Megan's Story

I always knew that I wanted to be a mom and as soon as Marc and I said "I do", I was ready to have a baby! It turned out that having a baby would be quite a challenge for us. After trying to conceive for a year, I visited with my doctor. She ran several tests, including a very painful endometrial biopsy and a hysterosalpingogram, and came to the conclusion that I had "unexplained infertility." I was referred to Helen'a best OB/Gyn, who immediately prescribed Progesterone and Clomid. After only two months, I became pregnant! Unfortunately, that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. I will never forget the devastation I felt the day the nurse called to tell me the sad results of my HCG test - Marc was out of town and I cried for two days. I was on Clomid another six months (!) before I finally became pregnant with Miss Megan. It was our last cycle before we were to begin IUI and we were both emotionally exhausted. I took the home test the morning of my cousin's baby shower, January 20, 2002, and I sobbed when I saw the positive result. My pregnancy was pretty uneventful except for the horrendous morning sickness - which really could've been called "afternoon and all evening sickness". By my fourth month, I was feeling great, though. I didn't really even look pregnant until I was about 7 months along. On August 12th, I woke up seeing spots and not feeling quite right. I spent the morning at the hospital undergoing an MRI and fetal monitoring. While having an ultrasound, the ultrasound technician pushed pretty hard on my abdomen, which caused contractions to begin. I was given a shot of breathine (?) which made my contractions subside and I went home to bed. The next day, I felt great and worked for 10 hours. That evening we attended our first birthing class. At 4 am I got up to the use the bathroom and shortly after I went back to sleep, I woke up to a wierd feeling - I thought my water broke, but when I turned on a light I realized I was hemorraging - A LOT! I called my doctor who advised me to get to the hospital as fast as I could. Within 45 minutes of our arrival, our Megan was delivered via c-section. I was only in my 34th week so she was quite small, weighing in at 4 lb 2.3 oz. Her little lungs were not quite ready to breath air and she struggled for two days before one lung collapsed. At 4 am on August 16th, a nurse woke us to tell us about her lung and to make arrangements for her to be flown to Great Falls. We were so scared. Marc flew to Great Falls with our baby while I went home to change into regular clothes and pack our bags. Let's just say that wasn't so easy merely 48 hours after a c-section! My dad drove me to Great Falls where we spent the next two weeks. Megan was a little fighter and was off the ventilator after only two days. It was an absolute joy to watch her get better and grow, and we were thrilled to bring her home on August 30, 2002. Even though our little girl is definitely not perfect, she is an amazing gift from God and we are so blessed to have her!