamatoabunch

Let me say Annabelle, that I am so so happy to have you back!!! I was a teensy bit afraid that you'd forgotten all about us and left us for good. Glad to see that wasn't the case. Hope that your move was uneventful and that you're settling in well. Whenever you feel like it pictures would be great and since I'm planning a home birth myself a few more details of the birth would be nice if you care to share. I realize that after as many times as you've done this it may all seem like an old story to you, but I'm still very interested in the details. :happy: Welcome back my friend!!! :flowerforyou:

I am working on my story now. My pregnancy and births are one of my most cherished memories, I would love to share.

meokk

Morning.............

Julie - I would definitely report the incident, that sort of behavior is never acceptable. Also write down what happened + date + time. Sorry for you though, him being a complete *kitten* probably ruined your day.:flowerforyou:

Regina - see you at the next reunion I guess :laugh: Sorry about the glucose test. Loads of people fail the 1 hour and pass the 3 hour though. I would do it if I were you. LMK what DH thinks of Elodie !

Brittony - Sooooo cute - I can't wait to have a fab bump like yours !!!

Danielle - Good luck with the test on Monday, going high protein and eliminating carbs the day before worked for me with my 1 hour. Oh and my bump is just like a chubby double belly when I sit down :laugh:

Annabelle - congrats on your new baby boy - well done !!!!!!

Mel - wow, what a story. It is so hard to believe that anything is wrong with him when you look at the photos, he looks so healthy.
I can only imagine how scary this is for you and your family but it does sound like he is getting the best care out there. If it helps you at all, I have a close friend who had a hole in her heart as a baby and had to have multiple surgeries as a baby and child but is PERFECTLY HEALTHY now. Sending hugs

LANDSCAPING question for all - lot's of you mentioned that you can't see down there anymore. Now I think I could maintain without being able to see, just by feel. BUT my question is - Can you still reach all your bits ????

EVERYONE - thanks so much for the nice comments on my bump pic, I'm very proud to finally have something to show

AFM - I plotted out the weight gain that I would like to have for the duration of my pregnancy. My midwife wants 15-20 lbs gained total and if I gain 1/2 lb per week from now on I'll be right at 18 lbs total gain. This is my goal anyway, we'll see. I don't expect my gain to be exactly 1/2 lb every week but if I can get to the overall number in the end I'll be happy. Wondering if any of you overweight mommas had success keeping your gains to a certain number?? I started out at 166 lbs = 21 lbs overweight for my height.

Mamatoabunch

Oh Mell he is beautiful! I am so happy you achieved a VBAC, you rock. We will keep both of you in our prayers.

joonzgurl

Annabelle- we missed you!!! So happy to have you back, and congrats on your little one!

joonzgurl

LANDSCAPING question for all - lot's of you mentioned that you can't see down there anymore. Now I think I could maintain without being able to see, just by feel. BUT my question is - Can you still reach all your bits ????

I have a hard time reaching to be honest. I can still reach, but only just. I imagine as I near 40 weeks it will get harder. Your weight loss goal sounds very reasonable, just make sure you don't get too hung up on the scale. In my opinion, as long as you are being active and making healthy choices you are on the right track!

Rachickidee

Kacy! Thank you for your sweet comment! It is so great to hear from you. I bet that is super hard to have the new pregnancy in your family. I hope you find strength through this time. XOXO

Britt: Adorable picture!!

Annabelle: So nice to hear from you again. I have thought about you a lot. I am glad you are all moved. Congratulations on your little boy! That is awesome.

Mel! Wow, that is quite the story! I love his name, and he is beautiful! I can only imagine how rough your situation is. Poor little guy! I will keep him in my thoughts and prayers with these upcoming surgeries.