Layla’s Birthday P.I
On the second trimester I definitely had more energy so I jumped on to planning the baby shower, the food, the cake, and décor with my sister’s help. I also started the registry list which felt like an overload, but I was able to follow my sister’s registry and picked and chose what I needed and didn’t. I actually did receive many gifts off the registry list; to be honest, I'm one of the fortunate few. And then came the most important of all, the mental preparation.
I was following pregnancy pages, lactation pages, mom pages, then I came across this page called “Tiny hood” and it was a game changer. I was able to have my husband tag along in the courses and be as informed as I was and more than anything I was informed, about my choices, how I wanted to deliver, if I wanted to breastfeed or not, about different forms of delivery, exercises to relieve pain, exercises to induce dilation, all of these amazing facts, procedures, step-by-step guidance in pregnancy, delivery and post-partum. I was not led in blindly to the next few months, which is why I am also grateful to informing myself to the best of my abilities.
During my third trimester, I had gestational hypertension. I was experiencing extremely stressful circumstances which I’ll talk about in another post and nothing food related because I mainly ate from home. Okay lies, I craved things, but nothing too crazy other than Chicken Pho bowls, but I just swelled up!
I was wearing two sizes bigger than what I normally wear in shoes and it wasn’t even regular shoes, it was the one pair of shoes I luckily found in target- the adjustable velcro Jesus sandals, it was horrific but I could care less how I looked at 8 months pregnant, I was ready to pop anytime soon. This is what I mean by the due date seems so close but super far away. I was doing induction exercises alone and with my husband hahaha because I couldn’t hang on anymore, I really wanted to have this baby already.
On the week of what would be my last few days before delivery, I started to have mini contractions and I felt that Sunday was Layla’s birthday. I was working that weekend and actually asked to work from home on Sunday. I started my shift fairly normal, but before I knew it, I was experiencing pain and called my husband and mom and said I need to go to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, the triage department, they were like well you’re about 1 cm dilated but not ready to go just yet, but we’re keeping you here because your blood pressure is way too high. I was 150 over 90 something. That’s gestational hypertension for you. You could be having high blood pressure and have no symptoms whatsoever to indicate you’re experiencing it.
I ended up staying for four hours, being monitored. Anyway, I was finally discharged but almost close to being induced but it was Memorial Day weekend, my doctor was not on call and I said I'll wait till my next appointment which was that same Tuesday. I went home, was monitoring my blood pressure all Monday and finally Tuesday came. My doctor was already notified and she said you’re 2 cm dilated, after this apppointment you need to go straight to the hospital and be induced because your blood pressure is not good and way too high. I asked if I could finish my nails beforehand and she said that’s fine (mom has to look cute). Anyway, I told my husband over the phone and I could barely hear him breathe. I think he didn’t realize it was already September. My husband was leaving work early anyway and went on his way to the house, I finished my nails and went home and fortunately, I had already packed the hospital bags with my things, Layla’s things and my husband’s. We prepared ourselves and headed for the hospital and before he can go in with me, I had to go into triage alone and be admitted. They checked me in and he was able to meet me in my delivery room. We were just hours away from meeting our baby girl.
