Settle in, this is a boomer.
By: Kelsey Cannon
Tags: Baby, Women, Pregnancy, Blessings, Surprise

Settle in, this is a boomer.

The year 2020 has been an iconic year for me and here’s why. We started this year with high hopes and self-growth. We were absolutely determined to make this year great. And then the world changed for everyone… because COVID.

My son had ear tubes placed on March 17th and I was laid off the very next day. I work in childcare and when everyone else loses their job or must work from home that means they don’t need daycare anymore.

So here we are taking our staycation in the living room for what we thought would only be a couple of weeks. And then a couple of weeks turned into a couple of months..

Here’s where the story gets crazy. Let’s talk about birth control. Now while that seems like it has nothing at all to do with this story you’ll understand why in just a moment. I have a one year old boy born February 2019 and ever since he was born I’ve been on birth control. But, thanks to COVID and the every changing schedules of the entire world my birth control “expired” at the end of June. While that wasn’t a big deal for us because just like everything else this year we will adapt to the change so to say. The bigger picture was painted 45 days later when I noticed a little something just hadn’t arrived yet. Mother. Nature.

At this point we had made it to the beginning of august and I already knew what we were heading into without even taking a test. I made a quick call to the drs office to see if I could be seen ASAP as I had NO IDEA the specifics of our situation. Here’s the setback, you can’t see your OB/GYN without a pregnancy confirmation done in office and a blood panel taken. Great, no problem schedule it! She couldn’t schedule that until September 15th.. ANOTHER month and a half later. So if your keeping track that’s three months from the point of expiration on birth control.

September 15th: intake appointment takes place. Definitely pregnant. Which I already knew. Weight taken: 143, awesome, also no surprise. I typically weigh around 135, so I’d only gained 8 pounds after sitting on the couch for 6 months and being pregnant for roughly 3 months of that time. Or so I thought.

Without having a last cycle date because I don’t have those, thank you BC. We had NOTHING to estimate this gestation so an ultrasound was ordered for the following week. September 25th. And I would finally see my dr directly after.

I will be visiting this appointment alone because due to new COVID policies no visitors or children are allowed in the office. I check and go straight to my ultrasound. We jump right into the appointment and get straight to business apparently because the first words out of her mouth were “well this appointment just changed from a gestation estimation to an anatomy scan.” Instant. Panic.

She returns from her computer and starts taking multiple measurements and photos. Here. And there. If you know anything about a pregnancy timeline then you’ll probably remember that an anatomy scan takes place around 20 weeks. Twenty. Weeks. As these thoughts are racing through my mind and trying to place my finger on when or how this could’ve happened I also remember that I made this appointment 3 months ago because they couldn’t squeeze me in any sooner.

The tech asks me how far along I thought I was and while I have no idea what to tell her because I just simply don’t know. I could only tell her about how pregnant I felt and I took a wild guess at about 20 weeks. Let’s stop there and reflect on one thing now before it’s asked later. Why didn’t I feel it?! This is my second pregnancy, so when I started feeling movement about 2 weeks ago I initially thought that I could feel movement sooner this time. This is only my second baby and with my first I felt movement around 18 weeks. Sooo if you add 18+2 that’s 20. And at 20 weeks they do an anatomy scan. Now jumping back to reality.

She laughed at my answer and said “how about 36.5 weeks.”

Are. You. Serious?

I couldn’t breathe. And she could see that it was written clear across my forehead. Before I knew it I was flipped to my side and she ran out of the room. Leaving me alone on a table. Thirty. Six. Weeks. Pregnant. Where was this baby hiding?! She returned to the room with water to calm me down and she returned to her machine ready to complete her measurements and photos. She then asked if I wanted to know the gender? Well of course! I only have 4 weeks give or take to plan for a baby. A BABY! While I still have a one year old at home who’s still practically a baby also!! AND! nobody even knows we’re expecting! I wanted an ultrasound photo to make that cute announcement everyone seems to be making these days. Alright, back to the gender, which seems to be difficult for her to find considering she’s DIGGING into my side at this point to try and find. Oh! And I should also add, I don’t even have a belly bump to show for this baby. Just 8 pound of weight gain that’s been added somewhere on this body that I clearly know nothing about anymore. This room is spinning and I am about to pass out. Again. She flips me back to my left side and closes down her machine. She then tells me she is unable to to determine the gender because this baby is hiding under my ribs and against my spine. Which answers my question on where he’s hiding.

She takes me to an exam room where I wait to see my dr. At this time I’ll add that my dr also works with my mother in law and sister in law here at this hospital, so we know each other a little more personally than just patient to dr. Anyhow, he enters the room moments later and all he can do is laugh and shake his head. And I’m here sitting on this exam bed absolutely terrified. My body is about to be placed through a ringer of tests and procedures because we now have to play catch up for all the time we’ve missed. And not to mention I don’t even have time to mentally prepare for the delivery of this baby.

Now here comes the questions they ask at every appointment.

Smoking? No, never. Had any drinks? No, thank goodness! (I don’t drink anyhow) Under any stress?? Ummm yeah! Now I am. Who wouldn’t be?! Feeling okay? No. Terrified. But physically I feel great! Definitely not 36 weeks pregnant for sure.

By the way he still thinks this is humorous.

He said “okay, see you on Monday, I want another ultrasound for a few more measurements we missed today. I heard about all the excitement you had in there”

So that’s it?.. no tests? No more blood draws??

Nope. No tests, we don’t have time for all of that. Your healthy, no look great, not hardly any weight gain and none lost at all so your obviously doing great. No glucose test I don’t think it’s needed at this point.

Woohoo! Now I just get to explain to everyone that I’m pregnant. Which won’t be a big deal because what grandmother doesn’t want another baby to love on? They’ve only been ready for more babies since as long as I can remember. Let’s just hope they’re sitting down when we tell them.

Back on Monday for my second ultrasound, and maybe we can see the gender this time around because I have two very impatient grandmas who are antsy to buy all the cutesy things. Diving right into the ultrasound on the baby’s heart. Over here and over there. Almost done. And still can’t see what the gender of this baby is. Sneaky little thing.

I see my dr shortly after and he comes in and sits down and says “let’s have a baby next week”

NEXT WEEK???!!!!

Yep, baby is measuring at 7 pounds already today. After weighing only 6.5 on Friday. (Today is Monday) and your just simply out of room and that’s a risk we aren’t willing to take this time around.

(My son who was born just last year was stuck against my pelvic bone and had to be pulled out)

Okay. Great. I’m having a baby next week. I have ONE week to finish preparing for this baby. I have all my baby gear from my son it just needs set up. There’s just one thing important missing here! I don’t know whether to buy clothes and bows or to wash boy clothes that I already have!!! Yikes.

Jumping forward to my next appointment and I have him agreed to give me just one more week. Baby hasn’t moved down any further, or dropped so to say, and I’m feeling great. He left the decision up to me and personally I didn’t want to be induced if baby wasn’t down and seemingly ready. I go in the following Friday, vitals are great, induction scheduled for Monday morning. (October 19th)

Our weekend was great, the hot rods were in town and we had a night out Saturday watching cars with our boy. We got home late Saturday and put him to bed and took showers to head to bed ourselves. After my shower I just didn’t feel quite right. Not in pain. No contractions. Just didn’t feel quite right. Almost like I was weightless. I cracked it up to be nerves so after a couple of hours I decided I would take another shower and maybe try sleeping on the couch.

As soon as my feet hit the shower floor my water broke. It’s go time!

I called my mom to let her know I was bringing our son over (she lives next door) and called the hospital to let them know I would be there in about an hour. We live in the middle of nowhere 40 miles from the hospital. By the time we made it to the highway to head in to town my contractions started. And boy were they rough. It’s about 4 am. They started just 30 minutes after my water breaking and were already 1.5 minutes apart. Lasting almost a minute long each time. That was by far the slowest drive to town we have ever taken it seems like. I walk in, check in, and head to my triage room while they prepare a regular room for us. After about 15 minutes of waiting a team of nurses came in to move me because they could tell this baby would be here soon. Very. Soon. My contractions were less than a minute apart and were not coming back to baseline in between so no breaks for me. She asked if I wanted to try for an epidural and I said you better hurry with it please. Which by the way you have to have two bags of fluid before that can be placed. After waiting and waiting on fluids to finish and feeling like this baby was about to hit the floor they finally came in for an epidural. Great. Some relief.

Epidural was placed and I was able to lay back in the bed and try to relax. She checked my cervix to let the dr know where we were at. Luckily my dr just happened to be the dr on call that weekend and he was already here and ready to go.

Fully dilated and ready! She rushed to get the dr and to break down my bed. I could’ve had this baby anywhere between home and here!!!! Dr comes in and it’s go time. After several pushes we’ve come to realize this baby is stuck to. He prepares vacuum and gets right down to business. It was a tough go but baby is born just 30 minutes later.

We have have a beautiful baby BOY born at 8:04am

A 4 week pregnancy. A 4 hr labor including delivery. And we have our baby. Born on October 18th, 2020. Conceived BEFORE quarantine and we didn’t even know it.

There is so much in this world that seems flipped upside down for everyone. And while 2020 through things at everyone that nobody ever expected, we are blessed. We have our hands full, but our hearts are overflowing with so much love for these boys.

Count your blessings.