It’s a boy!

Lauren, Maddie, and I are super excited to announce that we’ll be adding a plus one to our family in early 2019.

By now, it’s no secret that Lauren and I are expecting our second child to join our family in March 2019. We’re all so excited about our plus one. Maddie is going to have a sibling to play and grow with. Lauren and I will get to experience raising and nurturing a tiny human again. We’re looking forward to shaping them into a beautiful unique perfect little person one more time. We’re so excited to be on this journey again.

How’d I make the image?

Check out this fancy diagram.

Also, a 2 second time was used on camera because my release cable broke… 10pin became 9. I was sad.

Our journey wasn’t an easy one.

Madelyn Elizabeth is our first. We were really lucky with her. We got pregnant right away, and other than low progesterone levels early on, we had a stress-free pregnancy with our baby girl. Once we decided it was time to add to our family, we didn’t experience the same luck.

2017 – an emotional journey

This was a hell of a year for our family. To sum it up, we were pregnant the entire year. Four times to be exact. And We had four straight miscarriages. Four…

#1

The first one was an early miscarriage, only a few weeks in. Although sad, we knew this happened, so we tried again.

#2

Shortly after the first miscarriage, we got pregnant. Things were looking good! All her levels were high and ultrasounds showed normal signs of growth, at least until 6 weeks in. At our second to last ultrasound we learned, we had what’s called a ‘blighted ovum’. Long story short, a blighted ovum is where everything’s growing like a normal pregnancy except there isn’t a fetus inside the womb. These are rare, but again, they do happen. So although sad, we did what we had to do and we moved on.

#3

This was similar to the first where we were a few weeks in and things didn’t work out. Outside of the familiar feeling of sadness, we started to question what’s going on? Is something wrong with either of us? Can we fix it? Can we have a successful pregnancy again? What gives?

#4

Although we were both past our breaking points both mentally and emotionally, we decided to try again.  We got pregnant! This was the first time since Maddie that we’d gone this far. All levels were great and our nuggets heartbeat was strong. We were almost out of the first trimester and so excited to see our little nugget for our 9-week ultrasound.

We didn’t’ expect to see what we saw. Our excitement quickly turned from fear to despair as we saw there were no signs of life. This was the most pain we’d both felt on any level we’d ever experienced to date. It was our fourth miscarriage in a little over a year. We learned later that had things gone well, Maddie would’ve had a baby sister. I still get emotional thinking about it.

Enter #5

We decided to give it one more try before calling it. We’re glad we did to0! In 2019 our family is going to grow by one. We persevered through the heartbreak and we’re currently pregnant with a healthy baby boy. His name’s going to be Oliver Michael Roth.

We’re not totally out of the woods as we’re having to closely monitor a hematoma over Laurens cervix. This is scary and there’s nothing we can do about it other than be careful, pray and wait.

So, here’s to March of 2019 and baby Oliver.

Stay healthy, stay safe, and keep growing little guy. Mommy, Daddy, and Maddie can’t wait to introduce you to our world.