Surprise! Pregnant Again!

 

Thank you for checking in on me! Pregnant, at 39 years old, 40 in December...with my 6th baby, and we're 36 weeks today. I wrote a blog post in 2014 about how bittersweet it was to be in my last pregnancy ever. But now, surprise!! Here we are again! 

This is my 5th pregnancy. All pregnancies had led to healthy living babies. I have never had a miscarriage. I have never known that pain, I have never lost a child, I have never known that grief. But I know so many of you who have had both, or either, and so I write with all the sensitivity and sympathy in the world. Please know I don't intend to highlight your pain when I write about pregnancies and babies.  If it hits too close to home please abandon ship, you don't need anything extra to sort through and I'm just praying God will answer your prayers because He is good and He is able. 

So this particular blog won't be full of clever metaphors or jokes, I just wanted a place to document what I'm experiencing and be able to remember it all someday. 

This pregnancy wasn't planned. Actually, truthfully, none of our pregnancies were "planned" but we love being parents and we never shut off the water, and so when the faucet was turned, BOOM. All the pipes were in place, and the water flowed forth again. 😂 (sorry I cannot even help it--this is just how I write and how I talk). Ryan is such an amazing father, he's wonderful with newborns, toddlers, energetic elementary school ages, and teens.  I had some concerns that we'd be judged for our age and our late in life pregnancy, and still that comes up for me from time to time, but overall we are just feeling so blessed that we have this opportunity to do this again. 

When we found out we were pregnant, EIGHT YEARS after our last was born, we were shocked and excited and dazed and confused and all the things.  My period was late, so I popped into Target, bought a pregnancy test and used self-checkout to avoid conversations...walked straight into the target bathroom and peed on the stick. In 1 second, a new line appeared. I had to read the instructions on the package because I didn't know what that meant, I am so far removed from the game. But yep, pregnant at 39. I was a bit shocked. Later that night I asked Ryan if we could leave the kids and go out to dinner. At dinner, after some small talk, and after we ordered our food,  I showed Ryan a picture of the pee stick thing. He asked if this was for real. Then he smiled, and he said that was awesome, and his mind was spinning for days (I know because he usually is a sound sleeper but was pretty much up all night that night and into the next).  He settled into reality with me and we grew more excited with each passing week. 

 So any concerns?? Not really. I mean, I have literally not had a pap smear since Levi was born.  8 years ago. I am so out of the fertility loop and my own healthcare was never top of mind. At the early part of this pregnancy I got an abnormal result on my pap smear which will involve a closer exam after baby is born, but I'm not worrying about that at the moment. 

We were (and are) excited. I knew I was the healthiest I had ever been in my adult life when I got pregnant, so I felt excited about that! The kids had mixed feelings...the oldest was a little uneasy at the thought. The 2nd born (the only girl) was excited. The twins (autism) were pretty against the idea. The youngest was perplexed but excited. 

Fast forward. This has been the quickest pregnancy ever. I am suddenly 36 weeks along, ready or not. I am measuring a little big (nothing new) and my amniotic fluid is a little above normal amount (not new to me either) but otherwise everything looks great. My iron is low (not new) and they wanted me to get iron infusions (very new). I was very unethused by this, but after talking with many of you wise people I decided to just go and get the infusions, if it improves better delivery experiences for both me and baby. Besides infusions, (which are not TERRIBLE if the IV placement is good, it's just a time suck) everything is great. Jameson is wiggling like a maniac, nonstress tests show he is happy. I have an ultrasound tomorrow to see his growth and check that amniotic fluid status. Here's the clinical info: 

Polyhydramnios occurs in about 1 to 2 percent of pregnancies. (That is such a small percentage! And it's happened to me with Levi, AND with this guy.)

Most cases of polyhydramnios are mild and result from a gradual buildup of amniotic fluid during the second half of pregnancy. (that's me. Mild. It ranges from mild, to moderate, to severe. My levels right now are at the bottom of the mild range.)

There are of course some not great complications that COULD be associated with higher levels of amniotic fluid, so I'm wondering if, like with Levi, they will encourage me to get induced rather than allow Baby J to just keep swimming in there beyond my due date Nov 2. Also I'm older now, and that will certainly be something they consider when they determine if I should be induced, or be allowed to let my body go into labor when it's ready. 

So here's what's currently on my mind:

• I've never gone into labor on my own, and I'd like to. Each one of my pregnancies were full term, and ended with induction, pitocin, blah blah. But since this is my last rodeo I was really hoping to experience my body naturally going, my water naturally breaking, my contractions not being controlled by drugs, etc.  
• All of my babies were progressively larger than the last (except the twins, which I don't count the same). Lukas, 41 weeks, 8 lbs. Juliette, 40 weeks, 8lb 8oz. Jack/Linc 38 weeks (they told me that was full term for twins and induced me right at 38 weeks but I never needed to be on bed rest. ✊) 6lbs 9oz and 6lbs 5oz. Levi, 40 weeks, 8lbs 15 oz. So... if I go 40 weeks, will this certainly be a 9-10 lb baby?! 😅 So maybe I should let them talk me into being induced??
  
• I am so busy! We have so much going on as a family. Luke's life is consumed with high school marching band practices & church life. Juliette is still cheering, dancing, in jazz band, regular band, church, scouts, etc. Twins have therapy 4x a week which is mostly a blessing but sometimes is trying too, more on that in another post. Levi is doing church 2x a week on evenings, and has started flag football. Ryan leads his Trail Life group so that's a huge commitment,  and he'll be assistant coaching for that football team too.  And I'm still on two PTAs, trying to pull away a little from some of those responsibilities as we get closer to baby arrival. And we recently had a pipe leak about 20 gallons of water into my room, forcing us (ryan) to rip out all of the carpet, and move all of the furniture...and now he's in the process of laying down tile in our bedroom! In his free time of course.  😒

Lots more on my mind but I'm just brain dumping and jump starting this blog again. Thanks for following along and praying for our crew as we prep for onboarding baby #6!