Saturday, February 21, 2009

How our family grew to a family of three - part II

My baby girl is gone to church camp for the first time and we are missing her dreadfully. In honor of that, I thought I would do the next installment (don't worry there aren't that many on how we grew to a family of 3. I don't think there will be anyway.

In case you missed it and want to read it here is part I.

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So I went back to work, thrilled and sure it would be an easy pregnancy. We told the granparents-to-be who were all delighted, although my father kept saying he was too young to be a grandfather.

Then one morning there was spotting.

I immediately panicked and called the Dr. and insisted that I thought I was miscarrying and I needed to be seen.

That was another terrifying drive to his office. Another ultrasound and the baby is fine. It must just be some of the first-trimester spotting that sometimes happen. But then I got an exam.

The doctor found an incompetent cervix which means when the baby got big enough, there would be a miscarriage. The baby essentially starts to fall out. Normally it is only found after one or two miscarriages and I am not sure why I was blessed enough to have it found before I lost a baby.

There is a procedure called a cerclage, where the cervix is sewn shut but it can't be done until 12 weeks and I was around 8. So I was put on strict bedrest. I was allowed to go to the dr weekly, I cheated and went by the church library afterwards and would check out a stack of books and I was allowed to go to the bathroom.

Bedrest sounds lovely . . . until you have it.

And being alone with your thoughts when you know that there is a good chance that the baby that you love won't make it . . . was hard.

I am so grateful to God though. I had . . . wandered away from Him after high school and in the year or two before this He had been wooing me back to Him. In this time I clung to Him and my faith grew so much deeper. When fear would rise, which happened often, I would quote Jeremiah 29:11 and the assurance that somehow HE would make it alright in the end even if my baby died.

New Years Eve 1998 I had my surgery that, I thought, would make the pregnancy go perfectly. The surgery went well, no complications, not a whole lot of discomfort.

I really thought that I would have a smooth pregnancy after it.

Silly me.

To be continued Part III

3 comments:

  1. Bed rest stinks, but what a blessing came from it. Thanks for popping in on my blog earlier. :)

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  2. Wow, making an early discovery certainly was a blessing.

    The surgery sounds brutal though; the thought of being sewn together like that makes me cringe. (I'm a wimp, in case you were wondering). Was it considered a major surgery? Was your pregnancy considered high-risk after that, or were you allowed to go about your usual activities?

    I'll stop, before turning this into 20 questions. :)

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  3. Wow - that would have been scary - I know that bedrest would stink - but at least NOW we had wireless and laptops... I'd go completely nuts without them!! :-)

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