Well, yes, you read that title correctly. Baby #5 is coming soon! Was this expected? Well, no. Are we excited though? Yes!
We were not planning on having another baby at least right now. First of all, we didn't really know if we could or should have another baby because of my past health issues with cancer and things like that. We still don't know how the chemo and cancer will affect this baby but hopefully everything will be fine. Second of all, I was training for a half marathon and hoping to PR at this race. I won a free entry into the Southern Utah Half Marathon and was so excited to run because I love the course through the awesome trails in St. George.
Unfortunately a few weeks before the race, I started feeling really crappy. I would get so sick after every training run and then be so exhausted the rest of the day. My times were really slowing down too and I could not get faster. This was not normal and it really got me worried. But, I knew I had this race coming up so I didn't want to stop running. Then I learned that I could transfer my registration to a virtual race instead. (Thanks Covid-19) That way I could run at my own pace on a day that I felt good. I did run the 13.1 miles on my own three weeks before the actual race. It was really slow but I got it done. Little did I know at the time, I was about 6 weeks pregnant, which explains why I was feeling so crappy and slow.
My medal and swag from the
race came in the mail a few weeks later. On the bright side, I got 3rd place overall in
the virtual category even though it was my slowest half ever!
Well, long story short, this
will be my last medal and race for a while. Sadly, I need to take a
break from running and give my body time to rest, recover, and adjust to the
changes that are happening inside. I'm not totally out of the game, just
benched for a minute. It's time to start growing a baby!
During the time I was feeling so crappy and not knowing what was going on, I was really worried about what was wrong with me. Like I said, we did not expect pregnancy to be an option. I read everything on the Internet and maybe that was my mistake because it got me even more worried about things like ovarian, thyroid, or some other cancers. I also thought maybe I was just having early onset menopause which is not uncommon for having cancer at a young age. I didn't know what was happening so the old cancer PTSD started setting in. Finally, I decided to take a pregnancy test just to rule that out.
Well that just made things more complicated because the test came back positive. I was still kind of in denial of this because it was a shock so I took a second test a few days later. This also came back positive... In the meantime, I had made an appointment with my primary care doctor in hopes he could tell me what was wrong. When I went in, I had him do a real pregnancy test just so I wasn't trusting some drug store test. This test also came back positive. So I told him, "Well, I know what my problem is for sure now." This explained all of the exhaustion, low energy, sick feelings in my stomach, and all those other symptoms. I wasn't dying!! He just laugh and said, "Well, Congratulations!"
On September 11, three years to the day after my last chemo treatment, I met with my OB/GYN doctor for my first prenatal appointment. During this visit, we got to see our new baby for the first time!
What a cute little bean! I have been really nervous about this pregnancy because of my past health. I wasn't expecting this so I hadn't been taking vitamins as faithfully as I should. I also don't know how the chemo and cancer is going to affect the baby. Another thing I was worried about is my age.
My doctor was really great and explained a lot to me. She said that I should be fine with the vitamins because most normal food has the vitamins I would need. She was not too concerned about the cancer stuff either. She did say that 35 was the threshold for what is called "geriatric pregnancy." I never thought at 35 I would be considered "geriatric," but here I am killing it! Because of my age and health history though, I am considered a high risk pregnancy so we will be taking certain precautions including more extensive ultrasounds and blood tests.
This little one is expected to make its arrival on April 10, 2021 (or somewhere around there). We are all really excited for this new baby even though Russell and I are still trying to wrap our heads around having another baby! We are getting too old. The girls are hoping for a baby girl and the boys just know it will be a baby brother. We will have to wait and see what the tie breaker will be! Charlotte has already named the baby, Baby Lori.
Oh boy, here comes baby number five!
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