38 Weeks With Baby #4

Chelsi, Maternity, The Schultzes

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* So many thanks to our CSP Family Photographer, Chelsi, for my maternity pictures, to Lindsey Regan Thorne of Be Pretty for my hair and makeup and to Chrissy Winchester for letting me borrow her gorgeous dress for my shoot!


Today I am 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant…and officially on maternity leave. I’m grateful to have wrapped up the big things with work, to enjoy a few slow days of what remains of pregnancy and reflect a little on my time carrying baby #4.

Before I started writing this post, I went back through my archives to reminisce about my previous pregnancies. With both Crew and Grey’s pregnancies, I wrote posts around the 38/39th week mark and with both (see them here and here), I spoke of the sadness I was experiencing that it would be my last time carrying a baby in my belly…ha! But seriously, y’all, this is it this time…I mean it! πŸ™‚ The Schultz baby train is stopping at 4. And of course, while I am super excited to meet this new little person, it is definitely bittersweet knowing that the season of pregnancy is over. As difficult as pregnancy is physically and for me, emotionally…and despite all of the complications I always seem to have…I’m truly going to miss it.

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FINDING OUT

I wrote a blog post when we announced this pregnancy (read it here), but the short of it is that we had just arrived home from a trip to the beach and were unpacking the car. In the midst of duffle bags and beach toys and sand and coolers, I ran upstairs to take a test. The word “pregnant” showed up right away. I went downstairs and left it on the countertop for Geoff to find. Turns out, Boone found it first and said to me in front of Geoff, “what’s this?”. Ha!

BOY OR GIRL?

Geoff and I share a tradition of heading to the mall after the anatomy scan ultrasounds of our babies to choose an outfit for it. This time we had the ultrasound tech write the gender in an envelope and brought it with us. While sitting in the middle of Southpark Mall, I opened up the envelope…fully expecting to see that we were having another boy…to see those words “It’s a GIRL” and turned it around to show Geoff. Our then two year old, Grey, called it. Every time we asked him if there was a girl baby or a boy baby in Mama’s tummy, he never flinched and always answered with a definitive “a girl baby”. πŸ™‚

GENDER REVEAL WITH THE KIDS

While we truly would have been happy with either a boy or a girl for our fourth, if we had to choose, we wanted a girl just so Crew could have a sister. Telling the kids that this baby was a girl will forever be one of my best life memories. Crew’s reaction when we lined them up on the couch and blasted pink confetti on them was literally the best ever (see the pics here). She LOST her mind. πŸ™‚

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PREGNANCY HIGHS AND LOWS

Mostly, I am just super thankful that God has protected me and this baby through this pregnancy and has allowed me to carry her to term (not to mention, given me the time I needed to get all of my work done!). With my first pregnancy, I delivered my son Boone at 36 weeks and 5 days via c-section due to pre-eclampsia and a life threatening complication called HELLP Syndrome (you can read his birth story here). I then went on to have two complication-free VBACS for Crew and Grey’s pregnancies, but not without experiencing extreme anxiety that I was going to develop HELLP again. I was a mess in both of those pregnancies…especially toward the end….crying and having panic attacks all of the time. I definitely think I had some legitimate PTSD going on. This pregnancy has been different. Sure, I’ve had a few moments of panic at one point or another, but overall, I feel like God has delivered me of the anxiety I’ve had in the past. I’ve had a peace that I didn’t have with the others and for the most part, have really been able to enjoy this pregnancy. And for that, I’m entirely grateful.

I have, however, had a few things going on that haven’t been ideal. For one, this is the second time I’ve had gestational diabetes. After I had Grey, my blood sugars didn’t completely return to normal as they are “supposed to”, so when I got pregnant, I just went straight to the diabetes center. So it’s been a lot of finger pricks and insulin shots and extra doctor’s visits. Everything has been looking great. With the GD diagnosis comes a lot of extra appointments, including ultrasounds. Beginning in early January, I’ve been having regular ultrasounds to check my fluid levels and to keep an eye on growth/movement of baby. Literally every week I would go in, this girl would have flip flopped up and down….breech position, head down, breech position, head down. The biggest problem with her being breech is that I also have this fun little condition called Thrombocytopenia, which for me, is pregnancy induced low platelets. I’ve had this with Crew and Grey’s pregnancies as well. Basically, if my platelets go below 100 when it’s time to deliver, not only will I not have the option of an epidural if I want one, but if I need a c-section (for any reason, but if she is breech), I will not be able to be given a spinal and will have to go under anesthesia and without Geoff by my side. Definitely not preferable. πŸ™ At the beginning of pregnancy, my platelets were around 217, but have been dipping lower each week. This week they are down to 116. I would love your prayers specifically for my platelets to drop no further and even go back up again! Thankfully, last week AND this week baby has at least been head down, so at this point, a c-section isn’t imminent. Stay, baby, STAY!

Sorry for all of the medical issues talk, y’all! All in all, I feel really good physically and am at peace about how this will all shake out. God has written this pregnancy and birth story already…my hands are open and I’m going to continue to fight to choose His peace that is already in me. We’ll be seeing you soon, little baby girl (name still TBD…yikes!).

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Cheyenne Schultz

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