On episode 40, we have Tracy from Michigan on to share her pregnancy at 41. She is married with two kids. She wasn’t planning to get pregnant, but her and her husband discussed a second child. When she was almost 39, she was scheduled for a procedure that required a negative pregnancy test because a x-ray machine was used. The procedure was canceled when her test was positive. She was four months away from her wedding day. She had already postponed the wedding once because she found out she was pregnant with her son. She miscarried at eight weeks and gave up on the thought of having a second child.
I feel like I truly trained and prepped myself to be ready if God blessed us with another child…
Before her 40th birthday, she was in the hospital for two weeks with covid pneumonia. After her birthday, she decided she would start focusing on herself. She wanted to build strength to take care of her three-year old son. A few months later, Tracy just felt off one day while she was working. She thought she might be pregnant because she felt really weird even though her cycle wasn’t late. She had three days left. She decided to stop on the way home to get a pregnancy test, anyway. There was a very faint second line. She’s taken tests before when there was clearly no line. She told her husband that night she thought she might be pregnant. He suggested taking another test in the morning. It was a little darker the next morning. She was confident she was pregnant at this point. Ironically, the first day she took the test was the day she got back to her pre-pregnancy weight from her first pregnancy. She felt like it was her body’s way of telling her she was ready.
My pregnancy at 41 was night and day compared to my first at 37.
This pregnancy was night and day compared to her first at 37. She was depressed during her first pregnancy because she was worried about the weight gain. She thought that way throughout the pregnancy. This time, her mindset was so much different because she truly trained and prepped herself for another child.
My dreams are coming true!
At 20 weeks, right before Easter she found out the gender through email and recorded themselves opening the email. Secretly after the miscarriage, she really wanted a girl. She wanted a daughter to encourage and empower her. Tracy wanted to know so badly. She wondered if she would be a boy mom. She wanted to know because she had some boy stuff and some gender neutral stuff saved. If it’s a girl, she wanted the ribbons and bows! She wanted the princess stuff! The video played and popped up with pink confetti. She immediately said, “Thank you. Thank you, Lord.” She was so happy and relieved she was going to get her girl. She always dreamed of having a boy and a girl with a boy being older so he could protect his younger sister.
At Easter, her sister made shirts that were toy story themed. Her son stood in a box that said toys. He was dressed as woody and his shirt said, ‘you got a friend and me, my best friend coming’ with the date 11-20-22 below it. Each of her family members had to open an egg with a onesie inside that said ‘my best friend’ with a picture of Jessie on it.
Tracy started at the same doctor she went to with her son, but it was a practice where she rotated between eight doctors. After she found out she was pregnant, her and her husband started talking about moving closer to family. She was three to three and a half hours from her parents and her in-laws. At 24 weeks, she moved three and half hours to a different state to be closer to her in-laws. She was nervous to find a new doctor. She reached out to her sister-in-law and decided to use her doctor that delivered both of their kids. She was happy to learn the practice only had four doctors.
Tracy didn’t understand why the doctor insisted on inducing her. She was much healthier this time around, she felt amazing, and everything on the scans showed there was nothing wrong. She wanted to go into labor naturally. She met the last doctor in the practice and really wanted to understand why she needed to be induced. She wanted to know the facts and wanted it to be a conversation about her pregnancy instead of just being told. The doctor explained to her those were the studies that were done. The doctor agreed her scans looked amazing and she was already three centimeters dilated. She agreed there was no reason to induce her and was comfortable with her going up to 42 weeks. That meant Tracy would be induced the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, if she made it that far.
She worked out until 38 weeks. She worked out six to seven days a week. Once she got to 38 weeks, the baby started to drop and that pressure was too much to continue her regular exercise routine. After that, she walked to keep her body moving from there. She was walking four or five days a week. She wanted to be able to have a healthier pregnancy. She did a lot of low squats to keep her legs strong. She did yoga once a week just to continue stretching her body. This pregnancy was absolutely amazing. She absolutely loved it.
Tracy could not stand the smell of meat during pregnancy. If it was already cooked and she didn’t smell it being cooked, she could eat it. She’s the one who cooks most of her food, so it rarely worked out that way. She didn’t change anything in her diet. Towards the end, she ate six dates a day. She learned dates help expand the cervix and her doctor agreed her cervix was ready. She also drank an aloe concentrate, which she believes helped kept her digestive system moving to prevent constipation. She truly stuck with her nutrition, her fitness, and it was a night and day pregnancy from her first pregnancy. She carried the baby differently too and she felt better. It was an amazing experience.
By the time she hit 39 weeks, she was ready. She tried everything possible to start labor herself. She tried sex. She had been eating spicy foods for a week and a half and nothing happened. She had been thinking she was going into labor for the past four weeks. She had already lost her mucus plug. She was feeling lots of pressure. She was 41 weeks when labor started on a Saturday morning. That Saturday felt different because once she sat down to relax, the contractions didn’t go away. She had a feeling she was going have the baby that day. At about 10 o’clock she started having contractions when she decided to start timing them. For the next two hours it was every hour. Then it went to 30 minutes. She’s 45 minutes from the hospital, so she decided to go when the contractions were 15 minutes apart. She had everything packed for weeks waiting for labor to start. Every bump on the way made her contractions go closer and closer together. By the time she got to the hospital, the contractions were three to four minutes apart. Once she was checked in her room, the contractions were about a minute apart. Football was playing on the tv in her room, but she didn’t really care. She was focusing on breathing through the contractions. She was also texting and updating everyone on her progress. She was at six centimeters when the doctor decided to break her water to speed things up. Once her water was broken, the intensity went from zero to 10. Intense pain went straight to her back even though she didn’t have any back pain prior to that. She wasn’t sure if she was going to make it at this point. She was starting to lose focus. She asked if it was too late for an epidural. It was now or never. She thinks the anesthesiologist hit a nerve because she almost jumped off the bed. She worried it was the wrong choice. When the nurse came back, she felt like she need to have a bowel movement. The nurse knew she was close. The doctor came in to confirm she was ready, but the doctor wanted her to try a practice push. The doctor and nurse all yelled at her to stop with the practice push while they rushed to get things ready for the delivery. When everything was ready, the doctor told her to push on the next contraction. Midway through the push, she took one big inhale to breathe through the push. Her daughter was delivered in that one push weighing eight pounds, three ounces. The doctor told her it was the fastest delivery she’s ever witnessed once pushing started.
Tracy’s recovery was amazing. She didn’t take any medication for pain, even Tylenol. She wasn’t in any pain. She didn’t even feel like she just gave birth. She believes it was from working out. She breastfed her son for ten and a half months and had to stop because she got sick. This time, she wants to breastfeed for a year, but she doesn’t want to pressure herself. As long as she still has milk, she wants to nurse. She focused on making sure she was getting healthy fats for her milk to production. Mentally, she struggled with depression. She reached out to a few friends who have multiple kids and a lot of them kept telling her, going from one to two was harder than two to three. She reached out to a friend who also struggled postpartum depression. Tracy tried to get back on a routine, but it’s hard with a newborn. She started to journal by writing her daily gratitude. She started journaling after she got out of the hospital when she was sick. She has a three-step process and found the morning works the best for her: She writes at least four things she’s grateful for from the day before. Then she writes four “I am…” statements. Last, she writes things in the future that she wants be grateful and blessed for.
Resources:
Over 40 Fabulous and Pregnant on Instagram
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