6 1/2 months

Last week I went to the doctor. I was 25 weeks. She let us have an ultra sound even though insurance only pays for one with her. Since we have an IVF background she could justify this one. This was our last ultrasound with her. We have a 4D ultrasound scheduled at another place in November so that should be fun. After that we will not see him again until he is born!

The great news is she checked everything out and he looks like he is developing perfect. She was able to check brain function, deformities and his heart. She said he is looking wonderful!

When they weighed him he was already weighing in at 2lbs! He should be around a 1.5lbs. She asked our birth weight when we were born and said he may be taking after his daddy (9.4lbs)! As much as I am nervous and dreading him coming out a big baby - I am so thankful he is healthy and growing so great!

I go back to her in a few weeks. She wants to do the gestational diabetes test again even though it came back fine when we did it at 15 weeks. She said this is the normal time it is done so she wants to check it again just to be cautious. After this next appointment since I will be in my 3rd Trimester I will start going every 2 weeks! I cannot believe we have made it to the 3rd trimester! It has flown by!

Life is about to go even faster as the busiest time of year at work is approaching. I know that after this wonderful week off for Fall Break that it will be a sprint until January 1 and then he will be here shortly after. That thought scares me and excites me at the same time!

I have not been sleeping well and have been fighting migraines and backaches. I know those are normal but it has been rough just dealing with the same things every day. I am so grateful to be pregnant that I do not want to whine about anything that comes with it, but those are things I have been struggling with. I think after a few days of sleepless nights is when I feel the worst and cannot shake the pain. Lack of sleep really messes with you! It is only Tuesday of the break and I have already had multiple naps and I feel like a new person.

About this little boy - He is a very active little guy still. I can feel every move he makes and it is wonderful! He kicks me constantly and moves around a lot. I thought I was feeling him roll but during the ultrasound I was watching the screen and felt that feeling I had been feeling and on the screen he was stretching and grabbing his foot and stretching more. So I guess the "roll" feeling was his hands and head moving as he stretched! Justin and I lay in bed every night and just watch him kick. When I lay down is when he is most active so right at the beginning he will go crazy. My stomach looks like I am popping popcorn! He loves fruit and I eat lots of grapes, oranges and apples. He doesn't like chicken(which was my favorite) and has to be in the mood for Mexican food. I use to crave chocolate milk but that has went away and now it is regular milk. I have been drinking orange juice to try to keep my immune system healthy and he really isn't a fan of it, but it hasn't gotten to the point that I can't drink it anymore. He doesn't like cakes or chocolate too much and that has really been weird. I will pass up cake for fruit now and that is not like me! :) When he goes crazy kicking if I touch my stomach he keep kicking, but if Justin touches it and talks he calms down and stops. It is kind of weird that he senses him and knows his voice but it is so awesome.

Ok here are a few pictures from our last appointment. Expect more after the 4d ultrasound!

This one is a great one of his profile. He has his little hand up that you can see too.


This is one she got in 3D. It is a little distorted because the placenta is near his face. His nose looks big here but she said that when she clicks to 3D the sound bites combine in one spot and that is where they did on this shot.

This last one is the one that is the clearest. I think in this one he has my lips and Justin's nose. The eyes are still not clear enough. He looks like Justin when he is asleep but he may have my big eyes. His eyes should be opening now so that should help define that more. Of course he is developing so much every day that he will probably look much different in a few weeks when we see him again.


Growing him has been such a joy. We are loving every minute and cannot believe he is almost here! I love our little family and am so excited that we are at this point. I do not want to rush him because I want him to keep growing and getting healthy so I am not going to say that I cannot wait until he is here, but I cannot wait until that next chapter! He is our miracle boy and I love sharing our joy with you guys!

J&M

Nursery

We have been working on the nursery the past month. Justin has worked so hard remodeling the room. He started by replacing all the trim. I didn't realize how much trim can make a room look better until he did it! He also replaced a fan, refinished the window sill and painted all the walls. Instead of just doing 1 color we decided to be a little creative since our bedding has multiple colors in it. Working with some friends he came up with the square idea. He measured off and taped these squares so that they would be perfect - and I promise you he has them PERFECT! They look sooooo neat!

Our room had an old weird looking fan so we knew we wanted to replace it. We found this one and it is perfect. It is smaller than a regular fan so it almost looks like it is suppose to go in a baby room!
Last week all of our furniture that we ordered came in. Here is how it looked when he started.
He was so excited to get to work. He is really good at this kind of stuff. Notice the dresser in the background already finished. Now he is working on the changer/hutch combo.

And here it is a little while later all finished!
Here is a picture of the crib and the changer/hutch all put together.
Here is a closer look at our bedding. It has a few colors of blue and brown in it. Very simply and cute!
Here is a picture of the whole room. It is hard to get a good angle where you can see it all. We still haven't got curtains or decorations so this is just the remodeled room with furniture and bedding in it.
I couldn't leave off a picture of our little man's closet! We went on vacation a few weeks ago and found so many outlet sales. I think he is a little spoiled already but it was so fun to get to buy stuff for him! The vacation was our last big one just the 2 of us and it really ended up being all about getting him stuff!

I am so proud of the nursery. I love the fact that Justin took so much pride in it and remodeled it so that it looked nice for our little man. As we were hanging up all the clothes it was so crazy to imagine that in just 18 weeks we will have a little boy to dress in these clothes. We are so excited and blessed!

Update on our Little Man

Today we had another doctor appointment to see our little man. He was very active and stubborn and would not show us his face! He had it buried into my back and would not turn over. The ultrasound was about 15 minutes long and he moved his arms and legs the ENTIRE time. Once again the ultrasound tech told us how active he is. I would say he is taking after his father, but we all know who is calm and who is high strung in this relationship! He had no problem showing us his boy parts and how good he has gotten at kicking, but we did not get a good picture of that sweet little face which is a little disappointing!
The wonderful news is he is developing perfect. He was actually measuring a week ahead of my due date. He weighs 9 oz (normal for how far along I am is 5-7oz). Justin was a big baby (9lbs 4oz) so he may just be taking after his daddy!
Our last appointment we had the Down Syndrome test and the Gestational Diabetes test. Both came back normal. She said I hadn't gained hardly any weight since we last saw her so she expects me to gain this next month. I am surprised I haven't gained because he has really made me start pooching out!!! Thank goodness for maternity clothes!
Also since the last time I posted we had a little scare. About a week and a half ago I started bleeding. It was on a Sunday so we ended up making a trip to the ER out of fear. Everything turned out okay even though the ER visit scared us more because they basically said it may be a miscarriage and only time will tell. We did call our dr the next morning and she was out for a few days but talked to her on-call doctor and he took my worries away and said I was not having a miscarriage. Basically what the ER doctor told us is what what would be true of someone early in pregnancy, but considering how far along I was the symptoms would be different for a miscarriage.
Today at our appointment she said she hadn't heard about my bleeding (which we were surprised about). You could tell it bothered her. She checked me out and made sure things looked okay today and they did. The other doctor had told me I could bleed a lot more than I did before I called anyone out of concern but she advised us different today. She said any amount of blood I need to call her because she wants to know and if it is a weekend I need to go to the ER in Lawton. She wasn't trying to scare us but wants us to be near her if something happens. She is OVERLY cautious with me, but with how nervous we get at every little thing because of what we went through, I like her being cautious. She isn't going to treat us how most doctors would treat normal patients, she is trained to be on high alert at all times. She gave me restrictions for the next few weeks just to make sure the bleeding doesn't start back.
We are really liking Dr. Lennon. She is very good at what she does and you can tell she knows what she is doing. It is easy to trust her and I really like that fact. I still miss OU and Dr. Craig but I really think God placed us with Dr. Lennon for a reason.
Even though we didn't get many good pictures today, I cannot write a blog without sharing one! I think the only picture appropriate for today would be a picture of him kicking since that is what he does all the time! So here is his foot in the air during a kick.




Have you ever seen such a cute little leg/foot?
I cannot feel these kicks yet but should within the next few weeks. As she was listening to his heart on the doppler she heard him kick. She was surprised I didn't feel it because of the force in the sound! It may be a painful few months when I start feeling this little guy kicking!!!

That is all the update for now. For the first time in a LONG time we do not have another appointment for a full month! Not sure what life is like without seeing a doctor more often but we are soooo grateful to be at this point. In the meantime we(meaning Justin doing all the hard stuff and me buying all the cute stuff!) are working on his nursery and I bet the next update will be about that!

J & M

Watching Him Grow

There are many things that are hard about going through infertility. Lately though we have been able to see some cool things. When you go through fertility you are on such high alert that you get to see your baby early. I thought I would share some of these cool/priceless pictures so that you can see the miracle that we have been able to see.

This first picture is what they gave us on our transfer day. This is a picture of two 6 day old embryos. They did place both in me and only 1 - our miracle boy - made it. I know this just looks like a picture of cells but knowing that is our baby 6 days after conception takes my breath away.

This next picture is our first appointment after we got 2 positive blood tests. This is our little man at 7 weeks. You can't really tell anything other than something is in there and we could hear a sweet little heartbeat.




This next picture is only 2 weeks later. So this is the little guy at 9 weeks. If you look hard you can tell where his head, arms and legs are. Just to help - his legs are closest to the words. At this appointment we saw him kick those tiny legs for the first time!

This next picture is a little small. You can click each picture and it will make it bigger if you can't see as well.
This is our little boy at 12 weeks, just 3 weeks after the last one. You can see his profile in the first one and his legs and feet in the second one. He kicked almost the whole time we watched him this day. He has been an active little guy from the beginning.

This last one is what I posted on the previous post. This is him at 15 weeks - just 3 weeks after the last picture. You can see his nose and mouth and body defined. This is from the appointment where we found out he is a boy.

Scroll back up and just look at the pictures. In just 15 weeks he went from a group of cells to a handsome and defined little guy. Seeing this unfold is like getting a front seat to see a miracle that God is making.

I hope you each remember that you are a miracle too that God made to do great things for Him!

Love you all!

Update and surprise!

It has been a while since I updated. I want to continue this blog now that happy things are going on!!!

Well first off we did get released from our fertility specialist early on in July. That was for sure bitter sweet. We love those people so much and it is hard to leave the security of their care.
When we came back to my regular OBGYN we found out that she is retiring in December. Since I am due in January she had to refer me to another doctor. That was nerve racking because I wanted the security of my doctor I have had for so long.
She referred me to Dr. Carol Lennon who is the high risk specialist at MMH(Lawton OBGYN). I am not high risk necessarily, everything is going smooth so far but with our history it is nice knowing we are in her care.

Today was our first appointment meeting her. We could tell immediately she was a high risk specialist because of how much information she wanted!!! After a good appointment meeting and talking with her (and hearing the heartbeat) she sent us over to do some testing. I wasn't planning on doing the Gestational Diabetes test today - that is usually done later on - but since our infertility came from my PCOS and PCOS patients are at the highest risk for it she wanted to know immediately if that is something we are facing. We will know the result of that in about a week.

We did get to find out a secret today! We found out the sex of our baby. So now instead of Baby Smith we can all call it.....
Baby BOY Smith!!!
We are PUMPED that it is a boy and cannot wait to start buying things and preparing for his arrival. Before you ask if we have a name I do want to be up front with everyone and tell you that Justin and I have decided that we want to keep that between us until his birth. It will add a little surprise factor and give us time to nail down exactly what we want. We are not trying to be 'little turkeys' by keeping this between us, just is a decision we made a long time ago.

So now what you really want - pictures!
Here is his handsome profile.

Here is him showing us that he is for sure a Boy!

And here are his cute little feet!




We are sooooo excited today. I think we have been so reserved and nervous that we have not felt the full excitement that this baby has brought. Today seeing him and knowing it is him has really helped us get a little more brave with our excitement and see how real this is. I cannot believe we are at this point. We are blessed beyond words. God is good!

J&M

Our News

This is the napkin that we used at out 4th of July family cookout to announce our news. I know you will be surprised by the fact that I am 11 weeks pregnant and wondering what in the world happened since I last posted. Here is the story.

We secretly started back doing a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET cycle) at the start of April. This required me to wear 4 estrogen patches a day and also take a shot that suppressed my body. We had to go up for a few appointments, but this process was so much different. The estrogen patches were SUPER strong and messed with my hormones a lot, but just not having to live in the city and go through the pain of growing all those eggs was a relief.

On May 2nd they decided my body was ready to go so we started some different shots (That big progesterone one) and we scheduled the transfer for May 9th. They defrosted 2 embryos and thankfully God allowed them both to make it through the freeze. This transfer only took about 10 minutes. Without that polyp it was the easiest procedure ever. We were out of there and on our way home quick. I took the next few days off and was on bed rest to let my body relax and allow them a chance to attach themselves.

One week later on May 16th the most surreal thing happened to us. We bought a pregnancy test and were both there as it came back a very strong pregnant line. We also bought a digital test and it came back quickly saying pregnant. We have seen lots of negative tests over the past few years so seeing a positive was weird for us. It was hard to believe. That night we just cried in awe of the blessing. We knew we had a long road ahead so we had to be careful being too excited but we rejoiced.

On May 18th I had blood drawn and my HCG level came back at a 201.9. They want it to be between 50-100 so they told us that is could be twins but either way that is a good strong level to start with. Two days later I had it drawn again and it more than doubled which is what it is supposed to do.

We had our first ultrasound appointment on June 9th. We found out that I am carrying 1 little baby. This was bitter sweet because that means 1 of our embryos didn’t make it. We got to hear a very strong heartbeat and it was developing perfect. June 9th brought our rate of miscarriage down to less than 10 percent.

On June 23rd we got to hear the heartbeat again. It had grown exactly as it should and she even used the words everything is looking perfect. I told her we have never heard her say that referring to my body! We go to see its little arms and legs wiggling around – very neat. This time by hearing it our chance of miscarriage then dropped to less than 3 percent.

We have been doing shots since the start of April. We started the big progesterone shots at the start of May along with wearing 4 estrogen patches a day since mid-April. As of June 29th, I got to stop both of those. I cannot tell you how excited I am to be done with those. They were one of my biggest struggles.

I have been very sick. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am shooting so much medicine into my body along with the pregnancy hormones. She gave me some things to help and it has been a day by day (or hour by hour) thing. Since finding out I’m pregnant I have lost 12 pounds because of the sickness. It has been the hardest thing to get through and it made doing shots and patches even harder because it just kept the sickness going.

I have also lived in a bubble since May 9th. Until my first ultrasound I was on high alert. Basically I could go to work, but needed to come home and rest when I got finished. I had to limit how active I was each day to help keep this baby. That was really hard when no one knew. I had feelings of a prisoner in my home a few times especially as I was sick, but it was part of it and I knew it was worth it. We had one miscarriage scare that thankfully turned out good. It actually ended up keeping us more guarded because you just never know what is going to happen.
We are so excited and blessed to be posting this news. We have wanted to share since the day we got our positive test but knew that for our sake and for your sake we needed to wait. Last time was so hard for us and for others that we wanted to spare the pain if it didn’t work. When you feel as much joy as we have been feeling it hard not to shout it off the rooftop, but we are grateful that we can come to you and tell you at this point knowing that we are in a good spot in our pregnancy. Things could still happen of course, God is in control, but we have a peace to share. Also, I probably won’t be able to hide it too much longer! :)

Thank you for prayers. I hope you have been encouraged somehow through this journey. Each of your kind words, understanding hearts and prayers have lifted us up so much. We hope we are able to pass that on to others who are struggling through journeys that they do not understand. God is strong when we are weak and He has taught us more about Him in the past 2 and a half years then I ever thought was possible. As hard as it has been, it is hard to be anything but grateful for this journey and for the lessons we have learned. Justin and I have grown closer than I ever thought two people could be during these struggles and he is my reminder that God has the best things in store for my life. The best gift I could ever give my child is him as their daddy. He already is amazing and is my biggest blessing from God.

To God be all the glory!

J&M

Surgery time

Hey everyone! Tomorrow (3/15) I have my cervical polyp removal surgery. I had the pre-op appointment on Monday and found out that it will not just be light anesthesia, but the full general anesthesia (tube down throat and all). This makes me a little more nervous than I already am, but I know it will be ok. I will be down for the rest of the week so today basically marks my last day of spring break. That stinks for all of the lazy/fun reasons of a break I am going to miss, but am so grateful that I am not having to miss multiple days of work for this surgery!
Please keep me, Justin and Dr. Craig in your prayers tomorrow. She is not only going to remove the polyp but is going to go into my uterus and just triple check that everything is ok there. Justin - the hospital is referring to him as my 'responsible party' - will be taking good care of me. He is always so wonderful when I am sick so I know I will be in great hands!
Thank you for the prayers!