29 Weeks!

This week I am 29 weeks pregnant!  Baby is about 15.2" long and weighs about 2.5 lbs! Olivia is getting bigger and chubbier now and it is starting to get cramped in there, making all those kicks more noticeable! 

My glucose screening test came out normal!  Good thing, because Santa filled my stocking with some of my pregnancy favorites (Jolly Ranchers and Starbursts!).  I'm glad that my blood sugar and blood pressure have been good so that I can just keep doing what I have been doing.  Although I realllly should be getting to the gym more often.  We've been working around the house, though, and that usually feels like a workout :)

My parents got us Olivia's crib and an adorable canvas that fits our jungle theme perfectly and is personalized with her name.  I had wanted to do her name in wooden letters above her crib, but I had yet to find any I really liked that wouldn't end up costing more than I wanted to pay, so I know exactly where the personalized canvas will be going!  So excited to start working on her room!

29 weeks!

 

Have a safe and fun New Years!  I am hoping I will be able to stay awake til midnight...

 

~Kaylee

Christmas 2013

Tim and I had a wonderful Christmas this year with our families!  Christmas Eve we hosted Tim's family for breakfast.  The guys cooked us waffles from scratch, bacon, and sausage.  Yumm!  During the day we did some baking and in the evening we headed to my aunt and uncle's house to enjoy lots of food, milk soup, and a gift exchange with my dad's side of the family.  My dad has a large family that gets a bit bigger every year, so it was a very large gathering! 

This year Tim and I actually waited until Christmas morning to open presents, although he woke me up at 7:30 because he didn't want to wait any longer.  We opened the presents we got each other, a few for our animals, and a package for our baby girl.  Tim and I both love Christmas, and this year we talked about which traditions we want to start/continue with our children, since next Christmas it won't be just the two six of us.  We also reflected on where we were last Christmas.  All I wanted for Christmas last year was to be pregnant, and at the time we didn't know if that would ever be a reality for us.  We had just finished out first failed round of fertility drugs and found out that I needed surgery.  We still enjoyed Christmas very much, but it was an emotional time for us.  This Christmas was also an emotional one, but for very different reasons.  Our baby girl is almost here, and I couldn't stop thinking about how excited I am to celebrate Christmas with her next year!

We headed to my parent's house for breakfast (monkey bread!), presents and lunch.  It was so fun watching Maiken and Nola open their presents and play with all their new toys!  In the evening we went to my mother-in-law's house for dinner and more presents.  Baby girl got lots of presents too, including her crib, carrier, clothes, and blankets.  I love all the baby things, and we are so excited to put her crib together!

Baking Russian Teacakes

with Dad and Tim

The boys making us breakfast and

 the pups hoping they drop some

Maiken and Nola playing with toys

Photobomb

Dad and his 8 siblings

 

 What a great Christmas Eve!

Helping the pups open their present Christmas morning

Tim and his new Kindle Paperwhite

Opening gifts from Santa!

Rapunzel

Our 3rd Christmas!

Adorable

4 generations

These two make me smile

More presents with the Lewises!

<3

 

~Kaylee

28 Weeks!

This week I am 28 weeks pregnant! We are in the third trimester!!!!  Baby is about 14.8" long and weighs about 2.2 lbs!  Olivia will be putting on more and more fat in the coming weeks to fill out her skin.  Her lungs are functional now, although not strong enough that she would be able to breath on her own, and her immune system is ramping up to handle the outside world.

We had our 28 week appointment this morning.  It started out with the yucky sugar drink (tastes like extra syrupy flat soda) used in the glucose screening test.  I've heard the lemon-lime flavor is better than the others, and that's what I've had before, so I stuck with that.  Then we had our appointment with the doctor.  It's always fun to hear Olivia's heartbeat!  Since I'm a worrier it is also nice to have a check up and know that everything is on track.  We talked about my sleeping issues (waking up 5-7 times a night, not really sleeping at all) and my doctor suggested taking a bath at night, naps, and trying Tylenol PM or Benadryl.  Naps are kind of tough since I work during the day, but I will definitely be trying the other options!

After our appointment I had a blood draw to check my glucose levels and for anemia.  I haven't got results back yet, but hopefully my glucose levels are still good, because I love carbs.  They are my favorite.  I also had my Rhophylac injection today, since I am Rh-.  The odds are good that Olivia will be Rh+ (90% of people are Rh+), so the shot will keep her blood from interacting with mine, should our blood come in contact.  That shot was given in my butt and hurrrrrt!  They use a big needle, which is probably why it isn't given in the arm.  Here I was dreading the blood draw, when I should have been dreading the butt shot...  All worth it, though!

28 weeks! 

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!!

 

~Kaylee

Maternity Favorites

I've tried a lot of new things over the last 6 months, so I thought I'd do a quick review of what I have liked and what I haven't.  I'm really looking forward to having more options shopping for clothes in a few months!  I was looking online at some of my favorite stores this week, I guess just to tease myself.  I have preferred shopping online during my pregnancy.  It's so much easier to see all the options and there are usually a lot more things to pick from online than in the store. I also like reading reviews to find out if something was uncomfortable or runs big/small. 

Clothes
Old Navy:
-good selection
-good prices
-sales all the time
-promo codes for 20-35% off entire order often (listed on the website)
-free shipping on orders $50+
-free returns
-sizes 1-18, XS-XXL
-good selection of lounge wear
-unfortunately the jeans didn't fit well (I think it is the band that goes over the belly that doesn't have enough stretch to it to fit well)
-I didn't find any work out bottoms I like (still wearing pre-pregnancy pants, but they are getting awfully tight)

Motherhood Maternity:
-more expensive
-frequent sales (usually buy 3 get 1 free)
-better quality
-sizes XS-3X
-I love the jeans/pants (started wearing them early in my second trimester and folded the belly band in half, still fitting well now with ginormo belly)
-good selection of bras
-good bathing suits
-often has offers for free shipping
-no free returns for online orders (pay for shipping for full refund, take into store for merchandise credit)

Target:
I bought one dress from Target for my brother-in-law's wedding.  Target seems to have a pretty good selection and decent prices, but the only thing I have tried are dresses.

Registries
Target:
-good selection
-good prices
-not as many items in store
-not as personal
-still waiting on our registry welcome kit... (we have been in the store 4 times since registering and they are always out)
-annoying kiosk to create/print your registry

Babies R Us:
-good selection
-more expensive/higher quality items
-better selection in store
-great customer service so far (when you create your registry, they have someone meet with you, you sit down while they give you information and start your registry, they give pregnant ladies a bottle of water, then the manager comes and finds you while you are adding items to your registry to welcome you and give you a coupon)
-registry kit with good samples and coupons

Other Stuff
-XyloBurst gum: aspartame free (lots of aspartame is a no-no while pregnant, and I like gum!), made with xylitol (good for your teeth), best tasting aspartame free gum I've tried, ordered on Amazon
-Palmer's Cocoa Butter: I haven't tried any others, but I like this one.  I bought mine at Motherhood Maternity
-BellaBand: allows me to wear my old jeans, kept my Old Navy maternity jeans from falling off until I got my new jeans from Motherhood Maternity, not as comfortable as just having a good pair of maternity jeans
-websites: thebump.com, everydayfamily.com, whattoexpect.com (I use them all, all the time)

Anything you mamas have loved that I haven't tried yet?

~Kaylee

27 Weeks!

This week I am 27 weeks pregnant! Baby is about 14.4" long and weighs about 1.9 lbs!  This week Olivia will be practicing inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid!  Go, lungs, go!

We have less than 3 months to go (hopefully!).  I've been shopping for baby clothes and ordered some more long sleeve tops from Old Navy for myself.  I'm excited for them to get here!  Tim finally got to feel Olivia moving around!  I've been feeling her move for the past 9 weeks or so, but since I have an anterior placenta and some chubbiness to begin with, it took a lot longer to feel her from the outside.  Glad he will get to experience what's going on in there a little more now!

I've finally put a couple of pounds back on and have been fluctuating around 6-7 lbs down from my pre-pregnancy weight now.  I've still been pretty lazy about getting to the gym.  We've been busy getting ready for the holidays and organizing the house, and I'm just lazy.  And since I'm not supposed to lose more weight and I've struggled to gain weight, going to the gym means I have to eat more, and I feel like I'm already at my max.  My glucose screening test is on Monday (yucky).  Hopefully they don't tell me I have to stop eating candy... I just stocked up :)

27 weeks!

~Kaylee

Holiday Decorating

I love decorating for the holidays!  This is my favorite time of year, and although I didn't do quite as much decorating as I did last year (not a good idea for my klutzy self to be on a ladder right now), it's so fun to have the house decked out in Christmas decor.  We did our Christmas lights the week of Thanksgiving and got our tree and decorated inside last weekend.  We have finished all of our shopping and presents are wrapped and under the tree.  Now we just have some baking to do and a couple holiday parties to attend.  9 days!!

Our new penguin friend and some sparkles from last year

Lots of stockings!

Mine and Tim's second (real) Christmas tree

Our new ornament from my mom and dad

More sparkles

A cute sign I got at the

Holiday Market last year 

~Kaylee

Getting Pregnant - Part 5

Feelings, Options, and Perseverance

Our journey to getting pregnant was not an easy one.  I went through so many emotions: depression, anger, sadness, feelings of helplessness...  Not knowing whether any of the drugs would work, or if I would be able to carry a child if they did, was hard to cope with.  Luckily I didn't have to go through it alone.  Tim was there for me every step of the way, going through a lot of the same emotions and attending all my appointments with me.  I don't think he can understand quite what it was like to be the "broken" one and have to physically endure the drugs and ultrasounds, but he did his best to comfort me as best he could, and he was much better at maintaining a positive, hopeful attitude than I was.  When I felt like I needed a break from the monthly routine of drugs, ultrasound, and bad news, he gave me the strength to continue.  I'm also thankful that I had my mom, sister, and a couple of my best friends to listen to me whenever I wanted to talk about it and for the blogs of women I had never met, whose stories gave me hope and strength.

While we were going through the failed cycles of drugs, we explored all the options we had. Other than drugs, there were hormone shots to try and in vitro fertilization. We also looked into surrogacy and adoption. I think had the drugs not worked, we would have tried the hormone shots, in vitro, and then adoption, although we may have skipped in vitro.  In vitro sounds so stressful, and it is expensive.  We could spend $10-15,000 on a cycle, and the chance of getting pregnant is only 30-35% per cycle. Better than the 20-25% chance per cycle of the average healthy and fertile couple, but we only would have been able to afford one cycle.  Adoption is even more expensive and can take a long time.  It was helpful for me to explore the options, and to know that no matter what it took, we would have a child. It also reminded me that it was worth it to continue trying the drugs, as this option was nearly free as it is covered by our insurance, and would only take a few more months to determine if the drugs were going to work.  It was hard to be patient, but I'm glad we stuck with it!

Tim and I want at least one more child.  I am expecting that next time our journey won't be nearly as hard since we know that there are drugs that will work for me, my eggs are good, and I can carry a child, all unknowns to us this time last year.  We will also have our Olivia as a daily reminder that no matter how difficult it is, it will be worth it.

I know that it isn't my fault that I have PCOS.  We have to do our best with the cards we are dealt, whether it's a fair hand or not.  I wish that getting pregnant were as simple as I had always imagined, but for some that's just not the case, so I am thankful for the doctors, the technology, and the drugs that are available to help.  We are lucky that the drugs did work for us.  We are lucky that once the drugs worked, we got pregnant on our own the first month.  We are lucky that I since I became pregnant, our baby girl has been growing and getting stronger every day.  I know that while our journey was hard and trying, some people aren't as lucky as we are.  I am so thankful for the little life growing inside me.  Grateful, thankful, overjoyed.  Tim and I are stronger, as a couple and as individuals, after enduring our struggles with infertility and we will love our child with every ounce of our beings and will never take the gift we have been given for granted.

~Kaylee

26 Weeks!

This week I am 26 weeks pregnant! Baby is about 14" long and weighs about 1.7 lbs! Olivia's eye lashes have grown in and she will soon be opening her eyes!

Sleep is pretty much nonexistent these days.  I think I might get 4-5 hours a night total?  Between waking up to go to the bathroom, leg cramps, kicking baby, headaches, or weird dreams, I'm awake about every hour.  I guess I will be ready for all those nighttime feedings. 

Tim and I have been doing lots of organizing.  In January we will have been in our house for two years, so we have learned what works well and what doesn't.  Now we are taking the time to re-organize and make room for baby stuff.  It is good to have projects to keep busy and help pass the time.  I don't really know how to relax anymore.  I think a lost that ability about, oh, 6 months or so ago.  Too excited :)

We are so excited for Olivia's arrival, but of course when she gets here, life will never be the same.  We know it will be an amazing change and we are so excited to start our family, but life will definitely be different.  Tim and I were recently talking about enjoying our time alone together over the next few months, and while I can't help but count down the days until our baby's arrival, I have been making sure to enjoy the present, too. 

26 weeks!

 

 

~Kaylee



Christmas Tree Hunting

Yesterday Tim and I went Christmas tree hunting with my family and our roommate, Rory.  It was about 20 degrees out, but it wasn't raining, and there was snow on the ground!  We had to find 3 trees: one for Marissa's house, one for my parent's house, and one for our house.  I was glad Rory was able to come and help Tim carry ours this year!

Nola, Dad, and Maiken

Lots to choose from!

Maiken, Nola, and Marissa

The winning tree!

The kids had a blast!

Me, Mom and Marissa

Silly kids

Mom and Dad with their huge tree for

their new house

Men and their power tools

The guys and two of the trees!

Warming up with hot cider and candy canes

Success!

~Kaylee

Ultrasounds

Tim and I have been lucky enough to be able to see our little Peanut 6 times.  While I always get a little nervous going into the ultrasounds, we have always left relieved.  While not everything about our journey has been easy, each ultrasound has shown our baby's heart beating strong and we are so thankful that she is healthy.  After our first two ultrasounds, I decided to start an album that included the pictures, dates, and milestones of each ultrasound.

We weren't scheduled to have an ultrasound until I was 7 weeks along to check for a heartbeat, but when I started bleeding at 5 and a half weeks, my doctor had us come in early.  I feared we were losing our baby, and I was so scared.  Our doctor explained to us that we may not be able to see the embryo, let alone a heart beat.  Luckily, our little Peanut showed up on the screen right away, and soon after our doctor showed us a tiny heart, beating away.  Words can't describe the emotions that followed.

Ultrasound 1
July 19, 2013
5 weeks 5 days
Heart rate: 90 bpm

Little tiny Peanut!

 

Her heart beat is shown at the bottom

 

Our next ultrasound was scheduled for 10 days out in order to check for proper growth and heart rate.  This time we got to not only see her heartbeat on the screen, we also go to hear it!  It was also easy to see that our Peanut had grown, and little tiny arms and legs were visible.  Her growth and her heartbeat were measuring right on track!

Ultrasound 2
July 29, 2013
7 weeks 1 day
Heart rate: 141 bpm

Tiny arms and legs!

 

The circle next to the baby is the yolk sac

 

Heartbeat

 

Since everything was on track, we were transferred from OHSU to Salem Clinic.  At my first appointment with our OB he did a quick scan to see the baby.  We saw her heartbeat (although he didn't measure it) and everything looked great.

Ultrasound 3
August 8, 2013
8 weeks 4 days

Growing baby 

Our next ultrasound was scheduled in order to get a good look at everything (ovaries, uterus, the baby...).  This time baby was moving around!  It was so fun to see how much she had grown, especially her arms and legs, and to see her moving was amazing.

Ultrasound 4
August 22, 2013
10 weeks 4 days
Heart rate: 170 bpm

Cute little face!

At our 12 week appointment, we had another unscheduled ultrasound.  When the nurse checked for a heartbeat with the doppler, she was unable to find it.  The doctor that was in the office that day was able to squeeze in a quick ultrasound between two of her patients, and we found that our baby was doing wonderfully, and once again, felt so incredibly relieved.  The doctor called our baby a "spaz" (a good thing, she said) because she was so wiggly!  She would wiggle and move her arms and legs, then take a break and suck on her thumb.  It was so fun to see!

Ultrasound 5
September 3, 2013
12 weeks 2 days

Upside down baby sucking her thumb

After having so many ultrasounds in our first trimester, it was so hard waiting 7 weeks for our next one.  I was counting down the days, then the hours.  At our mid-pregnancy ultrasound, what was most important to us was to see that our baby was healthy and developing normally, but we were also very excited to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.  The ultrasound was long (almost an hour) and not very comfortable.  We got to see baby's heart beating right away, and of course, she was wiggling around.  The ultrasound tech then took all the measurements of things other than baby.  This took over a half an hour.  Lots of measurements and a wiggly baby made for lots of poking and prodding on my belly.  She then started taking measurements of our baby and finally asked us if we wanted to find out the gender.  When we told her we did, she said she had a pretty good idea but wanted to get a good picture.  After a couple minutes, she got one.  Our baby finally had a name!  Other than Peanut, of course.

Ultrasound 6
October 22, 2013
19 weeks 2 days
Heart rate: 157 bpm

The shape to the left of her face is the umbilical

cord.  To the left of the umbilical cord is a hand.

 

Sweet face and the umbilical cord

 

Moving her hand to her face so she could

suck her thumb

 

Lady parts!

 

Her left foot

 

Her right foot

We don't have any more ultrasounds scheduled, and while I love seeing Olivia, I am hoping that things go smoothly and we won't need another.  Now I have her kicks to let me know that she is getting bigger and stronger every day.  100 days to go!!!

~Kaylee