1st Trimester Reflection

We are a mere 2 days away from being 13 weeks pregnant with our third precious bundle of joy! I am excited to say that I am already experiencing that beautiful 2nd trimester relief. The first 11 weeks or so if this pregnancy was truly difficult on my body- so different from my first two pregnancies. To start, I started bleeding about 48 hours after my first positive pregnancy test. I will admit I thought the baby was gone. I cried- ok I sobbed. I pretty much surrendered to the idea of miscarriage. However, the bleeding only lasted 1 night and by the next week my blood work showed that I was indeed still pregnant. So we went in for an ultrasound to date the pregnancy. Guess what? There was a yolk sac but no baby yet. They told me it could mean one of two things. Either, I was earlier than they thought or we were experiencing a blighted ovum. A who? Pretty much that would mean that an egg had been fertilized and a baby had been conceived; but had stopped developing very early. So, we had to wait 12 LONG days for a repeat ultrasound. By then we should see a baby and hear a heartbeat if this was a viable pregnancy. If not, the yolk sac would be all we would see. Fast forward almost 2 weeks and I was convinced this baby was FINE. I felt it in my heart- I knew my baby was alive AND perfect. God gave me complete peace over the situation. Kevin and I went in faithful that we would see our tiny baby and hear his/her sweet heartbeat. And we did! Several weeks later we had another ultrasound and we saw it's arms and legs. God is so good ALL the time! Since then we have heard it's heartbeat three times on the doppler and in 3 weeks we hope to find out what we are having! I jokingly say it's a girl because this baby has not only been extremely high maintenance, but also such a fighter. If it is indeed a girl, we will call her Ruby-Kate after my momma, who was the most courageous fighter I have ever known. Do I think it's a girl? Maybe, maybe not. I get asked all the time if I WANT it to be a girl. How do you answer that? I got my wish- I am pregnant- I wanted our baby! We love our boys and would be thrilled to add a third to our bunch. A girl would be a wonderful blessing as well....so we will see!