Some people really enjoy being pregnant. I am not one of those people. Every single day I was amazed by my body's ability to grow a human, but also felt incredibly unlike myself. I also had some transportation issues since I had trouble with planes, trains, automobiles, (and buses) making me feel absolutely awful. My job unfortunately involved a lot of site visits and meetings in the first few months before I announced my pregnancy, so there were a lot of pep talks to myself that went something like "you just have to not throw up and sound passably knowledgeable during this train ride, three meetings, and client lunch and then you can go home and eat watermelon in your pajamas." Apart from me feeling icky, I had no pregnancy complications whatsoever up until the very end. So as a worrier, I had it really quite good.
Fast forward to thirty-six weeks and six days when I had my regular appointment on a Friday afternoon with my midwife and got sent to the hospital for some blood pressure monitoring due to some minor maybe-could-be-something symptoms. We stopped for donuts on the way and I even told a stranger in the waiting room that I still had a month to go. A few episodes of SVU later, I officially had severe preeclampsia and my hospital team had decided that it was baby time. Fourteen hours and many buckets of ice chips later I was holding our perfect, tiny Madeline. I had a really awful first night with a hemorrhage and more blood pressure problems, but my veins got their act together so we could both be discharged on schedule. It was very much not the birth I had planned for, but two months later I have finally come to terms with it, and am so thankful for the midwives, doctors, and nurses that were part of it. And really, how amazing is it that my husband and I now have this adorable human that's a combination of the two of us? There are not enough heart-eyes emojis to express how much I love this little family of mine.
So, let's rewind to last August for a giant photo recap!
five weeks: big shoe decisions for a cocktail party we hosted the day after I found out I was pregnant.
fourteen weeks: and very happily vacationing in hawaii
fourteen weeks: still in hawaii and wearing rompers as much as possible.
eighteen weeks: at home in michigan for a wedding and getting poked by Jake.
twenty-nine weeks: and a serious bump
thirty-one weeks: serious excitement about a new non-maternity shirt
thirty-three weeks: and going bowling. I lasted one game since it really is quite difficult to bowl whilst super-pregnant.
thirty-four weeks: at our baby shower in Michigan.
thirty-six weeks +six days: Jake showing the appropriate level of concern for the situation and me pretending that the incessant beeping of my monitors was totally normal.
one day old: our little Madeline May
two days old: my recovery compression boots. fun fact: I temporarily lost all feeling in my left knee cap...which is really a very, very strange feeling.
three days old: Jake and Madeline getting ready to go home.
four days old: burrito'd at home.
five days old: family portrait.
seven weeks old: Maddie looks unamused, but I am officially declared recovered.
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