What it's all about...

I'm a 39 year old wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt & friend. That should tell you who I'll be writing about most of the time.







Thursday, November 11, 2010

Road to Motherhood

Ok, answering questions is kind of fun!

Stacy asked: What's your road to motherhood story? I have to admit, I looked back at my pregnancy journal for some of this.

We were really lucky. We made the decision to try in April '97, but had no idea where to start. I called customer service for Kaiser (my insurance) and they didn't know either, but suggested we start with an appointment at an OB/GYN. We saw that Dr. on 4/30 and he referred us to the Reproductive Endocrinology department. We had to wait until 6/11 for our appointment with them. Our consultation was awesome and we had blood drawn at that time with the instruction to pick a donor so when my next period started we'd be ready to go. Unfortunately, the blood tests revealed that I had no Rubella antibodies and would need to get the vaccination before moving forward. And then we would have to wait 3 months after the vaccination before inseminating.
The good part was that during those 3 months, we went through all the motions. I took Clomid and had all the blood drawn to track everything so we were in a great position to start for real. On 10/19 I had my first IUI and got my period 2 days before the test date. We did our second IUI on 11/18. Two weeks and one day later (12/3), I was too afraid to call for the test. I was SURE that I would get my blood drawn and my period would come. The next day came with no blood, so I called. Did the blood draw, went home and waited. Then I got the call that I was pregnant. It took two tries. We were very lucky. I didn't realize how lucky however until I started following all these blogs a few years ago. And now, lucky just doesn't cover it good enough.
I had my first ultrasound on 12/17 and that's when we found out that there were two babies on the way. The day before that ultrasound the morning (all day) sickness started and it didn't stop until about my 14th week. I ended up losing about 15 pounds during that time and then everything settled down. At about 7 months, my OB noticed that I was having contractions during a routine appointment, so she sent me to the hospital. They got the contractions under control with terbutaline, which I was sent home with to take regularly. I was already scheduled for a c-section 12 days before my due date because Baby A (my son) was breech and Baby B (my daughter) was laying transverse above him and they weren't moving. When they examined me before my surgery, I wasn't dilated at all. The terbutaline must have done the job, because those babies had no intention of leaving any time soon. My son was born first and weighed 5lbs 14oz with his sister following 2 minutes later at 6lbs 3oz.

5 comments:

DaniKel said...

Glad that you had such a great experience with the dr's and RE. That aren't always so open, especially 12 years ago.

Such a great story!

Have you guys ever thought of having any more kids?

Maria said...

Yes, you were lucky. And you went pretty close to full term, yes? That is a feat in itself...

Anonymous said...

Curious....why didn't you use a black donor when your partner is black????

StephLove said...

I got pregnant with N on the second try, too, although with J it took almost a year. I was 37 when I started trying and 38 when she was finally conceived, which probably had something to do with it.

Stacy said...

Thanks for answering my question. :)
How did you pick your donor?
I wonder if we used the same endo at Kaiser. Was
it at the one in Denver?