I celebrated my 31st birthday last Wednesday and truly began realized that I am a mother. I had a wonderful birthday and Hayden got to celebrate with me, as he will for many years. Ben made it extra special!
He surprised me with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (a tradition for my birthday since I was younger) and a gift certificate for an hour long prenatal massage. I had been thinking for a few weeks about wanting to get a massage, but hadn't said anything to Ben about it. The sweetest thing is that Ben had to work overnight at his 12-hr shift job and got done with work at 6:30 AM; however, he stayed out until past 11 AM to pick up the cake, telling me he had to work late. I am so incredibly blessed to have this wonderful man as part of my life! When he got home, he put candles on the cake (a 3 & a 1, 31 candles would be too many lol), lit them and sang happy birthday to me in bed. I worked the night before and was resting for work that night. We had cake, which for a pregnant woman, ice cream cake first thing after waking up was amazing! Later on, Ben took me out for lunch to Chili's and then I headed off to work. I truly wonderful day!
I got to celebrate with my mom and grandma on Friday. I went straight to my grandma's house after work on Thursday (early Friday morning). We went out to Rogers, which for those who don't know is a large flea market in Ohio not far from my grandma's. Mom and I found a woman selling baby clothes for $1/piece. We got quite a few outfits for Hayden! Friday night my grandma made macaroni and cheese and my mom made hot sausage for my birthday dinner - I had been craving both. They surprised me with cake also. Saturday, Mom and I went shopping for my birthday and got some maternity clothes for me.
Hayden got to share in all this excitement and I can truly say it was more thrilling for me to feel him move than anything else. A couple days last week he danced around my whole drive to work. I don't know if it was the music, me singing or both, but he was a happy little guy :) All and all this is a birthday I will always remember, so many wonderful things and so many wonderful things to come :)
This coming weekend is my baby shower. My mom and sister are putting it all together and I'm so excited to visit with family and friends and share in this wonderful occasion in Ben and I's life. Living in PA, as most of you know, you plan things around the weather and therefore, we are having the shower a little earlier than is tradition. Since Hayden is due in February, the shower would have had to be held in December, not a good month for many reasons - snow, holidays, busy schedules, etc.
I have had individuals reach out to me and ask about PCOS and my pregnancy and my job while pregnant, so I thought I'd touch on that briefly. I am not termed a "high risk pregnancy", the doctor is treating this as a normal pregnancy, unless something arises, which has not yet. The biggest problem for women with PCOS is actually getting pregnant. Once they do become pregnant, the risks are the same as a woman without PCOS. We do have a tendency to get gestational diabetes, but at this stage of my pregnancy it is too early for the doctor to detect. We will be testing for it, as all pregnant woman do, in a month or so.
The doctor is very happy with the baby's development and my health currently. They monitor everything closely and give specific instructions, as they do for all pregnancies (PCOS or not), to call with any concerns or changes. I see doctors through UPMC/Magee Women's Health - a top hospital for women's health in PA, as well as the country I do believe.
There have been concerns surrounding my job from a few followers. My job is very labor intensive; however, for a woman with PCOS that is pregnant the exercise is good for me. I have been told that by both the first doctor and the second doctor. I do have limitations, but they are set by me and what I feel comfortable with doing. Since I was doing this job before I got pregnant, there is no concern that I can do it while pregnant. Lots of literature states whatever you did pre-pregnancy, you can do during pregnancy and the doctor has re-iterated this information to me. My boss is well on board with adjusting my work as needed. As I progress further into pregnancy, we've talked about moving me to a more stationary position without any heavy lifting or work on a machine. Currently he is leaving it up to me when I transition. I work with a wonderful group of people who already are looking out for me and don't let me do too much. For example, last week when restocking the shelves, one of the guys took a certain area because it tends to contain heavier product so I didn't have to lift a lot.
I'm taking everything day by day. No one knows my body as well as me and I have learned from the past and having PCOS to read my body very closely. Currently my body is feeling great and as things change I will change with them. Hayden is my #1 priority and I won't do anything to jeopardize his development.
Until next time, lots of love to everyone out there!
Always,
Sheri, Ben and baby Hayden
Monday, October 14, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Exciting Developments
It sure has been a long time since I posted on this blog and life has sure been interesting and full of twists and turns...Ben and I have moved to Pennsylvania in January of this year (2013), just outside of Pittsburgh (GO BUCCOS!!!!), due to my work in Albuquerque being outsourced. I am still with the same company, but transferred into a different position. It's nice to be back in PA where I grew up, as did Ben for a short time. My whole family is here and his Dad lives here, only 20 minutes from my parents, which is weird. We do miss all our family and friends in Albuquerque, especially Ben's family, who mostly live there.
It was a big decision to stay within the same company but to move our lives 2000 miles away. We packed up our fur "children", of which only number 2 cats and a dog. We lost Harley in August 2012 to what we think was uterine cancer in cats. Luckily, we got Sassy checked out after we lost Harley and found out she had cancer as well. We had her fixed and she's better than ever, still living up to her name :)
We've settled into our new life in PA, Ben works for two different hospital systems and is training to become a nurse. Our schedules are hit and miss, I work nights and he works a variety of hours. We find time for each other and go off to explore our new surroundings. We've gone out fishing on his dad's boat numerous times, headed up North to visit with our parents, gone to the zoo, headed farther east to Penn's Cave, etc. I couldn't have chosen a more perfect person to explore and live my life with, especially with the biggest adventure of our lives just starting...we are having a baby! :)
While this blog is mainly to family and friends who know most of the details to this story, I have some followers outside that realm, so I'll relay this the best I can ;)
I have been told for many, many years (early 20s in fact) that I would probably never be able to have kids and shouldn't be able to get pregnant without assistance because I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Anyone who has PCOS knows it's ups and downs. It was very hard to fathom what the doctor's told me in the beginning, but after a LARGE amount of time (I mean years) I came to terms with the possibility of never having a child of my own. It was heart breaking for me and took a lot of time to get through the anger of it all. Anyway, I had finally come to terms with it and was living my life the best way I could and a few years went by and it weighed on my mind still but I could live with it. Until one day in July on a trip to Urgent Care I found out I was pregnant.
Ben and I both were in shock! I had been on birth control for the entire time we have been together (nearly 4 years). We spent the next couple of weeks going to several different doctor's appointments, but didn't get any clear answers. As women with PCOS know, you can give a false positive on a urine pregnancy test, so I wasn't a 100% convinced I was pregnant after the Urgent Care visit because that was all they did. We scheduled an appointment with an OB/GYN, they did a urine test...same result. However, while in the office for that first visit, they couldn't find the baby's heart rate with the fetal Doppler and weren't very clear as to if I was pregnant or not. We learned that a tumor or a ruptured cyst can cause a false positive for pregnancy and with not finding the baby's heart rate, the other two alternatives seemed more likely. Neither of us was impressed with the Midwife we saw that day and her office manner. She did want us to schedule an ultrasound to see what was going on...her words were to "date the pregnancy or see if something else is going on", never being specific.
I was a wreck at this point and Ben and I both left more confused than when we started out. It was another week until we could get in for an ultrasound, LONGEST WEEK OF OUR LIVES!!! However, at the ultrasound we saw our baby for the first time, very small, but thriving :) Many emotions flooded over me at once, it hit me that I was going to be a mother, this wasn't cancer, how did I end up pregnant so easily, are we ready for this, etc. I will admit it took me some time to accept that I was going to have a baby, it seemed so surreal! I really couldn't understand how I got pregnant and was angry at the fact that I got pregnant so unexpectedly when we weren't evening trying. Lots of women try and try and never get pregnant, PCOS or not, so I was confused.
1st Ultrasound - mid-July 2013
Ben and I found a new doctor, who we both love! She is very informative and knows tons about PCOS because her daughter suffers from it. I learned from her at my first appointment that I probably got pregnant because I lost a lot of weight (about 30 lbs) and was taking Metformin to treat insulin resistance (pre-diabetes and a symptom of PCOS). The combination made my body ready to get pregnant, little to my knowledge :)
We've now seen the baby in two different ultrasounds, the latest being a week ago. We are having a boy, due February 19th 2014 - Hayden Fredrick and we couldn't be happier. He is developing just fine and stubborn as can be even in the womb, which means trouble for us when he is born.
I decided to start this blog back up based on a suggestion by Ben's Aunt in Albuquerque as a way to keep everyone I know, near and far, updated on Hayden. I'm going to update as much as my schedule allows and will start posting photos of the sonograms, my expanding belly and Ben and I's life as I can. Please feel free to comment, share, email me. I'd love to hear form everyone :)
Sheri, Ben and little Hayden :)
It was a big decision to stay within the same company but to move our lives 2000 miles away. We packed up our fur "children", of which only number 2 cats and a dog. We lost Harley in August 2012 to what we think was uterine cancer in cats. Luckily, we got Sassy checked out after we lost Harley and found out she had cancer as well. We had her fixed and she's better than ever, still living up to her name :)
We've settled into our new life in PA, Ben works for two different hospital systems and is training to become a nurse. Our schedules are hit and miss, I work nights and he works a variety of hours. We find time for each other and go off to explore our new surroundings. We've gone out fishing on his dad's boat numerous times, headed up North to visit with our parents, gone to the zoo, headed farther east to Penn's Cave, etc. I couldn't have chosen a more perfect person to explore and live my life with, especially with the biggest adventure of our lives just starting...we are having a baby! :)
While this blog is mainly to family and friends who know most of the details to this story, I have some followers outside that realm, so I'll relay this the best I can ;)
I have been told for many, many years (early 20s in fact) that I would probably never be able to have kids and shouldn't be able to get pregnant without assistance because I have Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Anyone who has PCOS knows it's ups and downs. It was very hard to fathom what the doctor's told me in the beginning, but after a LARGE amount of time (I mean years) I came to terms with the possibility of never having a child of my own. It was heart breaking for me and took a lot of time to get through the anger of it all. Anyway, I had finally come to terms with it and was living my life the best way I could and a few years went by and it weighed on my mind still but I could live with it. Until one day in July on a trip to Urgent Care I found out I was pregnant.
Ben and I both were in shock! I had been on birth control for the entire time we have been together (nearly 4 years). We spent the next couple of weeks going to several different doctor's appointments, but didn't get any clear answers. As women with PCOS know, you can give a false positive on a urine pregnancy test, so I wasn't a 100% convinced I was pregnant after the Urgent Care visit because that was all they did. We scheduled an appointment with an OB/GYN, they did a urine test...same result. However, while in the office for that first visit, they couldn't find the baby's heart rate with the fetal Doppler and weren't very clear as to if I was pregnant or not. We learned that a tumor or a ruptured cyst can cause a false positive for pregnancy and with not finding the baby's heart rate, the other two alternatives seemed more likely. Neither of us was impressed with the Midwife we saw that day and her office manner. She did want us to schedule an ultrasound to see what was going on...her words were to "date the pregnancy or see if something else is going on", never being specific.
I was a wreck at this point and Ben and I both left more confused than when we started out. It was another week until we could get in for an ultrasound, LONGEST WEEK OF OUR LIVES!!! However, at the ultrasound we saw our baby for the first time, very small, but thriving :) Many emotions flooded over me at once, it hit me that I was going to be a mother, this wasn't cancer, how did I end up pregnant so easily, are we ready for this, etc. I will admit it took me some time to accept that I was going to have a baby, it seemed so surreal! I really couldn't understand how I got pregnant and was angry at the fact that I got pregnant so unexpectedly when we weren't evening trying. Lots of women try and try and never get pregnant, PCOS or not, so I was confused.
Ben and I found a new doctor, who we both love! She is very informative and knows tons about PCOS because her daughter suffers from it. I learned from her at my first appointment that I probably got pregnant because I lost a lot of weight (about 30 lbs) and was taking Metformin to treat insulin resistance (pre-diabetes and a symptom of PCOS). The combination made my body ready to get pregnant, little to my knowledge :)
We've now seen the baby in two different ultrasounds, the latest being a week ago. We are having a boy, due February 19th 2014 - Hayden Fredrick and we couldn't be happier. He is developing just fine and stubborn as can be even in the womb, which means trouble for us when he is born.
I decided to start this blog back up based on a suggestion by Ben's Aunt in Albuquerque as a way to keep everyone I know, near and far, updated on Hayden. I'm going to update as much as my schedule allows and will start posting photos of the sonograms, my expanding belly and Ben and I's life as I can. Please feel free to comment, share, email me. I'd love to hear form everyone :)
Sheri, Ben and little Hayden :)
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