To understand our story you have to know our past, so feel free to refresh or catch up on Charlotte's birth story here. Part 1
With all of that in mind some things were similar and some things were different this time around. We joke that both Melissa's OB/gyn and I would not permit Melissa to become pregnant again, unless she agreed to a c-section this time around, no questions asked. Things just went badly last time and no one is exactly sure how things healed up and what scarring there may have been. I can't say I was surprised, when we found out Melissa was pregnant again, but we were just so blessed that she was able to get pregnant again and able to have a great pregnancy.
Pretty early on in Melissa's pregnancy she must have pulled some muscle between some ribs in her back and after her doctor diagnosed the problem by putting her finger between Melissa's ribs, she assured Melissa that her nagging back pain would probably be present the whole term because as Melissa's body grew to accommodate a baby, her ribs would never have time to heal. She also had a pretty tough sinus infection the last couple weeks of her pregnancy, but other than that the pregnancy went really well. Even after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism after Charlotte was born, Melissa's blood work always came back great throughout the pregnancy. When hypothyroidism is present the baby runs the risk of not developing and being on the small side. After each appointment and ultrasound with the prenatal medicine doctor we found that Oliver was always above the 50th percentile mark and at our last ultrasound before his birth he was at the 77th percentile mark. So needless to say, several things could have made this pregnancy impossible or tough, but God blessed us with nothing other than a few back pains and a stuffed up congested nose.
I'm not sure when it was but I think somewhere in the 20 weeks along period, after Melissa's routine exam, our doctor said, "OK, when do we want to schedule the c-section for?" We were amazed that they would schedule this so far out, but knowing this was our only option we gladly set a date that would cause Oliver to join us at right around 39 weeks. So Melissa plugged along and as the last few weeks crawled by we began to anticipate March 5th. We knew that the 5th was the last absolute day that we would have to wait to meet Oliver. Life is easier when there is a deadline, so we were anxious about when it might be, but hoping that we would make it until the 5th.
Last Wednesday, Melissa didn't feel to well and for the first time since we've been married and even longer than I can remember, she threw up. She's not the throwing up type, so it was kind of weird. She spent time in the bathroom doing other things that evening as well if you know what I mean. At about 2am she decided that she wasn't going to head to work that day because she just felt that at any moment she might throw up again. Thursday was my birthday, so in a way it was great to have her home that day, but she spent most of the day not feeling too well. I went to the store and bought my own birthday cake. Kudos to Melissa though for getting up in the middle of the night to hang a banner and crate paper that she knows I love waking up to. Charlotte decided that my birthday shouldn't be too fun either so she decided that even though she isn't two years old just yet, that she wanted a little bit of her terrible two's to show up that day. I'm not complaining or asking for sympathy. I was happy to spend the day with my family even if it wasn't perfect, but all of this was leading up to something big.
Melissa went to work on Friday and came home that afternoon feeling normal again. She asked if I wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday and like I always do I chose Outback. Bloomin' Onions will be served in heaven...just FYI. We had a great dinner and came home around 6:30. After putting Charlotte down for the evening, Melissa told me that she was having a few braxton hicks contractions which is quite normal at this stage in the pregnancy. But then they started to come a little more consistently so we even timed a couple. They eventually spread out really far and were really inconsistent so we went to bed and brushed it off.
Charlotte had been waking up around 4:00am the few previous mornings and usually I go in and rock with her in her big comfy chair so she'll sleep a few more hours. Since it was the weekend, Melissa volunteered to go and rock with her. I was awoken at 6:30 by Melissa and Charlotte because Melissa was getting tired of laying in the chair (can't blame her...she's 9 months pregnant). Our plans for our Saturday were to pack her hospital bag, clean the house really well before Oliver came and just get ready in general because, just over a week from then we would be bringing home our baby. We started a load of laundry consisting of clothes for Oliver and other blankets and such. We got so busy we didn't even eat breakfast. And that's when things started to happen. Melissa called me into the bathroom and that's when the day really began.
to be continued...
Charlotte trying to call the ducks over to her. "here ducky ducky"
Then we headed to the bathtub so Charlotte could get cleaned up from our fun day.
