Pregnancy Brain is Real

My cousin-in-law, who is a nursing student, said that pregnant women lose 6% of their brain throughout their nine months of pregnancy, and that it takes a full nine months to gain that 6% back.

I am a true believer of this fact.

From little things like asking my husband to "defrost" the oven, rather than preheat the oven to bigger things like accidentally signing up for the wrong dental insurance plan after spending hours (literally!) staring at the form, I am losing my mind!

I swear I should not be working in a law office right now! I'm a liability!

When Courtney (my cousin-in-law) told me about this lost 6%, I seriously started feeling better about myself. I've heard the whole "pregnancy brain" argument, but I thought it was an excuse that pregnant women used. That I used!

But now, it's no longer an excuse. It's a given fact. A fact that I am sharing with all my fellow pregnant women - to make you all feel a little bit better about yourself. :)

So, bear with me, world.

Bear with me whenever I take forever to come up with the word I'm looking for.

Bear with me when one out of every two times I have to run back in the house because I forgot something.

I'm only running at 94% capacity, and apparently this missing 6% makes all the difference in the world for me to function like a normal human being.

While I was on vacation, so was my blog!

Wow, I am so sorry for my extreme absence! I can't believe I haven't blogged for two weeks! That is the biggest lapse in my blog writing ever.

Thankfully, I have a good excuse. 10 of those days were spent in Oregon. Aaron, Ella and I drove up to Gleneden Beach, Oregon, to visit my beautiful sister and brother-in-law, who recently bought a fixer-upper two minutes from the beach. And no, that's not a two-minute drive...it's a two-minute WALK! My happiness for them outweighs my jealousy, but gosh, who wouldn't be jealous of that? :)

Ella and I at the beach near Lincoln City, Oregon.

After a couple days there, we headed inland to my in-laws' place in Canby, Oregon, where we spent six, fun-filled days, ending with a huge BBQ/baby shower get-together with family and friends. It was a perfect ending to a perfect week. Not to mention how exciting it was to officially announce our son's name to everybody (I will do that in a future post - the name reveal is worthy of its own post!) and how amazing it was for Aaron to feel the baby kick for the first time (also worthy of its own post!).

I guess I should update you all on where I'm at in this pregnancy. Today, I am 21 weeks 3 days pregnant! I am well into the second half of the pregnancy and still can't believe how fast time is flying. I still remember the emotions I felt when I got my first positive home pregnancy test. The sensations my entire body felt, shaking in utter excitement, disbelief and happiness. My heart feeling like it was going to explode from beating so fast. Tears of sheer happiness uncontrollably falling. That was one of the purest moments of my life. Nothing around me mattered. Knowing there was actually a baby inside of me, growing, was all I needed.  All of this still feels so fresh like it was yesterday, and really, time is going by so fast that it might as well be!

But, here I am, growing by the day (or so it seems!), feeling the baby kick more and more, and the disbelief is still there. I have a real live baby growing inside of me! I am so grateful. I am so happy.

And, now I am rambling. :)

I guess I'm just in good spirits. I'm typing this with a smile on my face. Not sure why, it's just there! I guess I'm just really starting to see how good my life is. Like, deep-in-the-gut, swelling-of-the-heart, shout-it-from-the-mountaintops, good!

I think a lot of why I feel so great today is because we received news that my father-in-law's scans revealed no new cancer. And, to top of that already great news, it looks as though an old cancer spot completely disappeared! With his cancer being so aggressive, the doctor's goal was to stop it from spreading, but for the chemo to completely erase cancer from his body? We couldn't have asked for more! God is so good!

Dan and Janice (my in-laws), Aaron, Ella and me at the world renowned Rose Gardens in Portland, Oregon.

I plan to post many more pictures sometime this week, along with my 20-week and 21-week pregnancy updates. I'll probably combine both weeks into one, though, because I don't think I'll be able to differentiate the two!

Oh Boy, Oh Boy...It's A Boy!

We're having a boy! Hands down, no doubt in my doctor's mind, that little baby inside of me is a BOY!

No napping this time, he was busy moving around and showing off for us! (Maybe it was the Slurpee I drank beforehand?). It was such a joy to watch. He's still measuring roughly a week ahead of schedule. After all, he is a Johnson boy! :)

Our son was butt up against the top of my uterus and head below. His spine was pressed up against my right side. It's so fun to see how he's situated in there. Constantly maneuvering around, enjoying the space.

Head, stomach, heart, belly button (yes, we saw his belly button!) are all normal.

And, we got our prenatal testing results back. Again, everything is normal! I know I didn't need to be nervous about that because the chance of something being wrong is like that of winning the lottery, but it does happen! And, by nature, I'm a worrier, so now I can relax a bit.

I can relax knowing that I have a healthy, strong, growing baby BOY inside of me.

Oh, and we have a name all picked up, but we are choosing not to let anybody know at this time. I don't know when we'll announce his name, but I'll be sure to include you in when the time comes. :)

What I Woke Up To This Morning

I was hurting yesterday. Not pain, necessarily. But, pressure. And lots of it. I felt like I was expanding from the inside out.

And, sure enough, when I woke up this morning, I see that I really was!

I realize the baby can't grow that much overnight, nor can my stomach, but goodness, I just felt bigger when I woke up. And, when my mom saw me, she's like, "Whoa, did the baby grow since yesterday?" Moms always know. :)

Take a look for yourself!

I know little rockstar is measuring a week ahead, but seriously! Wow!

And, aside from a larger waistline, I also woke up to the sweetest image and I'm so glad I was able to snap a picture of it.

As you can imagine, Ella is the best of friends with our pug, Bob. She carries him into her bedroom and they are gone for the longest time. If you peek in, you'll find her reading to him, dressing him up, holding him, dancing with him...anything a 4-year old would do with a younger "sibling" that just so happens to be a dog.

And the most patient, understanding dog he is.

I guess since he's grown up with Ella (we got him when he was 2 months old), he's learned to trust her and love her. And there truly is a special love between the two of them.

So much love that lately, Ella is insisting on Bob sleeping in his crate in her bedroom. And, the nights that we don't haul the crate in there, we wake up to this.

We're not quite sure when she crawls out to join him, but she says it's light when she does it, so it can't be any earlier than 6:00 or so.

But, isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen???

This May Be A Little Premature

For those of you who don't know, I ended up delivering Ella via c-section.

Here is the long story short rundown...

At around 38 weeks, I was showing signs of preeclampsia. At 38 weeks 6 days, my doctor decided because my blood pressure was not going down after being on bed rest, they needed to induce me.

They induced me around 6:00 p.m., September 21st. After 14 hours of on-and-off sleep and nothing happening, they were about in induce me again at 8:00 a.m., September 22nd, when my water broke! And the contractions began!

So, I requested my epidural, and laid low, rested, crunched on ice chips for another 12 hours, at which time I was finally fully dilated and ready to begin the dirty work.

I pushed from about 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with very little progress. Ella began to show signs of stress. The doctor suggested we consider going in for a c-section.

After tears of exhaustion, concern and surprise, Aaron and I decided to have Ella delivered via c-section and our little miracle made her world debut at 11:10 p.m.

So, where am I going with all of this?

Well, typically, when a woman has a c-section delivery, all subsequent deliveries are to follow suit. So, when my new OB-GYN went over my charts last Tuesday and saw that I had a c-section delivery in my history, he immediately went to his calendar and said...

"Well, it looks like your baby will have a December 1st or December 5th birthday."

What???

I asked him why those two days, and he said that generally, they like to schedule c-sections at 39 weeks, which would be Saturday, December 3rd, for me. But, since he'll be gone for a 3-day conference that weekend, I will either have the baby delivered on Thursday, December 1st, or Monday, December 5th.

So, naturally, that has me thinking, and I know it's entirely premature to start thinking that far in advance, but it's pretty fun to start planning such a big event!

And knowing me, I'll go for the December 1st date, simply because I wouldn't want to wait the extra four days!

But, like I said, I know these thoughts are entirely premature. I totally blame my OB-GYN! :)

Waiting Doesn't Stop with the 2 WW

Hands down, the two week wait is the worst. The time from when you might have conceived to the time of finding out if you did is an extremely long wait. I went through many, many of those waits. Believe me, they are the worst!

But, once you do conceive, once those two lines finally appear, the waiting does not end. I thought it would! But, boy, I could not have been more wrong.

You wait for beta results (if you went through infertility treatment, that is).

You wait for your first sonogram.

You wait for your second sonogram.

And, I am now in the process of waiting for my third sonogram.

I'll admit...I was completely spoiled being able to see Jelly Bean at six weeks and then again at seven weeks, but now I have to wait...

...until I'm 10-1/2 weeks.

Yes, you heard right. :(

My first appointment with my new OB-GYN is not until May 16th!!! I was so disappointed when the receptionist said that was the soonest I could get in. It seriously makes me want to call another OB-GYN to see if I could get in sooner, but this office has been favorably recommended by my RE and a couple who also went through IVF, so I'm planning on sticking out the wait.

It just makes me nervous to go that long without seeing my Jelly Bean.

Not knowing what's going on in there! Is he/she growing well? How's his/her heart beating?

Thankfully, my nausea is still in full force, which reminds me that my body is still telling itself that it's pregnant. My fatigue is also putting me to bed the same time as Ella every night. No joke.

But, naturally, I worry when I feel too much stretchy cramps, and then I worry when I feel too little stretchy cramps. I worry when my boobs hurt less one day over another.

However...worry is the opposite of having faith! So, I'm going to put all my faith in God to protect our baby. I pray he will continually bless this pregnancy. He has entrusted this family with this baby, giving us the utmost honor to bring another Johnson into the world, and it's unfair to God for me to worry so much. It's unfair for me to not put all my trust in God.

So, even though I'm going to endure a painfully long wait the next 2-1/2 weeks, I am not going to worry. I am going to keep one hand on my belly and the other lifted up to my God, thanking Him for my Jelly Bean. Because, even though I can't see how he/she is doing in there, God knows. Because, after all...

"[God] created my inmost being; [He] knit me together in my mother’s womb." (Psalm 139:13).

What A Great Good Friday

Our baby was supposed to double in size this past week, and today's ultrasound revealed just that! He/she grew...a lot! :)

And, to make today's ultrasound even more special, Ella came with us! She had such an observant look on her face the entire time...carefully taking everything in. Dr. Weckstein was really great with her, including her in what was displayed on the screen, asking her if she sees the flickering heart and the baby's head. It was so special sharing this experience with Ella today. I will never forget it.

And, as if seeing the baby wasn't enough while having my "big baby" sitting next to me, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time today! It measured at a whopping 133bpm, right on track! Hearing the "ba bum, ba bum, ba bum" was so magical! Dr. Weckstein said generally a heartbeat can't be heard until the baby is further along, but his high tech instrument and our baby made some musical magic. :)

Apparently, at last week's ultrasound, the baby only measured at 5 weeks 4 days. The doctor who performed the ultrasound told us that he/she measured at 6 weeks 0 days, but I guess that measurement was big, after looking back at all the images, and Baby Jelly Bean is a couple days "younger" than we thought.

Today's ultrasound revealed the baby measuring at 6 weeks 4 days, which means he/she grew proportionally one week in size this past week. Just what we want to see! :)

And, I guess I miscalculated my due date. I thought the baby was due December 9th, but it's really December 10th. Oops! :) At least I was only off by a day, and not by an entire month or something.

Because of what was seen and heard at today's ultrasound, we have officially graduated from our RE's office. Leaving RSC Bay Area is bittersweet. The doctors, nurses and staff were all so incredibly heartwarming and sincere in their quest of making our dreams come true, and it's sad to just up and leave. (Although, I can't say I will miss the drive!). The experience there was life-changing, life-creating and I am forever indebted to Dr. Weckstein for bringing us our bundle of joy.

Today was such a blessed Good Friday! I feel so unworthy as I witness God's goodness in my life. Blessed is an understatement when I reflect on my life. He has provided for my family with limitless means, and now with my family growing, despite feeling undeserving of such goodness, He continues to provide and demonstrate His unending love for me.

Not Much to Report Here

There isn't much to report here. Taking each day as it comes, as far as my pregnancy goes. I feel with each subsequent day, my nausea gets worse. I love the constant reminder that I'm pregnant, though. I'd rather have all symptoms, than no symptoms!

Plus, I've been praying for this pregnancy for so long that I'm soaking in every minute of it...throw up and all. :)

Aside from my pregnancy, things have been going well. Aaron's gearing up for his Spring break next week (lucky duck!) and plans on doing yard work in our front yard. Our front yard has been needing major attention since we moved to this house four years ago, but the only thing we have managed to do up until this point is take everything out the prior owner put in. It was an absolute, overgrown mess! Aaron's been itching to put in some new shrubs and set up planter areas alongside our house, so he's having at it next week. Hopefully the weather will stay cool enough for him. :)

Plan Nursery is underway, with what little we can commit to at this point in the pregnancy. We moved our iMac from the former office / future nursery to our bedroom. I didn't think it'd look that good in there, since our bedroom set is dark (click HERE to see pictures of our master bedroom), and our computer desk is a light maple, but it looks just fine sitting in the corner (after moving some things around a bit, of course). Aaron didn't see the point in moving the computer and felt it could stay in the nursery, but with the longing anticipation this pregnancy has come with, I want to create a budgeted masterpiece of a nursery, and a big ol' desk and computer aren't a part of my Plan Nursery. Hormonal pregnant woman has spoken! :)

Ella's been doing wonderful in her ballet/tap class. I haven't posted many pictures this time around because her classes are in an actual studio. Meaning, the parents sit behind a glass window (allowing us to see in, but not for the kiddos to see out). Every picture is either blurry because there is no flash or blinded out with a flash on the window. I just need some of Aaron's photograph magic. :)

Sorry for the rambling post. Like I said in my title...not much to report here, so I figured I'd leave you with a few updates on our going-ons. Hope you are all having a wonderful week in preparation of Easter!

My Heart is Bursting at the Seams

Although I can't say Aaron and I aren't a little disappointed there weren't two babies, we are over the moon happy to let you all know that we have one healthy peanut!!! He/she is measuring exactly to date (6 weeks 0 days) with a strong flickering heartbeat! :)

Right when the sonogram began, I saw the big black blob indicating that I am, in fact, pregnant. The doctor scrolled around looking for another, which only took a couple seconds, and my heart sank a little when I realized there was only that one black blob. One of the embryos didn't make it. :(

But, my mourning of the loss of the one embryo quickly passed as I began to focus on the beautiful peanut that did decide to stick around. :)

And, as I was focusing my attention on the black blob (where my baby should be), I started to worry. I was looking back and forth between my doctor and the monitor, and then back again to my doctor. My heart started beating really fast. My doctor just stared at the black blob, not saying anything! To an unprofessional eye (like my own), I could see absolutely nothing in it! I thought I'd be able to easily make out the embryo, but I couldn't!

My eyes starting glazing over in fear.

I thought my worst nightmare was coming true.

I thought the doctor was going to tell us there was no embryo in there.

But, after 30 very long seconds, she said, "Everything looks great. See that little flicker? That's your baby's heart beating!"

A flicker that I would've easily missed had she not pointed it out to me.

Then, she measured our little peanut and said he/she is very obedient already because he/she is measuring right on time. Thank you, God!

I have another ultrasound scheduled for next Friday (7 weeks) to hear the heartbeat. I can't wait!

I'm so happy that I can now hold my already growing baby bump and know there is a strong little baby in there, healthy and growing.

God already blessed us with a natural miracle, our beautiful daughter, Ella.

Now, He is enriching us with an IVF miracle.

I am blessed beyond words.

I am immeasurably blessed.

P.S. I will post the ultrasound pictures tomorrow! :)

Excitement and Nerves

Our first ultrasound is in a couple hours and I'm so nervous! I'm also very excited, but the nerves are getting in the way of allowing me to totally soak in the excitement of today.

Today marks the first day we get to see our baby!

But, my nerves are telling me today can also go down in the books as an awful day. A day we were supposed to see our baby for the first time.

Infertility has soured so many sweet experiences for me.

I should walk into my doctor's office today with a confident smile on my face and leave the past 2-1/2 years of pain at the door.

And, you know what...that is exactly what I'm going to do!

Take that, infertility! You've taken away so many years and months of my life, but you will not take away the next 7-1/2 months of my pregnancy. These months belong to me, my family and our growing jelly bean!

Really Starting to Feel Prego!

Cramping woke me up last night. I nudged Aaron and said, "I'm cramping quite a bit. I think there's a lot of growing happening in there right now." :)

His response (that he didn't remember saying the next day, by the way), "Of course. Because you're warm, snuggly and still."

And when I woke up, my gosh, I seriously felt larger. I know it's impossible to look pregnant at only a few weeks (I'll be 6 weeks on Friday), but I really do look and feel larger. In fact, I busted out one of my old pregnancy shirts this morning. Lord, have mercy!

I've heard that women who get pregnant as a result from IVF tend to show sooner. And, I've also heard that if a woman has already been pregnant, she starts showing sooner, too, but this soon? Really???

But, believe me when I say that I'm enjoying every minute of it! :)

Because, even though I don't know what tomorrow will bring, today, I am 100% natural PREGO!

(Photo courtesy of Google Images).

I Really Didn't Want to See Blood While Pregnant

Spotting. A pregnant woman's worst nightmare. Fear immediately surfaces once blood is seen. And fear is what kept me awake last night.

I woke up around 2:00 for one of my nightly bathroom visits, and sure enough, when I wiped, there was some orange-red discharge/blood gook. I let out a desperate, "No, God! No!" I wiped again, and there was more.

I quietly made myself back to bed, not really wanting to wake my snoring husband up.

I felt like I was reliving a night during my first trimester with Ella. Aaron and I were up all night with bleeding and period-like cramps. I can't remember how far along I was, but I'm guessing 6 to 7 weeks. I had spent a lot of time on the phone with my mid-wife, who told me to schedule an ultrasound first thing in the morning. She told me based on what I was telling her, it sounded like I was miscarrying.

That was such an awful night.

We ended up seeing perfect baby Ella the next morning, and the bleeding had died down.

So, I woke up Aaron, and he told me not to worry. How is that so easy for him to say? I cried (a lot), but his confidence helped my crying session from lasting all night.

And, needless to say, the bleeding (if you can call that orange-red gook that) didn't last long at all. It stopped after those two first wipes. I went to the bathroom two more times that night and nada!

Lets just say this incident left me spending a lot of time with God last night. I just prayed and prayed and prayed, and I think I fell asleep praying because I never remember saying, "Amen." :)

And now, as a result of seeing the blood, I'm so sensitive to my cramping. I'm telling Aaron it feels more like period cramps, and he's like, "But you can't be starting your period!" I explained that miscarriage cramps feel like period cramps. He just looks at me like I'm crazy because he's so confident with this entire pregnancy.

And, I am too! I really am confident. I'm just scared at the same time.

Oh, and when I told Aaron that bleeding during the first trimester is more common in twin pregnancies, he's like, "Oh, this all makes sense then, because you're pregnant with twins." Oh, Aaron. He makes me smile. :)

Anybody out there have some spotting stories to share to put my heart at ease? :)

Worry Settling In

Now that the euphoria of being pregnant has somewhat died down, my happiness and joy is being trumped by worry and fear.

Getting through the first trimester is no guarantee. Miscarriage is far too common. I know so many people, both through blogging and in real life, that have experienced the awful nightmare of miscarrying their baby. Every time I hear about a miscarriage, my heart just sinks. There is pain in not ever getting pregnant, and then there is pain in having a pregnancy (an actual baby!) taken away. I haven't gone through the latter, but I can imagine it's absolutely unbearable.

Despite my worry, I'm trying to embrace being pregnant. I'm trying to be calm and confident that God will keep the little peanut safe. He has so wonderfully blessed my family and me. Aaron, Ella and I have gone through so much just to get to this point and I have to remain faithful that God is watching over us and our future family member.

It just scares me so much to think that it can be taken away.

My life could shatter into a million pieces in a matter of seconds.

My God is the giver life, but He also takes life away.

If I'm coming across as complaining and ungrateful for being pregnant, please don't think that. Every time I think of the little peanut growing inside of me, my heart skips a beat. I'm just so happy. But (the infamous but!) worry is making that happiness stand aside every now and again.

I'm definitely feeling pregnant now. My boobs are starting to get sore. I'm exhausted by the time I put Ella to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. I felt nausea a very little bit a couple evenings ago. The cramping/stretching sensations come and go, but I always feel a pressure down there. Like I described it before, it just feels like my uterus is full and pushing outwards. Definitely growing and making space for the little cashew! :)

Ella wanted to wear her "Big Sister" shirt to school today and when I told her couldn't yet (I'm just not ready to face that conversation with parents/teachers/aids), she uncontrollably sobbed, "But, I want to be a big sister!" It took some time to comfort her and explain that she is still a big sister, even when she doesn't wear the shirt.

Ella wants so badly to be a big sister. I pray that beautiful honor becomes a reality for her in less than eight months. :)

I Can Breath Now (2nd Beta)

I've heard people say that the second beta results are more important than the first. Why, you might ask? Because, the first beta is simply the platform to go off of. The number has to double within 48 to 72 hours to indicate there is a healthy pregnancy. Regardless of what the first beta is, that is the goal for all subsequent betas.

And, boy, I tell ya! The wait for today's phone call with today's beta result was so much more worse than Saturday's wait. On Saturday, I knew I was pregnant. Maybe I was overly confident I'd get a solid first beta. But, the fact that I peed on a stick that morning and saw two dark lines made me certain I'd have a good beta.

But today. Oh gosh! The agonizing wait in finding out if that number doubled like it should was unbearable. I was pacing all afternoon (literally!) in my parents' back yard, since I locked Ella and myself out of the house (which was likely a result of being so scatterbrained today!).

And then, I got the call. :)

My 11dp6dt beta is 388!!! The number more than doubled. It more than tripled. And it almost quadrupled! I can't believe it! Aaron and I are besides ourselves in happiness!

Here is a graph of our hCG increase the past two days. My beta is the green line. As you can see, my beta started between the average and max for a singleton pregnancy, but then my doubling rate shot it up to almost the max for a singleton pregnancy.

So, now the question is presented...is there one or two buns in my oven? Based on my first beta, I was completely sold on the idea of there being one little peanut growing in there, but with such an amazing doubling time, I can't help but think there might be two. Anybody have any thoughts out there?

I know betas cannot confirm either way, so we won't truly know until our first sonogram on Friday, April 15th. Again, we wait!

But, we wait with big fat, giddy smiles plastered on our faces. :)

I've Been Keeping A Secret from You

So, I've been keeping a pretty big secret from you for most of the week.

I know, I know...how could I keep this from you? Why did I not let everybody know? Well, a couple reasons really:

1. Aaron wouldn't let me! No joke! He told me to keep this to myself until we received confirmation from our blood test yesterday. Even though a line is a line is a line and I was clearly pregnant, there is something comforting about having a positive beta test, so I agreed with him.
2. I wanted to tell people in real life before posting anything on my blog (because I have a lot of people in real life read my blog), but I didn't want to tell everybody until beta confirmation.

So, you see, I wasn't trying to be deceiving, and it really was so hard (you have no idea!) keeping this from you all. I was almost not going to write any posts at all, but I figured you all would want to hear from me, so I tried my hardest to write posts that didn't lie to you about me knowing I'm pregnant, but still didn't let you know I'm pregnant. LOL! Make sense?

Because I didn't blog about it, here's what happened.

On my way home from work Tuesday afternoon (5dp6dt), I picked up some Walgreens home pregnancy tests. I was feeling down, really thinking it didn't work (because of the cramping), and I just wanted to put myself out of my misery to see if there was a chance that a line would show up.

Sure enough, there was a super duper faint blue line. I was cautiously excited because I've heard of evaporation lines looking like faint lines (but this wouldn't have been an evaporation line because it showed up within the first couple minutes). However, I had never seen the slightest resemblance of a line the entire time I was trying to conceive, so I was also very optimistic.

I called Aaron to have him pick up a pack First Response pregnancy tests. I told him that I think I might be pregnant. I'm sure that was the longest 40-minute drive home he's ever had. (Sorry, honey!).

So, the second he came home, using mid-afternoon urine (that I held for maybe 3 hours, so it wasn't too diluted), I peed on a stick, and sure enough...this is what we saw. It is very faint, but definitely there. You see it?

This was one of the happiest moments of my life seeing that true line. That unmistakable second line revealing to me what I longed to know for so long. That I was indeed, finally pregnant! Aaron was way cautious, though, and totally brought down the mood. Even though he knew I was right, like I said, he wanted beta conformation.

Side note: When I got pregnant with Ella, the second line was very faint as well, but I knew that a line is a line is a line so I was crying in hysteric happiness and he was like, "Lets wait to see the doctor." He sure knows how to kill a girl's thunder. I know and understand his reasoning, but still, give a pregnant girl a little slack here, especially this time around since we've gone through so much and wanted it so bad!

This is what the line looked like Wednesday morning (6dp6dt) using first morning urine. The line is maybe a little darker than the first test, but barely 12 hours had between passed, so my hCG level didn't increase that much.

Thursday morning (7dp6dt) the line was much darker and at this point, it's really starting to settle in that I'm pregnant. Aaron is finally starting to accept that this is real. :)

Friday (8dp6dt) morning's line was darker yet. Almost the same consistency as the control line. Aaron knows now. Watching the lines grow darker each day helped him come around. :)

This was the test taken the morning of our beta blood test. The lines are the same in darkness. :)

It's been a wonderful week. A very, very wonderful week. :)

The Post I've Dreamed About Writing

It has taken 2 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 4 days for me to be able to say this.

I'm pregnant!

I'm pregnant!

I'm pregnant!

I'm pregnant!

I'm pregnant!

I am officially 4 weeks and 1 day pregnant today. My due date is December 9th, 2011. :)

My beta came in at a solid 102. I thought that was on the low end, but apparently beta results for FETs are typically lower and slower to increase. I go back to the clinic for my second HCG blood test (beta) on Monday, along with my progesterone and estrogen blood tests (to make sure my levels are in a good range to keep this pregnancy). Fingers and toes crossed for a doubling beta! :)

After the baby dance, the shrieks, the tears, buying Ella a "Big Sister" shirt, the many phone calls, surprising my parents at their house, I am finally able to sit down and share the news with you all.

And really, I'm too excited to sit and type a longer post. I promise to write more later. Frankly, I'm surprised my brain is able to communicate to my fingers what to type right now because I am in such a happy euphoric state. I was shaking with pure and utter happiness earlier, and thankfully that died down just enough so I could let you all know the good news!

All praise and glory to God! Please keep the prayers coming that He keeps this baby (or babies) healthy and strong. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support! :)