She was 10.5 inches and 13.04 ounces of pure perfection.

I am a 36 year old woman who has been overweight all of my life and the extra weight, along with PCOS, resulted in me not ovulating. My husband is 40 years old and has a 17 year old son from his first marriage. In December 2012, I had bariatric weight loss surgery and lost approximately 90 pounds. With this weight loss I started ovulating on my own and we officially started trying to conceive in the spring of 2013.

I started acupuncture and herbs in the late summer of 2013 for fertility and it helped regulate my cycles, but didn't result in a positive pregnancy test (even with two rounds of IUI with my OB). In Summer 2014 I switched acupuncturists and made plans to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist to try a more aggressive round of IUI with their fertility clinic, but I unexpectedly got pregnant on my own the month before.

My first positive pregnancy test was on July 11th 2014, the same day I was supposed to have my consultation with the new RE. YAY! I was able to cancel my appointment. At around 10 weeks I had the Verifi blood screening done and the results came back that I was carrying a HEALTHY baby GIRL! We were so excited. Everything was going great, and my anatomy scan at 19 weeks showed no issues so we finally bought our crib and started more definite plans. We decided to name our little girl Grace Ruth.

Three weeks later and it all went down hill. I ended up in the ER on a Saturday night with pains and spotting. The doctors couldn't detect the contractions on their monitors so they pumped me with fluids thinking maybe they were braxton hicks and sent me home. The next night I ended up back in the ER where the pain was worse and the bleeding was worse. When the On-Call doctor made it in around 3am she found that I was 2cm dilated and immediately contacted a larger hospital near by that had a NICU unit on site and I was transferred by ambulance. By the time I was on site at the new hospital, two hours later, I was fully dilated and they could feel Grace's feet in the birth canal. She was breech.

They prepared us that it was too late to stop the labor and that she was just too early to have any chance at a happy healthy life. They gave me the epidural and my husband and I waited to meet and say goodbye to our first baby together. A couple hours later, and my contractions stopped, and we had no change. Grace's heart was still beating strong and she hadn't moved from where she was at so we started to have a little bit of hope that maybe she'd hold on a little longer to get closer to viability and the possibility that she'd be able to fight in the NICU.

We decided to fight it out and wait try and make it to Thursday, Thanksgiving day, when she'd be 23 weeks gestation and the NICU said she'd have a better chance at survival. After nearly three days in the hospital bed Grace finally got tired of fighting and when they checked for her heartbeat Wednesday afternoon they couldn't find it. I gave birth to me sleeping angel at 5pm on Wednesday November 26th, 2014. She was 10.5 inches and 13.04 ounces of pure perfection.

It was determined that I have an Incompetent Cervix which basically means that my cervix isn't strong enough to hold the weight of a baby so it needs support in the form of a cerclage in any future pregnancies to avoid another 2nd trimester birth. On March 29th, 2015, three days after Grace's due date, we found out we were expecting again. We were so happy! Grace was sending us a rainbow. Unfortunately, this baby was also lost but this time to miscarriage at just under 5 weeks. Instead of us having a child here on earth, Grace needed a playmate in heaven.

We decided that every baby needs a name, and decided on Quinn. We're not sure if it was a boy or a girl, but Quinn is a beautiful name either way. Our babies, Gracie and Quinn, are waiting for us in Heaven, and I can't wait to meet them. Meanwhile here on earth, my husband and I are trying to give them a younger brother or sister in the near future.