Ever since he could talk, Mikey had been asking for a baby brother. After we got married, had him, and bought our first home, all in a year, we thought we had plenty of time to grow our family.
Mikey was a surprise just one month after we got engaged, so we figured the second time would be just as easy.
We started trying when Mikey turned three. But month after month, the pregnancy tests stayed negative. It hurts. Especially when our son, Mikey would ask, Is my baby brother coming soon? He started asking about his brother daily, and we felt broken.
After more than a year of trying, we went to a fertility specialist in the fall of 2016. I had testing and surgery to remove fibroids, and we kept trying.
Then, on Mikey’s 5th birthday, December 9—we got a positive pregnancy test. It was the best birthday gift for all of us. I even joked to my parents that they had need to hang another stocking next year.
A few weeks later, at 11 weeks pregnant, I started bleeding at work. I felt something was not right. An ultrasound confirmed it—we had lost the baby.
The doctor later told us it had been a boy, and that he had a condition called trisomy 13, which wouldn’t have allowed him to survive full-term. We were devastated. Mikey had wanted a little brother so badly, and now he had one—we just could not bring him home.
We decided to sell our house and move to a new area where Mikey would start kindergarten. During the move, we gave away all our baby things. It was too painful to keep them. We told ourselves it might just be the three of us, and that would be okay.
But right after Mikey started kindergarten, I started feeling different—tired and emotional. My pregnancy report result came positive. I learned that I was expecting again.
We were cautiously hopeful. Over the next several weeks, I often bled and constantly feared the worst. But each appointment showed a strong heartbeat.
At 18 weeks, we found out it was another boy. But he was measuring small. A few weeks later, things became serious; doctors diagnosed him with severe growth restriction and warned us he might not survive. I was admitted to the hospital at 26 weeks and stayed there under close monitoring.
At just under 31 weeks, doctors said he needed to be delivered. Jake Eric was born on March 6, weighing just 1 lb 12 oz. He was tiny, but he was a fighter.
Mikey finally got to meet his baby brother and even got to do skin-to-skin with him, a moment i will never forget.
Jake spent 62 days in the NICU. Now, every morning, our boys snuggle together in bed. Their bond is everything. Mikey was meant to be Jake’s big brother, and Jake was meant to be his.
