John Aaron Quintero, Born into Heaven 4/7/09

Last Tuesday (4/7), I lost my baby. I was 17 weeks along. I found out today that it was a little boy. We have three other children, all who had normal and healthy pregnancies. My eldest, 9, is a boy and he's followed by two sisters (7 and 20 months). We had hoped for another boy to even out the teams.

I had a funny feeling that things weren't quite right with this one, though I had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks that showed a strong heartbeat. At 13 weeks, though the nurse had difficulty locating it, the doc found the heartbeat. I was to have an ultrasound last Friday and was hoping to find out if it was a boy or a girl.

Monday we were on Spring Break and I cleaned up the pool area. I started cramping that night and thought I had just overdone it with the cleaning. The cramping continued and woke me at 2:30 with bleeding.

I went to the local ER where they did labwork and an ultrasound. My HCG levels came back at 200... which meant they had dropped to "newly" pregnant levels. I went home, called the doc's office and they scheduled an appointment for 2:30pm. My friend took my other children to her house and we both thought I could lay down until I had to go to the doc.

Just after she left, I went to take some pain medicine and change myself. I went to use the restroom and baby started coming. My husband and I rushed to the doctor's office where they sent me by ambulance to the hospital.

I don't know where time went, but when I saw my doc, it was already 2:30pm. She delivered the baby and then decided that it was in my best interest to go to the OR, be put under, and have a D&C to make sure the placenta was completely gone.

Because of the holiday, I've had to wait until today to find out anything. The doc says she couldn't see any abnormalities, any obvious reason for me to have misscarried. She also said that the baby was a boy.

I've had a rough time this week, especially today. I'm a teacher and took the week off. I'm feeling better physically, but emotionally, I am just a wreck. Thank goodness for my other children because they are keeping me busy around the house. I've not sat still too long because that just gives me too much time to think about what we have lost.

I'm trying to think of ways to help the family memorialize the baby. I have been wanting to plant a butterfly garden for some time now.

Maybe now is the time.