WHAT A JOURNEY!

 I hate that I have not written much for this blog. My pregnancy has been such a tough one. Today is Friday, Decemeber 3, 2010 and I am 24 weeks and 1 day. Wow... I am 6 months pregnant. I am now living at St. David's Women's Center of Texas in North Austin! YIKES! Here, I will stay until Baby Grayson joins us. We hope to be able to keep the little bun in the oven as long as we can.
 So here is what has been going on...

During the first trimester, I had a great deal of bleeding. That was very scary! At one point before we moved to Austin, I bled a on a Saturday. I called the emergency number to my clinic there in Jackson and the nurse said, "I am sorry, but it sounds like you miscarried. There is really nothing we can do over the weekend, so why don't you just wait and come into the clinic on Monday morning." So... that is what I did. Ben and I went the whole weekend, when I was right at about 5-6 weeks, thinking that we lost our baby. When I arrived to the clinic on Monday, our baby had a strong hearbeat and he was just fine.

The next week, we moved to Austin. I think I have thrown up more in this pregnancy than most women. Everytime it happens, though, I think about the fact that I am throwing up because there is a BABY IN THERE!!!! I am still so happy to be having a baby. Ben is thrilled too.

Anyway... when I reached about 18 weeks, I started having contractions and a great deal of pain. I started seeing not only my OBGYN here, who is AMAZING (Dr. Collins at Renaissance Women's Group in Austin), but she also referred me to Dr. Destefano, who is a Maternal Fetal Specialist. SHE IS AMAZING AS WELL! Another doctor, Dr. Darby ( he specializes in ultrasound- detailed ultrasounds)- found that I had funneling, where my cervix was opening from the my uterus down. My cervix was thinning too much, so Dr. Destafano admitted me into the hospital, gave me Indicine to stop the contractions and scheduled surgery to put in a cerclage (stitches to hold the cervix together).

Once Dr. Destefano went in to do the procedure, she discovered that I have TWO cervixes. I have only ONE UTERUS, but I have TWO CERVIXES. Therefore, I had TWO cerclages put in! YIKES. Not fun! I spent a week in the hospital and then I was able to go home on bedrest. This was at the end of October.

About a week later, I began having contractions again and my cervix thinned even more. I spent another week in the hospital and went home again. Last Monday, Novemeber 29th, I went back to see Dr. Destafano for another check up. I was having a little cramping and spotted just a little. They did another scan and found that my cervix had thinned so much that basically the cerclage is the only thing holding it closed at all. She readmitted me that day. I had to endure 12 hours of Magnesium, which made me pretty darn sick. It is to help stop contractions and boost the baby's neurological development if he comes early. I also had two steriod injections to help boost his lungs.

On Tuesday, they moved me from Labor and Delivery over to Antepartum. I will be here until Baby Grayson comes. We are praying every single day that he can make it to week 28 or 30. I will be so happy if we could make it to 32 or better. I am going to do every single thing the doctors tell me. I want him to develop and be a happy, healthy baby.

I am so thankful that my new job has been so understanding. They have gone out of their way to support me and I very much look forward to going back to work for HT Staffing as soon as our little one joins us. Although this REALLY has been one of the hardest things I have EVER been through in my entire life, I feel that I am blessed in ways I never even imagined.

Here we are in a new city, a new apartment, new jobs, away from our family and friends, having such complications with the baby and under more stress than I ever imagined and I just know in my heart that God is taking care of us.

I know that I am in THE BEST hospital and I feel that I have the BEST doctors and nurses. These people are AMAZING! I know I've used that word, AMAZING, over and over again- but they are. They are kind, they care about their patients and are very responsive. I am lucky that even some of the nurses will come and hang out with me in my room during their breaks!

I am so thankful for my friends and family back home who call or message me everyday and send things to me to let me know they are thinking about us and praying for us. I just feel like there is so much to be thankful for!