Pregnant and Banded...come join me!

[raynie 0]

Hey everyone.... I just found out that I am pregnant! Yays!

I can't find much ongoing info about pregnancy and being banded, so I would like to start this new thread. It would be comforting to hear from others who are going through this wonderful journey! So if you are pregnant and banded and would like to share your everyday stories it would be greatly appreciated! I cant wait to hear about it and we can grow our bellies together!

~Raynie! :clap2:

[Denise 0]

Congratulations! I am not pregnant yet---but I hope to be soon. I decided to get the band to lose the weight so that I will ovulate and perhaps get pregnant (this was a suggestion from my gyno/obs)

[CandiceNC 0]

Hi Ladies,

I am pregnant 11.5 weeks today. I have my first doctors appointment in 20 minutes actually. I was Banded March 6, 2006 and went from 305 lbs to 193 lbs. Not quite to goal but now being pregnant that is being put off of course. I am thrilled to be pregnant. My doctors told me that I would have a hard time getting pregnant and our first try we succeeded! Wohoo!:clap2: I know of another banded lady, not sure if she is on this board or not, that is 6 months along now.. and doing great.

So Congrats to you and your pregnancy! I am due approx end of January. You?

Candice

[faithmd 14]

congrats to the pregnant bandsters!

There are simply loads of pregnancy threads here. You just have to use the search feature, click on Advanced Seach and then search in Thread Titles Only for

pregnant

pregnancy

baby

etc... you'll find lots of GREAT info from folks here who have been through it.

good luck to all of you!

[randa8218 0]

I also got the lap band in hopes of having a healthy pregnancy down the road. We aren't preventing pregnancy right now, so we will have to see how things go. Before I had surgery we had tried for a year and nothing happened since I wasn't ovulating. I also work for an ob/gyn so it's hard to see all my pregnant patients and not be pregnant myself when we want it so bad, but it will happen when it's suppose to i guess.

[genepha 47]

Hi! I was banded over 5 years ago and went from 290 to 165ish. I became pregnant quickly after we started trying and had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. I did not gain any weight during the first 7 months of pregnancy due to extreme "morning" sickness, however, after about 30 weeks of pregnancy I had a complete unfill and was able to eat much better. I ended up gaining about 16 pounds - not too bad!

Now our baby boy is a healthy 10 month old and I am trying to lose the weight that I gained. :rolleyes

Take care,

Jenn

[juno610 1]

I'm not preggo yet, but we are TTC right now. I asked on the suggestion forum for a Pregnant Bandster forum, but no response as of yet. It's too bad, but I guess our own thread will do for now.

Congrats to those currently pregnant and good luck to everyone else!

[gingersnap 11]

Pregnancy is such a beautiful thing and it is one of the biggest reasons I'm having the surgery. I had my first child a year ago and loved being pregnant...all except for the large roles of fat under my baby bump. I felt so huge and had a taste of what my life could be like if I kept gaining weight. My surgery is scheduled for July 23 and I'm hoping to be at goal in a year and then start trying for another little one.

I want to get these food issues under control to be a better role model and mom for my little girl and have a healthy pregnancy.

I would love to hear more about being pregnant with the band...I think it would be very motivating.

Gingersnap

[raynie 0]

Yays! This is cool....so I will prolly just use this thread till a new post arrives. Gratz to you Candice! I am due March 15th 2008.

Thanks for all the replies.... I will just type away and vent away at all the little miracles that life brings. I would like to see others too.... it will help me stay focused and keep me from going mental!

I would start off by saying that I just read a very depressing book about miscarriages. Ugh! here is a little history of my life- I had two kids with my first husband, then we divorced when they was about 3 and 2 years old. The month we decieded to end the marriage, I had found out that I was pregnant again. I was devastated- but fortunately it ended up in an ectopic pregnancy. I was confused but was happy I wasnt bringing another child into a broken marriage. I was about 19 at this time in life. Very young and dumb Then I met a guy, fell in love and after 3 years of dating him- I ended up pregnant- lost the baby to a miscarriage. I was upset, but kinda relieved again as I knew this guy was not right for me. I figured God again knew what he was doing. So then we broke up after finding out what a bastard he really was. A few years later I find another loser! lol This time I ended up pregnant- and it stuck. Yays! I didnt really know what a loser of a guy this one was yet, I was extremly happy that I could still carry a child! I gave birth to a healthy lil girl. Then 2 years later- same guy- never married him thank god- I got pregnant again! This time a boy! Right before I had this baby, I had lost like 60 pounds from the little girl. boy did I gain weight with that pregnancy! I gained all that 60 pounds back and 30 more to go with it! Putting me at 290 pounds at delivery! I was high risk- no gestatiional diabetes but I had severe Water retention. It was horriable. I also worked up till my 9th month. this whole time I was pregnant with the last child- I fell in love with my boss, who was married. Eww... I never told him though.. I was filled with guilt for being pregnant and falling in love with the non father of this child. Needless to say after the birth the father became not only emotionally abusive to but physically abusive as well. Yikes! I couldnt let my kids grow up like this and split. The same time I was going thru this the boss ended his marriage too. His wife fell in love with some online game friend of hers and had an affair! So we hooked up- and a year latter we married on the anniversary of our first kiss. Aww.... Now this guy is a real winner. He is even a pastors son! And his dad married us. ok anyways- two years into the marriage I got pregnant. 1 week after finding it out I lost the baby. This was extremly a depressing time for me. I had no idea why God would do this. I finally find the great guy, he loves my 4 kids, we have a new house, nice jobs etc. I lost my mind and turned to smoking cigs and an occasional joint.. hehe to clear my head. Ok so that was all two years ago. We are still married! Yays! But at the time of the miscarriage- the ob doc says to relax, no stress, lots of women have miscarriages, its normal etc. Well I tried everything- no luck. I went back into his office a year later- crying cause I still had no baby. So we ran tests. I seemed to be fine. Thats great! I can even feel my ovualtion time- that horriable pain in the ovary- it hurts like hell. Doc says to take some Aleve, I try to tell him that it hurts so bad during this time that sex is not an option! It hurt like hell! lol- we charted my ovulation, my period, everything... we even ran a test to see if my tubes were blocked. Now I am still a huge gal, and my doc suggests trying more excercise and that might increase fertilty. So I go and get the Lap Band done a few months later. This is now Oct of last year- I have not seen the Doc since then, and he has no idea I even did this. So I drop like 30 pounds- the first few months - and get paranoid that what if I get pregnant. So we stop leaving it in'- and then a few more months passes by and I get the baby urge again. So we start trying. At this point I have lost 50 pounds and bam! It worked, but was not really expecting it. It took a few months. I struggled with waiting until I lost all the weight I wanted too lose first so that I could finally be cute, sexy, little pregnant thing with the adorably hard belly that you can actually see the baby moving! hehe I crave for that. But hell, I am 31 now and freaking out about my rotting eggs. I feel like crap i already have the band, I can just loose the weight after the baby is born. Then get the Tummy Tuck. Yeah! This will work.

So here I am .... a day after I find out that I am pregnant freaking out over every little twinge in my tummy thinking that I will have a miscarriage. Maybe I dont have enough nutrients in my system right nw to do this. This saddens me. that dumb book didnt help me any ease my mind about things. I swear I have prayed like a 100 times these past 2 days to God too please let us keep this one! We shall cross our fingers and hope it works!

So I will pretend that everything will be fine up until the day something bad happens if it does. I shouldnt worry over this causing more stress, but at the same time- its hard to get too excited about it too cause of the big let down if the miscarriage does happen. Now what I mean? So whats a girl to do? Just pray and wait I suppose.

So my fears of this pregnancy is limited to just a few-

1- How do I conquer morning sickness without puking? I am so nausious its ridiculous! I never had this before- almost like dry heaves, sweaty feelings, I just want it to end. But I am enjoying it at the sametime too. Wierd. My hubby is currently trying to get me some ins so I can go to the ob, it takes 10 days to process. I cant go back to the Lap Band Dr all the way in Mexico- just to ask about what I can do to prevent throwing up... thats kinda silly. I do not need an unfill, I think I can eat a good size meal still, and I swallowed a prenantal vit with no problem today! Those things are kinda big.

2. How do I get thru the pregnancy with this port thingie in me? Wont that hurt as the baby kicks and moves? Can there be complications? Can it come undone? I am scarred!

3. How do I get thru the labor without pushing down so hard and not busting or inflaming the band itself? I am starting to really freak out about that. I push pretty damn hard, and when your in pain you dont even care what happens as long as the pain ends. I might be afraid that I might black out or something and forget that I even have a lap band. lol that would suck if it broke after I give birth! one of the joys of being pregnant is eating whatever the heck you want too! rofl

maybe I should have a C-section. Thats scarry too.

Ok thats my story....hope you all enjoy! Add on to this if you guys want to keep this going.

~Raynie! *hugs*

[Qvrfullmidwife 0]

I was told that the port will end up resting above where the uterus is at full term pregnancy. When pushing you dont do anything with your stomach itself, you take a deep breath, fil your lungs with air and you are using the diaphragm, not your actual stomach. *Most* (but by no means ALL) mornig sickness involves just nausea not actual vomiting, when you get in to see an OB they may be able to direct you regarding who you can see locally regarding unfills. While they might not want to see you under 'normal' circumstances, when referred by an OB they likely would. The nutritional needs in the first trimester are not caloric but just that, nutritional. A good prenatal will help but if you cannot get the horse pills down then look into a liquid Multivitamin such as floradix brand. Regarding miscarriages...many causes but often we never know. It is believed as many as one in 4 preg ends in miscarriage but there will always be those women who sail through 8 preg with no losses and those of us who lose 3 or 4 before having a successful pregnancy.

(Not yet banded, hope to before the next pregnancy, fully hope to go through a pregnacy or two banded before we stop having children. )

[SeeMeBeMe2 0]

Howdy!! I'm pregers too! Yea! I'm due March 2nd and super excited. I'm also nervous as all get out b/c I'm only 9 weeks today and have been put on bedrest twice due to spotting. I imagine it has a lot to do with stress b/c they were both crazy weeks at work and home. Anywhoo...I've been banded since Feb. 2nd 2007, so not long, but I had lost 50 lbs and have PCOS so was going through some treatment for that including lazer vaporization of the cycts on my ovaries and about a month and half after surgery I got pregnant! It's the best feeling in the world so far even though I'm nausious all day and EXHAUSTED most of the time! lol I had a complete unfill about a month after I found out I was pregnant b/c though I was only suppose to eat 300 more calories I wasn't eating maybe 900 at the time and was having a VERY hard time eating more than that b/c I ate slow, filled up quick and just had no interest in eating more. The unfill helped a lot! I am 25 and this is me and my husbands first child. Super excited, and CONGRATS to all the prego bandsters out there!! KIT!:preggers:

[Daisalana 33]

Wow... well, I plan to start having kids in a couple years, so I like to read these threads.. But raynie, you came up with questions that never crossed my mind. I have heard you get an unfill and life is normal till after the baby is born.. I never thought about where the port goes, or 'pushing' too hard, etc... Got my brain going now I'm paranoid LOL!!

[needaluz 0]

Hey all, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I need to talk to other women in my present situation. I have been banded for a year and a half. I have lost 40 lbs and although I am not at goal, I'm glad to be in a size 18!

I had my son before the band. Last Oct, I conceived again and had a miscarriage at 8 wks. Now Im pregnant again. This time though I am being monitored a bit closely having blood work every other day. They found my progesterone levels were a bit low and now I have to take Promentium.

I have to say... Im worried. I have a flipped port that needs to be repaired but I dont know if they can do it now that Im pregnant. On top of that I have a weird way of eating whereas my first meal of the day cannot be until 1 or 2 pm since I am soooooooooo tight in the morning. I am taking liquid Vitamins and folic acid in the afternoons. The progesterone I take at night since I am very loose then.

I just need a group to talk to. Thanks:wacko:

[panda 0]

Just a minute to reply, but wanted to say that I have a dr's appointment today and I was planning on asking him about pregnancy, how much longer they say I absolutely HAVE to wait, that kind of thing. We were thinking of starting to TTC in April '08, for a Jan/Feb '09 baby (if all goes well.....those dates are based on a dream that I feel God gave me....long story, i know i sound like a loon, but trust me...LOL). And I got to thinking the other day...April is only 8 months away!!! I say "only" because I am determined to be a stay-at-home mom...BUT hubby doesn't make enough yet to cover all our bills :-

Anyway, when i get home from my appointment I'll let you guys know any useful info my doc gives me :-) just wanted to come in and say HI! :-D

[Tazwella 39]

Howdy Ladies!

I'm going to have IVF in August and have a lot of the same questions that y'all have raised. I've lost 30 pounds since being banded. I wanted to lose a little bit more, but now is the time for the IVF!

First, I don't know when I should get unfilled. If you really only need 300 extra calories per day then I wouldn't think you would need to be deflated until your second trimester if you are careful to get the right nutrients. Do y'all agree? I guess I'll talk to my doc about it, but wanted to see what everyone else's experience was.

I appreciate any ideas or suggestion you ladies have since I'm new to this banding and baby stuff. ha

Good luck to you all!