Once Upon a Time...

The beginning of our story has several parts and I want to remember the details as much as I can so this post is going to be longer than usual.

So, Once upon a time.........

After using the last of our frozen embryos in the winter of 2011, Steve and I were undecided on what to do next (and not too excited to jump into IVF again). We met with a new doctor that was here locally and he said he would try IUI (intrauterine insemination) with us as long as my tubes were clear. We agreed that was worth a try so we scheduled to do a dye test to check my tubes.

That test had to be one of the most painful things I have ever done (and I've had natural childbirth) and when we left the office I told Steve that I NEVER want to do that again! Turns out that one  of my tubes was clear (the other one is blocked due to my ectopic pregnancy) and the doctor said he could proceed on my next cycle. The same day as my test, my mom and my aunts had left for a trip to New York and I later found out that while there, they were able to write down a wish and then shred the paper and that was to be used as the confetti on New Years Eve. My aunt Phyllis wrote down she wished for us to have a baby:)

Well we waited and waited and my cycle never came. Turns out, for the first time in 8 years, we were able to conceive without medical intervention:) That being said, I retracted my earlier statement about never doing the dye test again because, if it helped us conceive on our own then, I might just do it again...

I decided to take an at home pregnancy test when I was home alone and getting ready to run out the door to meet Steve at the Zoo to take my nephew trick or treating. I was so shocked and excited to see that it was POSITIVE! I decided I would wait until we got home that evening to tell Steve because I knew we couldn't keep it secret from my mom, brother and sister in law if I told him there. While at the zoo, Steve made a comment to me about hating being the only people there without kids. That broke my heart but I knew in a couple hours I would be able to tell him that he in fact was not there without a child.....

Because of our history, we decided to wait until our first doctor appointment to tell our parents about the pregnancy. Our doctor (who delivered Lila and Cole and who we Love!) was so excited when she walked in the door and knew why we were there. She took us straight to ultrasound and I asked the tech to tell me as fast as she can if there was a heartbeat. It took her 2 seconds and she said "everything looks perfect"! I sobbed so hard that she lost the image of the baby on the screen and then I freaked out and pulled it back together. This is my fourth pregnancy with our fifth child and after going through that you put your guard up and try not to get too excited. I was amazed at how much I had let my guard down with this sweet baby. I was hopeless from that moment and never even knew it....

Me and Baby with our Doctor

The following weekend we invited our parents over for brunch and told them that we wanted to talk to them about something...We told them that we decided we no longer wanted to go through fertility treatments because.......We got pregnant on our own!  This was the first time that we really surprised them and I thought we were going to have to tranquilize my mother. She was so relieved as this was our prayer for so many years.  It was awesome to have that moment the way it should be and to give them the reassurance that we had already seen the heartbeat and everything was ok.

We wanted to wait until after 12 weeks to tell anyone out of our immediate family but Thanksgiving was only a few weeks away and little did I know that Baby didn't want to wait that long to make an appearance...........