"There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside Strings of violets are all in tune Tiger lilies love the dandelions In the golden afternoon" -Alice and Wonderland First, I wanna apologize for the jumping around from chapter to chapter. One second I'm pregnant with our quadruplets and then the next you see our adoption letter to a potential birth mom. I can assure you, this fairytale is not put together backwards. Sometimes it's hard to stay writing about the past when you have so many things going on with your fairytale that are in the present. So before we go back to the beginning chapter where we originally left off, allow me to close this one. It was about two weeks since we found out we were not selected by a birth mom- the one I wrote the letter to. Our hearts were crushed, but we were still hopeful that someday we would have our little one. So I was at work on 5/1/16 and I remember sitting at my desk-not working- lol when I thought, I'm gonna send an email to our social worker and see if maybe we had been selected or pulled for any kiddos. Within an hour she responded back that No, our profile had not been pulled but to check back in maybe 3 weeks or so. That was her normal response when I sent her these monthly emails so I didn't think anything of it. 4 hours later I was sitting at my desk when my phone started buzzing. "Betty-Child Services" popped up on my screen. Why would she be calling me? I just spoke with her via email. Whatever the reason, I grabbed my phone and stepped outside to take the call. Then I heard the words I feel like since the beginning of this process I had been dying to hear... "There is a little girl, 2 days old, who was a safe surrender, and you and Alex have been chosen to be her mom and dad." WAIT...WHAT?!?!? WHATCHUSAY?!!?! BETTY! BETTY! ARE YOU PLAYIN?!?!...Those were my exact words. I remember feeling like I was about to throw up and jump out of my skin. I was soaring on the back of Falcore (Never EndingStory), Flying thru the clouds with Peter Pan, I felt like i was on cloud nine! As soon as I got more details I hung up the phone and began to cry my eyes out. Shaking, I called my husband and of course he didn't answer the damn phone...smh... why do they always do that?!?! After calling him 5 times he finally answered and I mumbled out the words "You have a daughter." He instantly began to cry and asked "what do you mean?! Is this really happening?!" Mothers day was in a week and my husbands 30th birthday was in TWO days! I mean, talk about timing right? It felt like someone picked up our fairytale, flipped to the most exciting part and then just started from there! BOOM! BAM! This is it! Our perfect storybook ending. in 24 hours we would meet our DAUGHTER and in 48 hours my husband would turn 30! And in 6 days I would have the greatest mothers day I could have ever imagined. No more feeling like a Lost Boy, No more of the unknown, no more wondering... We finally could complete this Fairytale and have our happily ever after.. or so we thought.
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Double-tap to edit. I know this skips a couple chapters in our fairytale. But my husband Alex and I are in the process of adoption and In that process our social worker has asked us or me to write a letter to a potential birth mom. Now most people write a generic letter but I have chosen to write one with each potential birth mom. We recently were being considered for a new born baby girl and this was the letter I wrote to her birth mom.
Im only choosing to share this because I know it will help other people in the process of adoption with writing their letters. Well, at least I hope it will. You may not think it's difficult to write a letter to someone you have never met and probably will never meet but on the contrary. To try and convey yourself in a 2-4 page letter to someone who holds the key to your happily ever after is extremely difficult. How do I show this woman with this letter that I'm the best person to take care of her child? Should I be funny? Should I be serious? Should I sound super educated or dumb it down? ( no seriously, that's a legit question) Do I share heartache? I don't wanna sound desperate? I wanna be sensitive to her decision but I don't wanna come across like I know what she's going thru cuz I have no idea. All this his is going through my head and I just wanna write GIVE ME YOUR DAMN BABY!!!! K thanks bye We we were told by our social worker to use 9th grade comprehension, to not make promises, and to not use ur last name. So the direction was pretty vague. . It it took me several hours but I feel like I finally got it right. Well, we didn't get picked so maybe she hated it? Who knows! But all I know is I decided to just be myself. I wrote to her like she was sitting in front of me looking me in the face. So here it goes...... Hi there, my name is Angelique and my husbands name is Alexander. Let me start off by saying, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to look at our profile and consider us as adoptive parents to your baby. Unable to have children on our own, Alex and I have chosen adoption to create our happily ever after. I’m Angelique. I am 30 years old, I love baking, anything Disney, pizza, watching movies and I am covered in tattoos. Ever since I was a little girl I have always wanted to get married and have a family of my own. But sometimes Happily Ever After isn't always how it appears in the movies. My husband and I have been trying for over 5 years to have a baby and after a lot of prayers, loss, and infertility medicine, God has placed us in the path of adoption. I grew up very much a tom boy just living with my dad and brother. Me and my brother were both in baseball and thats how I met my husband; when I was 8 years old and him and my brother were on the same t-ball team. He didn't say so at the time- being only 8 years old. But I'm sure Alex took one look at the chubby tom boy girl with nacho cheese stained on her t-ball jersey and just fell in love. My husband and I grew up about 5 blocks away from each other and attended the same Jr. high and High School. It wasn't until about 2010 that he FINALLY let his built up love for me shine and asked me out. Only took him 15 years to gather up the courage. What can I say, some men just need to be really really REALLY sure. I graduated from bible school in AZ in 2010 and thats when me and Alex started dating. Exactly one year later he proposed to me, then one year after that we were married. Hi there! I’m Alexander. I’m 29 years old and pretty much your typical guy. I love sports, going to church, sports, watching movies, fishing, cuddling (shh, don't tell anyone) and did I mention sports? I grew up with two brothers and if it wasn't for my dad passing away almost a year ago, him and my mom would have been married for almost 35 years. I had a very blessed childhood and thanks to my dad was instilled with an amazing work ethic. I have been at my job as a telephone line man for about 13 years and I absolutely love it. I have some college education and am currently working on finishing my degree. I have a really big family and grew up really close to all my cousins. Even to this day we all still get together with our families and bbq, swim, go on vacations and hang out. Family is very important to me. Its Angelique again, isn't he the sweetest? I know, I am one lucky lady. Don’t let him fool you tho, he leaves his wet towels and socks everywhere and never puts the toilet paper roll on the toilet paper roll thingy. We are currently living in Rancho Cucamonga California and absolutely love it. We have access to some of the best schools in the inland empire and live just minutes away from some really amazing parks, museums, and libraries. One of our favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is grab some Starbucks take a walk window shopping in cute downtown areas, farmers markets, or food truck places. Thats if we can’t make it to our favorite place, Disneyland! We are season pass holders and any chance we get to sneak away to the most magical and crowded place in the world we do. Both Alex and I are extremely excited about adoption. We are so incredibly thankful that God has placed us where HE has and that we have the opportunity to pour love and protection over a little one that needs it. We believe that everything happens for a reason. Good, bad, indifferent; God doesn't make mistakes and there is always something to learn and grow from in every situation. We are Christian and have a strong foundation in the Lord. Do we attend church every single Sunday? No. Im just being honest. There are days when we would rather snuggle and sleep in. But we always try and watch our church’s service on line if we can’t physically make it there. I didn't grow up knowing anything about Christ or his grace until I was around 18 years old. And not to get all preachy on you, but if it wasn't for The Lord, I don't even think I would be talking to you right now. I have been in some extremely low places in my life growing up and made some heavy mistakes. But God is so incredibly good! HE has broken me down to my lowest of lows only to be completely renewed and whole. We do plan on raising this beautiful little one to know God and make HIM known. Now, that doesn't mean we will have them passing out bible pamphlets on the corner. That means, we want this little one to know that there is someone besides us that is working on their behalf. That there is someone besides us that will love them till the ends of the earth and that will never leave them, hurt them, or steer them wrong. That there is someone who made them for a specific purpose and created absolute perfection when making them. From the second we told our families about adoption all we have heard is “Is the baby here yet?!” They are all so incredibly excited to meet and love on this little baby. This little one will never be without love I can tell you that much. How can you love someone you know nothing about? I ask myself the same question! But believe me, they do. We all do! And on behalf of allllllllll of us, thank you from the very bottom of all our hearts for even considering us to have such an incredible gift. It has been mentioned to us several times not to make promises to you because who knows what the future holds. But I assure you this.. from a woman to a woman. I will pour every ounce of love, encouragement, and protection into raising this precious child. I won’t miss a single ballet recital, softball game, school dance, or heart break. I know I won’t be perfect, because no one is. But I know with every fiber of my being that I will never give up on her or stop loving her. I will never be to busy to cuddle, play dress up, color, or patch up a hurt knees. My promise to you as her birth mom is that this little girl will be more loved than any other in the entire world. And regardless what happens in her entire life, I will always be there. Thank you thank you a million times thank you for taking the time to read about me and my husband. And most of all, thank you for possibly giving us our happily ever after. Love, Angelique and Alex God had another family in mind for this little one. Which is why me and my husband were not selected. Our hearts are heavy and we wanted this so bad. We know God has a plan for us and our baby is out there. We have not given up hope, and just pray that this little girl has the most blessed life ever. We hope and pray that she is always safe and that all her dreams come true. "One day you'll awaken to true loves kiss...until then sleeping beauty, sleep on." -Sleeping Beauty
"All the babies look good." my Dr. is quietly telling me as she uses the magic wand to check over each baby..."Baby A..looks good. Baby B..looks good. Baby C..looks good. Baby D.........." "You see how all the babies have this black space around them?" As she points out the fluid in every sac on the ultrasound screen. "Yes.." I replied, holding my breath just waiting for the other glass slipper to drop. "Well, you see how Baby D doesn't have any more space? That means this baby lost it's amniotic fluid. It needs that fluid to survive, I'm so sorry." "There is still a heartbeat, this little baby is strong. But it won't survive, I'm very sorry. Eventually the heart will stop and the baby will just go to sleep." I remember laying there being so incredibly confused. Why is this happening? How is this part of my happily ever after? Did I do something wrong? This isn't my story! This isn't the way my fairytale is supposed to be written. On one hand I'm so incredibly relieved that 3 of my babies are perfectly fine, but on the other hand my heart is broken. Not only was one of my little lambs not going to survive but it was fighting for its little life literally inside of me, and there is nothing, was nothing I can do to help. I couldn't save them. "Its early enough on that your body will just take care of it naturally. We don't have to do anything drastic that will effect the other babies." My Dr. said, So not to be to blunt or graphic- but at this point I'm thinking. Soo not only is my child going to die..but they are fighting for their life inside of me and I can't do anything. And then they are just going to disappear as if they never were? "What kind of fucked up fairytale bull shit is THIS?!" I remember saying to my husband crying my eyes out. I had been rescued by my handsome prince from my dark dungeon, he sleighed the fertility dragon, we were waiting for our little princesses and princes to arrive, then this happens???? I guess this is the part in the fairytale when the evil queen surfaces and casts a spell... and sadly, this spell can't be broken with true loves kiss. I tried to save you my sweet child. I prayed, I wished, I begged. I waited for my fairy god mother to show up and make this all go away. To wave her magic wand and POOF, the spell would be broken. But it never happened. In my mind you are fast asleep..waiting patiently for me to get to you and awaken you with true loves kiss. Rest assure my beautiful prince/princess, someday I will be there. Until then, just sleep my little one. Rest your little eyes, and mommy will be there soon. I love you. Written in loving memory of "Baby Boston Robles." "At the stroke of 12 the spell will be broken, and everything will be as it was before."- Cinderella
I was around 18 weeks pregnant when I was finally able to make an appointment with a local sonogram office. I had gone to this place probably 3 times before hand and had no luck trying to find out the gender of our babies. What can I say, I'm inpatient! :) This place was like a fairytale in itself. Painted with bright colors, tv screens in separate rooms so that you can bring family in and while they are doing the ultrasound your family is able to be watching from the other room. Sweet lullabies played in the back round as I managed to hobble onto the ultrasound table. Which may seem like nothing but when your already plus size, and then add carrying FOUR babies inside of you.. little things like getting up onto a table can take a village. In case you arnt a plus size mama bear let me tell you how an ultrasound works, for us. Normally they put that cold jelly on your perfectly cute little bump and bibbidi bobiddi boo! Your baby appears on the monitor/screen. For a plus size woman its a little different. It requires going A LOT lower to the Netherlands with the ultrasound magic wand, A LOT more pressure, and A LOT more searching. You'd think with FOUR of them in there it wouldn't be difficult to find something lol. After about 15 minutes we finally located my identical twins. Now getting them to not "hide" their little privates was another issue. "Can you cough for me" "Can you roll over to one side" "Can you get off the table and jump up and down right quick".........we were literally trying everything to get these kids to show us what they were workin' with. Then, ill never forget looking at the screen and seeing the words slowly appear.. "I'M A GIRL!!!" WHAT?! WAIT WHAT?!?! So not only are we having a our little prince, but you mean to tell me that we are having TWO PRINCESSES to?!?! I legit felt like I was Gods favorite. In that moment it felt like everything we had been praying and trying for for the last 5 years was finally coming full circle. Our family was about to be entirely complete! I cried and cried all the way out of the ultrasound appointment. I remember getting into the car and just looking at my husband with what felt like pixie dust floating all around me. Gazing into my husbands eyes with my heart so incredibly full. For what felt like eternity we had been praying to just be able to create life with each other. And we were finally able to make that dream come true. I can't even begin to tell you how much it breaks ones heart to be so incredibly in love with someone..and all you want in the world is to create life with them..and it just feels like it will never ever happen. It literally breaks your heart. We left our appointment and immediately went to my favorite store, Target. I couldn't walk normally around stores or anywhere really without feeling faint so I loaded me and my small gang into the electric carts and started filling it with the most adorable outfits! One of the first things I picked up was a blue bathing suite with ruffles on the butt (of course), little red hearts all over it,and a matching white sun hat. "Don't forget we need to get TWO of those" my husband said. HOLY CRAP! LOL! we have TWO little girls!! We kept telling each other through out the store. So two little 4th of july 6 month bathing suits with ruffles on the butts! CHECK! and CHECK! About 2 hours and $600.00 later we were leaving Target. You women out there already know how that goes. I had only thrown up about 3 times this entire trip which was pretty good for me at this point in my pregnancy. I was exhausted and all I wanted was to get home, take a shower, and then go to sleep. So thats just what we did. "Yes my child, but like all dreams...well, I'm afraid this can't last forever."-Cinderella I got out of the shower, after being on cloud 9 and singing to my belly. This is something I always did when i was in the shower. I would hold my belly and sing as loud as I could to my little lambs. Mostly love songs, occasionally when I had the energy I would sing Beyonce's "Love On Top" when I had the energy. Cuz one does not just simply sing to Beyonce, you must dance. :) I step out of the shower and begin to dry myself off when all of a sudden it felt like I was peeing myself. Not like a huge stream but enough to notice started trickling down my leg. "Did I legit just piss myself??" I remember saying out loud. "I know your pregnant with quads girl but somethings are just not acceptable." I continued talking to myself. I yelled for my husband and let him know what was going on and he said we should call the Dr. Just to be safe. 2 hours later.. I was in the Emergency room with my Dr. and she was giving me an ultrasound making sure everything was ok. And of course.... it wasn't.. ::Clock Strikes 12:: "In a faraway land, long ago, there lived a King and his fair Queen. Many years they had longed for a child, and finally their wish was granted."- Sleeping beauty
Four...Four little peas, four little lambs, four little teeny tiny half me's and half him's....to this day it still blows my mind that we created four little lives at once. That at one point in time I had 5 hearts beating inside of me. (Counting my own) How is that even possible? How is that not in itself, magical? Maybe instead of my fairy godmother turning four little mice into horses to pull my carriage she gave it an extra swish and flick and gave me four babies? Whatever the case, whatever the odds, me and Alex were over the moon excited. Scared shitless (pardon my french,) but excited. At this time it seemed like I was counting down the says until I could find out what we were having. All boys? All girls? 2 boys? 2 girls? 3 girls 1 boy? I mean, my mind would just race with possibilities. Literally overtime I had an ultra sound- which at this time I probably had about 35! I would try and ask if they could see my kids parts. And it was always the same, "no, its to soon." There are only four days in my entire pregnancy that I can actually say were fairly tale-esk. Just four. One of them being the day I'm about to tell you about. Amazing day 1: Per our doctors request, we made an appointment with the reduction specialist Dr. in Los Angeles, CA. In my mind we were going to see this Dr. just show our Fertility Dr. we heard what he had said, but in my heart I was rolling my eyes at the fact I even had to entertain the idea of "reducing" one of my babies. I remember being so scared when we arrived at the specialists office. I thought I had been locked away in the farthest room in the tallest tower?? That was nothing compared to this. Crossing the bog of eternal stench, traveling into the deepest dungeon, we finally were in the Dr.s office waiting to be seen. I remember laying there on the bed and having three large monitors in front of me. The Dr. walks in, and in my mind she looks like the witch from Snow White trying to give me a poisonous apple. But in actuality she was a really nice white lady Dr....Anyway! she promoted me to pull up my shirt and pull down my pants so she can start the ultrasound. She looks around, looks around, looks around..and then finally asks me if id like to see my babies. "Of course," I said. She flips on the monitors and bam! There they are, the most beautiful little humans I've ever seen. Well, the most beautiful little gummy bear/alien looking things I've ever seen. :) Of course she talks about the benefits of "reducing" and how it will give the other babies a better chance of surviving, etc etc blah blah blah whomp whomp whomp. I felt like saying, look witch- I mean nice white Dr. Lady- Im just here cuz I have to be. But instead I decided to ask her if she could see the little parts of any of my babies. Figuring she would say "no its to soon" like all the other Dr.s I kind of just blurted it out not expecting her to say- "Well.. on ONE I can see for sure. But thats it." I immediately looked at my husband with the look of AHHHHHHHHHHHHH on my face. Now this moment, Im telling you..is hands down the BEST moment of my ENTIRE life. It wasn't winning championships, being crowned homecoming queen (oh wait that didn't happen), my first kiss, getting engaged, getting married, none of that. THIS, is hands down the greatest moment of my life. The Dr. looks at me and very calmly says "Its a boy." Now it may be different for other people... but for me and as a woman.. there is something about being told you are having a son that takes your breath away. Even now thinking about how I felt in that moment,I can't help but cry. Its as if my heart floats out of my chest to never never land. Once she told me that I remember looking at my husband and just balling my little brown eyes out. Our love had created a little boy, A tiny Alex. I was the mother of a son. Forever my heart would beat and belong to this little boy. No matter what my future held, I would never be alone..HE would never be alone. These are the thoughts that ran through my head. I remember getting in the car and just gazing out the window with tears rolling down my face. How, in a matter of moments did my life change completely? Everything just seemed so much sweeter. Music sounded softer, clouds seemed fluffier....I was the mother of a son. I was going to be having my very own little Prince and have to teach him to slay dragons and be gallant. I was going to be having someone else's Happily Ever After. “They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate.” ― Hans Christian Andersen, The Princess and the Pea: The Graphic Novel You'd think that finding out your having triplets would be the most intense part of my fairytale. The high point right before the roller coaster does its biggest drop. Well, think again. From the ultra sound finding out we had triplets to our next one it was about 1 week or so that had went by. Every morning before my husband went to work he would kiss my stomach and say good morning to his 3 little lambs. And together we would pray over them and especially for "Baby C" who we were told had a chance of not surviving. "Hang in there little lamb. You are beautiful, strong, and so incredibly loved. Fight with everything you have." My husband would whisper with his lips pressed gently against my growing belly. As scared as I was, there was this incredible sense of wholeness I felt. I felt like I was never alone. Don't get me wrong, it felt a little crowded.. lol. But I always felt complete if that makes any sense. Even when I was throwing up for the umpteenth time, it didn't matter, I would do it forever as long as my little ones were ok. So here we go to our next ultra sound. Just my prince, the princess (me), and our three little peas. Now if you are fortunate enough to have had children, you'll understand this next part. There is something about seeing this little being grow inside of you. It starts out as you turning your head side to side to try and figure out exactly what your looking at on an ultrasound. Then slowly but surely it just blossoms into this tiny little human. You see its teeny tiny heart flicker, you see its little feet kick, and its miniature arms wave. My last ultrasound, to be honest, didn't look like much. They looked like oddly shaped peas with little flutters. What would they look like this time?? It had only been a week or so since I got to see them last so I wasn't expecting to see such a difference. So we probe up, turn off the lights and there they are. No longer my three little peas, but rather 3 little babies. Just moving around like crazy, developing just as they should with the most beautiful little heart beats. Ok thats it, everything is perfect. See you next week! NOT. That would be to easy. Before the visit ends my dr. gets very quiet. Moving the probe around and around...and around he begins to change some of the general information on the ultrasound screen. I remember looking at my husband, then looking at the dr, then darting my eyes back to the ultrasound screen. Can someone please tell me what in the actual hell is going on here?! No one has spoken in what seems like minutes but everyone has this shocked look on their face. Maybe it was the hormones but I was not seeing what everyone else was. When the Dr. finally speaks, he says.. " So we have a little surprise this morning...and thats that this sac, now has two babies in it." "So does that mean there is FOUR?!" I mumbled. "Yep. Thats correct." The Dr. answered. "And does that mean those two are identical twins????" again I mumbled in disbelief. "Yep. That correct." The Dr. answered. quadruplets??? QUADRUPLETS?! As in 1,2,3, FOUR?!?!?!?! The word shocked doesn't even begin to describe how I was feeling. But then again in the back of my head I'm thinking-" Well, the party never stops so it makes sense." I felt like the luckiest girl in the entire world. And as soon as he told me I had identical twins, I knew that those were my little girls. Call it mothers intuition or whatever. But I just knew that those were them. Before we could completely float away on our dream cloud we were on, we were yanked back down to reality when our Dr. started telling us that we should consider having what they call a "selective reduction." Selective reduction (or multifetal pregnancy reduction or MFPR) is the practice of reducing the number of fetuses in a multifetal pregnancy, say quadruplets, to a twin or singleton pregnancy. All the fancy Dr. lingo to try and put it delicately but in real life it means to kill some of your babies so that the pregnancy isn't so high risk. I know that sounds blunt and extremely un fairytale like, but it is what it is. There really isn't any way to be whimsical about it. So we finally have created these four perfect little lives, that were just flipping and wiggling and waving to me on the ultrasound screen. And now you are telling me that it would be safer to "reduce" not just one of them. But two of them! My twins!? I have to admit, at that moment, it almost felt like all the wind had been sucked out of our sails. We went from sleighing this infertility bitch of a dragon and are about to ride off into the sunset with our 3-I mean 4 babies when we are told that its strongly recommended we "reduce" half of them. Leaving the Dr.s office in tears I remember being in the elevator with my husband and telling him "I know those are my girls. I just know it. I can't reduce them babe, I just can't do it." After crying and praying in the parking structure for about an hour we decided that we would meet with the specialist our Dr. had recommended. But that we would not be reducing any of our children. That just would not be a chapter in our fairytale. After all, God created all four of them for a purpose and even tho they are not here yet, Its my job to protect them. So no matter how gigantic this new dragon standing in front of us was, I knew my God was bigger. There are only a few moments in my life that I can actually recall being life changing. A few moments when I actually felt my heart transform into something Ive never imagined. One of those moments is the day I'm about to share with you. The day of our first ultra sound was one of the most precious days of my life. I was the most nervous I had ever been up till this point in my life. I knew I had a little person growing inside of me. Not only that, but this little tiny human being that had been prayed for and wanted for so long. I was so anxious to see him/her on that ultra sound screen that I literally almost jumped out of my skin. We had finally done it! We created a little piece of both us that would give us our happily ever after. Having this be one of the biggest moments in my life, I naturally dragged my dad with me. That may seem weird to most of you, but my dad was my go to person for all my female appointments my entire life. Even if he was just sitting in the car waiting for the appointment to be over, he was always there. Don't get me wrong, my dad was excited but his excitement for an ultra sound wasn't reading off the charts like perhaps a mothers would. My mother in law Angie, whom I also invited to this first ultrasound, I knew this experience would be something she would love to be apart of, and if it wasn't for her we wouldn't even have our little happily ever after. She was the one who told me about this fertility Dr. in the first place. I don't think I have ever wanted an ultrasound probe inside of me so badly. lol. Sorry, but I'm just being honest. I remember laying there, my husband standing beside me holding my hand. The screen pops up and there it is. I was so afraid to look. After catching my breath I turned my head and saw... well... I didn't really see anything. I saw three bubbles that didn't have anything inside them. My Dr. starts shouting out medical terms and explaining different circumstances all the while in the back of my head I'm almost waiting for the let down. Ive heard of stories where women get positive pregnancy tests and blood work and have a pregnancy sac but no baby inside. Immediately I thought that is what happen to us. The party never stops after all. "So the uterus has three pregnancy sacs." He says Thats it! I knew it! its just a sac, there is no baby! Is what I instantly thought. Not even realizing that this guy just said the number THREE!? "Ok, so we have three pregnancy sacs.. and that little movement we see right there.. thats a heart beat." It was like the entire time up to him saying that, I had this fog of disbelief over my mind. And the second he showed me that little tiny flicker, all of that fog just melted away and instantly I was in love. Being that I am very fairytale minded, the song "So this is love" from the Disney movie Cinderella started playing in my mind. So this is love, hmm So this is love So this is what makes life divine I'm all aglow, hmm And now I know The key to all heaven is mine My heart has wings, hmm And I can fly I'll touch every star in the sky So this is the miracle That I've been dreaming of Hmm, hmm So this is love I was instantly jerked back into the present moment when he continued saying that sometimes there is a sac with no baby inside.Then all of a sudden my Dr. stops in the middle of his sentence as he rotates the probe a different way. " Oh wait, never mind. There he is right there. Lets get the heart beat on that little guy." TWO?!?!?! TWO BABIES?!?!?! I automatically burst into laughter. A nervous as hell laughter. We had two heartbeats! HOLY BALLS we are having two babies!! Is what I wanted to shout out to my husband. Baby A and Baby B is what he marked them as on the ultrasound. But in my head I already had dozens of names I was sorting out. Penelope? Maximus? Khloe? James? Maybe Honey after my grandma? I could not believe that I was now the mother of two beautiful babies. They could not get here fast enough! We made our way over to the last pregnancy sac and our Dr. shows us that this one was shaped a little bit differently than the other two. "See how this one is shaped this way? Thats a bad sign. Thats a sign that it probably won't survive. BUT.. there is a heartbeat. And we could be wrong about these things and they correct themselves." There it was. I knew there had to be something difficult coming. That other glass slipper was bound to drop at some point. Its weird... instead of getting upset or doubtful about the news of "Baby C," I immediately was overcome with an enormous amount of faith. I just had this feeling that MY baby would be ok. That the odds were stacked against him/her but they had part of me pumping through them, so I knew they would put up one hell of a fight. So there it was... we were having TRIPLETS. Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C would arrive at the end of November/December and our fairytale would be very much complete. Walking into the waiting room I looked at my dad and mother in law.. "Oh.. we're just having triplets." I said calmly. To this day I have never seen eyes dilate so big and fast. lol. The entire drive home we were in complete and total shock. I remember sitting in the back seat with tears just streaming down my face. How could I be so in love with three people I had never even met? I didn't know what they looked like, didn't know their names, and had only seen them for about 10 minutes. But I was head over heels in love. That can't eat, can't sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of thing. Growing up I never thought I could love someone more than my dad..it just wasn't possible. And then I met my husband Alex. Getting married and giving my entire life to him I thought I could never love anyone else more than him. But then seeing those three beautiful babies and hearing those little tiny heartbeats...I realized my perception of love was so incredibly small before then. THIS is what the fairytales were talking about. THIS is the type of feeling that breaks the spells of evil queens, saves kingdoms, and makes dreams come true. So THIS is love. We commonly exclaim it was "just like a fairytale," overlooking that most events in fairytales are remarkable for their unpleasantness. Every night around 6:00pm I would prepare for my lovely injection into the stomach. It wasn't like the first time around where I would simply close my eyes and think of my future child, and that this would all be worth it. Instead I would drudgingly walk over to my husband prepping the injection, lift up my shirt, clinch my fat, and roll my eyes. "See babe, that wasn't that bad right?" My husband would tell me literally after every shot. And I would reply with some sassy comeback like "Yeah, psshh. You don't have to do it." or "Yeah, but its not gonna damn work." This time around was nothing like the first. No excitement, no hopefulness, no musical numbers or singing going on inside my head. The unpleasant, I mean magical day of insemination had finally arrived. Bloated, sore, grouchy, and ready to be probed we headed in (once again) to the Dr.s office. Just like before, my husband took my hand and prayed over the situation and before I had a chance to roll my eyes for the millionth time, my feet were already in stirrups. The 6 minutes flew by and I was sitting there with my legs up. Figuring it couldn't hurt to give my husbands sperm a little encouragement, I put on a song from Disney's Mulan and laid my iPhone on my belly. "You must be swift as the coursing river-be a man." "With all the force of a great typhoon-be a man." "With all the strength of a raging fire-be a man." -Mulan; I'll make a man out of you. but what I was singing in my head was "Fal-de-ral and fiddle-dee-dee, fiddle-faddle-fawdle. All the wishes in the world, are poppycock and twaddle." -Cinderella; Impossible. Now this waiting game felt almost exactly like the previous one. Except on one occasion, probably 4 days before I was to go in and get my blood work done. I was getting out of my car after a long day, anxious to get home and relax. When all of a sudden I had this overwhelming feeling that literally stopped me in my tracks walking up the drive way. I felt like there was a little girl around me. I had this feeling of girlie-ness that overcame my stomach area. Crazy, I know! Shaking it off I continued about my day. This cycle my Dr. told me to take an at home pregnancy test before coming in to do blood work, so I did. The night before at about 3 am I couldn't sleep and decided what the hell, might as well face this never ever after now right? I take the test, face it downward on the sink and sit there trying to get the sleep out of my eyes. Trying to pep talk my self into seeing the negative results. "You know its gonna be negative, you KNOW its going to be negative." I kept repeating to myself. I take a deep breath, flip it over, and there it is.. clear as day... two little pink lines, a positive test!!!! Before I could even comprehend what was happening, my head was in the toilet and I was throwing up. Nerves? Hormones? Flu? Who knew! But it would continue on for about 6 months. Driving to the Dr.s the next morning- or a couple hours from when I took the test actually. I kept trying to picture worst case scenarios. Like a defense mechanism so my heart wouldn't be totally shocked and crushed when things didn't go how I had hoped. -Sorry Mrs. Robles but it was a false positive. -Sorry Mrs. Robles but your hormone levels are not doubling as they should and you will probably miscarry again. These are some of the things I imagined the nurse telling me. I was NOT prepared for the telephone call where she tells everything is doubling as it should and you are 100% pregnant. Could this really be happening? Could our happily ever after FINALLY be going as hoped?? Having never experienced such great news in the baby chapter of our fairytale, I decided to run out and get some pink and blue balloons and have cute set up for when my husband came home. Through out the day he kept calling me to see if I had heard from the Dr. about my test results, and it killed me to not share it with him, But I wanted it to be something special. A moment he would never forget. I had a giant chalkboard that we used to write love affirmations on each day that now read "In 37 weeks, someone is going to be a daddy." With pink and blue balloons dripping from the ceiling so as soon as he opened the front door he would walk right into them. He walks in the door and immediately is confused lol poor man. I tell him to read the chalkboard and he has this enormous smile on his face that ill never forget. I told him they called and everything is looking perfect! Being only about 3 weeks pregnant at this point, It would be about 5 more weeks until we would get to see our beautiful baby in an ultrasound. Remember when I said the party never stops? Well I hope you all have your party hats on,.. cuz its about to go down.
In case you are not familiar with the term IUI, (as I had never heard that term in any fairytale) let me help you out a little bit. In a normal menstrual cycle every woman grows something called follicles, you can grow 3-20 depending on your ovaries. These follicles grow grow grow and ONE continues to grow through out the weeks before your period until it gets about 20cm then that follicle releases an egg. Ovulation occurs when that egg is released, fertilization occurs when that egg is successfully met with a single sperm. As that egg is going to be released the Dr. inseminates you with your husbands sperm and hopefully you make a baby.. My fertility Dr. would inseminate me once right before I ovulated, then once right as I was ovulating.
So leading up to being inseminated my husband would begin giving me nightly injectables in my stomach, (with the medication that would help me produce more than one egg) and I would go into the drs. office every couple of days checking on how my follicles were growing. Now maybe that doesn't seem like much of anything to you reading this, but having to have your husband give you shots in your stomach to try and make a baby, isn't the most romantic act in the world. Especially when you have been arguing and swear he is giving you that injection a little more harder than usual. Every couple days id go into the Dr.s office, meet mr. ultra sound probe, and check on my follicles. The goal with the injections/medication is to not just have one egg drop like a normal cycle, but to have 2-4 optimally. That way you have better odds of ONE becoming fertilized and ONE becoming ONE healthy baby. Follicles on an ultrasound screen look like tiny bubbles, that eventually keep getting bigger and bigger. I remember sitting there, rather laying there and asking how many follicles the nurse could see. "You have around 17 follicles total, with about 4 leading, so you are looking really great!" ME?! MY UTERUS?! MY OVARIES?! WE LOOK GOOD?!? I had never heard those words before about me or my uterus. I can't tell you how amazing it felt to feel like things were finally going the way they should. That we finally had some type of hope. The day of insemination had come and man oh man was my body in pain. I felt incredibly bloated and sore that even going over speed bumps in the car on the way to Dr. felt like an elephant was stepping on my uterus! Needless to say, the drive to newport was not a pleasant one. We arrived an hour early so my husband could, ummm,...contribute? to the procedure. They called us back, I undressed, my husband took my hand and prayed over the situation, and before I had the chance to get nervous my legs were in the stirrups. My husbands sperm count and overall health had done a complete turn around from before, I mean lets just say before hand, all those princes were not only climbing up the completely wrong tower...but doing it backwards, with one arm, and with no rope if you catch my drift. Everything seemed to good to be true. His sperm were awesome, I had 4 eggs healthy in size and ready to drop, it was as if the bases were loaded and Dan Moreno was up to bat. Kobe Bryant was up to bat, Mike trout was up to bat? Lets just stick to fairytales. lol. "Ok, we are all finished. Just lay back with your knees up for 10 minutes then you can head home." -Dr.Potter The hardest things about all of this, believe it or not is the waiting. Hoping, praying and pretty much begging God that this is the time it works. That this is the happily ever after. The second you leave the Dr.s office you want to take a pregnancy test. You want to shop for baby clothes, plan your baby shower, pick out names, I mean you have come so far and been thru so much pricking, probing, and hoping that you just want THIS to be it. In 7 years, two weeks went by..if that makes sense, and it was time to go in and get blood work done to see if we were pregnant. I would go in as early as possible so I could get my results by that afternoon. So from 7am-1pm, you guessed it, more waiting. The phone rings and the results are in... this is it.. this has to be it.. my husband has sleighed this infertility fire breathing dragon and is climbing up the tallest tower to rescue me. Look out happily ever after! I'm on my way! "Im sorry, but your results are negative. So your period will come and then we can try again." ...... This is what the nurse said, but in my head the sleighed dragon arose from the ashes, breathed his fire all over my gallant prince, and everything came tumbling down the tower I was trapped in. I had totally had it! I was done! This princess was about to jump her happy ass out of the damn tower to her untimely death! How could this not work? We did everything right? What if it NEVER happens? How many more times was I supposed to endure all this?? Mentally, emotionally, physically, I felt like I just couldn't do it anymore. I remember begging my husband to just jump straight to IVF. $15,000 but still wouldn't guarantee a baby. But being a typical man he would remind and ask me " Insurance pays for 90% of our IUIs for up to SIX tries..cant we just try one more time??" Reluctantly, and I mean RELUCTANTLY I agreed. "Ok babe, its not gonna work! But ill try ONE more time." "The dr. said this is normal."
"There is nothing I could have done." "God is in control." "You won't have to go thru this again." These are some things I remember repeating to myself on the daily. I remember sitting in our guest bedroom on the floor almost in complete shock... how did I not know this was even a possibility? How have I never heard of this happening to anyone else? This is NOT how the fairytale goes. Tell me ONE disney princess who this happened to??? Don't worry ill wait............... I remember thinking all of this to myself. Fast forward to December, and TWO more miscarriages. 8 weeks, and 12 weeks. Our Dr. set us up with a fertility specialist at Loma Linda. Appointments after appointments, tests after tests, and never any answers. If I had $1.00 for how many times I've had to lay on an exam table in a paper gown, id be a millionaire. I have never been poked and probed so much in my entire life. But there comes a point where you almost become numb to what your doing, and you just focus on the end result. Doing all this, we will eventually get our baby. After all that testing, probing, pricking and biopsy-ing we still came up with no answers as to why. Why did we lose three of our precious babies in 4 months? What is wrong with me?... What am I doing wrong?? So I'm sitting on our couch one day, a month after my last pointless testing. And I get a text message from my mother in law. " Im watching this fertility Dr. on the Ricki Lake show, he is the leading fertility Dr. in all of Orange County. You should watch this episode." My first reaction, to be honest, was.. Gee thanks!! lol! Like.. there is this dentist on this show who helps people with really jacked up teeth.. you should watch it! lol. But that was just my defensive uterus talking. I actually watched the show and was intrigued, so.. I called and made my first dr.s appointment with this Dr. Our first meeting was so much more than I expected. For so long I had walked into Dr.s offices and left feeling hopeless. Feeling like it would never happen. That I was destined to be this broken princess who couldn't give her prince a baby. The first thing our Dr. did (Dr. Daniel Potter at HRC fertility) was share his own struggle with fertility. Oh wow! So we arnt the only ones! "Well first we are gonna test your husband since thats the easiest thing to do." what??? You mean HE could have a problem? I thought I was the problem? Ive been the one going thru every procedure in the book, and have been told I have the fertility issue. After everything I had been thru- every PAINFUL test.. and the problem could have the potential to not even be with me. I was sure that wasn't the case- since the party never stops. Im sure it had to be something way more complicated. So my husband leaves a sample of his "soldiers" to be tested and we wait for the results. A couple days later we get the call.. turns out it was as simple as that. My husband has the fertility issue. NOT ME. After OVER a year of testing, money for the testing, pain of going thru the testing, we finally had some sort of answer! It felt like a HUGE relief! But at the same time, my husbands heart broke, He felt so guilty that I had gone thru so much physically when he was the one with the issue. We were in the car when we got the results and I remember pulling over and just crying our eyes out to eachother. So now we had a game plan, medication for my husband, and appointments to have something called an IUI-Intra Uterine insemination done. My husband changed his eating habits, was taking vitamins, and the medication the Dr. had told him to start taking. So in a couple months we would have the procedure done, and hopefully be on our way to our happily ever after. |
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