Never say never. Like ever. We have recently discovered this.
Chantry was 4.5 months old when we discovered we were 8 weeks pregnant with another bean. Oops. I won’t go in to details, but no.. this little nugget wasn’t planned. And that’s ok. God wasn’t done forming our family, even though we thought we were!
This pregnancy has been very different from the others. I didn’t have consistent menstrual cycles, being as I was still considered a postpartum mama. I had What myself and others believed to be an anovulatory cycle in July. Basically, we thought my cycle was trying to bounce back from the birth of Chantry, but ovulation and luteal phase were absent.. which means a non fertile cycle. I spotted for 2 days in August, and then BAM September 1st came and I started bleeding. So I thought my cycle was just trying to regulate again. Well, 2 weeks passed and I was still bleeding.. or going in and out with some days bleeding and others not. Then mid September I passed a nickle sized clot. I began wondering if maybe I was experiencing another miscarriage, but decided to let my body run its course. 2 weeks later, and there was no change. I was SO TIRED, and thought maybe that was due to low iron levels from where I had been bleeding for SO long. When I started realizing that it was affecting how I was feeling, I decided that maybe I needed to test for pregnancy. I had no test, only ovulation strips. I had tested out a theory when I was pregnant with Chantry pertaining to ovulation tests and pregnancy. If you’re pregnant, an ovulatiok strip seemed to LIGHT up. And sure enough, it did. Chad was out on the porch, so I took him the test. I said, “I need you to brace yourself. There’s a possibility that I’m pregnant. Like 99% possibility”, and explained why. I hopped in the car at 7pm, and went and bought a First Response (my ultimate fav test).
(Ovulation test. Left side is the test line).
First positive test (September 30).
By 7:30 I had a positive test. The control line showed AFTER the test line. I knew I was overly pregnant by that point. So I took a moment, and cried. I cried out of nerves, scared-ness, and even sadness. I was terrified. I decided to go to the ER, since I received a positive and was still actively bleeding. Chad stayed home with the kids and I called my friend Shannon, who came and met me at the ER. After all the tests.. blood tests, ultrasound, and pap smear the doctor came in and confirmed that I was 8 weeks and 2 days pregnant. There was a strong heartbeat, butba large size subchorionic hemorrhage. A SCH, or subchorionic hemorrhage is the accretion of blood within the folds of the chorion which is the outer fetal membrane next to the placenta or between the uterus and the placenta itself.
Hello baby! Our 8week 2day old baby! The large black area that looks like another sack in the upper left was my subchorionic hemorrhage.
The doctor explained that we wouldn’t necessarily know the outcome of the pregnancy, but most go on to remain viable. Although, there is still risk of a miscarriage. So after a few hours in the ER I left with the restriction of pelvic rest, no heavy lifting, and to drink plenty of fluids and rest when I could.
I went home confident, but absolutely nervous. And had so much information to process.. including the pregnancy itself. We had all kinds of information and unknown certainties to take in and swallow.
But sure enough, there was no denying it!
A follow up for a few days later was scheduled with my provider for obstetrics, to check and ensure my HCG levels were rising. And they were! Almost 4 weeks later we saw our healthy growing bean again via US. Although the baby was growing, the hemorrhage was unfortunately still present. And I was still having bleeding off and on. And it was scary. The kind of scary that would make you believe you were miscarrying. I began to have moments of doubt. I even gushed blood the day we went to take our announcement photos. And I was 14 weeks along by then. But by this point, I knew it was honestly all normal. I knew our sweet baby was thriving and growing, and I was ready to announce. I wanted all the prayers we could get.
Here are the rest of our announcement photos!
Photos are by KS Photography!
We can’t wait to meet our sweet baby in May! And yes, Chantry and baby will be 12 months or a little less apart!
Stay tuned for another post regarding this pregnancy.. including our gender reveal as well as some unplanned news we were recently delivered (most people do already know, I’m just really behind in blogging about this pregnancy)!
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