Meet Baby Girl O

So, I was wondering why I was feeling so crappy during the holidays and into the new year. I thought it was just a really bad stomach flu, but then one night in bed, A put her head on my stomach and said "you have a baby in your tummy." DH and I looked at each other since this had never been a consideration why I had been ill.

After all, we had gone through 4+ years of intense infertility treatments including IVFs, egg donors, etc., and we ended up with nothing more than 3 early miscarriages and an unknown diagnosis of why we were infertile. Apparently "someone upstairs" wanted us to bring E and A home first before we were to have a child the old-fashioned way! Worked for us!

DH ran down to the local CVS and bought a pregnancy test, a first-response type. I took one that evening, but it didn't work. No lines whatsoever. The next morning, I took another one and that positive line took no more than 10 seconds to appear, and it was dark! We both looked at each other like "no way!"

I set up an appointment with an OBGYN two days later, and I found out then that I was already 9 weeks pregnant! How the heck did this happen?! I saw and heard the heart beating really loudly on the ultrasound, and I think I was just in shock.

I had another appointment at 13 weeks, and everything still looked good. DH and I were completely tentative and anxious during this whole time, because honestly, with our past history, we didn't know what to expect! We didn't expect this pregnancy to make it out of the first trimester.

After our 13 week appointment, we told A and E. They were both very excited to have a baby brother or sister. DH also had told his family after this appointment. Because of my shock, anxiety, and well, just overall "what the heck" with the situation, I had told my parents right after I found out.

DH and I saw the baby again at the 16-week appointment on the ultrasound. It really started looking like a baby at this point!

This was our first of what would later become multiple attempts at an amniocentesis. Since I am considered an old lady (39) and with our history of miscarriages, we definitely wanted to do an amnio. The first attempt was extremely painful, as the needle wasn't long enough and the placenta was right smack dab on top. Went back later that afternoon to try again, no go. Went 10 days later for a third attempt, and it still didn't happen. Ended up going downtown to Baylor University Medical Center's High Risk OBGYN and even they took 3 attempts to finally get it. I guess having the placenta where it is made it extremely difficult to get to a good pocket of fluid.

We got the preliminary results of the amnio yesterday. It is definitely a girl, and so far, she is free from the top three chromosomal defects (Down's, Trisomy 13 and 18). We don't get the final results for another 10 days or so (which checks for less common chromosomal defects). That was a HUGE relief, and honestly, it wasn't until yesterday after we found out that I truly got excited about this.

We are at the 19w5d mark right now, halfway there, and I can now say with excitement that
WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL and SHE IS DUE ON AUGUST 21!

I wanted to set up this blog to share with our friends and also to document the second half of this pregnancy. I was so nervous during the first part (even though I missed 2/3 of the first trimester - yay!) and wasn't sure we were even going to make it this far. But now, I feel that after the amnio results, we have as good a chance as anyone to make it all the way!