How it all started...

When Brian and I got married, I wanted babies pretty much right away. Brian wasn’t down for that. I still don’t know if he just felt he wasn’t ready to be a dad or maybe he wanted us to be more “financially” stable. In all fairness we were only 23 when we got married, but I felt ready! Needless to say I really didn’t leave the subject of parenthood alone. I would bring it up every chance I could get. I did give it a break when my best friend Laurie got pregnant.

After the initial shock, Laurie and I started getting really excited about it and went shopping, set up the registry, and had a baby shower. I was almost living vicariously through her, but at the same time I just wanted everything to go smoothly for her and Michaela. She even aasked Brian and I to be God Parents! We were thrilled! The most memorable moment in my life up to that point was being present at Michaela’s birth. It was such a miraculous day! I won’t reveal all the details; I’ll let Laurie do that when she starts her own blog. I’m not going to lie though. Watching it all happen made me question this whole motherhood thing for a minute.

Sometime during Laurie’s pregnancy, Brian finally gave in and decided we were ready. I got off birth control and we started trying… and trying… and trying. We weren’t successful for about 6 months and that’s when I decided to seek out the help of my OBGYN. That’s when we got the not-so-great news. After what felt like a hundred blood tests and sonograms I was told I was Diabetic and had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I still remember clearly the day I got the call from the doctor. It basically meant that it would be really difficult to get pregnant because I wasn’t ovulating, and if I did get pregnant there was a high risk of miscarriage and if I manage to carry the baby, there could be serious complications due to the Diabetes.

I was home alone when I got the call and I CRIED. I cried until my mom came by and I told her and then we cried together. My mom was never one to pressure us to give her a grandchild and she reminded me of that. However, it didn’t make the news go down any easier. Then Brian came home and I told him. He was trying to be as supportive and positive as he always is, but I couldn’t help but think I was letting him down.

I did everything I needed do to increase the chances of getting pregnant and especially be able to have a healthy pregnancy. I went to doctors, took medication and lost about 50 pounds. Five months after receiving the not-so-good news, we found out we were pregnant! We actually found out while visiting my little sis in college one weekend. It was September 2007.

We were very excited, yet cautious to tell too many people since there was still a risk of miscarriage. We slowly told family members and after the 1^st trimester told everyone else that needed to know.

I was a under a very strict diet and I had to take insulin, which up until I got pregnant, it was not necessary. I didn’t even gain weight until after the 4^th month of pregnancy. I was afraid of all the things that could go wrong, but decided to focus on taking care of myself and the baby growing inside me. Because I was Diabetic I had to see a specialist as well as my OB during the pregnancy, but the good thing about it was that I got to see my baby a lot more times than other pregnant moms. I had a lot of ultrasounds done because they were monitoring the baby very closely. There was a risk that the baby would be too big or that it may have deformities. Who would have thought that Brian and I would have a baby that weighed 6lbs. 6.5 oz.!

So that is pretty much what we went through to have our Hannah! I’m posting a few of my pregnancy pictures. In the next blog, I will write about the MAGICAL DAY!