We have decided to keep a blog to help us chronicle Sam's development, keep our friends and family informed, and to one day share with Sam so he will know more about how he came into our lives. This will also be a place for us to share how Irene is doing with all the changes in her world- and what an amazing big sister she is. Some information shared here may be more than you ever wanted to know- and for that I am sorry. You can just skip over those sections if you like.
So, here we go!
The road to Sam has been bumpy. After having Irene, we had a terrible time getting pregnant. After a miscarriage in September of 2007 we decided to see a reproduction specialist, Dr. Ryzard Chetkowski, who determined that we had a number of factors working against us. I did not ovulate on a regular basis, and I had what is known as a bicornuate uterus (meaning i had a thin septum dividing my uterus into two chambers). Apparently a bicornuate uterus makes getting pregnant and keeping the pregnancy very difficult. Dr. Chetkowski performed a couple of hysteroscopies + septum resctions on me to remove the septum. Once he felt he had removed enough, we worked with Dr. Chetkowski to get pregnant. One month of letrizol (a breast cancer drug that also stimulates ovulation) and voila! We were pregnant with twins.
The twin pregnancy was very difficult on me. I had complications from the get go, and had to have shots of progesterone daily just to keep the pregnancy going. After 8 weeks, one of the twins stopped developing. The other baby was still going strong- until one day in may when things took a very bad turn. While at work, my body decided to try and expel the fetus that had stopped developing. This was terrifying- as I had what can best be described as a big water balloon full of blood rupture while I was walking to the bathroom. I had to be taken out of my office by ambulance. When I got the hospital, they hooked me up to an ultrasound machine, and the baby was still there- and doing great. I was sent home, and put on very strict bed rest. That was a Wednesday. By Friday, I started to have contractions, and by Friday night I had lost the other baby.
After recovering, Dr. Chetkowski decided I needed one more hysteroscopy + septum resection. That was my 6th surgery- and the last one I was willing to do. Luckily, in this procedure, Dr. Chetkowski go it- all of it and I was left with one unified uterine cavity! We set a plan to get me pregnant with an end goal of August of 2010. If I was not pregnant by that time, we would talk about IVF. Aside from a little set back in February when I herniated a disc in my lower back, we plugged ahead. In March, with the help of letizol, metforman and an IUI we found ourselves pregnant!
From March until September 10 everything was going great. This was an easy pregnancy. All the early prenatal test came back great. I had started to feel the baby move around a bunch. Irene even got to feel the baby kick! We were all relaxed, excited and optimistic. All of that changed on September 10.
