We Are Having a Baby!

Jenn just had her 12-week check-up with the doctors and we are now successfully and healthily entering the second trimester of pregnancy. We are very excited and ask for everyone’s prayers for a healthy baby and a healthy Jennifer!

As many of you know, Jennifer has a congenital heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy that weakens her heart. When she was diagnosed, she had an ejection fraction (the amount of blood your heart pumps with each beat) of around 35. The doctors told her it would be extremely risky to go through pregnancy. We had resigned ourselves to never being able to have a biological child unless it was through a surrogate.

Well, after a few years of Jenn being on medication, her ejection fraction has increased to around 50! This remarkable improvement in her heart's capacity gave her and her doctors a renewed hope in her ability to take on carrying a baby. The problem was that there are very few cases out there where a woman of Jenn's age, with this disease, have gone through a pregnancy. Most people with cardiomyopathy are WELL past child birthing age. So Jenn and I and the handy Internet started researching. We found ONE study on our situation and it was favorable for Jenn getting through pregnancy with little or no complications. Of course it is still pretty risky due to the increased blood volume in a woman's system during pregnancy, which causes the heart to work harder. There are risks, but Jenn desperately wanted to carry her own child. After her heart doctor and a high risk pregnancy doctor studied the situation, they gave their blessing and we were off to the races.

Well, five months of "trying" and nothing. Jenn had tried all the kits and calendars and we just decided to forget about it and if it happened, it happened. Well it happened. New Years Day I awake (with a hangover) to Jenn yelling "its positive, its positive!" Wow. I am going to be a father. Poor kid. We had a house full of people coming over later that day to watch the UGA-Purdue bowl game and we had to get everything ready. For those of you who know me well, I am slightly animated when watching my Bulldawgs play. I could barely concentrate when watching the game. Everyone was asking me what was wrong and why I was so quiet. "Just tired." Needless to say, Jenn and I have had trouble keeping this to ourselves for so long.

We are going to use this site to update family and friends on things, and maybe even help the very few people around the world that were in Jenn's position with her condition. Now the first trimester is behind us and there is so much more ahead. Praise God for the miracle of birth and continue to remember us in your prayers!