Surprise! Expecting Baby Number 3!
SURPRISE!!! We're expecting our most beautiful third gift of life in February of 2018. It feels so surreal to think about having another baby and being pregnant again so soon after having Katherine but YES we are expecting a surprise baby. We are so blessed and thankful, words cannot express how much. We had always "planned" and talked about having three children. But because we planned doesn't mean we always got our way as to when and how we got pregnant. You can read more about our long story of pregnancy struggles here.
After Katherine was born in August 2016, we planned to try again after I was in the "clear" from the doctor, about a year after my cesarean surgery. So, say sometime in 2018 we were hoping to try again for another baby. Every time I saw my doctor he reminded me to take birth control pills to avoid getting pregnant during this time while my body was healing and getting back to its normal state. And, I always turned down the pills for many reasons and told the doctor to not worry, we are careful.
HA!!! 8 months after having Katherine, I ended up knocked up, and where? In the most beautiful and peaceful place on Earth, Hawaii. Yup, those of you who followed along our trip to Hawaii back in May, we made a baby and came back, basically. LOL. But, since we were not planning for it and I was still breastfeeding Katherine, we were clueless of my pregnancy for about 2 months. Yup. Had no idea I was pregnant until I missed not my first period, but second period. I had a feeling come over me the second time I missed my period that something may be up. Deep down inside I knew there was NO WAY I could be pregnant but I still wanted to test and rule it out. I thought it may have been fluctuations in my hormones plus the breastfeeding, that something was probably just off in my body. Just normal womanly stuff.
My husband was on a business travel, texting him back and forth about this feeling of being off made us wonder how could it be possible. The odds were never in our favor previously. How could something we always struggled with and had to strictly plan for come so easy to us all of a sudden. It just wasn't the cards we had always dealt with. We just didn't get it and both believed it was impossible. My husband kept texting me "babe, there is no way." "it's not possible". So, while I had him on text, I tested. Those 3 minutes felt like the longest three minutes of my life. I was SO scared because I didn't think my body was ready for another pregnancy after having a c-section 8 months ago. Scared for getting hurt again. Scared of another loss or another ectopic. All these thoughts and what-if situations were rushing through my head in those short minutes. I was afraid more than anything. Thinking of all the unlucky occurrences in our previous pregnancies just did not make me want to think positively.
I uncovered my eyes peeking through to see if the test was ready, and there it was...a big clear YES. I could not believe my eyes. I cried and cried and cried. Out of excitement but mostly fear. I texted my husband a photo of the test and he could not believe it either. He stepped out of his meeting and called me right away. I picked up and cried to him "what if my scar hasn't healed?" "What if I'm not fully recovered?" He told me nothing but positive things and to call the doctor right away. So, after I hung up the phone with my husband, I speed dialed the doctor. The nurse handed the phone to my doctor and he could sense the fear in my tone, and told me to get down to the office right away, otherwise he was gone on vacation for 2 weeks the next day. I dropped my kids off at my moms, and rushed to the doctor's office. And, lo and behold, came out of the sonogram room with a big happy smile on my face. Having heard that sweet sound of heartbeat and feeling rest assured by the doctor that this looked like a healthy pregnancy put me at ease. Even though it had all happened on its own without any of my necessary medications and blood thinner shots, we would still resume the same medications and procedures as with Mason's and Katherine's pregnancies. So, that meant, the baby aspirin, the lovenox shots (blood thinner), progesterone pills that had all helped carry my successful pregnancies. It was just one of those "better be safe than sorry" kind of situations.
WOW. Just WOW. How life does a 360° turn with luck and fate. I never, like seriously NEVER, thought in a million years that we would be that couple. That couple who went on a trip somewhere and unexpectedly conceived. That couple who would have a surprise baby, an unplanned third baby. But, that's life I guess. It's just so beautiful how life throws us with unexpected situations, sometimes unlucky ones (that we've dealt with and learned and healed from) and some lucky and successful ones. We feel so blessed, lucky and thankful to have this healthy baby surprise us. For that reason, we are not finding out the gender and keeping it a surprise, to continue to embrace the unknown and let life surprise us. And, because it would be our last baby, we want keep things a little more exciting and different this last time around. And, well because we have our boy and girl, I guess it would be easier to keep it a surprise. We can't wait to meet this little babe and become a family of five.
Isn't life about that anyways? Full of surprises.
Thanks for following along our journey!
xoxo,
Salpie