**WARNING: This post is extremely long & contains some ugly pictures....consider yourself warned!
So, I have been reading blogs for quite sometime now about pregnancy & infertility & it has always been my intention that I would create one when we got pregnant to document the pregnancy. Well, at this point I am over halfway finished being pregnant...better late than never right?! Fortunately for me, my pregnancy has been quite uneventful. I've hardly had any morning sickness. Other than fatigue (which I'm pretty sure I had before being pregnant) there is really nothing that I can complain about & I have enjoyed every second of it. The events leading up to becoming/finding out we were going to be parents were
far more dramatic than the actual pregnancy has been....
After a year & a half of trying to get pregnant on our own, I started talking to my OB/GYN about infertility. He put me through the usual labwork & exams (and Blake too!) but nothing showed any cause for why were not having any luck. My doctor put me on Clomid in August of 2010. I took it monthly as instructed for 4 months. The Clomid caused me to have really bad headaches & nausea so I didn't take it the month of December so that I could just relax & enjoy the holidays. By January, I had decided that we would just take a break from "trying" & take the "just quit thinking about it and it will happen" advice that people had so annoyingly given me for 2 years. We booked a vacation for May & I focused on trying to get in better shape by doing the Couch to 5K running program with my friend Amber. On a Saturday morning at the end of February, I went with Amber to a fitness bootcamp at the Big Dam Bridge...my first
and last bootcamp. We started off doing all sorts of crazy stretches & exercises then ran across the bridge to the North Little Rock side only to get there & continue more crazy stretches & exercises. One of these was a "step up". The instructions were to step up onto a bench with one leg while stretching the other leg out behind you. <--- That should have been my clue to sit that one out, my legs felt like jelly after running across that dang bridge. But
no. I proceeded to do the step up and here is the result of my
will power....
So, thankfully I was with other nurses including my friends Amber & Candice who took amazing care of me! Candice ran all the way back across the bridge to get her car to drive me to the emergency room & even called en-route to make sure a good Ortho doc was on-call @ Baptist before we got there =). In the ER, xrays were done, labwork was done, an IV was started & most importantly IV pain medication was given. After the doctor saw me & decided surgery would be required immediately to fix my wrist, my ER nurses started asking the question "Are you pregnant? Is there any way you could be pregnant? When was your last cycle?" My response:
It would be just my luck if I were pregnant wouldn't it. So they send me into the bathroom to give a urine sample **Side story here: The nurse takes me away from my room where my friends & husband were to the bathroom and leaves me, ALONE, with a swollen, broken wrist, all my clothes still on & Demerol on board to pee in a tiny cup. So I manage to get my pants off with one arm when some random man burst through the bathroom door!
Really! My nurse who so kindly left me alone quickly screamed "someones in there!" but she wasn't quick enough...** After I gave my urine sample I was promptly taken to pre-op and then to surgery. The rest of the day is kind of a blur but I do remember the first thing I said when I woke up in post-op was "I guess the pregnancy test was negative". The nurse assured me that it was. This is what my arm looked like for a week & a half following surgery...
I went to see the doctor on Wednesday March 9 only to find out that part of the bone in my wrist was still broken and I would need another surgery to fix it. Surgery was scheduled for the next day at Baptist. So on Thursday March 10, my mom & sister & Blake took me to the hospital to check in for surgery & of course again I had to give a urine sample to see if I was pregnant & again it was negative.
1 week later, on March 17 (my mom's b-day & St. Patrick's day), I was 5 days late starting my cycle & assumed it was just due to the stress of having had 2 surgeries, all the pain medication, etc. But, just for the heck of it &
because I had a stockpile of pregnancy tests, I took one early that morning before Blake left for work....
To say I freaked out would be an understatement. I was in shock. I was excited. I cussed. I cried. I just couldn't believe that after 2 years & everything that was going on that I was seeing a POSITIVE pregnancy test. At this point fear was probably the biggest emotion I was feeling. All I could think about was the 2 surgeries I had just had, all the pain medication & xrays & how all of that would affect our baby. My worrying caused Blake to worry as well. It was a
long day until I finally heard back from my doctor who said that we really had nothing to worry about. When I got home from work, Blake had a much higher quality pregnancy test waiting for me...
After the initial shock & worry wore off, we were so happy & could not wait to share the news with our family & friends. We told our families in person & I absolutely LOVED seeing all of their reactions!!
Our little peanut at 8 weeks....
Today I am 26 weeks pregnant. I feel great! I love, love, love feeling the baby move & I love when Blake gets to feel him moving around too. Every morning it seems like my belly has grown 6 inches overnight.
I've put off buying maternity clothes long enough. I've not really had any crazy food cravings, I love spicy food & cereal & I have to have a glass of chocolate milk every morning. =) I went through 3 hour glucose testing hell this past week, but I passed! Blake & I have been going to childbirth classes at Baptist for the past few weeks. I really enjoy seeing him get to learn about all this pregnancy stuff. I'm
so excited to get started on the nursery, my sister, mom & I have come up with
the cutest ideas.
Bless your heart if you have read this entire post! I know it was long but I think its just too good a story not to share ;)
Next post...Gender Reveal Party!
