This is the napkin that we used at out 4th of July family cookout to announce our news. I know you will be surprised by the fact that I am 11 weeks pregnant and wondering what in the world happened since I last posted. Here is the story.
We secretly started back doing a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET cycle) at the start of April. This required me to wear 4 estrogen patches a day and also take a shot that suppressed my body. We had to go up for a few appointments, but this process was so much different. The estrogen patches were SUPER strong and messed with my hormones a lot, but just not having to live in the city and go through the pain of growing all those eggs was a relief.
On May 2nd they decided my body was ready to go so we started some different shots (That big progesterone one) and we scheduled the transfer for May 9th. They defrosted 2 embryos and thankfully God allowed them both to make it through the freeze. This transfer only took about 10 minutes. Without that polyp it was the easiest procedure ever. We were out of there and on our way home quick. I took the next few days off and was on bed rest to let my body relax and allow them a chance to attach themselves.
One week later on May 16th the most surreal thing happened to us. We bought a pregnancy test and were both there as it came back a very strong pregnant line. We also bought a digital test and it came back quickly saying pregnant. We have seen lots of negative tests over the past few years so seeing a positive was weird for us. It was hard to believe. That night we just cried in awe of the blessing. We knew we had a long road ahead so we had to be careful being too excited but we rejoiced.
On May 18th I had blood drawn and my HCG level came back at a 201.9. They want it to be between 50-100 so they told us that is could be twins but either way that is a good strong level to start with. Two days later I had it drawn again and it more than doubled which is what it is supposed to do.
We had our first ultrasound appointment on June 9th. We found out that I am carrying 1 little baby. This was bitter sweet because that means 1 of our embryos didn’t make it. We got to hear a very strong heartbeat and it was developing perfect. June 9th brought our rate of miscarriage down to less than 10 percent.
On June 23rd we got to hear the heartbeat again. It had grown exactly as it should and she even used the words everything is looking perfect. I told her we have never heard her say that referring to my body! We go to see its little arms and legs wiggling around – very neat. This time by hearing it our chance of miscarriage then dropped to less than 3 percent.
We have been doing shots since the start of April. We started the big progesterone shots at the start of May along with wearing 4 estrogen patches a day since mid-April. As of June 29th, I got to stop both of those. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be done with those. They were one of my biggest struggles.
I have been very sick. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am shooting so much medicine into my body along with the pregnancy hormones. She gave me some things to help and it has been a day by day (or hour by hour) thing. Since finding out I’m pregnant I have lost 12 pounds because of the sickness. It has been the hardest thing to get through and it made doing shots and patches even harder because it just kept the sickness going.
I have also lived in a bubble since May 9th. Until my first ultrasound I was on high alert. Basically I could go to work, but needed to come home and rest when I got finished. I had to limit how active I was each day to help keep this baby. That was really hard when no one knew. I had feelings of a prisoner in my home a few times especially as I was sick, but it was part of it and I knew it was worth it. We had one miscarriage scare that thankfully turned out good. It actually ended up keeping us more guarded because you just never know what is going to happen.
We are so excited and blessed to be posting this news. We have wanted to share since the day we got our positive test but knew that for our sake and for your sake we needed to wait. Last time was so hard for us and for others that we wanted to spare the pain if it didn’t work. When you feel as much joy as we have been feeling it hard not to shout it off the rooftop, but we are grateful that we can come to you and tell you at this point knowing that we are in a good spot in our pregnancy. Things could still happen of course, God is in control, but we have a peace to share. Also, I probably won’t be able to hide it too much longer! :)
Thank you for prayers. I hope you have been encouraged somehow through this journey. Each of your kind words, understanding hearts and prayers have lifted us up so much. We hope we are able to pass that on to others who are struggling through journeys that they do not understand. God is strong when we are weak and He has taught us more about Him in the past 2 and a half years then I ever thought was possible. As hard as it has been, it is hard to be anything but grateful for this journey and for the lessons we have learned. Justin and I have grown closer than I ever thought two people could be during these struggles and he is my reminder that God has the best things in store for my life. The best gift I could ever give my child is him as their daddy. He already is amazing and is my biggest blessing from God.
To God be all the glory!
J&M
