Mark and Cassey: The ROAD To ROSE

It Took a LONG TIRING 9 MONTHS... BUT YOU WE MADE IT!!!!

In the beginning...
I was...

Exhausted... all the time. Every mom said that would go away once I hit the second trimester, but it did not. I slept, and slept, and slept my life away.... the tired thing got better by about 22 weeks, but it never fully left me.
NEVER SICK. you may have cursed me with amnesia but you did not make me feel bad. I threw up a total of 3 times the entire pregnancy, and they were all within 2 days. Looking back, I truly think I ate something, and that I had a stomach bug. At the time I blamed it on pregnancy because, well, that's just what I blamed everything on...
I DESPISED MEAT. The Smell of meat, the Look of meat, the Thought of meat, made me want to gag! I did not eat a bite of meat the entire pregnancy.... YUCK! (but i eat it now :))
ACNE was terrible, I think you wanted to make me look as awful as possible those 9 months. People always talk about the pregnancy "GLOW"... well, I was not blessed with that (Thank you Rose). I always had the pregnancy pimple. Its much different than the glow.
Swelling was never a problem! I did not swell until the Sunday before I had you. I woke up and my ring finger was BLUE! I could not get my wedding bands off at all! I gained 5 pounds of fluid in 4 days. It took olive oil, a bucket of ice water, lotion, and prayer through the entire church sermon before i finally got my band off my finger. That was painful....
I was a serious Nester. I "wanted" to clean out closets, rearrange furniture, buy curtains, build a fence, redo the bathroom, dust every day, vacuum, install new fans, however; the Tired thing i mentioned before overtook my nesting urges....
About week 30 you discovered this nerve that ran down my left leg. You would position yourself perfectly on it, and it would feel as if someone sent an electrical shock to my knee. I couldn't walk, and it would knock the breath out of me. I would have to push my belly and pop my hips to get you off of it. I'm pretty sure you did permanent damage to the nerve because my left leg still catches when I stand sometimes.
Lower Back Pains came into play during the third trimester. I went to see a chiropractor once a week to realign my back. (don't tell papa). It felt better for about 2 days then I was ready to go back to see him. That instantly went away at week 37 when you flipped into the "GO" position and turned head down. I felt like a new person.
I knew you were going to have long legs from the first time i felt you kick. I knew even more so that you were going to have HUGE feet! You would stand straight up on my bladder and jump... like a trampoline.... I could just imagine you screaming "lets get this party started" while momma pees all over herself running for the bathroom. Its all games to you!
Always easy when I needed you to be. During the second trimester in the month of February, Khaki had open heart surgery, and Phyl had a kidney transplant (all within 48 hours of each other)... talk about a round of Prozac for mom! I have to admit that during the entire month of Feb, this pregnancy gave me no trouble. You were an angel. You hardly kicked. Nothing made me nauseous. I slept great (even on a hospital bed). My back did not hurt. It was like your first gift to me. I will always appreciate how wonderful you were that month.
Sweets... um.. not so much. I was never a big sweet eater the entire pregnancy, but especially not in the first and second trimester. All I really wanted to eat was fruits and vegetables and BREAD and POTATOES. LOTS of carbs.... all the better for packing on those baby pounds!
Weight Gain... since your dying to know... I had gained 24 pounds on May 4th at my Dr. visit, and by May 8th when i checked into the hospital.... I was plus 5 pounds of fluid. SWOLLEN. My hands hurt. My feet hurt. My entire body felt like a cantelope! So.... Total gain of 29 pounds from start to finish!