*Hey everyone! Just as a heads up: THIS IS LONG! I wrote this one early morning during my maternity leave to remember everything that lead up to us having our sweet son, Brady. There will be four parts to this story, and I hope you stick around for all four! These posts serve two purposes. The first is for memory sake, so that I can remember the moments, the details, the emotions that brought us to where we are now. The second purpose, and the one that really holds dear to my heart, is that this will bring HOPE to others. Whether it is hope for having a baby, or something else that you're longing for, my prayer is that my story gives seeds of hope to those who need it. So if you read this and you know someone who could benefit from hearing my story, please feel free to share with them. I'm a firm believer that everyone's story can help someone else, no matter how big or small you may feel it is.*
For Part One, read here.
For Part Two, read here.
I’m so glad we finally shared the news that I was pregnant with our friends and family. Over the next month, I had several episodes were I would bleed. It was terrifying. Panic and confusion would fill my mind, fearing that I was going to lose this child. I had to go to the doctor for ultrasounds due to the bleeding more often than most pregnant women, but every time I went I got to witness the little miracle inside of me growing more and more. As the weeks passed, we took some photos to announce our pregnancy with the world, and then shortly after found out BAM, Big Amazing Miracle as we called him, was a BOY! We had a Gender Reveal Party with our families and shared the exciting news. Everything kept feeling so surreal. Besides the bleeding, I didn’t have much else to complain about when it came to being pregnant. I didn’t deal with any morning sickness. I wasn’t gaining an outrageous number of pounds. I didn’t have any aversions to scents. We enjoyed the end of our Summer and beginning of Fall together. School was fixing to start back up, and my position at work had changed to only teaching one subject for the year: Social Studies. I saw it as a blessing since I was due in December and would have to have a sub for a while.
Around mid September, I had another bleeding episode. At this point, every time it would happen, I was told by my doctor to take it easy and get off of my feet. I was put on bed rest one weekend, and wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to December. All I could think of was how the plan was for me to have this little boy before Christmas and work as much as I could before then so that I didn’t mess with the maternity leave I was going to take. My doctor called me one day after having gone in for an ultrasound to tell me that my baby looked healthy, but was measuring a little small, so they wanted me to come back in. I tried to not let that discourage me. I woke up two days later bleeding while Jearen was out of town again, and my doctor told me I needed to go to Labor & Delivery. I called Jearen’s mom and she came to the house to drive me over there. Four hours later, and after a visit with a special sonogram doctor, I got to go home. They told me that my cervix looked a little short, and that I needed to take it easy. Returning back to work the next day, I let my principal know what was going on, and it was agreed that I could sit more/teach from my desk.
Two weeks later, I had another bleed. Same situation where the Dr. told me to go to labor & delivery. This time Jearen was home and was the one driving me to the hospital. We played worship music the whole way there, knowing that God has brought us this far, and isn’t going to leave us. We trusted that He has been in control of this whole pregnancy, and there was no reason to fear. After another ultrasound to look at my cervix, it was decided that this time I wasn’t going to get to go home. My cervix was shortening and the doctor said “it’s like your son is a rock, rolling down a hill. We want to slow down the momentum of him rolling (aka being born).” *This is where my Dad will forever refer to Brady as Rocky now*. I was now on hospital bed rest, and it was all out of my control. Jearen went back to the house to gather our things, and we both camped out in a hospital room for a week. God Bless this sweet man I married. He is the real deal.
On the day I was admitted, I was given magnesium to stop contractions I wasn’t even aware I was having. It made me VERY hot and I needed ice, cool rags, and my socks to be removed STAT. We had visitors stopping by daily to check on us, and BAM just kept on growing. At 31 weeks, I had another ultrasound and could see his little hair on his head. It was precious. They told us we would be in the hospital for weeks, with their goal being me getting to go home around 34 weeks with BAM still cooking. Saturday night, October 8th, Jearen and I decided we should get a birth plan in order. We had already had a visit from the on call doctor for the weekend (who was not my OBGYN), and she suggested just printing one from The Bump’s website and going over each part together, so we did. That was at around 8 pm. I told Jearen that it was nice of every one to be praying for us, and that they were praying for Brady to make it to 38-39 weeks, but in my heart, I just didn’t think we were going to make it that long. I told Jearen that I think it was going to happen way before then, and sought after his approval for that to be ok, haha. I asked him to pray over us and BAM, knowing God had his perfect timing already set up. That was around 9pm. Jearen laid on his pull out couch two feet away from my bed, and fell asleep as we were watching SNL. I dozed off around 11:30pm…only to be woken up around 2pm because I needed to use the restroom. Only instead of that happening, my water broke!
Part 4, The Day Brady was born is up next!
For Part One, read here.
For Part Two, read here.
I’m so glad we finally shared the news that I was pregnant with our friends and family. Over the next month, I had several episodes were I would bleed. It was terrifying. Panic and confusion would fill my mind, fearing that I was going to lose this child. I had to go to the doctor for ultrasounds due to the bleeding more often than most pregnant women, but every time I went I got to witness the little miracle inside of me growing more and more. As the weeks passed, we took some photos to announce our pregnancy with the world, and then shortly after found out BAM, Big Amazing Miracle as we called him, was a BOY! We had a Gender Reveal Party with our families and shared the exciting news. Everything kept feeling so surreal. Besides the bleeding, I didn’t have much else to complain about when it came to being pregnant. I didn’t deal with any morning sickness. I wasn’t gaining an outrageous number of pounds. I didn’t have any aversions to scents. We enjoyed the end of our Summer and beginning of Fall together. School was fixing to start back up, and my position at work had changed to only teaching one subject for the year: Social Studies. I saw it as a blessing since I was due in December and would have to have a sub for a while.
Around mid September, I had another bleeding episode. At this point, every time it would happen, I was told by my doctor to take it easy and get off of my feet. I was put on bed rest one weekend, and wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to December. All I could think of was how the plan was for me to have this little boy before Christmas and work as much as I could before then so that I didn’t mess with the maternity leave I was going to take. My doctor called me one day after having gone in for an ultrasound to tell me that my baby looked healthy, but was measuring a little small, so they wanted me to come back in. I tried to not let that discourage me. I woke up two days later bleeding while Jearen was out of town again, and my doctor told me I needed to go to Labor & Delivery. I called Jearen’s mom and she came to the house to drive me over there. Four hours later, and after a visit with a special sonogram doctor, I got to go home. They told me that my cervix looked a little short, and that I needed to take it easy. Returning back to work the next day, I let my principal know what was going on, and it was agreed that I could sit more/teach from my desk.
Two weeks later, I had another bleed. Same situation where the Dr. told me to go to labor & delivery. This time Jearen was home and was the one driving me to the hospital. We played worship music the whole way there, knowing that God has brought us this far, and isn’t going to leave us. We trusted that He has been in control of this whole pregnancy, and there was no reason to fear. After another ultrasound to look at my cervix, it was decided that this time I wasn’t going to get to go home. My cervix was shortening and the doctor said “it’s like your son is a rock, rolling down a hill. We want to slow down the momentum of him rolling (aka being born).” *This is where my Dad will forever refer to Brady as Rocky now*. I was now on hospital bed rest, and it was all out of my control. Jearen went back to the house to gather our things, and we both camped out in a hospital room for a week. God Bless this sweet man I married. He is the real deal.
On the day I was admitted, I was given magnesium to stop contractions I wasn’t even aware I was having. It made me VERY hot and I needed ice, cool rags, and my socks to be removed STAT. We had visitors stopping by daily to check on us, and BAM just kept on growing. At 31 weeks, I had another ultrasound and could see his little hair on his head. It was precious. They told us we would be in the hospital for weeks, with their goal being me getting to go home around 34 weeks with BAM still cooking. Saturday night, October 8th, Jearen and I decided we should get a birth plan in order. We had already had a visit from the on call doctor for the weekend (who was not my OBGYN), and she suggested just printing one from The Bump’s website and going over each part together, so we did. That was at around 8 pm. I told Jearen that it was nice of every one to be praying for us, and that they were praying for Brady to make it to 38-39 weeks, but in my heart, I just didn’t think we were going to make it that long. I told Jearen that I think it was going to happen way before then, and sought after his approval for that to be ok, haha. I asked him to pray over us and BAM, knowing God had his perfect timing already set up. That was around 9pm. Jearen laid on his pull out couch two feet away from my bed, and fell asleep as we were watching SNL. I dozed off around 11:30pm…only to be woken up around 2pm because I needed to use the restroom. Only instead of that happening, my water broke!
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