Erica

22 Apr Erica

My husband, Kevin and I were married in April of 2007. From the beginning of our marriage we knew we wanted to have a family of our own. I had always dreamed of having 3 children from a very young age. We spent the first year of our marriage not really “trying” and enjoyed some traveling and time with friends. When it came time for us to start trying and charting cycles, things just didn’t happen as easily as we expected. In 2008, I started to see my OB/GYN. Charting cycles, body temperatures every morning, ovulation kits and clomid became my life for about the next 8 months.

In December 2008 is when my OB/GYN referred us to a reproductive specialist. We started seeing doctors at Kettering Reproductive Medicine in early 2009. I can remember sitting in the waiting room and having all of the emotions hit me that first time…”we are too young for this” “maybe we didn’t try on our own long enough” “are we going to be judged for getting “help” and not doing things the natural way”. I was not ready to start invitro fertilization nor were we in a spot financially to begin that process. The rest of 2009 was full of testing, blood work, medicines, my husband going to a male reproductive doctor, 5 failed rounds of IUI’s and lots of tears.

Early in 2010, we met with the specialist. We had really never gotten any diagnosis from any of the tests conducted and everything was classified as “unexplained infertility”, which I think made me even more frustrated. IVF was going to be our only real option for a successful pregnancy. Lots of talking and budgeting with my husband led us to agreeing to start the IVF process. We just wanted a child of our own and I was willing to sacrifice whatever I needed to make it happen. Our first round of IVF took place in April/May of 2010. I was so positive this was going to be successful. Everyone and their neighbor that shared stories with us had gotten pregnant, it was going to happen for us too! And then we found out that it had failed…I was broken! How were we ever going to recover from this? Emotionally, financially, physically, mentally…it was all taken from me and I didn’t think I could ever go through that again.

2011 we went back to our OB/GYN and did 5 more rounds of IUI through their office as it was a little cheaper. We again had no success. We decided to try IVF again in April of 2012. I can remember the day like it was yesterday when I got the phone call on my way home from Dayton…I was pregnant!! We were able to announce our pregnancy to our families and friends and hear our babies heart beat a few times. At 8 weeks, I went for a routine ultrasound, only to learn that the babies heart had stopped beating. I was crushed. How could this happen to us? Did I do something to cause this? What could I have done differently? How am I supposed to move on from this? How was I going to tell all of those people that we had told already?
With the amazing support of my husband, family and friends, we got through it. After my miscarriage, I seen a variety of nutritionists and herbalist to help prepare my body for what I thought it was lacking and help me carry a baby. We proceeded to do two more rounds of IVF in spring of 2013 and fall of 2013. I felt confident that since I had gotten pregnant once now, one of these were going to be successful. Both rounds were unsuccessful once again. I was done! I couldn’t take anymore of the hormones, medications, shots, bruises, hyper-stimulation and stress it had all been putting on myself and my marriage. My body physically and mentally couldn’t take anymore. We had made the decision to stop all treatments.

Then March 2015 something felt different about me. I have no idea what it was that made me grab that pregnancy test but I had two left in the drawer and I decided to take one. That wait was the longest 3 minutes of my life but it turned out to show TWO PINK LINES! I was pregnant once again and this time it happened all on its own. I was due mid November. I had a very good pregnancy for the most part but it was very hard to enjoy knowing that I had lost one baby already. Finally after about the 20 week mark, and finding out that we were going to have a little boy, the fear lightened a little.

At 35 weeks, I started with what myself and my nurses thought was a little touch of the flu. I gave myself an extra day to try and fight it off but then started to notice that the baby wasn’t moving, no matter what I ate or did, that normally got him to kick or move. After a trip to the hospital for some monitoring, the doctor on call made the decision that I needed to be care-flighted to Miami Valley for an emergency delivery. My husband made it to the hospital just in time to see me as they were pushing me back for surgery. A short time later, Kevin and our families that had now been able to join him, learned that I had a beautiful healthy little boy, named Krew Jackson. They were then told that I had been diagnosed with a rare ccondition called Acute Fatty Liver of Pregnancy. The next 24-48 hours were going to be very critical for me and there was a very high possibility that I would need a liver and/or kidney transplant. I was in ICU for the next few days while Krew was being cared for in the mother/baby nicu on the opposite side of the hospital. I started to make some huge strides towards recovery and both Krew and I were released from the hospital 6 days later.
Three and a half years later, both Krew and I are as healthy as can be. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for giving us this opportunity to be parents. Krew gives me hope when I didn’t think there was a chance. He truly is our miracle baby!