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Nine Weeks to Motherhood by Christie Hillsdon Ever wonder how some women can go their whole pregnancy and not know they are pregnant? Sounds impossible, but it happens. It happened to me.
1997 was to be a year of memories. I was engaged to be married in September, my fiancée, Greg, and I found a lovely house in June and moved in, and I received a transfer/promotion in October. Everything a young woman dreams of – new husband, new house, new job, new life…new life? What I did not know for most of 1997 was that I was pregnant.
How could a woman of the 90's not know she was pregnant for 8 months? The signs were faint.
I am one of the lucky few. I menstruate 2-3 times a year. That is my normal cycle. I had a period in January and another in April. Towards the end of April I received a clean bill of health from my check up. The pregnancy test came back negative.
I was married on September 13th. I am normally an active person – biking, soccer, field hockey – except for this summer. My mother threatened not to attend my wedding if I was in a cast. I tend to play hard and sometimes injuries occur. When the wedding rolled around I had gained 9 pounds. I assumed it was because I was not as active as I had been. On a lark, I did a home pregnancy test on the honeymoon and it came back negative. I had no reason to think otherwise and calmly put the thought out of my head.
November 12th is a day I'll never forget. I went to see the Doctor because I was not feeling well. I thought I might be anemic, as I had been doing a lot of travel, fast food eating and long days filled with stress about my new job. I was not anemic but 32 weeks pregnant.
The first thing I did when I got home was to page Greg and have him call me. When he called the first thing I asked him was if he was sitting down. He was.
"Guess what? What? I'm pregnant. Wow. That's great. But there's a catch – I'm 32 weeks pregnant. The baby will be here sometime around Christmas or early in the New Year. Holy cow."
The hardest thing for me to do was call my mom. I was not ashamed of the timing but part of me was raised, and still believes, one falls in love, marries, spends a couple of years together and then, if blessed, has kids. I called Mom and asked her if she and Dad were going to be home later that evening. Greg and I wanted to stop by. Why what's up she asked. I told her the news. She took it much better than I imagined. Her main concern was for my health and that of the baby. Looking back both her and Dad were my pillars of stability throughout this whole deal. Without them I would not have been as sane as I was.
That weekend was a blur. Phone call after phone call. Immediate family and friends had to be told. Greg's brother and sister in-law, who have two children 3 and 6, gave us a crib with mattress, change table, highchair and lots of miscellaneous stuff. With Christmas coming up and Greg just starting a new contract money was tight. People pulled together and offered moral and/or material support. It helped us to believe we would make it.
I met my OB a couple of days later. Then the real fun began. Every week for the next eight weeks I had an ultrasound and a checkup. Those ultrasounds are really neat. You are able to see your baby's parts – head, heart, spine, liver, ribs…in one session I was able to see his lips.
The first ultrasound gave us two more surprises. First we found out I was going to have a boy. The biggest surprise was when it came to calculating the due date. This is done by averaging four different measurements of the baby including the head, leg and abdomen. Unfortunately the head measured at 36 weeks. Four weeks larger than the leg which was 32 weeks. This put my due date between 22 December and the 17 January. The question became which measurement is right. If the head was right then the body was small and a month behind in development. If the leg was correct then he had a huge head which could present problems later on in the pregnancy and in labor.
I changed my diet. Not drastically but I made sure I ate three or four proper meals a day. I cut out cola and added more water to my daily liquid intake. I took vitamin supplements (Materna) for pregnant women. It definitely helped both of us. Between weeks 4-6, the baby gained a pound a week. Normal gain is half a pound. By the eighth week (December 30th) the baby was over seven pounds.
January 5 was my last OB appointment. The Dr. suggested we induce. The date was half way between my due dates, which meant the baby was 40-42 weeks. How's tomorrow he asked?
January 6 it was. After 8 hours of labor (I napped for 3 though, thanks to the epi), baby Richard was born at 11:32pm, weighing 7lbs 13 ounces.
He is now 15 days old and a very good baby. He is on a 3.5-4 hour schedule and is eating 4 ounces of formula each feed. He only cries when he's being changed.
We lucked out. Mother and baby are healthy. Both families have been wonderful and have fallen in love with him. In all honesty, the labor was as easy as the pregnancy. Short and sweet.
My husband and I are blessed. For all that has happened I would not change anything.
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