Hi there! I know I do not blog on here on a regular basis anymore but my baby is napping and I wanted a place where I could remember the beauty of my pregnancy and birth. So here we go...
June 20, 2023: I found out I was pregnant! Cue all the emotions (excited, nervous, scared) and the now what!
June-July 2023: I had just switched to my husband's insurance so I didn't have a doctor or anything. Luckily, with Kaiser I was able to get in pretty quickly. You see I wanted to be seen pretty quickly because I was on medication. I have been on medication since I was 15 for my spasticity/shakiness in my hands. Mind you I was 30 when I found out I was pregnant so I have been on this medication 3 times a day for half of my life 😲. I had no idea how my body would react to being off of it or even the process of getting off the medication. At first I was getting varying opinions about whether to stop cold turkey or to stay on it. Eventually, I spoke with my neurologist (who I wasn't seeing anymore due to the switch of insurance). He told me that yes I need to get off of it as there is not enough data to prove if it would harm the baby or not so to be on the safe side it would be better to be off of the medication. So here we go I started drastically cutting back and it caused me to have major side effects. I couldn't sleep because my muscles would not stop spasming (side note: the Lord had this all in the palm of his hands because I had been working summer school for the past 3 years and I was not accepted as a teacher this summer which hallelujah 🙌 because I wasn't sleeping and seeing/talking to so many doctors so I couldn't imagine working during this time). Due to the severe spasming we decided it was best to withdraw more slowly which helped but I did have spasming spells anytime I would sleep or sit and relax during the day. After about a month I was officially off all medication.
I am so happy to say that a year later and I am still off of the medication. I am so shocked by how well my body has been without the medication. I have felt pretty stable in my shakiness. I think the medication was definitely necessary when I was younger but now that I am an adult and my body is no longer going through growth spurts or hormonal changes I think it has figured out how to work without the medication so the Lord definitely used this pregnancy to show me I do not need to be on medication anymore.
Growing bigger and more pregnant: I was nervous how my body would handle the gaining of weight. As we all know I walk differently and am pretty slim so I was scared that by gaining 30 pounds that it would make my sciatica come back or put pain in my legs. However, I had none of that 🙌 I think because of my active lifestyle and doing yoga my body was strong enough to handle the extra weight. Towards the end of my pregnancy I definitely felt top heavy and had to be conscious of walking slowly and taking my time. I did fall twice towards the end of the pregnancy and that was because I was doing my usual fast walking so I really had to constantly remind myself to slow down. All that being said I freaking loved being pregnant. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced and I honestly cannot wait for the day I am pregnant again because I had such a beautiful time and my body handled the baby and the weight gain so well.
The birth:
At 38 weeks I was supposed to be induced because of pregnancy high blood pressure and just my CP. I had a scheduled induction on Saturday, Feb 17 well yet another answer to prayer as I went into labor the night before! At 3 am I woke up with contractions that were 15 minutes apart. By 6 am my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart and it was time to go to the hospital. After they checked me I was already 4 cm dilated by 7 am. I was handling the contraction pain pretty well (surprise! having CP allows you to have a very high pain tolerance!) but in discussing with the doctor and anesthesiologist we decided to get an epidural as I figured it would help my muscles to relax during contractions and pushing. Luckily the epidural went in no problem and I was able to rest. By 3 pm it was time to push! 😳 I was so scared about birth because of my CP. I didn't know if I truly would be able to have the strength to push out a baby. At the start when I was pushing I was like "oh yeah I got this! this isn't bad". WELL, by hour number 3 I was saying "I can't! I am too tired". However, I had my husband and my mom by my side cheering me on and telling me to keep going. The medical team gave me different options but I was like no I have been pushing for 3 hours I have to get this baby out! Only 15 minutes after that point my beautiful baby boy was born at 6:19 pm! He was born with two knots in his umbilical cord. A little miracle baby! Truly was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but the best thing I have ever done. My body was soooo sore from pushing (being tense and exerting so much energy) but I would do it over and over again because it brought my sweet 7 pounds, 12 ounces baby boy and has started the most beautiful role in life....being a mother! 💙
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