A few months after Emily found out she was pregnant, my sister Carey found out she was pregnant with her second child. I was happy for her too! Wasn't upset because I knew that they were trying so it wasn't a surprise. So 2 out of 4 kids pregnant at once...don't they say things happen in 3's??
I never was one to be "on time" with my monthly "present" so it was normal to go 2 even 3 months at a time with no thought of pregnancy. One day I went to my mother in laws for lunch and had picked up a pregnancy test just to make sure that the slightest chance of me being pregnant was ruled out. I was standing in her bathroom watching this cheap-o dollar store pregnancy test show me 2 lines....WAIT 2!! There were 2 lines what does that mean?? I'm looking at the test and the instructions and was like...this can't be happening. I ran out and got my mother in law and had her look at the test also and we both were jumping up and down with excitement!! I couldn't believe it! And if you know me, I never keep good things a secret. I called John immediately and when I told him he wasn't sure how to handle it so he just said "good honey" WHAT??? You better be more excited than that. We've waited too long for this moment. He was in shock and I get that now. I then proceeded to call my mom and my sisters and then my sister in law and everyone was so happy!
When September rolled around Emily was 9+ months pregnant and Carey was 4 months and I was 3 months pregnant. There was our set of 3! Little did we know that on Sept 9th when my nephew Brayden was born, my sister Casey came out and told us she was also pregnant! At that moment, every single child my mom had was pregnant. REALLY do things happen like that in real life?? Sure do! So Carey was due in March, I was due in April (5th to be exact) and Casey was due in May. Our kids would be so close and we were all so excited.
I started early on, probably around 3months, to have high blood pressure. I have border line high blood pressure normally so I knew that would play a role in how my pregnancy unfolded. So my Dr placed me on bp meds and just monitored it at all my Dr appts.
In November we had a routine test called the "quad screen" done and thinking nothing of it. I received a phone call from the Dr's office telling me that I needed to come in because they wanted to talk to me about the test results. So I go in and was in a room when the doctor and like 3 nurses all came in at the same time to talk to me. He told me that my quad screen had come back testing positive for downs syndrom and/or birth defect. I just looked at him and asked him how often these tests come back with a false positive? He informed me that more so than not, do these test come back with wrong conclusions. I looked at him and told him that downs syndrome kids need parents too and that we had NO intentions of aborting or giving this baby put up for adoption. He wanted to do an amniocentesis to give us a definite answer as to yes the baby has downs or no the baby didn't. John and I talked about it and had decided against it because of the risks that were involved. If the tests were wrong, and we go forward with the amnio, we put the baby at risk and that was just something were weren't willing to do. He completely understood where we were coming from and didn't push the issue but did insist on routine ultrasounds. In every ultrasound we had, they couldn't tell us what sex the baby was. They even got a shot right between the legs and couldn't tell us what we were having. But we didn't think anything of it at the time......
My dad turned 50 that December and the entire family (mom, dad, siblings and spouses) all decided to go Salt Fork Lodge for the weekend and celebrate. While we were there, I kept telling my mom that I hadn't felt the baby move and was starting to get nervous. She kept trying to put me at ease and would tell me that I'm just at that 6 month mark, and I won't feel the baby move all the time. So, we made it through the weekend and now came time for the work week.
This is the only picture I have of all of us pregnant at the same time.
It was taken the weekend we were all at Salt Fork
2nd row:John, Me (6 months), Curtis, Emily, Brayden, My dad Dean,
Brother in law Craig, nephew Zander Carey (7 months)
1st row: Casey (5 months) brother in law Sean, niece Morgan,
Mom Patty and niece Kearstyn
I trucked it on over to L&D and they put me in a triage room and the nurse came in to hook me all up and stuff. She used the belt monitor on me first and she had a hard time picking up the heartbeat. Lets face it...I'm not the skinniest person in the world and I was only 6 months prego so I can understand how they might not have been able to hear the heartbeat. So she grabbed the hand held doppler machine. Now if you know anything about this machine, you know that even if you can't HEAR the heartbeat, that it will still register numbers of what the heart rate is. So she tried and tried and couldn't audibly hear the heart rate. So I asked her if she was at least registering any number and she said no. It would be really mean of me to " to be continued" right now huh? OK I'll keep going. So I kinda got scared and I called my mom. John already knew I was headed over there and he was on his way. So when I called my mom, I simply told her that they were having a hard time finding a heart beat and that I was scared and it seemed like she was there withing minutes of me calling her. Shortly after my mom showed up, my sister Casey showed up and then John. So they brought in the ultrasound machine next and let me tell ya....there are times when students shouldn't be involved and this was one of them. They bring this machine in and get the baby on the screen and instead of letting me hear a heartbeat which is what I was eagerly awaiting, they were asking the students what they thought they were looking at and to identify the arms and the head and all the limbs. I was like HELLO!!! I don't care about the legs and head and stomach right now. LET ME HEAR A HEARTBEAT!!!! So then they told me that they wanted radiology to come up with their ultrasound machine because it was more high tech then the one they were using. So the same girl who had done all my routine ultrasounds that the Dr ordered when we found out the baby could have downs, was the same one who came in to do this ultrasound also. So I felt comfortable with her and was asking her questions that I knew she wasn't allowed to speculate on. So after she was done, they were waiting for the Dr to review the photos and they would be in to talk to me. While we were waiting, I had to go to the bathroom and had to leave my room and go down the hall to where the bathroom was. When I stepped outside into the hallway, I saw a group of doctors and nurses all standing around the screen of my ultrasound photos. I passed them and went to the bathroom and when I came back out they were ALL gone. Kinda thought that was weird. I got back to my room and climbed back into bed when the resident that was on duty that night came in. He introduced himself to John, my mom, and sister Casey and then proceeded to tell us that there was no heartbeat, that he was sorry and that the baby had passed away. WHAT??!?!? What does that mean passed away? How? When? Why? I needed these questions answered! and NOW! They explained to me that I was going to have to deliver the baby in order to do what needed to be done. My thoughts? NO WAY!! I WILL NOT HAVE THIS CHILD VAGINALLY! DO A C-SECTION AND GET IT OUT AND LETS BE DONE WITH IT! (at this point I still was in shock as well as my family and I hadn't cried) They talked me out of a c-section because if I did that it would only put me at risk for future pregnancies. So I reluctantly gave in to going through with a vag delivery BUT I DID IT. What was to come is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy but I am going to stop here and let you prepare yourself for the next posting...
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