They Said my Baby had Died!

I was pregnant with our fifth child and I began to bleed. After bleeding for two weeks I decided to go to the ER. I had hoped for an ultrasound, but they were too busy that night. They took a blood test and said my BETA numbers were 122xxx and told me to call a doctor the next day.

I called a doctor and two days later went to have more blood drawn. The next day I went back to the doctor. She told me that my numbers had dropped to 111xxx. She said this indicated a miscarriage and the need for an ultra sound. I was scared and kept praying. We went into the ultrasound room and she began to scan. We saw what looked to be a dead baby of about four to five weeks. There was no heart beat, just a dead form.

I was nine weeks at that time. She said the baby had died and gave me three options:

1. Take pills to complete the miscarriage.

2. Have a D&C.

3. Wait and let nature take its course.

I decided I would wait it out. That day ALL my bleeding stopped. Many people were very upset with me for not scheduling a D&C. They told me I could die or I could lose my uterus. I told them as long as I did not have a fever, I felt that I was fine. I felt at peace with my decision and continued to pray.

Many years ago I read an article called Protect Your Womb on the Above Rubies web site. From that point on I had started to pray for the health of my womb. This came to my mind many times during my wait. I leaned on the Lord and kept trusting.

Each day I waited for the cramping I knew would come. It never did. I was supposed to go back to the doctor after two weeks but one of my children had gotten sick. I didn’t make it back until four weeks later.

The day before I saw the doctor, I was talking to a lady at church, and told her nothing had happened and I was fearful the doctor would try to convince me to have a D&C. I really wanted to avoid that. She looked at me and said, “Do you think they were wrong? Do you think you could still be pregnant?” I had not thought of that. I saw the image on the ultrasound machine. I agreed with what the doctor had seen. At first I thought it was cruel of her to give me a small peace of hope. I couldn’t deal with my sadness and have this small hope too.

The next day I went to the doctor and the nurse asked what happened. “Nothing,” I said, “I have had no bleeding or cramping.”

“Maybe the baby is still there,” she replied. I began thinking, “No, don't put that in my mind.” The small piece of hope was there but I couldn’t let myself think of it. But what if?

The doctor came in, “So, nothing happened?” she said. I told her nothing had. She asked if I still had pregnancy symptoms. I had to think on that a moment because I hadn’t even thought of having symptoms. I had thought the baby died and that was it. But after a while I had to say, “Yes!”

“Let’s do an ultra sound,” she said. I told her there was no way for my dates to be off because I had an early positive pregnancy test and knew the date I conceived.

I lay down, barely able to breath. She scanned and exclaimed, “There is the baby's head!” She moved down a little, “I see two arms and they MOVED!” Then she saw the heartbeat! A HEARTBEAT! Can you believe it? I was shocked, thrilled and scared all at the same time. The baby was measuring 13 weeks, exactly where I was supposed to be!

As I left the office I broke down. I cried and praised the Lord, thanking Him for sparing my baby’s life. If I had chosen any other option but to wait, I would have killed my baby. I called my husband and he couldn’t believe it.

On July 14, 2005 I went in for my fifth c-section and my miracle baby was born. We named her Julianna Grace because God graciously spared her life.

After five c-sections I was curious about the shape of my uterus. I asked the doctor what my uterus looked like. He told me that it looked very good and he was surprised there was very little scar tissue after having five c-sections. I thanked the Lord. I know that my prayers for my womb had been answered.

ANNETTE WAY

Springfield, Missouri, USA

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Reese and Annette’s children are Audrey (14), Brionna (10), Amanda (7), Joseph (4), Julianna (18 months) and new baby Erica born January 2007.