Week 8 - We Made It!!!!!

It may not seem like THAT big of a deal to you, but to us, it's a milestone!

For those of you who 'breezed' through pregnancy (you LUCKY things) without a scare, or without ever experiencing a miscarriage or not being plagued with fear and worry, the 8 week check up to you was probably just "expected". But having been told in our first pregnancy that we had lost our first baby at this 8 week check up there was quite a bit of nerves and apprehension surrounding it. Not to mention that only 2.5 short days earlier had I miscarried a twin!

So, the day comes and all is well. The baby was measuring right on schedule nice strong heartbeat, and we were out the door. They said "we have no idea at this point what will happen next. You could miscarry the other baby, OR you could carry it to full term, we'll just have to take it one day at a time." GREAT, thanks for the encouragement! They scheduled me for a month later and said call us if you have any changes or experience any spotting. . . . . oh if they had only known what would come!

Here is a picture of our sweet baby at the 8 week check up.

These are pretty tough to "see" if you aren't familiar with them. In this picture the baby's head is facing to the right, with the body going to the left. The dark spot is the brain, and the white 'blobs' halfway down are the Arm-buds. If you look close you can just begin to see the foot buds.

Again if you can't see it, don't stress it! We know these things can be tough!

Week 7 - WOW what a week!!!!!!!

Are you ready for this?! I still can't believe it!

So the week started out with no major issues. Then on Sat. morning I had some pinkish-brown spotting. Not good! So I called my Dr.'s office and they said that really I just needed to monitor the spotting and if it increased or if I got cramps to call back. And in the meantime I was put on bed rest and fluid therapy! The nurse told me to call in on Monday just to make sure the OB didn't need to check me out.

So Monday comes and I called into work, b/c besides calling the Dr. we also had to do our final walk thru on the new house. So I call in at 8:01 - gave them a minute to get settled, and basically they said, well since the spotting has stopped you should be fine until your appointment on Friday. "No news is good news" yeah, right!!

OK, so Tuesday I head to work, a little nervous but I figure if the Dr.'s feel OK about it, I should too! The day goes OK, no major issues, I did have to teach a review class that lasted an extra 2.5 hours after school, so I was ready to get home. After dinner I started to notice I had quite a few cramps, and that they seemed to be getting stronger. So I drank a glass of water and laid down on my left side. I got ready for bed, and noticed that some brown spotting had returned, and that coupled with the intense cramps had me really worried. I tried to fall asleep, but it was hard, I was so worried and upset, but I knew that if something was going to happen, there was nothing I could do to stop it! I said some prayers and fell asleep. Then around 11:00, I woke up b/c I was afraid I had wet myself! I had felt a warm gush, and ran to the bathroom! Thankfully I still had bladder control, unfortunately it was blood! My heart sank! I could NOT believe that this was happening again! I mean once you have on miscarriage you hope that your second pregnancy will have no problems, but THIS a second miscarriage in 5 months to the day!!! I was heartbroken, I called out to Dave who was sleeping, and he came to me in the bathroom. We were both so upset, we sat and cried and hugged and tried to stay hopeful, that our next pregnancy would be better. After about 2 hours of bleeding and passing tissue, I decided to call it a night and headed to bed around 1:30. I didn't sleep much, even though I was exhausted and although my eyes were swollen and painful, I kept crying. It was all too much!

Wednesday morning, I had already called in for a sub for the rest of the week, figuring they would need to do a d&c to clear out all the material. So at 8:00 when the Dr.'s office opened I called in to see if I could come in. I explained that I had a miscarriage the night before and wanted to talk about getting some testing done to see why I was having recurrent miscarriages. So they got me in right away. Dave asked me if I wanted him to come with me, and I told him "NO, honey we both know what happened, and what they are going to tell me. . . ." So I met with the same mid-wife I had seen after my first miscarriage, we began to talk about what can cause these things, and what kinds of tests they would run, etc. . . Then she says, well lets use the ultra sound machine, just to see exactly what we are working with and what we need to do to. . . Right when she turns on the machine the first thing we see is the empty sac, where I had in fact miscarried, I was upset, but not surprised. Then she says, "well let me zoom out and just take a look at the rest of your uterus . . . " and then she stops mid-sentence, turns the ultra sound screen so I have a clear view and says "do you see what I see? There is a baby with a nice strong heartbeat. It looks like you were pregnant with twins, and although you miscarried one, there is still one hanging on!" I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!!!! WHAT, How could something like this happen! I was so happy, and so sad for the baby we had lost, and I honestly felt a little crazy! I mean have you ever heard anything like that in your life?!

At the appointment on Wed. they said to take it easy for a week, and basically be on bed rest and make sure to drink plenty of fluids and that they would see me back in the office on Friday for my official 8 week appointment. I raced to the car so I could call Dave, I couldn't wait for him to hear this news! I asked him "if he was sitting down. . ." then told him the story. He was very excited! We both couldn't wait for Friday to go see the baby again! Here are the pictures from my ultrasound on Wednesday. You can see that the two pictures on the left show both sacs, and the sac on the left contains our healthy baby and the sac on the right is the one that I miscarried. Then the two pictures on the right are close ups of our healthy baby!

Week 6 - Oops I guess I missed a week!

I would like to say time is flying, but it really isn't!

Well to recap last week, it went really smooth. NO major issues, I felt quite a bit of stretching and growing pains, but nothing too much. It did go quickly but I wouldn't say it went fast.

This week, well as most of the books predict morning sickness creeps in around week 6, and since I am 6 weeks 2 days today, I am at risk! As of yet I have not had any vomiting, thank God! But I do feel pretty squidgy in the mornings, I try not to take too hot of a shower, and not to bend over, or move too fast. It seems as though it is going pretty well though. I hope I can fall into the category of the 15% who don't suffer from it, that would be great!

Like my friend Beckie says, don't be a complainer. . . I want to follow up my update above by saying, I am in no way complaining about these symptoms, in fact I welcome them, because it is a reminder of what is happening. And it kind of reassures me that everything is going well. We don't have our first appointment for another 2 weeks, in fact we have our first prenatal appointment and we close on our new house in the same day! Feb 16th is going to be a BIG day for the Kirk family!

Since it is busy season Dave is working, but when he gets home I'll have him snap a picture so I can update this. Really no major changes, just slightly bloated. Can't wait until week 8 when we get to see our baby for the first time. I will probably have a good cry fest when we get to see a healthy heartbeat! I am really looking forward to it!

Such a Beautiful Word!

Maybe it is just me, but I am just in love with this word. . .

Just look how pretty it is, let me tell ya, I have waited a while to see this!

Thursday morning I decided to use one of the digital I had run out to buy the night before! And like the test before, the positive results showed up in a matter of seconds! Very exciting, in fact I was so excited that I was shaking. As you can see this occurred pretty early, 5:38, so I ran out of the bathroom, turned on the lights and said "Dave guess what" and showed him the stick, it took him a minute to focus his eyes, then he says, "I knew you were pregnant last night!" Gotta love men! He was very excited, but it just struck me as funny, he turned off the light and went straight back to sleep. I on the other hand, floated up to cloud 9!

I am very excited to start this adventure, and I look forward to sharing this with all my friends and family.

Week 4 - We're Pregnant (again)!!!!

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Dave & I couldn't be more excited about this! Here is the good stuff!. . .

It still hasn't sunk in all the way that we are pregnant, but we are both just so thrilled! Just look at those beautiful test results!!!

This is the first test I took. I was pouting on the phone to Dave about how he was going to be out of town for the next 2.5 weeks and just going on and on. So Dave said "just take a test when you get home, you have one there so just do it!" I was reluctant because I had drank a ton of water and it was in the afternoon. But I did have to go to the restroom so I decided to go for it! So glad I did! As you can see the line is lite but it is definitely there! I was so excited, but wanted someone else to tell me they saw it too! I sent it to Dave & Mom in an email! Mom was confused & Dave said he definitely saw it! Yeah!

So like any woman trying to get an
answer I hopped in the car, and bought 4 more tests! 2 cheap tests and 2 digital tests! It seems like the reasonable thing to do! So I return home with my tests and do my best not to drink too much water over the next 4 hours. Finally I decide to test again . . . . and as you can see the lines are much darker and appeared with in seconds of taking this test! I was so happy, I just did the happy dance all over the house! Oh and there was quite a bit of squealing too!

Well in an effort of self preservation I would not let myself get excited about being pregnant, you know just in case, because I wasn't sure if I could handle the let down! And I had originally said I would wait until I was a full week late before testing, but I am SO glad I didn't. It is great knowing that you are pregnant and experiencing the pregnancy is so fun! Hot flashes and all! Oh, how I can't wait to meet our baby!

Our baby is due Sep. 27, which is perfect timing for us and it will be so great to be able to celebrate the holidays with our baby next year. What a change that will be! Go Time GO!!!

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