On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
[Pregnancy Diary] Week 29-30 Food Adventures, L&D, Baby Shower, Last Birthing Class, Nursery Prepping, 7th Prenatal Appt
Week 29 began with an NST. Everything was normal and it felt like we finished everything within 20 minutes or so. In addition to 2 NSTs and 1 ultrasound every week, I now give two urine samples every week to track for protein & glucose levels in my urine. Since I already go to the hospital at least twice a week, I just give my samples during those days.
On the Saturday before Mother's Day, we went to a farmer's market and attempted to try a food truck. W and I had an argument on the way over. I honestly don't remember what it was about, but I remember we ended up not buying anything from the market and just went home empty-handed.
A few hours later, we went to King Kong Korean BBQ for an early mother's day celebration dinner. I ate so much that night! We opted for their all-you-can-eat grill and this post documents that night's dinner!
On actual Mother's Day, W spent...about 3? or 4? HOURS on building this dresser! To be fair, he did take a couple of mini-breaks, and he was doing it all by himself, with occasional wet noses roaming around him. Even though this dresser was a pain in the butt for him to build (also a pain in the butt to get - it took us 4 IKEA trips and about 5 customer services calls with IKEA), I really just love the simplicity of the design and the overall aesthetics of it.
The pom-poms on the carpet in the above picture are from the gender reveal bbq. I decided to keep them and use them as decorations for the nursery. Also, it was during Mother's Day that I realized HOW MUCH gifts we have received from friends for this baby!!
On May 13 (week 30), I got sent to Labor & Delivery (L&D). The day started out a bit stressful because, at 8am, Duke got dropped off at a pet hospital for a dental cleaning & a biopsy for a lump we found on his chest. The doctors we spoke with prior to doing the biopsy have been conservative about what a lump that size and location could mean. They even told us the next steps in case the lab results come back positive for cancer. Needless to say, I was nervous and worried for him. I had an NST appointment that same day, at 10:15am. I went in and baby's heart rate was doing great. My blood pressure was great. There were no contractions. However, I just felt off and I had chest pain. I kind of knew it was just my nerves because I was worried about all of the what-ifs for Duke. The nurse that took care of me got worried because when I pointed to her where the chest pain was, she said that's really close to my livers and ribs and wanted to check-in with the on-call ob before letting me go. She came back with instructions from the ob saying they "want to send me to L&D and monitor for a few hours." At that point, I became worried too. I was only worried for Duke before that point, and started to feel unease for baby when I heard they wanted to monitor me in L&D...because...well...L&D could mean early delivery! Everything turned out fine. Whew! The nurse walked me to L&D and I got admitted to an L&D room. More urine sample was collected and I got hooked up to several machines. At one point, I met 3 more people with one of them being the on-call ob. My ob wasn't there at the time. The on-call ob checked in on me several times and then told me everything was looking good with the baby, but they were concerned about my livers and wanted to run some tests to make sure my livers were ok. I lied on the bed there for 3 hours while waiting for the lab results. The on-call ob then discussed my lab results and symptoms with another ob and they thought my livers were ok. She prescribed some pepcid for my acid reflux and I got discharged around 3pm. We got home just before 3:30, then we got a call from the pet hospital saying Duke had just woken up and so off we left the house again to pick him up.
The next day, Sunday, we wrote our thank you cards to our guests and those that sent us gifts.
Duke was not acting like himself that day. Aside from the biopsy, he also lost 1 tooth. Apparently it "just fell off" during cleaning. Beibei & Lulu had the same cleaning procedure the day before, and they also showed the same look of "daze" when they first got home. We thought it'd go away in a few hours with Duke. It didn't.
The next morning, the day of our baby shower, Duke was still looking not like himself. He seemed extra tired, very unmotivated to move around, and had no appetite for anything. He also started puking. He puked in bed, on the carpet, on the floor, and he wasn't even willing to drink water. I seriously considered canceling the baby shower. Granted, it's virtual, but my mind was just not there while we were waiting to see any sign of improvements. Also, one of the hostesses was also not feeling well and was actually in urgent care. A few hours before the baby shower, we called the pet hospital and described the situation over the phone. A doctor called back just an hour before the shower and prescribed some meds for Duke. The meds weren't going to be ready until after 3pm that day. Our shower was from 2-4pm. So we decided to keep the shower, but let the guests know that we'd like to end early and W picked up Duke's meds after the shower.
Half an hour before the shower, in our attempt to encourage Duke to move a little (so he could do potty and maybe have some appetite for food and water), we took him out for a short walk. The weather was nice and it was actually a bit warm outside. As soon as we started walking, Duke seemed to get back to himself again! He walked like his usual self and sniffed around the grass and did his business. It was then I felt some relief.
When we got back to our home, we saw a pile of boxes just outside of our door.....they all came just in time for the baby shower. They were gifts from our guests!
This Sunday was also our last day with the online birthing class. This last class focused on postpartum mood changes and a general timeline for feeding during the first year of baby's life. I have to say....this last class gave me the impression of "breastfeeding is best, try it first before going with formula." The instructor spent almost an hour talking about the benefits of breastfeeding, the natural bonding of it, and had us watch videos on how to overcome some of the most common latching issues. She didn't spend more than 3 minutes on formula. There were tables on the feeding schedule with breastfeeding but none with formula feeding. Before this class, I personally have already decided that I will try breastfeeding and hope it'll be successful, if not, I'm fine with topping off or completely switching over with formula, but that's just me. To me, my ideal situation would be to breastfeed + pump (so W can feed our baby when I take a nap). I'm aware many people don't even have the choice to breastfeed because of supply issues, for their mental health, or because they have to be on medications and breastfeeding would cause more harm than good to the baby. I believe fed is best. It's not hard to think about how detrimental it can get for moms who choose not to breastfeed, for various reasons, yet hear or see "hints" everywhere that "breastmilk is best." I see these "hints" on mom forums (e.g., WhatToExpect) often and can see it causing harm to new moms' mental health. It's like someone constantly reminding someone else "you should try A first because A is best, if A really doesn't work, then consider B, but make sure you try A first. Oh and don't only try A for a few days, try A for a few weeks/months first before trying B." Anyway, I was disappointed to see almost nothing being discussed on formula feeding during this last class. It looks like I'll have to seek other resources to prepare ourselves if we end up having to top off or switch to formula completely.
During week 30, W assembled the bassinet! I can't get over how cute it is! It's the cutest purchase I've made for baby thus far!
Another restaurant we tried, also Korean, during this period was Gangnam. What can I say, I love meat! I love Korean grilling! We went for lunch after an NST appointment and hmmmmm we think the meat quality here is better than King Kong.
Two days after we had Gangnam, came our next prenatal check-up. This 7th prenatal appointment went by fast, per usual. My doctor measured my belly, checked fetal heart rate, and told me all looked good. She mentioned normally she'd get a little concerned about low weight gain during this time of the pregnancy (I think she's referring to the third trimester). My chart showed my weight gain has been consistently below/borderline the recommended weight gain range. However, according to the last growth scan I had (during the second trimester), baby's been gaining weight so she's not concerned. She ordered another growth scan. We talked about my birth plan and she took a look at the birth plan form that I had filled out. She said everything that I've requested is pretty standard so she saw no problem in what I hope to have during & after delivery. During this appointment, I also received my breast pump! I really wanted Spectre but I got Medela instead. I didn't have a choice to pick. It's just what the insurance & the hospital covered. It's ok. We'll see how this pump works.
After the prenatal check-up, we went to a Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch. I found the trick to keeping my glucose level in check when dining out is to avoid all grains (rice, noodles, bread), fried food (because of the breadcrumbs, crusts), and desserts (flour). I do allow myself to get a few pieces of fried food but I also keep a tap on the potential carbs there may be, and I round up the numbers just to be on the safe side (it's like I'm constantly calculating carbs in my head whenever I'm eating...). The picture above shows a stark contrast between someone who's eating with a diet vs someone who's eating whatever he pleases.....😂 If that wasn't clear enough, I had the plate on the bottom with boiled eggs and W had the two plates above with sushi rolls and fried food. With a glass of diet coke, 3 plates like the one I had above, my number stayed in the low 100s (100-110).
After that lunch buffet, came the self-induced food coma. A fantastic news we received this week was Duke's biopsy result came back negative for cancer. It's fatty tissue. It's such great news and such great relief! Duke is also back to himself. We think maybe he had a larger than usual dose of anesthesia for his dental cleaning & biopsy. He did gain weight and so it's understandable if the vet had to use a higher dose of anesthesia. Anyway, he's his happy self again. We're just glad everyone is doing well!
💗 CM
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