The stunning Shannon Dicely and daughter Makayla (2). Shannon and her husband weren't able to conceive right away and she wasn't ready to go to the doctor yet and instead began to use at home ovulation strips to track her ovulation. Her cycles were going from 17 days to 72 days so she wanted to see what was happening and after 10 years on birth control knew it may take some time and wanted to be sure. She says it eventually lead to a big fight with her husband and she agreed to stop tracking her ovulation so heavily and set a goal for when they would seek a medical opinion.
They were getting ready to go out of town and Shannon knew she would be drinking while they were away, so she took a pregnancy test prior to leaving that much to her surprise, was positive. Her husband was home sick that day and mustered as much excitement as he could while throwing up - she jokes that he was the one with morning sickness. Her pregnancy went well and she loved every bit of it. Shannon says she's pretty Type A but wanted to leave her birth plans open ended so she could go with the flow if needed.
Shannon's water broke on her due date and she went into the hospital after stopping to eat. Active labor hadn't quite started when they'd arrived but she was so excited she walked the halls all evening trying to get things ramped up. She was able to get some rest the next morning and they were giving her clear liquids but she woke up that evening hungry and learned for the first time she wan't allowed to eat. The doctor agreed to let her have a meal that evening and they began induction the following day. After the Cyotec didn't work, she had an epidural and ultimately delivered via cesarean.
Shannon felt bullied into allowing them to take Makayla to the nursery and they were bringing her in every three hours to nurse. She was an hour late to one feed and Shannon called to see where her baby was. She was told that Makayla was being taken to NICU for risk of infection and had to be on antibiotics while they waited for her cultures to come back. The cultures came back negative so Shannon was able to bring her home three days later.
Makayla had latched as soon as Shannon was able to hold her and they had a wonderful breastfeeding relationship until Makayla quit cold turkey at 15 months. Shannon says that she felt like a failure after her delivery and breastfeeding really allowed her to reclaim some confidence in her body. She would have loved to continue longer but her goal was for her daughter to self wean and she's happy that's how things happened.
Shannon comes from generations of women who have had difficulty with their appearance and it's taken pregnancy and breastfeeding for her to appreciate her body. She had been an emotional eater for many years and recently decided to make healthier choices for herself. She hopes that not only manifests health and happiness for not only herself but is an example for her daughter.