By Shannon Bauer 
It’s ironic to me that this month’s story I’m writing about my pregnancy and delivery during Jayden’s birthday month! I loved being pregnant! Every part of it to be exact. Pregnancy is a beautiful miracle that many women do not ever get to experience and one that should not be taken for granted or complained about. Don’t get me wrong I am fully aware that it is not an easy task to grow another human inside of us. It can be very trying at times. I was fortunate enough to not have to experience morning sickness, but I was one of the lucky ones who gained more weight than I care to mention, had swelling so bad I couldn’t wear any shoe comfortably, and spent the end of my pregnancy on bed rest because my blood pressure was so high. It wasn’t all perfect and beautiful. I didn’t always feel like a million dollars, or look like the glowing pregnant women featured in all of the pregnancy magazines, but I was so thrilled that God finally gave me the chance to experience it so there was simply no way I could complain.
Our first ultrasound was about eight weeks into the pregnancy, and not only were we looking for one healthy heartbeat, we were also looking to see how many heartbeats there were. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. Jeff on the other hand was a nervous wreck. When we looked at the monitor I was certain we would see three little ones, but to our surprise there was only one. Jeff was relieved. I was disappointed. I was secretly hoping for all three. My perfect little family I had always pictured in my mind included three children. After what it took to get pregnant I knew this was probably my only opportunity for three children. It took me a little while to accept that I was only having one baby. I was happy and sad at the same time. I didn’t understand God’s plan, which trust me wasn’t the first or the last time along this infertility journey that I didn’t understand or question it. It didn’t take long for me to get over it, or should I say snap out of it and realize that I was so incredibly blessed to be pregnant at all.
We had a major scare early in my pregnancy when I started spotting. I was absolutely terrified that everything we had ever wanted was going to end right there on Father’s Day of all days. Of course I called my doctor and they told me to relax, rest, and come in first thing in the morning. Relax and rest?!?! – yeah right! I pleaded with God all day to not take this baby away from us. It was hardly a relaxing or restful day. The next morning I cried with relief when we heard that little heartbeat pounding away.
We decided to find out the sex of our baby. I didn’t want to know, but Jeff did. He told me that he had had enough surprises throughout this entire ordeal and just wanted to know. I couldn’t argue with that. We found out we were having a boy! I can still picture the smile on Jeff’s face when the doctor told us! He was beaming! I will admit that when I heard “a boy” I immediately was nervous. I grew up in a family of all girls and had no idea about boy things. I remember calling my mom and telling her that I couldn’t raise a boy and going over all of my fears about boys with her. She did what mom’s do best, listened and reassured me that I would do just fine with this boy.
The rest of my pregnancy was supposed to be uneventful, but at around 20 weeks I started swelling like a balloon and my blood pressure started to rise. Jayden wasn’t supposed to arrive until January 17th, but after being on bed rest for several weeks and still having increased swelling and blood pressure my doctor had to induce me on Christmas. I was not thrilled with this idea at all. A baby on Christmas???? All I could think about was how that would be for him as he grew up having his birthday around Christmas, and I didn’t like it. But, it seemed I had no choice in the matter.
Late Christmas night we traveled to the hospital for my induction. We were both very quiet on the drive down, I think because we were both so nervous about what was going to be happening very soon. Seventeen hours later we heard the joyous cry of our son, Jayden Jeffrey Bauer. There are simply not enough words to describe the happiness and love that we felt the first time we laid eyes on him. He was and still is the best Christmas present we have ever received! I quickly realized and still do every year that the fact that his birthday is December 26th is just a testament to what a miracle he really is and actually a very cool part about this story.
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