The amazing Carmel Tziavrangos, mother to Joshua (3.5), Grace (2) and currently 13 weeks pregnant. Carmel also had a miscarriage in January of last year that really shook her. She has a condition known as Ankylosing Spondylitis, a form of arthritis, that she has to be medicated for. However, she can't take the medications she typically needs during pregnancy, so she has to switch to steroids to treat her illness. The steroids cause her to eat and gain weight which has been a bit of a battle physically even though she'd never struggled with body image before. She's had severe morning sickness in each of her pregnancies which has just subsided with her current baby. Otherwise, her pregnancies have been relatively uneventful. And both of her labors began as inductions after her waters broke and nothing else happened. Joshua was rather large, and she had to have a forceps-assisted delivery, which took her a lot of time to recover from, he also had to stay in the nursery for a bit due to jaundice. Her second delivery was without complication, and she was able to leave the hospital early and transfer to a hotel where the midwives checked in on her, and Joshua was allowed to stay. Both Joshua and Grace self-weaned at 10 months, which was very difficult for Carmel as she'd hoped to continue breastfeeding.
forcep