Finding Out

As many of you know, this baby is something we have been praying for for nearly 4 years now. Last year we thought we were on the way, but unfortunately suffered a miscarriage at 8 1/2 weeks, only to find out when we thought we were about 14 weeks. We never did hear or see a heartbeat after 6 1/2 weeks. This was November of 2006. It has taken us this long to achieve a pregnancy again...and by no means other than the grace of God.

At the beginning of December 2007, I had just finished a series of ultrasound observations that reinforced what the doctor thought...I was not ovulating. So we set up an appointment for February to determine next steps. In the meantime, he prescribed 50mg of Clomid (this was nothing new - I had been on this very basic fertility medicine at this lowest dose for several months before). I of course managed to mess up taking the medicine and missed a day.

In the meantime, my Mom and Dad were spending a lot of time up at the nursing home with my Mom's Mom who was in her last days. I was fortune to be able to visit her a few times before she passed and even had a few minutes alone where I thanked her for all she has done, asked her to take care of our baby in heaven and - with a smile - asked her to see what she could do about getting God to send us a baby. My wonderful Grandmother passed away on 12/16/07.

Christmas and New Years came and went and about the 3rd week in January I had 2 dreams....well not really dreams, simply images in my sleep. The first was an image of a baby, that I knew was ours, and he/she had my smile. I really though nothing of it, but then 2 days later, I had another dream (image) of a little boy - probably about 3 or 4 - simply standing looking out the storm door. He had fine blond/light brown hair and look a lot like Aaron. Again, I really didn't think much of it.

The following Thursday was my Grandma's birthday (the same Grandma I spoke of previously). Late Wed night, about 10PM, I took a pregnancy test and yes...POSITIVE!!! I can't say by then I was really surprised. I had started to think about the instances over the last month and by Tuesday I was just sure the Lord had blessed us....although I couldn't share with Aaron until I had the + proof! I thought I was border-line crazy myself :)

Additionally, it turns out that our due date is 9/30 which is Aaron's Grandfather's birthday. He passed away in November of 2006, just as we found out about our miscarriage.

I am just in awe of these 'coincidences' - if that is what you want to call them - I am more inclined to believe they are God's hand in this. I cannot say I haven't been more than nervous regarding the success of this pregnancy...and will probably continue to be nervous until he (or she...) arrives, but I must say there is an underlying calmness to the nervousness. Again this calmness is thanks to the grace of God, our advocates in heaven and all of those here with us on earth.

Thank you again for all your prayers. They mean so much!

Peace

Renee

A New Addition to the Family

Aaron & I are so excited to finally be able to share the news: We are having a baby!

Our expected due date is September 30, 2008. So I am 12 weeks along and things have been going very well. We have had 2 ultrasounds and just visited the doctor today and heard a strong heartbeat of about 170 BPM! My progesterone levels have been outstanding & I have been having many of the common symptoms: very tired, nauseas most of the time, etc. But I am so happy to have them! I have never been so happy to feel sick in my life. :)

I started out the first few weeks receiving progesterone shots from Aaron. I have to give him HUGE kudos for this one. He did an excellent job with these difficult shots that take about 1.5 minutes to inject. He was so gentle and it didn't hurt one bit. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago I developed an allergy to the sesame oil that the progesterone is in and got very itchy on my arms and torso. I have switched to oral progesterone and am FINALLY (after 3 weeks) loosing the itchy skin.

Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed that this will happen for us. I cannot even begin to express how grateful we are to God for allowing us to achieve what seems to look like a successful pregnancy. Please keep praying that all continues to go well!

I will continue to post updates and photos throughout the pregnancy. If you would like to hear more detail about how/when we found out, I will be posting that later this week or this weekend.

Here are our ultrasound pictures to date (the first is 6 weeks 2 days, the other 2 are 10 weeks 3 days):