Hi Ladies! I finally made it over here. It was a crazy weekend. I survived the baby shower hosted by my DHs ex wife. It was as awkward as I thought it would be, but not nearly as awful. And I won the first game and my prize was mini bottle margarita mixers....can't go wrong with that! Then we had a Super Bowl party so I had a lot of prepping to do yesterday. This morning my DD woke up with an ear infection, so after a quick trip to her ped we have been vegging in pajama pants. My favorite way to spend a Monday. Sure beats going to work!
So I guess I should do a proper (and hopefully short) intro:
Me: 37 (38 in May). DH: 32 (just turned a few weeks ago)
I have 3 older children I commonly refer to as my "Bigs" from my previous marriage. They are DD 18, DS 17, DS 14. After my DS was born I had my tubes tied. It was a bad relationship and the last thing I needed was another baby! Fast forward 12 years and a divorce I married my DH. He was 29 with no children so we decided to pursue a tubal reversal.
I had the surgery done in Oct 2011. By Jan 12 I was pregnant. Unfortunately that pg ended in a mc. We didn't wait a cycle and got pg again in Feb, but once again I had a mc. We decided to take a month off to let my body heal. I stopped temping, using OPKs, etc and one too many margaritas later we had another BFP in March.
I was a hot mess the whole pg! By 5 months along I kept telling my DH and my Dr that I didn't feel right. I'd been pg before and this was completely different. I physically couldn't do anything. I had no energy, my heart raced all the time, I had severe swelling. I would walk up the stairs to my office at work and then spend 45 minutes laying on the floor until I felt like I could sit at my desk. My Drs response was that I was an "older" pg lady!
On 12/12/12 my DD was born, just perfect, at a whopping 10 lbs 3 oz! It was a horrible delivery (shoulder dystocia, excessive blood loss, etc). Before I went home I told the nurse that I felt bad and I could hear my lungs crackle when I breathed. She said I needed to walk more, and bc they were discharging me I would be able to do that at home. I went home and was terrified to go to sleep that night. It felt like I was drowning every time I laid down. I went back to the hospital that night and they told me I was in heart failure (25% function) and my iron level was extremely low. I had two blood transfusions and spent the next week in ICU. My first cardiologist (appointed by the hospital) was terrible. He was not familiar with Postpartum Cardiomyopathy, told me I couldn't breastfeed my baby and wouldn't even consider baby-safe meds. One day I had enough and fired him, got a new cardiologist that treats 2-3 cases of PPCM a year and worked with me to find meds I could take while BFing. After a ton of medications, multiple echocardiograms and a stress echo, my cardiologist has given us the green light to try for another baby.
We were able to get pg this past Oct, but unfortunately mc'd in Dec. Hopefully Feb is our lucky month. I have an appointment with my RE on Friday to discuss some concerns I have with my FSH and multiple miscarriages. We are also pursuing adoption as we would really like our DD to have a sibling close to her age. I'm terrified of getting pg again and mc'ing, and I'm terrified of my heart condition returning, but we have faith that everything will work out how it's supposed to. And luckily my DH is a saint and puts up with all my neurotic-ness!!
If you've made it thus far reading, well done!
