A year before Hayes was conceived I found out I had a pretty messed up thyroid which led to many doctors appointments, lots of different medicine and eventually being told that it would be extremely hard for me to ever get pregnant again. I, however, knew that there was one more little spirit that needed to come to our home so I was determined to do everything in my power to make that happen.
I started seeing Dr. Vance who is an endocrinologist and he also told me I was pre diabetic and needed to make some diet changes which would also help the thyroid issues. I was pretty determined to become healthy again and within three months of changing my diet, taking my medication faithfully, and lots of exercise I had lost just over 20 pounds and felt great. One more trip to the doctor revealed that I had succeeded so well that my numbers were great and I would be extremely fertile! I had never felt so much personal success in all my life. After a few more months of continued success we decided it was time to start thinking of baby number four. I conceived the first month and this is a picture of the day I found out I was pregnant. Weston was out of town and I had taken the kids swimming with my family. That evening I took a positive pregnancy test was was elated!
We told the kids a few month later with a fun scavenger hun that ended with ultrasound pictures. Hagen was clueless but the other two were so excited!
I had to throw these last two pictures in because they are the only pregnant pictures I have. I was able to maintain a pretty good weight and with careful diet didn't gain too many extra pounds. We went on a fun campout at the end of August to Kilgore and went on a nice hike. I carried Hagen most of the way down and did ok. I felt really pretty good, regardless of my large belly!
