It’s been 9 days, and what an insane week! It’s been absolutely exciting, but insane. The story begins the first day of last year (2010), when I decided to stop my birth control pills. From all of my research, I gathered it would take a little while for me to get pregnant because I’ve been on them for so long. I failed to have any monthly cycles in the following months, and pregnancy tests done in March and June were negative. August was my yearly check-up, and I talked to the doctor about wanting to have a baby. If I’m not producing eggs, I’m not producing babies was the response. So he gave me extra progesterone to see if that would spark a cycle. I took it and it worked, but by September I was “dried up” again. So I went back and he gave me more, along with Clomid to make me ovulate. All the while, I had another test at the office that came up negative.
The timing didn’t seem to be good then. With the holidays coming up, and my yearly MRI in January I thought it best to wait. Time goes by, and I have my MRI, in which the technician said he spotted a new lesion on my brain, even though my neurologist said he couldn’t see where it was. I had a choice: start a 6 month steroid I.V. or wait a few months and have another MRI, in which case I may have to take the steroids anyway. I opted to just start them and get it over with. I had them the beginning of February and March, and then the fun really began!
The steroids were sucking the energy out of me. By the second month I was having a hard time with digestion, and was a little “backed-up”. I tried a generic softener that I broke out in hives over, and spent 3 days jacked up on Benadryl. Then I tried some natural herbs that helped, but for almost 3 weeks I had a hardening of the lower abdomen, and felt quite bloated. No matter what I did I couldn’t get rid of it. So, I went to my family doctor who said he could feel the hardness. He asked when my last period was, and I chuckled a little and said September, but that was the only period I had last year. It all made perfect sense to me. I only had 1 period in the course of a year, and the steroids I was on caused constipation, fatigue, and water/sodium retention. So he asked that I take a pregnancy test first, and then we could look into a possible ovarian cyst or something of the sort. We didn’t even need to go that far because he came back in with a positive test.
That was 9 days ago on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Dr. Brandon, my family doctor, had guessed by the size of my bump that I was 20 weeks along. I had an ultrasound done the very next day, which not only confirmed a baby, but that I was 18 weeks and 6 days in. Nice estimate doctor! I can’t even begin to tell you how overwhelmed I was to see my baby for the first time. And it wasn’t like every other pregnancy where you start out with what looks like a grain of rice. There’s a head, arms, hands, legs, feet, and a heartbeat. And the little guy was nice enough to show his “family jewels”. And all I could do was look at my husband and say, “You’re grandma’s gonna be so happy.” There is now a Rude baby boy to carry on the name.
I keep beating myself up a little, for eating the way I had the last 5 months, and for having all those tests done. I can only call it a “God thing” that all of the tests do not cause harm to a fetus, as well as the MS medicine I am on. I promise to do my best the second half of this pregnancy to take care of the little man, no matter how sick of “rabbit food” I get. We are off to a good start by purchasing what I call “fat pants”. These suckers are so comfortable I may wear them indefinitely! Wow, did my belly get really big really fast! I’m still shocked, and overjoyed about our new little blessing. God is so good! But now, I'm 5 months behind on planning. Names..shower for here and Ohio..registering. So much to do, and so much to decide. Maybe I'll think about it after a nice long nap :-)
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