Our "unexpected journey" began a little over 7 years ago. Pete and I were married in 2000, had our time of fun and play, then decided we were ready to start a family. I'm a teacher, so being the planner that I am, I thought how perfect it'd be to get pregnant in the fall so that I'd have the baby during summer break. If only things in life ever worked out as we plan, right? Almost 4 years later and 8 rounds of fertility treatments, 4 miscarriages, and 1 failed adoption, we were finally pregnant. The obstacles we had faced were soon forgotten once we held our precious Jackson for the first time on May 23, 2007. Given what we'd been through to get him, we decided to waste no time in trying for #2. Another year and 3 more rounds of fertility treatments later (1 cancelled at the last minute), we were blessed with the news that we were pregnant with #2 AND #3! I was a nervous wreck through virtually my entire pregnancy with Jackson and promised myself and Pete that once we got through the first trimester I'd enjoy this pregnancy much more and not be so paranoid.
Cut to week 19 of my pregnancy as I'm being rushed to the OR for an emergency cerclage after a routine weekly visit with our perinatologist. It was the first of 4 hospitalizations during my pregnancy and the beginning of almost 4 1/2 very long months of strict bedrest. My second time in the hospital was just a week later when I had to miss Jackson's 2nd birthday party. By my fourth stay in the hospital, we knew all of the nurses and joked that we could run all of the monitors and machines ourselves at that point. For the next 17 weeks I was instructed to remain reclined in bed the entire time and could only get up to go to the bathroom or take a quick shower. Our doctors firmly told us that my bedrest did not entail even sitting up in bed to do projects, etc. I had to bite my tongue when people would say, "I'd give anything to be able to be on bedrest." I can guarantee they wouldn't be saying that after just a few days. It was anything but enjoyable (though I did get some great reading in!), but I do think I handled it pretty well. Though I guess Pete might be a better judge of that! I really don't know how we would have gotten through without the help of some wonderful family and friends. Poor Jackson didn't know what to think at first, but then he got so used to me being in bed that he would tell me to lay down if he saw that I was cheating and up more than I was supposed to be.
The doctors couldn't believe I made it to 36 weeks when I was finally scheduled to have the cerclage and terbutaline pump removed. Of course that same day I went into labor almost immediately. It was September 10 and I really did not want the twins' birthday to be on September 11. Little did I know that that would be the least of my worries to come. We went home from the hospital around 2pm after the cerclage removal, which was so painful that Pete passed out by the bedside just from watching the pain on my face! I was so excited to be out of bed and released from my "buddy" (what we called my terbutaline pump that was attached to my upper thigh), that we went to pick up our new mini-van (yes, I'm officially a suburban mom) and took Jackson out for ice cream. What a treat that was after watching the entire summer pass me by! At around 10pm we were back at the hospital because I was contracting every few minutes. By 11:30pm they were prepping me for a c-section because of Olivia's position and because of complications I'd had after delivering Jackson, who was over 9 pounds. I must say that the c-section itself was 10 times easier than the 24 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing with Jackson! And here's where our story leads us on our journey to Holland, a place we never imagined we'd be going in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment