And isn't it IRONIC, Don't Ya Think?

So, for many of you, you know the crazy "Julie" story.  But for those of you that only know bits, pieces, or not even that much...here goes!

I married my Canadian hockey playing husband right after graduating from University of Louisville.  We met in October, we fell in love at first sight, we crossed the US/Canadian Border what seemed like a billion times, (enough to get the attention of the border officers), got engaged on Valentine's Day, and I walked down the aisle at the end of September 1994, less that a year after meeting.  This sounds a bit fast, but we "needed" to be together all the time, and there wasn't another way because of immigrations.  And it all worked out in the end :)  But the crazy started when I found out about a year after getting married I was pregnant!  Everyone was super excited, and we even flew up to Canada to tell Bill's parents in person we were having a baby.  Except one little problem, that baby about 3 weeks later ended in a miscarriage :(  The doctor said that often things just don't match up as they are supposed to genetically and there was nothing to worry about.

Now, endure the next 5 years of infertility treatments, to no avail! Then miraculously we find out in Jan. of 2000, I am pregnant with my soon to be Lily girl! Pregnancy goes off without a hitch, picture perfect to be exact.  I taught group fitness, water aerobics, and played golf the whole time...including 18 holes the day before she was born!! She was perfect in every way, and our everything!  So imagine my surprise when she was 9 months old to find out after 5 years of infertility before her, I was pregnant!!! But...enter the crazy again! I lost the baby at 9 weeks, and was crushed.  I just figured since my pregnancy with Lily was so perfect that the miscarriage thing wouldn't happen again, WRONG!!! This time though, my body didn't recognize the baby wasn't alive anymore, so I had to have a procedure to help with the process.  We decided to give things a break, and not try for a while. Oh, and sidebar let me add in, my "plan" was to have all 3 of my children before I was 25.  Since I was 28 when I finally had Lily, that plan was blown, and the newest miscarriage further delayed my 3 kids plan.  Fear of infertility crept back into my mind, as it was a year later that we finally got pregnant again!!! YEAH!!! Except, yup, you guessed it, miscarriage again, this time at 13 weeks.  Everything is fine, then wait, no heartbeat, everything is not so fine.  And if you are keeping track, yes we are up to 3 miscarriages, the one before Lily and now 2 more.  Suddenly, our problem wasn't infertility anymore, but sustaining the pregnancy.  Why??? Doctor says, well sometimes things just don't match up as they are supposed to (heard that one before)...we do genetic testing on 5% of the population, and of that 5% only 1% will truly have any problems.  OK we said, after all she was the doctor, right?

Time goes by, not trying and not preventing...guess what?  We are pregnant once again, 5th pregnancy just to keep you on track.  We were in a new part of town, so new doctor.  We go to see her, and she is ultra on guard about our situation and history of miscarriage.  But even that didn't help, baby never formed beyond a yolk sac, and as usual my body didn't recognize the baby was already in the arms of Jesus...so I had to have another procedure to help my body out.  But instead of everything going smooth, within a few days my temperature spiked and my white count dropped very low, so into the hospital I go for 10 days!  Not so good when your doctor comes in and past me on the leg to tell me they don't know what is going on, but this is very serious.  They pumped me full of so many strong antibiotics my IV vein hardened, and they drew blood every hour to check my white count.  They call in infectious disease, hematology, and every other specialist they could get a hold of, I think!  Turns out, they didn't really pinpoint why my white count was so low, but with genetic testing they did find out I have a blood clotting disorder called MTHFR for short.  This was the culprit for the miscarriages, as my blood is so thick that the baby doesn't get the nourishment via the placenta to allow it to grow and develop as it should, and the result is the loss of another precious angel.  MTHFR has to do with the homocysteine levels which control the folic acid maintained in the body, and since I have a genetic mutation at both locations, it creates pregnancy havoc to say the least.  Now knowing this, we decide as a family, since we already have Lily and I would have to give myself blood thinner injections every day during pregnancy to try and sustain a pregnancy...we would just accept our family is me, Bill and Lily.  And we were OK with this and grew quite comfortable.  The pain of not having another baby subsided, and I no longer felt a jab every time I attended a baby shower, had to go to the OBGYN and sit in a waiting room full of pregnant ladies, or saw cute little baby clothes.  God had healed that part of my heart, and I prayed I would rather not get pregnant at all than have to go through another loss.

Now fast forward to the fall of 2009, and holy cow!!! I'm pregnant!!! First call was to hematologist because I knew my only hope of carrying this pregnancy full term was those shots, which I started right away.  Then looked for the best high risk doctor I could find, which was Dr. Marcello Pietrantoni in Louisville, KY.  He held  my hand through this unexpected and quite miraculous pregnancy.  Delivery was a bit sketchy due to the blood thinner shots, but a beautiful baby boy named Luke became a part of our family!  He had some issues early on, like the rare neurological disorder called benign peroxisomal torticollis, but all is well now, and he is a smartie patartie, and can run like the wind!  So, family done right?  Two was enough, and especially since I was 38 when Luke was born.  NOT!!!

Surprise!!! I found out two days before Christmas that despite my ripe old age of 41, and protection (go ahead and giggle) I am PREGNANT!!!  And now you know why I chose the title for today!  It is ironic, that my plan was to have 3 kids before I was 25, and God must have thought I said 45! LOL! I could have pushed over my husband with a feather, and he isn't a smallish kind of guy! My daughter and husband had been asking if we could have another baby since Luke was about 6 months old, and my answer was always a very loud and clear, NO!!! And of course, this all happened two months after I sold my baby crib, mattress, and change table.  I didn't keep any of my maternity clothes, or an infant car seat, or baby bath, bouncer, swing...why would I?  This time I'm keeping things forever, just as added insurance!  I have high school friends who have kids in college, have grandchildren, an empty nest, and here I am having a baby! In my defense, it wasn't my plan, but if anything... let my life be hope to anyone who has problems with infertility or miscarriage.  It ain't over till the fat lady sings!!! Can I get an AMEN!!!???

If you think about it, say a little prayer for this old lady who is all bruised up from the heparin injections, struggling to make it to the gym to keep the weight down, chasing a two year old around, and wondering what in the world just happened?  What else can I do but pray all goes smoothly, that my sweet baby is healthy, then smile and just move on :) Sure glad I didn't bother with that tummy tuck yet! LOL!!! I'm going to be watching cartoons until I'm a hundred years old!

Oh, and if you want to see my daughter, mom and dad as they find out about this pregnancy, check it out on the youtube section to the left.  It is pretty funny!