I ran the combine on Monday from about 9 AM- 5:30 when we had to leave for the t-ball game, really only moving around when I needed to climb slowly down the ladder and pop a squat. Monday night my feet hurt pretty bad, and they were pretty swollen. Okay, who am I kidding my toes looked like vienna sausages when I laid my head down on my pillow Monday night at 11. Then Tuesday at 4 AM I woke up frantically to a charlie horse in my calf, it was awful and lasted a few minutes! I had a routine OBGYN appt scheduled for Tuesday morning, so I had some questions for him about some pressure I was feeling and so on.
My Mom and Cooper went with me so that Kregg could stay on the combine, which was super nice to have them both there. The Doctor asked the normal questions and then asked what in the world I had been doing, perhaps he saw my vienna sausages? I replied "its harvest, I'm running the combine" he frowned and said "for how long" I said "yesterday it was only 8 hours but it'll vary between 8-12 hours the next three weeks as we just got started"
He had stopped writing in the chart by this point and was just staring at me with a unpleasant facial expression. He said "Katie, if you don't want to cause yourself harm or the baby harm, you cannot do that. You cannot sit all day without moving around and expect yourself and your baby to get the proper blood flow that it needs. I'm telling you from the look of your legs and feet after sitting all day yesterday with 90* bent knees and a 90* bent waist that you will end up on bed rest and you will develop clots or pre eclampsia, i've seen it time and time again."
This didn't make me happy, besides the fact that my dad already warned me of this...I didn't want to sit harvest out. Remember, I did meals to the field for SIX years before I got to run the combine last year...I didn't want to give that up now that I finally got to run a machine for the guys that rarely let girls run the machines. (Besides, I had ZERO issues with Coopers pregnancy, nothing hurt nothing swelled, heck I did two meals to the field per day by myself at 7 months pregnant and it didn't bug me a bit. Well, they are right when they say every pregnancy is different, this one sure has been!) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I was frowning by this point and not saying a whole lot, just answering his questions and trying to not cry or roll my eyes like a 12 year old girl.
Remember: I LIKE to be helpful, I LIKE to be needed, I mean who doesn't!? Especially on the farm to my hubby.
Well, I may have been having a pity party the past two days since being put on the bench for the year...and thats when this popped up--->
You see...last year at harvest Kregg & I really really wanted a baby, we had wanted one for a while and we prayed and prayed to get pregnant.. and all of a sudden on the combine I got super nauseous, I smelled smoke (just like I did with cooper) and a few more pregnancy symptoms appeared within two days. I thought YES! It happened- God gave us a second baby! But something seemed off, I tested and it was negative, I tested the next day and negative...by now it should have been positive.
I found a sub for my combine and went to the Dr to figure out what the deal was. A dear friend went with me so i wouldn't have to go alone, a friend that has had lots of babies and is so so special to me.
Well, the doctor did a sonogram and I had high hopes that maybe my tests were faulty, I just knew there was going to be a little peanut show up on the black and white screen. . . instead I had a Corpus Luteum hanging around extra long.
It is simply is what is left of the follicle after a woman ovulates, this is what is responsible for producing progesterone in early pregnancy, it hangs around and helps things develop at the start. AND if the egg isn't fertilized, it ruptures and goes away. Well for some reason mine didn't burst as quick as usual and it was sending all the signs that I was pregnant, without a fertilized egg. . bummer! It did help me not feel crazy because I knew I was having true signs of pregnancy! But that didn't help the fact that I was pretty sad about the no baby part of the appt.
Anyway, long story long...that girl above brought me a dr pepper and cookies the next day on her lunch break, because she's that good to me.
I know that God sees us in everything that goes on in our lives, and I knew God was not impressed with my two day pity party to be benched from the combine for the year. So that photo reminder of where we were last harvest, that was very much needed and oddly appreciated today. Because as I type this I can see my belly bouncing with life, and I am so grateful for the reminder that this isn't an inconvenience...this isn't a set back....this isn't a bad thing at all to be benched..its a blessing! A blessing I would have welcomed last harvest in a heartbeat!
Because TIME has the remarkable ability of peeling back life's layers, revealing to us what really matters...its free but its undoubtedly one of our most valuable currencies. I'm so thankful for this little human growing inside of me, and for the push to sit back and enjoy this short season. Which is exactly what another friend reminded me of on Tuesday after my lecture by my dr, that the season of pregnancy prepares us for whats ahead, for the sacrifices that we will make forever to love the babe in our womb. I have some pretty smart and kind hearted friends don't I!?
Perspective is everything!
I often tell Cooper that we are not lucky, we are blessed.
