12 Weeks

Week 12: Plum

As you move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed.

I can't believe I am moving into the second trimester already! :) The first trimester has been awesome getting to see our baby twice and hearing the heartbeat. I can't wait to start feeling the baby kick and move around, I will probably start crying the first time he/she does. Six more months and I get to meet my baby.

I was just saying the other day how I hadn't gotten sick the whole first trimester and then just like that this past Tuesday night I started feeling sick. Mainly it was just my throat feeling pretty sore. I tried to ignore it and think that it was all in my head but Wednesday morning I woke up and my throat hurt worse and I started feeling congested. I ended up going to work Wednesday because I didn't want to call in and use any of my time that I am trying to save all for the baby (we don't have sick days at my work it's all called pto time, so it all comes out of the same bank). It was a miserable day at work I started coughing and my nose was running, I was ready for some meds by the end of the day. Thursday morning I conceded to the fact that I was sick and needed to go to the doctor so I called into work. To my surprise I didn't have strep throat my doc just said that my throat looked red and irritated and I definitely had some congestion. She did say she was glad that I came early instead of waiting for the infection to come. She prescribed me a z-pack and I am starting to feel a little better. I think the pregnancy might be making the recovery process a little slower but at least now I have the weekend to rest up. Brad has been amazing this week he has been cooking dinner and doing the dishes every night. Tonight he went to get us some Red Robin cuz I didn't want to get out and go anywhere and we are running a little low on groceries. I really am convinced that I have the best husband ever!!

Oh ya, I got to watch my niece today for a couple hours and we had a blast! My sis was at my house waiting for me to get home and when I pulled up Kelsie was reaching out for me to hold her I was so happy to finally be able to pick her up....I think she was too. :) We played for a little bit, shared some grapes and then took a nap together it was great getting to spend some time together again since I haven't watched her for almost four months now. I know she will be a great big cousin, I can't wait to see her with our baby....lets hope shes not jealous!

Allison, not to sure about Quentin I don't think I like that much! We do like the name Christian a lot but I think we are leaning more towards a couple other of our favorites....thanks Sheila! Thanks for thinking of us though, when we find out the sex and for sure agree on the name I will post it.

I heard the heartbeat today

So, I was kinda disappointed with today's appointment, I did get to hear the heartbeat but their was a lot of static so it wasn't clear for very long. The doctor used ear phones which I thought was kinda weird cuz Brad couldn't hear it but whenever he found the heartbeat he would put them in my ears. The first time I couldn't hear anything but static, the second time I heard it and was very thankful! Dr. Starks said that the baby doesn't like the doppler cuz it produces a loud sound and the baby swims away from it. Brad said, "our baby is already not cooperating." lol

Brad is pretty set on us having a boy and of course we can't agree on the boy name but we both like the same girl name so I'm sure it will be a boy! :) I'm still working on him for the boy name I like but it's not going so well....maybe when I am in labor he will let me have my way hehehe.

I was very happy with all the great news today though, Dr Starks said that we are offically, "out of the woods." He said that I can stop two of my meds Friday and I have no more restrictions. I am free to FINALLY pick up my neice Kelsie, which I am so excited about. It has been killing me to have to say no when she reaches out for me to hold her or run to me with her arms up.

I will miss Dr. Starks for sure but I am excited to finally go to my regular OBGYN. We will see him Feb 3rd. which is two weeks from today. We will get to hear the heartbeat again so I am hoping for less static. Also, I will be 16 weeks in 4 weeks and we are thinking about planning a trip to Oklahoma to find out the sex a little early. My uncle is a doctor and he said that we could come anytime to do a sonogram but if we want to know the sex we should probably wait until I am 16 weeks. Thank God for doctors in the family :).

11 weeks

Week 11: Lime

Your fetus currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through. But, fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future


Not much going on other than our doc appointment coming up this Tuesday. I will post and let everyone know how that goes. Next Friday I will be twelve weeks and be able to stop taking a couple of my meds so I am pretty excited about that. My clothes are starting to feel a little tight and I have been told that I have a little "pooch." I am just feeling kinda fat right now so I am hoping to look more pregnant in the next few weeks.

10 weeks

Week 10: Prune

With bones and cartilage starting to form and vital organs beginning to function, baby is making major progress. Body length will almost double in the next three weeks, and arm joints are now working. (Soon, legs will too.)

I am 10 weeks and 3 days today and still feeling pretty good! I'm still tired a lot but I get to stop taking my meds when I hit 12 weeks so I am hoping I will get a little more energy. I really haven't had anything to complain about, pregnancy has been great so far. I love each and every day of carrying this baby and thank God for all the many blessings he has given us. We are truly blessed.

We have a lot we are looking forward to right now, our next appointment to hear the baby's heartbeat is a week from tomorrow.

The plan is to go shopping for baby furniture next month at Nebraska Furniture Mart so we are hoping to find good deals. Then, in March we have our two year anniversary and we will find out the sex of our baby! :)

Congrats to my cousin Steph who is due on Sept 4th, our babies will be born one right after the other :)

Our baby is a lot bigger this time!

Today's appointment was by far the best yet! The pics we got are so good you can see the little arms and feet. We got to see the baby's heartbeat again which is always good to see. The baby was also constantly moving all around when we were watching it on the screen, it was moving his/her arms and legs. Brad and I were so amazed and happy. I think today made things seem a little more real. My doc also said the I am 9 weeks and 4 days today which means I am due August 7th woohoo two days earlier!! I told him the nurse told me it was the 9th and he was like well it's not really a drastic change....um, it is for me!! I already want to hold and cuddle up next to my baby so two days is a big deal to me.

I thought today was my last appointment with Dr. Starks but he said he likes to see his patients through the first trimester so I go back to him again in two weeks on the 20th. We are just going to hear the heartbeat this time so we don't get to see the baby. I am kinda bummed about that but hearing the heartbeat is great too! Then I made appointment with Dr. Chang my OBGYN on Feb. 3rd so that will be my first visit with him. Things are moving right along and the baby is doing great! I love being pregnant, I can't wait to find out what the sex is so I can start buying some more things.

I will keep you all posted!

Our Story

Yesterday we finally made the big announcement at our church that we are having a baby! I would have put a better pic but my mom only took a few and none of them turned out very good so out of all my choices this was the best....not very good I know.

I thought I would recap what I said Sunday and kind of go through our story again for anyone who might have missed a link. I was kinda nervous standing up in front of our church telling our story but they have been so great and supportive through this whole journey I knew God would give me the strength to do it and he did just that and more! I don't know how people make it through life w/o a church family, ours is awesome and we have had so many people praying for and with us through this whole thing it has been so uplifting for us.

Ok on to the story....

After a lot of testing and going to four different doctors, Brad and I found out last June that IVF (Invitro Fertilization) was our only option/chance to have a baby. We were both excited to finally have a plan and to be able to look forward to something that would help give us our baby.
Our first IVF cycle was scheduled for September. It didn't go exactly how we thought or hoped it would. Our doctor ended up canceling our September cycle because my body wasn't responding fast enough to the injections I was taking. They couldn't really give us much of a reason on why my body didn't respond to the injections other than sometimes younger girls may need a higher dosage of meds for IVF to be successful. I was producing a lot of follies, they just weren't getting big enough.
So, our next move was to start this process all over again in November and the doctor was upping my medication to make it more effective. I had an appointment in the middle of October before I started any meds just to make sure everything looked ok. Unfortunately, this appointment was not a good one for us. The doctor told me that my uterine lining looked like a 40 year olds and it was way to thick to start any meds, the nurse also told me that it appeared that I had some sort of mass and that more than likely I would have to have surgery to remove it all and wait to do IVF in January. This was very scary news not just because I knew this meant we would once again be pushing back our chance to have a baby in November but because I had no idea what exactly the nurse meant by mass and to be honest at the end of my appointment that day I didn't really want to know. The doc told me to come back Oct 31st so they could look again and make a final decision on what we needed to do but my doctor told me I would need a miracle to be able to start my meds by the 31st.
I remember the Sunday before my appointment one of our associate pastors specifically calling me out to pray over my womb so that I could have a baby. I also remember going forward that Sunday night and being prayed for. A lot of people knew the basic story of what we were going through but Brad was the only person who knew about the mass. I always felt refreshed after church on Sunday (still do) even with the bad news we had gotten and my appointment coming up that would decide what direction our life would be heading for the next few months I still felt a peace come over me like everything was going to work out.
We got our first miracle at my appointment on the 31st my lining had thinned out and whatever mass was their was gone! I was so excited I could barely stand it. For once I thought things are heading in the right direction...no bad news!! Yes, I had spoke to soon. As I started my injections (more this time) my body was having the same effect, the only difference was we had more days to play with this time around. Once again I was producing a lot of follies they just weren't getting big enough fast enough. I went in my last appointment before I was supposed to have the egg retrieval and my nurse said that I only had about 3-4 mature eggs and they prefer that you have 5. She said the doc said it was up to us on what we wanted to do but that I probably wouldn't get very many eggs. Of course we wanted to do it!! We had been waiting forever it seemed like and been through injections twice now, we were more than ready.
Our second miracle came after the egg retrieval the doc called Brad and said that they had retrieved 14 eggs and that some must have been hiding. I said no, I believe in a higher power that is far more powerful than injections!
From then on it was nothing but great news for us! They transferred two embryos that we were told were at the best stage they could be at 5 days later, and 6 days after the transfer I was testing positive!!! Today I am 9 weeks and 1 day and am so happy and proud to be able to claim this miracle. I know it was God's faithfulness to us that turned everything around and I will forever be thankful. Brad and I are so excited to start the journey of parenting and thank everyone so much for all your prayers and support.

Ornament

We have had our tree up since the second weekend in November so Brad was ready to take it down today. I could've been happy with keeping it up for the rest of this month but I gave in. I had to take a pic of the ornament that he bought me for Christmas and show it to everyone before he put it away. It was my favorite present, I love it!