With all the work we went through to get Emma we really didn’t expect to have any more kids. Well in August of 2003 I missed my period. We hadn’t even been trying which for Jerame and I was a whole new experience. I was a stay at home mom. Lacey, Emma, and I drove to Winco and I bought a pregnancy test. I took the girls into the bathroom in Winco with me and I peed on the stick. Well you have to wait a few minutes before you know if it’s positive and my kids were definitely not loving being in the bathroom so we went out to the car. I was buckling Emma into her car seat and looked down at the stick still in my hand and saw one line perfectly and just the faintest of the second line. Of course I didn’t believe it could happen this easily for me so I showed it to Lacey and asked her how many lines she saw. She said she saw two lines. No way!!! I had resigned myself to not having any more kids because I knew Jerame wouldn’t go for fertility again. Now Emma was only one year and 4 months old and I was actually pregnant again! I showed it to little Emma who I must have gotten something chocolate for in the store and said, “Emma there’s two lines!” She put her little finger on the lines and left a chocolate smudge.
I sure wasn’t waiting until Jerame got home to tell him and I didn’t want to tell him on the phone, I can’t remember if we had cell phones at this point. We drove out to Auto Body Workshop where Jerame worked. I unloaded both kids and carrying Emma walked into the shop with a huge smile. One of Jerame’s co-workers saw us walk in and said hi and seeing my quick walk and huge smile asked if I was pregnant. I was actually a little pissed because I wanted to surprise Jerame and here this guy is guessing it already and yelling it out. I ignored him and kept walking toward Jerame who luckily hadn’t heard. I handed him the stick and asked how many lines he saw and he said, “Are you serious?” with a smile on his face. Aly was on her way!
My pregnancies are never easy. I have hyperemisis and for nine months I am throwing up. Nothing helps for long. I have to go in to get IVs regularly to keep me hydrated. I never gain a lot of weight and actually lose weight at the beginning. It’s never easy but once I can feel that little human moving inside of me it becomes worth it. My pregnancy with Aly was no different in that respect. But it was different in another.
At around 24 weeks of pregnancy women do a glucose screening test. This test is for gestational diabetes. When you go in your blood is drawn and then they hand you a syrupy carbonated drink that you have to drink all of and the. You wait an hour and then then your blood is drawn again. Well unfortunately for me I drank the drink in the time allotted and then about 10 minutes later I threw it up. This means I have to come back another time and try again. The next time the test went according to plan and so then I waited for the results. And of course . . . gestational diabetes. At first I was pissed. I was already sick enough now I had to figure out how to balance this too? But I did. I was able to control with diet and oral glyburide, no shots. I did have to test my blood several times a day though so there were still needles involved.
I was nervous to go into labor this time because both of my previous labors were so different that I had no idea what to expect. I remember my contractions starting and after a few hours we went into Kaiser on Morse Avenue in Sacramento. This hospital was the old hospital but it was where we had to go because of my gestational diabetes and it had a NICU in case the baby was born with complications from the diabetes such as the tendency for bigger babies and hypoglycemia for the baby after delivery. But it was also the hospital Jerame was born at so that was pretty cool. Well it turned out this labor was going to be like Lacey's; I was definitely having hard contractions but was only dilated to a 2 so they sent me home. We came in one more time and got sent home again. Finally the third time I was dilated to a four so I was able to stay. I will tell you that this hospital was nowhere near as nice as the one I had Lacey and Emma in. My dad waited in the waiting room with Emma. Jerame and my mom were with me. Lacey went back and forth between the waiting room and the labor room. I of course had an epidural like I had with the other two. This time though the anesthesiologist said she thought she may have nicked my spinal column and if she had then I would be getting spinal headaches. At this point I didn't understand what that meant nor did I care. I just wanted to have the baby.
In newer hospitals you labor and deliver in the same room. This hospital was so old that they move you from the labor room to the delivery room to deliver. Well all the delivery rooms were full so they took me to a surgical room when c-sections are performed. It was a big room. Jerame, my mom, Lacey and my friend Becky were all in the room when I gave birth to Alyson. My dad was in the waiting room with Emma. It went really smoothly once I started pushing. It only took me about 5 minutes to push her out, same as Emma. I held her for a minute and then they took her to clean her up and weigh her. She weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces. Not as big as Lacey's 9 pounds 4 ounces but bigger than Emma's 7 pounds 2 ounces. The one thing Jerame noticed right away and had to tell me was that she had my thumbs. Anyone that knows me knows I hate my thumbs! So I felt so bad for passing them on to her!
Shortly after Alyson was born I started getting the spinal headaches. At first I just thought I had a little bit of a headache and didn't think anything of it. So I went home the next day like I wanted. Emma, Lacey and Jerame came in while I waited to be discharged. Emma just wanted me home, she wasn't quite two. She didn't love Alyson right away that's for sure. But she looked at Aly's little face and said, "She can come too." Not much enthusiasm but she at least let me bring Aly home.
When I got home the headaches were much worse. I couldn't lift my head even an inch without feeling like it was going to explode. Felt a lot like the headache I just recently had with meningitis. Finally my mom and Jerame convinced me to go back to the hospital. The doctors had said if I started getting headaches I needed to go back to labor & delivery and have a blood patch done. A blood patch is when they insert the epidural needle again but then draw your blood and inject it into your spine to patch the whole made in the spinal column. Once that is done you have to lay flat and still for 30 minutes or an hour, I can't exactly remember. Well when I had Aly something weird was happening with my bladder. I was literally having to pee every half hour and not just a little it was always a lot. And I absolutely couldn't hold it. So of course once they injected the blood into my spine I had to pee. The nurse put a bed pan under me which of course made me not lay flat and made me move. Needless to say this blood patch was a failure. I had to go in a second time a couple days later and get this procedure done again. This time it worked and my headaches were gone.
Aly will be 13 in 6 days. She has grown into a beautiful young lady and I am so proud of her. She's the one that always has to make everyone laugh. She can't stand tension so if she's uncomfortable she will just leave the room. This divorce has been tough on her but she seems to be the kid in the family that is handling it best.
