Pregnancy story

After 2 years and 3 miscarriages we were out of hope, wondering if God’s plan was for us to not have children. My OB said he couldn’t do anything else for me and recommended that we see a specialist named Dr. Alfred Rodriguez, who specialized in infertility (although we didn’t have problems getting pregnant, just keeping the baby). He tested both Stephen and I for all sorts of problems and after the testing was finished, we discovered that I have a blood-clotting disorder and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. This is where you have cysts on your ovaries that keep you from ovulating (I was ovulating, just very inconsistently). PCOS can also lead to an increased risk of miscarriage.

So, I went on a variety of meds-metformin to help combat the PCOS and baby aspirin and folic acid for my blood-clotting disorder. The metformin made me terribly sick, and I lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks. After 6 weeks of getting my body used to the meds, the plan was to start meds to help me ovulate. We were ordered not to try until we were given the go-ahead to start ovulation induction.

Well, God had other plans and we ended up pregnant the cycle before we planned to start inducing ovulation. I took a pregnancy test after work one day because I had not started my period and it came up positive right away. Sadly, I couldn’t even get excited. All I could feel was fear, and I remember thinking, “Great, we’re going to have another miscarriage and we’re going to have to wait another few cycles to try again." I immediately called my specialist and told him that I was pregnant. They started to test my hormone levels to see if they were increasing (which is a good sign that your pregnancy is healthy) and put me on progesterone pills right away to try to help sustain the pregnancy. I felt like I was on every drug imaginable! My hormone levels kept going up and when we went in for our first ultrasound at about 6 weeks, there was a fetal pole and yolk sac, but no heartbeat yet. We were scheduled for another ultrasound a week later and were on pins and needles the whole week. As we were walking to the hospital the next week, I remember seeing a couple outside loading their new baby into their car. I just prayed, “God, please let that be me, please let that be me….” Well, we went in, and of course, there was our precious tiny baby and a beautiful heartbeat! We were so excited, but still scared. We just prayed that God would allow us to keep this baby.

The rest is history, really. The pregnancy went perfectly, except for some gall bladder complications. Every ultrasound was perfect, every check-up was perfect-we couldn’t have asked for more. When I started to feel her moving around inside me, I was so amazed. Watching my belly grow, I couldn’t have been more thankful to God for the precious gift He gave us-our little baby girl Hope.