Our Pregnancy Journey- Pregnancy After Loss
SURPRISE!
WE ARE PREGNANT!
We are so excited to finally be sharing this news with you all. Most of you have been following along on our journey. But if you aren’t familiar let me catch you up. Ross and I decided we were finally ready to start trying to start a family back in November of 2018. By February I was pregnant. We were so excited and I was in literal shock. There is nothing like getting your first positive pregnancy test. Ross got home from work and I was basically in the fetal position holding all 4 of the tests I took lol. We had just bought a new house the same week and were so excited for all of the changes coming our way. Unfortunately not long after we found out we miscarried. It was absolutely devastating. We picked ourselves up and thankfully we were super busy with moving and the new house which helped keep me a little bit distracted. We were in a positive mind set thinking that we got pregnant fairly easy last time.. so surely it would happen again. Well 8 months roll by and we are still not pregnant. We scheduled an appointment with our doctor to see what may be going on. The morning of our scheduled appointment I took a pregnancy test and guess what… it was positive! We still went to our appointment they took blood work and confirmed the pregnancy. FINALLY. Surely this pregnancy would stick and we wouldn’t have any issues… the odds of miscarrying twice in a row are very very slim. Well we were wrong. We had an early ultrasound scheduled due to our history. I was so nervous but also excited. When the ultrasound tech told us she wasn’t seeing what she should be seeing at this stage I felt like I was in a real life nightmare. No way this is real… no way this is happening again. 12 hours later I miscarried our second baby. At this point we were a year into our journey and I truly was not ok. That’s when I decided to open up publicly about what we had been going through. I knew I couldn’t pretend everything was ok on social media or to friends and family that didn’t already know what we were going through. Sharing our story was one of the best things I did for myself. I needed that extra support. The next couple of months went by and we had a lot of time to think. Finally in December after talking with our doctor we decided to schedule an appointment with a fertility specialist. Our appointment was set for the end of January.
Ok lets get to the exciting stuff. The first week in January I woke up one day and just had something telling me to take a test. I was dead set on not taking any tests unless I was positive I was pregnant because seeing another negative test would set me over the edge. But that morning before work I took a super cheap test from amazon… and guess what it was positive. I couldn’t believe it so I took 2 more haha. When those were positive too I woke Ross up and told him.But let me tell you something… after having 2 failed pregnancies in a year positive tests don’t necessarily make you jump for joy. Obviously we were excited but we were both very scared and apprehensive. I called the doctor got it confirmed through blood work and they started me on progesterone that day (I am not a doctor and don’t really want to get into medications or anything but I do feel like this helped me sustain this pregnancy). Weeks went by… my doctors office was amazing and offered me pretty regular ultrasounds throughout the first trimester to help calm my nerves. During week 6 I had a bleeding scare. Ross and I were certain we lost the pregnancy. I called the doctor in tears and they got us in right away for an ultrasound. And that was the first time we heard our baby’s heartbeat! Not the most ideal of scenarios and absolutely not how I pictured that going but nothing about our story is how I pictured it and that’s ok. But the baby was totally fine and that is way more than I could have asked for. I will say I was nervous every single day of the first trimester (and I guarantee the nerves will never leave me). Being pregnant after loss (or 2 losses) is really hard. Its different. Its scary. But that is my story. I am so grateful for this baby. SO grateful I can’t even put it into words and if I try I cry lol. I have learned so much through this journey and I have grown more than I ever could have imagined. We are so excited to celebrate this baby and cannot wait for him or her to join us. Thank you for celebrating with us and supporting us through all of this. If you are going through infertility or loss please know Ross and I pray for you. We feel for you and we know your rainbow is on it’s way. Do your best to stay positive and reach out for help if you need it. Sometimes when the journey is hard that destination is that much sweeter.
Xoxo,
Shelby
All photos are by Brittyn Elizabeth Photography.
