After over a year of trying to conceive, we were excited to learn that we were pregnant for the first time. We were so grateful for this blessing that was growing on the inside of me. During the pregnancy, I had the usual pregnancy symptoms minus the vomiting. I did experience nausea but it was minimal compared to the stories I heard of other pregnant women.

We were so excited that we even downloaded two well-known pregnancy apps, started taking weekly pictures at 11 weeks, and basked in the joy of experiencing pregnancy for the first time. We found out at 14 weeks that we were expecting a baby boy via a blood test. We were excited and shocked that our first child was going to be a boy because we assumed we would have a girl first. Rodney had a name picked out already that he wanted to name his first son prior to even meeting me (more of that on our blog post “Our 2 Treasures in Heaven”).

Every appointment we would go to we were excited to see our baby boy and saw that he was thriving in my womb. Leading up to our anatomy scan, which was scheduled for 18 weeks, we knew that we would get to see all of our son’s measurements and growth. At the appointment, the ultrasound technician confirmed that indeed we were having a boy and she was able to get all the measurements she needed for the anatomy scan.

Later that day, I took a nap, and when I woke up from the nap I was having abdominal pains. Since I was in my second trimester, I assumed that it was round ligament pain– something that I had learned is common among pregnant women. The pain continued to progress and so I called out to my husband to tell him I thought something was wrong. We agreed that it was best to go to the local hospital to get checked out to be on the safe side. At this moment, we didn’t realize that our lives would be changed forever.

Check out the blog post called “19 Weeks Cut Too Short” where we go into detail of our hospital experience.