Our Family Is Expanding!

For those who want the quick details, here goes: Mark and I are excited to let you know that I am 19 weeks pregnant with a baby girl due around August 25.

For everyone else here is the scoop!

It was December 18 and I happened to see a dollar store pregnancy test in my bathroom cabinet. For those of you up on your TTC lingo (that’s trying to conceive) you know that for POAS addicts (Pee on a stick addicts) these tests are gold. You can test until your heart is content without spending loads of money on tests. Anyway, given that my period was due any day I decided to take the test. Initially I saw no second line, but within a couple minutes I saw out of the corner of my eye the faintest second line. The line was so faint that I held it up to the window to see it. I didn’t know what to think, but there was enough of a line that during lunch I purchased a more expensive test and saw another super faint second line.  The next day after taking yet another test with slightly darker line I called my ob/gyn. Given my previous history, I knew it was important to have my progesterone levels checked. Also with the approaching holidays we were going to be out of the town and the doctor’s office closed. The blood work confirmed I was pregnant but my progesterone levels were extremely low so I was quickly put on medicine.

By this point I was in shock. It took over a year to get pregnant previously and that first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, followed by 5 more months of trying before we were pregnant with Olivia. So the idea that I could get pregnant the first month we were trying just didn’t seem likely. It even took me a few days to tell Mark and when I told him I wouldn’t let him get his hopes up it would be a viable pregnancy.  And sure enough, within days I started spotting so all my hopes of a healthy pregnancy slipped away. I found myself hoping that if the pregnancy wasn’t supposed to be, I would just go ahead and miscarry it would be easier instead of going along further in a pregnancy that wasn’t going to last. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Despite continuing to spot and worry constantly, I also started to get very very sick with morning sickness. I thought my morning sickness was bad with Olivia but it was nothing like this. Not only was I exhausted but I had the hardest time in the morning getting to work. I had to start bringing spare clothes to work since I was getting sick every day on my commute. 

At six weeks I went for my first ultrasound. I was a nervous wreck and so worried that we wouldn’t see a heartbeat, but there on the screen was the tiniest flicker of a heartbeat. 

I just started crying. Finally, it seemed real. All my worry was released, at least for a few days. Then the spotting came back and with that also came the worry. Given my difficult pregnancy with Olivia they are treating this pregnancy as high risk so I was seeing the doctor every couple of weeks and at 9 weeks they started using the Doppler which was extremely reassuring to be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat! At 11 weeks we had another ultra sound and saw a sleepy little baby resting in my belly. Finally before the ultrasound was over the baby woke and starting kicking and kicking. This frog leg picture is my favorite. We also learned we most likely were having a girl.

Around 15 weeks I finally stopped the daily vomiting and mostly just had food aversions and occasional nausea. I can’t count the number of toast and butter dinners I have had in this pregnancy.  And just as the case was when I was pregnant with Olivia I am getting used to the congestion and not being able to breathe, the daily nose bleeds, the leg cramps that keep me up most of the night, and several other annoying symptoms. But these symptoms also are reassuring, a constant reminder of the life growing inside of me. How absolutely blessed we are to be able to have another baby and for this child to be doing so well. We are discussing names, plans for the nursery and warming Olivia up to the idea of a sibling (she already kisses my belly each night to say sweet dreams to her baby sister).

A scare at 17 weeks brought me to my knees with worry but all turned out fine. This week we found out for sure we are having another sweet little girl.  We also found out I have marginal placenta previa just as I had with Olivia so we are praying the baby moves up and the previa doesn’t cause complications like it did with Olivia. Here is the profile of our newest addition.

Check out those cute feet!

We are so glad to be able to share the news with friends and family and ask for continued prayers for a healthy baby and healthy pregnancy.