It had been over 15 months of trying. Month after month of heart break. So we decided to get help. We were scheduled to see a doctor at a fertility clinic in Vancouver. A few months before we were suppose to have our consultation appointment, I was pregnant. Unfortunately that happiness didn't last very long. I was about 10 weeks along when we lost our first pregnancy on New Year's of 2016.
About a month after mourning the loss, I was pregnant again. I didn't think it would happen so quick, since it took so long to get pregnant the first time. Everything was fine in the beginning. I passed the first trimester. I was halfway through my 2nd. Until yet again we were hit with terrible news. At the 20 week ultrasound we were told the baby would not be able to go to term and that terminating would be the best. In the ultrasound they found fluid filled sacs all over the baby. Severe hydrops. We decided to get a second opinion in Vancouver just to be sure of the diagnosis. In Vancouver they confirmed that our baby would not make it and that she was actually suffering inside me. So we decided to terminate. We had a baby girl on my birthday June 14, 2016. We named her Alexandra. Later on we found out that she had Turner's Syndrome.
It was a devastating loss and it took me a long time to move forward. Everywhere I would go I see pregnant women. Many announcements were made on Facebook. So I had to be off social media for awhile so that I could heal.
In that time we sold our house and bought a new one out of town. After the move I found out we were pregnant again. We hardly spoke of the pregnancy until after the 20 week ultrasound. Once we had our scan we were relieved to find out that this baby was healthy and doing well. We were finally able to be excited and looking forward to finally having our baby. We even found out the sex. We were having another girl. This pregnancy, overall went well. The labor and the delivery of our baby girl Olivia, was perfect. Another June baby.
So fast forward to March 2018 that I found out we were pregnant again. Oh my goodness I was shocked. Olivia was only about 8 months old when we found out. Overall I thought this pregnancy was going fine as well. But guess what? They found something wrong in the 20 week scan. Emotions from our last loss came flooding back. This baby had the issue of a dilated Vena Cava. So back to Vancouver we went. After the findings they diagnosed the baby with Absent Ductus Venosis. That means that the baby had two umbilical veins going up rather than the three that should be there. The other one was going down. Which means that the babies heart was a little larger than it should be because of the extra pressure. In that scan in Vancouver we found out the sex. No one told us what we were having, we could just see it on the scan. We were pretty sure it was a boy. After the findings we were told that this condition was due to Noonan Syndrome and that we had the option to terminate. My world fell apart again. But before we did anything like that again we got expensive genetic testing done, and got an amniocentesis. To our wonderful surprise there was absolutely nothing wrong with this baby. We were so relieved. In between all of this I requested to be transferred to Edmonton for my care. All of my family was from or around Edmonton and was much closer to Dawson Creek where our home was at the time.
For the remainder of the pregnancy I had to go to Edmonton every 2 weeks to do ultrasounds and echos of the babies heart, and regular ultrasounds weekly back home. Specialists wanted to make sure that the babies heart was tolerating everything and also making sure baby didn't develop hydrops around the heart. Luckily he was fine for the rest of the pregnancy and we delivered via caesarean at 39 weeks. We had a little boy in November of 2018, Sebastian. We had an echo later on and his heart is perfectly healthy. We did find out very soon after his delivery that he has Bilateral Neurosensorial Hearing Loss. At 3 months he was fitted for his first pair of hearing aids. He loves his hearing aids.
After our losses and almost third loss, we turned to family and friends for comfort and support. We couldn't have gotten through the darkness that we had if it weren't for them.
Caitlin
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