Pregnant with Joshua

I want to blog about Joshua's birth and NICU experience before the new baby is born. But since I am so slow at this blog I thought I should skip ahead and talk about his birth, and then go back and fill in the years in between. So here is the story of how Joshua got here.

Brian and I had wanted a baby for a while. We had been trying for a while and I was going through school as fast as I reasonably could. The main problem for us getting pregnant is that I wasn't having periods....at all. I don't really know why, and the doctors said it wasn't worth the time and money at this point to figure it out, they just put me on drugs to make me have periods. Those drugs were miserable, I felt so much worse than I do when I am pregnant, and I gained weight faster than I do when I am pregnant too. Well the drugs finally worked (the drugs also make it harder than normal to get pregnant), and Brian and I were so excited. We even went to the DI and bought a crib. (Which after reading all the recalls on cribs was probably a bad idea, we donated it back to DI before Joshua was born.)

But 4 days later I miscarried. That was devastating because we had been trying for so long, and the timing seemed perfect I would have been due after I graduated and not long before Brian graduated. Looking back we are grateful that Joshua came a little later, because if that pregnancy had carried out just like Joshua's the baby would have been born over my finals, and Brian would have had a semester with a baby in the NICU. Having Joshua in the NICU was stressful enough when we were both done with school.

The doctor said I needed to wait a few months to try again, and I went off the devil fertility pills. Amazingly I started having periods without the pills. As soon as we could we started trying again. I was late so I took a pregnancy test right before Thanksgiving. It came back negative, I thought I would have to go back on the pills, but didn't have time to deal with it right then. We went down with my family to visit my grandparents in Hurricane, Utah. We had a lot of fun, but I was a little sleepy, I took a 3 hour nap while everyone was playing around me. I don't usually nap.

When we got back to Provo we decided to take another pregnancy test before I got back on the pills. It came back positive, but Brian and I thought the test was broken because of the way the lines came up, so I sent him back to the store for more. The next day I took another test, and I thought I was pregnant, but Brian was still not sure. So the next day I took another pregnancy test and we decided that I was indeed pregnant!

We called the doctor and set up an appointment for an ultrasound to get a due date. We went in and the doctor looked and said well you are pregnant there is the egg sack, but there is no heart beat. It is probably too early, so we will take some blood now and some in a couple of days to make sure your hormone levels are rising, and we will do another ultrasound next week.

So they took my blood and my hormone levels were way up, they were high enough that there should have been a heart beat. The doctor said not to worry yet, it should double in the next two days, and if it does it means your body is still keeping the baby and things are developing. In the meantime Brian flew to New York to interview with his current employer KAPL. He flew out on Sunday and then I went to the hospital to get my blood drawn again. After that I went to my parents house for dinner. My mom was out of town visiting her parents so it was just Emily, Nathan, and my Dad. On the way there the doctor called me and told me my blood hormone levels were going up, but not enough so I probably would loose this pregnancy. I was devastated, but went to my parents house and ate dinner without saying anything. I did take a cry break in the bathroom.

I left rather quickly and was finally able to get a hold of Brian on the phone and bawled all the way home. I was so upset I didn't even lock the door that night. Amazingly after that Brian did really well at his interview and got the job. Brian wasn't quite sure that everything was lost, and when we went back in for the ultrasound that week, there was Joshua's heartbeat. I guess my body was really excited about being pregnant and so I had high hormones or something. We went in for another ultrasound just before Christmas and everything looked good then too.

We decided to tell our family that we were pregnant over Christmas, which was really fun because everyone was so shocked. We made homemade frames that said World's Best Grandpa on them and gave one to my dad, and emailed one to Brian's dad and step dad. (It would have cost $50 to get it to them in time for Christmas, so they got digital gifts).

The rest of the pregnancy was pretty uneventful up until Joshua was born. I took Lovenox almost everyday to keep from getting a blood clot and worked full time, while Brian was going to school. I was lucky because I didn't have to work tons of overtime even though it was busy season, which was good because I was pretty tired.

We were convinced Joshua was a girl and called him that up until the ultrasound. I guess he was sick of it because there was no mistaking him for a girl. He was also a jealous little kid. The beginning of May my friend had a baby and Brian and I went to visit her. I never got kicked so hard by Joshua as when I was holding her baby. I think he was upset she was here and he wasn't because he came four days later.

Well that's the story up until Joshua was born.