Round two.......

Story continued...
Stuart and I had decided we would start trying for baby number 2 when Jace was about 1.5 years old so that they would be close in age. Our first step was to prepare for a frozen embryo transfer using the three embryos from our last cycle. We were sad and shocked that none of them survived the thaw. This put us back at square one ,and we decided to do one last round of IVF. On June 30th, we transferred 2 beautiful embryos and got the good news on July 9th that it was successful. Our numbers were high and we suspected early on that it would be twins. When it was confirmed that there were indeed 2, we never really thought it would be 2 boys. Can you imagine my surprise, coming from a family of all girls, when we found out that we would be having 2 more boys!!!! I had a preventative cerclage placed at 14 weeks with no complications following the procedure. My pregnancy was going so great. The weeks ticked away and I was amazed at how easy this twin pregnancy was going compared to the trouble we had had with our singleton pregnancy. Looking back maybe I shouldn't have ever made that observation out loud!!! I was amused at the comments I got about my already growing belly. Some of my favorites were: "I bet you're ready for this baby to come any day", "You're not due until March- oh there's no way you'll make it",  "wow just 5 months I thought more like 7!", "what a cute belly. (me- it might not be in 3-4 months) well when are you due? (me- it's twins so probably the end of feb) oh wow! you're going to be big" and "Good thing it's 2 because you are really large already". And all of these comments were made before 22 weeks!!
On Wednesday, November 10th, we went to a regular appointment with our maternal fetal specialist. It was a normal morning at work and several people made comments that day how well I was doing. Stuart and I had so much fun watching Jace play with another little girl in the waiting room. Everything seemed perfect. Then it hit. We were shocked when they discovered that I had torn through my cerclage and was dilated to a 2. I had no idea that anything had gone wrong and, while we were so glad to have had an appointment that day, it was one of the scariest days of our lives. We were taken directly to the antepartum unit and admitted. We were only 21 and 5/7 weeks along, and for the babies to have a chance if delivered they needed to be at least 23 weeks. We knew we had to do whatever it took to keep these boys in for as long as possible to give them a fair chance. I had chosen our specialist because I felt like we were being led to use him, and I know now that that was God's work. That evening, he did a rescue cerclage and was able to put in three sutures (more than he had ever done before on a patient). Before the procedure he prayed with us and that was something I will always be grateful for.
So that night without any warning or chance to prepare, I moved into the hospital indefinitely, but was told to expect to spend the winter here. And that became my wish and prayer... to spend the winter here so that I could keep these babies where they needed to be as long as possible.

Our journey to parenthood.....

Well, I have decided to give blogging a shot. I am probably the world's worst at returning calls and keeping in touch with people, so we will see how this goes!!! I wanted to start this blog by telling a bit of our story:
After 3 years of marriage, Stuart and I decided to start a family in 2007. We were initially devastated to learn that we would have to do in vitro fertilization in order to conceive a child, but jumped into the process with both feet. Sadly, our first two attempts at IVF ended with early miscarriages. We fertilized our embryos on February 14, 2008 for our third attempt. On February 29th, leap year day, we learned that we were indeed pregnant. The joy we felt in being pregnant soon became clouded by fear when I started bleeding at 12 weeks. I was put on modified bedrest until 24 weeks, when I was allowed to go back to work very light duty at 24 weeks. The bleeding was intermittent throughout those weeks, and the fear eventually eased. I have to admit that those weeks at home were quite enjoyable. I got to go to Ruidoso with my mom and grams and relax by the river for several weeks, I got alot done around the house, and caught up on rest. On October 22, 2008 we welcomed baby Jace to this world at 37 5/7 weeks. My water broke at work and I got an epidural before I even felt a contraction. In fact, I laughed throughout the actual delivery- it was your storybook delivery. Jace had no medical issues, despite a bit of jaundice, came home on time, and easily got the hang of eating and sleeping. While it was a bit of a rollercoaster getting there, we learned so many lessons in our journey to parenthood. First off, we found out how many people loved us. We had so many friends and family praying for baby Jace before he was even conceived, and those same people spoiled us rotten at our baby showers. We learned the power of prayer. We discovered that this struggle brought us closer together and strengthened our marriage. We were both able to become better caregivers based on our experiences, and we were able to be a support to several friends going through infertility and loss. And finally, we gained an amazing appreciation for our little miracle that we worked so hard to get.