Summary of our pregnancy journey. This was written 2/1/10 while I was still in the hospital.
Well, where do I begin? I've had a tough pregnancy. Back-up- I've had a hard time even getting pregnant this time. As many of you know, our Connor came along just fine and then we waited for 5 years to be twice blessed in pregnancy. We had finally decided to do IVF (the plan from when Connor was about 2 years old and we were realizing that we weren't getting pregnant on our own). While still in Colorado, we did the preliminary tests to see what was holding up the works. Nothing was the answer- unexplained infertility...so frustrating! So, we figured it would just happen and decided not to stress about it. About this time, we decided it was best for our family to move to further Ammon's career. We moved to Arizona and thought "new house, new baby" but, sadly nothing happened. I did all the ovulation test kits, temperature reading, several rounds of Chlomid through my OB-GYN in addition to several odd suggestions I heard from all sorts of well-meaning friends but nothing worked.
So, since we could see that Connor would rapidly be approaching 5 (our deadline by which we told ourselves we would do IVF if it didn't happen naturally) so we needed to get cracking. So, when Connor was still 3, we started seeing an Infertility Specialist (Reproductive Endocrinologist). He ran all the tests on us again, found nothing, started me on several more rounds of Chlomid, did an IUI and still nothing worked. This was from Oct 2008-Feb 2009. We decided to give it a break and save up to do IVF in June, just in time for Connor's 5th b-day in July (it takes 2 months to get your body ready for IVF).
Well, surprise surprise, Ammon was laid off in the middle of March meaning no insurance. Luckily he started an equally good job 2 weeks after the layoff making our new insurance effective June 1st. So, I scheduled my first IVF prep appointment for that day. We started on the drugs right away with daily shots in my stomach for 2 weeks joined by 2 weeks of shots in my hip. My body developed a cyst which backed us up a few weeks but thankfully didn't ruin our progress. Once that cleared up, I was started on more shots to continue to ripen the eggs. Finally, the eggs were ready and I went in for harvesting. A whopping 20 eggs were mature and ready to be harvested. Joined by Ammon's sperm, we miraculoulsy had 17 fertilize. We were ecstatic. We debated between putting 2 or 3 eggs in for the insemination. We finally decided on 3. We wanted to maximize our chances of having at least 1 but we were really hoping for 2. Well, 6 weeks later, the doctor told us we were pregnant with twins. I immediately burst into tears and couldn't speak. The doctor asked if those were happy tears. "Oh yes!" Ammon and I assured him. We were so pleased.
Then at about 8 weeks I began to bleed. I totally freaked out wondering what could be wrong. Could our beautiful miracle really be taken away in a miscarriage? Ammon rushed me to the doctor and found out all was fine, that the babies were still in there, and that this was "normal". This "normal" occurence would repeat itself many times over the next 6 weeks. The doctor put me on bedrest so the bleeding would not increase. He also did so because one of the babies was right at the cervix and he worried that position could put pressure on me continuing my bleeding. That seemed to work for the most part but I still had several large bleeds that scared me so much that I was sure I had lost the pregnancy. Even when I passed a blood clot the size of a grapefruit, I was still pregnant and the babies were fine. It appeared that this pregnancy would be more difficult on me than on my babies. This has proven to be the case even up until the present.
At 12 weeks, I began having contractions- painless but fairly frequently. The doctor from my new practice (I saw my infertility doctor through 12 weeks then transferred to an OB that would see me through to my delivery). She told me to stay down on bedrest because there was nothing to do for the babies at that stage- they were not yet viable. Eventually the contractions subsided, the bleeding completely stopped and my doctor said I could start increasing my daily activities- a gradual withdrawal from bedrest. I was ecstatic. It is no fun being on bedrest. That release from bedrest lasted only about 3 weeks.
Because I was pregnant with twins, this doctor didn't even do my ultrasounds. Since I was being seeing at a high-risk practice for my ultrasounds anyway, I decided to change to their practice. When I went in for my first appointment with them just following Christmas, the ultrasound showed my cervix had shortened. I was 3 cm dialated and 70% effaced. I was quickly admitted to the hospital and have been happily (haha) residing here ever since.
I stayed for 7 weeks until the babies were born on 2/16/10 and you know the rest of the story...
http://larsenmomentsthattakeyourbreathaway.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-angel-girls-are-born.html
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