THE SHOHEN'S: May 2010

We were very excited to learn that we were pregnant on Friday, April 23, 2010. I had been feeling kind of weepy and sad for no reason, so I decided to take the test. It was 3 days early, so the positive line was very very faint--so faint that I took a different test for confirmation and it said “pregnant”.

My initial reaction was a combination of pure joy and fear. I immediately prayed to God, asking him to please protect this baby. I felt very excited, happy, and hopeful as we had been wanting and praying for this baby.

When Matt came home from work, I surprised him with a card saying that we were expecting a baby, and showed him the positive pregnancy test. His initial reaction was similar to mine.

Although we were excited and very tempted to shout the news to the world, we thought it may be best to hold off on the announcement until we knew more. We just told our parents, siblings, and a couple of close friends.

The first few weeks of pregnancy went fine. I was feeling pretty “pregnant”. I had to urinate more frequently and had some normal bodily changes. In addition to that, I was tired, nauseaus, experiencing heartburn, and smells were heightened. All very positive signs. I prayed every night thanking God for another good day.

On Monday, May 10th we went in for our first official ultrasound at 6 weeks, 1 day. We could see our little baby and his or her heart already beating! It was sooo cool. It was also weird to think that there was another life, another heart beating inside of me.

I really felt like this baby was a true miracle from God. Between losing an ovary AND having endometrosis, I really wondered if I’d even be able to get pregnant naturally. It just shows how great and amazing God is!

After meeting with the doctor, she said that the heart rate was a little lower than she had hoped it would be. We weren’t too concerened because 1. She was not present for the ultrasound and didn’t actually see the heart beating (Matt has been trained to calculate heart rates and he said it was strong and steady). 2. Because it was so early (most people don’t have first ultrasound until 8-10 weeks), it was too early to even listen to the heartbeat. So in an attempt to monitor it, the ultrasound tech had me sitting completely still and holding my breath while she tried to hold the piece directly over the baby to record it for a few seconds. It was a little challening to do so we question how accurate the reading turned out.

So, the doctor wanted me to be on strict bedrest for the next week to be on the safe side. She said that with the exception of getting up to shower and use the bathroom, she wanted me resting the rest of the time. You’d think I’d be a nervous wreck, but I was actually at peace and just had this feeling that things were going to be ok.

I have to say, bedrest is not fun! You’d think it’d be nice to sit and relax (at least that’s what I used to think), but it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. It is actually quite boring and isolating. Luckily though, we had been away the week prior, so I had lots of tv shows to catch up on, movies, books to read, photo album to fill, (this journaling to do), and I did a few phone sessions for work from home. I also got to talk to some friends and catch up, so I made the most of my time.

My second appointment was on Monday, May 17th, at 7 weeks, 1 day. They did a repeat ultrasound to check on things. Thankfully the heart rate went up to 125, which is a normal range for 7 weeks. I was told I can slowly resume my normal life and I was off bedrest. With the exception of the normal meeting with the nurse to give them history and get pregnancy info, I don’t need to return until 12 weeks for the next ultrasound. So happy that things are going smoothly!