Then There Were Three - Something a Little More Personal

When we announced we were pregnant to our friends and family, I decided to write them an email to detail how Baby #3 came to be. I'm not really one to share very personal things about my life, and I think the only other time I have done it was right after my dad died a couple of years ago, but I have decided to share that email with you, hoping that if there is anyone out there who has had similar struggles it will help them too.

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"So, we're pregnant, and we couldn't be happier or feel more blessed!!! Most of you know some of the struggle we have had getting our last child here. Getting pregnant and keeping the baby long enough for it's heart to start beating is hard for my body. With both Bevan and Maija we were taking Clomid (a fertility drug) to help me, and it was successful very quickly both times (despite having two other miscarriages before each one). I had just finished up taking it again for 6 months straight, with only another two possible miscarriages to show for it, and I was feeling very discouraged. I knew that the third baby, as promised in my PB, would get here one way or the other, because God doesn't lie, but I just didn't know how my body was going to do it. Anyway, in February I asked a few family and friends to fast for a miracle for us, and decided to begin doing Artifical Inseminations in March. Well, the day before Maija's first birthday on March 18th, I made the shocking discovery that I was pregnant, no fertility meds, nothing. It was only a faint line and I went in for a blood test a couple of hours later. Of course I phoned the lab for my results directly, as I knew what result I was looking for, and it came back at 257 - definitely the early stages of pregnancy. They immediately put me on Promertrium (Progesterone), to help the baby stick, and I repeated the HCG test on Monday, and it had shot up to 1026, so it had quadrupled instead of doubling, because of the fast growth they scheduled me for an ultrasound for the following week when I would be 5 weeks and 6 days (the day the baby's heart starts beating).

So, I went in for an ultrasound two weeks ago hoping to hear a heartbeat, but the baby was measuring 9 days younger than it should have been at 4 weeks and 4 days, so they weren't yet able to see how viable this pregnancy would be. They told me that the pregnancy was in a grey area right now, with only a 50/50 chance that the baby would survive. The only option would be waiting to do another ultrasound in two weeks, and hoping that it had grown. On Thursday morning we went in and heard and saw a strong heartbeat of 142 bpm, Tom shed a tear, and I questioned her to make sure she was sure, really sure! I never really had any morning sickness with Bevan and Maija, but with this one I feel almost constantly nauseous, and I realise how lucky I was with the other two. I also forgot how tired you feel in the first trimester. I serioulsy feel jet-lagged, but I'm so glad to have all these feelings because I know it's all for an amazing cause:).

Over the past couple of weeks I've thought back to becoming pregnant with Bevan and MyMy, and realised that we have only fasted twice before to become pregnant, and each time it has resulted in a living child, so that gave me a little hope. I came across this quote recently that says:

"Sometimes, the Lord sends His blessings in such a highly unusual, dramatic, or precisely timed manner that it's as if the Lord 'signs' the blessing personally so we know with a certainty that it came from Him."

- Elder Gerald Lund, Divine Signature -

It is obvious to me that this is a blessing, precisely timed, by Heavenly Father, that sometimes our blessings don't come when we expect them, or hope they would come, but looking back, when they do come, they come in a way that we know with a certainty they came from Him. Baby Baker #3, is one of those times.

Fasting Blessings

A Fast Sunday scripture. As you read it, particularly look out for the blessings the Lord promises us as we fast with real intent:

“6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones:and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not”.(Isaiah 58:6 - 11)

We have access to all of these…. Heavenly Father loves us all so much.

I hope that this Fast Sunday that the Lord will answer your prayers.