I cannot believe our little dude will be 1 month old tomorrow. The husband and I worked really hard for both of our babies, and although it wasn't an easy journey for us, it was definitely an amazing journey each time. Below is the story of how we got to Miles. Enjoy!
It all started in July 2012 when the husband and I decided, "hey, let's go ahead and go for baby #2 while we are in the swing of things." Gianna was about 9 months old and we already knew we wanted them to be close together, so we made an appointment with our amazing Reproductive Doctor and immediately started protocol. Shots, shots and more shots! Then, on 8/3/1012 we transferred one of our beautiful, frozen, day 5 blasto cysts and waited...
I am terrible with surprises, good or bad, so on about day 5 after transfer I start peeing on a stick just like I did with Gianna. At this point it is a little early, so nothing. Next day, nothing. Next day, OH MY GOODNESS, we are pregnant!!! Very exciting. I don't believe it and now have a bunch of sticks so I continue testing. A couple days later, the lines start getting lighter and I just know something is wrong. Then, I go back to Doc for my official blood test. I get the call at work that afternoon with our straight to the point Doctor (which I love), "Well, you are officially pregnant...but, it looks like you are in the process of an early miscarriage, so we need you to come back in 2 days to confirm." Then comes, devastation!! Yes, we know it happens all the time and we probably wouldn't have even known we were pregnant if we weren't trying so hard, but we had invested so much financially and so much physically and emotionally it was so terrible to know that one of our babies was an Angel now.
We quickly picked up the pieces and decided to go for it right away again. Out loud I said last time, but inside I knew I would continue as long as it took.
On October 16th 2012 it was time again to transfer one of our beautiful frozen embryos and pray! This time I got a positive sooner and it kept getting darker! We were ecstatic, but cautious from our previous round.
The pregnancy continued to progress and I was feeling great. With Gianna I felt terrible most of the days during my first trimester, so I just had a gut instinct this was a boy. Then, we were released from the specialist and off to our OB. Around Christmas time I started bleeding and of course freaking out. Off to the doc, after a long visit and a lot of tears, everything was ok I just needed to be on rest. I rested, it stopped, then started again, off to doc and so fourth. I guess this pregnancy was just a little different and I was reassured a lot of women bleed. Ok, fine. Then, I bled again for the 3rd time so New Years Eve we made an early visit to the doctor's office just to be sure baby was ok. Baby was ok, but the nurse proceeded to give me the results of our 12 week down syndrome scan. I don't know why she did this as the doc wasn't in the office from it being a holiday, but she did. Then, the real tears started, she told us and I quote, "you failed your down syndrome screen and will need to see a specialist to decide how you want to proceed." And even though we asked, she had no more details.
Happy New Years Eve to us right!
So we wait, again because of the holidays and thank God my doc calls and gives us a little more info. My Papp A was extremely low, the lowest he has seen, but all other parts of my screen were fine. Papp A, what the heck is that?? I consulted with Dr. Google and got a lot more info and that along with the info from my doc scared me, but kept me hopeful at the same time. Papp A being low was a sign the placenta could have problems in the pregnancy and was more common in IVF babies.
Off to the specialist. More info, great info and a Harmony blood test which showed our baby would not have downs with a 99% accuracy. Praise God! However, that didn't show what would happen with my placenta. Would it stop working early and leave us with a still birth? Would it stop working late? Would it stop working at all? I was told I had over a 50% chance of developing pre eclampsia with this pregnancy and my extremely low Papp A levels, but when and to what severity was the question.
We were watched very closely throughout the pregnancy and got to see baby a lot! There were ups and downs along the way, scares, then things turned around. Things were going great and towards the end of the pregnancy so good I thought wow, I may actually make it to 40 weeks! Then, our last specialist appointment where at this point we were expecting great news and bam! Baby has IUGR, a growth restriction and a form of pre eclampsia and also something 6 weeks earlier they thought was happening, but then he had caught up and things were fine, well he had basically stopped growing 3 weeks prior. You need to deliver this week he told me. Ummm, great my Doctor is out of the country on vacation this week go figure. I was told it was ok to wait until Monday when he got back. Monday am off to my doctor to plan delivery. Blood pressure through the roof!!! Body was done. I had a no stress test and ultrasound to confirm baby was ok and he was small, but healthy so I wanted to go on bed rest for 2 days and wait to be delivered by my doctor since it was a high risk pregnancy.
Go home and start my bed rest after being at the doctor for hours and about 5 minutes after my husband gets out of the shower I am telling him how I am bored and BAM! My water breaks all on its own. Guess my body really was done. Off to the hospital!
Check in and get things started. They started me at a very low level of pitocin, 4, to get things going and nothing. Hours later, still barely dilated to a 1...say WHAT? After my water broke with my daughter I went from 0-3 in like 5 minutes and 6 hours later she was born. The nurses come back about 8 hours later, still a 1! Oh no I thought. So now we are getting into the wee hours of the night and the nurses convince me that I should wait for my epidural since I am not moving along very quickly. Ok I thought, I will try. 12 hours into labor around 3 am I must get an epidural because the contractions in my back are so strong and I am so tired and none of the other pain medicine is helping. When I got the epidural after 12 hours of labor I was still at 2 cms and my contractions were very strong and pretty darn close the entire time. Finally a couple hours of rest. I woke up 2 hours later thinking oh my goodness the contractions weren't painful anymore, but during everyone I could feel the head wanting to pop out. Allan, Dad, someone! I think it is time. No one is waking up. I hit the nurse button on the bed which apparently wasn't the right nurse button, because no one answered. ALLAN!!! Finally I was able to wake up my husband and my dad who were up all night with me and they called in the nurse. Oh yeah, it was time. They QUICKLY set up and the Doctor came in and said "Give me a push, woah, wait, ok Give me half a push, Ok now Push" and BAM, our little boy arrives. Miles Joseph came into this world on 6/18 at 6:47 am weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 8 oz which is bigger than what they thought, and 19.5 inches long. He was PERFECTION!!! When they say every pregnancy is different, they aren't joking.
Here is our little baby boy as a dream, a hope, a beautiful embryo!!
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