May Happenings

In the beginning of the month, my work staff was invited to an informative talk by one of our doctors at Fogo de Chao.  Free food at an amazing Brazilian restaurant?  Why not!  Fogo de Chao is a Brazilian Steakhouse with a yummy salad bar and an unlimited variety of types of meat, such as filet mignon, top sirloin, rib eye, ribs, lamb, chicken and pork.  The waiters come to your table and shave off which meats you prefer, and it was quite tasty!  Most of our staff attended the dinner and was interesting to learn a little bit more about some gastrointestinal disease info that I hadn't known before.

HSC staff at Fogo De Chao

We had the exterior of our house painted!  This was an easy decision for us, because the outside of our house has been extremely dull since we moved in, and quite simply, it looked old and was in bad shape!  Our neighbors had their house painted about 2 weeks before, so we used the same company they did since it looked like they did a good job.  We weren't disappointed!  We were provided with a ton of colors and palettes to choose from, and although it took us a while to decide what we wanted, after seeing the final product, we knew it was exactly what we wanted!  I am in love with my new navy front door, and the company did a great job with the paint, filling the stucco, and even replacing some of our roof tiles that were cracked.  They did not disappoint!

Before/after shot; old and drabby to clean with a pop of color!

We were blessed and found out this amazing news!

My best friend in life, my cousin Chelsea, (who really could be my sister we are that close and alike!) had her baby shower in Vermont!  I was bummed that I couldn't be there to help her celebrate the arrival of her baby boy, but I tried to send some great gifts that I knew she would love to be there in my place!  Her theme for her nursery is sports-oriented, so I tried to play off of that theme for her "made with love" gifts.  I made a snuggly blanket, and also created a onesie gift box.  I find these monthly onesie stickers make the best baby shower gifts and I always seem to give them at every shower I go to!  They are just too fun to document baby's growth, and there are so many designs to choose from on Etsy.  Finally, her shower had everyone bring a book to start baby Everette's collection, and I couldn't choose just one! These are my favorite baby books and I love the cute humor Sandra Boynton creates.  I know baby Everette is going to be loved by so many and Chelsea and Allen are going to make the best parents!  Can't wait to meet this little dude in July!

Baby Everette's blanket

Front of the onesie box

Cute poem from Pinterest for the onesie box 

Classic baby books for Everette

Harley gave me extra snuggles on Mother's Day.  I can't wait to spend the next one with snuggling him AND a 3 month old!

Stacey made another visit into town this month!  We went out to dinner with her and Aaron to China Poblano in the Cosmo, and then met up with our other friends Erin and Jeremy at Nine Fine Irishmen in the New York New York.  The next day, we hung out at the pool at Green Valley Ranch and enjoyed the beginning of the summer heat of Vegas!

That's it for the month of May!  I have a feeling June may be a little bit lazier as we enter the fun part of our first trimester!  Stay tuned!

Ultrasound #2

The morning of our second ultrasound, I felt a complete sense of reassurance that everything was going to go well.  We went through our same routine, arrived at the office, got prepped for the abdominal ultrasound, and again, the sonographer couldn't see anything on the screen.  Come to find out, my bowel almost completely covers the front of my uterus, so that explains why it was so difficult both times to see anything with an abdominal ultrasound.  Again, I emptied my bladder and tried for the transvaginal ultrasound, instead.  Once the sonographer found the correct positioning, we were able to see our growing little bean!  The baby had grown so much in one week, it was no longer a dot on the screen, but had graduated to a tiny blob.  This time, we got to see the heart flicker with more power and advancement, and we heard the sweet, strong sound one more time at 140 beats per minute.  I could listen to that sound for every second of every day and be so, so happy.  It puts my fears at ease to know there really is a baby growing in there!  She also showed us the blood flow with both red and blue on the screen, which was so neat to see.

We moved on to look at the cyst on my ovary, which hadn't grown in size much, but also hadn't gotten much smaller.  The sonographer took lots of pictures again, yet this time, rather than having a follow up appointment immediately after, they scheduled me for another appointment in one more week to meet with the doctor to go over everything.  If seeing and hearing the heartbeat for a second time didn't ease my fears (which it definitely did), the fact that they weren't concerned with me talking to the doctor did ease those fears.  

At our follow up a week later (8 weeks, 3 days), Dr. Juarez reassured us that everything was going exactly the way it should be with baby.  The cyst had shrunk just a tiny bit, and had gone from 3 cm. to 2 1/2 cm.  He explained that this was fine and as long as it doesn't grow and I have no sudden, severe pain, then we should be good!  The best tidbit of info that I got out of our appointment was that most miscarriages happen between 6-8 weeks of early pregnancy... and we were past that point, so although he couldn't guarantee we're in the clear, we're getting pretty close!  I was hoping to hear a heartbeat again with a Doppler at this appointment, but he said it was too early along for that possibility.  We will get the chance to use the Doppler for the first time at my next appointment at the end of the month when I'm a few more weeks along (if I don't cave and buy one from Amazon before then!)

We left feeling extremely optimistic, and I had a new sense of accomplishment to know that we're so much further with this pregnancy than the last!  Although we still aren't in the clear, I know that my chances are so much better this time around and feel confident of making it to January and holding our baby in our arms!  

So, here's our first picture of our baby bean!  Meet baby Kelton at 7 weeks, 4 days!

Baby is laying horizontally on bottom, head is to the left, arm at bottom.  The top circle is the yolk sac, which apparently grows back into the baby in the upcoming weeks!

Meeting Our Little... Dot.

Our first ultrasound was scheduled about 2 weeks after I found out we were pregnant.  Although I was very grateful that we were able to have an early ultrasound this time around (most people don't receive an ultrasound until 12 weeks or later with my doctor's office), it didn't take away the extreme anxiety I had for those full 2 weeks!  I worried all the way up until the day of the ultrasound.

The afternoon came, and we went to the office just as we did in January, hoping for much different results.  The sonographer started with an abdominal ultrasound, but couldn't see anything, so we switched to a transvaginal ultrasound instead.  After emptying my bladder, I returned to the room, laid on the table to begin again, and after about ten minutes of the sonographer saying nothing, she quietly turned the screen to me, and it was at that moment I knew everything was going to be okay.  She proceeded to show us the tiniest dot on the screen, which she explained was our baby!  After moving the wand around a bit, she then asked us if we could see the small flicker on the screen.  We did, and it was exactly what we needed to see at that moment.... a heartbeat!  The sonographer turned on the speakers and we got to hear our baby dot's heartbeat.  It was faint, since I was only 6 weeks and 2 days, but it was beating at 102 beats per minute and was quite simply the best noise we've ever heard.  

She continued to finish the exam, taking pictures of my ovaries for quite some time.  She then asked me to wait for a second in the room when we were finished.  Her and the nurse came back in, telling me I needed to get bloodwork right after the appointment and that I also needed to come back for a follow up with the doctor immediately the next morning.  This had me worried, and asked the nurse if I needed to be concerned.  She explained there was no need to worry, we saw a heartbeat and that's a great thing!  Yet, it still didn't convince me that everything was okay. 

The next morning, we went back for our follow up.  Dr. Juarez went over the ultrasound, explaining the baby looks completely healthy for as far along as I am, with a good heartbeat and good measurements!  He also explained that they had found something on my left ovary.  He believes it is a corpus luteum cyst, which is very normal in many pregnancies and usually causes no harm.  It provides the hormones to maintain the pregnancy, so in most cases, they monitor the cyst and it ends up disappearing by the second trimester.  He also explained there could be an extremely small chance that along with the viable intrauterine pregnancy, there could be an ectopic pregnancy on my left side.  The chances of this are so slim that he has only seen it twice in his whole career, and the statistic of it happening to me is 1 in 20,000.  I felt comfortable knowing that it probably wasn't the case, and they scheduled me for another ultrasound the following week to watch the cyst and maintain it's growth.

I know I won't feel 100% comfortable and out of the woods until we reach the second trimester, but this is already going so much better than the last and we are trying to maintain a decent balance between excitement and reality.  Getting to see the heartbeat was extremely reassuring, and we're grateful that we get another ultrasound in a week to see our little dot again!  

Until then!

Round #2....

Here we go again....

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!!!!

Let me first just say, I'm trying to take this pregnancy a little less to heart.  I know how awful that may sound.  It's a fine line to be excited for this to happen so quickly again, but also terrifying based on what happened last time.  

We found out on Saturday, May 4th.  For a week or so before, I again had my "gut" feeling that I may be pregnant.  I had constant reflux, I found myself waaaay more emotional than normal (I cried when a girl I hated on American Idol was eliminated.. um, what?) and those very vivid, extremely detailed, terrifying dreams were coming back.  Yet, I didn't want to get my hopes up.  I had been testing every 3 days for a positive result, and still hadn't gotten a BFP until Saturday.  That morning, the faintest line appeared, but I knew that was it (see below)!  I raced over to Jason and made him confirm that my eyes were really seeing the slight line.  He agreed, and five minutes later I somehow squeezed more pee out of my bladder to test on another, this time the digital test that spelled it out for us: P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T (see above).

Seriously, the faintest line possible!

All day Saturday, I was thrilled.  Nothing could rock my world, I was pregnant again and I was extremely confident this was it!  On Sunday, reality set in.  I started panicking and found every excuse to think any symptom was a bad one.  I spent all day in the complete opposite mood as the previous 24 hours; I went frrom complete ecstasy to complete anxiety. 

Monday morning, I went to Dr. Juarez's office as soon as they opened.  He had told me the last time we met, that the next time I got pregnant, I was to get bloodwork done as soon as possible.  They got me in quickly and tested my levels for Progesterone and HCG.  I would go back Wednesday to get the second blood draw to see if my HCG went up.

While I was in the office Monday morning, one of the nurses I've spent a lot of time talking with over the last few months finally snapped me into an epiphany.  It was quick for me to realize and decide that I wasn't going to spend this pregnancy worrying about the "M" word.  If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.  It's not worth wasting my first trimester worrying over every twinge I experience.  The best thing I could do is already being done, by monitoring my blood levels, and that's it.  That's all I can do.  She told me to just enjoy it.... and so I left feeling a little bit lighter and more like how I felt Saturday morning.  This can happen.  I will have this baby!

Tuesday my progesterone levels came back at 47.3!  Both Dr. Juarez and the nurse agreed this level was great, but to continue supplementing with progesterone once a day, just in case.  On Thursday, my second draw results came back.  I was extremely nervous to get these numbers... but to my relief, my HCG had more than doubled within 48 hours!  I went from 119 on Monday to 377 on Wednesday.  We have an early ultrasound scheduled at the end of this month, so we're praying we see that yolk sac and a fetal pole!  

I'm trying to be as confident as I can this time around.  I do feel a little different than I did the last time, yet I'm not letting my guard down completely.  We're hoping and praying that this time around goes better than the last.  January 2013 was the worst, most devastating month of our lives, but we're hoping that January 2014 is going to be the absolute best month of our entire lives by welcoming our baby into this world.

Baby Kelton is due January 2014..... Here's to the next 8 months of meeting this baby!!!