24 Weeks!

This week I am 24 weeks pregnant! Baby is about 11.8" long and weighs about 1.3 lbs!  Less than 4 weeks of our first trimester remain!  This week Olivia's skin is starting to look less see-through and more like what we will see when she joins us in March.

We had our 24 week appointment on Monday.  Everything is looking great!  At our appointments they check my urine for sugar and infection, check my blood pressure, measure my fundal height, and check Oliva's heartbeat.  My doctor also checks for swelling, asks about any symptoms I am having, and answers any questions I have.  They give me a Dixie cup to pee in.  No plastic cup with a lid, just a Dixie cup, and then I have to carry it back to the exam room.  It is my nightmare to walk into the hall and either trip or run into someone and have my pee go everywhere.  Luckily that has not happened.  Yet.  Fingers crossed.  Everything is looking great and right on track!

I've tried to include all the pregnancy symptoms I've experienced, but one thing I have forgot to mention was what the hormones have done to my emotional state.  Also, pregnancy brain has been getting pretty bad lately (maybe I've already mentioned that?  I can't remember.  But either way, that's probably why I have forgotten to talk about the crying).  I'm not normally much of a crier.  Every once in a while, a really touching or sad moment in a movie will make me tear up, but now that I'm pregnant, it doesn't take much to get me to tear up.  It no longer takes a really sad or powerful movie, a Barbie movie will do the trick.  Yep, I was watching a Barbie movie with Nola, and it made me tear up.  Also, Nola loves looking at pictures and videos on our phones.  Marissa took a video at our gender reveal party of the moment we cut the cake (yes, I was tearing up as we were cutting the cake, too).  Now when Nola replays the video, which is most days, multiple times, it makes me tear up.  It was a very special moment, but you'd think after the third or fourth time of hearing it, I'd get used to it.

I bought a man coat this week.  I have a couple maternity sweaters, but none of my coats zip up anymore.  I was having a hard time with the idea of spending money on a new coat that I will only wear for a few months, but it has been really cold.  So when we were at Costco this weekend and I saw a big, warm looking man coat for $30, I bought one.  $30 is totally worth it, even though it looks like a shapeless dress.

 24 weeks!



 

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to share what I am thankful for this holiday season.  I am so thankful to be married to Tim.  He has been so wonderful and so supportive throughout our pregnancy journey.  He comes to all my appointments with me, does most of the chores, scoops the kitty litter, wakes up with Willie in the middle of the night, and the few mornings we have had ice so far, I have come outside to see that my windshield has already been scraped!  I am thankful to have our wonderful families to spend the holidays with and our loving pets to come home to.  I am thankful for a lot of things, but this holiday season I am most thankful for the little life that is growing in my belly.  She is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to us, and yes, I am tearing up just thinking about her (damn pregnancy hormones!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Kaylee

Getting Pregnant - Part 4

Our first trimester

Miscarriage is something that has always scared me.  When I read more about it and found out how common it really is, I was even more worried.  We were finally pregnant and we already loved our baby so much. A couple weeks after finding out I was pregnant I started spotting.  Bleeding during pregnancy is never a good sign.  It's not always a bad sign, but it's never good.  In the first trimester, it is relatively common to have some spotting, but miscarriage is also pretty common early in pregnancy.  Needless to say, I was worried and scared.  I talked to my doctor and he asked us to come in the next morning to have an ultrasound. 

I tried to keep a positive attitude but after having problems with my progesterone levels, I feared we were losing our baby.  After a long sleepless night, we drove up to OHSU for our ultrasound.  I was 5 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  Our doctor explained to us that this early in pregnancy, we may not be able to see the embryo, and if we could see the embryo, we may not be able to see a heartbeat yet.  If we couldn't see the embryo, or we could see the embryo but not the heartbeat, we wouldn't really know if our baby was ok, so this wasn't good news.

We got started with the ultrasound, and right away the doctor said, "there's the embryo!".  We could see our baby for the first time, which was amazing, but we wanted to know our baby was ok.  Luckily, the good news didn't end there.  The next thing our doctor pointed out was our baby's heartbeat.  Within the little tiny blip that was our baby, we could see the heart, beating away.  It was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced.  Tears flooded our eyes as we watched our baby.  We were relieved, excited, thankful, and overwhelmed.  This was without a doubt the best moment of my life!

In the first trimester the heart rate (like the size of the baby) is generally the same in all babies.  In the 5th week of pregnancy the heart rate should be 80-103 bpm.  Our baby's heartbeat measured at 90 bpm, which was great!  Each week the heart rate increases.  After 12 weeks the heart rate will level out or drop and then will remain relatively constant through the remainder of the pregnancy.  After checking for any sources of bleeding in the uterus, the doctor explained that everything was looking great and that in the first trimester, bleeding can occur due to all the extra blood flow to the cervix that occurs during pregnancy. 

We got several pictures to take home, and left relieved and incredibly happy.  I didn't like calling our baby "it" so we nicknamed her "Peanut" early on in the pregnancy.  That is what we called her for the first 20 weeks, until we learned she was a "she".  Sometimes I still call her Peanut, since I did for so long and am so used to it.

That little blip in the dark area is

our precious baby.

We had another ultrasound scheduled for 10 days later.  Our doctor explained that if baby is measuring correctly and the heartbeat increased like it should, it's a good milestone.  I always found it hard to pass the time between ultrasounds.  I wish I could have had one every day to check on our baby.  But 10 days later, all we got was more good news.  Our baby was measuring right on track, and the heartbeat increased to 141bpm.  Not only could we see her heart beating away, but this time we got to hear her heartbeat.  We could also see little tiny arms and legs.

Growing babe!

After seeing that our baby was growing strong, we wanted to tell Tim's family we were expecting.  They were soooo excited!  Tim is the oldest of his 3 siblings and Olivia will be the first baby of the family.  On his dad's side, she will be the first great-grandbaby.  Our kids will have awesome aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides and we feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Since everything was now going smoothly, I was referred to Salem Clinic.  It was nice to finally have an OB and to be going to a doctor in Salem.  I did another glucose test, had a blood test done to check a variety of other things, and had another ultrasound done.  I was 8 weeks and 4 days along, and everything looked great!  I was rarely bleeding anymore, and when I did I just had to remind myself that it wasn't a problem, and that our baby was ok.  Tim and I both really like our doctor.  He listens to all my questions and never makes us feel rushed.  Since everything was going smoothly, we had a first trimester ultrasound scheduled to get a closer look at everything and had monthly appointments set up.  The rest of our first trimester went much more smoothly. 

At 10 weeks and 4 days along we had our first trimester ultrasound.  Baby's heartbeat was 170 bpm and we got to see her little arms and legs moving around, which was awesome!  At our 12 week appointment the nurse wasn't able to find the heart beat with the doppler, which is common at 12 weeks, but still really scary.  They scheduled an ultrasound for 4 hours later to check on baby, but that was too much for me, and I broke down crying.  After all we had been through, I simply could not handle waiting 4 hours to see if our baby was still with us.  Our doctor wasn't in the office that day, but luckily the nurse talked to another doctor that was there and she graciously took the time to give us a quick ultrasound between two of her appointments.  As soon as the ultrasound began we saw our baby moving around.  That was all we needed to know that our baby was doing well, but the doctor didn't rush.  She took the time to let us watch our baby and took a couple measurements to see that everything was on track.  I felt so taken care of and so relieved.  If our doctor is not available when our baby is born, the doctor that gave us the ultrasound that day will likely be the one to deliver our baby, so it was good to meet her, and she was so wonderful that we know we will be taken care of either way.

Tim and I feel so, so lucky.  We have fertility issues and we had a couple scares in our first trimester, but I am now 24 weeks along and our baby girl is still growing strong.  We can't wait for her to get here and see that she is healthy and happy.  I don't think that my anxiety will completely go away until she is here in my arms, but at least now I am comforted by her kicks throughout the day.

~Kaylee

Willie

Tim and I have 4 pets: two dogs (Willie and Dora) and two cats (Peaches and Lucy).  Tim has had Dora for over 4 years (since before I knew him).  She is an 80lb lab/pit mix and she is a wonderful, loving companion.  She is a nurturer and is always checking on us. When she does something wrong, she bows her head in shame until we forgive her and tell her it's ok.  It's like she really cares how we feel.  I love our big, patient, cuddle bug.

Dora Eleanor

I love cats (Tim calls me a crazy cat lady).  Right after we bought our house, we adopted two 9 month old sisters.  They aren't very social (our vet told us that socializing needs to happen by 6 months) and they generally hide if there are strangers at our house or if we are making noise, but I love my crazy cats.

Peaches and Lucy

I love all of our animals very, very much.  While I wouldn't say that I love Willie more than Dora, Peaches, or Lucy, he does have an extra special place in my heart.  Tim and I had thought about getting a friend for Dora before, since she spends her days in our yard alone while we are at work, but we kept coming to the conclusion that we didn't need the extra work a puppy brings.  While we were going through fertility treatments, I went through periods or stress, anxiousness, and depression.  I wanted a baby so badly.  I was ready for one but the drugs just weren't working and that was hard and upsetting.  Tim and I started talking about puppies again, and I became puppy crazy.  Tim likes big dogs and thought he'd like a Samoyed, but since we already had a big dog, I was hoping for something a little smaller, something that wasn't stronger than me.  We came across American Eskimo dogs, which look like miniature Samoyeds!  I started looking for breeders and found one that had a litter of puppies, and when I saw Willie's little baby face, I instantly fell in love.

Baby Willie.

Obviously I had to have him.

We got Willie from the breeder a few weeks later, when he was old enough to leave his mom. I held him and snuggled him the whole way home, about a 3 hour drive.  He liked to be carried around (like a baby, of course) and whined when he was alone.  Dora took to him right away, and Willie warmed up to her as soon as he figured out she wasn't going to eat him.  He was my little, fluffy, 6lb baby, and although I never stopped thinking about our struggles and hoping for a (human) baby, Willie definitely helped me get through those times.

Snuggling with Daddy

Me and the Will

 

Nap time

 

Willie is full grown now at 10 months old and 15lbs.  He's still my snuggle bug and still likes to be held like a baby.  He has quite the personality.  He thinks he is bigger than Dora and tries to boss her around.  He loves to play and sleep.  Don't try to move him while he is sleeping, though, even if he is on your lap.  He doesn't like that.  Although you can tell he loves us by the way he follows us around and snuggles, it is clear that he isn't as concerned about pleasing us the way Dora is.  He's more of a pet me, feed me, play with me now kind of guy.

He LOVES popcorn and ice.  And his food, Dora's food, and the cats' food.  Really any type of food or anything he perceives to be edible.  He once broke into a new bag of Dora's food and ate, well, about 5lbs worth.  We didn't realize what he'd done, but he wasn't sleeping well that night and his belly was huge and hard.  When we picked him up, he would cry.  We weighed him and he was almost 20lbs.  Tim and I were really worried about him.  We each took a turn during the work day to go home and check on him.  After a couple ginormous poops and throwing up on the carpet, he started to perk up a bit.  Then we saw the hole in the bag of food.  It didn't take us long to put 2 and 2 together. 

Whatever Willie sees that he thinks might be edible, he eats.  He's a bit of a trouble maker, but I love him.  I still loved him after he got car sick in my Jeep (between the seat and the center console - worst place ever), after he ate an entire cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper (and threw it up), after he chewed up one of his brand new toys and ate it (and threw it up) and each night when he wakes us up (we are counting on Olivia to annoy the crap out of him while he is trying to sleep - revenge).  I guess you could say Willie is teaching us patience and unconditional love before we have a child to clean up after, watch constantly to make sure they don't hurt themselves, and teach right from wrong.  Willie will always be my baby and I am so appreciative of his companionship.

Big Willie!

Still loves nap time

 

 And he will forever and ever be my baby

~Kaylee

p.s. A big thank you to Tim for taking care of Big Will.  I know the deal was that I was going to wake up at night to take him outside half the time, but I appreciate you putting this mama's rest ahead of your own to do it every night.  You're my hero <3

23 Weeks!

This week I am 23 weeks pregnant! Baby is about 11.4" long and weighs about 1.1lbs! She now weighs over a pound!!  This week she is forming nipples and her face is fully formed (just needs some filling out).  She is listening to my voice and my heartbeat <3

I feel baby girl kick at pretty regular intervals now.  She is kicking low in my abdomen and often hits my bladder.  I don't sleep much these days.  I'm either waking up to pee or because of all the weird dreams I've been having.  I've started getting leg cramps and lower back pain.  That combined with my growing belly makes it nearly impossible to get comfortable.  It seems like my belly has grown a lot in the last few weeks! 

Nola likes talking to the baby every day.  She often says "hello" to the baby before she says "hello" to me and she's always putting her hands on my belly.  This weekend she got really close to my belly and said "I love you, baby".  My niece is the cutest ever.  She's keeps saying she wants to hold the baby, and I tell her that the baby has to grow and get bigger before she comes and we can hold her.  I'm excited to see her reaction when Olivia gets here and she finally gets to hold her.  She's also excited to go to Disneyland and go on rides with the baby.  We hear about that every day, too.  Tim and I are planning a road trip down to California next May so that we can visit Tim's family (only his parents and siblings live in Oregon).  My family is also coming down to spend 5 days with us at Disneyland (my favorite place).

Olivia is going to dress up as Belle when

we are in Disneyland!

23 weeks!

Less than 4 months to go!

~Kaylee

Getting Pregnant - Part 3

A lucky break

10 days after I should have ovulated, I woke up around 5am and decided I couldn't wait any longer.  Tim wanted to wait to test until my missed period when the test would almost certainly be accurate.  Patience?  What's that?  So I got out of bed as quietly as possible and took the test.  I went out to the kitchen for the excruciating 3 minute wait, just in case Tim woke up.  After 3 minutes, I looked at the test, hoping to see a second line.  To my surprise, I did!

Testing so early, the line was bound to be faint since there hadn't been much time for the hormones to build up.  Were my eyes deceiving me?  I spent several minutes looking at the test.  I would look away, then look again.  I took a picture of it and checked the picture.  I walked back to our bathroom and checked again.  There was definitely a line.  A faint, but oh so beautiful line.  And I couldn't believe it.  After all the sadness and stress we had been through in the past year, after we had found the right drugs it took just one month, one try, for us to get lucky.  So very lucky.  I was 3 weeks and 2 days pregnant.

It's faint but it's there!

There was still a part of me that assumed the worse and thought it might be a false positive or that some of the shot still remained in my system.  I tried to be cautiously optimistic, but I was ecstatic.  I decided not to share the news with Tim yet.  If it were a false positive, I didn't want him to be disappointed.  I wanted to be sure when I shared the wonderful news with him.  I was protecting him.

After all this time it was so incredibly hard not to talk about it and to contain my excitement.  When I got home from work I took another test.  Yep, still pregnant.  But I still couldn't believe it.  The next morning I woke up early again (how does one sleep while waiting on this kind of news?!?) and tested yet again.  There was definitely still a line, and it appeared to be getting darker.  On my way to work I called my doctor's office at OHSU to tell them I had positive pregnancy tests and asked what I should do and they asked me to come in for blood work.  Ok, enough is enough.  I wasn't going to make secret trips to Portland and keep Tim in the dark any longer, so I called him and asked if he could go to OHSU with me.  I picked him up and he asked why we were going.  And that's how my husband found out we were expecting a baby.  Not how I had planned it, but that's how it happened.  He couldn't believe I had kept it from him, and I am sure next time we are trying to get pregnant he will keep tabs on my pregnancy test supply.

After the blood work was done we had to go back to work and wait for the results.  Around 2 in the afternoon (over 4 hours later!) they finally called and confirmed that I was pregnant (cause, you know, all those tests could be wrong)!  My HCG level (the pregnancy hormone) was 32.5 and my progesterone level was 7.5.  We were pregnant!  I was still testing obsessively to make sure I was still pregnant and trying to analyze whether the line was getting darker or not.  At one point I thought I saw the line get lighter, and that stressed me out.  Next time around, I am going to have to have a limited supply of tests (and Tim will have to take away my credit card and cash so that I can't buy any more). 

2 days later we went back up to OHSU to have blood work done again.  Every 48 the amount of the HCG in your system should double, which is why they do two tests, two days apart.  I read that around 50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, half of those occurring so early women normally don't realize they were pregnant.  If the amount of HCG doubles, it is a good sign that things are progressing normally.  After the longest 4 hours (since two days ago) I got the call and found out that my HCG level had risen to 68, which was great news!

Unfortunately, my progesterone level had dropped to about 5.  Quite simply, progesterone keeps you pregnant.  It has several functions before and during pregnancy, but you cannot sustain a pregnancy without it.  I was prescribed progesterone suppositories (fun!) to start right away.  It's hard to describe what I was feeling right then.  I was so excited that I was pregnant, but there was a definite possibility we could lose our precious baby if my progesterone levels didn't rise.  I left work to get the prescription filled right away.  I was instructed to take two pills per day and was given the ok to take two that evening.  All we could do was try to stay calm and hope that it worked.
I was hoping that we would receive good news (and only good news) and that we would share it with my family that evening.  I had ideas of how we would tell them, but nothing seemed right anymore.  We were still so excited but also scared.  We wanted to remain optimistic, so we decided to tell my family.  Because of the circumstances, it felt best to just tell them and forget about all the cutesy crap that doesn't really matter.  When we arrived at my parents house, we were greeted by my parents and Maiken.  I didn't have a plan of what I was going to say anymore, so I just went up to Maiken and said "Guess what?  There's a baby in my belly!"  He has been around pregnancy before and understands the concept, so he was excited.  My parents were surprised and excited and we shared hugs.  We explained to them that we needed everyone to keep their fingers crossed for our little baby.  I then found my sister and niece to tell them the news.

All weekend it was so hard to think about anything else.  I read about people having to take progesterone and having successful pregnancies, so I knew all hope was not lost and that I just needed to be optimistic.  Monday morning we had a third set of tests done and received good news!  My HCG levels continued to rise, which meant our baby was still with us, and my progesterone levels had risen and were now at the low end of the normal range.  The suppositories were working so I was instructed to keep taking them twice a day through 12 weeks. 

I am so thankful that I tested so early and was able to get started on the progesterone right away.  My impatience had paid off and possibly saved our baby's life.  When the nurse called we also found out our due date: March 16, 2014!  This also happens to be my 25th birthday!  Best. Birthday present. Ever.

~Kaylee

Gender Reveal Party

A couple of weeks ago Tim and I threw a gender reveal party.  It was so much fun to be able to share the news with both our families at the same time!  Many couples wait to find out the gender until their gender reveal party, with everyone else.  Tim and I were not patient enough to do that.  I was counting down the days, and then the hours, until we could see our baby and hopefully find out the gender.  While it would have been fun to find out with everyone else, we couldn't wait any longer and we appreciated having that moment to ourselves.  I also broke down crying when the ultrasound tech told us our baby was a girl.  I was shocked.  Part of me had a feeling I was having a girl, but there are so many boys on Tim's side of the family that most of us were convinced it would be a boy.  We both would have been thrilled either way, but I am so excited to have a girl!

I found the design for the elephant decorations on Etsy, then I printed everything at home and spent a few weeks cutting everything out and assembling the decorations.  It was a nice project to keep me busy while I was anxiously awaiting our ultrasound and I was really happy with how it all turned out.  We had a cake made with pink frosting on the inside to announce the news. 

Tissue paper pom poms my sister and I made

Tissue paper tassels I made

 

Voting table

Pink lemonade and blue Hawaiian punch

Homemade chocolate covered pretzels and cupcakes

Cake from Roth's

Jars and paper straws. Love!

 Me, Dora, Tim and Willie

Pink!!!!!!!!!!

It was so much fun seeing everyone's reactions!

~Kaylee

22 Weeks!

This week I am 22 weeks pregnant! Baby is about 10.9" long and weighs about 15.2 ounces! Since she is about half as long as she will be when she is born but only weighs about a pound, she is a skinny babe (like all babies at this point).  I read that her skin is all wrinkly but will be filling out now as she starts gaining weight more rapidly.

Since what I eat has some impact on how her taste buds develop now that she is drinking amniotic fluid, I have been trying to eat more of a variety of things.  Tim and I are both very picky.  Among other things, I don't eat mammals.  Tim stays away from most things cheesy or creamy.  We have both been working on not saying "ewww" or acting disgusted at each other's foods as we are hoping to introduce our kids to many things and would love it if they weren't as picky as us.  It's quite the task (why does his steak have to BLEED?) so we decided to start  working on it early :)

I still crave candy.  Jolly Ranchers and Twix are my faves (neither of which I ate before getting pregnant).  I'm still about 10lbs down from my pre-pregnancy weight.  But I have been going to the gym more often.  After a very lazy and exhausting first trimester I am TRYING to get back in the habit so that when baby girl gets here and I can eat normally again (I'm assuming this isn't permanent, right?) I will have already adopted some healthy habits.  Gotta get my butt in shape before Olivia learns to run!

22 weeks!

~Kaylee

Getting Pregnant - Part 2

If at first you don't succeed, try (and try, and try...) again

About a week after our ultrasound at Salem Hospital I got a call from OHSU informing me that I had a dermoid cyst in my right ovary that needed to be removed.  To give you an idea of how big it was, ovaries are supposed to be about the size of a walnut.  The cyst inside my ovary was the size of an orange.  Not good.  I found out that I might lose my ovary.  The good new is that this type of cyst is almost always benign.  It is made up of skin and different kinds of cells (pretty nasty things, I think) but is something that was present in me at birth and didn't grow or become a problem until this point. 

Finding out I had to have surgery and that we would have to take a few months off trying to get pregnant was very upsetting to me.  I am very lucky in many ways, but medically I wasn't dealt the best deck of cards.  This would be my 9th surgery.  I was born with hydrocephalus (something I will have to occasionally have surgery for for the rest of my life) and back pain with an unknown cause.  In December I was diagnosed with PCOS, and while this is something that can be treated with drugs, dealing with it and the fertility issues that come along with it, well, sucks.  And then in January, I find out I have to have surgery AGAIN for another stupid thing I was born with.  Mmk, I'll admit it.  I'm bitter at times.  I try not to think about it too much and concentrate on all the positive things in my life, all the things that make me incredibly lucky. 

You'd think that after having surgery so many times I'd be used to it.  I've never had any complications with surgery.  Dealing with the pain afterward sucks, but I've come to realize what really scares me is being put under general anesthetic.  I hate it.  I hate saying goodbye to my parents, or this time my husband, as they wheel me out of the prep room and I'm waiting to fall asleep.  The scariest thing in the world to me is that I may not wake up.  I may never get to see the people I love so much again. 

Of course, I did wake up, just like I always have.  Tim took a really embarrassing picture of me giving a thumbs up when they wheeled me back into the recovery room and sent it to my parents to let them know I was awake.  I told him it was rude to take advantage of me when I didn't even know what was happening and was so NOT photogenic...  The surgery went well and they were able to save most of my ovary.  Woo-hoo!  I spent the next couple weeks drugged up recovering.  The only thing on my mind was healing up so we could start trying to make a baby again!

A couple months later we were given the ok to start fertility drugs again. The first 5 cycles were unsuccessful in producing a quality follicle, so I wasn't even ovulating.  My doctor took us up to 150mg of Clomid before deciding to try Letrozole.  I've heard of some people taking higher doses of Clomid, but my doctor didn't think it was going to work for me.  The fourth round ultrasound showed one follicle that was still too small.  We hoped that it would continue to grow and that I would ovulate.  I even had a positive ovulation test for the first time, so my body was at least trying.  The ovulation predictor tests measure a hormone that is released before ovulation.  It doesn't tell you if you have ovulated, it tells you that in the next couple days, you should ovulate (which is much more useful when trying to get pregnant).  By tracking my temperature I was able to see that there was no rise, so I knew that I hadn't ovulated.  I had a blood test to confirm and then started the 5th round of drugs.

1st round: 12/6/12, 50mg Clomid (before surgery)
2nd round: 3/1/13, 50mg Clomid
3rd round: 4/3/13, 100mg Clomid
4th round: 4/26/13, 150mg Clomid
5th round: 5/31/13, 5mg Letrozole

Before starting the 6th round of drugs I asked to be put on Metformin, which is something my doctor and I had discussed previously.  Metformin is a drug that is used to treat diabetes, but can also be helpful in controlling PCOS.  I had a glucose test done when I started going to OHSU since many people with PCOS also have diabetes, but, thankfully, my blood sugar was normal.  Since Metformin can help treat PCOS, some women have luck taking it while trying to get pregnant.  Sometimes taking Metformin for several months by itself can be enough to get things working.  Other times adding fertility drugs after several months of taking Metformin is successful.  I decided I wanted to start taking it because I wanted to start the waiting period.  My doctor prescribed it to me that day and I also started taking our 6th and final round of fertility drugs.  7.5mg of Letrozole was as high as my doctor wanted to go.  If it didn't work, our options were to see if Metformin had any effect over time, try the hormone shots, or in vitro.

On June 20th, we went in for our mid cycle ultrasound and saw not one, but TWO mature follicles.  The drugs had worked, and we were ecstatic!  There's no way to tell if the Metformin had an impact and was the reason that the fertility drugs finally started working.  We were told it would take a few months for it to really work, but I had read stories of other people who had the same results adding Metformin.  I definitely didn't regret starting it.  This was our first real chance to get pregnant! 

Our doctor informed us that since there were two follicles, we had about a 10% chance of having twins.  He asked us if that was ok with us and if we wanted to continue.  Of course, we said yes.  He asked us if we wanted to do artificial insemination, which would boost our chances of getting pregnant, but his recommendation was to skip it for now.  There was no reason to believe it wouldn't work without, so we decided to skip it and see what happens.  He prescribed a shot to take at home a few days later which would ensure that the follicles were released.

At home I got as much rest as possible.  I got a positive ovulation test and the next morning, Tim gave me the shot.  And now it was our first chance to try to make a baby...

After we had done our part, the waiting game began.  I read that eating pineapple core can help the implantation process (when a fertilized egg burrows into the uterus), so we got a pineapple and I ate one slice each day.  I got lots of rest and we did our best to keep our house a calm and relaxing place.  Implantation usually occurs 7-10 days after ovulation.  Your body will not start producing pregnancy hormones until this occurs.  So if implantation occurs 10 days after ovulation, the pregnancy hormones will start being produced.  Each day the level of hormones is your system will increase, which is why pregnancy tests are most accurate if you wait until you are expecting your next period, however it is possible to get a positive as early as 10 days after ovulation if implantation has already occurred and your body has produced enough hormones.  The shot I took would produce a false positive pregnancy test, and I was instructed to wait at least 10 days after taking it before taking a pregnancy test or I would likely get a false positive. 

I waited 10 days.

~Kaylee

Strudel Day

A couple of weeks ago my aunt hosted Strudel Day.  My grandma's mom brought the family strudel recipe with her from Hungary.  Before my grandma passed away we had Strudel Day every year, and it's a tradition that most of us have been missing ever since.  So after almost a decade with no strudel, my aunt decided to bring it back. 

Making strudel is a complicated task, and it takes a lot of it to feed our large family.  Several people spent most of the day making the delicious pastry for all of us to enjoy.  We also enjoyed bean soup, wine (ok, not me), and an assortment of appetizers.  Everything turned out great and it's always fun to get together with the Schmidts.

My dad and aunt chopping pumpkin

Starting to stretch the strudel dough

It is difficult to stretch the dough thin without creating a bunch of holes!

Adding toppings (oil, apple, cinnamon and sugar)

 
My family traditionally makes pumpkin and cottage cheese, apple and cottage cheese, and apple with cinnamon and sugar strudel.  This year they also tried a couple with meat and cheese.

Maiken helping to remove the heavy edge of the dough

which became noodles for the bean soup

Rolling up the strudel

Careful not to roll it on the floor!

Ready to bake!

Finished strudel!

Enjoying dinner, dessert, and family

This poster shows my grandma and two aunts enjoying a

glass of wine and making strudel in "9 easy steps".

Can't wait to have strudel again!

~Kaylee

21 Weeks!

This week I am 21 weeks pregnant!  Baby is about 10.5" long and weighs about 12.7 ounces.  We had our monthly check up last week and everything is still looking good!  My blood pressure is still great, still not gaining any weight, and baby girl's heartbeat was measuring around 150.  Every ultrasound or appointment we have to check her heartbeat, we always get comments about how much she moves.  She makes it difficult to take measurements, which leads to more jabs on my stomach, but we love our wiggly baby.  The nurse we saw said that I should start taking Vitamin D, so I added that to the ones I've already be taking.

I've been sick with a sinus infection all week.  My new strongest craving?  Dayquil.  Too bad I can't take any.  Being pregnant and sick isn't much fun.  We ended up going to urgent care Friday night to get antibiotics so that I could start getting better.

21 weeks!

I started shopping for some long sleeve maternity tops this week and also picked up some summer items on sale for Olivia.  Shopping for baby girl has been so much fun!  I'm trying to make sure I'm only buying a little at a time...

~Kaylee

Halloween!!

I love the holidays.  All of them.  We had a great Halloween and now I have Thanksgiving (4-day weekend!!), Christmas, and New Years to look forward too.  I'm hoping all the holidays will help these next few months fly by, because I'm ready for March!

A couple weeks ago we went to Bauman Farms with my parents, sister, and her two kids.  It was cold, but it wasn't raining.  The kids did a lot of activities and we all indulged in apple cider and donuts.

Tim, me, Marissa, Nola and Maiken on the hay ride

 

My parents on the hay ride

 

 Isn't she adorable?!?

 

My sweetie and I

 

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  Tim and I started a garden this year and grew our own pumpkins!  We need to start them earlier next year so they get a little bigger, but it was still fun to grow pumpkins to carve. 

 

Nola put a tattoo on her pumpkin

Angry Birds, his favorite

Playing in the pumpkin goo

Tim and I with our pumpkins

Tim's Pac Man pumpkin, my monkey, and Marissa's owl

On Halloween Nola and Maiken went trick or treating.  I've been sick so I didn't get to go with them, but I snapped some pictures before they left.  We had a ton of kids come by the house.  I was hoping to have a little more candy left over...

Nola the owl
 

Maiken the Power Ranger, Nola, and all the pumpkins from our garden

 

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

  

~Kaylee