Sunday, October 26, 2008

Our Story

Mike and I met in 2001 while I was in college. We jumped into our relationship head strong and it wasn't long until we knew we were each other's soul mate. On August 7, 2004 we confessed our love to family and friends and united as husband and wife. We had talked about our dreams to be parents and hoped to have our first child soon after becoming married. After a year of trying and no luck we sought the help and a fertility doctor. After undergoing a another year of tests upon tests it came back that the fertility problem was unknown. Our doctor at that time prescribed a medication to help stimulate my ovaries and it was a success. Unfortunately, after 10 weeks of being pregnant we lost our "peanut". This time was one of the hardest Mike and I ever endured. After two years of wanting nothing but to bring a child into the world and losing the baby our faith in God was truly affected. I could not understand why God would not bless us with a child. Upon my miscarriage, it was recommended that I see a high risk doctor before becoming pregnant again due to my thin cervix. The day we had our consult was mind boggling. As we met with doctor upon her review of my previous doctor's records she look at me and asked if I was supposed to be seeing her or an oncologist. It had turned out that my previous doctor failed to tell me that I had cervical cancer when a pap smear had come back abnormal. This doctor had cut so much of my cervix out that there was not much left. I was told that if I was to get pregnant I would need to be on full bed rest from 13 weeks. At this time, I was also informed that if the cancer came back that I would most likely need a hysterectomy. Mike and I processed this news and not for one second did it ever change our desire to be parents. About 2 months later, I was pregnant again thanks to the fertility medication. At 13 weeks a cerclage was put in to help my cervix hold the pregnancy. It held so well... not a day of bed rest! Ryan was born October 30, 2007 and has been an absolute joy in our lives. He is such a good baby, so good in fact he had us trying for another 3 months after his birth. Mike and I tried on two cycles without medication and had no luck. We decided to go back on the same medication that we knew would work. Of course, we were told the risk of multiples as we were in the past. We honestly didn't believe that we would become pregnant with multiples because it had not happen previously. We found out we were pregnant on the first try, however, soon after I began to bleed and was convinced that it was going to be another miscarriage. By the time we had arrived to the doctor for an ultrasound, we were entirely convinced we had lost the pregnancy. As the doctor began the ultra sound he turned to Mike and said your are not having a miscarriage and then told Mike he may want to sit down. The doctor then counted out four embryos. All Mike and I could do was laugh, saying, we can't be pregnant with four babies we have a 5 month old at home. It was shock and we were scared. The following week we went back for another ultrasound and the doctor informed us that the party got bigger and there were now 5 embryos. He was not confident that they would all make it by their size and felt he would know a lot more by the following week. It had turned out that two of the embryos did not make it but three were going strong. Yes, I now had three babies growing in my belly with a 5 month old at home.

My pregnancy is almost finished now and we are about to bring another son and two daughters into the world. We hope to keep our blog updated so that family and friends can continue to follow us in our journey. Although Mike and I know having four children in a year will be a struggle in many ways, we couldn't be happier. We have gone from believing that we may never becoming parents to having four! As for Ryan, he will need some time to adjust since he has been the only one for the first year but we truly believe he will love having a brother and two sisters.

2 comments:

AlexnMaggie's Mom said...

What a great idea to create this blog- Thanks for sharing your story!

Frau Bökamp said...

Wow, I never knew about the cancer and needing a cerclage w/Ryan. Even more amazing that you're still up and about!