Picture at 37 Weeks
Nausea
It was around Thanksgiving that Maria began making her growing presence known. I wasn’t expecting my pregnancy symptoms to start so soon, but Thanksgiving dinner was not as pleasant to eat as I had hoped. Thus started my nausea that ended up lasting almost my entire pregnancy. By late third semester it was on and off, but still with me. I’m thankful that I never had severe nausea or throwing up, but I typically had “yucky” feelings after meals and a metallic taste in my mouth, even after eating something “delicious.”
Due Date
I had two due dates – July 26 and July 21st – depending on whether you wanted to go with natural counting or ultrasound measurements, so we just told people the end of July. I’m not a big fan of due dates – it’s so much easier to have a range than a specific date in mind.
Picture at 17 Weeks
Braxton Hicks
My Braxton Hicks with Maria started before 20 weeks and continued all the way until birth. Every night I would wake up with multiple Braxton Hicks and run to the bathroom, but this was just my was normal for me and didn’t really bother me at all. I just figured I would be in tip-top shape to give birth.
Picture at 21 Weeks
Gallbladder Pain
Sometime in Feb/March I started having upper abdominal pain, which seemed to be associated with eating. Sometimes it would be severe and last only a short while. Sometimes it would be mild and last for hours. And when it stopped, there was no explanation for why it ceased. I realized that eating nuts (my go-to snack that Josh kept me stocked with) set the pain off and soon it seemed like all eating was a problem. For over a week I did very minimal eating since I didn’t want to deal with the pain.
On April 7th I had an ultrasound done at a local clinic to check Maria’s amniotic fluid (I always like to do this around the time Becca’s was low). I asked the doctor to check my gallbladder and he found a few polyps. This wasn’t a surprise, since after Micah was born the clinic did a routine post-birth ultrasound and noted that I had a few polyps. But this was the first time that they caused me significant pain. I was able to contact a doctor who specialized in gastrointestinal issues, and he gave me some advice. So I stopped eating nuts and watched my other food and was able to usually ward off the pain for the rest of the pregnancy.
Pictures at 23 Weeks
Exercising
One thing I didn’t deal with much in this pregnancy was back pain. Sometime in 2nd trimester, I started exercising with Classical Stretch for pregnancy and it was very helpful. I kept up exercising until probably a week and a half before Maria was born.
I also dealt a lot more with side ligament pain much more than other pregnancies. I’m not sure if it was because I had been exercising before and my muscles were in better shape, or if it was just a fluke. My varicose veins in my left leg were a continual problem. I’m sure the exercising helped, but it’s just one of the things I’ve had to deal with in my later pregnancies.
7th Child
I’d spent so many years wondering if we’d be able to have 6 children (due to Becca’s premature birth, 2 c-sections, miscarriages), that it was a new concept to think that we were going to have 7 children. For some reason the jump from 6 to 7 seemed major. Going to American the following year with 7 children was on my mind a lot. That’s a big family to house when visiting churches. That’s a lot of people to manage in a continually changing environment with trying to visit people and with being with people constantly. And then of course there is the overwhelming gift of having another soul to nurture and point to Christ. I’ve always said that feeding and clothing a child isn’t that hard – but discipling them is another issue. It’s a huge responsibility.
Telling the Kids
We didn’t end up telling the kids about Maria until our family Valentine’s Day party. I figured some of them had noticed my growing belly (but none had). Isaiah and Becca thought it was funny that Josh and I had gone out for a bit one afternoon (for an ultrasound). We were decorating heart cookies and I did one that said “Baby” on it. The kids were mostly surprised and excited!
Finding a Doctor
One of our challenges was finding a doctor in Phnom Penh. Even though I’ve had 4 VBACs since my two c-sections, I am still considered a risk by most doctors, and they prefer to c-section. The doctor who I went to for Micah had left the clinic and was nowhere to be found. I needed to find a doctor in Phnom Penh who would allow me to have a VBAC.
We traveled to PP May 22nd to find a doctor. The first doctor I went to, Dr. Ty, had her own maternity clinic and was very positive toward big families. I really liked her. But when I asked her, “If I go into labor, will you let me deliver?” she wouldn’t give me a straight answer. She spent a long time talking about the risks and recommending a government hospital, but she wouldn’t say no or act like she didn’t want me to be her patient. I even said, “You are the doctor, and I want you to be comfortable. I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. Are you comfortable with allowing me to give birth naturally if I go into labor?” Again, she wouldn’t give me a clear answer, and I left feeling like I would end up with a c-section if I stayed with her.
The next place we went was Royal Phnom Penh Hospital – a hospital connected with a major hospital in Thailand. I met with Dr. Mumu, who a few of my friends had delivered their babies with. She was a very nice lady, but hospital policy was going to make a VBAC difficult. As it ended, I was going to have to have a special meeting with the hospital safety management team, if I wanted to attempt a VBAC. This also left me with the feeling that if I went with this doctor and that hospital, I would end up with a c-section.
Picture at 33 Weeks
Our last resort was a brand-new hospital, about 3 minutes from the CMA guesthouse where we were staying (in fact we could see it from our window). We walked in without an appointment and asked if they allowed VBACs and if I could see a doctor. They sent me right up to the maternity floor. I joked with Josh that I would probably see some young male doctor, and indeed when I saw called in to see the doctor that is exactly what he was. This doctor had no issues with my having a VBAC. In fact, he said that since I had already had 4 VBACs the hospital wouldn’t even consider me a VBAC (with pricing – VBACs are always more expensive). I was so happy to hear this that I knew immediately we would go with this hospital.
One of the issues about visiting three different doctors is that each doctor seemed to find something different wrong with me. The first two doctors reminded me that I had two C-sections so I was at risk for uterine rupture, I was old so of course there were issues with hemorrhaging, and I had had six other pregnancies which would also increase the risk of hemorrhaging. Not very encouraging.
Dr Ty noted my cervix was shorter than normal and decided that I was contracting too much and gave me 15 days of medicine to stop contractions. Which I never ended up taking, since 15 days wasn’t going to help that much and she hadn’t explained the medication at all.
The doctor at Orienda International Hospital made a comment about my amniotic fluid being on the borderline of being low and then said If I had more than 10 contractions in a day I need to come back.
All these things gave me a lot to think about as I returned home to Oyadao. We were only home a few days before I suspected I was leaking amniotic fluid and was having increased contractions. I contacted two doctor friends and said we were considering getting thing checked out. Both thought that was wise, and since I had been told to return if I had more than 10 contractions, we decided it would be best to go back to PP. We left in a rush Tuesday around 1:30pm and arrived in PP a little before midnight. It was a crazy trip with several downpours in the dark, but we made it, and the kids did well. The next day I went to the doctor and everything checked out fine and they said I could go home. (In fact, they measured more amniotic fluid than the week before.) So even though it was a crazy trip, we were glad we went for peace of mind the next two months!
Picture at 35 Weeks
Unfortunately, at that appointment, with all the rush and concern, I forgot to tell the ultrasound doctor that we didn’t want to know the gender and she told us at the beginning. So, Josh and I found out we were expecting a girl, though we didn’t tell others the news and let it be a surprise.
Things continue as normal, for me, until the night of June 20th. I had a few hours of contractions that were like the ones I’ve routinely had before giving birth. The issue with these contractions is sometimes they stop and sometimes they switch into active labor fast and it’s hard to know what will happen. That night I was trying to think about where I would give birth in our house and then what we would do. The next morning Josh and I debated what to do and by supper time we decided that we would pack up and go to Phnom Penh the next day. Josh didn’t want to wait another night or wait for another bad night until deciding to go and thought it was best just to go down and wait until Maria was born. So we left two and a half weeks before we were planning to. Thankfully, from our previous trip, I had kept many things still packed up or in one place so it wasn’t that difficult to pack or take school stuff with us for our – what was now going to be a – long weeks in PP.
Once we got to Phnom Penh there were no more nights of contractions and things seem to settle down. I decided that Maria just really liked being in Phnom Penh. Thankfully before we left Josh was able to set up everything for the Bible translators to work with him online, so he was able to continue working with the Bible translators on the translation while living in the CMA guest house.
So, we started our long stay at the CMA guest house with a thought that Maria could be born at any time, and though there were contractions every night there were never those pre-birth contractions like I had had back at home that I feel like we’re going to send me into preterm labor.
Picture at 37 Weeks