Parker's Pregnancy

So I did Parker's birth story last year for his 3rd birthday and it made me think about my pregnancy with Parker. I was not keeping a journal at the time and hadn't started the blog yet- so here's a post that is mostly for me. Read it if you like but I can't promise it will be interesting.

After Jason and I had been married a little less than a year, we decided to start trying to get pregnant. Jason had a job lined up for after graduation, and we were about to buy a house- so why wait? Plus I was convinced that it would take months to get pregnant so we might as well get started. Ummmm job and house yes, taking months...no.

I actually had an irregular cycle and got pregnant IMMEDIATELY. I mean within days of when we started trying.

Of course I didn't know that right away. But just a short time later I came home from work on a Monday and I just went to bed. I didn't eat dinner, I didn't even talk to Jason. I dropped my shoes and purse in the middle of the floor and fell asleep on top of the bed. I was too tired to take off my uncomfortable work clothes or even get under the blanket. I just went to sleep. I woke up to my alarm and went to work feeling exhausted all day. A somewhat similar pattern continued all week.
I was pretty sure that I was pregnant- but I hadn't taken a test (it was way too soon for when I 'should' have been able to) So, on my lunch break, I walked over to the Walgreens in the parking lot of where I worked.

My walk over there confirmed my suspicions. See, I never had a very good sense of smell. At the bank everyone would talk about the way that money would smell when it came in from Subway, or Einstein Bagels or Cold Stone of something. I never noticed the smell. But on my way to Walgreens I walked past a nail salon and a Subway. Both smells overwhelmed me as I was just passing their front door. I knew that if I could now smell the Subway smell- then I must be pregnant.

I still wanted to take a test, because- you know, that makes it real. So I bought a test, took it home and planned to take the test, tell Jason and then when the 3 minutes were up we would go look. Well- that didn't work. It showed up with a positive sign before I could even set it down.
So I told Jason- and there was much rejoicing. We had a due date of January 6th.

Anyway- I continued to be tired for the next few weeks (just not quite as bad) and I got morning sickness. I threw up a few times a week (from 5 weeks to 18 weeks) but I felt nauseous all day and I got super motion sick all the time. I wore motion sickness wrist bands and that helped, a little. But mostly I just had to wait it out.

At each appointment they would measure my fundal height. I was way too big. At 13 weeks I was measuring where I should have been at 19 weeks. We would find out why later. Otherwise things were going well.

Me and my baby belly at 17 weeks

We had the ultrasound in Early August.- I told you, we got pregnant fast... and I was able to take my pregnancy test really really early. And My fundal height continued to measure off the charts. Well, when we had our ultrasound we found out that Parker was way too big. He was measuring 15 days older than we thought.

They moved his due date up by two weeks- December 22nd.



The Gun Show



Parker made it easy on us... it was very clear that it was a boy. We had already picked out the name Parker James if it was a boy- so we were all set for December.

They realized that my fundal height would be off by two weeks because of the due date change, but that still left me measuring about 4 weeks too large. The ultrasound helped show the other reason. I had too much amniotic fluid. You know how they say you need to have a full baldder for your ultrasound? well- they made me go to the bathroom in the middle of the ultrasound TWICE- because with a full bladder and excess fluid it was actually too hard to see anything with the ultrasound.

What's the deal with ecxessive amniotic fluid? This is not a dangerous condition in pregnancy- it just meant that my belly was going to get very big, and Parker would have plently of room to swim around :)

Well life went on and we got closer to the due date.


32 weeks at Disneyland



Why was I at Disneyland when I was in my third trimester? Don't ask me - it wasn't my idea. The whole Tieman family went. I hoped they're not offended when I say it was not as much fun as a trip to Disney ought to be. We had some fun, but I couldn't go on most of the rides. My feet were disgustingly swollen by the end. I constantly had to pee which meant lots of trips into public restrooms- yuck. 32 weeks is not a good time to spend several days just walking around- especially with a super impatient husband who wants to practically run from ride to ride instead of going at a slow pregnant waddle pace.

A couple of weeks later, I was a fat pregnant bridesmaid at my little sister's wedding.

Then, I quit work and sat on my butt for a few weeks waiting for Parker to show up.

On my due date- December 22nd.

See, my belly really did get big. Most women's stomachs will measure between 38 and 40 cm when they are 40 weeks pregnant. I was 49. It was awesome. EVERYONE would come up to me and ask if I was having twins- quite a while before my due date even. That's what excessive amniotic fluid will do for you!

I was also pregnant at Christmas.

But finally the big day came, on December 28th, and we had our precious Parker to bring home.

So that's How Parker joined our family--For the birth story go here.