Please Welcome, My Sister

I have a very special announcement to make, my very own sister has recently joined our blogging community! Like me, and all of you, she has some form of infertility. We know she at least has PCOS, and possibly also has endo. Like so many of you with PCOS, she has the completely irregular cycles and maybe sees AF darken her doorstep a half dozen or so times a year. Thankfully, like some of us, she was able to overcome her infertility and conceive. But again, like some of us, that did not always result in a living baby.

My sister had her first baby in 2000 after battling gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. My niecie was born a few weeks early after my sister had been induced to prevent her pre-eclampsia from getting out of control.

In 2004 she got pregnant again, but the pregnancy was tumultuous from the get-go. Her first scan revealed an abnormality with the sac, and things just spiraled from there. My second niece was born at 24 weeks gestation because my sister's pre-eclampsia was so bad it was threatening her life, and the baby had begun to decline. My sweet baby niece lived for three days.

Like any mother who has lost a baby, my sister went into a very dark place for a long time. But like me, she chose to find the positive in her heartbreaking experience and use it to help educate and uplift others. As she pulled herself from her depression she found a hobby that brought her joy, and she started to make jewelry. She took that hobby and has turned it into a full-blown business, named affectionately after her second child, Kelsi. She now sells her jewelry on the Internet at her site named Kelsi's Closet Jewelbox. She also created a pendant that is used to represent the Pre-Eclampsia Foundation.

When Kelsi was born, doctors told my sister that she should not try to have any more children, that to do so was extremely risky. Well, both she and I are really stubborn when it comes to building our families and being told "no more." She told her doctors they could either help her, or she would do it without them.

In 2005, she did the usual three months of chlomid, and on the third month she got pregnant. Then began what should have been a beautiful pregnancy, but fraught by the scars of her last pregnancy, she never got her hopes up that it would result in a live baby, and never got attached to the child growing in her womb. Her pregnancy was monitored very closely, and she had to give herself lovinox shots daily to keep her baby girl growing. Thankfully, things went smoothly, and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl in 2006.

Since that time her cycles have gone back to being irregular. She had thought off and on about adding to her family, but knowing what she would have to go through should she get pregnant again, she ultimately decided against it. She didn't feel she was up for the emotional turmoil of another high risk pregnancy.

A couple of weeks before my surgery, I had a dream she had just given birth to a baby boy. I called her and asked her if she was pregnant. She laughed and told me no. Then we got to talking about how since my last niece was born, they had not been using any kind of protection against pregnancy, and how it was amazing she hadn't gotten pregnant.

Last week she called me, she's pregnant.

She was completely shocked, and understandably, not sure if she was ready for this. If I had gone through the hell she did with her last two pregnancies, I would be scared too! At my urging, she has created a blog to chronicle her journey through what will be another high risk pregnancy. I told her how much I love all of my bloggy friends and our blogosphere. If she wants love, support, and encouragement, this is the place to be!

Please hop on over to her new blog and give her a little loving. She certainly needs it as she tries to process what lies ahead of her.

Thanks friends!