On December 2nd, I was driving home from work and joking with a friend about how I'd been feeling weird. She told me to take a pregnancy test.
Rewind 7 months-
Dennis and I were told that it would be pretty much impossible to get pregnant without help because I have a septate uterus and PCOS. I was told that I needed surgery to correct the septum but because I'd have to go under anesthesia...I wanted to wait until Dennis returned home. The first month of having him home was too busy to even think about scheduling the surgery so we just went on with our normal lives.
Back to December 2nd-
On my way home from work I stopped at the drug store and picked up the cheapest pregnancy test I could find because I seriously wasn't about to spend $$$ on something that was just going to tell me I wasn't pregnant. Boy was I wrong. Instantly it was positive. So I took the other one in the package. Same result. I still couldn't believe it because we'd been living under this assumption that having a child would probably not be an easy task for us. I went back to the drug store and bought another pregnancy test... I asked for the fancy digital kind but I didn't realize until I got home that the pharmacist had given me the same generic kind I'd taken previously. I took them anyway and to my surprise got the same result. Positive Again.
I went ahead and called my Reproductive Endocrinologist explaining the situation and was able to get an appointment for the following morning. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm a little crazy. I tend to over analyze and obsess over everything. I STILL wasn't satisfied with these stupid little cheap tests. I wanted to see it in writing. I convinced myself that I absolutely 100% needed a digital test in order to believe it. So...I told Dennis I was going to the store to get some icecream. I got the ice cream, but I also picked up the digital pregnancy tests. As soon as I got home I ran upstairs to take it and BAM...BIG FAT POSITIVE....written in black and white.
The next morning I went to my Drs appointment. Dennis couldn't go with me because he had something important going on at work. I sat in the room by myself staring at the ultrasound thinking about how many times I had been in that room for other reasons wondering when and if our time would come that I would actually get an ultrasound for pregnancy reasons. The Dr. came in and as soon as the ultrasound picture came on the screen he confirmed our pregnancy. But to my even bigger surprise...we were already 6 weeks pregnant! The fetal heart rate was a strong 116 and the Dr. told me that everything looked great, that the septum probably won't cause and issue during pregnancy, and to come back 2 weeks later with Dennis so that he could check on things one more time before I transfered over to ob/gyn.
December 14th-
Dennis and I went to our 8 week appointment. We had been looking forward to this appointment because this is when we would get the ultrasound pictures that we were going to use as part of our Christmas gift to our parents when we surprised them with the news on Christmas Day. During the ultrasound I immediately knew something wasn't right. The Dr. told us that the fetal heart rate was only 97 bpm. For a healthy pregnancy the heart rate should have been in the 150s at least. He told us that there was a 99% chance that we would miscarry and to come back in 3 days for another ultrasound so we could see what we should expect for the weekend. I was devastated. Dennis tried to stay positive...he told me that we couldn't lose hope and that everything was going to be fine regardless of what happened. For 3 days I prayed. I prayed harder than I'd prayed in awhile. I prayed that I would have peace with whatever happened and that if this baby was meant to be ours that everything would be ok. I went ahead and told my mom...I needed that support and if anyone could have prayed for this baby, it would be my mom.
December 17th-
I had a peace that morning. I wasn't stressed. I wasn't worried. I wasn't upset. I knew in my heart that everything was ok. I didn't know what ok meant at that time but either way it was fine. Things were going to happen the way they were supposed to. As soon as the Dr. pulled the ultrasound up on the screen this is what we saw:
Yep- that's a fetal heart rate of 176 bpm!!!
The Dr. looked at the ultrasound and said "let's just say that I never saw you on Monday...because right now everything looks great!"
It's little arm and leg nubs were moving too!
The following week after I got off work from taking the newborn photos, I ran upstairs to OB to pick up paperwork that I would need for my first appointment there. While there, I spoke to one of the appointment people about seeing if it was possible to have my 10-12 week appointment moved up because I still had some concerns about the baby's heart rate. He immediately went and spoke to the Fertility Dr. and she took me back right away for an ultrasound. The heart rate was 183 bpm. I thought it was awesome that she was so quick to put my mind at ease like that when I didn't even have an appointment. It completely shot down all of my previous assumptions about military hospitals.
On Christmas Eve we had a minor scare and ended up going to the ER on Christmas Day. Once again, everything was fine. I have to take it easy for a few weeks but God continually keeps proving to me over and over that He is in control of this pregnancy. It may be a rollercoaster...and it may just be a foreshadowing of what we can expect with this little one, after all it is mine and Dennis' child so it will without a doubt be a little crazy, but I'm ok with that. ;)
