Car Accidents While Pregnant Are NOT Fun.

We decided yesterday to go visit my Grandmother who lives over an hour away. It was a nasty, rainy day, and the trip takes us on 5 different freeways around Atlanta. We were on the final leg of the trip when we passed an accident. I commented to Stephen that people need to learn how to drive in the rain and went back to my book. Seconds later something caught the corner of my eye, I looked up from my book and saw a Caddy coming at us from the lane to our right. I think she was going to go around the car in front of her and didn't look to see us passing her in her blind spot. She JERKED over, right into us. She was headed for my door, and Stephen saw her in enough time to take his foot off the gas so she hit more at the front of my door and the front tire. The force pushed us into the grassy median, where Stephen just rode out the median to stop the car safely inches from a ditch on the side. I immediately looked back to check on Little Man, who was still asleep. Then I searched for my phone that went flying and called 911 cause I didn't know if we were all ok at that point.

The police showed up and blocked the freeway so we could safely get our car out of the median and onto the side. At this point I was feeling crampy, but figured it was just from the seat belt across my growing belly. The firemen were asking us what happened, and if we were all ok. I denied going to the hospital via ambulance, because I figured I was fine, and that we could just drive ourselves if I needed to be checked.The police officer got all of our information, and then cleared us to leave, being as it was not our fault. He told us the report would be available in a few days.

While we were waiting for the police officer to do all his business, I put a call into my doctor to see what they wanted us to do. The only jolt from the accident was the initial hit, since my husband did such a great job steering us clear of other cars and the ditch. They wanted me to get checked out, which was fine with me. We piled back into the car, and buckled up to go to the hospital. We drove all of two feet and realized the car was not drivable. When we pulled it to a stop, we heard a loud pop.

Thankfully my sister, who has a car that seats 8, was a few miles ahead of us. She had turned around and showed up right about that time. We unloaded the important things from our car and piled into her car. She took Stephen and I to the hospital so I could be checked, and she took Little Man and her kids on to see my Grandmother.

When we got there they checked my blood pressure, and it was high. They took blood and started an IV to try to get my blood pressure down. They hooked me up to fetal monitors, contraction monitors, and a blood pressure monitor. The whole time I was on the monitors, Little Miracle was kicking very well, so I knew he was ok. I was in the emergency room for about 45 minutes before they moved me to labor and delivery. My blood pressure was still climbing and I was getting contractions every 8-10 minutes, which is considered pre-term labor. About an hour after being in labor and delivery they decided that the contractions were not stopping on their own, so they gave me a shot designed to relax your uterus to stop contractions. This shot worked almost right away. For 45 minutes I did not have any contractions. I then had 2 in the course of five minutes, but then they fizzled down in strength, and almost stopped. Two hours after they gave me the shot, they asked if I wanted Ambien to help me sleep later. I questioned how long they were going to keep me, and she said she would call the doctor and ask. I did not want to stay any longer, but knew if I needed to, I would. She came back around half an hour later and said I was free to go. I have to monitor Little Miracles kicks and contractions, and if either of them change, I have to go back to the hospital.

We went this morning to get Little Man a new car seat. I am so thankful that we had him in a very safe seat and still rear facing. We bought him the same brand seat, but a step up from the one he was in. I just have to wait now for the other drivers insurance information so I can get paid back for his seat. Any accident requires you to replace car seats, even if the child was not in the seat at the time. Britax is the ONLY brand that has a test and if you answer no to all 5 questions, you can keep using the seat. One of these questions was if our vehicle was able to be driven from the scene, and it was not.

I am so thankful that things happened the way they did. We were in a minivan and it took the hit very well. Stephen is a great driver that stopped us without causing any more damage to the car, and Little Man and Little Miracle are both doing great.

Planning Little Miracles Birth

Some people say I am crazy. Why try natural birth when medicine is made to make labor and delivery less painful?

Well, I have decided to have a DRUG-FREE, natural birth. I am hoping to get my insurance to let me switch doctors also, so I can have a water birth.

My labor and delivery with Little Man was nice. Being my first child, I decided to have the epidural and everything the hospital offered. I think the only thing I declined was the Ambien to sleep, since it causes me to hallucinate.

When I found out I was pregnant with Little Miracle, I decided to entertain the idea of a natural labor and delivery. I had thought about it with Little Man, but was scared to do it since he was my first, and I only had one hospital choice in the town we lived in.

Now that we have moved closer to a big city, I have many more choices. I am hoping to switch to the hospital that offers water birth. I have thought about a home birth, but I do not think that they are for me. My own personal choice and belief that things can go wrong in labor, and though they are rare, I would like to be in the hospital if something happens.

We met with a doula a few weeks ago. A doula is someone who "mothers the mother" in labor. She talks women thru contractions, helps with natural pain relief, helps the mother change positions, and explains everything that is going on to the mother. I think a doula would benefit us greatly, so we hired the one we met with.

We start our birth classes tonight. I know this is early, since I am only 24 weeks, but the next one that the doulas offer is not until December, and that would be too late.

I am excited to see that my body can birth a child without much help. I know it can, given the chance. My body can grow this child without any help from me, so I know it can birth it too.

I am currently reading three books on natural birth. "HypnoBirthing-The Mongan Method" which was one that a good friend of mine used for the natural birth of her daughter, "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and "The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" were both recommended to me by our doula. The Thinking Woman's Guide is so far my favorite. It discusses almost everything that can happen in labor and gives you the pros and cons to everything the hospital can offer, so you can make a true informed decision.

Little Miracle will be here in 16 weeks, and I am very excited to help him come into the world!

I am going to post Little Mans birth story here now so for those of you who have not read it can.

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10-9-07

We woke up really early (5:30 am) to go to the police station to return all of hubbys police gear. After that, we headed to the Marine Base to get signed up for Tricare. We walked around the base, back and forth from the Deers office to the Tricare office. After we signed up for Tricare, we went to cancel our other insurance. While there, we talked to the assistant City Manager to see about hubbby getting off of probation, since the Chief of Police won’t do anything about it. We were told to find the letter we got stating he was off of probation in June. We came home and tore the house apart trying to find it. We made a mess! We never found it, and had to go pick up hubbys friend and take him to class. After we dropped him off, hubby dropped me off at home, and went back to pick up his friend and go to his house to help him fix his car.

Contractions started around 5:30. I was timing them, and they were anywhere from 8 minutes apart, to 14 minutes apart, lasting longer than a min each, so I figured it was nothing. At about 7:30 I decided to try to clean the house from the mess we made earlier trying to find the paperwork. I was cleaning in between contractions.

I called hubby around 8 to see when he was coming home. He said in about an hour, but when I told him about my contractions, he came straight home. We went for a long walk to see what would happen. When we were on the walk, we ran into a neighbor that comes to my work, so we talked to her for about 45 minutes, all the while I was still having contractions, but nothing too strong. We got back to the apartment around 9:15. I laid down on the couch hoping to sleep. I had one really strong contraction that felt like Little Man turned his head from one side to the other. I told hubby about that one, and about 2 minutes later I felt wet. I felt something coming, so I got up to go to the restroom. As soon as I stood up, my pants were soaked. I told hubby I either peed my self, or my water broke. I got to the restroom, and it kept coming, so I told hubby that we need to get stuff together and get to the hossy. I called my mom while hubby was getting our pillows and last minute stuff. After I called my mom, I called my doctor, and we headed out the door.

The drive to the hossy was only about 5 minutes long but it seemed so long! Hubby got stuck at a red light and asked if he should run it, I told him yes, and when in his life will he have a better excuse for running a red light.

We got to the hossy and L&D is next to the emergency center, but upstairs. Hubby dropped me off at the front, and went to park the car. I went upstairs and told the lady behind the desk that I think my water broke. At this point, my dr. calls me back and tells me to go to the hossy… I told him I just got there and he said ok, that they would call him when he is needed. The lady in the registration desk was new, and needed me to give her my info. Hubby got there and they sent me back. I waddled to the nurse’s station, and they put me in room 8, my lucky number. A nurse had me sit on the toilet and she patted the area with fluid with paper, and said ‘yep… it’s your water’. She gave me a gown and I hopped into bed.

They hooked up the heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor, and that beautiful sound of Little Man's heart rate filled the room.

At this point hubby came back from fixing our insurance info and got comfy. The L&D nurse came in and I told her I would like an epidural as soon as possible. She told me it would be later in the night, because I was not into a good labor pattern yet. She said I was supposed to get into a good pattern before my water broke, and that now that it broke, it will take a few hours to get to a good pattern, and if they gave me the epidural too soon, then it would slow my contractions. She told me that she does have Stadol for pain, and I could have an Ambien to sleep if I wanted it. I told her no on both, because I was not in that much pain yet, and Ambien makes me hallucinate. She left the room and told me to call her when I wanted the pain meds.

I tried to rest and sleep, but I was too excited, so at 1:30 I asked for the pain meds. My contractions were starting to hurt, and I wanted to sleep. The nurse came in and gave me the Stadol, and it hit me almost instantly. AH! Sleep at last!

Around 3 am, the contractions woke me up. The nurse came in and said the epidural guy was on his way, and she gave me some more Stadol. At this point, the contractions hurt so badly! I don’t see how women do natural labors! I was squeezing Stephens’s hands so hard that they were turning purple. I slept between the contractions.

Around 4 am I woke up and the room was really bright. There was a bald man telling me he was here for the epidural. I wanted to get off the bed and hug him! He did the epidural, which did not hurt nearly as bad as the contractions. All I remember was a small needle poke, some pressure in my tailbone, and then him asking me to wiggle my toes. He was in and out quickly from what the drug haze lets me remember.

I woke up around 8 am and felt great! I looked over to the contraction monitor and saw that they were at the top of the chart, so I knew that they would probably hurt if I could feel them. Around 9 am, my midwife came in. It was the one that I had seen the most in the office, and the one I have heard is great at making you push, so I was happy. She checked me and said I was about 7-8 cms dilated and that it would be about an hour till I could start pushing. I called my mom and told her that Little Man would be here sometime soon!!

At around 10 am, the midwife came back in, checked me and said all that was left was a little lip around Little Mans head, she had me push during one contraction and the lip was gone. At 10:15 I was laid back and ready to start pushing. I had 2 contractions, and noticed during pushing Little Mans heart rate would disappear. My midwife noticed this too, and had to put the thing into his head to monitor his heart rate. I don’t remember what it is called, but it sticks into his head, not too far, and monitors his heart rate.

Around 11pm, after pushing for 1 hour, I was very tired. They had told us that Little Mans head is stuck in my pelvic bone, and they had to keep my legs up all the time to keep him from slipping back down. Every time I pushed, hubby would tell me he could see the head, I eventually told him to stop telling me that , because I thought that meant his whole head. I told hubby that until he can see the whole head, I don’t want to hear it!

Around 12 pm, I noticed everyone putting on blue gowns and changing gloves. I knew the time was close. They put my feet in stirrups so they did not have to hold them. They had turned down the epidural, so I could feel the contractions coming. They did the episiotomy around this time, which I did not feel. Around 12:15 pm, my midwife told me that this was the last push, and I felt like saying "if it is not, I am done, you are going to have to cut him out” but I did not. I pushed really hard, and my midwife told me to look down, I could see his head! The whole time my midwife was great. She motivated me to push like no other, and Stephen was great too, holding my head, and my hands, and helping me thru the contractions.

At 12:17 pm my sweet Little Man made his way into the world. They put him on my stomach. He was surprisingly very clean. I got to hold him for a minute and they clamped the cord. The doctor asked hubby if he would like to cut the cord, and he had already decided that if they asked him, he would, so he cut the cord. They took Little Man to be cleaned and weighed, and they started sewing me up.

Little Man was not crying too much, just complaining, until they gave him his first shot, then he started to SCREAM. He must have mamas temper! Once he was all clean, they weighed him. 7 lbs, 4.6 ozs. They round up, so he measures at 7 lbs 5 ozs. They brought him to me so I could try to breast feed him, and they all left the room. I finally had my little man!

That hour of peace and quiet with Little Man and hubby was the best hour of my life. After that time, they came and moved us to mother baby care, and that is where we spent the rest of our hospital stay. It was a day I will never forget. Definitely the happiest day in my life!"

SO Sick of The House Crap!

Ok. Time for you all to know whats going on with this house!!

We put in the offer in what, April, maybe early May? Well, between then and a few days ago, the process was crawling. We are eligible for a grant from the State of Georgia, since the house we picked was a foreclosure. We got all of our paperwork turned in in May. In June, my husband went to a home buyers class that was required for the grant. We were supposed to close in late June.

A few days before our first closing date we got a phone call from our lender, saying the grant money was not in yet. From there, it all went downhill. We found out that it had not even gone to underwriting yet, our lender had not locked in our interest rate, and that this was going to take longer than we thought. We fought and fought to get it to underwriting, and fought to get our interest rate back down. In late July, the underwriters told us what they needed from us, and we got it turned in the next day. A few days later we heard from our lender that the underwriting was complete, and we should be closing in mid-August!

Fast forward to yesterday. We get a call from our lender saying that our underwriters were shut down by the federal government. Apparently they were not turning in what they needed to, and fraud is suspected. So all the loans that were not closed yet are in limbo now.

We have no idea what is going to happen. Our lender is looking to find a new underwriter, and she says that someone is already looking at it. We shall see. We have also found out that since this process started, my husbands credit has gone down by over 70 points from all the inquiries to our credit, and an error. We have fixed the error, but it takes 30 days for it to be reported.

We are thinking that if this falls thru, we will just find a new house and go with our bank since we know they are not going anywhere! We have to get my husbands credit score back up before we can do that though. We called everyone on our report today to see if they can update it today, instead of at the end of the month, so we again will see.

So for now we are still homeless. We are staying with my sister, who has 3 kids, so its a full house!