The Beauty of Two Pregnancies

I have a long story. I found out I was pregnant with my first girl one month after I had gotten married. We were excited but weren’t expecting to be pregnant that fast. My pregnancy was fairly easy and uncomplicated until about my 7th month. At that point I started to have seizures. I do not have a history of seizures, it does not run in my family. By the time my daughter was born at 37 1/2 weeks, I had undergone many tests. The official diagnosis was Non Epileptic Gestational Seizures. My labor was extremely fast, only four hours from the first contraction until she slid into this world. My daughter was beautiful and worth every thing I went through. When my daughter was 9 months old, I realized that I was pregnant again. I am proof that birth control does not work for all women. :) This time my seizures started much earlier. I was only 5 months along, and it was scary having a little one at home. We hired a nanny and made it through the pregnancy fine. My water broke at 35 weeks. I ended up being induced by Pitocin. While I had a natural, drug free labor with my first, I ended up getting an epidural. It was the best decision and made it so that I didn’t lose my mind from the pain. My second daughter seemed so small at 5 pounds, 8 ounces. She seemed fine right after birth, but her lungs weren’t developed and she sprung a pin hole leak in her left lung. She spent 3 1/2 weeks in the NICU. I spent that time running back and forth to the hospital and pumping. I cried a lot. However, she is now three months old and we are all doing wonderfully. I am thankful to my body for housing two beautiful miracles. I cry when I think that I should never have more babies, the empty arms I will have as my girls get older. However, this Mama is beautiful. And while I have days where I wish that someone had told me that I would go from a size 4-6 to a size 12, and that my breasts would go from a barely B cup to a DDD cup, I embrace my womanhood. This body has been the building place of two wonderful babies, two extraordinary births. It has seen my through some of the hardest days of my life, when I wondered if I was hurting my babies, and wondered if I was dying. I am thankful for the blessings I have been given! I am including pictures, me three months post pardum, at 35 weeks with my first, and at 35 weeks (the day before I had her!) with my second. Blessings upon all of you strong mamas out there who share your stories with the world!