Myspace Address :

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=48681067

I haven't thought up a cute address yet but here is my website. Look me up. Add me if you'd like.

My Story

Hi all. I'll tell a little about me and my hubby first. My name is Nickie and my hubby is Jared. We have been together since November 28, 1998. We got married on September 8, 2001. It was a wonderful wedding which I was not able to attend. It was what all brides fear. I got sick the morning of our wedding. So with over 300 guests waiting for me to walk down the aisle, my uncle (he was marrying us) had to announce that I was very sick and dismissed everyone to the reception. We were hoping that I would be able to join everyone after awhile. I did get married that day but not at all how I had planned. I was in jeans. My parents rolled me up the aisle in a chair with wheels. LOL My bouquet covered the pan I was to use to throw up (if needed) and wet rag to cool off my face from time to time. I went from having a big wedding (easily over 300 guests) to an intimate affair (just about 30 family members and friends). My uncle married us, we got our pics taken with the family and my hubby took me home so I could continue throwing up the rest of the night. YAY!!! I looked like death in all the pics but I tried really hard to keep my sense of humor and look on the bright side of things. I was finally married to the love of my life. And when it came down to it that is what really mattered. I heard my reception was wonderful.

It's a good thing weddings don't always foretell a marriage. Our marriage has been absolutely wonderful!!! We are best friends and we compliment each other so well. (No one else could handle me so well. hehe)

Then in March 2003 we decided to try and have a baby. Nothing serious...just get off the pill and see what happens. We bought a house in May and figured we'd get twins. LOL By September (our 2nd anniversary) nothing was happening. We kinda figured something was not right. After 6 more months of irregular periods and lots of prego tests and all negative, we knew. I was only 23 years old. This was not good. So we started seeing a specialists and had tests done. Long story short...I have PCOS. I don't ovulate every month. We didn't have money to do fertility at that time so we just kept trying on our own. June 2006 we finally did a round a Clomid. It did not succeed. We didn't know what we were going to do. The only way I was going to get pregnant was to do fertility...yet, we didn't have the money to spend on the treatments. The treatments weren't even making me ovulate.

THEN in August 2006 I get a phone call from the fertility clinic. They are beginning a study with a new drug, would I like to be a part of it. It's 3 months (3 cycles), everything paid for, they monitor everything, it's only 5 days of taking a pill, no shots, lots of blood work and ultrasounds and then 2 IUIs and then a pg test and then $700 at the end of it. Yup I get paid to get pregnant or not, either way. LOL Win-Win. So, of course, we jumped. :) We began the first cycle of the study in October 2006. I had the first pregnancy test on November 6, 2006. I kept telling myself to not get my hopes up because after everything they did, I only had 1 egg for that month. I know it only takes one egg but they were kinda hoping for more to give me a better chance. Any way, after the test I went home to wait for the results. The lady, Mary Ann, called and started talking to me first. Wanted to know how things were going with me and I just started crying. I already knew that I wasn't pregnant and that she was prepping me. But 2 more cycles to go, right? I could do this. There was still hope. But then Mary Ann said, "Sweetie, we got the results back and Congratulations, You're Pregnant!" .............Silence............"Nicole, Are you okay? Did you hear me?" "Yes, but could you say it again?" I had her repeat it about 3 more times during our conversation. LOL :) I drove to Jared's work (which is actually back at the hospital), and called him. He asked me what the results are. I asked if he could step out of his office for a second. He didn't understand but did as I asked. And there I was standing in the hallway. He knew what that meant!! 3 1/2 years of trying was finally over!

The next part was making sure that I kept the baby. We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know if my body would accept it or if I would be a high risk pregnancy as is sometimes the case. Luckily my body loved being pregnant. :) Of course I had morning sickness from about week 6 to the day I gave birth. And not just nausea. I threw up all day. Fortunately there are magic pills for that. I took them every evening and I never felt sick again. :) (Except once, in my 7th month, I didn't take them one evening b/c I thought I would be over it by then...the next morning I woke up at about 3:00 throwing up and was sick for about 6 hours. I finally stopped throwing up long enough for me take the pills. Within 20 minutes I felt much better and I never missed another pill.)

My Birth Story

So I enjoyed my pregnancy! I gained 40 lbs. Ms. Elizabeth was wonderful and active. I was the most sickening happiest pregnant lady you would have ever met. :) My friends told me that you would think that I selling rainbows. LOL Anyway. I looked huge (and I was) but mainly b/c Ms. Elizabeth came right out the front. From the back I was told that I didn't look prego at all and then I would turn around and there was BABY. haha. By week 36 we did our routine visit...double check that it was still a girl (whew, all that purple and pink was not going to go to waste) and they notice that the cord was around her neck. No worries. Happens all the time. Basically it bothers us more than it bothers the babies. And as long as the doctor knows about it before hand, it's not a problem. But they hooked me up to the monitor to check the stress of the baby to make sure that all was good. Elizabeth was good. But they noticed that I was having some really good contractions. Really good...3 to 5 minutes apart contractions...and I didn't feel them. I had 4 or 5 within the 20 minutes they had me hooked up. The nurse came in and quickly said "Oh honey, how are you doing? Are they hurting?" I was a bit confused and asked what she meant. She told me about the contractions and I said I didn't feel them. My stomach was so hard but I didn't feel it get hard. LOL No complaints here. Oh and estimated weight was 8 lbs. (I was 9lbs 7oz when I born so I wasn't surprised about a big baby.)

Anyway, week 37, another stress test and talk of induction. Stress test showed that baby was still good but my contractions were much much stronger (8-10), much much closer together (btw 2-4 min apart) and I was still not feeling them. hahahahaha I was only dialated to a 2 at that time...so not much progress. We scheduled my induction for the following Monday. The baby was getting bigger and the doctor didn't want her getting too big with the cord around her neck and didn't want to create a problem. I was fine with it all.

So July 2nd I went in at 7:00 in the morning. They began my Petocin drip at 7:30. I took a nap for a couple of hours. The nurse came in. I still was not feeling the contractions. The chart was showing them hitting the highest number there. The nurse uped the petocin. About 10:00 she came back in, I was still not feeling the contractions and she uped the petocin again. Jared and I checked out the chart thing and the readings were going off the chart and the contractions were on top of each other. They were literally a minute apart. I laughed cuz I still could not feel them. I was beginning to feel a tightening of my stomach but that was it. hahaha (don't worry, I didn't laugh much longer.) My doctor came in around 1:30 and broke my water. Yes, the water gushing was yucky. And within 5 minutes I felt the first contraction. It hurt but I could handle it. I was use to having excruciating period pain. I worked through about 30 minutes of them (and when I say 30 minutes of them, I mean 30 contractions). I did the breathing. Jared helped out so much. All I could do was breathing b/c I couldn't use the bathtub like I wanted since I was hooked up to the monitor (drawback to being induced - they have to monitor the baby at all times). The contractions would start..finish and then start back up again. There was no relief time in between. So I went from playing cards and relaxing to full on labor. Then I was finding out that I wasn't progressing. I was at 3 by then. What the crap! So by 4:30 I asked for drugs. They gave me something. But I didn't feel them. No relief. By 5:00 I asked for the epidural. I was given the epidural within 15 minutes and then I went to sleep. mmmm sleep. The epidural went great (not as scary as all the stories I was told). And I got sleep. My doctor came in again at 7:30 and I was at a 9, about ready to go. They were waking me up, telling me to get ready. I was a 10 by almost 8:00. I started pushing at about 8:00. She was born at 8:13 pm. YAY!!! Elizabeth Loralie was 8 lbs 12 oz 22 inches long. Black hair. It was absolutely surreal. I was sitting in the bed, holding a baby, not really registering that she was mine, she was ours! Surreal.

I can't wait to do it again! We are hoping the next time will be easier. But in the mean time we are enjoying her. Enjoying her so much!

We are also finding out more and more about PCOS and how it affects so many women but in so many different ways. We're hoping the more we learn, the more that it can help for the next prenancy. We just found out that my weight gain (before baby) and difficulty losing weight now is because of the PCOS. So I have to extra hard and see what I can do. :)

Well Thank you for reading. It was fun!