Super Mom Place

Shirley Rempel
She has been a mom blogger for over a year. She does product and book reviews that pertain to moms, kids and parenting in general She also focus on Christian books and products as well. She is a mom of two children, both girls, ages 3 and 16 mths. She is a working mom/mompreneurs she run a home daycare, she has been married for 12 years and she is 4 year cancer survivor
You can read her blog @
A Mom After God’s Own Heart
I personally love her blog because you can always find some words of encouragement.

She is this week featured supermom read her story below. Enjoy!

My Story
by Shirley Rempel

When my husband and I were married 12 years we dreamed of having a large family, just as we grew up with. I am the oldest of 4 and he is the youngest of 8, so we thought four children was the perfect number.

However, we were not in the financial position to start a family right away, and so waited four years before deciding the time was right. This was 2001. We knew that after being on the birth control pill, conceiving could sometimes take a while, so we were not too concerned when after a year and a half, we still were not pregnant.

However, when we still had not gotten pregnant by the summer of 2003 we decided to seek professional help. I saw my doctor that summer and she said that she would not refer me to a specialist until we had been “officially” (under her care) trying for a year.

So back to it we went. LOL….finally in the spring/summer of 2004 I was still not pregnant. We were referred to a fertility specialist and it was discovered I had Poly cystic Ovary Syndrome, and it would be almost impossible to conceive. We were devastated, but because of our faith in God, we knew that His will would be done in this situation.

We decided to go forward with initial testing to rule out any other physical problems relating to infertility. But in the spring of 2005 I discovered a small lesion on my vulva. All my doctor said when he looked at it was, “I am sending you for a biopsy”. Those words would change my life forever. On April 26, 2005 I had a biopsy done on my left vulva and on May 16, 2005 I was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer of the left vulva.

I could not believe what was happening. I was only 32 years of age, married to my college sweetheart and looking forward to the rest of our lives together, with or without children. So in June 2005 I had successful surgery to remove the cancer. Because God’s hand of healing was on me, I needed no further treatment (no chemo or radiation was necessary). We were so grateful to God for His healing.

About six months after surgery, we decided that we would continue our discussions with the fertility specialist. However he was out of the country for a couple of months. We booked an appointment with him in March of 2006 to do blood work. When we went back in April 2006, we did not realize we had already become pregnant the month before (on our own – no medical intervention required).

At the appointment, we were told all blood work was normal, and set up a consult for discussion regarding IVF. That was April 17, 2006. That night after work, I told my husband that I had not been feeling good, like I had really bad PMS. Prior to getting cancer, my cycles had been super irregular, but since surgery, I was a totally different person in that regard. He said, “do you think you’re pregnant?”. I wasn’t sure, but did not want to be disappointed once again. However, we picked up two tests and that night we were pleasantly surprised to discover I was indeed pregnant.

That night we went to my family’s house to announce the news….they were so surprised but soooo happy for us. The next day I phoned the doctor to set up an appointment. We saw him (the fertility specialist) about two weeks later and he did an ultrasound. I was 10 weeks pregnant and baby was great!!!! We were due to have baby December 13, 2006

The pregnancy continued fine through the summer, however my blood sugars were high and in Sept 2006 I was told I had gestational diabetes. I was told to watch my sugar intake and the next month I was to see an Diabetes specialist to see if I needed to be put on insulin for the remainder of the pregnancy.

On Oct 1, 2006 I began to experience terrible headaches and for two days I treated myself with Tylenol, which did nothing to subside the pain for very long. On Tuesday, October 3, I decided to call in sick and was going to head to my doctor later that day to see if I had a sinus infection or something. When I woke up around 9AM I felt the urge to use the washroom. At that time I discovered I was bleeding. I was terrified. We had wait so long for this little miracle and now something was wrong. I immediately called my husband at work and he rushed home to take me to the hospital. I was 29 weeks, 6 days pregnant.

It was discovered that I had a partial placental abruption and the baby needed to be delivered ASAP. I had an emergency c-section and by 2:02PM by daughter, Makayla Rose was born. She weighed 4lb 3.5oz and was born 10weeks and 1 day early. She spent 8 weeks in NICU. That was the scariest time of my life, but God was faithful and she had absolutely no issues. All she needed to do was eat and grow. Of course she was monitored for apnea and bradi’s for a few weeks, and she dropped down to 3lb 7oz initially. But she was a trooper. Makayla is now three years old and weighs 38lb and is 40inches tall. Nothing preemie about her. She has no issues and we have not corrected her age since she was 6 months old.

After she came home on December 1, 2006 we decided that when she was a year old we would start to try to have another child. This was because we knew it had taken 4.5 years to get pregnant the first time, and I was already 33 years old, and did not want to much older than that. Too many other risks involved.

We knew that it would be a high risk pregnancy, but knew that if it was meant to be God would allow another miracle to occur. In Sept. 2007 we started trying and were shocked to find out in December 2007 we were approximately 9 weeks pregnant!!!! Due to have baby on August 4, 2008. My dates said July 4, so we figured sometime in July baby would be born.

Again the pregnancy started out fine. I had about 6 weeks of morning sickness (only nausea, no throwing up), bad heart burn and the normal pregnancy stuff like leg cramps. However in April 2008 I had been experiencing really bad stomach pain at work, and after a visit to the emergency room I was admitted and discovered to have way high blood sugar. I was immediately put on insulin, due to prior issues. I spent 4 days in the hospital and for the remainder of the pregnancy I took insulin four times a day.
From May on, I was having ultrasounds and non-stress tests done bi-weekly and we happily discovered that we were having another daughter.

I went off work at the end of May due to the discovery of gall stones. I was in so much pain due to gall bladder attacks I had weekly Demerol shots.

We had a scheduled c-section planned for July 18, 2008. On July 14, I was having a lot of discomfort and pain. However, the pain seemed to be coming hourly – and since I did not know what labor felt like, I just figured I was having gallbladder attacks. Little did I know:) After a visit to the hospital, it was discovered at 6pm that I was indeed contracting regularly and actually 2cm dilated. The doctor on call had me monitored for a couple of hours to see if I would progress. As they did not want me delivering naturally, due to prior abruption, I was monitored very carefully. At 9pm I was 4cm and they prepped me for a emergency c-section. Isabella Grace was born at 10:50PM and weighed 8lb and 20.25inches long.

I love being a mom and so much wanted to be home with my girls. Here in Canada, moms get one year of maternity leave. During my time off, the daycare center I was working for was sold and I decided I did not want to go back there.

My husband and I decided that we would be fine on one income so I would stay home. However, I still wanted to contribute financially. More to help us “get ahead”, pay off debt, etc. I started a home daycare. I watch 3 children plus of course my two girls. I love being able to provide care for children and help teach them all kinds of fun things. Not only do I get to stay home but I get to do what I love. Educate children. I have been working in the field of early childhood education for 11 years now and what an awesome job.

The joy I see on the faces of children, whether my own or others, when they learn something new is the best! I know that the first five years is the most important and I am so glad that I am able to provide such education and care to others around my community.

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