The Story of Drew, Part 1

Drew’s birth has been on my mind lately so I thought I would post his story again.  It was so crazy.

The LONG Story

Part I – The Pregnancy

It seems odd to talk about the pregnancy with Drew without addressing how we got there. So that’s where I’ll start. We tried for 5 years for another baby.  I can’t really explain going through infertility.  At times I felt that it is so personal and so deep that Only God can understand it. My own thoughts and feelings often getting jumbled and confused….there’s a lot I don’t understand after all this time. I think the main thing is it makes for a very openly raw time.  It’s one of those things that you definitely have to experience first hand to understand.  All the people who have been through it are nodding there heads and and are right there with me, I’m sure.  We were so amazingly blessed with Collin, but our family was not complete.  Only God understands why the pull for a baby is so strong…. all I knew was something was missing.

Well, after five long years of trying to have baby #2, we finally conceived our little Drew. We had numerous medical procedures before we attempted IVF, we started international adoption paperwork and backed out due to the extended waiting period. Moving on to our IVF treatment, we had countless blood tests, ultrasounds, shots and shots and more shots. Then came more blood tests and then more shots. In the end, we had 5 viable embryos! After 5 years of trying I was ready for 5 more kids. Seriously! We could slowly implant them over the years and have a big ol’ family. We had 2 implanted, got a positive pregnancy test – then learned that neither “took”. We then also learned that 2 of our embryos stopped dividing and weren’t viable after all. We had only one embryo left. One little embryo, one big chance. Five years of crying, sadness, hope, loss and pleading came down to this. But, you know how it ended – it worked! There was so much joy in hearing that our pregnancy test had great, growing numbers! It was AWESOME!

We did have a little scare in the early pregnancy with some bleeding, but an ultrasound confirmed that all was well. Oh, God! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I had a great pregnancy after that… besides some fatigue in the beginning. It was all very normal and boring which I thoroughly enjoyed after 5 years of issues and procedures. I focused on staying healthy and fit and getting ready for our new family member.  You have no idea the kind of contentment and all-around happiness I felt at this time. I couldn’t wait to meet my new son! What an amazing gift from God to be given! I was blessed and I knew it.

At 32 weeks along I had a problem. I was up all night nauseated. I assumed I was coming down with the flu. I never did get sick and the nausea went away in the morning. But the next night I went to sleep and was awake with nausea and very uncomfortable back pain. I assumed that I had eaten some corn. (I have a corn intolerance that gives the same symptoms.) The next night I was up again and continued throughout the day in addition to some upper stomach pain. It was now Monday and after not feeling well the entire weekend asked to be seen by my OB/GYN. She told me she thought I had GERD (a reflux problem) since my blood pressure was normal and prescribed some reflux medicine. Labs were done to be on the safe side.

The next two nights I was still up with back pain and nausea even with the meds! I was totally confused! But went back to my initial thought my corn intolerance was really sensitive and I needed to recheck all my food labels to be sure – or maybe the medicine took a little bit to build up to really kick in.

Dave was scheduled to leave on a business trip to San Francisco the next day. He told me he was nervous about going and maybe he should cancel his trip since I wasn’t feeling good. I assured him that we had been to the doctor, she got me the medicine. What could he really do? I would be fine – he should definitely just go.

Oops.

He took an early flight out and I went ahead with my plans for that day. I went to MOPS that morning and planned for my sister to come over with her little girls that afternoon to see the progress of the baby’s room. It wasn’t completely done. After all, by this point I was in week 33 and we had 7 weeks left to get the room ready. I was still dragging and not feeling 100%, but assumed I was still catching up on my sleep and brushed it off.

When I got home from MOPS my doctor called me. That in itself is just weird, isn’t it? Not her assistant or office staff – my actual doctor. She asked me how I was feeling and told me that my labs were back and it didn’t look good.

HUH!? I scrambled to find a scrap of paper because there was no way I would remember everything.

I had elevated liver enzymes and low platelets, which meant I had HELLP syndrome. My liver wasn’t functioning correctly and platelets are what help your blood clot. Usually it is accompanied with high blood pressure, but I did not have that, which is why she thought I had GERD. It can be very dangerous and can get worse very quickly so I would need to get to the hospital ASAP. She told me to pack a bag because I most likely wouldn’t leave the hospital without delivering the baby.

Where did this all come from!?

So I hung up the phone and called Dave. No answer. I was pretty sure his plane had landed, but their team was planning on running around San Francisco all day. I was scared to death that he wouldn’t hear my call all day because it would be noisy and he’d be so busy. My mind started racing to all the things I had to do – by myself! Without Dave! As I’m freaking out! And I can’t even get a hold of him!

There was a knock at the door and Jamie showed up – THANK GOD! I wasn’t alone! I quickly filled her in. She looked as shocked as I’m sure I did – or at least felt. I had considered driving there myself, but was starting to get really nervous and didn’t want to be by myself. We decided that she would drive me to the hospital and take our dog Lucy home with her. Plans were at least in motion. I called my friend Julie and asked her to pick up Collin from school. Check. Bag is packed (albeit with shaking hands). Check. Call Dave again. Ahhh! Where is he!?!

Luckily a few minutes later he returned my call sounding as chipper as ever. Sweet mother, was it good to hear his voice.

“Did you get my messages?” I ask.

“No. I just saw you called.”
I fill him in, too, and then listened to complete silence. He was stunned to say the least.

Poor Dave. Turns out he flew in to San Jose, took a subway to San Francisco, walked to a deli for lunch and was currently waiting in line for his sandwich. He would leave immediately, need to grab the subway back to San Jose, change his flight and fly back to Phoenix.

Crap. Why did I say he should go?

So Jamie and I loaded up the girls and the dog, dropped the girls and dog off at home with her husband Kevin who was working from home that day (usually he was out and about) and headed to the hospital where another whole story begins…

CLICK HERE FOR  Part 2