Lots of Doctor's Appointments

In the past week, we have had lots of appointments to ask questions and do our best to make a decision about how Madelyn will be born.
Because of my medical history with my back and the surgeries I have had in the past 4-5 years, we felt like it would be a good idea to go see Dr. Idiculla. She was the head doctor in charge of my rehabilitation and I go to see her on a yearly basis. Tyler and I both had many questions about how labor and delivery would affect my back and the rods and screws that are in place. We also have many concerns about how an epidural would work too because my spine is fused in the place that most epidurals are done.
Of course, I got online to start finding information and I found only scary things that had no good news. Tyler threatened to block Google if I didn't stop reading online until we knew more from talking to my doctors.
On Monday, I went to see Dr. Idiculla at Heartland in St. Joe. Tyler wasn't able to go with me, but my mom went along to ask questions and to help me remember everything that was said. Surprisingly, the doctor wasn't concerned at all with my back. She was more concerned with the nerve damage that had occured before and how a large baby or prolonged labor could damage all of the progress I had made. A very long story short, she recommended that I have the baby via C-section and more likely than not with general anesthesia, rather than an epidural.
We had a regular scheduled OB appointment on Thursday. Tyler and I were both there and went over all of our concerns about my history and shared the information that Dr. Idiculla gave to us. Dr. Driskell, our OB doctor, gave us her opinion and told us the risks of both options. I left that appointment feeling very overwhelmed and stressed because there is so much unknown and we have lots of decisions to make. I was at a place that I didn't feel we even had a good option to choose. Tyler, on the other hand, left the appointment feeling very good and he had a strong feeling that a C-section will be the best option for both Me and Madelyn.
We still have a consultation appointment with the Anestheisa department at St. Lukes on the 28th. At that appointment, we will be able to go over my medical history and learn what our options are for pain management. There are a couple of possibilites for using an epidural or spinal block. I'm just not sure where the doctors stand on their willingness to even try it or how the scar tissue that I have in my back will affect the effectiveness of the procedure. If an epidural isn't an option or does not take, and I have an C-section, the only option is General Anesthesia - where I will be put completely out and Tyler won't be allowed in the room. It's not ideal and hopefully it isn't the option that we will have to take, but we have to make sure we make the best decision for both mom and baby.
We won't have to make a decision until the first week of January, so we're doing our best to get all of the information in the mean time and we will talk with the doctors again to make a decision. Either way, we don't have much time until Madelyn is here and we won't have to worry about all of this anymore.

Checking Off The To Do List

This weekend we made a list of all of the things around the house that we need to be done before Madelyn arrives.
My (Bre) family came down to help us with our list and after a long day yesterday, I really feel like we are ready. The car seat bases are in the car, the stroller is put together, the nursery is ready and clothes are put away. Bottles are washed and have a place in the kitchen cabinets. The pack and play is set up in the basement with diaper changing supplies ready to go. The garage is completely organized and cleaned out so that we have plenty of space for getting in and out of the car.
The only other thing that still needs to be done is to pack the hopsital bags, but we have it started and plan to get it finished this week.
We still have 48 days until our due date, but having all of those major things done just makes me feel so much better. If Madelyn decided to come early, everything is ready and we would be prepared to bring her home with everything in it's perfect place.
That also means that after Christmas, we will have plenty of time to do all of the nesting things. I have a linen closet that I'd love to re-organize and all kinds of cabinets that could use some sprucing up! It also means that if I'm just too tired, that the major things are done and I can take time to relax and enjoy what time we have left before our daughter arrives.

Baby Showers

We have been so lucky to have friends and family that have offered to host a Baby Shower for us. We recently had one with Bre's friends and family and another with Tyler's friends and family. Let's just say that Madelyn is a LUCKY girl. She has already gotten so many wonderful gifts has a closet FULL of cute clothes!
It was so much fun to spend time with our friends and family at each shower. Here's are a few pictures of one of the showers. I will add others as I get them.

Mom & Dad on Baby Shower Day

And She Has a NAME!!!

(This post was supposed to be published about a month ago, but I'm still not an efficient blogger and it's just now getting posted...)
After months and months of thinking, we finally decided that our baby girl's name will be Madelyn Elise Sidwell. It took us a very long time to finally know that that was the perfect name for her, but we love it and it's going to fit her perfectly.
We both really liked Madelyn when we were brainstorming girl names and it's the one name that has stuck with us the entire time. Her middle name, Elise, is my (Bre's) sister's middle name. It was important to both us of to have part of her name with a family meaning.
The one hesitation that we had was the fact that a nickname of "Maddy" could happen. When I picture my daughter in my head, I don't see a Maddy. I see a Madelyn. If someday she decideds that she wants to be called Maddy, then so be it. But until that day happens, her name is Madelyn and we love it!
We have agreed on a boy's name a few years ago and we wanted our girl's name to fit with it if our next child is a boy. Madelyn Elise fit that perfectly and we're happy to finally know that our daughter has a name and we don't have to call her "the baby" any more.

Baby Shower

Last week my co-workers at Americo threw me a Baby Shower. It was really nice, they brought in food and decorated the aisle we work on with everything pink and ordered a delicious cake.

We got lots of wonderful gifts for our little girl and I've been working this week to find the perfect place in her room for each gift. She has gotten some of the cutest clothes and I can't wait to dress her in each outfit as she grows. She's going to be one well dressed woman!

Here are a couple of my favorite things we got that day. Could it be because they're sparkly and pink?!?

We are so lucky to have co-workers, friends and family who have given us such great gifts for our little girl!

3D Sonogram

Last Saturday we went for a 3D Sonogram. Even before we got pregnant, we had decided that we didn't want to have a 3D scan, but I had a change of heart and decided that I REALLY wanted to have it done. After looking up prices and information, I talked Tyler into agreeing to have it done. He thought it was kind of silly, but he said we could do it, so I called to get it scheduled.
Both of our moms and my sister came down to go to the appointment with us. It was at a house that the owners have turned into a Maternity dream. There is a little baby boutique with the cutest clothes, a second hand maternity clothing store, a maternity spa and the room for the 3D Ultrasounds. It was a great place to go because it was so cozy and we were welcome to bring our families with us.
We hadn't had an ultrasound since week 20 when we found out that Baby Sidwell is a girl, so we were excited to see her and even more excited to see her sweet little face in 3D!
The experience was so neat! She was kicking and Tyler had put his hand on my stomach and was poking her back after each kick. We could see her smile on the screen when he would poke back, which was about the neatest thing yet! Of course, both Grandmas were shrieking with happiness to see her face and each time they would make noise, our baby would smile and react.
The scan was about 30 minutes and it was the greatest time to interact with her and to see her face. They reconfirmed that she's a girl (which was something in the back of my mind that has been a worry. Everything we have is pink and I keep hearing stories about how a baby is born opposite of the gender that the parents were told).
We have a DVD with the scan that we can watch again and again and a CD with 70 images of her that we were able to print off. I've got a framed picture of her smiling on my desk at work and it's just so sweet to look at and imagine how much cuter she will be in person in just a couple more months.

Baby Class

For the past two Monday evenings, we have gone to the hospital for a few hours for our "Childbirth Prep Class." I like to call it Baby Class, but the name doesn't matter. So far, so good. It's a little hard to come straight home from work and head there until 9, but we only have one more session and we'll be done.
The first class was a little boring. There was lots of lecture and videos about the stages of labor and how the whole process works. The second part of the class was about massage and ways that Tyler can help me through labor by using massage. That was the best part of the night for me! I got to be the recipient of several different types of massage while Tyler practiced the techniques, which was WONDERFUL!
Our second class, we learned about the different labor positions and got to walk through the labor stations while I practiced my breathing and Tyler helped with massage. It was actually pretty fun. Even though it was a quiet time with theraputic harp music playing, Tyler and I were the only couple that was laughing during a few stations. It was just funny to look at ourselves and we couldn't stay serious... oh well!
The last part of the class was about the interventions of labor. We started our list of many questions for when we have our consultation with Anesthesia. Because of my history with back injury and surgeries, we have MANY MANY questions about having an epidural and what our options and risks are. We will meet with the doctors for that in late December and we'll know more about what our plan will be once we have a chance to meet with them.
So, we've got one more class. The teacher told us that we'll talk about C-Sections and then take a tour of the Maternity Ward. I'm really looking forward to getting to see the unit and more of the hospital. We've only got 10 weeks left until our sweet baby girl is here!

It's Baby Season!

Lately, it seems like it's Baby Season for all of our friends and many of our co-workers. We found out a few weeks ago that another couple in our friends circle is expecting a baby and are due in April! At Bre's workplace, there are 8 babies who will be born between February and April. Tyler has a few co-workers who are expecting about the same time. In our friends' group, there was a baby girl born in July. We have friends who are expecting a boy just a few days after our daughter is born, Bre's cousin had a baby boy about a month ago AND now there will be another baby born in April.
It's just so exciting that so many people we know are having children around the same time. That means that our daughter will have playmates her age wherever we go! It's exciting to talk to our friends about how our children will play together and graduate the same year and all of the fun things that go along with growing up together!
It's amazing to think how our lives will look in the next year. When we hang out with friends, it will mostly be at someone's house with our kids playing together. So much different than when we used to gather for dinner and go out to a bar for the night. We are excited about how life is changing and how our next adventure will look with our daughter in our lives. And to think we'll have many friends along the same path with us makes it even more exciting!

The Nursery

A few weekends ago some of our family came down to help us work on things for the house and get the nursery painted and furniture built.
I should have taken a before picture, but the room was completely white. It was one of the only ones that we hadn't changed since we moved in. We painted it two soft shades of pink with a cute black and white border in the middle.

We got the room done a little early, but with the holidays coming up, we wanted it done so that we had a place to put her things as we are getting them and that it would be done if she decides to come a little early.

We love how it turned out. It's a room she can grow in and it doesn't scream "baby". (Well expept for the crib and changing table, but you know what I meant). I like to go in there and sit and imagine what it will be like when she's here. Tyler says that I'm like a kid who lays under the Christmas tree and can't wait for the presents... and he's right.

The other day I was doing laundry and couldn't find Ryder (our dog). I went in the nursery and he was under her crib playing with one of his toys. It just made me smile because he's spending time in there too and I hope that once she's here they'll be best friends and they'll play in her room together.

We still have things to add, like a rocker and a book shelf, but it's perfect for now and I can't wait to see it grow as we get more of her things.

Movement

For about the last 2 weeks, I have felt our baby moving. At first I wasn’t sure that it was her because it was just light little flutters. Over the past week or so, she has really started moving and there’s no doubt that it’s her causing the movement.

Tyler got to feel her last week. We had had Mexican for dinner and I had some spicy salsa. I’m not sure if she enjoyed it or hated it, but it REALLY got her moving. Enough that both of us could sit on the couch and Tyler had his hand on my stomach and could feel her movements. Ever since then, I have felt her moving about every day.

It's the strangest thing to be sitting in a meeting and feeling her doing flips or dancing or whatever it is that she's doing in there. It feels like I'm riding on a rollercoaster and no one can tell that anything is happening. It is pretty neat though. I get to feel her all the time and we're already bonding. I just love her so much already.

PINK

From the day we found out that we are having a girl, our house has begun to fill up with all things pink. Buying the little outfits has been fun for all of our family and friends. In fact, I think this girl has more clothes than I do… and I’m not kidding. Many things have been bought ahead for next summer on great clearance and there’s lots that has come from garage sales, so our little girl is already a bargainista!

We decided on nursery bedding and the plan is to find paint and border this weekend so that we can decorate next weekend. We’ve had boxes in our garage for weeks for the crib and changing table. It will be great to see them built and in place so that we can start getting all things baby settled in that room.

It seems like the wait until this point has been so long, but now that we know her gender and I’m getting further along in my pregnancy, things are picking up! We need to decorate the nursery, we have signed up for all of our baby classes and have scheduled our appointments through the end of the pregnancy. When we look at the calendar, it’s filling up fast. And we can’t forget that we have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years’ during the 3^rd Trimester… we are going to be busy! That is wonderful though because time will just tick away and before we know it, we’ll get to meet our sweet baby and we can’t wait!!

The Past 11 Weeks

So maybe I’m not near as good at this blogging thing as I had imagined. Maybe, too, it’s the fact that many of the last weeks haven’t been very “news-worthy.” Don’t get me wrong, many things are changing during this pregnancy, but everything has been going right along schedule and we haven’t had any issues, so it’s been smooth sailing.

We found out on September 23^rd that we are having a GIRL! That appointment was our second attempt to find out if our little one was going to be a boy or a girl. She is breech and reverse, so seeing the important parts for the scan was a bit difficult. At our second appointment, the nurse wasn’t even sure if we would find out, but luckily she cooperated and showed us just what we wanted to see. In fact, the technician said it was one of the most clear pictures she has ever seen, so that was great to hear!

As we were watching the screen, I saw the picture pop up and instantly knew what it meant. The tech started typing, “It’s a…” and I looked at Tyler to ask him if he knew. I told him it was a girl and the tech looked at me and said I was right. Tears just started streaming down my face because I was so happy to finally know what our baby will be. I think in that instant millions of thoughts ran through my mind of what our future family would look like and the things that we would get to do. I could “see” the bows and the tutus and all of the girly things. I could picture having a little girl whose parents loved her more than the world and I instantly fell in love. Tyler looked over at me and smiled and just held my hand while I cried for the rest of the appointment. It was real. We are having a daughter. This little person growing inside of me just revealed more about herself and it made us so excited that we just couldn’t stop talking about her.

I, honest to God, think the situation would have been just the same had they said it was a boy. Just knowing what our little baby will be gave us so much happiness and we were able to bond with our child and envision the future. We are both completely excited and happy that our first child will be a little girl.

Week 12 Begins

How your baby's growing:

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.
Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about theh size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

How your life's changing:

Your uterus has grown to the point where your healthcare provider can now feel the top of it (the fundus) low in your abdomen, just above your pubic bone. You may already be into maternity clothes, especially if this isn't your first pregnancy. If you're still fairly small and not yet ready for maternity clothes, you've no doubt noticed that your waist is thickening and that you're more comfortable in loose, less restrictive clothing.
You may begin to feel heartburn (also called acid indigestion), a burning sensation that often extends from the bottom of your breastbone to your lower throat. Many women get heartburn for the first time during pregnancy, and those who've previously had bouts of heartburn may find that it gets worse. During pregnancy, the placenta produces a lot of the hormone progesterone, which relaxes the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach. Particularly when you're lying down, gastric acid can seep back up the pipe, which causes the uncomfortable burning sensation. For many women the problem doesn't begin (or get worse) until later in pregnancy, when your growing uterus starts to push up on your stomach. The discomfort may range from mildly annoying to intense and distracting.

Week 10 Ultrasound

Tyler wasn't able to get off of work for our last appointment, but my mom was MORE than willing to go with me. It was just our normal monthly appointment and an early one hour glucose tolerance test. Luckily I passed the glucose test, but let's just say that I won't be drinking anything orange flavored for a long time. Ick!
The Dr wasn't able to find the baby's heartbeat using a Fetal Doppler during the check up, so she sent us to ultrasound just to make sure things were ok. While it was a little alarming that she didn't find it, I wasn't too worried and my mom was excstatic that she would get to see the baby via ultrasound. We got in to the ultrasound room and it was amazing to see how much the baby has changed in the last 4 weeks. It actually looked like a baby! Our first ultrasound was just a little blob with a hearbeat, so to actually be able to see the form of a baby was very exciting!

Nausea Sucks

Let me start this post off with a thankful heart. I’m not puking 24/7 like many other women have done when they are pregnant. In fact, I’ve only puked once (knock on wood!). I know that I’m very lucky for that, but I have some incredible nausea lately and it’s making me miserable. My biggest enemy of the day is my tooth brush. I’ve quickly learned how to brush my teeth just right and avoid gagging that leads to the dry heaving. Ick. It’s just awful. And once my day starts with all that, my stomach just won’t settle down.

Even on good days where I get through brushing my teeth with no trauma, I haven’t been able to enjoy food. Nothing, I repeat: Nothing sounds good. I used to bring left overs for lunch or keep a hot pocket or frozen meal here for lunch. Not anymore. I never know what will sound good, if anything does, and I’ve ended up with some interesting lunches.

I’m in this weird situation where I need to eat to stay healthy, but nothing on earth even sounds appealing. And God Bless Tyler. He has always helped out around the house, but lately he’s been extra helpful lately. Like last week when he called to tell me that he layed out some ground beef and chicken breasts to thaw so that we’d have something for dinner for the next couple of nights. At that moment, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the thought of cooking either of those made me want to puke, so I told him Thanks and appreciated his thoughtfulness. I have hardly cooked lately. Nothing sounds good and I just am too tired to give cooking dinner a decent shot.  We did eat at home last night, which was nice and didn’t make me sick, so that was a success!

We went to CVS last night and I got these things called Sea Bands. They’re basically wrist bands with a small plastic ball type thing sewn into them that you wear on your wrists. The plastic part sits on a pressure point and it helps reduce nausea due to motion sickness and morning sickness. It’s an acupuncture-ish wonder and so far they’re helping me. It’s not all gone away, but it’s reduced the nausea and in my book that’s a win!

The Waiting Game...

Keeping this pregnancy a secret is about the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Especially after seeing the ultrasound, I just wanted to tell everyone how happy I was. There’s so many things that can happen at the beginning of a pregnancy and we had planned on waiting until our birthday week (mid July) to tell the world that we’re having a baby. Wellllll that plan didn’t quite work out. We just couldn’t hardly wait to tell everyone and we decided that we would share the news on Father’s day weekend.

Our friends Eric & Dana got married on Saturday and many of our friends were together for the entire weekend. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the weekend without getting questioned for not drinking. Friday night we had everyone over to my mom’s house to hang out after the rehearsal and we ended up telling everyone there that we were expecting. We told a few people at church on Sunday morning and from there went on to visit my grandparents in Wathena and Tyler’s grandma in Savannah to share the news. After that we put it on Facebook and sent out lots of text messages.

It’s so fun to share our news with the world and have everyone we know share in the excitement and anticipation of our little one!

Our First Appointment

About a week after we found out we were pregnant, we went to our first appointment. We decided to go with Saint Luke’s Northland because it’s close to our house and Tyler’s work. The people in that office are wonderful and we’ve had great experiences so far.

We met with the doctor and went over a billion questions to make sure they had all of the information correct. Then I had an exam, they drew some blood and we were off.

A few days later, we got to come back for our first sonogram. We had hoped to see the baby at the first appointment, but that didn’t happen, so we were really excited to see our baby for the first time. The only way to explain that experience was AWESOME. We saw little baby’s heart beat flickering on the screen and when I held my breath you could see the little blog moving around. Then the nurse turned on the speakers and we got to hear the heartbeat. It was beating 123 beats per minute and that was probably one of the coolest sounds I have ever heard. Up until that point I knew I was pregnant, but it didn’t really feel real. Once we got to see our little person and hear their heart beating, it became very real and we were so happy! They gave us an estimated due date of February 4, 2012.

We went to lunch after that appointment and couldn’t stop talking about it. The heartbeat and seeing the baby was just too cool! They sent us both home with pictures of the sonogram, but all baby looks like right now is a little blob on the screen. Our next ultrasound will be in September sometime to see if Little Sidwell is a boy or a girl!

We're PREGNANT!

After 5 months of “trying,” we are happy to announce that we’re expecting! Little Sidwell will be here around February 4^th and we’re so excited!!

We had just gotten back from vacation and I was feeling very tired and worn down. I came home from work and would sleep most of the evening for the first week back. I kept telling Tyler that I thought I was pregnant and even tested a few times that week, but all were negative. The weekend came and we went out with some friends in Lawrence and had a great time and stayed out until 4 a.m. The next morning, I was feeling funny again and decided to take another test. Less than a minute later… POSITIVE! I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to show Tyler, who was getting ready to go to work, that I pulled open the shower curtain and showed him. He hurried through the rest of his shower and we spent the morning talking about how we couldn’t believe it was finally positive.

The next day was conveniently a BBQ we had planned for our friends and family to celebrate Memorial Day. We originally decided that we wouldn’t tell our moms yet, but after thinking about upcoming doctor’s visits, etc, we wanted to be able to talk with them about everything and decided to tell them when they came for the BBQ. Tyler’s mom got to our house first. She didn’t even get in the door before Tyler told her we were pregnant. My mom, Ted and sister came in next. When I told them, they were screaming and jumping up and down with excitement. We did all the baby talk we could before all of our friends arrived and it became a secret again.

Just to be sure, I bought a digital test and tested again at the end of the weekend. Just as we had expected, it read positive also. I called the doctor’s office to get appointments started and we began our journey for the next 8ish months.