Survey Says...

On Valentine's Day morning I took my 6th EPT and I didn't think anything of it. It was so early in my cycle that I thought I would get the negative results I was so used to seeing.

To my surprise it was positive. Faintly positive. Enters second test and again positive, still faint. It was Valentine's Day and the perfect day to find a fun and creative way to tell the daddy-to-be.

I took Aubrey to day care and headed to work still in shock at what I had seen earlier that morning. By 11:00 am I couldn't take the anticipation and excitement any longer so I texted Troy that I had something to tell him. He called my work, I snuck into the private conference room and I told him that it was time to clean out the third bedroom. He said "why?" in a very low and serious monotone thinking that I had something tricky up my sleeve. Then I told him that this morning that I took a home pregnancy test and it came out POSITIVE!

Let the worry and lab tests begin. My next call was to my OBGYN to ask for a blood test and to check to see if I needed to take Progesterone, as I did with my last pregnancy. She sent me to the lab for blood work and the Dr. sent in a prescription for Prometrium, which this time I get to take as a suppository instead of orally.... oh what fun that is!

First blood work results that I received on Friday was that the hcg level was positive but low and to repeat the blood work on Monday.

Monday I sat for 1.5 hours in the Quest Diagnostics waiting room since I was a walk in. Awaiting those test results and hoping for the best. With my history, you never know. At least this time I know what to look for, know what questions to ask, and know what to expect.

Baby no. 2 is due October 30th.

Step Aside Gerber

My obsession from making my own baby food rather than buying the trusty Gerber brand stemmed from breastfeeding. It was always my desire to breastfeed for the first year of my daughter’s life but unfortunately destiny had other plans. 

I exclusively breastfeed my daughter the first 6 weeks of her life and then I had to return to work. I started pumping and getting a supply when she was 5 weeks old. As the stress of going back to work sooner than I wanted to and making the time during the work day to stop and pump my supply quickly dwindled. The stress compounded my already ongoing problem since I was diagnosed with PCOS. I tried all kinds of things to get my milk production to go up and stay up. I was making and eating lactation cookies, drinking lactation teas, pumping more at home in between feedings, and taking additional herbal supplements. Sadly at nearly 5 months my daughter was switched from breast milk to formula. I was so sad and cried through her entire first formula bottle.

That brings me to my obsession with baby food. I wanted to give her breast milk as long as possible because it was the best and most nutritious thing for her. When she started solids I was determined to making them myself so she would be getting the purest and healthiest foods I could give her. Nothing wrong with Gerber food, this was something I just wanted to do for myself.

I started with making my own purees with bananas, apples, butternut squash (her fave!), green beans, spinach, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, broccoli (did not like it!), avocado and zucchini. As her pallet has expanded and her two little teeth started chomping away I started to mix flavors and leave it a little bit chucky so she could get used to different textures.

I will admit that I do not make my own snack foods (maybe with baby bump no. 2) so she absolutely goes nuts over the Gerber Puffs and Gerber Baby Cheetos. As soon as they hit her highchair she immediately goes right for them and wiggles with delight.

When I starting making batched purees I had been simply making each flavor separately and putting them in ice cube trays to freeze individual servings. As I became more daring, and accepting that my baby was growing up, I started to mix flavors during meal time.

Now that she is 10 months old I wanted to introduce poultry and meat. I wanted to make mini meals for her versus just single fruits and vegetables.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the cook in the house so this was definitely a challenge for me. Here is my first experiment before mashing it up.

This has 5 ingredients which fits into my 5 ingredients or less rule when trying a new recipe. This has butter, onions, yams, carrots, and corn.

After feeling confident about what I had accomplished in my first combo meal it was time to introduce poultry. It had butter, onions, yams, apples and chicken. 

She LOVED them both and I was quite proud of myself after finishing them. The kitchen may have been a disaster but I felt accomplished. My dear husband just shook his head and smiled at my insane obsession with making her food. 

Family Expansion

On Thanksgiving we got the news that my SIL is pregnant with baby no. 2. She already has a son who is 3 and she is now due in the beginning of August.

Today she found on that his having a baby......

GIRL! Aubrey is going to have a baby girl cousin to play with since she is surrounded by all boys cousins close to her age. So excited to spoil my new niece!

So far I have been blessed with 1 niece and 3 nephews and of course one beautiful daughter. This new little one will help even out the pack. Family is so fun and adding a new little one to the family. It makes holidays and family time so much more fun.

Auntie loves you Baby Girl J!

Baby Bump No. 2?

Ever since I can remember all I wanted to be is a mom. When my husband and I were dating we always talked about having a large family, as both of us came from families that had 4 children. When we officially started TTC baby number one we stopped all contraception after the honeymoon. Knowing my history with a very irregular and very absent period I just had a feeling deep down that it would take more than a little baby dancing and luck to get pregnant. But anyone who has undergone infertility treatments will tell you that most doctors and HMO insurance requires 1 full year of natural trying before medical intervention. Well during that year I also advised my doctor of my problem with lack of periods and she started me on Metformin 50 mg 1x daily get my body working in a more natural pattern. After 1 year, 2 miscarriages, and tons of tears and heart break it was time to get serious. I was prescribed Clomid and after 3 rounds we were pregnant and 9 months later had our beautiful daughter Aubrey.

Knowing the rough path we took to get pregnant the first time makes me very apprehensive to start down this path again. From my previous experience with Metformin alone and knowing that it likely wouldn't work the second time around I went to the OB and got another round of Clomid.

I blush and get the nervous stomach as I say that on January 25^th we started trying for another baby. I started Clomid and started obsessively peeing on sticks. Every morning it is the test to see if I am ovulating. And then of course with that comes the scheduled and often unromantic “we have to do it now” BD. 

Ovulation has occurred and now comes the waiting game and watching the calendar until I can start peeing on the pregnancy test sticks.

Thank you Amazon for creating cheap, bundled, not fancy, pee sticks or I would go broke paying Target’s prices!

I am so excited to give Aubrey a sibling. I hope that she has the kind of relationship that I do with my closest sibling. We do everything passionately – we fight hard and we love hard. She is my best friend.

I can’t wait to have another (and possibly last) baby bump. I loved being pregnant and it makes me even more aware that this will probably be my last and that I need to soak up every minute.