I met my now-husband when I was a grad. student. I was very focused on my goals (education, career, etc.). I wanted to settle down, get married and have a family someday. The key word being someday. Then I met my husband. There was instant chemistry between us, but it took us awhile to admit it. We became good friends first and then falling in love was the most natural thing in the world. It didn't take long for us to realize that we always wanted to be together and get engaged.
While we were engaged, it seemed as though we talked for hours and hours about absolutely everything. One of the things we discussed a lot was having a family. We both really felt like we wanted to start trying for a baby right after we got married. We also discussed how many kids we wanted, parenting ideas, etc. We had a magical engagement and then a beautiful, elegant wedding.
Our wedding night was our first try for #1. It wasn't that night (not that you want to know), but it didn't take long. Ten months after getting married, our beautiful little girl was born. I had a great pregnancy. Other than getting really tired in the first trimester and roughly the size of a whale by the last trimester, there were no real concerns or complaints. She was a really active baby in the womb, and wriggled and kicked constantly (especially to music). It was pretty common to see a hand or foot pressed against my tummy. She also would try to push things off of my tummy.
Unfortunately the birth was less straightforward. She was two weeks late before I went into labour. I had wanted a natural home birth, so my husband called the midwife and we started walking around the neighbourhood to try to get labour established. Nothing went to plan though. Instead of having my midwife with us the whole time, a midwife we had never met before left us alone for hours at a time and seemed annoyed when we would call her. I was in labour for a long time and nothing really seemed to be happening. After over 24 hours of labour, I started puking and just felt that something was wrong. We demanded that a new midwife come check, and she sent us rushing into hospital in an ambulance. Our baby was in distress and I had to have an emergency C-section. It is absolutely amazing how quickly they can deliver a baby when necessary. Within minutes of signing the forms, I was in the operating room and they had delivered her. She wasn't breathing when she was born and had to be resuscitated. There was also concern about infection by Strep B.
Luckily, she turned out to be just fine. Once they got her taken care of and me sewn back together, I started breastfeeding her and it seemed so easy and natural. Our beautiful baby girl is now getting ready to start school this September! She is the sweetest child and really does believe that she is a princess (like daddy always calls her).
When Princess was a toddler, we decided we were ready for another kid (deciding was a long process. Maybe I'll discuss that another time). Again we didn't seem to have any fertility problems. It only took about two months to conceive. This pregnancy was generally good, but had some more concerning times. At 13 weeks, I woke up one morning to find my legs and the bed covered in blood. While I panicked, my husband started calling the midwife, OBGYN, etc. The midwife basically said that I was miscarrying and that there was nothing they could do about it. No one would bring us in for a scan or to check. Finally he got ahold of our normal family doctor, who brought me in and found a heartbeat. Thankfully, I did not miscarry. It was probably breakthrough bleeding.
Once again, my due date came and went. They tried everything to get me to go into labour. Eventually it became obvious that nothing was going to get labour going, and I had to have another C-section. Even then our daughter didn't want to be born. They had to use forceps during the section! She was absolutely perfect though and fine and healthy.
Her daddy calls her angel (even though she's way more mischievous than her big sister), and now she's a toddler. There's about a two years' age difference between them, and it's a really nice gap. We've never had any real problems with jealousy or anything like that, and they adore each other.
