To say we are thrilled about the sweet baby joining our family in January is an understatement. We couldn't be happier or more excited! I thought I'd share the story of this sweet babe with you today.
If you've read my blog for long, you know we've gone through some heartache in trying to expand our family. If you've dealt with the same thing and are in the midst of infertility, I hope that our story will give you hope. As an eternal optimist, I am shocked at the emotional toll this process has had on me. My sweet encouraging husband and God's grace are the only things that have pulled me through.
In March, I took another round of Clomid and we found out a few weeks later it didn't work. At that point, I just decided that I was going to live life and not worry about it. I clung to the hope that in a few months, something would work. I got back to my normal routine and was running 4-5 miles almost daily at a sub 7 minute pace. I didn't give pregnancy a thought and knew if it was meant to be, it would happen. I raced for the first time in over six months on April 23 and was really excited with my 19:57 and first place female finish. Little did I know, that was the baby's first race.
In late April, I was driving home from the boys' baseball game and saw a rainbow in the sky. At the same time a song by Danny Gokey called "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again" came on the radio. Ordinarily, I'm not an emotional person, but this song brought tears to my eyes, and for the first time in months - I dare say a year - I felt peace about this situation.
The days rolled on and I wouldn't dare let myself get to a place of thinking about pregnancy. We had a few vacations planned for the beginning of summer, so I was excited for those and the prospect that maybe something would happen soon.
On the morning of Friday, May 6, I woke up with this really odd feeling that I had to take a pregnancy test. I didn't tell Kevin because I knew it was going to be negative. We had no reason - medically - to think it was possible to become pregnant at that point naturally. I took a test, looked at it really quick and didn't even see one line, much less, two, and threw it in my closet. I was about to get in the shower when I felt like I needed to look again. Mind you, it had been about 30 seconds since I threw the test in the closet, but when I picked it back up, two of the brightest pink lines I've ever seen were on the test. I was in shock and started shaking. I opened the bathroom door and just held the test for Kevin to see.
To say we were shocked it an understatement. I immediately sent a message to my doctor and got ready for the day. As I pulled out of my driveway that morning to go to my doctor's office to have blood drawn, "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again" came on the radio. A few hours later, my doctor called with good news - my hCG was high (133) and my progesterone was good (13). I was definitely pregnant. Based on everything, we calculated that I wasn't even four weeks pregnant. We called our parents with the good news. I started taking a progesterone supplement that day.
I went back to the doctor on Monday morning to have blood drawn again to make sure the hCG was doubling. I received a call back that it was more than doubling (711!) and had an appointment scheduled that Friday for an ultrasound.
I was definitely nervous leading up to the ultrasound, but I knew things were going to be ok. Every time I got in my car from the morning we found out through all of my early appointments, "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again" came on the radio. It could sound silly, but for me, I felt like God was calming my spirit through the words of this song.
On Friday, May 13, I had my first ultrasound. Since it was so early (not even five weeks), all my doctor wanted to see was the gestational sac. It was there and looked great! I had my hCG (6,939) and progesterone (23) checked again.
The next week, I had to go in for some tests and had the hCG checked again (27,527) for peace of mind. We were thinking it could be twins based on the doubling rate of my hCG! God is good!
On May 27, I had another ultrasound and we were able to see the heartbeat at an excellent rate of 119! Since everything looked good, we decided to tell the boys a few days later. We had a trip planned to Sapelo Island during the first week in June and I knew I wouldn't be able to do things like normal and at this point, I was already really sick.
On Sunday, May 29, we told the boys they were going to be big brothers. They were both so excited. For some time now, they've been talking about having a little brother or sister. K.C. said he didn't care if it was a girl or boy, but Kaden has been adamant that he wants a sister. It was sweet seeing their excitement over the baby.
On June 10, I had a third ultrasound at 8 weeks 6 days where we saw a strong heartbeat of 160! The next day, we left for a week at the beach with my family.
When we got home from the beach, I was still really stick and hadn't been able to drink much at all, so I went to the hospital for IV fluids on June 19. A good family friend in an OB nurse and she has really helped me during this time. While I was there, she and another nurse heard the baby's heartbeat on the doppler. I was excited!
I had my first regular OB appointment on June 22. Kevin had to be out of town for work that week, unfortunately, so my sister met me at the doctor in case I needed something. I had another ultrasound and this time, we were able to hear the heartbeat (159!). When I found out I'd be having an ultrasound, I got my sister to walk back. She was able to video the screen so Kevin was able to hear the heartbeat, too. That night, the boys were so excited to hear their baby brother or sister's heart beat so fast.
At my appointment on June 22, I found out that we could find out the gender using a blood test that checks for Down syndrome and a few other things. I wasn't too anxious to find out and was ok with waiting a few more weeks, but when I found out that we could know this early, I couldn't wait.
I can't wait to share the gender of our sweet baby with you tomorrow!
