Conner

To our friends who don't live close: SURPRISE!
To our family and local friends: HE HAS ARRIVED!

This pregnancy started off as our little secret! We didn't plan on telling our family until after the 1st trimester. However, at 12 weeks I went in to have a cerclage put in (the doctor stitched my cervix closed to prevent pre-term labor). While placing the cerclage, the doctor found that my cervix had already started dilating. Not much, but enough that he immediately put me on bed rest. That's right, 12 weeks pregnant and put on bed rest! I was to lay down as much as possible, only getting up to go to the bathroom, shower or get food if nobody else was around. Sitting up was okay, but laying was preferred. I was able to leave the house, but only in a wheel chair. We knew that our little secret couldn't be a secret any more. Our local family (and friends) would notice when I started showing up in a wheel chair or declining invitations to do things that I normally would have done. So we started telling our exciting news.

I was still really scared. I had been 12 weeks pregnant before. So we decided to keep our exciting news to family and local friends. Nothing on the internet, especially facebook! Then I made it past 24 weeks (viability), and we were so excited. But Viability doesn't mean that the baby will live, just that the doctors will try to save him. We were told that at 28 weeks the baby has a much better chance of survival. Then I made it past 28 weeks! Hallelujah! But our little baby boy would still be in the NICU if born that early. So we kept it quiet still. As time past, we got more and more confident and excited. PLUS, we now had a REALLY awesome surprise when he was born. So we decided to keep it off the internet until he was born. So...

SURPRISE!!!!

We had a baby boy! We are so excited to have him as a part of our family! We hope you can join us in our excitement and love our little surprise!

This pregnancy wasn't easy. I was on bed rest from 12 weeks until 36 weeks - that's 6 months of bed rest! I was completely devastated when the doctor put me on bed rest. I cried a lot. Obviously it was for a good reason, for our son, but the thought of 6 months of bed rest was completely overwhelming and didn't sound like fun at all. I lost a lot of muscle strength during those 6 months, and I'm sure it will be slow trying to regain it back. But that's okay. I'll work on it as much as possible with a newborn baby!

To top it all off, at 35 weeks pregnant, I had awful mouth pain and discovered I needed a root canal. Not fun. Awful timing! I don't know if it's common everywhere or just here in Peoria, but I called around to a few different endodontists and the quickest I could get in anywhere was 3 weeks. Yikes! That's a long time when your mouth hurts. It also puts me at 38 weeks getting a root canal!

So at 38 weeks pregnant, I headed to the endodontist for a consultation appointment. After filling out the paper work, I took it up to the secretary and as I was handing it to her my water broke! The endodontist was very concerned! I think he was worried I would have the baby in his office and hie would have to deliver my baby! So he had his dental assistant drive me to the hospital.

Our little boy was perfectly content staying inside of me, which caused some problems with the delivery. But that was is LONG story! We are just so grateful to have him in our family! He's so cute and we love him so much!

Born June 10, 2014