From the day that Keiffer and I met we have agreed on more things than can be counted, but one of the most important issues was that of how many children we want to have. It started off with both of us being certain that we want three children, but that number somehow turned into a definite 4. I grew up in a large family of 5 and Keiffer in a small one of just his sister and him. My desire to have a large family stems from coming from one, and knowing the joys of having big Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and Fourth of July celebrations! Although having a lot of siblings brings with it rivalries and feuds, now that I am grown I realize that if all of my friends were to abandon me, or I moved across the world where no one knows me, I will always have my parents and siblings who know and love me to be there for me.
Keiffer grew up having one sister and somewhat of a dysfunctional childhood. Don’t we all have some sort of dysfunction when you think about it? He tells me that he wants to be the kind of father his never was, and thinks that children need siblings to teach them many life lessons that are advantageous to their successful development and socialism. A child growing up as an only child obviously gets their parent’s undivided attention. Play dates can help that child to learn how to share, how to be social, and how to take turns, but by no means in the way having a sibling can.
As both of us have had the desire to have a large family of our own, never so has the desire been stronger than after building our faith in what we believe is the true reason why we are on this earth experiencing life. Knowing that we knew God before we came to earth, and there are spirits waiting to receive bodies of flesh to experience life here with us, we can’t help but want to share that blessing with as many children as we are capable of supporting. We have been blessed beyond description with our two daughters Calista and Bridget, and are desirous to give them another sibling as soon as the Lord will grant us.
Keiffer and I are very analytical, type A personalities. We see a task, and we get to work on it. No messing around or beating around the bush! When we first decided to try to get pregnant with Calista I first went off the pill and started taking ovulation predictor tests. I realized a few things in doing this. First, I have a very regular cycle of 30 days and second, I can feel when I am ovulating around day 14 of my cycle. The following month we gave it a go but failed to get pregnant. I really wasn’t expecting to get pregnant since everything I read said it usually takes your body two months after stopping taking the pill that you will start ovulating again. The next month was the third month of “trying”, but our first real month of feeling like we had a good shot of it working since I was out of the two month post-birth control window. To our surprise I was pregnant!
The day that Calista was born I said what most women who have been pregnant will think I’m crazy for saying. I said, “I miss being pregnant”. Mind you, this was within hours of giving birth to Calista! There is just something so comforting about having your baby safe and sound inside of you. Providing nourishment and the perfect environment for your new baby to come into this world is one of the best feelings anyone could have. Right away Keiffer and I started planning getting pregnant again. We agreed that we would wait until Calista was 6 months, and then we would try. As Calista reached 5 months, I was getting anxious to get pregnant again. I know it seems so crazy, but I just had it set in my mind that I wanted to have four kids and I wanted them all close in age. I started weaning Calista off of breast milk in hopes that it would help me to ovulate since breast feeding 100% usually has a better rate of preventing pregnancy than birth control. We were visiting Keiffer’s family in Florida when Calista turned 6 months, and to our surprise, it turns out that I was already pregnant! I conceived just a few weeks prior, so we were astounded that everything worked out in such a timely way!
After giving birth to Bridget, I developed some severe spinal pain in my mid back. I struggled with it going to chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, general practitioners and 3 orthopedic surgeons! All in hopes that someone could help me and tell me what specifically was wrong with me. The result? Nothing! Well, I shouldn’t say nothing. They told me that I have a slight bulging disk, but it isn’t even in the spot that hurts, and the spot where it does hurt is acute pain! The reason I say all of this is that my idea was to wait a little longer to get pregnant to see if my back could start feeling better. Either that or I would get a diagnosis that would tell me I needed surgery or something that I could get and recover from before trying to carry around another huge belly! What was my conclusion after a year of back pain, and little relief? The pain is always going to be there and I am not going to put off my family planning because if it. Yes, any future pregnancy I am sure to have horrific back pain, multiple visits to the chiropractor and massage therapist, and annoying daily complaining. At least it will all be worth it in the end.
Keiffer was scheduled to deploy for 8 months beginning July 23rd, and we did much going back and forth about whether we should try to get pregnant before he left or whether we should wait until he got back in March of 2011. If I got pregnant before he left, he would be gone most of my pregnancy, which would be fine, except that as I got bigger, it may be tough to juggle getting around with Calista and Bridget and doing everyday tasks like giving them baths. He was deployed during my pregnancy with Calista, and I actually preferred it. It was just a little weird having our reunion after not having seen each other in 6 months, and him coming off the airplane to see me 45 pounds heavier! If we waited until he came back from deployment then we would be more financially ready, and he would be around my entire pregnancy to help with the girls. I took everything into consideration, and decided that I wanted to try to get pregnant before he left.
At the end of June, Keiffer had to go to Fallon Nevada for 4 weeks. At this point I hadn’t gotten my first period , but I decided to see if I was ovulating by taking ovulation predictor tests. The very firsts test I took said I was ovulating, so I called up Keiffer and we discussed that this may be our only shot of getting pregnant prior to his deploying the next month, so we should probably meet up somewhere to do the deed! I got a babysitter and drove 4 hours to meet up with Keiffer somewhere in the desert. He had to drive 5 hours to meet up with me, and we stayed at a Best Western for one night. It was pretty exciting and felt like we were having a secret love affair. What is really funny is I forgot my wallet at home, and when I went to check in, Keiffer hadn’t arrived yet, and I told them that he was my husband and they needed to give me a key to the room. I also was not wearing my wedding ring because of a rash I developed under the band that worsened every time I put it on! The women at the desk were very skeptical and it totally appeared that we were secret lovers meeting up for a forbidden romp! After calling Keiffer and verifying that I was in fact his wife, they gave me the key to go to the room before he arrived with his credit card.
Every day the next week my ovulation tests said I was ovulating. I called the consumer help line and they said that I am not supposed to take the tests if I have not yet had a period, and the results will be inaccurate! Next thing you know, Mid July I get my period. It was a bummer, but at least we have our rendezvous to always remember!
Unfortunately, by my getting my period mid July and Keiffer leaving for deployment at the end of the month, there was going to be a very minute chance of my getting pregnant. We tried anyways, but with very little faith that it would happen. It was a good thing we didn’t get our hopes up because I didn’t get pregnant. I got my period the next month. The good news was that Keiffer and I were both surprised when a change of plans for the USS Lincoln arose and they decided to come back home for four weeks before heading over to the Middle East. The timing was going to be perfect for trying to get pregnant. The only hiccup in our plan was that my mom was in town visiting for three weeks of the 4 he would be home, so we were going to have to keep our actions on the down low! Hey, like I said before, we are Type A people who when we get our minds set on something, we make it happen. We didn’t mess around and can honestly say that we gave it more than a good shot!
Keiffer is deployed now and it has been a few weeks since I ovulated. I took a pregnancy test the day before Keiffer left just to see, and it was negative. I knew it would be because it was too early, but thought I’d do it just for the heck of it. I started feeling really queezy everyday after, and hoped that the feelings I was experiencing were those of early pregnancy. Being the ever-so-anxious woman that I am, I decided to take another test on August 15th and it again was negative. I was pretty disappointed because I was expecting my period to come on the 18th, and if what the pregnancy tests say are true, it should be able to detect pregnancy 4 days before my missed period. Yes, it says that only about 54% of pregnant women will see a positive result, but I was hopeful since I wasn’t feeling well. Keiffer and I get to email everyday, so I let him know and he was pretty bummed out. He was really excited about adding to our family, and said that he wasn’t going to rule out my being pregnant until I actually got my period.
I have to digress for a moment and note that while we were trying to get pregnant prior to his deploying, we both were faithfully praying that the Lord would bless us with another child. We prayed together and told the Lord that we are ready to receive another child if it be His will. That we will be amazing and loving parents and that if there is a spirit waiting up there, that we want it. I prayed night and day that this would happen for us, and so did Keiffer. We knew that whatever happened it is His will and He knows if we are ready or not.
The 16th came, then the 17th and no period! I didn’t get too excited because it still wasn’t the 18th, and that was when I was expecting my period. I emailed Keiffer on the evening of the 18th and told him that I still hadn’t gotten my period, but that I didn’t want him to get excited because I really didn’t think I was pregnant. I had been feeling nauseous sure, but for the past two days I was developing pms symptoms including being short, moody and I just had that feeling like at any moment I would start my period.
That evening I went to bed, and the strangest thing happened. I was in a state of being between sleep and awake and my mind kept telling me that I was pregnant. I started thanking God for blessing me, and started imagining my new baby. Is she a girl, or a boy? What will we name her? Where will we put the crib? Should I make the guest room into a baby room, or should we convert part of our bedroom to a nursery and still keep the spare room for guests? I got an overwhelming feeling that the Lord was telling me, “Laura you are ready and you ARE pregnant”. When I woke up I hopped on the computer and quickly emailed Keiffer telling him about my dreams and how I think I’m pregnant! I went to church and the entire three hours felt the Spirit surrounding me. It was so bizarre! I felt this overwhelming feeling of love and protection. When I got home from church I checked my email and there was one from Keiffer. He told me that last night at about 1am he said a prayer asking for me to be pregnant. He said, ““If it be thy will, Laura and I are ready to have another baby.” This was strange because this was around the time that I was having all of these dreams. Perhaps it was God telling me that He has granted our wish, and wanted to let me know!
That evening I really wanted to go buy a pregnancy test, but I didn’t want to break the Sabbath. I tried to justify it in my mind, but thought that if I do go buy a test and it turns out being negative, I would blame it on breaking the Sabbath Anyhow, I decided to wait and I emailed Keiffer that I would probably wake up and go straight to the drug store to pick up a test and take it. The next morning, which is today September 20th, 2010, I took two pregnancy tests and they were both instantly positive! I was so excited, but really was just going through the motions without it really sinking in. I emailed Keiffer first thing but didn’t hear back from him until later in the afternoon. Ironically, I had a gynecologist appointment that I had scheduled two months ago today at 1:45pm! How strange is it that the one day that I find out I’m pregnant I already have a gynecologist visit set up?! We scheduled my first obstetrics visit for when I am eight weeks along, but until then, I just hang out, eat good, exercise and take it easy.
I got an email from Keiffer at around 4:00pm saying that he is so excited and we have a LOT of planning to do! He is going to call me later so we can talk about it over the phone, but we both are beyond elated and thank the lord for answering our prayers. Our new prayer is that I will have a healthy and happy pregnancy.
