We believe in miracles!

Sean and I will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary in a little over a month. In those 17 years, we have been able to get pregnant 4 times. The first time we had been married for over 5 years and I had been on Chlomid for several months. The pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at about 5 weeks. The second time we had been married for 7 years and, after trying every possible infertility treatment under the sun, we finally turned to In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). We were so happy when it worked the first time and we were able to get our beautiful twins, Cy and Sayer. The twins kept us pretty busy when they were little, so we waited five more years and tried IVF a second time when we were married almost 12 years. It worked for us again on the first try and we got our precious Ava. Well, 5 years later, with no medical intervention whatsoever, we are pregnant again. It's a miracle!

All through Christmas break, I wasn't feeling too good. I was doing my normal swimming, biking and running and I would get home, take a shower, and have to go back to bed... at 10:00 am! I could not figure it out. I normally have the usual "mom" tiredness but this was ridiculous. I felt so lousy and even after I would sleep, I'd be dragging for the rest of the day. This went on for days and on New Year's Eve, I finally thought, "Enough is enough! I can't live like this anymore." My friend had given me the names of some doctors that had been helping her feel better so I looked them up to see if they were on my insurance and they weren't. I started looking up similar doctors and nobody was on my insurance. I was so discouraged - I was crying to Sean and was sure I had the beginning symptoms of some horrible disease. I then remembered that I was due for my annual exam in January. I decided I would just tell my ob/gyn about all my symptoms and then just have him refer me to someone that could help. Then I remembered the pregnancy test from the dollar store (yes, I refuse to pay more than $1 for a pregnancy test... I have waisted way too much money on pregnancy tests!) that I had under my sink. I decided to take it just to rule out that possibility. I KNEW it would be negative but I was on a warpath to feel better and decided I needed to rule out every possibility (and, heck, it's only $1!) So I took it and, low and behold, there they were, the two dark purple lines. I just kept saying, "NO WAY! NO WAY!" I got Sean and showed him and all he could say was, "What does that mean?" We were both dumbfounded! After the initial shock wore off, we just couldn't stop smiling. We were two grinning fools for all of New Year's Eve. We had no plans that night, we were in bed long before the stroke of midnight, but it was the best, and most memorable New Year's Eve of my entire life!

We are so grateful! Miracles happen! Sean and I talked a lot about it in the days that followed and we are still so shocked, we have to pinch each other daily, but we decided... why not us? We believe in miracles, we have seen them happen in our lives, and why wouldn't this happen for us? This time around has been so different... it has been joyful! We decided that with IVF the stakes are so high. You are slapping thousands of dollars on the table and hoping and praying that things work out. You are literally putting all of your eggs in one basket (pun intended) and then being very cautiously optimistic. It's like this time, there has been a huge cloud of stress removed (of course I am the typical pregnant mom and worry way more than I should) and it is just fun!

I had to tell Ava right away as strange as that may seem. She is a wild woman. She was constantly asking me to throw her in the air and play kung fu with her. I was still carrying her everywhere since she was my baby. I told her that it had to be our little secret and I figured if she blew my cover, I could always pass it off as the wishful thinking of a 4 year old. She did great though and didn't tell anyone. We decided to tell the twins when I was about 7 weeks along (I am due the first week of September so we are thinking the very end of August). We had just been to one of their swim meets where they did so good and we took them to Training Table after. It was just one of those perfect days. Sean told Ava to tell the twins the secret and she said, "OK, here's the secret... there's a baby in mom's tummy and it's this big (cupping her little hands)" The twins were in shock and just kept looking back and forth from me to Sean, "Really?!? No way!" It was so fun!

A funny story... at my first dr. appointment, the nurse was looking at my history and asked if we did IVF with this pregnancy. I said, "No. This was nothing whatsoever." To which Sean replied, "Come on... it was SOMETHING!"

We told our parents in the next few days and that was so fun. My mom couldn't stop crying and she said that when she told my dad, he had tears running down his face. Then she said for the whole rest of the day, they would be talking, and he would have to stop talking and take a minute because he was getting so emotional. Again, I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father! 2008 was a really hard year for us but ended in the most wonderful gift we could ever imagine!