Our Journey: Life Before & After Our Miracle

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

A little behind on posting, yes???

I'm sure you must have noticed how behind I've gotten on posting anything these days! Most of the time lately, I don't feel up to doing much of anything. :/ I am very ready to be past the sick stage, but I know that if I am sick, my baby is doing well, so that makes it seem more worth it! Sunday I woke up miserable....running a fever and everything. I'm not sure if I had a virus or if that was just part of this whole morning sickness ordeal. Luckily I'm feeling much better today than I was Sunday.

Since I posted last, I had my first nursing orientation. We need 7 books for one class, scrubs, a nurse pack, and a whole lot of motivation to get through this semester!!! :/ I'm a little bit nervous but I know I can get through it. My biggest concern is next semester. With this little one being due in March, and my semester not ending till May 5th, I'm very worried about how it's gonna happen. I definitely don't wanna leave my newborn :'/ I'm hoping that when next semester starts, I can talk to my instructor and see if she will work with me and allow me to work ahead while I can to make provision for the baby being born.

Classes start August 19th. I went today and got my drug screen done and got fingerprinted. Waiting on my scrubs to get here. They told me at orientation that I needed to order an XS, because scrubs run big. I ordered S though, because I'm hoping that will give me a little growing room.

First real prenatal appointment with the doctor that will be delivering the baby is on August 8th. I'm curious to see when my next ultrasound will be. :)

Okayyyy I think this is a long enough post for the day. :) I will post more soon! <3

Friday, July 26, 2013

Announcing our pregnancy :)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

:) YAY :)

Our Ultrasound Went Great!!! Heartbeat 126!

Monday, July 22, 2013

7 Weeks Pregnant Today! :)

Well, I've technically made it to a milestone this week! As I've already stated, I've never made it to the 7 week point. Makes me kinda nervous to think of how I'm going to be affected if I lose the baby further on. As always, I'm trying to maintain a positive outlook on everything and just pray that this pregnancy turns out to be normal! :)

I was able to go out for a 2.5 mile walk today by the water! Doesn't sound like all that much, but for the past 4 weeks I've practically put myself on bed rest. I know I've been overly cautious about everything this time around but I figure I can't be too careful!

BIG NEWS...........TOMORROW IS MY ULTRASOUND! :) I'm experiencing a whirlwind of emotions in anticipation of the first ultrasound. I've never made it that far. It could go two ways.....well possibly three but I'm kind of paranoid about the third lol.

1.) Something went wrong and they can't find baby.

2.) Baby looks great and I get to hear a beautiful heartbeat!

3.) Doctor finds not one baby, but two!?!?!?

I'm secretly just praying that it is #2 :) I don't think my mind could handle being told I'm pregnant with twins but I guess if I had to cross that bridge......I would do just that.

Until tomorrow......:) Hopefully tomorrow I will be posting a beautiful ultrasound picture of our little gummy bear.

My Gummy Bear's Development This Week {7 Weeks}

How your baby's growing:

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

6 Weeks 2 Days - A Milestone :/

I did not sleep very well AT ALL last night. :'/ Today's point in my pregnancy (6 weeks 2 days) is the farthest I have gotten with either pregnancy. Last pregnancy I started bleeding at 6 weeks 2 days. By 6 weeks 4 days I had confirmed miscarriage. :( Last night I kept waking up cramping and going to the restroom checking if I've started bleeding yet. I'm terrified but hoping for the best. :/ Just hoping I can make it through this day with nothing unusual happening!! Fingers crossed.

The Story of Our Struggle

We met in 2009, and were married in January, 2012. We both decided to wait to have a baby, so that we could enjoy being young and newly married. Surprisingly, even with our precautions, we discovered we were pregnant in May, 2012. Sadly, the pregnancy didn't last long, and I had a miscarriage at approximately 5 weeks pregnant. We were both devastated. I struggled with the question of how I could love a little one so much that I thought I "wasn't ready for". After the miscarriage, we decided to stop using precautions and to allow a baby to happen when the timing was right. Almost exactly a year later, on April 30th, I received the phone call from the doctor that my blood test came back positive. I was sure this time would be different. I painted a shell (with the words "will you be our baby's daddy") to announce the pregnancy to Daniel (just like he proposed to me). We made Mother's Day gifts to announce the pregnancy to our families on Mother's Day. The day before Mother's Day, however, I started bleeding, and on that following Monday I received miscarriage confirmation. The first miscarriage was hard, but this one truly devastated me. I didn't want to function. I literally wanted to just withdraw from everyone and spend each day in tears. Thankfully, as a few weeks went by, I felt stronger and my heart was healing. Daniel was my rock. He held me, cried with me, and walked me through a really hard time in my life.

The doctors had told me my uterus is extremely tilted back, which kind of explained why it had taken me exactly a year in between pregnancies to conceive again. Actually, I had two different doctors tell me that because of the extreme tilt, I could possibly never get pregnant. So, knowing that, I really didn't think a third pregnancy would happen......at all, or at least not any time soon.

Only a month and a half later, I tested positive again (on Daniel's 23rd birthday). I immediately sent a picture of the test to my family and his family. I saw no reason to try to make some kind of special reveal like I had with the last. That only made it harder when I lost that little one. I went to the doctor and got blood test confirmation, and they began having me come in every other day to have blood drawn to see if this baby was growing properly. Things looked good, and the weeks began to go by. I started making it to little milestones.
We found out when I was 17 weeks that we were having a baby girl. Words cannot describe the complete joy and happiness I felt making it to the ultrasound for gender determination. As the weeks continued to go by, I grew more and more comfortable in my pregnancy, and the anxiety started to lessen. After going through two recent losses, it kind of steals the joy of pregnancy because you are constantly worried about "what if". In December, when I was around 24-25 weeks, I tripped on some stairs and landed right on my stomach. Not long after I began having contractions, and my doctor sent me in to Labor and Delivery. My heart was terrified. I couldn't fathom making it all this way with this pregnancy and then losing her. They gave me a shot and some meds to stop the pre-term labor, and sent me home. The next day, the contractions continued to come, so back to the hospital we went. They gave me more meds, and kept me overnight to make sure the labor had stopped. When they sent me home, they prescribed me with a medication to take every 6 hours. I took that medication from week 25 all the way to week 36, and our little girl continued to healthily grow. Currently I am 38 weeks pregnant and we are beyond ready to meet our little miracle baby.

I've had alot of people give me "the side eye" for being pregnant at 22, and for not waiting till after I finished nursing school (which I am set to graduate in May 2015). That was my original plan. But I am living proof that plans don't always go the way you want them to. When we lost the first baby, we decided not to try to control when we would have our first child. Because I've had such a struggle with my body carrying a pregnancy, I didn't want to possibly miss my only chance to have a little one. We don't regret our decision for an instance. I still fully intend to make it through nursing school, and even though we are young, we are fully prepared to take on the responsibility of little miss Skylee Rae Hester.