How we became Mr. and Mrs. Clark:
I met my husband at his 21st birthday party. He was drunk to all accountable. After talking the way we met later, we decided that neither one of us probably would have had the nerve to approach the other if it wasn't for the influence of alcohol. After a few years of being together practically every moment of the day we decided to start looking for an engagement ring. He wanted to get some idea of what kind of rings I like and so we went to look. When the ring was on my finger and I told him how much I liked that particular ring he decided that the look on my face was too much for him to wait and bought the ring that same day. We got married December 30th, 2006. I had hoped to have a beautiful snowy winter wedding and that was the one year that there was no snow on the ground and it was 50 degrees outside. We even had pictures taken outside without coats. That is just my luck. And from there on out we've been husband and wife.


Sheldon: The Making Of...
We decided March 2007 to have my IUD removed so we could start TTC. After no luck for two years we decided to schedule the dreaded "infertility" appointment with my OBGYN. The nurse asked if I'd like a pregnancy test run and since it was a day or two before AF was to arrive I said sure. I had thought that there was no way after all this time that it'd be positive anyway, but she could humor me anyway. Shortly thereafter the doctor came in and said that there was no need to talk to her today because we were expecting. The ride home was like a dream. We called everyone that was in our contact lists. About 9 weeks into the pregnancy I started having very pale pink discharge turned to brown discharge. At 10 weeks it was confirmed that the baby had stopped developing at around 8 weeks gestation and there was no hearbeat. We were crushed. I could only think that there must be no chance of me caring a baby to term, if I were even to get pregnant again at all.

We waited until I had a period after the m/c bleeding had stopped and decided that we didn't want to wait any longer to start TTC again. We found out 3 weeks later that I was pregnant again. And then there was Sheldon.



Sheldon's entrance into this world:
I was induced Thursday March 11th, 2010 overnight via cervidel, morning came and I was still not progressing as they would have liked so they gave me a supository style prostaglandin. By noon I had still not progressed at all, they told me that they were going to send me home. While I was still on the monitors awaiting one last check via my own doctor to take place at 1:30 I started having more regular contracts coming about every 2-3 minutes. When my doc finally got there he told me that I was finally progressing albiet only a little bit from before (I was now 3 cm and 80%). He told me that I didn't have to go home after all, yay! He said that he'd be back in an hour to recheck me, break my water and talk about starting me on pitocin. An hour later the doc came in and I was about 4 cm dilated and fully effaced so he broke my water and told me that if I wanted an epidural that I could have it now and that they'd be in shortly to start the pitocin. Went through several more contractions, coming on more severe now that my water had been broken and finally got my epidural. Immediately following the epidural I was hooked up to the pitocin drip and we proceeded with the routine flipping. When the nurse came back a bit later around 7:30 she flipped me and the baby's heartrate dropped so like 8 people rushed in the room to see what was going on and get me in a better position for the baby and hook me up to oxygen. They were able to find a good position for me to be in again and around 8 the doc came back in to recheck me and unfortunately found me to only have dilated to 5 cm. He told me that he could feel the baby's head and that it was still really high in my pelvis and already feeling swollen from it's descent into the birth canal. The doc left and consulted with a couple other doc's before returning to inform me that we'd have to have a c-section. I was devistated at this news and as everyone, husband included, got ready around me I started to feel sick. They handed me a bucket "in-case" for the ride to the OR. Fortunately I didn't get sick though I was scared out of my mind. They got me on the OR table and set up the curtain and cleaned me up and before I knew it my husband was at my side and I was feeling the movements of all the people around me as they began the surgery. There was no pain but I could feel everything that they were doing on the other side of the curtain and soon I knew that they were pulling the baby out. The doc said "daddy, stand up and tell us if your baby is a girl or a boy". My husband stood up next to my head and looked over the curtain. "It's a boy!" he said. And he leaned down and kissed me and we cried. And a moment later I saw my baby boy in the warmer next to me as they cleaned him up. Then I was knocked out while my husband went to the nursery with our baby and they closed me up. Next thing I know I'm waking up in recovery where my husband soon joined me. I started to really feel the pain coming on as my husband retrieved our baby from the nursery for me to see. I was able to start BFing right then and there, the first time I got to see and hold my little Sheldon. From here on out my life was forever changed.

Elora: the journey starts anew...
Had baby girl on August 3rd, 2011 via c-section. We tried for a VBAC after waking up to contractions at 4:22 a.m. and due to a failure to progress we ended up having to get her out via cesarean. It turns out that baby girl was lodged in my pelvis exactly the same was as Sheldon had been and the doctor has determined that in the future a VBAC is just out of the question because my pelvis is too small. The birth experience this time around was as perfect as it could be. We did everything we were able to do to have a successful VBAC and it just didn't work out. But I'm not disappointed in the least because we tried it. Baby girl was born at 5:30 p.m. weighing in at 8 lb 7.6 oz and was 20 inches long.