I often read these birth stories and promised to myself I would add mine as well. I will include a little background into. We had our precious bundle on 3/19/19. I found out I was pregnant with her at almost 20 weeks. I was 44 and my other two children were 20 and 14. I had been operating as though I was going thru menopause.

I had a stroke 2 years ago and suffered from high blood pressure. Thankfully I had no residual effects. I gained back full use of my verbal and hand skills. Last year I had skin cancer and had a skin graft. I recovered from that 100%. I changed my lifestyle and made choices that would help keep me here for my kids. I was very healthy when I learned I was pregnant but they were concerned about arterial damage that could have affected my placenta. My placenta stayed completely undamaged the entire pregnancy!

At around 20 weeks along I was still unaware I was pregnant. I was holding my friends baby and she cried and my breast started hurting. That night in bed I felt a ball in my stomach and i popped up quickly out of bed and told my husband I think I needed a pregnancy test. He responded sarcastically to go to sleep, gave me a hug and chuckled. Keep in mind in our entire 20+ years I have asked for 2 pregnancy tests. We have two children. Looking back I am not sure why he didn’t or I didn’t cue in quicker! The next morning, I let him know I was leaving to get the test. The test came back positive. But not a super dark line. It was about half as dark as the control line. I googled and sure enough something came up in search “menopause false positive pregnancy”. I was able to get in that day to an ultrasound and he confirmed we were pregnant! I looked at the tech and asked “with a baby?” He smiled and said yes. I teared up and asked if it was still alive. He congratulated us and confirmed yes! Every fear rushed over me! Could I do this at my age, could this baby be healthy, could we handle this? I was so overcome with worry when my husband popped out “is there two?” We all just looked over at him but from that point forward, I felt like if my husband could be so thrilled he hoped for more than one, I could do one more.

Because of my health issues I did have gestational diabetes we controlled with Metformin for a few weeks and diet the entire pregnancy. I had high blood pressure issues again that I controlled with the medicine and daily long walks. Because of my previous health issues and risk for stroke, and to the baby as well it was recommended that she be born via csection so I didn’t fight for vbac. I felt confident they were correct in that determination.

I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy after that up until 36 weeks. I had blood pressure issues the weekend prior to her c section. My doctor had my lay down over the weekend and send her updates and asked me to come to her office on Tuesday 3/19/19. When I got there she did the ultrasound and said meet me back at the hospital at 6pm we are having the baby today. I was so shocked and asked could we please schedule it for the next day that I wanted to feel more prepared and she asserted that “no today I feel better about her coming out” that was all I needed to hear I got home told my husband and we prepared for her birth!

During the csection I was so nervous and at one point all the surgeons, etc stopped and stared wide eyed at my belly and then laughed. They asked could I feel it. My husband panicked so I asked “was it contractions?” Turns out, my little one must have either seen light for the first time or realized she wasn’t alone and bounced flipped, kicked, and had a full fit. My stomach bounced all over! We had a good laugh about that! I forgot to add we are retired now and living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She will be a

Citizen of the US but also proudly is a Mexican National. They were VERY excited to see all her light-ish hair and blue eyes. They came to see my baby often to see her eyes so it must be pretty rare for the people who live here.

Day 5 I am feeling a whole lot better. I can move around better and not as sore. This csection was a little more painful than my last probably due to my age. The scar my husband is amazed looks much better and it was pretty good the first time!

Our princess is Scarlett Jean she was 5lb 8 oz and 19 inches long at 36 weeks 3 days.I

My kids waiting for us to return from surgery 😂

Day 4 we are home!

I am still so amazed I was able to make this prefect healthy little girl. She truly is a miracle to me.