Hi everyone!

Once again, I’m so sorry it has been so long since I wrote a post. I have honestly just been taking one day at a time for this entire pregnancy. Anyone reading this who has experienced infertility or loss in previous pregnancies definitely knows what I mean.

Anyway, I thought I should finally write a quick post updating everyone on what is going on now that I’m in the home stretch of my pregnancy. Tomorrow, I will officially be 36 weeks pregnant, which means only one more week until this baby is not considered premature.

Now don’t get me wrong, that is amazing and so exciting and I am is grateful everyday that I am still pregnant. HOWEVER….I still honestly can’t get excited until I’m holding my baby girl. As I’ve mentioned before in other posts, infertility makes you crazy. I honestly feel like “I’ll believe it when I see it” is a bit of the mentality I have toward this baby. That might sound awful, but that’s what happens to your brain when you go through so much craziness to get to this point.

To get back on track, though, let me quickly update you all on the interventions we’ve been doing this pregnancy…first up, those terrible injections:

Makena injections

Since my last post in June when I first started these shots, I can’t believe I’ve been doing them for so long! They still hurt so bad, and I still dread the day of the week when we have to do them. The great news, though, is tomorrow night is my very last one!! In case you don’t remember what I’m talking about, I explain them a ton in my last post. But essentially, these shots are a thick oil that goes into my tricep and helps prevent pre-term labor.

Next update will be a bit longer!

Cerclage

Again, I went into a lot of detail last time about my cerclage (stitch in my cervix) and what it’s purpose is…so feel free to click to my last post if you forgot about it. Anyway, thankfully the cerclage did it’s job very well this pregnancy. Every appointment I had in the second trimester, the doctors checked my cervix. Every time, it looked great! In the third trimester, they stopped checking it directly because as the baby grows, it is very difficult for the doctors to get an accurate measurement and reading of my cervix. Instead, I was told that if I had any spotting or bleeding, it could be a sign if my cervix trying to dilate, and to call the doctors right away if that happened. Again, I am so happy and lucky that never happened. So, about a month or so ago, we scheduled for my cerclage to come out Wednesday, November 6 (tomorrow!), because that is when I’ll be 36 weeks.

Yesterday morning, however, this girl had other plans! Around 7:15am yesterday, I started having some contractions. Now, I didn’t immediately worry, because for the past few weeks I have had a contraction or two when I first get up in the morning. They haven’t been very strong, and they stop pretty quickly. I know this can be totally normal as my body prepares for delivery. But yesterday things got intense pretty quickly. The contractions didn’t stop, and in fact they got so strong I got very light-headed and was in a full body sweat! I seriously couldn’t get up off of the couch because I was in so much pain. So, after getting ahold of my doctor, I waited just long enough that I could stand up to take a quick shower, and actually get to the car, and my husband and I headed to the hospital. Now, on the way there, I did have a few contractions, but at this point they had slowed down so much I almost felt silly for still going. I wasn’t bleeding, so I figured I hadn’t dilated, but just because of my history, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway, when we got to the hospital, my doctor decided to go ahead and take the cerclage out to be safe. Although I later found out that I indeed had not dilated at all, he didn’t want my body to try to dilate with that stitch still in. Now, at my last appointment, I asked about the removal of the stitch, because I knew it was just done in the doctors office. It is considered to be a quick and minor thing to remove. (TMI warning)…but they told me the worst part of the whole thing would be being “clamped open” with the speculum. Well, in true form of myself, that was not the worst part! My doctor had a very difficult time seeing the “loop” he needed to get to that he had to cut to get the stitch out. He explained that if he cut in the wrong spot and it didn’t get removed correctly, my cervix could literally “fillet” open during labor!  Obviously that is disgusting and terrifying, but his struggle to see caused him to create A LOT of discomfort for me! It also took much longer than it should’ve to remove. However, in the end, he got it out correctly and everything looked great! Thank goodness!!

I still have to follow up tomorrow to see how things are looking, but after a crazy day yesterday, today has been very quiet.

So now we are truly in the home stretch. There is one month until my due date, but baby girl could be here any day now! Hopefully the next post I write will be about a very smooth delivery and about my sweet girl! Trying to stay happy and positive for this last bit…and we seriously can’t wait to meet our girl 🙂