It all started back in July 2009 when we found out we were pregnant. We were over the moon excited about becoming parents. But then sadly our emotions of excitement were replaced with complete sadness. We found out that we had a Blighted Ovum (link) and my body was not recognizing it and the sac just kept growing. Finally at 12 weeks I had to have a D&C it was a very sad moment for us the realization was all too real. We decided to take a break and recover from this emotional roller coaster before trying to conceive again.
Then finally July of 2010 we found out we were pregnant again!!!!! This time my amazing OB let us come in early for an ultrasound to check to make sure it wasn't a blighted ovum again. We were thrilled to hear a heartbeat, it was our little Ava we felt so blessed in that moment that we were going to be parents. The pregnancy went pretty well until about 14 weeks and I started spotting so I called my doctor who rushed me in and we found that I had Placenta Previa (link). We were so scared to get this news, but we were told that as my uterus grows for the baby that most likely the placenta will move with the uterus and the previa would go away on its own. About 15% of women are diagnosed with some degree of previa in the second trimester and 90%will resolve on their own. 1 in 300 will not and will require c-section delivery and can become dangerous. Well guess what folks I was that 1 in 300 and not only did I have placenta previa but complete (full) previa not just partial. I started to have lots and lots of bleeding at about 33 weeks and rushed to the hospital where they life flighted me to IMC another hospital because they had a NICU for Ava and a blood bank for me. Luckily, we were able to keep Ava in for 3 more weeks (in the hospital) went home for 5 days then had a scheduled c-section at 36 weeks because I kept bleeding. She was perfectly healthy at 5 lbs 17 in long and not one moment in the NICU.
Then two years later in 2013 Ava was going to be a big sister!!!! That lasted for about 4 weeks and then the spotting started again we went to an ultrasound and to our surprise it was a blighted ovum again...this hit me hard but not as hard as the first time. I felt blessed to have Ava and that helped me get through this loss. My body again would not recognize that there was no baby so I had to have another D&C.
July 2014 we got another positive pregnancy test we were scared and excited all at the same time. We got in for another early ultrasound and we heard the best sound ever...a heartbeat!!! Tears of joy doesn't even begin to explain how happy we were that Ava was going to have a sibling. As time passed we kept a close watch having Dr appointments weekly and everything was going perfectly. It was time for the decision if we wanted genetic testing done and we said yes, we did it with Ava and so let's do it again. Later that week we got a phone call from the Dr office and it was the doctor I knew at that point something wasn't right. She explained to me that my numbers came back a little off so she recommended that we got get an extensive ultrasound done to check for other "markers" to see if the baby might have something like Down Syndrome. We of course scheduled right away to get that ultrasound down because the wait was killing us. 5 days later we had our extensive ultrasound showing no extra markers but to be safe they asked if we wanted another blood test that was 99% accurate or we could do an amniocentesis. We were set on no amnio because we knew no matter the outcome we did not want to lose this baby and the amnio comes with chance of miscarriage. So we did the blood test that checks the following chromosomes 13, 18, & 21. Seven days later we got the results....we had a perfectly healthy baby girl. We celebrated and cried knowing everything was going to be ok. We didn't tell many people because we didn't want to raise emotions if they didn't need to be. Well now we know that Emma does have a genetic disorder because she has a deletion on chromosome 17 which wasn't tested for, but that was the reason for the numbers being off in the first genetic test (makes sense now). During the pregnancy Emma had the "hiccups" A LOT, they would start fast and then slow down. Now I know that also wasn't the case and that poor little girl was having seizures in my stomach. I never connected this until we were at primary children's hospital and I sat and cried as I watched her have over 20 seizures and get the hiccups right after, the rhythm was exactly the same as when she was in my stomach. When she was delivered via c-section one of the nurses said wow her head is to tiny, this is also a trait of children with Lissencephaly. There are so many things we could have taken as a sign to know about Emma's condition before her delivery and seizures at 4 days old, but I wouldn't change it for the world because for 4 days I had a perfectly healthy baby girl and we all got to bond as a family and Ava got to hold and snuggle her sister. If we would have known before I doubt we would have got those precious moments for 4 days, before we spent a week at Primary Children's Hospital.
So needless to say our journey to becoming parents has not been an easy one, but we feel so blessed to have our two beautiful little girls in our lives.
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| These precious moments would have been missed! <3 |
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