34 Weeks!!!!

I apologize to those who have been trying to keep up-to-date with my pregnancy. I have been terribly busy and attempting to prepare for our baby's arrival!

At this point right now, I am 34 weeks. I don't look as pregnant as most people would expect I do... The photos below are from when I was 12 weeks and 34 weeks, respectively.

 

 

I am obviously pregnant lol I just get told a lot that I do not look as big as most people when they are as far along as I am.

 

So far, my tests have gone well and I have had no crazy symptoms. I passed my glucose test! It is something I was super nervous about and prayed very hard for me to pass. I was afraid I wouldn't because of my PCOS and my family history of diabetes but I passed it! I did have to do the 3-hour test (which I will write about in another post) because I screwed up the 1 hour test like a silly person! I still have had no nausea or vomiting. The only symptoms I have had are some major groin pains on my left side. It only hurts and makes it difficult to get up out of bed or sitting down if I have been sitting or laying for a while. I do notice the pain is more severe (nothing I can't just "walk off") when I have been super active during the day and just have a seat to relax/kick my feet up or lay down to go to sleep. It does make it hard to turn over in bed at night... There is a lot of grunting and breathing deep when I have to wake up to pee every 3 hours haha! I have had some heartburn but nothing too severe. I just take tums when it happens and consume a lot of water. I have noticed I get it when I don't eat for extended periods of time... Sometimes I am just not hungry. I have not had any crazy swelling, except when I get super hot and the swelling stays to my ankles and calves. It is usually remedied by propping my feet up and occasionally an ice pack to speed the process up. I have also noticed that I have lightheaded and super hot (even inside an air conditioned environment) if I am walking around a lot or am active and have not eaten in a few hours. My doctor said my blood sugar is most likely dropping and I need to always keep a snack with me so that I can eat something. If that doesn't work, I need to sit down and rest for a few minutes while drinking some water or Gatorade to cool myself off. Summer pregnancies are tricky with the heat and humidity outside and the increased blood and heat flowing through our pregnant bodies. I am staying well hydrated!!

 

As far as weight gain goes, I am right on target, which is something I was also worried about! Having PCOS only means gaining weight is super easy to do, its the getting it off that is hard! I have gotten lucky that I have been craving healthy stuff and not unhealthy stuff. The most unhealthy thing I have wanted to eat while pregnant is apples with caramel! Everything else has been huge portions of salad or grapes or crackers (regular or graham) with PB or carrots with dip. I have loved it! I wanted to make sure I kept my weight gain down to a minimum so that it isn't so hard to get off after I have the baby.

 

The baby's growth is right on target as well. Although, the ultrasound technician said he is in the 75th percentile for weight, weighing in at an estimated 5 to 5.5 pounds at just 33 weeks along. At 34 weeks, most babies weigh about 4.75 pounds so he was a wee bit big for  his gestational age but those measurements could be off. Based on the fact that I am showing on the smaller side and that my measurements at the doctor are right where they should be, I bet he'll just be an average sized baby, nothing too big.

 

I have had a significant increase in testosterone during this pregnancy because of my PCOS, already high testosterone and my baby being a boy. My hair has grown a little faster and darker in places that the hair was blonde. I have resisted my usual "shave it off" mindset and instead either left the new stuff alone, plucked it out or waxed it off if needed. So far, it has worked and only made the hair better. I just really want to lower my testosterone back to normal after this baby. I will feel MUCH better about myself!!

 

We have finished all of our classes for birth, breastfeeding and infant care. We kind of miss going to our classes and having our "couple's time" but I'm glad that they are over and we can focus on practicing what we learned before he arrives. If I haven't said it already, my plan is to have a natural, unmedicated birth. I feel that I have a pretty high pain tolerance level and want to see if my body can complete something that is so natural and that women have been doing for years! I know, I know, just about everyone in our family has told me that I am crazy and if I don't have to experience pain, why should I? But I know my body can do it and I know with the Lord by my side and the help of my hubby, I can do it!

 

I have been enjoying being pregnant. As I said before, there as not been anything that I have experienced that has been overly unpleasant (except the yeast infection) and the baby isn't causing me pain or discomfort (except when he rests his butt on my ribs... my mom says it is payback because that is exactly what I did when she was pregnant with me lol). He can stay cooking in here as long as he needs to be in here!! I am however getting extremely excited about meeting him, he will be the greatest!!

 

My brother's girlfriend had their baby a couple weeks ago. She had a very complicated pregnancy and their daughter was born 3 or so weeks early. I am just glad the baby is ok! Her name is Sydney Elaine and she is cute as can be! My mom said that she looks like me when I was born... I looked back at pictures and it is true! She looks nothing like my brother when he was born but looks a ton like me! My brother was born with blonde hair and was smaller. I was born with jet black hair that spiked straight up, puffy cheeks and was about 8.5 pounds. Sydney looks just like that. Even at being born 3 weeks early, she weighed 8lbs, 10 oz! I can only imagine how big she would be if she cooked for another 3 weeks. My brother's girlfriend had high blood pressure and TONS of swelling for weeks so when her BP didn't decrease for weeks, they decided to induce her. Apparently, she had a rough birth. The epidural didn't work so well and she wasn't prepared for any pain at all, the doctor stopped counting stiches when she reached over 100, there was drama with her family and mine, there was drama with her family and my brother... Seemed like a whole mess that I am glad that I was not present for because I don't do drama. I want my birthing experience to be as drama free as possible!!

 

Well I am off for now, I will try to write something next week about the nursery and current projects :-)

Pregnancy Progress

I have been TERRIBLE about updating this blog during my pregnancy! Work has been crazy busy, the girls hockey season, summer events, preparing for a baby... Its all crazy!!

I wanted to write a quick update though to let everyone know how my pregnancy is going. Summed up in one word: perfect. No joke.

I have had zero nausea or vomiting. I have had only slight pain in my round ligament area and lower pelvic region (nothing a brace and a little heat can't fix!). I was able to go camping (yes in a tent) on the 4th of July weekend with no problems except the rain being a bit of a damper. Went on a 2 hour, 2 mile cave tour with no pain or shortness of breath (except for the end when we had to go up 450 very steep steps... but even the most fit person on the tour was a little winded). Have been doing yoga every week. Working like regular. No crazy cravings except for fruits and veges and peanut butter on graham or regular crackers and giant amounts of salad. No excessive weight gain (I actually lost a couple pounds in the first trimester and my doctor just told me Monday that my weight gain is perfect and exactly where it needs to be). No complaints from me. My husband tries to tell people I have been an angel or perfect through the entire pregnancy thus far, but no one seems to believe him lol

As of today, I am 28 weeks and 2 days. I started feeling my wonderfully perfect baby boy kick me on May 25, 2015 and Ryan was able to feel it as well on that day. He is an active baby. He apparently loves hockey already just as much as we do. We were watching the Stanley Cup Playoff games (our team Chicago Blackhawks were in the playoffs and eventually won the cup) and every time Chicago would score a goal, he would kick. When they would win the game, he would go crazy. Not because we were going crazy, in fact all we did was high five each other because we didn't want to wake the girls up as they were asleep during all but the final game. I can't even tell you how crazy he went when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup... Needless to say, I felt like a human punching bag for about 5 minutes hahah

The placenta is located in the anterior position so he is sitting towards the back. I started feeling him move under my ribs when I was about 22 weeks along. Now the movements I get are under the ribs, normal kicking/headbutting to the side, front and down low, and I get creepy crawly movements that just feel odd because they aren't like the kicks- they are him moving around to get comfy.

I did have one fail so far but it was to be expected a little bit. Now I preface this by saying, I have been doing really, really well with my diet during the pregnancy. I have tried to do my best (and everyone has agreed) to feed myself and the baby properly. I took my one-hour glucose test and failed. I will also state that I screwed it up. The nurse who gave me the solution to take home told me I could eat beforehand- she never warned me no carbs or that it had to be at least an hour before. So me, being the genius that I am, ate two pieces of whole wheat toast with a smidge of butter about 5 minutes before drinking the solution. Based on the results, my doctor believes that the eating messed it up but either way, I do have to go in for the 3 hour glucose test this Friday morning. I am crossing fingers that I pass this. I really, really don't want GD!! I know it is very common and not unexpected in women with PCOS but it doesn't mean it sucks any less! I would love to be able to not have to super watch what I eat, have a super big baby or have to have a C-Section because of his shoulders. Please say a prayer that I don't have to do that!

Other than the GD test, I have been doing amazingly. I can no longer fit into my pre-pregnancy pants without a waist expender thing. I can still fit into a lot of my pre-pregnancy tops, which is great!

All in all, I have no complaints during this pregnancy. I do however need to get my butt moving on the office transition. We're combining the office with the craft room  but the office is a huge mess because it also became our catch-all room when we didn't have time or a place to put something. Luckily, it is coming along. I have the goal to have it all cleared out by the time this weekend is over since we don't have anything else going on (Ryan will be working). I want to get the monsoon of baby furniture, clothing and toys out of our front room as quickly as we can.

Oh and speaking of nursery, we have planned that we are going to do a vintage superhero themed bedroom. We got a dresser that we are going to paint with blue, red and yellow to match the theme (hopefully the dresser can double as our changing table, if not, we'll just have to get one). Ryan's aunt is graciously sewing the bedding and curtains out of this cool fabric Ryan's mom found online that she was going to order for us. We were able to already buy the crib, rocking chair and dresser for his room. We have a ton of clothes to wash and hang up that we got from my dad's girlfriend (she has 2 grandsons that have grown out of all of it) and more to come from my aunt and uncle who had a boy in November. His room will come together nicely!

And before anyone asks, no we don't have his name picked out yet... We agree on a lot of names, the hard part is choosing what your child will be identified as for the rest of his life. Lots of pressure there!

He is already so spoiled and loved by everyone. I can't wait for him to arrive in October!! I will try to be better about updating! I will post pictures of his nursery once everything is complete. We will also be having a 3d/4d ultrasound at my 30 week appointment because the girls want to see him move around and see what he looks like. They haven't been to any of the appointments and I didn't realize our last ultrasound would be my anatomy scan so we're going to pay a little but they are beyond excited to be able to go and see him.

Gender Reveal Party

Well we had a BLAST at our Gender Reveal Party!!

 

We invited a few close friends and family to gather together to play a couple games, enjoy some food and find out what the heck we're having :-)

 

Ryan and I decided we couldn't wait to find out so we found out at our anatomy scan. It was definitely exciting to say the least! It killed our family though because they all wanted to know and constantly tried to get us to slip up but we didn't.

 

So prior to the party, my mother was in the hospital but luckily my mother-in-law and brother-in-law were able and willing to help me get ready for the party. We decorated everything with pink and blue (tablecloths, streamers, balloons, gumballs, food choices, drinks, etc.).

 

 

We sent out a Facebook invitation to everyone and texted those we knew wouldn't look at Facebook events. We told everyone to wear pink/red or blue to show their vote. For those that forgot, I made super cute ties and tutus for everyone to pin on their shirts (you can probably see them in the pictures below). My mom decided she wasn't going to follow the rules or pick a side so she wore both colors. We stuck her with the girls though because there were a few less and made the teams uneven for games.

 

The games we played were a bubblegum rattle game (two liters with equal amounts of gumballs inside, taped together. Players must shake the bottle until all gumballs are in the bottom bottle and pass to the next player on their team.) and we did an Old Wives Tale Quiz. Everyone had fun trying to complete the games and it was certainly fun watching everyone!

 

I have more pictures on my camera that I will upload, including everyone's reaction to the gender.

 

 

 

Once the games were over, we had everyone go inside for the big reveal. We got a giant black balloon (I believe it was 24 inches or so) and had them fill it with the appropriate color confetti. As per usual, I am unlucky, so the balloon popped on the ceiling on my way upstairs to the loft. Ryan's mom and brother were there but luckily were headed outside when it popped so they didn't see anything come out of the balloon. It was a lot of cleaning up to do though! Ryan got another balloon the next morning on his way home from the gym and they graciously discounted the price due to my wonderful mistake!

 

And the reveal was embarrassing lol we decided it would be a good idea to release the balloon onto the ceiling since it popped the balloon the first time... No such luck. Instead, the balloon nicely floated to the other side of the room (our ceiling is about 20-22 feet tall) so we had to be creative. We attempted throwing a clay carving tool at the balloon like a dart- it just bounced off and hit Ryan's uncle in the arm. Eventually we taped a pocket knife onto the top of our light bulb changing pole... It took a couple stabs but we finally got the sucker to pop!! BUT when it did, everyone screamed and cried for joy because we're having a.......

 

 

 

 

 

BOY!!!!!!

 

Honestly, we're just glad he is healthy and growing at the rate he should be growing but we're excited that it is a boy as well!

Update

As of today, I am officially 17 weeks along! My oh my how time has flown by! It seems like not that long ago that we were telling everyone when I was almost 7 weeks!

I haven't weighed myself in quite sometime because my scale isn't exactly the most reliable so I don't even weigh myself anymore. Last I checked though, I was up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I have really been trying to eat healthy.. It also helps that I have been craving fruit and veges at various times so I have been stuffing myself full of good stuff! I have had the occasional piece of candy or cake or ice cream but nothing more than usual... Sweet stuff has been too sweet for me since I got pregnant! I will admit, I have not been the best at taking my vitamin everyday... I'm not one that remembers medicine. I need to get better about it and put it next to my bed so I can remember to take it at night before bed or something.

Anywhos. I have been keeping a pregnancy journal as the weeks come and go to see changes and size differences. I am now measuring at 42 1/4 inches around my hips and 48 inches around my belly button. I'm not sure what I was pre-pregnancy for my hips but my pants still fit, so that's a good thing for now. I can't wear all of them, just the ones that were previously larger or stretchy. My belly has expended significantly, although I just can't see much of a big difference. I was about 41 inches pre-pregnancy so clearly the baby is growing. I can see the pooch form just below my belly button that shows kind of where my uterus is sitting because it kind of goes out then in.. its weird hahah

I have had a very easy pregnancy (insert hisses and boos here). I have had no morning sickness, no crazy cravings, nothing makes me nauseous when I see it or smell it (except the occasionally nasty gas released from the body of my hubby or the girls), I'm still able to fit quiet a few of my pre-pregnancy clothes. The only pain in the butt thing to me is the increased testosterone (which has slowed down a little on the increase), the quickness with which my body hair grows and the darkening of some hairs that were not there before. Also, my acne has gotten worse... My guess is it is caused by the increase in testosterone. I have grown a whole cup size by the time I was 12 weeks. Luckily my boobs haven't increased since then but they are stinking huge and heavy! I was very tired in the beginning... As in falling asleep/ready for bed at 8 or 9pm and wanting to sleep through my alarm clock and try not to fall asleep during the middle of the day! I'll take sleepy over nauseous any day!!!!!!

I am starting yoga classes tomorrow. I tried to start water aerobics classes but no one would call me back for like 3 weeks so I gave up on that one. My grandparents take a yoga class at their church for a very inexpensive cost so I figured I'd jump on that board rather than pay $15/class. I'm excited because I love yoga! It will help maintain fitness and keep my weight in control.

On another note, we have our anatomy scan on May 13th. We're also having a gender reveal party on May 23rd and we're very excited for it! We'll have different colored foods, my cousin is making our cake and we'll have games. We're having everyone dress in the color of their vote so we can divide the teams up for the games. We're going to find out with everyone else so that will make it that much more fun. We're playing with lots of ideas for the big reveal... We just need to settle on one so we can get in planned and in the works! I think its a girl. Honestly, I would be extremely happy with either as long as the baby is healthy. I know its cliché but its true. I've been waiting so long and I just am so excited! There are benefits and downfalls of having either gender so it doesn't matter... I just have this feeling and have since before we conceived that we would have a girl first. We'll see! I will make a whole blog post about how we revealed the gender :-)

I think I felt the first little kick/flutter yesterday while at work. It felt so surreal, nothing I've felt before. I was bent over at my computer at work because I was tired of sitting straight up (it was hurting my back) so I leaned over and when I bent down, I felt this crazy feeling. It stopped when I sat up and happened again when I bent over. It was probably telling me to stop squishing it hahaha

I'm honestly loving being pregnant so far. I have no complaints! I love being pregnant! I can't wait for our bundle of joy to be here though. I'm excited to hold our baby, feed it, dress it, bathe it, play with it, spend time with it and wake up to its cries. I can't wait to bring a life into this world and raise it to love God, live righteously and be a kind, caring, wonderful person that will contribute to the world and not just live in it!

I will update in a few weeks after our anatomy scan!

How we told

So everyone has their own ideas and stories about how they told their family or announced it to the world... Here is our little story.

So timing wise, we had our first ultrasound the week of Valentine's Day. Lucky for us, my mom has kept a tradition going in our family every year to have dinner for Valentine's Day. Well this year, she had to make the choice to either go to the Cyclones game that the girls were playing hockey during a period break or Valentine's dinner... She chose the first option (which was a good choice!). Ryan and I knew this ahead of time. She has also always given us all gifts, something small like chocolate and a candle or a stuffed animal, etc. This only made things easier to play out!

We decided to host Valentine's day dinner at our house. We also invited Ryan's parents who aren't used to the tradition but they love coming over for dinner and socializing with my family. My aunt and uncle couldn't come because they were all sick with the flu but my cousin could come because she had been at her mom's house and wasn't sick (we called them and told them after everyone else found out). Since my mom loves taking photos of every event we have, I played it as if I was taking photos of everything for her so she can feel like she is part of the dinner. I took photos of everyone sitting around, eating, and the big reveal!

We made mugs and/or wine glasses for everyone, depending on their taste with their new titles on them and either a bottle of wine or a bottle of sparkling juice. My mom got a wine glass that said "They call me Nana" and a mini bottle of wine. Ryan's mom got a wine glass that said "They call me Mamaw" and a mini bottle of wine. Ryan's dad got a coffee mug that said "They call me Pap" with a mini bottle of sparkling juice. My grandpa got a mug that said "The best grandpas... become GREAT grandpas!" with a mini bottle of sparkling juice. And my grandma got a mug that said "The best grandmas... become GREAT grandmas!" with a bottle of sparkling juice. All of the bottle of sparkling juice/wine had a tag that said "Do not open until October 2015" on them and were placed inside the mugs and next to the wine glasses. I put them in a pink paper bag and taped them shut. After dinner but before dessert we gave them their presents and said "Mom wants me to take pics of the gifts, so just open them like normal... You know how she is!"

They opened them up and my grandpa pulls out his bottle of sparkling juice and says "October 2015? That's weird". Ryan's mom got her glass out and immediately started crying and asking if it means what she thinks it means. Well it did lol Ryan's dad started tearing up and my grandma was very confused because she hadn't even gotten her bag open yet (she is one of those take the tape off then open the bag/box nicely kind of people... everyone else are rippers lol) Once she realized what it meant, she immediately came over and gave me a huge hug. Ryan took a video and I think his brother's reaction was the greatest! He just stood there and looked around very confused and then started crying and saying (in a confused tone), "I'm going to be an uncle?!" They all LOVED it! I've attached photos at the bottom for your viewing pleasure (there is even a moving one to get the real feel for how it kind of went lol). I didn't get any pictures of the mugs/wine glasses because I'm a goof.

We went up to Ft. Wayne to see my dad the next day. He moved up there at the end of December because he got a promotion at work. We only went up to have dinner with him to tell him but we ended up getting snowed in up there and stayed the night at his house... It was a lot of fun! For my dad, we gave him a yellow onsie that said "My grandpa is a rockstar" and a pair of binkies that say "Mute Button" and "Pull to Sound the Alarm". He laughed and loved it. He is like me in his emotions, he will smile but he is not a crier or a screamer. I could tell he was happy. He called his girlfriend on the way back to his house to tell her the news and she said he was overjoyed. I think its bittersweet for him... His baby is very clearly growing up lol

Cody and Ryan cooking dinner

Ryan's dad, my grandpa and my grandma watching a V-Day movie

Marissa (my cousin), Isabel, Aaryn (Ryan's brother) and Cynthia (Ryan's cousin)

My grandpa, my grandma and Kira (Cody's girlfriend) eating dinner

Aaryn, Elizabeth, Ryan's mom, Ryan's dad, Isabel, Cynthia and Ryan

Isabel and Skylar (Ryan's cousin) dancing

Dancing again... They were busting a move and putting on a show

Grandpa and Elizabeth

The start of the BIG REVEAL!

Grandpa discovering his sparkling juice bottle

Sherri standing up and starting to shake

Sherri in the process of hitting Doug telling him what it means... Meanwhile my grandpa is smiling because he knows

Loving the pure reactions of grandma, Sherri and Doug.

Its so much better in motion!

 

 

Couldn't trick my dad into taking pictures... He gets skeptical like me. We even had to tell him the present we brought was a housewarming present!

 

 

This is how we told the FB world and the rest of our friends and family. Hockey is our life so it only made sense.

 

 

Nuchal Scan and Update

On March 23, 2015, I went to my OB/GYN for my NT scan. Boy oh boy was that an experience!

First, any scans are done no later than 1:00pm so we scheduled it at an earlier time of 10:00am so that we're not leaving work too early and not getting to work too late. We got to sleep in, get breakfast AND go to lunch together... It was awesome! I got into the room for the scan and the woman came in shortly after to set everything up. The scan began and the baby was being super uncooperative! We had never seen it move before and this time it was moving around like craaaazy! It was flipping around, kicking itself back and forth, flopping like a fish, mooning us, turning its back to us... It even grabbed its foot and pulled it up by its face!! This went on for 20 minutes. The woman doing the scan said she needed a break because her hand was starting to cramp up and we needed to see if the baby would chill out for a second so she could get it at the right angle. Well the hubby got down to belly level and spoke into my belly button (he has been doing this every morning since I was 6 weeks along and sometimes at night... He says the belly button is the loudspeaker and the best way for the baby to hear him). He told the baby it needed to cooperate for the nice lady and lay still and flat so we could make sure everything was okay. I told the baby it needed to cooperate or it was going to get a needle poking in (amnio) and no ice cream for being good.

She came back in the room after a few minutes and got everything ready to go again. Wouldn't you know that the baby laid perfectly still and flat like its daddy told it to do?! She got the measurement she needed and we got a few cute photos to take home and stare at. Ryan video taped almost the whole thing and took photos of the screen. We were both in awe of our moving, healthy baby. Here is the debut of the Craig Nugget at 12 weeks:

 

We are excited (mainly me) that the woman said based on the scan results and depending on my blood test (which came back normal a few days later), I won't need to have an amnio if I don't want to. I do not want to! We've paid too much for this baby to risk miscarriage now. Also, we have no genetic issues or predispositions for anything so neither of us are worried. I still have time so if they think something is wrong, I will get it done.

I did get my latest testosterone results. It is still increasing but the increase has slowed a little bit. My endo said he's not concerned about it because it is my PCOS reacting to the pregnancy and as long as nothing has been detected as being wrong, there should be no problems with the baby. He also said it could be due to me being pregnant with a male and that would cause my testosterone to rise.

I have my anatomy scan scheduled for May 19th and we will find out if we're having a boy or girl! We're excited to find out what we're having but also excited to see our baby again!! All of our family and friends are eager to find out too but they won't find out until our gender reveal party at the end of May :-)

Welp, that's life I guess...

Well ladies (and gents if you're reading too), life has a funny way of moving sometimes. God has a funny way of answering prayers.

If you have been following along, you know Ryan and I have been trying our darnedest to create a life... From many doctor's appointments to blood tests (oh the blood loss!) to medication to thousands of dollars to negative results to many prayers and priesthood blessings. It has been a long, hard journey.

I am here to say, today we can announce that we have kicked PCOS in the butt and told it to kick bricks! We are officially able to announce the arrival of Baby Craig, due October 2, 2015!!

We are over the moon excited, words can't even begin to explain how excited we are.

If you have been following along, you also know that this round has been different, in both results and feeling. I didn't have to re-dose my Letrozole or put on my estrogen patches, which is significant progress. I will tell you, that at my baseline u/s appointment, when I began round 4, my doctor recommended IUI but I refused, I wanted it to work its course this time and if we became desperate, then we'd go that route. During round 3, I told God in a frustrated prayer (and kept repeating the prayer throughout the long round) that I wanted to be pregnant by my 25th birthday, no ifs ands or buts. Well I tested on December 22nd and what do you know? I got a BFN! Bummer. I repeated my prayer, in hopes that maybe I would be. I stopped my prometrium and waited to be able to start the next cycle. Usually, I get my period the next or 2 after I stop the medication, well that didn't happen... This is where it gets good (and a little TMI)!! I started the morning of my 25th birthday... If anyone knows anything about pregnancy and timing, you know that the first day of pregnancy is counted to be the first day of your last period. Goosebumps right?!

Well I thought of that, of course after I was a little frustrated that I got a negative test. I thanked him for giving me a good sign and prayed that this round would be THE one! You can read more about the doctor's appointments, etc. in the previous post, I'll save you the details and time in this one. I can tell you though, that this round was different and better.

I took a test on January 24, 2015 and this is what it looked like:

We took that as being positive but wanted to wait and test again before calling my RE for a blood test to confirm. Well as you can see below, we've gotten nothing but stronger positives. The tests are a little old in the pictures below (hence the lines fading and the yellow coloring) but as you can see, they are all positive!

Amen! Hallelujah! On Monday, January 26, 2015, I went into the doctor to get the blood test done. My HCG was at an 88, which definitely means I'm pregnant. He had me go in on Friday, January 30, 2015 for a follow-up just to make sure my levels were increasing at the rate they should be and they were, the new level was at 468! My RE said he would like to see it somewhere between 375-400, so they were great in his book. We went in for an ultrasound on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 to see if there is a heartbeat and too see our baby for the first time!

On the 11th, we were able to see our little bundle of joy! We found out it is actually due on October 5th, 2015, not the previously calculated October 2nd... Which is fine by me! The baby is measuring at almost a 1/2 inch long :-)

We also got to hear the heartbeat, which my doctor was surprised at because a lot of times, the heartbeat can't be heard so early. He saw its little heart fluttering on the screen though and thought he'd try. He said it needs to be at least 100 bpm and our little nugget's was at 120 bpm! Woot woot! Strong little heartbeat, which is a great thing! I did do more blood work. My progesterone level dipped a little bit but nothing that my RE is concerned with. My testosterone also spiked ridiculously (119 to 221) in a month so he said we need to really monitor that. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it during pregnancy so we'll just have to deal with it as it goes along.

We returned to see him on February 25, 2015 to make sure everything was still going well, developing and to see if the heart rate increased. The baby's size has increased 3x what it was before (6mm to 18mm) and the heart rate was a strong, loud 176. So the baby is growing strong!!

I will say that I have had two scares of a very tiny amount of spotting that was brown and pink but still scary, prior to having my second appointment. My RE said it is nothing to worry about if its not red and not a lot because the progesterone tablets can irritate the cervix and cause some bleeding. Since the baby looked great when we went in, he reassured me that everything was great.

I got released from my RE's care and into the care of a regular OB/GYN (which is normal) since everything was going well and REs don't deliver. I got to see him on March 9, 2015.

When I saw the new doctor, we waited FOREVER!!! 45 minutes after our appointment time, which made us late to a new teach Ryan was coaching (luckily, he's not the only coach). We get into the room, I'm removed to get my weight and BP... waited 15 minutes for her to do all of that and ask the same questions that I had already answered on my registration forms. I go back into the room and we wait another 20 minutes before the doctor comes in. He is finally in there, asking questions, giving us the standard pregnant talk and then makes us wait a little longer because the nurse needed to come in because apparently I needed to have a quick pelvic swab, breast exam, lung check and belly rub. Overall, I like him. What really stunned me was the waiting. We had to rush to get the girls to their hockey practice and they had to put their equipment on faster than ever before... It was crazy!

I go in to take my NT scan on March 23, 2015 to check my chances of any birth defects or down syndrome... I'm crossing fingers the chances are low because I REALLY don't want to do an amnio or CVS test... I HATE needles/shots and to have one in my stomach pulling fluid out that could potentially cause a miscarriage of the baby we have worked so hard and paid so much for would REALLY peev me! I'll write more on the test at a later time in  a different post.

And lastly, we plan on going on a couple hospital tours. I know its early BUT we are not sure where we are planning to deliver since my OB/GYN delivers at a couple places. We are going to look at ease of getting there, size of birthing/recovery suites, neonatal care, friendliness of staff, etc. and then make our decision from there :-)