Monday, February 13, 2012

Miracles do happen!

Disclaimer:  This is a long post!  This is just too amazing of a story not to include every detail.  If you don't care about the details....then you can just skip to the bottom.


Eric and I have been so blessed.  We have 3 beautiful boys. It took a lot of heartache and prayers to get them here, each one is a miracle.
Gavin took the longest to conceive.  We went through about 2 full years of treatments and surgery--probably 12 rounds of treatments total.  His birth was easy and like a party.  It was also my only "natural birth" (natural meaning no c-section not no drugs....I'm not crazy!).
Nolen was the easiest as far as actually getting pregnant, considering it only took 2 rounds of treatments.  However, the way he came in to this world was by far the scariest time of my life.  Fortunately, everything turned out great but I thought I would never want to be pregnant again.
Cohen took another surgery and several more rounds of treatments as well but the pregnancy and delivery were great and it really put all my c-section fears to rest.
I had always said I wanted 3 kids and Eric had always said he wanted 2.  After we had Nolen, we knew that we weren't done.  Then I said 3--maybe 4 and Eric said 3 and for sure done.  When Cohen was born, I knew in my heart that I wasn't finished having babies.  My Mom has always told me that when she was pregnant with my sister (the baby of our family) she enjoyed every second of it but knew that she was finished being pregnant and was ready to move out of the baby phase of life.  I didn't feel that way.  At first, Eric said that we were done but as the months went by he began to feel that we were meant to add to our family again.
Shortly after Cohen turned one we started discussing what we were going to do.  We had been told by our fertility Doctor that I would probably not even ovulate anymore and since I was no longer responding to the fertility shots like I had with Gavin and Nolen she did not feel that another pregnancy was a possibility, even with fertility treatments.
I have been told over and over in the past 10 years that I have endometriosis, no progesterone, ovaries that are not conducive to ovulation, that I ovulate early.....that I cannot become pregnant on my own.  I did have a very early miscarriage in July of 2008 (when Nolen was 1) but my progesterone was a 3 and my HCG levels never increased like they were supposed to.
We have had an extremely busy winter, Eric has been gone more than ever and was gone about 3 weeks out of the month.  This is way too much information but with all of his traveling we only got to "make whoopee" (ha!) one time.  I did do an ovulation kit but never got a positive and so I just gave up since Eric was going to be out of town anyway.  I did not take progesterone.  I have taken progesterone for the first trimester with all the of our boys.
I had not been feeling well and even mentioned to Eric that "if I didn't know better, I would think I was pregnant".  I continued to have symptoms and finally decided to go get a pregnancy test.  I didn't tell anyone.  I came home and peed on the stick and waited....then I decided to move the test from the bathroom and when I did I messed it up.  Ugh....it said I needed to retest.  I had to rush out and so when I came home I went upstairs and took another test.  I went and gathered some laundry and walked back by the test and glanced at it, knowing it would be negative.  IT SAID PREGNANT!  I could not believe it.  I text a picture of it to Eric, to which he responded "what is that?".  Ha!  We have never had the experience of not expecting to be pregnant and getting a positive test.
I immediately took progesterone and called my fertility Doctor.  They were closed for the weekend and I left a message telling her what had happened.  She just happened to check her messages and called me back.  She was quite surprised herself and sent me an order for bloodwork.  She told me that she wanted my HCG level to be above 50 and my progesterone above 15.  She ordered it stat and said that she would call me later that evening.  She never called that night and I hardly slept a wink.  She called me at 7:00 Saturday morning.  My HCG was around 850 and my progesterone was 25!  She wanted me to come back to retest on Monday morning to make sure the levels were increasing like they were supposed to but said that everything looked really good.
We spent most of Saturday and Sunday in complete shock.  Saturday morning as I was making breakfast Gavin came in the kitchen singing, "My Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" over and over.  Eric and I were surprised because we had not told him.  I asked him why he said that and his response was, "Because you do!  Because I prayed!"  I love that childlike faith!
I went back last Monday and had my HCG and progesterone checked again.  She called me with the results and said that my HCG was around 2800 and my progesterone was great!  She said congratulations and that it looks like a great pregnancy to her!
I called my OB to set up my appointment and they told me that they don't do your first appointment until 8-9 weeks.  I was really bummed because with all my other pregnancies I have had an ultrasound (by my fertility Doctor) at 6 weeks.  I scheduled my appointment for the end of February and realized that I would just have to wait like normal people.  The next morning, I got a call from my OB's nurse.  My fertility Doctor had sent over my bloodwork paperwork.  She wanted to know what was going on, I told her and she said "well, you shouldn't have to wait that long for an ultrasound!" and scheduled it for Monday (today).
Today Eric and I went for our first OB appointment.  We had an ultrasound and got to see the heartbeat.  Everything looks perfect and even my Doctors were shocked.  My due date is October 6, 2012.


I cannot tell you how humbled and loved I feel by God.  I have always known that God loved me.  He cares about even the smallest details of our lives.  He knew that even though we have 3 amazing boys that were conceived through fertility.....that ours hearts desire was to conceive a baby without fertility.  He loves me so much that he gave that to me....even though I don't deserve it.  God's grace is so good.
There is no explanation for why I got pregnant at the age of 32, when I should be "less fertile" than I was at the age of 24 when I was trying to get pregnant for the first time.  There is no explanation for why my progesterone was good this time when it hasn't been in the past.  The only explanation is that it is a miracle.....and we are so so humbled and honored that we get to experience this.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Cohen is 15 months old!

Time with this adorable little man is flying! Cohen started walking right around Christmas. It is amazing what a difference just a few weeks makes. He went from wobbling around to walking everywhere.

Cohen says several words at 15 months.....uh oh, mama, dada, bubba, sit down, all gone, yay!, 
night-night (which is what he is calling his elephant these days).  He shakes his head and says "no".  He points at everything and says what sounds like "what's that".  Mostly, he just jibber jabbers ALL the time.  
My favorite thing he does is pat my chest and say "Mama" over and over.  It's like he is letting me know that he knows I am his Mama....makes my heart happy.
Cohen just has the happiest personality...he always has.  Don't get me wrong, he can throw a serious temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way.  He does this growling sound to let you know what he wants or doesn't want and he will continue doing it until you get the picture...he is a persistent little guy.
He is in to everything!  If Gavin or Nolen forget to put the toilet lid down, he is in there in a heartbeat!  Today, I caught him with a marker writing all over himself....for the second time in a week.  He is obsessed with the stairs and if the gate is down for 5 seconds he notices and headed up laughing all the way.
Cohen is wearing 18-24 month clothes and size 5 diapers.  He has 10 teeth!  He had 6 for the longest time and then out of nowhere he got 4....grouchy does not even begin to describe those few days--thankfully it was just a few days. 
Cohen weighs 24 lbs and 13.5 oz. (77th percentile), he is 31 inches tall (40th percentile) and as usual his head comes in at  >97th percentile.  Ha!

Cohen's adorable shirt is compliments of our friend's, the Kennedy's.