Numbers Are Rising

I had my 5th blood draw for beta count on Monday and today I received the great results! My HCG level has grown from last week's 1682 to 18411! So exciting to see things happening in a positive upward grow. My progesterone is still low, even while taking the Prometrium x2 daily. I can't wait for that part to be over.

My first prenatal appointment with this little bear is set for March 18th. I am hoping we will be able to hear the heartbeat as an early birthday present for me. When I was pregnant with Aubrey we were able to hear the heart beat on our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was such an amazing present.

Dear Little Bear,
Mommy and Daddy loves you already. Aubrey is going to be such a great big sister for you. She can't wait to meet you either.

Love, Momma

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. 

Bucket List (Updated!)

Bucket List Updated 12/28/12

1. Get married and go on a fabulous honeymoon! (Done!! 10/24/09 and 10/25/09 – 10/31/09)
2. Have a baby or babies (Done. Daughter born 4/30/12)
3. Own my own home (Done! Bought our first home on 7/27/12 and moved in on 9/26/12)
4. Go on a hot air balloon ride
5. Go white water rafting
6. Go on a wine tasting tour
7. Vacation in NY and take tours of all the fabulous site seeing hot spots- including the Sex In The City Tour
8. Learn how to skateboard
9. Go to the World Series
10. Earn my BA
11. Co-own a classic car/truck with my husband and learn how to work on it
12. Go on a cruise
13. Swim with dolphins
14. Go to Hawaii with my husband
15. Go to a Nicholas Sparks book signing (Done! Went to the book signing of Safe Haven in La Jolla)
16. Own a pair of fabulous and ridiculously expensive designer shoes
17. Camp in Joshua Tree to sleep under the stars
18. Read the entire Bible
19. Zip line in Costa Rica
20. See Brad Paisley in concert (Done! In Sept. 2010 we went to his concert in Chula Vista and he sang our wedding song!)

Christmas Eve

 

This is my first Christmas as a mom. Something I always dreamed of and couldn't even imagine what it was going to be like. Last time this year I was four months pregnant and I destinctly remember laying on the couch rubbing my belly bump and looking at the tree wondering and dreaming how different the next year would be.  I even wrote in my journal about the experience. I know that my 9 month old is too young to really enjoy the twinkle of the lights on the houses and does not have any interest in baking Christmas cookies with me for Santa but I still have found joy in starting traditions.

I have wrapped gifts from Santa and kept them hidden upstairs in my closest. Is Aubrey really going to notice more gifts on Christmas morning? Know they are from Santa and that she was a good girl? Will she know that the cookies on the plate and milk has been eatten by Santa and the carrots chewed by the reindeer? Of course not. I am fully aware of the expectation of a lack of interest or understanding but it is still fun to start traditions and tell her about all the fun things we are doing and why.

Today we will be making her feet print plate for Santa's cookies. We will set them out by the Christmas tree and Aubrey will take a picture with them in anticipation for Santa. I know she will not remember her first Christmas but I will and when I tell her about it when she is older I want to show her picture to accompany the story.

We are celebrating Christmas Eve at my cousin's house and the coolest part is that they live one street away and we are literally filling the wagon with gifts for the baby cousins and walking over. My cousin M texted me this week and asked if I was bringing over a Christmas Eve present over early so that she can wrap it in the same paper as the other gifts from Santa on Christmas Eve. I didn't even consider this. As the first year as a Mom and long after the age of believing in Santa I had completely forgotten about the early Santa gift.

Every Christmas Eve after dinner (and we had to make sure that Grandpa was completey full and finished with his dinner) all the little cousins will go into a room, turn off the lights, close the door, and look out the window for Rudolph's nose. When we hear the sleigh bells the kids burst out of the room and run to the tree to see if they can spot Santa leaving the gifts. Of course, we missed him every time but he left us 1 early Christmas present for being so good that year.

This is just another blessing about being a mom. I get to be Santa this year. I get to see all the kids running out to see Santa in a whole new way.

I feel so blessed to be a mom and am so excited for all the new experiences. God has blessed me with such a fun, loving, spunky, determined, stubborn, loving little girl and I am so thankful for everything that has given me.

Merry Christmas and I hope that God blesses everyone this holiday season.