Thank you so much everyone for all of your kind words and well wishes on our big announcement. The shock still hasn't worn off, but reality is definitely starting to sink in. We haven't told Brooke and Harrison yet, and we probably won't for a few more weeks. We'll wait until after the first trimester, or until they start asking why mommy's belly is getting big. Maybe they won't notice, but I know I had a definite bump by 12 weeks when I was pregnant with them.
We've been keeping our mornings busy lately, and our afternoons have been pretty quiet. Mainly because I am so worn out after chasing them around all morning. Most of my siblings are coming into town this weekend and staying for a few days, so we'll be spending a lot of time at the lake over the next week. Bring on sunshine, bonfires, and overtired kids.
Remember my post yesterday about how I thought I was carrying just one baby? Yeah, mama's intuition isn't always right. We will have two additions to our family at the end of the year. Twins again!!
Our ultrasound started out with just Dr. Bopp, the ultrasound tech, Robbie and I. We talked for a minute or two and then it was down to business. 15 seconds into the ultrasound, before we'd even seen a full view of my uterus, Dr. Bopp asked, "How do you feel about twins?" My reaction? I cried. I was so expecting to see one baby, two was a shock. It shouldn't have been, but it was.
Once we saw two healthy babies, all of the nurses came in to join us, and we had 7 adults squeezed into the ultrasound room. I absolutely love everyone at our RE's office, and it's awesome that they were all so excited for us. We had healthy heartbeats of 154 and 151. Baby A is measuring 7w3d and Baby B is measuring 7w5d. Right on target, and absolutely perfect. We go back in for a second ultrasound in two weeks, and it will probably take me that long to wrap my head around the fact that come Christmastime, we'll be a family of 6.
Once Robbie and I were in the room alone and I had gotten all my tears out, seriously I was such a mess, Robbie told me we were going to need a bigger house. I told him I needed start eating more. It looks like we have some work to do.
When we went through our first round of IVF, I knew twins were a possibility, but never really considered that we would have twins. When we found out we were expecting twins, I joined a well known pregnancy message board, and started asking all kinds of questions. All of the women were kind and welcoming to other moms of multiples.
Every once in a while a newly expectant mom or a hopefully soon to be mom would come into the group and express their desire to have twins. Then the long time members of the group would rip the soon to be mom apart for the mere mention of her desire for twins. I get it, I do. Carrying multiples automatically makes you high risk, and having multiple babies is a lot of work.
When we were going through the planning stage of our current IVF cycle, of course the possibility of twins came up. Our first cycle worked so well, and there was no reason to think this one wouldn't as well. I absolutely love having twins, so without much hesitation we jumped at the possibility to have another set. It made me think of all those moms to be who said they wanted twins. I get it. It's amazing. Having two babies is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun, and twice the blessings. Even on days when Harrison is acting like the Incredible Hulk and Brooke is tormenting him on purpose, I still love it and would do it all over again.
We will be going in for our ultrasound tomorrow morning, and will know if we are expecting one or two babies. I fully believe I am carrying one baby. I've had a few dreams about singleton babies this go round, and my symptoms have been milder so far. Maybe that means absolutely nothing, but that's where my head is at. I think I've come to terms with a singleton this go round, so I will be pretty shocked if we see more than one tomorrow.
Robbie on the other hand is dead set it's twins again, and wants to hear nothing of the possibility it's not. He loves parenting twins as much as I do, and he's ready to do it all over again.
A few weeks ago, before anyone other than us knew we were pregnant, I was at lunch with on of my best girlfriends. Harrison and Brooke were playing with Hot Wheels cars and coloring on their menus. They were behaving, and we were enjoying conversation without the constant interruption of a fussy child who needed something. I had my first "oh shit" moment of this pregnancy. Realizing how settled we are in our life and routines. How easy it is to decide to grab lunch last minute, and take an hour out of our day. A baby is going to change that, which is amazing and scary at the same time. Two more babies will really change it. I literally thought, "What did we do," and then I realized we sat in that exact restaurant when H and B were 4 months old. I nursed them, they dozed in their car seats, and a beer, pizza, and conversation were enjoyed then too.
I know this is kind of a bunch of rambling, but I have a lot on my mind tonight. Tomorrow is a big day, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on potential outcomes. Either way, I know we've got this.
I hope all of you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend. We didn't do much, in fact the kids ran around in their underwear all day today. :)
Thank you to all of the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice for this great country. We remember and celebrate your lives today.
How Far Along - 7 weeks Total Weight Gain - No weight gain since our positive beta. I did gain 3 pounds during our IVF cycle, but I'm going to pretend that doesn't count. Maternity Clothes - Not yet, although I did order a few new maternity tanks and tees when Gap had them on sale for $8.00. I can still still fit in most of my clothes without a problem. My favorite mid rise Express jeans have been on the hair tie program since about 5 weeks, Sleep - A mix of insomnia and super sound sleep. I've had a couple nights with random 3 am wake ups that keep me up until 5am. otherwise it's in bed by 10pm and awake whenever the kids get up, around 7am. Cravings - Carbs. carbs. amd more carbs. If it were up to this belly, all I would eat would be everything bagels smothered with cream cheese. I've been trying to not eat all the carbs, so things like breakfast burritos or bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches have been stepping in. Can you tell I'm all about breakfast food? Symptoms - Tired all the time. By 9 am I'm already ready for a nap. Thank goodness H and B give me some downtime each day. All day nausea. I thankfully haven't been sick yet, but I feel queasy all day. If I'm not eating, I feel sick, and it doesn't matter how much, how little, or what I eat. I just always feel sick. My boobs were the first indicator I was pregnant, but that's all I'm going to say about that. :) Headaches have reared their ugly head the last couple days too. Purchases - Aside from the amazing deal from Gap, nope. No purchases until after our ultrasound, and really, we already have everything. I anticipate very few purchases this go round. Miss Anything - Feeling normal, and Grapefruit Shandy. Looking Forward To - Our ultrasound on Tuesday! I can't wait to see if there is one or two beans growing in there. I'm also hoping we get the green light to stop estrogen and progesterone on Tuesday.
My babies turned 3 on Saturday! I know, right?! How is that possible? Well, it definitely happened and we set out to make the whole day special for them. Thursday night after they hit the sack, We decorated their doorway with balloons, wrapped their gifts, put out their new bikes, and went to bed early.
They are usually out of their room between 7:15 and 7:30, so we set our alarms for 7am so we could be up before them. Sure enough, at 6:45 I heard them coming out of their room. I jumped out of bed, grabbed my phone, and ran over to their door. I missed the balloons falling in, but I did manage to catch them crawling through the crepe paper. Then I told them to run through it, which was probably as much fun for them as the balloons.
They had cinnamon rolls with candles accompanied by our rendition of Happy Birthday for breakfast, and then it was onto presents.There was some naked bike riding that happened around the living room. Then came clothes and our first attempt at tricycling outside.
Brooke took to pedaling right away, while Harrison much prefers to use hit feet on the pavement to move forward. They did get helmets from Grandma and Grandpa, so all subsequent tricycle trips will be accompanied with safety gear.
We decided for their party to skip a theme and decorations. As much as I love a themed party, we decided to put our time and money to better use, and we rented a bounce house. The rental guys weren't supposed to show up until 3, but we got the call at 10am that they were ready to come set up. 5 extra hours with the bounce house? Yes please!
humidity and her hair equals crazy curls
Brooke and Harrison spent the rest of the morning in the bounce house. I joined them for a few bounces and a trip or two down the slide, and then I headed inside to bake cakes. We let them pick out their own cakes. Harry picked out chocolate marble, and Brooke went with pink velvet. She wanted a pink and purple cake, so a bright pink cake with purple icing is what she got. Robbie stayed outside and played with the kids all morning. Jules kept trying to get in on the action too. After a while we just gave up and let her play.
After naps we were straight back into the bounce house. Their party started at 5 and went until late. We decided to do a hot dog bar for their party because it's super easy and we could prep everything the day before. All I had to do was throw side dishes in the oven, and put everything on the table. Robbie manned the grill, so he was still able to enjoy our guests while preparing food. Harrison has decided he loves hot dogs. Brooke has decided she doesn't like anything anymore, not even mac and cheese. She did ask for cucumbers and cake at her party, so she ate veggies, a plate full of bacon, and cake.
Brooke and Harrison were asleep by 9pm, and completely worn out from the fun of their day. Most of the kids were gone by then, so we lit the chiminea, had a few drinks, and spent the rest of the night on the patio, and in the bounce house. We definitely had as much fun as the kids did, and maybe even a little more. Alcohol, not for me, friends, and a bounce house are a good combination.
I expected to be a little emotional about them turning three, but the only time I got misty eyed is when I first looked through the pictures for the photo wall. I'm glad these hormones are staying in check. They go in today for their 3 year check up, so I'll have a three year update post coming up soon, and maybe even a post that isn't completely about the kids or IVF. One can hope, right? ;)
Hello to my severely neglected corner of the interwebs. I have lots of posts I want to get done, like Harrison and Brooke's birthday party from the weekend, but sleep has become a major priority around here. I've been taking full advantage of nap time, and have been crawling into bed shortly after the kids go to bed at 8:30 each night. That doesn't leave much time for blogging. My DVR is also rather neglected, but one of these days I'll spend nap time watching those last 4 episodes of "Reign" instead of curling up in bed with the dogs.
This morning it's cold outside, as in cold enough I had to turn the heat on, so Harrison and Brooke are getting to watch a movie while I blog instead of catching up on laundry. One of their birthday gifts was "The Land Before Time," which happens to be their dad's favorite movie ever. So they're curled up with blankets on the couch meeting Little Foot, Ducky, and the rest of the crew for the first time. For the record, they made it 30 minutes in and then we moved on to Play Doh.
Brooke and Harrison's birthday is coming up this weekend, so I've been scouring through the last year of pictures. I've discovered a couple things.
1. I am so thankful for this blog. My old laptop gave up on life about 6 months ago. All of the pictures on that laptop had been backed up onto a flash drive. Well that flash drive died, so now the old laptop is back in the shop so they can try and pull all of my old files again. I was able to pull most of my favorite pictures from the blog, so I know they aren't all lost if they can't recover them.
2. I need to do a better job of backing up all of my files. All of my newer pictures are all backed up onto CDs, but I need to do it with the old files if they are able to recover them. Time to purchase more CDs or give up my aversion to backing it all up on the cloud.
3. As much as I hate dragging my DSLR with me everywhere, I'm so glad I'm going this 365 challenge. I have so many more great pictures of H and B from the second half of this year than I do the first. I know we aren't even half way through the year, but I already know I want to do this again next year. Probably with a more even split of iPhone and camera pics though.
Thank you so much for all of your kind words and well wishes on our pregnancy! I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that we are actually pregnant, my body however is already reminding me. IVF bloat plus a pregnancy after twins means I'm already rocking that "is she pregnant or did she have too many beers" look. Really it just looks like I had too many beers. ;)
Onto our weekend. We had busy mornings all last week filled with appointments and mornings at work. Friday was the only day with nothing scheduled, so what did we do? If you guessed got out of the house early, you'd be right. We hit up the park and Target right out of the gate. By 10:45 we were all hungry, so it was off to Chipotle for early lunch. Then we went to Meijer, the whole reason we left the house, to pick up supplies for a Saturday night party. Friday evening was pretty chill, and we spent it eating leftovers and hanging out at home.
I woke up bright and early Saturday morning, so I made my work trip into the daycare and picked up Dunkin Donuts before the kids were even awake. Yeah, I was feeling pretty accomplished. Harrison and Brooke got in a lot of tablet time after breakfast while I cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen.
We made a couple more daycare trips, took naps, picked up balloons, and before we knew it, it was party time. Our friend David turns 30 today, (Happy Birthday, David!!) so we helped his wife host a surprise party for him. Brooke and Harrison were so excited to say surprise. They had been talking about the party all week, since we picked out a card, so we let them stay up late and enjoy the festivities.
We had a hot dog bar, amazing side dishes provided by our peeps, and lots of beer for those partaking. One of David's friends made a fabulous chocolate peanut butter cake. It was amazing, and I'm still thinking about the peanut butter icing. We played Guesstures, and I called it a night around 12:30. I think the party went until about 3:00 and judging from the lack of beer left in the cooler, I think everyone had a good time.
Harrison and Brooke were of course up by 7:30 on Sunday. Since Rob didn't come to bed until almost 4, we vacated the house early so he could sleep. Daycare trips, a park visit, and breakfast with my littles filled our morning. Someone at breakfast was kind enough to pay for our meal. I thought it was our friends we ran into, but they swore it wasn't them, so thank you to the lovely person(s) who paid for our breakfast. That was so sweet of you!
I was definitely in need of a nap, so we all took naps in the afternoon and then headed to Biaggi's in the evening for dinner. Italian food is always the way to my heart, although so is Mexican food. Brooke and Harrison filled up on bread and refused to eat the mac and cheese they so wanted. They were really good for the entire meal even though they were done eating before our food ever arrived. Three trips to check out the bathroom and two to go desserts later, we were headed home. H and B were asleep by 9, and I wasn't too far behind.
I hope all of you had a fabulous Mother's Day. Whether you're already a mom, play the role of mom, are a dog mom, are an expecting mom, or you are a mom in your heart and still waiting on your miracle, know that you are loved and appreciated every day, and especially yesterday. An extra special Mother's Day wish to my mom and my MIL! We love both of you so much!
I wasn't sure if I was going to test at home or not. I really thought I wanted to wait until our beta, but one trip to Target changed my mind. I started testing at 2dp5dt, 2 days past 5 day transfer, which equates to 7DPO, 7 days past ovulation. I thought I would still have some HCG from our trigger injection in my system, and sure enough I did. I got a faint positive followed by a full negative on 3dp5dt. After a full negative I knew any lines on a test would mean we were pregnant. Low and behold, faint line on 4dp5dt. We were pretty excited, but still cautious. 5dp5dt brought an even darker line. YAY!
I continued testing up until the day before our beta, and in all honesty that was a mistake. I started reading into the darkness of the lines too much. 7dp5dt was lighter than 6dp5dt, and all of the bad possibilites entered my mind. Then came Dr. Google which is always a bad idea. I bought more tests which did help to ease my mind. Seeing the word pregnant on a Clear Blue didgital test helps to put things into perspective. I am pregnant. Enjoy it. Stop worrying.
Monday morning I went in for our first beta. I got the call from my doctor at 4pm that afternoon that we were pregnant. Our first number came in at 230 which was a great starting point. My mind eased up a little after that call. I went in for a repeat yesterday, and our HCG was up to 423 and progesterone was over 40. Ok, now it's becoming real.
We have almost 3 weeks until we go in for our first ultrasound, which seems like forever but I know will be here in the blink of an eye. We are waiting to tell Brooke and Harrison about the baby until then. Tonight we get to do my last progesterone injection, which is cause enough to celebrate. YAY! The suppositories that replace the injection are not so great, but it's better than an inch and a half long needle in my butt cheek each night. So far I'm feeling good. A little extra tired, and a lot of extra thankful that H and B still take daily naps.
We went out for an early Mother's Day dinner with our parents and shared the news with them this evening. Now that they know, we are ready to share it with the world. Even though we're not even 5 weeks along yet, we're ready to enjoy this pregnancy. Welcome to the family baby, or babies!
I don't have much to say about this week other than it has been a good one. I have to work a few mornings at the daycare this week, and it's been a welcome reprieve. Sometimes having 30 dogs who all want your attention but don't speak, is a nice break from two almost 3 year olds who are never quiet and very often tell you to leave them alone. Having a morning away from the kids makes me enjoy our afternoons so much more. Yesterday my mom performed some kind of voodoo on them that equated to three hour naps. For once, we all woke up rested and in a good mood after nap time.
4.30.2015 - Nutella smile + ballon = pure joy
5.1.2015 - bubbles
5.2.2015 - Jules, the pillow
5.3.2015 - fishing pro
5.4.2015 - stars in her eyes
5.5.2015 - lolipop, lolipop
5.6.2015 - serious goat brushing, aka death stare part 2
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