Babies!!!!

Well, if you've been following me for a while, you may remember my post about only having two kids. True, having two littles running around can be exhausting and frustrating, but lately Levi and I have both been wanting more kids. Amidst the chaos and screaming there is so much joy we get from them! We're actually both a little baby hungry again ;) You may be thinking, "Wait! What?? I thought it was dangerous for you to get pregnant again!!" That's what I thought. That's what I was lead to believe.

First and foremost, I absolutely loved having Dr. Jacobs as my provider when I was pregnant with Via. He was great. I felt like he took care of me very well and I was very excited he was on call when I went into labor with her. He took great care of me after I had her, too. He was great. But he is young. And I think I scare him. One thing I definitely learned from working at the clinic is no two providers are the same. They still all have different opinions and techniques (is that the right word? Does that make sense??)

Anyway, I approached Dr. Jacobs one day during my internship about a procedure he had brought up briefly. I have a septum, or wall, in my uterus that most likely caused the preterm labor. He had talked about it being removed. I wanted to know what kind of surgery it was, maybe how much it would cost, was it an office or hospital procedure? When I started asking about he replied with, "Don't tell me you're thinking of having more kids. You're high-risk. I don't like high-risk." It hurt my feelings.

After that I had been thinking of getting a second opinion on the matter. My insurance kicked in this month, so I met with another one of the doctors. If the door really was closed, I just needed to hear it from someone else as well. "By the witness of two" kind of thing. So that's what I did.

I met with Dr. Cox, went over my history with him (all of it), my husband drew a great picture of my uterus (since he saw it during V's c-section), and he also suggested that we take out the septum, but was extremely optimistic about me having more kids! He explained the procedure to me, one of his nurses actually looked up how much it would cost, it would be a same-day surgery in the hospital, and I could have more babies shortly after! While we were talking, he said he'd get me set up for the surgery now and I could be pregnant in 6-8 weeks! Whoa! Unfortunately, we don't have the money for all of that right now, but we do have a plan. I will get to that.

Right after our consultation, Dr. Cox had a meeting with the clinic partners. He presented my case (anonymously, of course) to two others in our clinic, heart issues and all. They both agreed with Dr. Cox :) When I talked to him later, he didn't even sound too concerned about me having more before the septum excision, but of course a septum excision first would be safest. And the least expensive in the long run if we ended up with another NICU baby. $70,000 for a preemie (assuming we would make it to at least 35 wks again) or $4,000ish for the surgery. Yeah, going with surgery.

So, the plan: Next year's tax returns will go toward surgery and our insurance deductible, and we plan to start trying again soon after that. Hopefully by March of next year. Sadly, we are paying off credit cards with this year's return, or else we would jump on it now. No more credit card debt for us, though!  And hopefully two more babies in our future!