When I first met Kevin, I knew he was the man I wanted to have children with.We met, got engaged and married within the same year. We decided we wanted to start a family right away. We were married in Dec of 92. By July of 93, we still had not succeeded. So, I saw my gynecologist who gave me a script for Provera (to bring on my period) and Clomid. The following July (94), we decided it was time to quit for a while. We took a year break and tried again naturally during that time. Nothing. In June of 95, I decided to see my gynecologist again. He told me that he didn't think he could treat me and sent me to a specialist.

I had to wait a month to get in to see the RE (reproductive endocrinologist). He told me since I was so young that I should be pregnant in 3 months (I was 23 at this time). The first cycle didn't work with Clomid again except this time we used HCG to trigger ovulation. We also did IUI (intrauterine insemination) at that time, too. When the first cycle didn't work, the doc suggested an HSG (hysterosalpingogram) to make sure my tubes were open. When the results were in after the test, the doc told me he saw something funny but he wasn't quite sure what it was. He said if the cycle I was on didn't work, he wanted to do a laparoscopy (surgery through the belly-button to look around). I agreed. One week later, I was scheduled for my lap to be done in 5 weeks (Nov 2nd). The lap went fine, no complications. The doc found though that I have a unicornuate uterus which means I only have half of my uterus. Since there was only half there, only one fallopian tube and ovary were connected to the uterus. We decided for my cycle in December to move up my medication to the big stuff, Metrodin. Metrodin (if you are not familiar with it) is a drug that is given by a series of injections. Along with those injections is almost daily monitoring consisting of blood draws and ultrasounds. My first cycle on Metrodin, I got pregnant. We couldn't believe it. My doc said it hardly ever happens on the first cycle. We were elated.

My pregnancy was very rough on me but I was extremely excited that in September (we were due on September 18, 1996) we would have our baby. I had a six-week ultrasound scheduled for two weeks after I found out I was pregnant, with the RE. When that time came, I was ecstatic to see the baby's heartbeart on the ultrasound. "It is really happening, we are really pregnant," I thought. Sometime at the beginning of February, I saw my OB-GYN for my first prenatal appointment (I was about 8 weeks along). My appointment went fine, pelvic checked out fine. I was instructed to come back in 4 weeks.

During the next 4 weeks, I had severe nausea and vomiting. I even called my OB's office because I couldn't keep anything down and some of the vomitus was blood-streaked. I was informed that it was no big deal. At 12 weeks, I went back for my next appt. I explained about the severe nausea and vomiting and was given a prescription for Phenergan. I was weighed and had lost 7 pounds. My doc said no big deal. I was not given a pelvic but I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat with the doppler. Since I was high risk (because of my uterus), I was instructed to be seen again in 3 weeks. During the next three weeks, I went about my business as usual: working, sleeping, eating, throwing up, buying maternity clothes. I went back to see my doc at 15 weeks. Again, no pelvic was done. I had lost 4 more pounds and the baby's heartbeat sounded good. I was told at my next visit I would be scheduled for an ultrasound at about 20 weeks. I was to come back in 4 weeks. Again in that four weeks, I went about my normal business. It was March and Easter was right around the corner. In my Easter dress, everyone said they could see that I was indeed pregnant. I just felt fat and awful. I had to go to throw up twice during Easter mass. My mom was renewing her vows on April 20th and so I threw her a party at the end of March. We had a great time.

I went back to the doc at 19 weeks, just like instructed. I was scheduled for my 20 week ultrasound which was the next Friday (April 19th). Again, no pelvic was done. I was weighed and had lost another 6 pounds. My doc didn't seem concerned. The heartbeat again sounded very good. I told the doc that I was having menstrual like cramps and wondered if this was normal. He said it was way too early for me to be worrying about cramps and they probably weren't anything. I was told to come back in 3 weeks. The next couple days, I actually started to feel better and thought hey this pregnancy thing isn't so bad. I was able to eat (a little) and that made me happy. On Tuesday, April 16th, I called my doc because I was having lots of menstrual cramps and they had been occuring all day. My doc said not to worry about it and he would see me in 2 weeks at my regular appt. That night, I couldn't get comfortable. My back hurt and the cramps were really starting to bug me. So I got up real early Wednesday morning (which is not like me at all!) and called my sister to see if she wanted to have breakfast with me. She declined but asked if I would bring food to her house and we could eat together there. I thought that sounded like a good idea. I stopped at Hardee's, picked up some food and got over to her place. We ate, talked, laughed and just spent some time together (which we hadn't done in a while). At about 11:30 am, I told her that I needed to get home and get some sleep before I had to go to work at 2:00 pm. She said she had to go to work also. I stood up to leave and just then my water broke. It felt like someone was holding a water balloon between my legs and popped it. It went everywhere, in my clothes, my shoes, the floor. I was in utter disbelief. My sis called my doc. They told her to get me up to the ER. She then called my husband who said he would meet us there.

With my sister driving, it is lucky we made it to the hospital at all. She was as nervous as I was but she kept trying to keep me calm and tell me everything was going to be okay, but I knew better (and I think so did she.). As soon as we hit the door of the ER, there was transporter there with a wheelchair to take me to Labor and Delivery. I was whisked up there and 10 minutes later I was gowned and in my bed. The resident doctor came in and did a test called a "fern test". It measures if it really was my bag of waters (the nurses kept telling me that I had wet myself). The fern test didn't show anything. By that time, my entire family had showed up in my room (my mom, my step-dad, hubby). Everyone was getting a big kick out of me having supposedly wet myself and everyone including me was relieved. The resident told me to wait until she was out of surgery. So I waited for 2 hours for her to come in and talk to me. I knew something was wrong. Indeed, I was right. She brought in the ultrasound machine and said that there was no amniotic fluid around the baby. NONE at all. But I saw him there, just kicking and squirming around. I couldn't believe it. She said that more than likely the baby would die within the next week, would deliver today, or if by some small chance made it to term, would be severely deformed. I was numb. How could this be? Where was my doctor? My reg OB-GYN was at the hospital and didn't come see me until about 6 hours later. When he finally did come in, he started quoting all these medical histories, like they were mine, because he actually thought they were mine. He said that there was absolutely no chance my baby would survive, not today, not next week and certainly not to term. He started some suppositories to speed up my labor. That was about 7:00 pm. About 2:00 am, I woke up in horrible pain. The nurse checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. She said she couldn't give me anymore pain medication and called for an anesthesiologist to give me an epidural. He arrived and did my epidural. He had no more finished and walked away from the bed when I delivered my son. He was born at 2:18 am. He was tiny, 7 ounces and 8 inches long. We named him Michael Andrew.

If anyone has ever lost a child, you know that what I am going to say is true. When we came home from the hospital, I was numb. Nothing really hit me until that night (April 18th). I cried and cried. I cried so hard, I made myself sick. If I sat real still, I still thought I could feel him inside of me. I missed our baby so much. We tried to deal with it but ended up trying to push it out of our minds. So, we were anxious to start our fertility treatments again. We waited for one month and then got the go ahead to start again. June was our first cycle. Nothing. July, we got pregnant again but before we even got to share our news, I miscarried. August, nothing. In September, I was not allowed to go ahead with my medication because my ovaries were over-stimulated (large with residual follicles). I was told to wait a month. We tried naturally, nothing happened. October, again nothing. So when the October cycle ended on Nov.1st, we decided to take a break from all the cycles. We tried a cycle in March but it ended abruptly with almost not enough time for implantation.

After a break for a year, we started back into treatment. We tried a cycle in September of 98 which failed. We then decided to try IVF. Our cycle started in December. We had retrieval on January 20. They retrieved 15 eggs by laparascopy. We had a total of 10 eggs that fertilized. Three embryos were transferred on Jan. 23. The rest of the embryos were left to try to make it to blastocysts. Four embryos made it and were frozen. On February 5, we got the bad news that our IVF had failed. That cycle was so hard and disappointing that we decided to forget all of it. We decided that we would try for an international adoption. We had planned to go to Vietnam, adopt a baby girl that was about 2 months old and do this in August of 99.

In March of 99, (the day before we were supposed to lay out some money on the international adoption) the social worker, from an agency we had contracted with back in 97, called and said that a birth mother had chosen us to be the adoptive parents of her baby. We couldn't believe it. She was due July 14 (my birthday).

Well, after several due date changes, our gorgeous daughter was born on August 1, 1999 at 12:11 a.m. weighing 8 lb. 6 oz and measuring 21.5 inches. She is the light of our lives. We know this was divine intervention with help from our son, Michael Andrew.

If anyone has any experience with adoption that they would like to share,
please send me