Terrific Tuesday on BSOD ★

The beautiful belly picture today is from BFF Tara

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Today's friends of the show are the women at

http://www.milkin-cookies.com

Milkin' Cookies are delicious lactation cookies for nursing moms.

They include healthy ingredients to boost breast milk production.

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❣Today's featured Birth Story ❣

Danielle's Birth of Hunter:

           My son was due to be born on Tuesday, November 17. Since before Labor Day, I had been put on partial bed rest due to excessive swelling, weight gain, and fear of pre-eclampsia setting in.  I went to my 38-week check-up on Monday, November 2, and my doctor decided to pull me out of work and put me on complete bed rest for two days.  Then I was to come back on Wednesday to determine what to do from there.

          On Tuesday afternoon, I started vomiting and having horrible cramps (like gas pains) in my abdomen, but I didn't call the doctor.  I just laid down to rest thinking it was because of the vomiting.  After my husband arrived home from work, the gas cramps got worse.  By 8:00 p.m., I decided to call my doctor because I thought I was going into full ­blown pre-eclampsia.  My doctor agreed, and told me to go to the hospital.  I sat on the couch for half of an hour waiting for my husband to get ready.  Why do husbands panic so much about these things?

          We arrived at the hospital before 9:00 p.m. and they hooked me up to all the monitors and asked me if I was in labor.  I told them I didn't know, and of course, the nurse laughed.  Then she realized that I was actually having contractions two to three minutes apart.  I guess that's what all those gas pains were.  They checked and I was only 1cm dilated so they called my doctor.  They miss-communicated and told him it was the pre-eclampsia, not labor so he didn't come in until Wednesday morning.  They kept checking and checking, but I only dilated another centimeter.  They sent my husband home for rest.  They gave me Demerol around 3:00 a.m. because of the pain.  When the nurse came in to check me at 5:00 a.m., I asked her to please wait for the doctor because it hurt too much.  They were having a hard time determining if the baby was head or butt first.  At 34 weeks, he had been head first.  But it was apparently too hard to tell and my membranes were bulging.  They didn't want to break them without my doctor there to know for sure.

          My doctor came in around 7:00 a.m. and confirmed with an ultrasound that the little guy had done a huge flip and was now sitting with his head directly under the left side of my rib cage. (That's why it hurt so much to lie on my left side!)  Also, my heart rate had jumped at this point to approximately 120 beats per minute and my blood pressure was slowly going up.  My doctor wanted to do the cesarean section right then and there, but there were no rooms available and my husband wasn't even back yet. We scheduled the C-section for noon.  My doctor left for his office, but not before he ordered several different blood tests and demanded the nurses call him if my water broke because he would have to come back and do an emergency delivery at that point.

          My husband came back shortly after, and I updated him on the news.  He reluctantly agreed to be in the operating room, even though he didn't want to be.  It grossed him out.  And a wonderful nurse allowed me to take a shower before the operation.  The anesthesiologist came in around 11:00 a.m. and explained everything to me and my doctor was back at noon to explain everything again. 

          I was wheeled down the operating room, and the operation began.  It was such a sterile environment, but we didn't care.  I just wanted to baby to be okay, and my husband was concerned about the baby and I both because of the heart rate issue.  At 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4, Hunter Robert was pulled out butt first, hiccupping and screaming.  It was so wonderful to see him for the first time.  My husband was crying and kept saying he was so small, but in fact, he was actually 7lbs, 11oz!

          At first, I felt like I had missed out on something or done something wrong to have my baby via C-section.  But soon I realized, it doesn't matter how he got here; it only matters that he came into this world safe and healthy.  I am now pregnant with my second child and haven’t decided what to do, VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) vs. cesarean section, but I know I will choose whatever I think will work best for my little one.  I hope this helps others realize it is okay to have a C-section.  It doesn't make you any less of a woman or a mother.