PREGNANCY

Chrismas Day 1991: I should have started my period that day, but didn't. Could I be pregnant? The day after Christmas I went to the drugstore and purchased a pregnancy test and it was positive. I was excited, but Steve wasn't. I think that he was afraid. I remember that in October the day that I had my D&C we were going to get something to eat and Steve made the comment that "we are probably just too old to be doing this." That was NOT what I wanted or needed to hear. I wanted a baby so very much.

When the pregnancy test was positive, I called the doctor's office and they took me in right away. They didn't even redo the test. We talked about the options and decided on a course of action. The doctor took a blood sample right away and started me on progesterone therapy. That meant twice weekly blood samples and shots of progesterone. This went on for what seemed like ages - I think 12-14 weeks. We heard the baby's heart beat at 10 weeks. I cried I was so excited. We had never heard the heart beat before.

The first two pregnancies showed that my progesterone levels were low in the early weeks of the pregnancies and may have been the causes for the miscarriages. At any rate, this therapy appeared to be working and finally I got to the second trimester. I remember feeling bad in January, barely able to hold my head up. I was so tired all the time as I was still working. Teaching preschoolers was hard at that time. I would come home and go straight to bed everyday. Fortunately, Steve was keeping up with the cooking and we ate well. He was into watching all of the cooking shows and would try new recipes. Normally, this would have been great, but I wasn't feeling so well and new foods just didn't sound good. I remember Steve cooked some artichoke one evening. We had never had that before or tasted it and I didn't like how it smelled. He kept saying "Taste this!" He just didn't understand that my taste buds were "out of whack!"

After the first trimester, we were so excited about the baby and planned the nursery and all the things that we needed for the new arrival. I didn't go through the tests that they requested during the pregnancy - amniocentesis was one of them. The thought of a long needle being stuck into by stomach was not very pleasant. I read that there was a 1% chance that I could miscarry and since I had already twice, I just didn't want to take the chance. We did not find out the sex of the baby and wanted to be surprised. The last ultrasound that I had, the doctor asked me if I wanted to know. I think that he knew, but he didn't tell me and honored my request. The rest of the pregnancy went along fine without any complications.