Balsam Woods Blog

We are expecting our first baby July, 2009!!!

I’ve been wanting to update our blog with our news, but it couldn’t be done until after some keys family members had been told in person (namely our parents).

I think it is a pretty interesting story (with an awesome ending), so I’ll repeat it here even though I’ve pretty much told everyone that reads this blog already.

So November 14th, we had an appointment with our reproductive endocrinologist (he’s mentioned a few times in other posts).  He told us that my one centimeter-sized polyp located on the lining of my uterus had to be removed or I was not going to get pregnant.  He also said that I would have to take contraceptive pills for the several weeks leading up to the surgery in order to thin the lining of my uterus to make removing the polyp easier.  When I balked at taking The Pill, because it utterly goes against our decision to follow our faith values, he actually said, “well, I could call it something else if you want me too.” EEK!!…

So the appointment didn’t get any better when Dave & I really questioned the importance of removing this polyp and were unwilling to make the decision right there in front of him, but said repeatedly that we would have to discuss it first.  Then he proceeded to say, “you do your research to find a doctor you can trust.  And then, you do as you are told.” Oh, good golly…

Oh, and he declared definitively that I have PCOS (hmmm, and yet I don’t have symptoms traditionally associated with PCOS except for one, being heavy), hypothyroidism (which my midwife discovered) and this one centimeter sized polyp which he said WILL make it impossible for a baby to implant in my uterus (unless of course he removes it).

We told the doctor I was late and my temps were still elevated.  But he made it very clear that I couldn’t be pregnant, didn’t offer to even contemplate a quick pregnancy test and then proceeded to leave us in the incapable hands of a medical student to discuss further the surgery.  Said medical student then proceeded to explain that during the surgery the polyp would be snipped away and then they would conduct a D&C to scrap away additional uterine lining for analysis and just to make sure they got the whole polyp.

Dave & I left in what I guess could be considered a fog of dismay.  That doctor was so utterly and completely disrespectful of our faith values and was so mean about making awful assumptions based on our being overweight.    So enough of dippy doctor dude.

The next day, Saturday, I awoke with a still elevated temperature and now eight days late.  After about an hour of indecision, Dave finally convinced me to do a pregnancy test.  I think at that time I had actually become afraid of pregnancy tests.  We had used many over the course of two years and none of them had happy endings.  Plus, I was still down about the meeting with dippy doctor the day before.  But Dave prevailed.  I used the test and brought it into our computer room (aka baby’s future room), set it on the desk and we sat casually glancing down waiting for “Not Pregnant or Pregnant” to show up on the digital results screen.   Suddenly the word Pregnant appeared!  I was in shock, a little, I think.  Dave was too, and then he jokingly said, “where’s the Not?”  What an awesome moment in our lives!!  No matter what happens to my mental faculties later in life, I hope I will always remember the moment I found out God graced us with this new life.

So the whole while that we were sitting in dippy doctor’s office the day before I was PREGNANT!!  God is awesome!

Monday morning I called that doctor’s office and asked that all the blood test results and such be sent over to my midwife’s office and asked that they cancel the surgery (which we’d never actually agreed to do yet anyway).  I called the midwife who thankfully took mercy upon my soul and saw me for 15 minutes in the early afternoon.  The doctor had gotten me freaked out about the polyp and my newly pregnant brain was inventing all sorts of ways it was going to cause problems for a baby.  She had blood drawn to conduct an HCG hormone level test and ordered another to be conducted two days later.  My levels more than doubled…exactly like they were supposed too.  So the midwife was comfortable saying things looked pretty good.  WHEW!

So here we are 7 weeks 2 days pregnant!  I’m not experiencing any morning sickness yet.  The past couple of days I’ve been slightly tired and about once a night I have indigestion/heartburn issues.  But aside from that I feel pretty great.  I don’t “feel pregnant”, or really any different physically and that scares me because my brain can make all sorts of stuff up when unoccupied. i realize I need to just be grateful that I’m still feeling well, but still…  Oh, and I’ve noticed that thinking about some foods can make me slightly grossed out.  And certain textures like a ripe banana and a glob of mayo in a sandwich can turn me off eating immediately.

Since I was desperately interested in finding anything I could about what it felt like being pregnant in the early days and I couldn’t find any non-generic answers, I will be blogging about that topic frequently.  So if ya don’t like reading about such stuff…tough…who knows how many times I get to do this pregnancy thing (which thus far is pretty totally awesome) so I’m going to talk about it and write about it lots!!

Just reading & imagining about the raspberry-sized little person developing inside me right now, whose heart is actually beating already, is so incredible.