Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Brief History...

Well, seeing as this is my first blog, I thought I would just start by sharing our story... even if no one reads this, it will be a good way for me to remember where we have come from :) 

My name is Ashlee and I am 23 years old. My husband is Jeff and he is 24. We were married on April 28, 2007, so we just had our 2 year wedding anniversary. We have a 2 year old Pug named Elmer, a 1 year old Shi-tzu named Lillee Mae, and a 3 year old kitty named Misty. We live in a small town called Enon where we have made our home. We have a little house that we bought 1 month before we got married and just love it!

About 1 year into our marriage, Jeff and I decided that we wanted to start trying to have a baby. We knew that it could take a while to get pregnant for the first time, so we didn't want to wait too long. In January of 2008 we went off Birth Control (I had been on it since I was 15 for medical reasons). We tried for 7 months to get pregnant before I become annoyed with my body for not cooperating and just started giving up hope! (in other words, I let go, and let God!)

At the end of September/beginning of October I started realizing that my period hadn't started! So I anxiously ran out and bought a 2 pack of the Clearblue Easy Digital pregnancy tests! After 4 tests and still no period, I was very upset at all the "Not Pregnant" readings we were getting on the tests! So, a week later, on October 13, 2008 I decided to try one last time before completely going insane.... and there it was! The much needed "Pregnant" reading on our pregnancy test! 

As I'm sure you can imagine, this brought SO much excitement and joy to my husband and I that we just wanted to shout it to the world... however, Jeff, who runs a DJ company on the side, had to go set up for a high school dance that day at 8am with his best friend who was helping him! So, seeing as we had yet to tell our parents the news, he couldn't say anything to his best friend about it! This was very difficult, but he managed and we were able to tell both sets of our parents the next day. 

Everyone in our lives were SO excited for us to be pregnant! This would be the very first grandchild to both sets of our parents, and the very first great-grandchild on my side of family! 

However, on the first day of our 13th week of pregnancy, I started bleeding heavily. Luckily, this was a Saturday, so I called the emergency line at my OB's office and the doctor on call said to just lay low all day and see if the bleeding subsides. 

The next morning when I woke up, the bleeding was only worse. I knew in my heart that it was over. My husband did too. So we called all of our family and went to the emergency room. My husband called our worship leader and told him why we wouldn't be at church that day and they all prayed for us in the service. My mom, who is a Pastor, had her service and immediately following came to the emergency room to be with us. I truly believe that without the prayers that were said specifically for us that Sunday, this whole situation would have been much more difficult to handle for Jeff and me. 

On Monday we went to the doctor to discuss options for completing the miscarriage, as in the ultrasound we could still see our little baby without any signs of a heartbeat. We chose to have a D & C just so we could get on with things and move forward in our lives. The next day we had the D & C and everything went fine... until 60 days later when I still had NO period! We became anxious that perhaps we were pregnant again! So we went to my doctor and had blood work done... negative. But still no period. So, my doctor prescribed me Prometrium (I think that's what it was) and 8 days later I had my period. 

With many many many prayers, lots of faith, and more tears than I have ever cried in my life, we have made it through this difficult time. That's not to say that things aren't still difficult! I still find myself crying over our little Angel whom we both loved so dearly already. And a day does not go by when I do not think of him/her. And when we do get pregnant again, there is no way that this baby will ever replace the one we have already lost. They will both be our children forever. However, our next child will only be cherished even more than the first because of what we have gone through.