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Baby Surprise

by Laura Ruffner

At the beginning of this year if someone would have told me that I would have a child this year I would have told them they were nuts. Having children was not something my husband and I wanted to do. We had decided to enjoy our simple quiet lives. We decided to be the doting aunt and uncle to my niece and nephew and to all our friend's children. But here it is June and I have a 2 month old son. He's the most perfect child I have ever seen and was hiding out inside me. How could I not have known!

It was February and I decided to go see my GYN doctor. I had a few things to discuss with him and have him check. First was my lack of a period. I was on Depo-Provera for almost 6 years so I never had a period so that tell tale sign of pregnancy was not a give away. I stopped taking it in September of 2004 and was waiting patiently for my body to return to normal. I never had a period. I had a few months of spotting. That's it. Second, I thought I had a bladder infection. I was back and forth to the restroom all day long! And third (this always cracks people up) I had been feeling what I thought was gas bubbles rolling around in my belly since January. So at my visit the good doctor did a pelvic exam, a urinalysis and told me I was fine. Actually told me the bubbles I had been feeling was all in my head and has nothing to do with my female organs. I had been to see him in September of 2005 for my annual exam and was told that I needed to give the Depo more time to get out of my system. I was pregnant then and he never checked for it. I never suspected. Never had a reason too!

The doctor drew some blood and told me he was going to check my hormones and do a pregnancy test just to be safe. He even went so far as to schedule me an ultra-sound to check for possible cists or abnormalities on my ovaries that would have caused me to not have a period. So I left his office, came back to work thinking nothing more of it really. About and hour later I get a call from his office. My doctor told me that my pregnancy test came back very positive. I was floored. I hung up the phone and called my husband. He was floored. I then started to cry and did not stop for 24 hours.

The next day I went in for an ultrasound. I could not imagine that I was all that far along, but in my mind I kept going back to the months I did have some spotting. That was in July. July JULY! That would make me 7 months pregnant! My husband and mother went with me. My mother waited in the waiting room as we went in to do the ultrasound. Heartbeat was found with no problem. The technician took all the measurements of all the organs so she could give me a gestation estimate. She could not tell me what it was because he was already too big and facing downward. At the end she told us she estimated me to be 32 weeks along! Not knowing what that was in months I asked her. She told me 8 ½ months. She was wrong obviously, but I did not know that then and was so upset that I was almost catatonic. We went back out and I sat there and held my mother's hand and cried until they called me back to see the doctor.

When we get in to his office, he was very apologetic and said he was sheep-faced that he did not catch this back in September at my annual visit. He looked at the ultrasound report and told me that my child looked great, no abnormality, size was good, fluid was good, everything was good. He told me that I was about 7 and ½ months along. I looked at him and told him See! This was NOT all in my head! I was suddenly so scared of all the things I had put in my body not knowing I was pregnant. I use Nasal Spray entirely too much, take too much Excedrin for headaches and Tylenol PM to help me sleep, plus I was taking a prescription diuretic for hypertension. I do not drink a lot but had in the past 7 months from time to time. Not to excess, but they tell you any is bad. He told me not to worry that everything looked fine. I was still worried, I still am and he's here and fine!

So we leave his office my whirlwind pregnancy begins. At this point I am still stunned but feel a small bit better with the whole thing. I keep running over the past 7 months in my mind. In retrospect, all the signs were there. I just could not read them. In October I got very nauseated at the smell of barbeque cocktail wieners at the office when usually I love those things. In November I started experiencing bad lower back pain and what felt like pressure on my pelvis. I just took some Doan's pills and went on my merry way. Also in November my wrist started hurting terribly bad with Carpal Tunnel. I have a job that's all PC work, so I chalked it up to too much time at the keyboard. Then the bubbles started in January. And throughout the entire 7 months I can recollect the persistent annoyance of heartburn and all the times I cried for no reason at all. My poor husband thought I was falling apart. I secretly thought something was really wrong with me! I even thought on occasion that I could be pregnant, but always dismissed it because I thought I couldn't get pregnant until the Depo was totally out of my system. Little did I know.

So it all makes sense now and all my symptoms are gone. I had what to me was a 6 week pregnancy. I was the talk of the office and my friends. No one could understand how I could not know. To be fair, I am not a small gal. I never gained any weight, though. My waist bands were getting awfully tight though.

Three weeks after I found out I was in the hospital with PIH. They had taken me off the diuretics for fear of it affecting my amniotic fluid. My blood pressure spiked. I was admitted for observation and spent 5 days in the hospital. The obstetrician put me on Labetalol and sent me home for bed rest until I delivered. Eventually I was scheduled for induction at 39 weeks.

On April 2nd I was admitted and started the process of induction. For 2 days the doctors and nurses tried to get me in to labor, but to no avail. On April 5th at 10:25 weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces, my son was born via Caesarian. He spent a few days in the NICU for some wetness on his lungs from the lack of labor kick starting his lungs and the lack of a good squeeze through the birth canal and also for some very mild jaundice. He was 2 months old on Monday and is just perfect.

My family and friends were a tremendous help throughout my abbreviated pregnancy. They somehow managed to throw showers for us and ready a nursery. He has more clothes than he'll ever be able to wear before he outgrows and more love than anyone can imagine. He's our miracle surprise baby.

I am coming to terms with it all. Sometimes I get overwhelmed at the sheer magnitude of it all. I am a MOM now! I never thought I would be or that I even wanted to be. I am told that I took to motherhood very well. I never understood the whole instinct thing but I do now. Everything I do now is for him. I love him more than I ever thought possible and have from the moment I saw him.

About the Author:
Laura currently lives in Greenville, SC and is employed at NuVox Communications. She and her husband Stuart have been married for 7 years. They have 2 cats, 3 dogs and one miracle baby! Her hobbies include reading and playing City of Heroes in her free time, which is almost never!

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