My Quest To Become A Mother...

As you might recall, I asked those of you who were interested to pose some questions for me to answer. Well, you came through with some fantastic ones! So, what I'm going to do is start with the first question left for me in my comments and I'll work my way down, one by one. This could take awhile, so please bear with me! If you were nice enough to ask me questions, I definitely want to repay the favor in kind. Alright...here we go!

Now the first question came from my good friend, Annie. She wrote, "I'd love to know how you felt when you knew you were going to have your first baby... how'd you find out, were you trying, was she a surprise?

Well, Chris and I started trying to have a baby about 9 months after we were married; we both wanted to have children. We assumed that things would just "happen"...but, they didn't. We had several "false alarms" where I'd gone past my period 4 or 5 days and I experienced some of the typical symptoms associated with pregnancy. However, when I went in to get confirmation from my OB/GYN, he informed me that I wasn't pregnant, afterall. It was a real roller coaster ride...our hopes would go up, only to be knocked down, again. It took us 10 long months to finally conceive Brittany. In fact, the exact day I found out I was pregnant with her was June 5, 1991. Here's what I wrote in my journal..."Found out today that I'm going to have a BABY!!! I took the Daisy pregnancy test at 6:30 AM because I'm 2 days over my period and it came back POSITIVE! Chris and I got so excited, but we decided to go to Dr. Davis to have it confirmed. The nurse first did a urine test and it came back negative, so she did a blood test. After 10 grueling minutes of waiting anxiously, Dr. Davis called us back. He introduced himself to Chris, extended his hand, then said, "Well...CONGRATULATIONS!" I started jumping up and down and hugging and kissing Chris like crazy! The nurses got so tickled at me! After 10 months of trying to conceive a baby, the news was music to our ears! Wow! I'm going to have a BABY!" So, as you can tell...we were ECSTATIC!

Though I had an uneventful pregnancy, Brittany was born with the umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck and it took the medical staff a few minutes to get her going because she wasn't breathing. I still recall one nurse pleading, "Breathe, baby, breathe!" When she, finally, let out a cry, Chris and I were both SO relieved and we broke down in tears. She weighed only 5 lbs. at full-term and the placenta was abnormally small. I had a fertility doctor tell me later on that she was probably very lucky to have survived the entire pregnancy.

After the birth of Brittany, I suffered 2 miscarriages in a 9-month period, followed by two years of unexplained infertility. I underwent testing to try and determine why I'd lost two babies and why I was having such a hard time conceiving. Well, the test results revealed that I most likely had a condition known as Antiphospholipid Syndrome. It's a disease of the immune system that's characterized by excessive clotting, which can result in miscarriage. Also, my progesterone levels were very low, so I had to go on progesterone suppositories...FUN, FUN! To further help me conceive, I had shots of HCG and I took Clomid. Thankfully, the first time was a charm because I got pregnant with Abby right away! It was a happy time, but we were almost afraid to allow ourselves to get too excited. To better ensure that things went well, I had to take one baby aspirin everyday for my entire pregnancy. This prevented my blood from clotting, which my doctor thought could have been an underlying factor, not only in my miscarriages, but it might have explained Brittany's low birth weight and small placenta, too.

My pregnancy with Abby progressed beautifully. However, while in the hospital ready to deliver, Chris noted on the fetal heart monitor that her heart rate plummeted rapidly. He called in the nurse and she, immediately, flipped me onto my side and put an oxygen mask on my face. She called the OR for them to prepare for an emergency C-section...STAT! About that time, my doctor darted in and he decided to use vacuum extraction to help Abby get born fast! Though I couldn't see for myself, Chris later told me that it scared him to death because the doctor was pulling on her so hard with the device that the veins in his arms were bulging out! Within minutes, Abby was born! What a blessing it was to finally hold her in my arms and to know that she was alright! Due to the vacuum extraction being used, she was born with a conehead. I even asked my doctor if her head would always look like that, but it went away after a few days. She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz., but the umbilical cord was remarkably short. My doctor told me it was constricting her oxygen supply, causing her heart rate to drop. As I look back now, I can see God's handprint on everything that transpired, teaching me to hold onto my faith and continue to trust in Him! What a journey it's been...but so worth it!

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."~Elizabeth Stone


P.S. Sorry, Annie...I think you got more than you bargained for!