Freyabunny: My Story. (m, very long, losses ment.)Today is Lauren's 7 month birthday; she would be just over four months old had she been born on time (born 1/2/02, due 3/24/02). It has been a long road to having her in our lives, but nothing has been more worth the effort. DH (then BF) and I stopped using birth control in June of 1999 because we were planning to get married. I actually got pregnant that month, and we were thrilled! I started spotting a couple of weeks after we found out the good news, and we lost the baby at a little over 8 weeks... blighted ovum. We waited a couple of months, and then got pregnant again in December of 1999... chemical pregnancy, AF showed a few days later. Then we kept trying, but my cycles were getting longer and longer... ovulating on Day 28 and such. We decided to buy a house and stopped actively TCC for a couple of months and BANG, I got pregnant again in July of 2000. Another chemical, unfortunately. We kept trying, and my OB/GYN gave me a prescription for Clomid. I took it in November of 2000 and we conceived again. I lost that pregnancy at a little over 8 weeks, at the same time that I developed Ulcerative Colitis. After that loss, we went through all kinds of testing and determined that I have a genetic blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden (inherited thrombophilia). I also have a luteal phase defect that results in low progesterone. So, we decided to see an RE and hold off TCC for a few months. I ended up getting very ill (non-TTC related) and went into the hospital for 3 1/2 weeks, ending in having my gallbladder removed. I was so very sick during that time that I totally re-evaluated my life and just couldn't wait to have a child. I had some Clomid left from my OB, so I took it in June 2001. We conceived, and I was at the RE for a beta when I was 11DPO. My P4 was dangerously low (8.7), so I started PIO and suppositories. I also started Lovenox for the blood-clotting issue. Soon after we found out I was pregnant, my betas stopped doubling properly and we thought the pregnancy was over. Then they started to double again, and we saw a sac and yolk sack that looked right just before we left for Ireland for a couple of weeks. I started bleeding on the plane on the way to Ireland, and we thought it was over. The RE put me on bedrest while in Dublin, and the bleeding subsided. It was a miserable couple of weeks waiting to get back home to see what was happening, but when we went to the RE the day after we returned, we saw a heartbeat for the very first time. The specualtion is that I may have lost a twin, causing the funny betas and then the bleeding. Things went well until 23 weeks; I saw a High-Risk Peri and thus was having regular Level II ultrasounds. At 23 weeks, Lauren's femur bones fell behind by 12 days (the first time anything was behind), but the peri wasn't worried. I was. Then, we went for a final Level II u/s on 12/31/2001 just to sign off on her heart development (maternal habitus... I am heavy and they couldn't see everything at the earlier ones), and we got bad news. She was measuring 3 1/2 weeks behind, had no fluid left (level was 1.9), and her placenta was not working properly anymore. I was sent directly to the hospital and was told that I would deliver in the next few days. They monitored her heartrate for two days and did a u/s every day to make sure that she was safe in there while I got 48 hours of steroid shots (her heartrate would drop very low about once and hour as she rolled on her cord with no fluid, and the nurses would rush into my room and turn me over and push on my belly to get her to move off of it, so I didn't sleep for those two days!), and then she was delivered via c-section on 1/2/2002 at 28 weeks. We expected her to be about 1 pound 11 ounces, but she was only 1 pound 4 ounces and 13 1/2 inches long. She gave a cry when she came out. They let us kiss her forehead and then whisked her away to the NICU, where she lived for the next 9 weeks. Those 9 weeks are a blur now; I just took it one day at a time. She did so well, and we knew how blessed we were every day as she grew. She came home with us three weeks before her due date on 3/6/2002 at 3 pounds 10 ounces, and life has never been the same! We have been through a lot since then, but we have made it and are so happy now. Lauren is the light of my life, and I feel so blessed as I see her doing normal baby things every day... she is our miracle! Take Care, |