Crazy, Busy, Happy: One year ago

One year ago today, I was told that the next morning I would be having a baby. WHAT?! I was suppose to still have four weeks left and we were in the process of moving and didn't even have the car seat installed. We left the clinic in a mad dash to get prepared.

Francis and I have come to the realization that we like to live our lives like a story. One that when people sit and listen they can't help but think "seriously?" Our story to become parents has been an interesting one as well as a difficult one. Not long (not long at all) after we were married we decided to become foster parents with the hopes of adopting. After a couple of months that situation did not work out in our favor, we were heartbroken but soon after we became pregnant! This pregnancy was not easy to detect. I went to the (first) doctor to try and confirm and he told me that I wasn't pregnant but it seemed as though I had a UTI, so I was put on meds. When I went back in to see if the meds had worked I was told by the (second) doctor that no they didn't seem to work so he put be on a different med. After being on the second med for a couple days I went to our family doc (who had been out of town) to try and see what was going on. TA DA! I WAS pregnant and he couldn't figure out why I was put on the meds to begin with, I was taken off of them right away. After figuring everything out the conclusion was I was approx 10-11 weeks pregnant. Not long after that we did our nurses visit and scheduled our first heart beat appointment! A couple days after our nurses visit I woke up one morning and my body was so swollen my ring finger was purple. My feet didn't fit in my sandals and my stomach looked as though I was going to be having triplets. Weird! I called the nurse and we talked about things to take out of my diet for the time being to see if that would help. My thought "doesn't swelling happen towards the end of the pregnancy?" I watched what I ate and noticed that the swelling went down, but so did my weight. Finally the BIG appointment. After searching and searching no heartbeat. The doctor did an exam and his exact words "are you sure you are pregnant?" (to say the least he wasn't my favorite person). We did an ultrasound and it showed that I was pregnant, but not as far along as my original doctor had thought, so we were sent home to wait a couple weeks and then come back. When we returned to for our second ultrasound to see if the baby had grown, in a two weeks span the baby only grew about a half a week. We were told we were going to miscarry. Devastating! Our thoughts: we just lost a second child. We decided to miscarry naturally but after a month of SLOWLY losing the baby the doctor told me they had to do surgery. After the surgery we were told that they found some "ify" things and IF we got pregnant again it wouldn't be for a long time and we had to understand that. We are strong and knew we could make it through! Not long after everything I was once again starting to feel a UTI coming on, but for some odd reason I held off going to the doctor. I finally went in and this time I was told that I didn't have a UTI but had all the symptoms and asked what I wanted to do (lol okay?). I explained to the doctor that the last time I went through this I ended up being pregnant. He looked right at me and said "I know what your getting at and you are not pregnant." After another month and a half of being VERY uncomfortable I went back to our family doc and we did some tests - no UTI and again not pregnant. I guess just deal with being uncomfy. After almost four months of being so uncomfortable (crying uncomfortable) I took a home pregnancy test and it was so faint, but it looked positive. I told Francis on his bday! We were in the process of selling our home and super busy, I put off calling the doctor for a couple of weeks. I did finally call and made an appointment with a midwife and we heard the baby's heartbeat! (tears, tears and more tears!!!) 16weeks!!!!

This was such a gift for us we treasured every moment. The beginning of the pregnancy was great! At about 30 weeks I felt weird and not right. I was starting to swell again. After being put through the ringer with answers, finally my midwife sent us to the hospital - I was starting to go in early labor. I was put on bed rest with appointments twice a week. I had HIGH blood pressure and had to do 24hr urine collections. My test were coming back negative for preeclampsia so everyone was stunned on what was going on- swelling, high blood pressure, contractions, occasionally no urine for 24hrs. After holding me off for a couple weeks and since I was already in labor on my own they weren't going to try and stop it anymore, if I didn't go in on my own on March 15, 2010, they were going to induce me the next day.

The morning of March 16, 2010, was surreal. Since I was in labor on my own they didn't induce me until later on in the afternoon (just to speed it up because I was going DOWN HILL). After being induced it only took a couples and three pushes to hear "ITS A GIRL!"
**SIDE NOTE: To make things more interesting, Francis closed on our new house in the waiting room of the hospital one hr before Kynzley came into the world :-)
After we found out it was a girl we had to pick a name. Francis actually named her :-) Kynzley Mae! Everyone was excited and taking in all joy! It was short lived. I starting breaking out in hives and my blood tests were coming back all "funky". They were afraid of me having seizures or passing out so I wasn't able to hold Kynzley. THE HARDEST THING EVER!!! She couldn't be in our room if Francis left, which he had to to let our dog out. The first night I was pretty much put in a coma to try and see if what was going on would pass with complete rest - umm nope! My throat closed and thank the lord Francis and a nurse were standing right there when it happened. I wasn't allowed visitors because so many doctors were in and out of my room. I saw 30 specialist plus interns and students. It got to the point where nurses were coming in my room just to stare and see what the talk was about. Kynzley was fine and sadly that was getting pushed aside because I was so sick. She was completely healthy (except her nose. It was completely flat from being positioned so low - but it popped up before we even left the hospital Ü)! She was even discharged before me. They wanted to keep me in the hospital until they figured out what was wrong, thank goodness I didn't need to stay. We were able to come home as a family!! (to a new home!)

In conclusion, the "answer" that the doctors can give right now to why this happened is that my body reacts as though I am allergic to carrying a child. Similar things happened in the pregnancy that we lost (swelling), they relate them together and said it showed itself later this time. We are SO THANKFUL for Kynzley!!! We cannot believe that tomorrow she will be a year old. Its hard to imagine what we went through to get where we are, but it gives us a story!

Giving a thumbs up right after a contraction. Even through all the issues I was able to do it all natural! (notice my padded bed just in case I had a seizure)