Happy Friday friends! Here with a maternity leave update.
The quick version of this post:
Just dropping a line to say I'll be back from all things baby soon 🤪. This "fourth trimester" has been a journey to say the least, but we sure do love our little cupcake. Having said that, I can't WAIT to get back to work! Pregnancy was so hard and the newborn stage is no joke so it's basically been a year since I've really sat down to, or rather cooked up, work. In any case, look for new recipes on the regular again starting in April, just in time for the spring!
The long story (trigger warning - pregnancy, labor, birth, preeclampsia, c-section):
As I said above, it's been a journey. First off, as you may have noticed, I was largely absent from the blog starting in May of last year. Up until the third trimester, I had what's considered a "normal" pregnancy. However, I got hit with pretty much every symptom in the book. Along with the standard aches and pains of a growing abdomen and a moving, living human inside my pelvis, I had "morning" sickness that lasted all day AND night. Plus acid reflux. Once they got me on some medication I was able to at least leave the bathroom floor and go from couch to bed to couch.
Then Thanksgiving came around. I noticed one morning before I got out of bed a couple weeks prior that my feet were super swollen. A couple days later, still swollen all day every day. The swelling started to increase up my legs, into my hands, and around my face. It never abated and just continued to get worse. When I went in to see my OB for whatever month check up that was (it was all a blur), she noticed immediately, checked my blood pressure, and had me tested for certain proteins. LO and behold, mild but positive, I had preeclampsia.
Oh joy.
Meanwhile baby cupcake Aella was doing just fine - "Well she seems SUPER happy in there, what a wiggly baby!" Uhuh. If you mean kicking my ribcage and punching my pelvis at the same time, sure. A wiggly baby.
Basically the preeclampsia meant Aella had to come early, so we scheduled an induction for 37 weeks, Friday December 11th 2021. TBH, I was quite pleased because it meant I would FINALLY not be pregnant any longer. However, once the 11th rolled around, my blood pressure hit 161/110, my feet were so swollen and purple they were mottled and wouldn't fit in my shoes, and the rest of me had absolutely ballooned. I was not well.
The induction basically wasn't doing anything, and they had already had me on a magnesium drip for 12 hours to raise my seizure threshold and avoid eclampsia. So my OB gently offered two options: either let the induction take its course and try for a vaginal birth some time around Monday morning (keeping in mind my blood pressure might not allow it and we would have to rush to a C-section) or an immediate C-Section. We went with the latter.
Even after all this, I honestly only have one disappointment. Not a regret necessarily because I didn't have any control over the situation, but a disappointment: I was given an epidural earlier that day and they increased it once I was in the OR. Dan was there all dressed up like an astronaut in his surgical room garb and we were SO excited to finally meet Aella. But turns out, the epidural didn't take and they had to put me under anesthesia. As he wasn't allowed to be in the room if I was under, Dan and I had to say goodbye in the OR within 2 minutes while the nurse listed off the risk factors and then they whisked him away. I knew I was in good hands but it was terrifying. The disappointment? Dan wasn't there for Aella's birth and I was unconscious. I woke up in a different 30 minutes later without a baby in my belly and no Dan. She had been taken to the NICU and he had gone with her AKA he met her before I did! I got wheeled back into the birthing suite and they both came in about an hour later and I finally got to meet her but that was probably the longest hour of my entire life.
Then, after all that, we weren't discharged until Wednesday, a full 5 days after we arrived because my blood pressure refused to go down. I was actually on medication to keep it down well into February with daily arm monitor checks at home!
Fast forward to now:
We're doing well! Aella is 3 months (2 months corrected age) and is sleeping a 6, SOMETIMES 7 hour chunk at night. Sleep really helps. Since we're still just finishing up this "fourth" trimester and all of its sleep deprived insanity, I'll save that discussion for another day 😵💫👶🏻🥰. We do have some child care lined up that starts soon for our little cupcake so I'll be back to work fully starting in April and I can't WAIT to start getting you delicious recipes again.
So after this long winded post, I do want to say thank you for all your patience, kind e-mails and comments, and for your support while I took this time to bring this little peep into the world 💖. See you in April!
Cheers,
Aberdeen
PS. Calypso has been amazing. She legit could not care less and continues to chill on the bathroom floor as per usual.
Y
Congratulations on your little Aella. So sorry to hear about all of your pregnancy problems band happy to hear. You are improving. It will be wonderful to have you back on line because I love your recipes.
Christine
It's great to read an update! Your baby girl is so beautiful!!! I'm so sorry to hear about all that you went through. I'm grateful that you and your baby are now healthy! Congrats to you and your sweet family! 🙂
james
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