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Having a baby

Posted by: emilysart on 4/7/2008 at 10:56 PM

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About a year after getting married I found out I was pregnant. It was so excited because I felt that motherhood is my primary role as a woman.

As I went to schedule my first OB appointment, I was surprised to hear hesitation in the nurse's voice about the doctors decision to take me on as a patient. She said "The Doctor has thought it over and decided that he will take you on as a patient. We lived in a small town and to find a perinatologist who had experience delivering a baby from a paraplegic required a four hour drive. A small part of me thought "What have I done? I went and got myself pregnant and there is no one here who knows knows how to get this baby out!"

The question everyone had for me was "Well, can you push?" My answer was "I don't know. I don't think so." My pregnancy was uneventful and quite pleasant. Other than the fact that the doctor thought I had an extreme bladder infection every time I had my monthly urine test. So he would put me on high dosage antibiotics to try to get it to go away. And it would for a week, then come back. I never had symptoms but with an indwelling catheter I always have a bladder infection. Week 37 came and I had an amniocentesis which showed that the baby's lungs were developed and I could be induced. I was put on pitocin and 10 hours later it was time to push. So I did. And I pushed and pushed and pushed. For 3 hours. I didn't know if I was even doing anything, but the doctor said it was progressing slowly each time. The baby came out bright and beautiful, with the help of forceps, and no problems for either of us.

My second pregnancy was also very uneventful. This time I had a perinatologist who I met with all the time. Just for him to tell me that everything look great and it was a completely normal pregnancy. He wasn't worried about the bladder infection evidence as long as I didn't have symptoms. I had to meet with the urologist monthly because he has to change out my indwelling catheters. As a precaution, I had weekly ultrasounds and monitoring the baby's vitals. I was induced at 38 weeks with a foam vaginal insert rather than the pitocin IV and it made the contractions slower to start but faster at the actual delivery time. This form of induction, and my OB's skills with the forceps, made it so I only had to push for 10 minutes. And we had another successful delivery.

The good news was I didn't really feel a thing. Contractions felt like pressure and pulling of the skin. After it all, I felt great and my recovery was fast. The bad news was a couple months later, I had to have surgery on my bladder because of the serious misshaping that took place as the baby was sitting on it for a month.Having a baby was great.

A woman’s body is meant to deliver a baby and being paralyzed doesn't change that.

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Becky wrote on Apr 8, 2008 at 1:08 AM
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Congratulations on the babies! I went to your "About Me" section, to see the sex of your kids, but I couldn't find anything. Please write another blog with more information on the kids!

I also found out you are from Okemos. I am from the UP, but I lived in Haslett for five years in the 80's when my husband went to school there. We lived right by Lake Lansing on Marsh Road! What a small world, eh? My husband has an aunt and uncle who live in Okemos on Osage Drive too!

Take care!

Becky
Pregnant Celebrities » Having a baby wrote on Apr 8, 2008 at 9:40 AM
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Pingback from Pregnant Celebrities » Having a baby
Whitney wrote on Jun 30, 2008 at 7:13 PM
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I'm so glad you had two uneventful pregnancies!! Babies are great. I have a question for you though. Why did they feel it necessary to induce you early both times? Was there a medical reason?

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Having a baby

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