A Season to Give Thanks

I can't believe that I blinked and suddenly it went from Halloween to Thanksgiving, what seemed like just days has actually been weeks. I can't be more excited. The turkey will be on the table in just 4 days, and then the Christmas tree with all it's festivities will be here in just 5 days. I am gearing up for "Black Friday" with as best preparation as possible.

I felt that since Thanksgiving is this week, I would take the chance to share things that I am thankful for. It's been a crazy year, and the last few months have really been crazy. I thought I should take the opportunity to THANK all my FAMILY and FRIENDS, who have shown such love and concern for our family. I also have to THANK my HEAVENLY FATHER who has heard the many prayers from myself, my husband, our FAMILY and FRIENDS. I mentioned a couple months ago that I was starting to have health problems....once again. It's been a couple of months of ups and downs and to be honest one minute I thought everything was okay and the next everything wasn't, and back and forth. So, as sweet phone calls and e-mails poured into our home asking how things were going, I always responded with "We're doing good" because I didn't know if we were inbetween a good moment or a bad.

To explain, last year in June I got very very sick, had surgery and spend 5 days in the hospital and about 3 weeks of painful recovering in bed. It was a time in my life that I remember being such a trial, because I felt helpless, especially with a newborn. In September I started having pains on my right side, last year it was my left side and they removed an organ because it had grown an abcess on it. I was scared that maybe my right side was having the same problem. I immediately called my OB/GYN and they immediately got me in for an ultrasound. As I laid on the Ultrasound bed, the ultrasound tech saw something on my right side, and instead of saying something like "Oh, it's just a cyst, or oh it's nothing to be worried about" he said, "I need to go find your doctor and rushed out of the room. I was all alone in the room, and I broke down in tears, soo scared of the unknowing. My family has a HUGE history of Ovarian cancer, almost all the women on my mom's side of the family have had to get hysterectomy's by age 35, very very young. I was hoping that somehow I could have defeated those terrible genes. My doctor came into the room, and she too showed concern for what she saw on the ultrasound. She said that she didn't know what it was, and that we needed to get in there and do a laproscopy to figure it out.

I returned home, very emotional for the next week. I would wake up in tears, terrified for what lied ahead, and even more terrified that maybe this problem would cause my body not to be able to have any more children. It was too much for me to handle. There were some mornings I would go into Isabella's room to get her out of her crib, and I would just hold her as I sobbed. Sweetly, she would just let me cuddle with her. Chris constantly tried to reassure me that everything was going to be okay.

A week later, September 29th I returned to my Dr's office for my pre-op visit. We spent about an hour talking to my Doctor about ALL the options. She discussed how and what was going to take place during the laproscopy, if we found this...this is how we would take care of it...If it was something bigger, she would close me up and send me to a specialist. Of course I broke down in the Dr's office and pleaded with her that she had to do everything in her power to make sure that I could have atleast 1 more baby. She reassured me that unless I was bleading to death on her operation table, she would make sure she did everything in her power to help save my organ.

After a long and emotional pre-op visit, I went into the lab to do more blood work, which was necessary before any operation. After my lab work, I returned back to the consultation room with my Dr.'s nurse who took care of the lab work and she informed me that my Dr. would not be able to perform the operation in 2 days......because I was pregnant. Pregnant? Chris and I both stared at the nurse, it wasn't possible. I looked and him and he looked at me, and we were so confused. 5 minutes ago, I was terrified that I may not be able to have more children, and then I am being told that we can't operate because I am pregnant? That was too many emotions for one human being to experience at one time in one body. Once again, I started to sob, and I looked over at Chris, and I think this is the first time I have ever seen my husband cry. It honestly was a miracle!!! Little did anyone know that we were trying to get pregnant, so the news of surgery really had me down. My Dr. returned to the office with the biggest smile on her face. And she said that she was convinced that what we saw on the ultrasound was a harmonal cyst that was very large because I was pregnant and that we would just keep an eye on it with lots more weekly follow ups. I seriuosly love my Doctor, she has been there for me through so much!

I went in for an ultrasound a couple weeks later, right before I left on my trip to South Dakota. The baby was too small to see, but the ultrasound tech said that the cyst, was a perfect cyst (meaning they no longer were questioning what the problem was). So that was good news. My parents were so sweet to just let me relax and get some rest while I was out in South Dakota because that cyst was connected to nerves, so I was still uncomfortable and in pain. Which made me little uneasy. At least I didn't have morning sickness to go along with it.

When I returned home from South Dakota I had another ultrasound, I was about 7 weeks along. The baby was still really really small so the Doc did an internal ultrasound, for 10 minutes she looked around....and looked around, and couldn't find anything. She was so confused because my HCG levels tripled, which was a good thing. But, she couldn't find the sac or a baby. She looked at me so dissapointed and said, "I am so sorry, this isn't a good pregnancy." I actually handled it better than I thought. I said "Okay" and told myself that atleast we know I can get pregnant, and we can try again. Just as the Doctor was getting ready to end the ultrasound, the sound waves were reflected off of this tiny tiny little body. All the sudden I hear my doctor say, "Is that what I think it is?" Sure enough, this little beaner was hiding...we turned on the monitor, and there was a little heartbeat, as strong as could be. Once again I started Sobbing!!!! I don't think I had cried this much in my entire life, than I had that month. It was the sweetest little sound I could have ever heard.

We haven't told hardly anyone, because it has been so emotional, that we really thought one day someone was going to pinch us and we were going to wake up from this dream.

So, last week I went in at 11 weeks, and the heartbeat was strong and there were 2 cute little legs kicking around. So, after a really long story and a really CRAZY couple of months, we are soooooo excited to announce, BABY HERNANDEZ-coming the beginning of June 09'. It's so much to be THANKFUL for! THANK YOU again for all your PRAYERS!