He's Here!!

Yep. He's finally here. It's official. I'm a mom!! Baby A, aka Patrick Levi, made his grand entrance on Friday the 12th at 11:04 pm. He was 7 lbs., 13 oz. and 21 inches long. It was an amazing experience. Things didn't go quite as planned, but it was amazing none the less. I'll share more details later, but for now here's a quick photo.



I'm exhausted, but my heart has never been so full. And seeing the sheer joy on my husband's face is too much for words.

I'm also WAAAAY behind on my blog reading and commenting. I can't wait to hear what's been up with everyone. I'll be back soon.

The Plan

Just a quick update and then I'm going to take a nap.

We're scheduled to go into the hospital tonight to be induced. They'll start with the pill on my cervix and walking the halls, which I'm hoping will be enough. If not, my doctor will come tomorrow morning to break my water. If that doesn't do the trick, the last resort will be Pit.ocin, which I really hope to avoid.

It's not exactly the plan I'd hoped for. I wanted to be able to labor at home as long as possible and without any drugs, but my doctor is on-call tomorrow. I really want to deliver with him and I know the other two docs in his practice are quicker to push the drugs.

And I'm really ready to be done and bring this baby home!

Wish me luck!

Still Pregnant...

So. Yesterday was my due date and still no baby. I'm not completely miserable, but I'm so anxious to meet this little guy. But he hasn't even dropped yet.

At my appointment on Tuesday, we found out that he's big, which is pretty common for my family. They did an ultrasound to measure him - yay, we got to see him again. 8 lbs., 5 oz. Yikes! So they had me go into the hospital for a pelvic scan to make sure I'd have room to deliver such a big guy. Luckily, I should be fine so we're just waiting. And waiting. I was 1 cm dialated on Tuesday and I lost (or is it found?) the mucus plug this weekend and have had a few contractions. I know. Gross. TMI. But hopefully it won't be too much longer.

I have another appointment scheduled for Tuesday. Then we're tentatively scheduled to check in to the hospital on Thursday to induce. Hopefully he'll show up before then, but we'll meet this little guy one way or another.

Today Sucked!

All is still going well with the baby, but today sucked it - big time. I hate to be negative, but YUCK. I'm glad this day is over.

First, I had to go about 2.5 hours out of town for work. They wanted me to go yesterday, spend the night and all of today and then come back tonight. I wasn't willing to go out of town overnight for work, especially since we were heading in the opposite direction of all of my family - you know, just in case. I agreed to go down this morning with another person from the office - not my boss but a very respected senior-level staff member. We almost made it to our destination, when I had to have him pull over so I could throw up on the side of the highway. How gross. And embarrassing. How very professional of me. I think my breakfast didn't agree with me and I've felt kind of crappy the whole rest of the day. Awesome.

Later in the day, I was in a meeting and had to email some files to one of the other people in the meeting. It was the first time I opened my email all day. So, I'm in the middle of this big meeting and I see a message from my sister, aka the troll. I haven't heard anything from her in about 3 and a half months. I couldn't help but start to read it and it completely overtook my concentration. Of course, she was mean and said crappy things and now it was all I could think about. I'm sure it's part of her passive aggressive agenda to send this to my work address. Damn her!!!

Then, I finally get home tonight (yay - no puking!) and I got on FB to find out that one of my closest friends just lost the horse she's had since she was a little girl - more than 20 years. I was instantly bawling. Our animals mean the world to both of us. We talked and I think she's doing OK, all things considered, but she really didn't need this right now. She's just coming off of a tough breakup. She's a wonderful person and I hate to see her hurting.

This day needs to be OVER. I'm going to bed.

I'm Still Alive

So, um, yeah. I've been a bad blogger. Really bad. It's been 26 weeks since I posted. 26 weeks! Sheesh!

OK, so what have I been up to all of this time? Well, for one thing, I'm still pregnant!!!! Holy crap! We're actually having a baby!

What else? Well, life. It's been busy. I've still been reading and keeping up with everyone, but I just haven't taken the time to post. I'll give you the quicky version of what I've been up to for the last six months.

Morning sickness. Why do they call it morning sickness? I felt OK in the morning, but was sick the rest of the frickin' day all through the first trimester. Suck! Suck! Suck! But after everything some of us go through to get pregnant, I didn't really want to complain about it. Thanks goodness it passed.

Worrying and freaking out. I really struggled with decisions about testing. Some dear friends had a baby with a terminal genetic disorder last winter. They lost her this summer right around the time we were having to decide if/what testing to do. Their struggle affected me deeply and was at the same time very inspiring. We opted not to do any kind of prenatal screening.

Work, work, work. Oh, how I wish I didn't have to come back to work after my leave. But my job's pretty secure and we need that paycheck. E lost his job this fall and was out of work for a little while. Luckily he's working again. And this schedule may even work out so that we can go without daycare for a while. Yay! And for the most part, all is going well with our rental properties. There hasn't been much drama in a while.

I'm a Mrs. Yep. We got married this fall. We had an intimate ceremony with just a handful of family and friends. I was 22 weeks pregnant, which made dress shopping a serious challenge. :) I also found out that wedding planning isn't nearly as much fun when you're nauseous. But it turned out to be a perfect day. Married life is going well. I'm still in the process of changing my name, though. Ugh!

My sister sucks. She didn't come to the wedding and didn't have anything nice to say about the baby. Her response? "Oh." She's a fertile so I know she doesn't get it, but seriously? What a troll! We used to be fairly close, but she's chosen to spend her life with someone who's miserable and it has clearly rubbed off on her. I shed a lot of tears over it and lost a lot of sleep, but I've decided I don't need the extra stress. I just wish I got to see her kids without having to suck up to her. I hate that she uses them as a weapon.

Feelin' good. I really feel blessed that everything is going so well. The baby's doing great. I haven't had any bleeding or other scary events. I'm within the normal range on weight gain. I'm definitely getting round (I'll post a pic or two soon) and slowing down a bit, though. Sometimes my back hurts and I have heartburn. All. The. Time. But we're so lucky!

We're having a... Well, we found out a long time ago, but that warrants its own post. I have the nursery bedding and paint and hope to get everything done this weekend. I'll post a picture.

It's been so long that I still have lots more to say, but I think that's enough for now. Maybe that will force me to get back into posting regularly.

Six Weeks

I'm officially six weeks pregnant today. I still can't believe it.

For most of the last week, I've been having some cramping, mostly on the right. I tried not to freak out too much, but I was really worried it might be ectopic. We went if for our first ultrasound Monday and got the reassurance I needed. We saw...



One beautiful little bean!!!

And two big cysts on my right ovary (nobody wants to see those). I've had cysts after pretty much every cycle, but I didn't realize I could have them after IVF, too, but they said it's pretty common.

We go back next Monday for another ultrasound. We should be able to hear the heartbeat. Yay!! I've cried at all three of my visits so far, so I can't even imagine what I'll do when I hear that.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is really happening. And so far, it's going well.

Well, I'm off to get my crappy progesterone shot. Wouldn't want to miss that!

A Little Bit of Relief

I just got the call on beta #2. It's 170.

Thank God!

I'm so grateful. Everything seems to be going just how it should. I couldn't be more happy. I just wish I wasn't so scared that it could all just be ripped out from under me.

E's so cute, though. He called again today before I had the results. I'm not sure if he's quite as anxious as me, but seriously. Does he think I wouldn't call him as soon as I hang up the phone with Dr. D's office?

And my boss knows. I didn't tell her about the results, but when I let her and another coworker know that I'd be out for a quick appointment today, she assumed that it was a good sign. I told her that everything was going well so far, but it's still early. She has her fingers crossed for us. She's awesome. It's been so helpful to have an understanding boss. She has friends who've done IVF so she totally gets it.

I better get back to work.