The pregnancy and birth of Daegan

This was a our fourth pregnancy in 2 1/2 years. We lost our first baby at 11 weeks. We then got pregnant right away with Mollee, 12 months and 9 days later Tavis was born. Then I was pregnant again. I was very sick from the beginning. I wanted to keep it a secret, but Jason made a snide remark at Sunday lunch that I was eating for two about 24 hours after I took a pregnancy test. My due date was March 19th.


I remember the nausea was bad. I lived on phenegran. It was very helpful, but made me very tired. I was in a constant cycle of napping a lot because of this and then having insomnia at night. The nausea lasted until about 16 weeks.


I stopped nursing Tavis when I was 15 weeks pregnant. Not because I had to, but because he lost interest. I felt the baby flutterings at 15 weeks, but no major movement until 18 weeks. My first ultrasound was at 16 1/2 weeks and they said it was maybe a boy? The placenta seemed really low, so another ultrasound was scheduled for 4 weeks later. At 20 weeks we got "definitely a boy" and the placenta was fine.


I'm assuming it was because my uterus muscles never had a chance to recuperate, but I had severe groin pain from 22 weeks until birth. It required a maternity belt and I hated sleeping (but loved sleeping) because that made it worse. With this pregnancy, I had my first experience with heartburn and was given a prescription for that at 31 weeks.


I was severely uncomfortable the last trimester of this pregnancy. I had tons of Braxton Hicks (again, told it was because my babies were too close together) that started at 33 weeks. The baby was extremely active and seemed to drop at 34 weeks.


On a Sunday night, at 37 1/2 weeks I went to the hospital after contractions all day - for two hours they were 5 minutes apart. Jason had the stomach flu, but I didn't want to risk not getting to the hospital, so we took the kids to Papa and Grandma's around 9:00 and went to the hospital. I was monitored for an hour and the contractions stopped and I was only 1cm. They sent us home.


On Thursday, at 38 weeks, I saw the midwife and she stripped my membrane and ordered me to be induced on Sunday (3/9/03) because of my severe discomfort. Friday I began having contractions at dinner time. At 10 PM, we decided to get the kids up and take them to my parents again and head to the hospital. After sitting there for an hour - no change and no contractions. False Labor Again! Since I was supposed to be induced the next night, they decided to keep me and start my antibiotics.


I received Pitocin at 9:00 AM and the midwife broke my water at 10:15. By noon I was 6cm. Daegan MacLeod was born at 2:35 after only two pushes. Jason actually delivered Daegan (after he wouldn't even cut the cord with Mollee) and I got to cut the cord. He weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. no tearing, no problems. I got to nurse at 3:00.

Life with three babies (Mollee was 2 and Tavis was 15 months) was a bit hectic, but somehow we survived. I am very thankful for pictures, otherwise, this time might have been 'just a blur'.

When Daegan was 5 months old, we bought a house (our current home) that was trashed! We lived with my parents for a few months while Jason spent his evenings fixing up our new home. Somewhere in that time with my parents, we got pregnant again. More on that story in July!