Welcome Alaina Paige Kim!

Alaina Paige Kim was born Tuesday, 9/15/09 @ 7:01pm.
7 lbs, 12 oz
21 inches long
Fairfax Hospital, Fairfax VA

My water broke at 1am on Tuesday, 9/15/09.
Arrived at Fairfax Hospital @ 2am.
Was 2cm dilated at Triage.
Felt first contraction @ 2:30am.
Received Epidural @ 3:20am.
Was 3cm dilated at 6am.
Was 5cm dilated at 10am.
Received Pitocin @ 10:30am.
Was 8cm dilated at 2pm.
Was 10cm dilated at 4:45pm.
Pushed for a little over 2 hours.
Alaina was born at 7:01pm.

Wow, LONG labor but totally worth it. We feel so blessed to be parents to a healthy and happy baby :-)

38th Week Belly Pics

YIKES, I'm HUGE!! I'm ready to pop out this baby! We had beautiful weather this weekend and we did so much walking. I was literally out all day long walking and waddling. I hope this brings on the labor. Here are some 38th week belly pics. Probably last pics I take of my belly :-)

Home Stretch

What a difference one week makes. At my last appointment, I had horrible red, itchy, burning rashes all over my body. Today, my rashes look so much better. My showers aren't painful anymore and I was able to use my normal soap for the first time in days, instead of that nasty smelling pine tar soap. The redness is not as flared, and the itchiness isn't as severe. I had another doctor's appointment today, this time with my favorite doctor. It went so well. He took his time to talk to me about my PUPPPs and everything else pregnancy. I'm in the home stretch now and can go into labor any day. I've gained 33 lbs so far this pregnancy. He felt my belly and said the baby's head is still very low. He also checked me and said I was 60% effaced (thinning of cervix) and a little over 1cm dilated. This doesn't mean that I'll deliver tomorrow or even very soon because everyone is different. Some people, especially in first pregnancies, can go weeks with this before delivering, but I can't help but feel positive that my body is progressing and getting ready for the delivery. I hope she comes sooner than later. At my last follow-up sonogram, I was measuring at 9/17/09 due date, 8 days ahead. My doctor said this means he does not want me to go too over my due date of 9/25/09. Since the baby is measuring big, it's safer and even a more of a reason to deliver the baby closest to the due date, and not go too past the due date. Hopefully, this baby is NOT late, though. I can only wait and see. All I know is that I'm planning on doing a lot of walking this weekend!

My Support System

I feel so grateful to have such a wonderful group of friends. I usually don't see myself as a closed person, as I feel I'm pretty open when it comes to sharing my feelings and emotions....but lately, when it came to real difficult situations, I started to see myself keeping to myself more. This is not a good thing for me. I noticed when I share my feelings and talk it out, it makes me feel so much better. It really feels nice to open up and get it all out. I felt hesitant to express my feelings to certain people because of what they would think of me. I was afraid they would see me as another one of those crazy hormonal preggers, and I didn't want that kind of attention. I should've known better to think that way, though. Whether they do or not, i have a great group of people in my inner circle that will stand by me and support me no matter what, and we can all laugh about it when it's all over.

The PUPPPs is one example of all this. Dealing with it was so difficult for me in the beginning. I did tell a couple of people when I started to get mild symptoms, before knowing what it was, but when it really hit me hard at the most severe time, I kept it to myself and I was an emotional wreck. Only Shawn saw me go through it at home, and I did not share it with even the closest friends. I felt embarrassed, depressed, and felt scarred. As I sat at home trying to figure out "why me" and crying over it, I decided to change it around and be open about it. I called a few of my friends and opened up about it. Then, I went and blogged about it. In just a matter of a few phone calls and a blog entry, I felt so much better. I cried and whined about it, but I got nothing but supportive words in return. This is what I call real friends and my support system. As more people found out about it by either word of mouth or reading my blog, I started to get pours of emails, IMs, and phone calls with nothing but kind words and advice. Even the simple "thinking of you" emails made me feel so much better. I want to thank each of you that have offered to come by, hang out, and even offered to bring me food! It was a difficult week but I feel so much better now overall. My skin looks a lot better and the itching episodes have lessened. I feel like I can go out now without feeling embarrassed and scarred. I actually feel almost back to normal again. My last days of pregnancy might not be as bad afterall. I only wish for a healthy baby at the end. Thanks for making it all better for me!

Updates

The increased dose of Prednisone steriods seems to be helping a little. I'm suppose to call the doctor today to let them know how I'm doing, and my decision on the induction, I guess. I am definitely not going through with the induction, I've made up my mind and I'm set against it. I'm not even going to call that awful doctor anyway because I really don't want to have to talk to him again. I'm just going to wait 'till my next appointment on Friday with my favorite doctor at the practice. I'm doing a bit better with the Prednisone steriods, and the rashes don't look as flared up and red, and the itch has gone down a little. I've also been using this soap called Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap that I read online has helped some people get better. I'm still itching but not as bad as last week. I've been feeling okay during the day apart from a few itchy episodes here and there, but I'm the most miserable during the middle of the night. Every night for the past week or so, I've been awaken by the awful itch, usually around 3am-4am and I can't sleep for a couple of hours. I try my hardest not to scratch myself to death but the itch is unbearable at times. I probably will have some permanent scars from this. I've been using ice packs to cool the area, even in the middle of the night. Last night I was up literally from 4am to 7am, trying to control the itch and acid reflux (another symptom that I have now). Boy, when people told me the last weeks of pregnancy was the hardest, were they not kidding!! The combination of the PUPPP itch, leg cramps, acid reflux symptoms, urges to pee, and menstral-like cramps all night long is depriving me of sleep! All I want to do is sleep. I miss those days when I could sleep for 8 hours straight. I guess that won't be happening for awhile.

My last day physically going into the office was 9/3/09. I am still working but working from home until 9/16 or whenever I deliver (whichever comes first). If I still haven't delivered by 9/16, I will still take the rest of the time off to rest and not have to deal with the stress of work until I deliver. Not having to go into the office is so nice, and the timing is good since I don't really feel like seeing anyone with all these rashes on my skin. My coworkers also threw me a work baby shower last week. I was overwhelmed with all the work they put into giving me such a wonderful work baby shower. They decorated the conference room with tons of pink banners and balloons, cake, ice cream, punch, and gave me a Babies-R-Us gift card worth $375! I was so shocked, I can't believe so many people pitched in for the gift card. I felt so thankful to have such wonderful coworkers, but I will not miss working for 12 weeks! :-)

Update on PUPPP

I had a very disappointing appointment yesterday regarding my PUPPP. I go to a pretty big practice with about 5-6 OB/GYN doctors and unfortunately, I couldn't get an appointment in with my doctor of choice yesterday. I ended up with my least favorite doctor for my appointment. He walks in the room and doesn't even remember that he prescribed me the Prednisone steriod for my PUPPPS the other day. I started to explain and talk about what I had been going through and he pretty much cuts me off and asks if I've seen a dermatologist. No one told me that I needed to see one so "NO", I have not. All he says is that I need to go see a dermatologist and doesn't even take a good look at my rashes. He seemed distant and did not seem to care for my PUPPPs at all. I felt like he was trying to rush us out of there again, like he always does. Out of no where, my tears started to flow down and I was crying uncontrollably in front of the doctor. I felt so stupid, but I could not help it at that time. I felt like he did not care and was not going to do anything for me. Well, it's a good thing Shawn went with me to this appointment. He took charge and was firm on what he wanted the doctor to do. First, with only a couple of weeks left of my pregnancy, there is pretty much no way of getting an appointment in with a dermatologist any day soon. Shawn's had many experiences of dealing with dermatologists since he has eczema on this face. He asked the doctor to make his own calls to dermatologists that he knows or can refer us to, and make an appointment for us. Also, with the 3 day holiday weekend coming up, there is basically nothing I can do until next week, at best. Even though I've been downplaying this PUPPPs, I've had a very difficult time dealing with this the past week. I've been an emotional wreck and haven't really talked to anyone about it and trying to deal with it myself, but it's making me more and more emotional and even feeling depressed at times. I can't help wonder why I have to be that 1% that had to get diagnosed with this, but I'm also trying to look at all this on the brighter side and am thankful that it's not something that is harmful to the baby's or my health.

Ok, back to my appointment. The doctor made a call to a dermatologist he knew and all he's going to do is increase the Prednisone steriod dose. He said the dermatologist wants me to get a higher dose since the very low dose that I've been prescribed isn't doing much for me. I feel hesitant to take a higher dose, but I have been assured from both him and my sister (she's a pharmacist) that it's safe to take. So, I start taking the new dose today and see if it'll help with the itching and redness.

Doctor also said he would induce me next week if I don't feel better (because delivery of the baby is the only real cure), but after much thought, I think I would rather suffer with this for a bit longer to have the baby come when the baby is ready to come. I know an induction is ok, especially after 38 weeks, but I would feel awful if the baby came out and was not fully developed and has to go to NICU because of a choice that I made. I know the chances of anything being wrong with the baby at 38 weeks are slim, but there is always that "chance". I kept going through the many scenarios in my head and I know I'm making the right choice. As much as this PUPPPs have taken a toll on my body, physically and emotionally, I am going to try my best to handle it on my own and will decide against induction. I'm hoping the increased dose of Predisone will help in the next few days, too. And who knows, she might decide to enter this world early on her own.

PUPPP (Pregnancy Itch)

Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy (PUPPP)

About a week or so ago, I started to notice a small area on the lower part of my belly turning red. It looked like red lines and bumps and it started to itch. I didn't think anything of it and thought maybe it might be some stretch marks appearing. In about 3 days, it spread all over the bottom part of my belly and the itch got stronger. I had a doctor's appointment that day so I showed the doctor and all they said was to get some over the counter cortisone itch cream and apply it and it should help. Well, a couple of days after that, the hive-like rashes spread all over my belly to other areas of my body like my legs, arms, feet and chest. I started to freak out because the spread happened so fast, I couldn't keep track of all the new rash spots I was developing. Instead of calling my doctor on a Sunday night, Shawn and I started to research online and it sounded just like PUPPPs.

PUPPPs is not very common, but the most common skin problem during pregnancy and it only happens to about 1% of pregnant people, usually at the very end of their pregnancy. It's a very itchy hive-like rash that starts from the belly, then spreads to other parts of the body. It does no harm to the baby or mother. There are remedies and medicine to try to control the itch and redness, but it does not fully go away until after you deliver the baby. Some people with severe cases end up getting induced early because they can't stand the condition any longer. The condition usually happens to people that are carrying multiples or big babies, about 70% of them carry boys, and usually only happens in first pregnancies.

I called my doctor on Monday morning and described what I had, and he said it definitely sounded like PUPPPs. He wanted me to get an over the counter Benadryl oral. I took that but it did nothing for my rashes. All it did was make me drowsy. So, I called back the next day and he prescribed me Prednisone steriod to take. I was unsure about taking this steriod while pregnant but I was assured that this will be fine to take during pregnancy since my baby is already full-term and it's such a low dose. Well, today is the second day and my rashes have not gotten any better. I know it's not suppose to make it go away until after I have the baby, but it's suppose to help with the itching and I can't really tell whether it's working yet. I'm still itchy but I just try to not think about it and scratch myself to death. I'll continue to take it cause I've read it can really help. I also have my next doctor's appointment tomorrow morning so I'll have more info on this.

If anyone has experienced this or know someone that's had it, please email or call me. I would love to hear stories on it. My case is pretty severe in my opinion and I need to really talk to my doctor about this tomorrow. I was surprised to hear from two coworkers and a friend who said they knew someone that had this. I was able to get some good information from them already.

In any case, I only have a few weeks left till I deliver. If my doctor suggests I get induced earlier, I think I am going to consider it. This PUPPP condition has been really hard on me physically and emotionally, and it's just another added reason why I want this baby out! I was thinking of posting some pictures but don't want to scare anybody. It's actually pretty disturbing the way my skin has changed in the past several days. I wonder why I'm the unlucky 1% that had to get this. I'll post an update after my appointment tomorrow. Wish me luck!