Team Baby - Roller Coaster

These past few weeks have been such a roller coaster ride! The ups and downs, medications, shots, acne, hormones, stress are finally all worth it!

Here's the LONG story:  

Curtis, my mom and I drove down to St. George September 18th.  We planned to spend the weekend with my family.  We drove down on a Tuesday and everyone else was coming Wednesday night.  I text Jamie to bring some games when she came down.  She text me back with this:  

 and asked if these games would work!!  My stomach dropped!  I immediately ran and showed my mom the text. We were bawling together!!  Curtis was still at work so we had time to get some supplies and surprise him with this AMAZING news.

 Our plan was to print off the text into a huge poster, but every where we went they couldn't do it. So we just blew the picture up and set it as my computer screen.  We bought balloons and some Sparkling Apple Cider to celebrate! 

 When Curtis got home from work I told him that the TV in the bedroom wasn't working.  He immediately went back to fix the TV.  My mom and I followed him to the bedroom.  He walks in the room and goes straight for the TV - doesn't even notice the HUGE bouquet of balloons or anything! Haha... I was like, "Are you kidding me?!" He looks at me with this confused look on his face.  Then finally turns his head and sees the balloons.  He walks over to the bed and sees the picture. Tears immediately start streaming down his face.  We were all crying again!  Hugs all around.  We were SO incredibly happy!!

The next day the rest of my family came into town.  My mom wanted us to tell the whole family, but Curtis wanted to wait for the blood draw on Friday to confirm the pregnancy with a Beta score. 

Then the roller coaster starts.  Jamie started spotting.  I was freaking out!  I thought..."Not again.  Please don't take this away from us."  I truly thought it was all over.  We called our Dr. and he told us to go get Jamie's blood drawn and see what her numbers looked like.  We immediately ran to the St. George hospital.

 A normal beta score at 4 weeks ranges from about 50-250.  Jamie's was 433.  Our nurse called us and said we were going to be parents!! We were thrilled!!!  Her spotting stopped and the pregnancy continued!  Our Dr. said, "I wouldn't be too worried about miscarriage, I'd be more worried about twins!"  :)  He said the spotting could be from something called an implantation tear when the embryo implants into the uterus.

A week and a half later Jamie calls and says she started bleeding. Not spotting. But actually bleeding.  I was at work and couldn't even function.  I walked up to my charge nurse with tears in my eyes and told her what was going on and she let me leave early.  I rushed home to Curtis and immediately started bawling again.  I couldn't believe it.  We called our Dr. and he said to go get an ultrasound.  He said it was really early but we just want to rule out an ectopic pregnancy and see what we see.  We got an ultrasound a couple hours later.  Driving to that ultrasound felt like we were driving to a funeral.

The ultrasound tech didn't sound very optimistic.  She said she saw a considerable amount of blood around the uterus.  She said that it looked like one of our embryos didn't really grow - the gestational sac was empty.  The other gestational sac had two yolk sacs inside - which means that the embryo split into identical twins.  She was worried because she didn't see a fetal pole - which normally develops between 5-6 weeks.  We left the ultrasound with no answers.  Our Dr. told us to go back in a week for a repeat ultrasound to see if we see any progression.  We could come back and see babies, or nothing at all.  I felt like it was all over.  The last time I did invitro I miscarried at about 5-6 weeks.  I thought something was wrong with our embryos causing them to stop growing after 5 weeks.  I got on google and researched everything!  It was so hard because everyone has different stories. Some women that go in with bleeding end up miscarrying and some go on to have healthy babies.  Some women see fetal poles at 5 1/2 weeks and some women don't.  I was preparing myself for the worst, but hoping for the best.  Monday night was the worst night ever!  Curtis and I could not stop crying.  The kind of crying where you try to stop but the tears keep streaming down your face.  I went to bed Monday night and didn't get out of bed the next morning til 3pm.  I was wiped out emotionally.  Our emotions were all over the place the next week.  We were so stressed out!!

We went back to the same ultrasound tech exactly a week later.  I walked in thinking we weren't going to see anything.  That morning I went shopping - Curtis and I got massages - we were trying to prepare ourselves mentally to come in and not see any baby.  She started the ultrasound and immediately saw a baby!!!!  She said it looked like a completely different patient.  Things were looking SO good.  The bleeding around the uterus was a lot less.  Jamie's body was starting to absorb the blood and heal itself. The ultrasound tech was a bit confused because she saw two babies - but this time they were in two different sacs.  The embryo she thought didn't work actually had worked - and had a baby with a heartbeat inside!!  The best sound I have ever heard.  I immediately started bawling.  I was ecstatic!! She moved over to the other baby and started measuring that heartbeat.  Tyler was looking up at the ultrasound on the big screen and thought he could see two heartbeats on that baby.  The ultrasound tech wasn't convinced.  She was like, "No...that's just the baby...OH MY GOSH, THERE ARE TWO HEARTBEATS OVER THERE. YOU GUYS ARE HAVING TRIPLETS!!!"  The babies were up against each other.  When she moved the ultrasound machine around you could distinctly see two babies in that sac.  I couldn't believe it. Three freaking babies!!  One embryo split into identical twins and the other embryo grew into a baby as well.  We were all in shock.  Going from thinking we were going to see no heartbeats to seeing three heartbeats!  What a miracle!!  I can't even explain to you the feelings that were going through me.  I'm not really a crier, but I was bawling!  SO CRAZY!!  Jamie was shocked as well.  Three babies?!  She had been feeling really sick/tired the past week and was relieved it was actually for something.  We never thought we would implant two embryos and end up with three babies!!  We all just kept saying, "Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Are you kidding me?"  I never thought we'd have triplets, but couldn't be happier! 

Baby A & Baby B - identical twins

Baby C

Jamie was thinking, "Um, I'm only 5'2".  How are three babies going to fit inside here?" I can't even imagine what was going through her head.  Three babies?!  We always knew twins was a possibility, but triplets??  She said, "Well, you guys better start saving for plastic surgery." Haha... Done!  :)  

Jamie has been So awesome through this all.  She's been right there with us through the ups and downs.   At the 4 week blood draw we found out her progesterone was low.  She had to start on intramuscular (IM) injections every night to keep her progesterone within normal limits.  :( I was so nervous to tell her.  I wanted this whole experience to be a positive one for her as well and knew IM injections would be horrible.  When I told her the news she didn't complain once!  She was like, "No big deal.  I don't really mind shots." Are you kidding me?  I'd be pissed.  :)  She took it SO well!  She never complains about blood draws, or appointments, or finding a babysitter for her kids while she's out at appointments.  Nothing!  Triplets will definitely be hard on her and her body.  I know Curtis and I will do anything to make it easier for her.  We'll help raise her kids while she grows ours.  :)  We are SO thankful for Jamie and everything she is doing for us to give us a FAMILY!  How amazing!!

This whole experience has been so crazy! We have had SOOOO much support from friends and family.  There were so many people thinking about us and keeping us in their prayers.  These babies are miracle babies for sure!  I'm so excited to be a mother.  I can't wait to see Curtis as a daddy.  He will be AMAZING!