Get to Know Our Family

One husband (referred to as Jim). One Wife (that's me). One daughter (Karleigh). One son (Rylan) 8 failed pregnancies and finally, successfully added our rainbow baby/take home baby (Stella) on April 15th, 2010.

Jim and I met in college, a small, private college so very common to bump into the same people over and over again. Apparently he had a crush and I didn't catch on right away. We started dating on February 9, 1996. We transferred schools in 1997, got engaged in 1998 and were married on July 10th, 1999. Bring on the babies right!?

LET'S HAVE A BABY:
Not so fast. We decided to just let things happen as they might. Plain English - we never used any sort of birth control. 6 months rolled around with no pregnancy. Lots of tests bought. Lots of late periods but no pregnancy. After the 6 months of not trying but not preventing, we started really trying. 6 more months went by, no pregnancy. Then just after our one year anniversary, I had no period for 82? days or something like that. We were in the middle of getting ready for our move from Montana to Washington so I decided that I'd find an OB/GYN when we got out here. We got here, still no period. I called around and found Dr. B. As Murphy's Law would have it, I got my period 2 days before my scheduled appointment. I rescheduled and when I finally saw him I explained what was going on, or more accurately, not going on. We started the simple blood tests and determined that, for no known reason, I wasn't ovulating. Jim also volunteered for his simple test. He passed with flying colors. Me not so much. I started the Provera ritual to induce a period and then Clomid to induce ovulation. According to the blood tests that was working. However, it still took 8 months or so to finally achieve a pregnancy.

PREGNANCY #1:
Our first pregnancy went along great. No problems at all until we went in at 12 1/2 weeks and couldn't pick up the heart beat with the doppler. Dr.B took us back for a quick ultrasound to put our minds at ease. Instead, he saw no heart beat but sent us to an outside imaging office to confirm it. Our baby had stopped growing at 10 1/2 weeks. I chose to have a D&C at 13 1/2 weeks since my body wasn't catching on. My surgery was the Thursday before Thanksgiving 2001.

PREGNANCY #2:
We took some time off of trying to get pregnant for our emotions and in order to enjoy my cousin's wedding in Mexico that coming May. We tried for a couple months on our own but when we returned from vacation, I called Dr.B for my prescriptions. August of 2002, a year after our first positive test, we finally had a second positive pregnancy test. I waited a while and called to have the office confirm it. When the nurse called me back she said "I'd be negligent if I told you this is a healthy pregnancy. If you haven't started bleeding in a week, call back." That was August 12th, my mom's birthday and the day that I found out that my newly married cousin was pregnant.

PREGNANCY #3:
We tried again, off and on for months and finally got pregnant again in April of 2003. Karleigh joined us after 38+ hours of labor, on her due date, weighing in at 8# 4oz.

PREGNANCY #4:
We knew that we wanted another baby and not knowing how long it would take this time, I got my meds and a positive pregnancy test in just the second cycle. That pregnancy was filled with more stress, a fairly high probability of abnormality during the AFP screen but Rylan joined our family, perfectly healthy at exactly 37 weeks after 4 hours 15 minutes of labor and weighing in at 7# 4oz.

PREGNANCY #5:
We have always talked about having three children. You can imagine our surprise when, without any trying or medical intervention, I found myself staring at a positive pregnancy test in November of 2007. What a blessing! A miracle baby. It was not to be. You can read more about Eli in his section.

PREGNANCY #6, #7, #8:
After we lost Eli we knew, for sure, that we wanted another baby and sooner rather than later.
I started the meds that I had taken before and, with blood testing, was told that a pregnancy was impossible because I did not ovulate. Turns out I just ovulated very late (normal for me) and in fact, I was pregnant. Less than a week after my positive test, I miscarried in July. I also had fairly early miscarriages in August and October. Finally, we were able to get pregnant, now I couldn't stay pregnant.

PREGNANCY #9:
After my last miscarriage, I got pregnant again right away. This time everything was great until history repeated itself just days after our perfect NT Scan and finding out that our rainbow baby was another boy. You can read more about Collin in his section.

PREGNANCY #10:
While taking some time off of TTC, the meds and the stress that goes along with it. We were a bit taken aback to get pregnant again. I know the way my body acts when it's pregnant so I wan't surprised to see the positive test, just surprised to be pregnant again (on our own). That pregnancy ended at the end of March '09... and to bring it all full circle, once again, found out that a cousin was expecting the same day I was m/c'ing.

Now we are at a place right now where we have no idea what the future holds for our family. I guess you never really know anyway. Our living children are continuing to grow and learn and even drive us crazy some days. I brag about them, I might complain about them, I may be up, I may be down. This blog is full of the mish-mash otherwise known as my life! I promise, it's not always about the sad stuff.

Pregnancy #11
With some deep soul searching, we decided to try one more time with a different fertility drug. Femara was suggested with the hopes that it would help mature a "good" egg without decreasing my uterine linings, thus supporting a "good" pregnancy. I found out that I was pregnant at only 9dpo with a very lightly positive hpt. Throughout the hcg testing, my numbers were strong and tripling. We went in for a very early ultrasound where I "should" have measured at 5 weeks 3 days based on ovulation but actually measured two days ahead of that. We saw a perfect gestational sac, yolk sac, "wonderful lining", the very start of the fetal pole and the teeny tiny beginnings of the placenta. So far, so good. And our "happily ever after" arrived beautiful, alive and crying on April 15th, 2010.