To be sure, I took another test the following morning. It was also faintly positive. I had went to my doctors office for an "official test." Unfortunately, that test came back negative. My heart sank. The nurse had already written the positive note for my insurance company. I told them about the positive home tests, and the kind nurse suggested a blood test. Wanting to know for sure, I agreed to the test. Lucky for me, it was POSITIVE.
I tried to keep it a secret from Shayne that day, but it wasn't as easy as I thought. Shayne kept making big plans for our summer. "Let's go jet skiing with so and so, let's go to Lagoon, when we go to Hatch we will have to go for a long ATV ride," etc etc etc. I started to tell him that he might have to tone it down a bit - and that I didn't know if we could do all that. He figured it out. He knows me too well - I would have loved to do those things normally but when I am pregnant I SLOW DOWN.
I was excited and nervous to find out I was pregnant. Part of me ached for the baby we lost over Halloween 2011 at eight weeks. I was nervous what the outcome of this pregnancy would be. I decided to keep quiet about the news until I was far enough along to be certain.
Keeping the secret grew hard when I ran into the usual problems. As with my last two pregnancies and one resulting in miscarriage, I was spotting at my fifth week. I was upset and nervous that I would carry the baby three weeks or more and lose the pregnancy after all. In a moment's panic, I told my mom and she pushed me to go to the doctor and have blood tests.
July 20, I went to see a Dr. Burnett in Springville for an exam. Dr. Burnett informed me around 9:00 that night that my progesterone levels were low. She educated me that progesterone feeds the baby until the placenta takes over. She also let me know that if a miscarriage was underway, that the progesterone pills would not help me. It was a restless night. I called my mother in law for advice, since she's had experience with low progesterone.
The next morning, Grandpa Underwood died. His passing was hard on the whole family, but I had to keep myself moving and get my pills before this baby gave up - it's the way Grandpa would have wanted it. I rushed out the door to get my pills, hoping to be the first in line. Walmart didn't have my prescription. It was now the weekend and I feared the worst if I had to wait until Monday to get the pills since the doctors office was now closed. Out of curiosity, I called Walgreens to see if the doctor called it in there by mistake. They had. The prescription was $100 for a one month supply. I hoped it would be worth it.
It was. At six weeks, we had a heartbeat. At eight weeks, heartbeat. It was at my eight week visit we discovered I had another subchornianic bleed, or blood clot. I thought it was funny lightning would strike the same place twice since that's what caused the problems with Kaitlyn's first trimester. Already knowing things would be ok, I calmed down and was told to avoid anything strenuous and try to avoid lifting Kaitlyn.
Ellie was a big help during this time. It was Ellie who was lifting Kaitlyn over the baby gate. It was Ellie putting her sister into bed at night. Ellie put Kaitlyn in her car-seat. I have never been more proud of her for everything that she did for me during this time. She also prayed every night for this baby to "come to our family, and not to Heaven." It was a huge responsibility for her and it's nice to know that I can go to her when I need help.
A few weeks later the spotting stopped. Life stabilized and on September 6, I started to tell my family and friends of our new addition on the way. I am currently 14 weeks and counting. I have been off my progesterone pills for three weeks, and I feel pretty sick much of the time. I am hoping in another couple weeks, that will go away. My belly is growing, and we are very excited to meet this little one in March.
Ashley is also due in March :) I am excited to have our kids so close in age! I am glad I can share this experience with her.
Oh and in case you were wondering, we aren't finding out the gender of this baby. With my heart history, we are uncertain if my heart can handle too much strain and pregnancy aggravates the condition. We think that having a surprise baby might make the pregnancy every bit as fun as the first and will add excitement the whole way through. Our things are mostly gender neutral, so we are pretty much all set. There couldn't be a more perfect time to have our surprise.
We are very excited. More updates to come!
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