Weeks 1 - 13!

Now then, where did I leave off? Oh that's right! The joy that is no other than a positive pregnancy test. My hearts skips a beat then rushes very hard and I tear out of my bathroom to track down Bobby so that he can look at the test with me. He is just as mystified and overjoyed as I am! He knows that's it waaaaay too soon for me to be testing but only jokes slightly when he sees me walk into the bathroom with what only could be the equivalent of a mortgage payment's worth of pregnancy tests in my arms. He has know that I am a complete loon for such a long time now that he only smiles and shakes his head when I'm at my worst...

Before we were expecting, I had some really specific prayers to God. They were completely selfish (and I know that God operates on his timeline and not mine) but I couldn't help myself. I could not see myself NOT pregnant when my birthday rolled around (February 10th) or by Caroline's due date (February 27th). I knew in my heart that both of those days were sooo close not only to each other but in relation to when I started these specific prayers. I will probably say this every single post but once again GOD IS GOOD and we received our first positive on January 21st. I was beyond overjoyed to have reached those two dates with hope in my heart and in my tummy!

With all the hope, joy, and optimism I have right now, we have been going through some scary times. To back up just a little bit (and here is probably just a little bit of TMI) I began to suffer from bladder infections after I had Caroline. I had never had one before in my life (except maybe 1st grade I think??) and all of a sudden I was having one like every 6 weeks. I went in to my OB at 4 weeks pregnant to have them check me out and sure enough it was another one! This time they sent the sample off for a better culture than what they can do in the office and guess what it came back as! It was a Beta Strep infection. I'm sure most of you Mommas out there know that this is usually something that they screen you for at around 30 weeks and it really has almost zero effect on the Moms just the babies when they are born. Once my doctor saw my results he became very suspicious. Why was this normally benign infection not only "infecting" me but why had it spread to an area that you normally don't find it at? I've been trying to get answers from  them to find out if this is the infection that caused us to loose Caroline and I haven't been able to get an answer yet. I know that they biopsied her placenta but I don't know if they did a culture on it to find out the exact stain of infection. The doctor told me that he would like me to test at every checkup now (symptom free or not) to look for it again. He said that if they find it again that he'd put me on antibiotics for the rest of my pregnancy so it wouldn't be able to take hold again.

Around 8 weeks I began to spot just a little. Normally I wouldn't have worried too much. I know that spotting is totally normal but I really felt that I'd been through so much I needed the peace of mind that only an OB visit can bring. My normal doctor wasn't there that day and we saw another from the same practice. She was beyond sweet and totally understood all the upset and cause for worry. Bless this doctors heart she gave us a referral to a SPECIALIST! Whoo Hoo! This was the answer to all my hopes and fears! My regular OB I'm sure does a great job on ladies that have very text book pregnancies but I have always had the feeling that hes just too busy to address all my questions and concerns.

We had our first visit with the specialist on Monday for our 12 week visit. Glory Be! All was well! The baby's heart rate was a nice 153 bpm and was even measuring 3 days ahead! To sum up our visit with her we'll be able to go and see her every 2-4 weeks so that if a problem happens again they'll know right away and maybe we can prevent another tragedy. The MFM specialist (as well as my regular doctor) still don't know what exactly happened with Caroline. Did my water break and infection set in or did infection set in and that caused my water to break? Did my cervix give out and no one knew? To sum it up, she will be looking at and for EVERYTHING! What a relief! They also want me to start Progesterone at week 16 to help things along.

And now for just a couple of pictures.  I only started doing belly pictures of myself at week 11 because up until then I just looked like I gained a lot of weight!! HA!

I already did that intellegender gender prediction test and I'll have to do a post tomorrow or the next day on how funny that turned out :). I'll end for now again because you are as tired of reading run-on sentences and everything ending in exclamation marks! as I am of typing them .... :)