What I Plan to do Differently!
My last pregnancy was everything short of something out of a horror story. Literally everything that could have gone wrong did. And I'm a control freak and "over" planner so this was not fun for me at all. First I want to give you a back ground story though.
My ex-husband and I tried for about two years to get pregnant with our first child. He has custody of his 3 from a previous marriage so I was already prepared for mommy-hood as I had lots of practice from toddler stage up. I was not prepared for infertility. We had issues even getting pregnant and then when we finally did...I miscarried...multiple times. Our specialist determined I could not sustain a pregnancy due to low progesterone. However, we were finally able to get pregnant with my daughter and all worked out thanks to some decent doctors and modern medical advances.
While pregnant with my daughter, I was coached on what not to eat, what medicines to avoid (which was practically everything but Tylenol), cook my lunch meat to steaming hot (which made no sense because lunch meat was typically something that had been slow cooked for hours to begin with), breast is best (we will touch on that later), pregnancy is beautiful, pregnancy is not a handicap, eat healthy, don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs, workout but not too much...listen to your body, indulge in cravings but only some of the time. It was like a handbook that seemed impossible to remember and clearly I was overwhelmed.
Naturally, as a FTM (first time mom), I wouldn't listen to anything my experienced ex-husband was telling me because the doc said, ".....". You know how it goes. I eventually realized I was in over my head when I developed gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, an incompetent cervix and ended up in L&D at 28 week in preterm labor. What a mess! How could I be so stupid that I screwed it up so bad to the point I ended up with all the scary stuff!?!? Needless to say, I couldn't enjoy pregnancy and the "glow" everyone spoke of was replaced with exhaustion and illness. I was on bed rest from 28 weeks on and I was enormous. I had to go to the doc twice a week to conduct NSTs (non-stress tests) all the way up to D-day. Due to the gestational diabetes I was scheduled to be induced two weeks early. I didn't even make it to that date so my daughter was born slightly premature during a massive snow storm and I went through an array of unfortunate mishaps. Clearly nothing went as planned! I won't take you into the delivery room because that's a completely different horror story. I just want to point out what I intend to do differently this time around in hopes for a happier and healthier pregnancy.
I'm not going to stress over all the horribly toxic foods that pregnant women have been eating for centuries. I'm not going to stress over how much weight I gain. I lost it last time so I know I can do it again. Its not easy but it is possible. I'm going to fully indulge in my cravings because I want to and a little bit of chocolate ice cream never hurt nobody. I'm going to be proud of my stretch marks! (HAHAHAHA at least I will try). I'm going to create a flexible birth plan and when things don't work out well...that was expected. I'm going to try to go all natural and drug free. I don't want to be pushing for 18 thousand hours! I am going to eat healthier because it will make me more comfortable. If I have gas...I'm gonna let er rip! Because no one should be forced to hold it in. I'm not going to stress over breast feeding. If it works it works. If not, there is nothing wrong with formula. Last but not least....I'm going to enjoy this pregnancy!
This baby is a blessing and so is this pregnancy and I will treat it all as such! ;-)
My ex-husband and I tried for about two years to get pregnant with our first child. He has custody of his 3 from a previous marriage so I was already prepared for mommy-hood as I had lots of practice from toddler stage up. I was not prepared for infertility. We had issues even getting pregnant and then when we finally did...I miscarried...multiple times. Our specialist determined I could not sustain a pregnancy due to low progesterone. However, we were finally able to get pregnant with my daughter and all worked out thanks to some decent doctors and modern medical advances.
While pregnant with my daughter, I was coached on what not to eat, what medicines to avoid (which was practically everything but Tylenol), cook my lunch meat to steaming hot (which made no sense because lunch meat was typically something that had been slow cooked for hours to begin with), breast is best (we will touch on that later), pregnancy is beautiful, pregnancy is not a handicap, eat healthy, don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs, workout but not too much...listen to your body, indulge in cravings but only some of the time. It was like a handbook that seemed impossible to remember and clearly I was overwhelmed.
Naturally, as a FTM (first time mom), I wouldn't listen to anything my experienced ex-husband was telling me because the doc said, ".....". You know how it goes. I eventually realized I was in over my head when I developed gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, an incompetent cervix and ended up in L&D at 28 week in preterm labor. What a mess! How could I be so stupid that I screwed it up so bad to the point I ended up with all the scary stuff!?!? Needless to say, I couldn't enjoy pregnancy and the "glow" everyone spoke of was replaced with exhaustion and illness. I was on bed rest from 28 weeks on and I was enormous. I had to go to the doc twice a week to conduct NSTs (non-stress tests) all the way up to D-day. Due to the gestational diabetes I was scheduled to be induced two weeks early. I didn't even make it to that date so my daughter was born slightly premature during a massive snow storm and I went through an array of unfortunate mishaps. Clearly nothing went as planned! I won't take you into the delivery room because that's a completely different horror story. I just want to point out what I intend to do differently this time around in hopes for a happier and healthier pregnancy.
I'm not going to stress over all the horribly toxic foods that pregnant women have been eating for centuries. I'm not going to stress over how much weight I gain. I lost it last time so I know I can do it again. Its not easy but it is possible. I'm going to fully indulge in my cravings because I want to and a little bit of chocolate ice cream never hurt nobody. I'm going to be proud of my stretch marks! (HAHAHAHA at least I will try). I'm going to create a flexible birth plan and when things don't work out well...that was expected. I'm going to try to go all natural and drug free. I don't want to be pushing for 18 thousand hours! I am going to eat healthier because it will make me more comfortable. If I have gas...I'm gonna let er rip! Because no one should be forced to hold it in. I'm not going to stress over breast feeding. If it works it works. If not, there is nothing wrong with formula. Last but not least....I'm going to enjoy this pregnancy!
This baby is a blessing and so is this pregnancy and I will treat it all as such! ;-)
Comments
Post a Comment