2nd Toughie BABY BUMP! But Well Worth the Trouble!

by Stephanie Beard
(Lacey, Washington)

PRETTY SUNFLOWERS AND PREGNANT TUMMY PICS!

This is my second child but I have had conception problems from the first time we wanted to have children. I have a 2 year old son and I had 3 miscarriages before we concieved him and boy was that hard. I would never wish it upon my worst enemies.

This baby was a long try also. We tried for months with nothing happening and ended up back at my friendly fertility specialist's office. You see, I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. In a nutshell that means my ovaries develop little cysts on them and it causes hormone flucuations, a lack of progesterone and an overabundance of testosterone which can cause all kinds of problems in the baby making department. I wish I could plan when to have my children or even try without intervention but it seems through medication and an amazing doctor's help is the only way.

We ended up with this baby doing progesterone pills to induce my period and then clomid to cause me to ovulate but for some reason 4 months of this didn't help and it was causing me to get really depressed and my emotions were out of control. My doctor said because it wasn't working that maybe we should combine these medications with artificial insemination. My loving husband being the wonderful man that he is, had to "make it" as he called it with a cup on his 30th birthday.

We did the Artificial insemination and needless to say that didn't work either. I got extremely sad and decided enough was enough and I needed a break. I went off all medications and stopped going to the doctor at the end of January. At the end of March I went to visit family up in Canada where I am from originally and we were at a get together and for some reason my mom was driving me nuts and I snapped at her yelling out of nowhere and it was out of character and very random.

I thought it was strange that my mood was so quick to change at the drop of a hat but put it out of my mind. I got home and a few days later my period was late like every month and so I decided to test like I do every month in the off chance that I was pregnant.

Every month I take it and its negative so this time I just didn't want to look at it, I walked away and in my head I was like "ok its going to be negative and you'll go on like usual" When I walked in and saw the positive I screamed! "Spencer! We're pregnant! OMG We're pregnant!" I started crying and screaming at the top of my lungs and he came and hugged me.

I picked up the phone and called my mom who knew the struggle we were going through and could barely get it out "Mom! I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" All I could hear was her saying "NO WAY!" It happened without medication, I couldn't believe it. Well I called the doctor and told them what had happened and they had me do a blood test and everything looked fine. They started testing my hormones right away to make sure my progesterone didn't drop. With my polycystic we discovered the reason I kept miscarrying before my first son was because of the progesterone dropping like a rock at about 7 weeks pregnant and to keep my pregnancy I had to do a shot a day in my rear end until I was out of the first trimester.

This little baby was going to be the same, at 7 weeks pregnant I started my shots and continued til I was out of the first trimester. Since then things have been ok, I've been a lot more sick this time but its all worth the trouble.

About my pregnancy pictures, I took this photo myself from an idea I saw my sister do (she is a freelance photographer) and I loved it so much I did one in my bathroom with my self timer and digital camera. Photoshopping the color to the sunflower to make it stand out signified to me that this child is full of life, growing and will be a beautiful blessing to our family.

This baby is another little boy, a little brother to my 2 1/2 year old son. We can't wait to meet him! He and every child I have or will have are truly miracles in my eyes.