It was New Year's Eve, 2011, and Steven and I were in by ourselves for the first time in years. I was sipping on wine, of course, trying to distract myself from some new pains I'd been having for the last couple days. I eventually had the bright idea to google the pain to see what sort of amazing self-diagnosis I could come up with. It seemed like every google search response said something like, "When I was pregnant ..." or "I experienced those pains in my second pregnancy..." or "In my first trimester, I..."!
Self-diagnosis created. Two minutes later, self-diagnosis confirmed.
Steven had no idea I was even taking a test, so when I showed him the little stick with TWO very clear blue lines, he about hit the ceiling with excitement! I had never seen him so excited in all years together that I couldn't even tell if he was being serious!
It was more difficult for me to let myself explode like that just yet because I had a calendar and knew the series of events that took place during the previous month. Since we got pregnant right in the midst of all my excruciating back pain, that meant that I had a biggie of a test run on me while pregnant: a nuclear bone scan. The scan consists of being injected with radioactive material (as opposed to most scans where the body itself is radiated), and it is absorbed by the body. The radiology tech failed to ask me if I was pregnant, nor did she run a pregnancy test on me. (My family doc was NOT happy about that.) After two of the most emotionally exhausting weeks of my life and many phone calls between me, my family doctor, my OB, the radiologist, and the physicist from that day, it was determined that little Baby C was 99% likely to be completely fine because the amount of radiation used was so small and would have been completely absorbed by my body before it even reached the fetus. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!
I had been so tightly wound for that period of time that, ironically, it was then difficult to let myself relax and enjoy the news of being pregnant. A couple weeks later it truly became real.
On January 26, we went in for our first OB visit since pregnant and got to feel a sense of joy and awe and amazement that every parent out there can relate to: We got to see our little gummy bear (doc's words) and hear that amazing little 180 beats per minute heartbeat. Incredible.
We let the amazingly wonderful news sink in that our nine-week old baby was alive and well. Again, praise the Lord!!
We enjoyed our fantastic news and kept our little blessing a secret, special to only Steven and I, for as long as we could. Despite the 24-7 nausea like I have never experienced in my life and extreme fatigue for the first 16 weeks, I was really enjoying being pregnant and protecting our baby and secret. It was such a special time.
Five weeks after we got word that baby was in there, cookin, and okay, another disaster struck...literally. On Friday, March 2nd I was t-boned by an unaware, careless fool. (See the bottom of that post for details.) I was fourteen weeks along at this point, and it was actually kind of tricky to handle with work and friends because they did not know I was pregnant. I have never been in a wreck before in my life, but ever since I found out I was pregnant, I had this completely irrational fear that someone was going to hit me and cause me to lose the baby. Needless to say, I was in complete and utter shock when this man ran his light and slammed into the driver's side of my car. The whole morning was a blur because all I remember saying repeatedly, like a terrified, broken record was, "I'm pregnant. He hit me and I'm pregnant." To myself, to the police officer, to the EMTs, to passersby, to God. Just reliving it gives me chills.
At the hospital, they did a quick check of momma and then proceeded to find the heartbeat for baby. It was there and pretty strong. I could NOT believe it! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!
Steven understandably would not let me go back to work that day, and the family and few friends who did know about the pregnancy were blowing up all of our phones (Dad was with us) with concerns, thoughts, and prayers all day. We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives who care so deeply about us and our little addition.
My next OB appointment was still a few weeks away, and I was told (by ER doc) that unless there were any visible signs of complications that I didn't need to go any earlier than that. My appointment FINALLY came around on March 23, and it was like a miracle again hearing that little heartbeat. Baby C was safe and sound once again. Praise the Lord!!!!
My OB is so nice and funny; she busted into the exam room that day and without even saying hello, started in on me, feigning exasperation, "So, can you try to have a more dramatic pregnancy or what??" It was so good seeing her again. After the all-clear from that visit, we knew that if baby could survive a nuclear bone scan and a severe car wreck that he or she is going to be a tough little cookie!! We took the good news as a sign to start telling people for real. Two weeks later, here we are!
With all the troubles and sorrow of the last six months, Steven and I are truly blessed to have such a little ray of hope in our lives. We are so happy that we kept it a sacred secret for so long; we would never regret waiting long to tell people, but there might have been regret for telling people too early. No regrets here! We're ready to share our joy with the world! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!
 |
| 9 weeks |
 |
| 11 weeks |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment