The Very UnNormal Pregnancy

Finally, after almost 3 years our prayers were answered and dreams were on the road to coming true!!! Little did we know, that we were just boarding a roller coaster of crazy ups and downs to get to that dream! We were so excited to be pregnant again and wanted to shout it from the rooftop, but with the previous miscarriage we waited till we were further along to let parents and close family/friends know. After the excitement of letting them know, we had a huge scare one night. At 12 weeks 2 days on a Friday night, I started bleeding and we just knew it was another miscarriage. We went to the er at Willow Creek assuming the worst. But to our surprise after lots of tests and an ultrasound, we were not miscarrying. But I had had a blood clot rupture...aka hemorrhage.  This was a relief to hear but this could cause us to miscarry if it continued to where the placenta was attached, it could cause it to start detaching. I was sent home with the orders to follow up with Dr. Hinton on Monday. Dr. Hinton done another ultrasound and it had gotten a little bigger over the weekend. She put me on partial bed rest and said to come back in a week. We ended up having to come back every week for 2 months until it finally healed. Because of having to go for weekly ultrasound we were able to know weekly that our baby was growing great and found out at 15 weeks that it was a little boy!! At our 20 week ultrasound, they did the routine anatomy exam. During this exam, we finally had the good news that the hemorrhage had healed! Excited from that news we went in to see the doctor next(not our regular doctor this day) not expecting to hear bad news. She said they seen not one but three issues that was alarming and since there was 3 different issues that there was a good chance he may have some chromosomal issues. Alarming things: 1: Calcium deposit on the muscle of his heart. They said this was not to worrisome and that they seen it often. And that there was a good chance it would be gone by the time he was born. 2: 2 vessel umbilical cord instead of 3. They said this could keep him from gaining as much weight at the end of pregnancy, as he would if it was 3. Basically, with only having 2 he was not able to get as much nutrients without the 3rd vessel. 3: No right kidney. As long as his left kidney functioned properly, he can live without his right one. They said he would probably have yearly appointments until he was 18 but he should be fine. Although, the said he shouldnt play contact sports and risk damaging his left/only kidney. Because of him having 3 different issues it alarmed them. Usually when they see several different issues, it causes concern of a chromosome defect. The doctor we seen that day said she wanted us to have a level 2 ultrasound done to look at everything. It was a very scary appointment. So we scheduled our level 2 and anxiously awaited that day. The day finally came and we were so nervous, but knew God was in control. The ultrasound revealed everything the previous one had but nothing more. We video chatted with a nurse and genetics doctor, both from Little Rock. The genetics doctor said she thought everything would be ok and that when he was born she wouldn't be surprised if he was healthy and without any genetic or chromosome defects. We thankfully left that day thinking everything was fine and we were good to go and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy. But just 3 days later, I was sitting on the couch when my water broke. We went to the emergency room. We were only 23 weeks 2 days along and we truly thought we were going to loose the pregnancy. But to our surprise the doctor said he was admitting us to be put on bedrest. I was not contracting so they said we would stay on bedrest until I delivered. And that the next 48 hours would be a deciding factor. Most women whos water breaks delivers within 48 hours. Well like the rest of the pregnancy, that did not happen for us. I was able to stay on bed rest and keep baby boy in and growing for 6 weeks. At 29 weeks to the day, on September 19 baby boy finally entered the world. He was 3lbs 2oz. Laying in bed for 6 weeks was not an easy thing to do but it was so worth it when we finally got to see our precious baby boy!!

Nathaniel and I have always wanted a family and couldn't wait till it was our turn! But God had different timing plans than us! We started trying, well not really preventing July of 2009. We had lots of struggles on the way. I was diagnosed with Polycystic ovarian syndrome/disease in 2006. This is a very frustrating syndrome to have. It caused my body to change in so many not fun ways, ie: weight gain. Along with everything, we were told it could make it complicated to get pregnant and higher risk of miscarriage. But with all that, we had faith in God's plan for us. We started getting help from the doctors by taking clomid and then we had 2 AI's (artificial insemination). After our second AI, we finally had that second pink line on the test that we had long hoped for! But, at just 5 weeks along I started bleeding. We went in first thing the next morning to the doctor and sadly we had a miscarriage the following week. It was something that was painful both physically and emotionally. After the miscarriage, we decided to take a step back and just go with the flow for awhile. Well, we went with the flow until about Dec of 2011. My close friend Sam works for Parkhill, so we decided to changed doctors and see what they would say. We started seeing Dr. Emily Hinton and fell in love with her right away. She is so sweet, down to earth and personable! We started Clomid again along with AI. Our first round was unsuccessful and we were sure the second would be to. The second has quite the story of why but a probably a lil to personal to write about. Anyways, the second was successful and come tomorrow we will be 26 weeks pregnant!! Praise the Lord!! Though this pregnancy has not been easy and defiantly scary most of the way. I will post in the next few days about the pregnancy itself. Anyways, if you are struggling with becoming pregnant dont give up Faith! Here is a qoute that helped me along the way: 'Faith in God, includes Faith in his timing'!!

Celebrating 3

Wow how time flies!! On Dec.13th, Nathaniel and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary! We booked a 2 night stay at the Mulberry Ranch Cabins on the Pig Trail towards Ozark. We spent Saturday driving around through Altus, Paris and Mt. Magazine! We love driving and splorunking(sp?)!! We was given a tour of the Post Family winery in Altus, which was really cool! We drove all the way to the top of Mt. Magazine and boy was that view AMAZING!! Absolutely breathtaking!! We have decided to stay in one of their cabins on anniversary #4!! Extra excited about this one bc they have pet friendly ones!! We had dinner Saturday night at the Weideker Restuarant, part of the winery. I'm sad to say, we weren't to impressed. : (  We finished up our weekend Sunday in Fort Smith doing some last minute Christmas shopping! We had a blast together...as always!!!