38 Weeks

This week started out with a great OB appointment with our favorite Dr at the practice. He was so excited to see us and said he cannot wait to meet our little guy. He did my first official check and said that I was making good strides at 1-2cm and 50% effaced. Woohoo! My body is responding appropriately and doing what is suppose to, what a relief.

We celebrated the birthday of two of our favorite kids from afar. We miss them so much now that they are in Canada and we do not get to see their shining faces everyday when we get home, but thankfully we will have our own little man to smile at us soon.

Still feeling good this week. He is getting heavier and lower but keeping up yoga, acupuncture and trying to prepare my body for the big event. No cravings or aversions but still experiencing terrible heartburn and indigestion.

37 weeks

We started the week with an OB appointment with a new doctor at the practice. While she seemed to be a good doctor, I was quite annoyed by her “you know most first pregnancies are late” speech. I really hate that talk. I get with most women the due date is wrong because they have no idea when conception actually happened, however we did IVF and science is clear so my due date is not wrong.

We had a friend come into town this weekend that we had not seen in a while. It was great to see them and catch up.

Definitely feeling that the end is coming as he is getting bigger and I am feeling his head down. Still doing yoga and acupuncture. No cravings or aversions but was hoping that heartburn would get better now that he is dropping but seems to be getting worse.

36 weeks

It is Thanksgiving and we are four weeks away from meeting our son!

Hard to believe that last year we were waiting the results of our FET, which unfortunately ended in an early miscarriages and now we are putting the finishing touches on our son’s room.

We had a great Thanksgiving lunch with family. Everyone is excited about Peanut’s arrival and hope that they will get to meet him at Christmas.

We got up and did our normal Black Friday Shopping with the family, but instead of buying things for ourselves we purchased things for Peanut.

We are now down to weekly appointments at the OB,..let’s hope for progress as we get closer to due date.

35 weeks

5 weeks to go!!!!! As we prepare for Peanut to arrive and the holidays, we are doing all we can to get prepared.

We have the majority of our Shopping done, just need to get a few giftcards. So we plan to spend Black Friday shopping looking for good deals on any items we still need for Peanut. You know life has changed already when you plan your Black Friday Shopping in the baby section of the store.

Since most of our showers are now done, we have completed his room for the most part. I love to just sit in his room and think about him being in it with us and watching him grow up. Keep growing little guy, we can’t wait to meet you.

34 weeks

I can’t believe we have six weeks to go. I feel like Peanut is getting big and that my abdomen cannot stretch any further, even though I know it will.

This week I have truly felt the 3rd trimester exhaustion. All I want to do is lay down but I feel like we still have so much to do to get ready for Peanut and the holidays since his due date is so close to the holidays.

We were spoiled again this week with our last baby shower thrown by my old co-workers. It is so nice to know that after five years people love you enough to want to bless your future family. It was so nice of them to think of us and everything was so lovely.

Over the weekend, Heather’s family wanted to have a garage sale so Heather and I grabbed a few things we had to sell. We stayed at her parents the night before and I was so uncomfortable that I had to sleep in the recliner. It was probably one of the best nights of sleep I had in a while. The yard sale started at 5am and that night we had tickets to Tori Amos, my favorite artist, so we knew it was going to be a long day.

The concert was amazing! Everything I imagined it to be and more. Even though I have seen Tori in concert many times, each show has it own unique greatness about it. I was so glad I got to share her wonderful music with Peanut.

33 Weeks

So crazy to think that we have just completed our 33rd week of pregnancy.  This time last year we were preparing for what we thought would be our last FET with our embryos from IVF round #2.  Unfortunately that FET resulted in our angel baby, but that angel baby brought us to where we are now.

We had our 2nd big family/friend shower this weekend.  My best friend came in from out of town and but together a beautiful shower with hot air balloons to go with our travel theme of all of the places we will go with Peanut. It was nice to have family and friends shower him again and share in the excitement of knowing that we are getting closer to having him in all of our lives.

We also had our maternity photos this past weekend.  So so so crazy to even say that.  If you had asked me last year or the years before when we would be having maternity photos I probably would have said never.  It was very emotional to think here were capturing moments of him growing with us that we will share for our lifetime.  The photographer was great and the weather cooperated so will be looking forward to having a sneak peak of what they look like in the weeks to come.

This week the pelvic pressure has settled in, making us believe that Peanut is head down and getting in position to come and grace us with his presence.  His movements are getting stronger and hiccups more noticeable. I am still not experiencing any cravings or aversions and appetite seems to be the same and not have increased.

We had our 32wk OB visit this week (at 33w5d) and doctor indicating that he was measuring 34wk, so we are looking at possibly a measurement of two days ahead of schedule.  Let’s hope he will arrive two days early and not that he is just big.  My weight has stayed low and consistent with him gaining about a half a pound a week now, so I think the continuous yoga/cardio practice of at least three days a week is paying off for me and Peanut.

Everyday I find it hard to believe that we are here, but I am incredibly thankful that we are on this journey and that so far it has been an easy and enjoyable pregnancy….less than 7 weeks to go……

32 Weeks

32 weeks…we have officially met the two months to go landmark!

This weekend was UNC Homecoming with my sorority sisters.  It is always great to spend the weekend with them and celebrate.  It was definitely a different experience this year being the sober one and watching everyone else get drunk :).  It was crazy to think back on all of the past Homecomings when I was sad to think here all of my sorority sisters becoming moms and moving forward in life and we were still stuck in limbo.  So many years, I did not think we would ever get over that hump, so it was great to walk in the house this weekend with my bump and feel proud that we have met this milestone.

I had my monthly acupuncture visit and discussed my concerns with my acupuncturist about my cervix.  I like to think that we won’t have any issues.

We had our 32wk OB visit this week (at 33w5d) and doctor indicating that he was measuring 34wk, so we are looking at possibly a measurement of two days ahead of schedule.  Let’s hope he will arrive two days early and not that he is just big.  My weight has stayed low and consistent with him gaining about a half a pound a week now, so I think the continuous yoga/cardio practice of at least three days a week is paying off for me and Peanut.

Everyday I find it hard to believe that we are here, but I am incredibly thankful that we are on this journey and that so far it has been an easy and enjoyable pregnancy….less than 7 weeks to go……

2nd trimester

From bloat to bump, we have reached the second trimester.

This trimester I did feel like I got my energy back up, however my heartburn/indigestion has increased three fold.

We spent a lot of time getting things ready for the nursery. Painting the room, getting used furniture and painting it to match the nursery, and stocking up on diapers and wipes while they are on sale.

Heather and our besties went to Mexico for a wedding. It was hard to see her leave for a gift without us (Peanut and I) but there was no way we could risk anything going wrong and being exposed to Zika. We were worried about whether Heather would need to be quarantined when she got back, so we asked the OB and they looked at us like we were crazy. They said they only know of it being transmitted via sperm and not sure there is a risk for lesbians.

While she was in Mexico, I went to beach with my family for the weekend. I really thought my relationship was getting better with my parents and there view/opinion of Heather and I was getting better. Yet the last day we are at the beach my dad shows their true feelings yet again. He asked me if we were going to take Peanut to church and I told him I was not sure. We both had grown up religious kids but that we are not a fan of the hypocrites that a lot of Christians have become. They are nice to your face and then talk badly about you as soon as you turn your back, that is not very Christian. My dad then proceeds to say to me “well we still think your relationship is wrong but God seems to be blessing you anyway.” What the fuck?!? What is that suppose to mean?!? Since we have a nice house and got pregnant, God now thinks it is ok for us to be gay?!? What kind of horseshit is that? I immediately thought wow, now I know how you feel about or relationship and will not be allowing my child to be alone with you. I will not have you teach or talk negatively about our love to our child.

Our clinic would only do an anatomy scan at 20 weeks if you were considered low risk, so we were anxious to know if Peanut was going to be a little boy or a little girl. So at 15 weeks, we had gone by our local Buy Buy Baby to add items to our registry and they suggested we check out the local 4D ultrasound place to see if we could find out the gender. We went to the ultrasound place and as soon as the woman started scanning our little man revealed himself to us. There it was…we were officially going to be boy moms!

The next few weeks we spent time getting ready for our anatomy scan and the gender reveal party we were throwing for our friends and family. It was so crazy to think that we were already almost half way through the journey to meet our little guy. We had waited so long for this journey and it was going so fast. The anatomy scan went perfectly. All of his organs were present and functioning properly. His arms and legs were measuring long, so we might have a tall kid on our hands. Throughout the scan he kept putting his arms up and trying to hide his face, so I guess he is like his Mommy and did not want the light in his face.

The gender reveal party was a lot of fun and it just showed that we have so many friends and family that truly love us and can not wait to spoil our Peanut. Unfortunately my parents did not attend as I figured they would not because we had it on a Saturday and they did not want to take time off from work. My sisters did attend and it was interesting to see how they truly do not know me, Heather, or our life because they choose to not spend the time with us.

After the gender reveal our friends were ready to start planning our baby shower. My best friend however wanted to do a shower on her own, which complicated matters a little bit. So we decided she would do a shower and our families/besties would also do a shower. It was so exciting and surreal to see the invites once they were done. If someone had asked us after our second failed IVF if we would be at this point, I would have told them they were crazy.

As we rounded the end of our 2nd trimester, we wanted to make sure that we took a trip as just the two of us. Luckily Heather had a work event in San Francisco, which meant we could venture back to our favorite place, Bernardus Lodge and Spa. We were able to book 4 days and 3 nights and it was the best thing we ever did.

The Babymoon was so relaxing, we lounge together, napped, sat by the pool, enjoyed great meals and the beautiful CA weather. It was a perfect way to end our 2nd trimester…bring on the finish line.

First Trimester

After finding out our good news and after the early miscarriage we had last December we wanted to keep our positive Beta a secret as long as possible.

We also wanted to make sure that I was eating all of the right foods, doing the appropriate exercise and all around making my body the best place for our miracle to grow. Heather decided that she would go on Pinterest and create a “First trimester food” board so that we had good recipes to try. Not long after she created the board and made it private, a girl that follows Heather a lot sent her a screenshot of a notification and said hope this means good news. We both immediately panicked and was like umm no Heather is doing research for her food blog.

A week after finding out our second Beta, Heather was set to go to NYC for a work event. We had already planned prior to our transfer that no matter what I was going to go with her. Now that we knew we were pregnant we were extremely cautious and nervous about going but there was no way Heather was going to leave me at home like she did last December when she had to go to Toronto and we had just found out I was pregnant.

We knew we would see friends and they would be expecting us to be ourselves and drink. We decided we would tell them that I could not drink because we were starting a new medicine this go around that strictly did not allow me to drink. We had dinner with one friend and went to a birthday party with other friends, they all were like something is up with you two. They saw right through our act and was like you have news, so we told them the good news but said we were keeping it quiet since it was so early on.

When we got back from NYC we were on pins and needles waiting for our first ultrasound to see Peanut. We tested everyday and tried to put away the fear of another loss, especially since this was our last embryo.

We went to the ultrasound and everything went well. There was a sac, a fetus and a great heartbeat. Heather was filled with tears of joy and I was in shock. In shock that after so many years and tries we finally were looking at our miracle. We could not believe that we were officially seven weeks on our way to having a December baby!

The weekend after our ultrasound was Mother’s Day. For the past five years, I had wanted to avoid this holiday because all I could think about was the pain that we were trying so hard to be moms and still were not there. Yet this year we got to celebrate with our families that we would soon be mothers. We went to a great lunch with Heather’s mom and then drove to Charlotte to surprise my mom and sisters at a cookout. It was one of the best holidays in a long time.

I spent the next couple of weeks trying to manage first trimester symptoms. I got up every morning and did yoga and made sure to try to eat a small meal or snacks every 2-3 hours to ward off the nausea.

Memorial Day weekend fell around our 10 week mark so we met up with our besties for the weekend and decided we would take pictures for our pregnancy announcement. It was so surreal to take pictures with my bump and signs that our little one would be arriving in December. We had waited so long for that moment and could not believe it had finally arrived.

We had also been trying to listen to his heartbeat on the Doppler but were having a hard time finding it. While we were with our friends we finally found it and it was glorious!!!!

We finished the 1st trimester by going to the beach to celebrate my birthday and spend time with family. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and relax but felt so weird to sit on the beach and only drink water. After family left, Heather and I wrote our pregnancy announcement and shared it with the world. It truly was a beautiful experience and one that we never thought we would ever get to experience after all of our ups and downs over the years.

Pregnancy announcement:

“Almost five years ago we started the journey to parenthood. It has been a difficult road with lots of ups and downs through eight IUIs, three IVFs and multiple frozen embryo transfers. We are beyond excited that we finally had the “little embryo” that could and will have a new little traveler to join us on our adventures this December. Even though this process has not been easy, we have remained full of persistence, love and faith that our day would come. We have been praying for this miracle for over 1,708 days; we never gave up hope. Somethings really are worth waiting for. We are excited to share our love and the love of those around us with our little peanut.”

On to 2nd trimester little Peanut…keep growing!

TWW and Beta Results

After our transfer that Tuesday, I spent the reminder of the week resting at home.  I got up, did yoga and mediated.  I ate a good breakfast and tried to relax and not obsess over every tingle, feeling or emotion that was going through my body.  With this FET, we did change up the protocol a little and switched to progesterone in oil as oppose to the progesterone suppositories.

1 Day Post 5-Day Transfer (1DP5DT)

I spent the day eating well balanced meals (breakfast – eggs, fruit, greens, toast; lunch – bacon sandwich, greens and fruit; dinner – homemade chicken salad, mac n cheese, fruit).  Sitting outside in the sunlight and catching up on reading, while spending time with my little fur-man and finished the day with a great date night with my sweetie for a funny play.

2DP5DT

I felt crampy, hungry and tired so I spent most of the day on the sofa catching up on TV.  While off preparing for the transfer, I became obsessed with catching up on Sister Wives.

3DP5DT

No distinct symptoms felt but was freezing all day.  Was not sure if it was the babies taking my heat or the cooler temperatures outside that day.

4DP5DT

No distinct symptoms, started to get inpatient about beta and whether things were going to work or not.  We spent the Saturday trying to stay busy with running errands and getting things done.

5DP5DT

All I could think about was that this was our last embryos and most likely our last chance.  We brought plants on Saturday, so stayed busy potting plants and setting things up outside the house to make it more at home.

6DP5DT

My symptoms were all over the place..felt crampy, twinges but could also be PMS.  Tried to keep the faith, but my positivity was wavering.

7DP5DT

More of the same feelings as six days post transfer.  Trying to keep the faith was difficult.

8DP5DT

The day before Beta…. My stomach was in knots all day.  I had nervous bladder issues and I felt like I could throw up at any moment.