How it all started!

I am creating somewhat of a quick synopsis of what our life has looked like over the past four years. I feel like this will be therapeutic for me, and it is something that I am finally ready to do. I consider it part of the healing process that God is taking me through. So if your interested keep reading. Most of you have already experienced all of this with me, thank you..It has been nothing short of a journey. A journey that continues.

After being married for five years sarting a family is something Geoff and I wanted so very badly. Everything was finally in order. We had completed our education, had stable jobs, a new home with empty rooms, and we were ready. Life doesn't always follow the plan we have, does it? After trying to get pregnant for about 6 months, I knew something was wrong. Long story short we discovered that Geoff had a mild form of cystic fibrosis causing absence of the vas deferns, therefore causing our infertility. This was the missing piece of his puzzle. Geoff has always had asthma, been on inhalers, and was in and out of the hospital for breathing related problems when he was a child. Over the past two years he was constantly on antibiotics which never seemed to kill whatever infection he had. We are so thankful for all the wonderful doctors who helped with the diagnosis, and later our fertility treatments. He was diagnosed with mild cystic fibrosis at age 31. What this meant for him is knowing that when he gets sick he needs a much stronger antibiotic for twice the amount of time, and has to take specific vitamins to help with his lungs and mucus. The Dr. also recommended daily cardio to help eep his lungs clear, but that is yet to happen. The good news was that now that we new what the problem was we could possibly get pregnant, but IVF plus (ICSI) would be our only option. We were ready, and wanted to do whatever it took to make this happen. We began our fertility treatments in January 2004 at NCFMC in Roseville, California. We loved our doctors and nurses there, it is truly an amazing clinic.

On February 29, 2004 (yes I do remember the date) two embryos were implanted to the exact spot where they needed to be. We were nervous and excited. Praying of course that it would work the first time. IVF is very expensive and we had taken a loan out on our house to finance this. It worked!!! We were so excited at our first ultrasound (at 7 weeks) to find that we were pregnant with twins. We were elated!

The next ultrasound was two weeks later, and found one more baby..."Holy Crap" were Daddy's first words. I will never forget it! I was in complete shock. One of the embryos had split. The good news was that they were in separate sacs, however they shared the same placenta which was not good news as many complications (which we would find out later) can occur when identical twins share a placenta. The doctors didn't seem as excited as we were. Looking back now I know why. Whenever you have identical twins sharing a placenta there can be associated risks. By sharing the same placenta they share the same blood flow, and depending on where the umbilical cord is connected to the placenta, one could have access to more of the needed nutrients from the placenta than the other. Of course the Doctors were already talking about these risks. Risks/statistics/ probability/likelihood/worrisome...In the next few months I would hear these words uttered to me over and over.

Even though dreary statistics were being thrown at me, I am an optimist by nature and I was so excited to be pregnant with triplets. At 16 weeks we found out we were having ALL boys. Our three sons!

Baby A is Gavin, Baby B is Ian, and Baby C is Evan. This picture was taken at 20 weeks gestation.