Our Story

Welcome to our blog! We are new to this but thought it would be a great way to keep everyone up-to-date on our pregnancy journey. I also hope to continue to use this after the babies are born, as well (we'll see how that goes :)! Anyways, most of you know our story, but we have had lots of questions about it, so I figured I would start with that...

Kellan and I got the pregnancy bug about a year ago. However, it quickly became apparent that I was not ovulating. We met with my OB-GYN, who ran a battery of blood tests, ultrasound, and MRI and diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). My MD started me on clomid in an attempt to start ovulation, but after three frustrating rounds (and about 6 months) of increasing doses, I never responded. I began to get very worried, wondering if my greatest dream would ever become a reality. After our third dose of no response, my Dr. referred me to a reproductive specialist for a further work-up.

In June, we met with the reproductive specialist, Dr. W. We attempted one more round of clomid with no response, so he decided it was time to move on to bigger, better (more expensive!) things, which we readily agreed. Our next step was follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) injections.

My first round of injections began late August. Kellan had to give me a subcutaneous injection into my stomach each night. I do believe he secretly enjoyed this! During the shots, I had to be closely monitored for follicle growth (good) and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (bad). This involved a blood draw and ultrasound about every three days. To our great excitement, we found that my follicles were responding to the FSH and my estradiol levels were quickly increasing. On Labor Day, we found that my ovaries were starting to look slightly hyperstimulated and my estradiol level was very high. We held the injections for two days, and then it was time for Kellan to administer the trigger shot -- an intramuscular injection of HCG (the pregnancy hormone) to cause the release of the mature egg(s) from the ovaries. Now this was scary! I gathered several of my nursing books and pulled up a YouTube video to teach Kellan how to do this correctly. He, however, informed me that he was not nervous about it -- of course not, he wasn't the one receiving the shot from an amateur!! :) However, he did great, and then it was time to wait...

I had another blood draw 10 days later which showed that I did (finally!) ovulate but had to wait another excruciating week before I could take a pregnancy test. However, the day the RN called with my lab result, I noticed some pretty uncomfortable abdominal distention and had suddenly gained about 8 pounds over a few days. I had to go back to get more labs drawn, as these were signs of the dreaded OHSS. The next day I woke up even more uncomfortable, and was up about 12 pounds. The office called me to come in because my labs revealed that I did in fact have OHSS. At this point, I was very uncomfortable, nauseous, and miserable. My great friend Molly had to drive me to the Dr, as Kellan was at work. Dr. W. took one look at my stomach and said, "Yep, you've got it (OHSS)." He proceeded to tell me that he did think that I was probably pregnant (!) because of my OHSS course. I was sent home with strict instructions to drink, drink, drink to prevent hospitalization and dehydration. I found out the next day that I was indeed pregnant but felt so terrible, I could not quite celebrate as I had always envisioned. All in all, I missed about 2.5 weeks of work and school, gained 20 pounds of fluid in my abdomen, and felt incredibly miserable. However, I was finally pregnant!!!

Kellan and I went back to Dr. W. at 7.5 weeks to verify the pregnancy with a ultrasound (US). Dr. W. started to count..."There's Baby 1...and Baby 2...and Baby 3." At three, I just started laughing and crying and said "Please do not find any more!" I looked at Kellan, who just looked at me with this astonished look on his face! We were shocked! We knew multiples were a good possibility, but we had only seriously entertained the idea of twins. We were immediately filled with mixed feelings of excitement, happiness, nervousness, and worry! I called my OB-GYN to set up an appointment, and the RN proceeded to tell me that they did not "do triplets." Thus, I was referred to the OSU high-risk OB group with a due date of June 4th, 2010.

Anyways, that's how we got here! I am quite impressed if you are still reading this post! That's our story -- a scary, sometimes devestating journey that now has us preparing to become a family of five!! We are extremely grateful that these medications and technology exist; otherwise, who knows if our dream would have ever become a reality! I hope to update this at least weekly and have started to take weekly belly pictures! Stay tuned and please continue to pray for three healthy babies that want to stay in my stomach for as long as possible! :)