I like to move it, move it

We got to see the baby move today!!! It was so amazing. When we started the ultrasound, the baby was sleeping, and just lying there still. But after a lot of probing, and probably annoying my child, he/she started moving and swimming all around. We got to see the arms moving and the legs kicking. The baby was trying to suck it's thumb at one point. It was incredible. I never thought I could feel more joy each and every time we see the baby.

This was our last appointment with the fertility clinic. We are officially graduates of that place. We couldn't be happier. The doctor said she would save a spot on the board for a pic of the baby. I hope we never have to go back there again. They were incredible though. There wouldn't be another place I would recommend higher than the Unity Hospital Fertility Clinic. Such great staff, and they just were compassionate from day one.

I am still sick, though I think things are starting to turn for the better since every few days I can eat a little bit or normal food. It's nice to sit down and have a small meal instead of just a few crackers and an Ensure. Really nice.

Here is the last pic of the baby. It's a little blurry because my bladder filled back up and she couldn't get as close to the baby as she had in the past. You can really see his/her arms and legs in this pic. This is the pic they got while the baby was still sleeping sweetly.

I just want to eat!!!!

This week has started even more nausea and vomiting. SO fun. No, but really, I am grateful that the baby is healthy. I just really want to eat. I pretty much am on an Ensure diet, with a few crackers (gluten free of course), and rice cakes in there intermittently. Last Sunday, I really really craved chicken wings. So after calling about a dozen places to find one that made them with a sauce that was gluten free, I ordered them. My wonderful husband picked them up for me and off I went. It was the first real food I had eaten in 3 weeks. I know, hindsight is always 20/20. If my stomach hasn't really had food in 3 weeks, prolly shouldn't be introducing chicken wings as the first food! Don't worry, I learned the hard way. I was up all night Sunday, getting sick, and getting sick again. Good times. Cravings aren't always good you know? What? You did know? Thanks for sharing! The next few days were a toilet hugging blur.

A friend of mine told me about SeaBands. I literally am willing to try anything. So I've been wearing them for the remainder of the week. I do have to say they help with the nausea, but I still can't eat. So I'm hungry, which in turn leaves me with some nausea. It's a no win situation at this point. Another friend mentioned to me that she chewed Bubble Gum constantly. Again, I will try anything. I bought some and along with the bands it's going pretty good. It's a jaw tiring feat though. Each day is different. I don't know if I believe it's either theory. But for now, I am not about to stop either because I don't like feeling like I'm about to lose it any second all day long.


On the dr front, we have our last appointment with our fertility specialist on Monday. That means no more weekly pictures. I will be sad, but also so incredibly happy to carry on like a normal pregnancy for the remainder of this child's stay at Casa de Womb. We have our first appointment with our OB on Friday. It's so exciting.

Our next ultrasound will probably be around Christmas to find out the sex of the baby. Can't wait. That is our only element of surprise in this pregnancy because everyone really knew about the fertility and dates of possibly pregnancy. No surprise or creative stories there. It will be fun to surprise everyone in our family and our friends at Christmas with what we will be having. I've felt like it's a girl for the past 10 weeks, BUT last night I had my first good dream about the baby. In the dream I was decorating the nursery, and putting the clothes away, and they were all boy clothes. Now, I don't know what I feel. My husband wants a boy, and so do I. I think it would be nice for my children to have a big brother. We'll see. Either way, I am will be so happy for a healthy baby.





Here's our last picture of the little one. The baby is growing so much each week. It's so incredibly amazing!

"The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps"...

Proverbs 16:9

How true is that statement. There have been so many things that I had planned out in my life, so many events, so many details. Not much of it happened in the timeline that I set for myself. When I was a little girl playing with my dolls up in my bedroom, I remember thinking that if I went to college, I would find a boy. We would love each other, get married, and have children all before I was 25. I wanted nothing more than to be a mom since I could remember (well that and an elephant, but that is for another day)! I didn't meet a boy in college, well I did meet a few, but they didn't really work out....and God had a plan all along.

After I graduated college I had a new plan. I didn't want to get married before I was 30 years old, and I would start having children around 33. Perfect right? No. God still had a plan and I just wasn't really interested. I met my husband...online...on myspace...I know, I know. I didn't make it easy. I ignored his messages, I was short and tried to show I was uninterested. He was persistent. I refused to give him my phone number for the longest time. This way, if he ever got boring, scary, weird, all I had to do was delete my myspace, and voila! I would be rid of him. God had a different plan. He knew that this man was the man that God had created just for me. Long story short...really short....we are now married after 18 months total of dating/engagement.

When we were dating we always talked about waiting a year or more before starting a family. He is older than I am and didn't want to wait too long, I on the other hand already got married earlier than I "planned" and didn't want to do the kid thing too much earlier either. I really enjoy my sleep, and get-up-and-go-whenever-I-want lifestyle. After about 5 months of being married, we decided we should at least get physicals because I knew it would be difficult to get pregnant. So much for our plan of waiting a year or more. You can read about our fertility journey in previous posts, but after about a year of medications and bruises and heartache, we finally found out we were pregnant. God has a plan.

I always planned to have an uneventful pregnancy (naive, I know). I hoped I wouldn't be sick, I wouldn't be weepy, and that baby would be the healthiest ever. We went for our first ultrasound and the dr came in with worst case scenario news (you can read the last post for that). We came home and prayed, and a few elders and close friends at my church came around me that week, layed hands on my baby, and prayed. I believed that this time, our plan of a healthy baby would be God's plan as well. So much for the "no nausea" pregnancy. I can't eat a friggin thing! I am sick all day, but that makes me feel wonderful to know that that only means the baby is still alive and well inside of me. We went for our ultrasound again yesterday. We got nothing but WONDERFUL news. Our baby's sac was now at about 7 weeks, and the baby is measuring at 8 weeks. That means while the baby grew the week it was supposed to, the sac grew a week and a half! I do not have to go on the injectable drugs, and I no longer have to continue with the baby aspirin a day! Praise God! I knew the baby would catch up. We have another ultrasound next week, and can't wait to see our little one again! This child will have more pictures before he/she is born than after!

Here is the newest ultrasound, you can even see how much bigger both the sac, and the baby have grown!

Hang in there...this one will be long

It's been a while since I've posted. I wasn't sure when I would post again. I left off with my husband and I having been inseminated and waiting to find out if it worked. We had to wait two, looooonnnnnggggg weeks to find out if we were pregnant. On September 14th, around 7:30am we took a pregnancy test, and within seconds it was POSITIVE!!! We were so excited. Sources say I may have even teared up a bit. My husband was still sleeping, so I went downstairs to take a picture because I didn't want to loose the lines (now I know they won't go away). I climbed back into bed next to my husband and whispered in his ear that he was going to be a daddy! He was so excited. I showed him the test, and we were ecstatic! I had to finish getting ready for work, and while I was getting ready I heard him tell our dog that he was going to be a big brother. That made my heart melt a little more. I am so in love with my husband. He may be a big, muscular, tough guy on the outside, but he's such a softy! (Shhh, don't tell him I let out that secret!)

Well, because it was so early, I didn't want to post it on here yet, because the only thing I regret about this whole fertility process is the amount of people that know all our deadlines and important dates. Can't keep a secret, and definitely can't be creative with how to spread the news! Anyways, I called our dr that day and went in for blood work to confirm. They had me go for blood work every other day that week. My numbers were rising normal, so I was done with that and got to schedule the ultrasound. It has been the LONGEST 3 weeks of my life waiting for this ultrasound. When I scheduled it I was thinking about taking the last possible appointment so that I could work a full day. What a mistake that was! I couldn't think about anything else all day long. So, that mistake won't be made again, 1st available appointment for ultrasounds in the future. Our ultrasound was yesterday afternoon. We went in, couldn't keep the smiles off our faces. We were both so excited to see our baby. This was really real! We went in and saw our little grain of rice (that's right, just ONE for all those out there who were hoping for multiples), and the top half was flickering with the heartbeat. My husband couldn't see, so the dr. said she would try to hear it, and we did! We got to hear the heartbeat! It was the most incredible moment of my life. I will never forget the first time we heard our baby's life! Makes me tear up just thinking about it! The dr. had to leave for a phone call and would be right back. I got dressed and my husband and I gushed over the pictures. Really, it doesn't look like a darn thing yet because it's still so small, but we know what it is!

When the dr returned the mood in the room slightly shifted. She said she only wanted to talk about one thing that concerned her. Red flags went up, blood drained out of my face, and I don't think I could feel my legs. We sat and she began by saying our baby measured right where he/she should at 7 weeks, however, our sac was measuring at 5 1/2 weeks. It could mean an array of things that we won't know for at least another week. It could be fine and just mean we will have a smaller sac, it could mean chromosomal abnormalities, it could mean the baby won't make it much longer, the list goes on. In the beginning of our fertility route, I was tested for EVERYTHING. My antibody levels were slightly raised, that is one reason they found I had Celiac's Disease. She said that it wasn't anything to worry about at that time. She brought up those levels yesterday. I had to be retested to see if the pregnancy changed my levels at all. I also started on a baby aspirin a day. Next week we have another ultrasound and the dr said if the sac hasn't grown then we will worry more. I will start on an injectable drug called lori-something-or-other, and along with the baby aspirin, see if that helps at all. It has something to do with the network of blood vessels, and such, transporting the correct amounts of everything to the baby. I asked all the questions I could think of, listened to as much as I could take, and left to schedule my next week's ultrasound. We left in kind of a whirlwind, at least I did. How come nothing is ever just normal for me. I can't go in and leave with a perfectly normal exam/bill of health. My husband is a rock though. In the elevator he told me he rebuked the dr's every words. He said our baby is in God's hands and God has a plan already. We will be fine with it, and that our baby will be fine, and we will pray even harder over this little life inside of me. He told me not to stress, and I am really trying. Next week won't come quick enough, I know that much.

All this to say, I decided to let the cat out of the bag early to get as much prayer as possible for our little one right now. We will know more next week, and until then I will be praying with fervency like never before, as I hope you all join with me in doing. I will keep you posted, I promise. Thanks for your prayers, and thanks for your inquiries all of you who couldn't wait for this post and contacted me personally. This child belongs to the Lord, so His will I pray is done with this little life. Just please God, let your will be a healthy, strong, beautiful baby!

I'll leave you with this image...(it's a little blury, but really it's not much to see just yet!)