Back in March of 2012 Carlos and I had decided that it was time to stop using birth control, in preparation for the upcoming months of beginning to try and get pregnant. That July (2012) we were pregnant, and so excited!!!! We couldn't wait to tell the world, so we began telling our family immediately. By the time I was 7 weeks along, I was at work, and began to lightly bleed. I knew something was wrong, and so I called my doctor, and unfortunately the lady helping me didn't encourage me to come in immediately like she should have (I later found out that it's my child, and I have to be stern when it comes to certain matters). Unfortunately, two days later I went through cramping and miscarried. I looked at my tiny little baby and wept, knowing that the joy we had in bringing that baby home was no longer going to happen. It was the toughest moment in my life. That Monday, Carlos and I had gone to the doctors to confirm the miscarriage and find out what needed to be done in the future, so my doctor told me to get a lot of blood drawn since my mom had 4 miscarriages before conceiving my siblings & I, to see if we could find something to pop up in the blood work. After 17 tubes of blood being drawn, and me passing out, we later found out that I had a negative blood type (RH Negative). Seems like it's not a big deal, but it was something that would later affect my other pregnancies since Carlos has a positive bloodtype. (Please check this link for more details on RH negative blood types:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/tc/rh-sensitization-during-pregnancy-topic-overview)
October 2012, we tried for a second time, and BAM we were pregnant, this time with Leeana! What an exciting time it was to find out that we were pregnant again, and with such ease! What a blessing that is was to know Thanksgiving morning that we were expecting again, but this time we waited a little longer to tell the family so that we wouldn't get crushed with the devastating news of another miscarriage. Everything was going smoothly with this pregnancy. By 6 weeks I was beginning to get some nausea (good sign, but never fun) and I knew that meant that the baby was growing! By 7 weeks, I began lightly bleeding again. I remember that Sunday morning, quietly waking up Carlos and told him we had to go to the hospital to for me to get the Rhogam shot (for my negative blood type, read the link above for more details.) He freaked out, and jumped out of bed, while I tried to stay as calm as possible to not stress out. We got to the hospital, and it was a long couple of hours, but I got the shot, and we found out that baby was just fine! What a relief after having this happen with pregnancy #1! By Christmas 2012, I was about 9 weeks and we were happy to share the news with our families that we were expecting a baby! They were of course all so happy, and looked forward to another family member. Thankfully the rest of the pregnancy went great, and we welcomed Leeana Eva on August 5, 2013!
Thanksgiving 2014, the topic of birth control entered into discussion. Carlos and I have never disagreed on this topic before, as we used it prior to getting pregnant, and continued afterwards. We wanted the control to have and avoid pregnancy on OUR terms. That November, Carlos mentioned to me that he had been doing research and realized that he believed using any form of birth control was not something that was backed with scripture, and he no longer wanted to use it. I paused, and then freaked out! Hold on... you're basically telling me that our plan to control how many kids that we have is no longer an option, and that my husband won't allow any forms of birth control. It definitely was a hot topic for about a week, and I knew it wasn't a discussion that we could put off talking about. We discussed things biblically, and watched a bunch of videos on how birth control came about. I was shocked to see/learn about Margaret Sanger (I had heard of her before, but not to this extent) and her goals that she had to control the human race, mainly the African American culture, and those who are unable to afford having multiple children. If you ever wonder why so many Planned Parenthood offices are located in the low income neighborhoods, well now you know. I was disgusted and shocked at how she had one goal, and even after shes died, her goal of abortions, and allowing people to "control" when they want to have kids, is in full affect, and us as a society don't even realize how it's not the way it's supposed to be.
**Genesis 1:28 says "And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth..."
**Psalm 127:3-5 says "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."
Those are simple 2 pieces of text that discuss children, and believe me that's not even the tip of the iceberg. Carlos and I discussed every method of birth control, and how God was displeased with people who tried to stop pregnancy, and I was shocked at how clear it was, and of course it really made me question my views altogether. After the videos/movie we had watched, I really thought about it, and my mind changed quickly. I was shocked at how fast this topic came about and was decided upon. I had a lot of fears about TONS of pregnancies, especially since Leeana was born via c-section, they advise at least a good year-18 months before trying to get pregnant again, due to the major surgery. I explained my concerns to Carlos, and so we did some great research on a biblically approved (lol) way to do birth control. It's called ecological breastfeeding! (Check info here for more on ecological breastfeeding: http://www.llli.org/nb/nbsepoct08p4.html) Overall, you nurse whenever baby wants to, and continue to, which usually causes your period to not return (until you cut back on nursing), and then your cycle returns, in which you can then get pregnant again. Of course this is not a guaranteed method, but we realized that it can definitely work, as it worked with Leeana, since I'm a HUGE advocate for breastfeeding. What a joy it was to nurse my child, and feed her, knowing that I was giving her something no one else, or no formula could. It was such a great time with her, and I miss it since I gave it up right after Thanksgiving 2014. So that's our goal after this baby comes, and we shall see how it goes. :) For anyone wondering, my husband didn't force me to agree to his view of BC, but instead shared with me what he saw was biblical, and we really got into deep discussion daily, and then after all the talking, I saw the true benefit and pleasure it would bring to God. I can't wait to see how many kids the Lord has in store for us in the future.
NOW.... with infertility... this was a tough thing for us over the last year. We thought as soon as we stopped using birth control last November, that we would immediately be announcing another pregnancy to the world, and that didn't go as we thought. As you can tell, it's been a LONG year! I was shocked, and it was one of the reasons I hesitated to change my views on birth control. It was a long year of hesitating to want to get pregnant right away (months 1-2 of no BC), then actually getting excited for the possibility (months 3-5 of no BC), then the real struggle came when I was getting anxious and kind of frustrated that it hadn't happened (months 6-7 of no BC), and then month 8 hit.. and patience and trust in God came into the picture. I knew he had us waiting for some reason, and I was learning to just trust in God's plan. I just knew that overall I would enjoy the gift of having Leeana as an only child, for as long as I could. Throughout this time we'd been asked more times that I can ever want to remember "are you pregnant yet?" and after a few months of getting that question, it's hard to hear it. When you struggle with getting pregnant, you don't want to constantly reminded that your body isn't doing what it should do, and you almost feel a lack of trust in God, as if He stopped loving me to give me this good gift! Don't believe the lie! Sometimes, it's not the right time for a baby, and maybe that's one of the reasons why it took us a year to get pregnant. But please, for those reading this, and you know someone is trying to get pregnant, and it's been months... please don't continue to ask. It's tough to have that reminder that you don't have what you desire so much. We know it's with good intentions, but it also takes the fun out of the surprise of announcing it. We still love you, but please keep this in mind if you do ask people often, because we had it A LOT from everyone, and some days it was tough to be joyful in answering "not yet."
During the summer time, my Aunt Nancy had graciously mentioned to me (as she knew we had been trying), that I should try taking some cough syrup with Expectorant & Guaifenesin in it (you can get it from CVS or any local stores, but those two names will be on the front of the box/bottle. She said it helps women get pregnant (for most, not all). I totally forgot about it for a few months, and then she asked me if I had tried it. Opps! Mommy brain, sometimes we forget so fast! I tried it that month (September), and BAM it worked!!! First try, and I took it for 5 straight days after my period ended, and a few weeks later, we were expecting! The long year of waiting was over, and we were happy.
The moment of finding out we were pregnant....
I was 9 days late on my period, (which this had happened 2 months before, and I wasn't pregnant), so I was staying calm and wasn't expecting a positive test at all. I woke up before Carlos had to go to work that morning, and took a test. Immediately within 3 seconds a positive sign popped up, and I began weeping which turned into a LOT of tears. I was shocked, and began praying and thanking God for the little baby within my womb. Although the baby was a tiny little bean, I was so thankful to God for giving us the desire of our hearts to have another child. Carlos got ready for work that day, and I didn't say anything. I know, it's mean! But who wants to see their husband off to work, and then say, "Oh, and by the way, we're pregnant! Now have a great day at work! Bye!" NOPE! I couldn't do that. I wanted to enjoy the moment with him, and record it! So he went off to work, and later when Leeana woke up, I told her first. She of course smiled, and had no idea what I meant when I told her I had a baby in my belly. That night Carlos came home, and I was ready to spill it! I had a beautiful dinner prepared, and everything set. I hit play on the camera, and accidentally must have hit it again, because it never recorded! Trust me, I almost cried! So part of the way through dinner, I excused myself and ran upstairs to grab the pregnancies tests (yes I took another before he came home just to make sure it wasn't a mistake). I put them in my back pocket and ran back downstairs. I grabbed a letter I had written him earlier in the day, and handed it to him. Carlos wasn't shocked, because I do things like that often. Basically the card mentioned how we've been through a lot together, and how we have a future ahead of us, and how the only things we know for sure in our future are that we'll need a bigger car, move to another home, and need to make room for baby #2. He opened it, read it, and put it down, and I sat there thinking, thankfully I grabbed the pregnancy tests, cause he has NO clue! So I asked him if he caught anything in the card, and he said "no." So I plopped both tests right on the table, and he looked at me like, "SERIOUSLY?" and immediately he was so happy! We kissed, and hugged! It was such a precious moment, and we're so happy to share the news with the world now! We couldn't be more happy and excited to welcome this next little baby into our lives!
If you've read all of this! THANKS!
