23.5 weeks

6/12/12 (last day of 23 weeks)

How far along? 23.5 Weeks

I think I'm pretty obviously pregnant right?  I don't look like I just ate a big meal...I feel like in the last 3-4 weeks it just popped.  

Total weight gain/loss: 8 lbs give or take

Maternity clothes? YES and I love them! 

Stretch marks? Not yet.  I had  a scare this week after I woke up I thought I had suddenly gotten them all over my belly, but it turns out it was just marks on my skin from the sheets. I stood in front of the mirror and almost screamed!  It was quite frightening! ;)
Sleep: My poor back – Moving and turning over has become a chore, partly because I want to take my pregnancy pillow with me.  Sleep isn’t awful but it isn’t great either.
Best moment this week:  We SAW my belly move.  It is amazing.  I love to lay with J and just watch it move.  It is really amazing  and I love sharing it with J more than anything.  I LOVE feeling and now seeing this baby move.  It’s a miracle!

I LOVED watching J put the crib and dresser together.  It was the sweetest thing!  But the ABSOLUTE best part about it was watching him after it was all set up and done.  Every single time he'd walk by the nursery he would turn on the light and go in and look around.  He even texted me before it was finished and said, "are you excited to get the nursery put together?  I am! It will be fun to see what it will look like!"   And he sure loves it.  He loves to look at it and admire it.  It's ADORABLE!  

Also people are just SO nice.  People at work are so concerned for me.  They remind me to drink lots of water if I’m out in the sun or they will grab something or someone (a child) from me if I’m carrying something to heavy.  A few ladies even mention how “small” I look and I love that ;) 

Also LOVE my sisters childbirth classes still.  I’m sad we are ½ way through.  They are fantastic! 

 I also FINALLY found ONE dress to wear to church and I love it. I finally felt pretty last week when I went to church.  Now if I can just find a few more. 

Miss Anything?  Nope, loving every minute.  Ok maybe occasionally when J is having his Mtn Dew I used to love to take a few drinks, now I try so hard not too. 
Movement: all the time. we love laying in bed before we go to sleep and watching and feeling him wiggle.  I've waited and dreamed of this my entire life!
Food cravings: This week I wanted more cheese and a hamburger.  YUM! 
Anything making you queasy or sick: nope
Gender: Let’s hear it for the BOY!  Let’s give the boy a HAND!  (come-on...sing along!  FOOTLOOSE)
Labor Signs: Nope.  I have felt my tummy really tighten up a few times but it doesn’t hurt at all. and it isn't labor signs
Belly Button in or out? In IN IN
Wedding rings on or off? On and gorgeous
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY although I have been a bit more moody this week than I would’ve liked.  I started going through all of my teaching stuff and am TOTALLY nesting and it has made me a bit emotional. Poor J
Looking forward to: more nursery decorating, getting the house CLEAN and ORGANIZED, and seeing and feeling MORE movement with J.  I can’t get enough! 

Items bought so far: Just today we bought the CUTEST pack n play off of craigslist and I LOVE IT!!!  The family was SO nice and cute!  So up to this point we have: crib & dresser (target), bassinet (free from Tiff), pack n play (craigslist) and a few adorable outfits from a sweet friend Carmen at work, and my Best Friend Ang got me the BEST picture frame to hold an ultrasound picture, I LOVE IT!

How CUTE is HE working on putting that dresser together.  I SURE  LOVE THIS MAN!  I loved sitting back and watching him work.  

the pack n play (also has a canopy and bassinet) Isn't it cute!

Trip To Colorado

Over Memorial Day weekend Justin and I decided to go up to Colorado Springs to visit my sister Tiffany for her birthday and my nephew Michael’s birthday and so that we could FINALLY meet sweet baby Lucy.  My dad’s sister, my Aunt Karen, was also going to be in Denver visiting her son.  When we learned this we knew we HAD to make it up there so we could see her.  I just LOVE my Aunt Karen and really wanted Justin to get to meet her too!  I hadn’t seen her in YEARS!  

We left Friday the 25^th and returned home the following Wednesday the 30^th.   It was a short trip, but then again they are never long enough. 

The drive up was great!  NO car problems and a safe drive = a great trip.  It took about 12ish hours I think.  So a long drive, but it was also beautiful. 

Saturday was full of FUN.  My Mom and Dad as well as Merri and her family were also all up visiting.  Merri had gone up the week before to help Tiffany and my Mom and Dad had planned on going for sometime since we thought Michael was going to be baptized this weekend.  (He is not being baptized until end of July now though due to Rog having to work)  We sure missed Katie and Kade though, it’s never the same when part of the family is missing.  So Saturday we all headed off to “The North Pole, Santa’s Workshop.” It is a little amusement park with rides for little kids.  It was great fun to watch all of the kids having such a blast and watching Pop loving every second.  Even if he was just on the sidelines holding Rhett or Lucy.  Pop bought all of the grandkids ice cream from the ice cream parlor and he took Maggie and Rylee on the merry go round so many times I thought he’d walk off spinning.  He smiled all day long right along with the kids.  It was priceless.  I tried to convince Pop that our baby needed ice cream to, and that it would have to go through me to get to him J  Sadly that argument didn’t fly but Pop did buy me a great frozen yogurt later to make up for it. 

Sadly I didn't pull out my camera enough here either.  I just snapped a few pictures at the petting zoo part.  

Rylee and J feeding bambi

My little Michael feeding the animals

Haha, just thought he looked funny!  

J and I at the North Pole :)

Sunday was Tiffany and Rylee’s birthdays.  It is hard to know how to make a bday special for a mother of 4, especially when her hubby is gone and it falls on a Sunday so we can’t take her out.  So we did our best.  We set up a few little decorations and Pop cooked an amazing meal.  We also made Tiff stay in bed until after 9 and Lucy must’ve KNOWN it was her mommy’s bday because she slept 12 hours that night.  GO LUCE!    The kids helped me make Tiff a special breakfast and we took it to her in bed.  Orange Julius, French toast, and strawberries.  The kids Loved taking it to her and quietly wishing her a happy bday.  IT was adorable!  We had to be quiet because Lucy was in the bassinet next to Tiff still sleeping.  I worried Maggie and Briggs would not be able to contain themselves but they all whispered happy bday and were amazing!   Later that day we had church and just tried to relax and enjoy Pop’s yummy meal. 

Monday was a special Day.  Pop took his oldest grandson and us up to Denver to the Natural History Mueseum where we met up with Aunt Karen and our cousin Donny and Susan.  It was a fabulous day that we will never forget.  Michael was in HEAVEN.  Pop let him pick where we went in the museum and Michaeal was fascinated by the science and facts. 

Michael at the museum by a golden T REX tooth.  What  a handsome boy!  

How do YOU measure up??  

My one regret for the entire trip is that I didn’t get a picture of me and my aunt Karen.  L I can’t believe it.  I guess I’ll have to settle for stealing on of my sisters pictures of her with the grandkids.  We had a great time visiting with my Aunt and the Freeman family.  They are wonderful and we sure love them!

My aunt told great stories about my Dad when he was little.  One I really enjoyed was when my dad was about 2 or so, he carried around his Dad’s (my Pop’s) big heavy ash tray. (I didn’t know my Pop used to smoke – not my dad but his dad) anyway it broke and cut my Dad’s hand pretty badly.  They had to take him to get stitches.  They wrapped it up but my aunt said that ANYTIME they’d unwrap it and my dad would see the stitches, he’d tenderly hold his hand and say, “Poowr Baby, Poowr baby!!”  HAHA I thought that was pretty funny! 

She also told us that she was 14 when my dad was born so anyone who didn’t know their family too well thought my dad was hers because she was always holding him and taking care of him.

When my Aunt Karen was born, she wasn’t able to see her parents for a few weeks because her brother had meningitis and so a family member took care of her for many weeks.  I thought that was interesting too. 

ANYWAY we had a great visit in Denver and made great memories. 

It was the CUTEST THING!  J was sitting at the top of the stairs talking to me while I got ready (see my preggo belly in the background) and Maggers came right up and sat next to J while playing the ipad.  LOVE!  It was adorable to say the least!

Tuesday was our last day in CO and we wanted to make the most of it.  We woke up and Tiff, kids, Pop, and J and I all drove through the beautiful Garden of the Gods (after a delicious breakfast of the creamiest oatmeal made by Pop).  Then we went to Seven Falls, this beautiful waterfall up in the canyon.  I had been there once before but was very excited to take J and Pop. 

It was BEATIFUL!  First we rode an elevator up to a lookout where you can see all 7 Falls.  Poor Pop had to take a business call, but we didn’t mind.  We were just happy to have him with us! 

Then Michael, J and I were brave and hiked all of the 224 steps up to the very top.  Michael liked being between J and I for safety, it was so cute!  But he braved his way all the way up, way to go!  It was a beautiful view.

At the bottom of the falls there are lots of rainbow trout and another kind of fish that everyone enjoyed feeding.  

J and Maggie Pie

Nat and Lil Lucy, we finally met and were instant friends! Isn't she beautiful!  I love her in that yellow!  

Long way to go!

Don't look down!

1/2 way to the top

I really like this view! Hubba Hubba!  wink wink

We made it!

Pop and the middle daughters at Seven Falls

After the Falls J and I said goodbye to Pop, Tiff, and kids, and we went on our separate way to the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. 

It was fantastic.  It is a 3 hour train ride up a cog railway that goes to the summit of Pikes Peak.  The entire trip up is narrated by someone aboard the train which was fascinating.  She gave lots of interesting facts and info.  We learned about the car race up Pikes Peak each year as well as the marathon race.  The fastest car on record took a turn at 76 mph (IMPOSSIBLE I SAY!) and the straightaways as 120something.  When we did get to the top we talked with a man that drove and said he couldn’t get his car to go more than 30 up the mtn and it wouldn’t go more than 15 around a sharp turn.  There are also no guardrails, so J and I were quite happy we chose the railroad route! 

All aboard!  Time to go J! 

on the way UP

the tree line

We also saw Marmots, a rodent of unusual size (ROUS’s) above the treeline.  J had told me about these on his trip to Yosemite, so I was excited to see some in real life.  There were also some hikers the train picked up at the top of the peak who rode down with us and they told us they had thrown up 3 times from altitude sickness.  WOW. 

the cog rail road

the Marmot 

Yep that's snow! 

When we got to the top it was like we were at the TOP of the world.  We could see in every direction and it was breathtaking…and COLD.  I loved sharing these memories with my Best Friend!  On the way down we enjoyed the view and had a little difficulty keeping our eyes open.  With all of the activity of the last few days, sitting still for a little bit on this peaceful train ride made us a little sleepy.  We managed to stay awake though.  J  It was amazing.

On the drive back J and I may have gotten a little turned around and had to drive through the garden of the Gods a few extra times trying to find our way out. Good thing it was beautiful! :)

We had an AMAZING trip.  We are so grateful for Tiff and her sweet hospitality.  And we just adore her sweet children.  Thanks for an unforgettable trip Tiff.  We sure Love you and wish we could’ve stayed forever! 

Tiff also got out ALL of her maternity clothes, body pillow, bassinet, and a book called Babywise, and she gave them to me.  I am so grateful for her kindness and generosity.  However in case she decides to have any more babies (she is just so good at it!!) I’ll take good care of it all.  Thanks again!! We can’t wait to come back!!  

22.5 weeks

May 5, 2012

It looks like it just popped out this week!  Way to grow baby!

How far along? 22.5 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: about 6-8 lbs. (depends on the day and time of day)

Maternity clothes? I’ve had 2 great trips to Ross and had a sister that donated all of her maternity clothes.  Thanks Tiff!  Don’t worry I’ll take good care of them in case you ever need them again!  I’m just having an awful time trying to find some dresses to wear to church!  I only have one MAYBE 2 skirts I can still wear and they just aren’t cute! 

Stretch marks? Not yet…if and when they do come I may just delete this question so I’m not so depressed J

Sleep: Sleeping has been getting more challenging, ½ way through the night I wake up with pretty bad back pain.  By early morning it is pretty hard to sleep because my back hurts so much.  But I’m NOT complaining.  Just stating that sleeping isn’t what it used to be for me.   However, I did get an AMAZING pregnancy body pillow from my sister that makes a WORLD of difference.  I LOVE IT!  Thanks sis!!!

Best moment this week: Going to our FIRST childbirth class together, taught by my oldest sister Merri!  It was great.  I have looked forward to going to my sisters classes since my first sister got to go over 8 years ago, now it was OUR turn.  It was made even better than expected when Justin and I got home and Justin told me that he really liked it and thought it was very informative and helpful.  (and that’s just after class #1) YIPPE!  It was great! 

J says one thing he learned from class was about contractions.  He didn’t know you could get them in your back.  One thing I learned is that moving during labor is actually HELPFUL!  So walking around, sitting on an exercise ball, rocking in a rocking chair etc. is all GOOD and HELPS in labor.  Lying in bed is not as beneficial.  Moving can also help distract you somewhat from the pain.  I also learned how important it is to be comfortable. So if I need to bring in my own pillows, music that soothes me, a picture etc I will if it will help me be more comfortable, therefore making delivery that much easier. Hey every little thing helps right!! 

Thanks Merri, can’t wait for NEXT week. 

Also buying the crib and dresser.  It was quite exciting.  It was also fun to watch J set it all up.  I helped  a little J  At first I was stressing over how much it all costs.  YIKES!  (you will not be surprised by this if you know me) And then it hit me how lucky and grateful I am that we are spending money on actual items for this baby instead of paying a Dr. to help us conceive a baby.  YEP I’m blessed.  Can’t complain about spending a few $$ when we could still be paying thousands just to get pregnant. 

Miss Anything? Sleeping on my tummy and having clothes/dresses to wear to church J

 Movement: Justin has now officially felt the baby move TWICE!  Amazing!  We did have Justin push a little while I pushed on the side of my tummy, and Justin doesn’t like that.  He worries that squishing the baby isn’t good for him.  Haha silly J!

 I feel Baby D move every day and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  It is stronger than I thought it would be this early.  I have felt what could have possibly been hiccups as well but it didn’t last long so Im not positive.   

Food cravings: Nothing to bad yet that I’ve HAD to HAVE.  But Merri had cubes of cheese and wheat thins at class Monday and I couldn’t get enough.  OH MY it makes my mouth water now!  I want that cheese!  Delish!  Also my sweet friend Angie brought me over these chocolate zucchini muffins and I at 3 that day.  Oh MAN they were AMAZING! 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really.  Even went up to an elevation of 14,110 feet on Pikes Peak in CO and was great.  YAY!!  WAIT…I did see a picture of an episiotomy/tear in my birthing class book and that really did make my stomach sick!  OH MY!

Have you started to show yet: Sure have!  Haven’t had any comments from people that didn’t know yet, so I ‘m wondering if I still just look chubby, but it is definitely becoming obvious!  Especially if I wear the right clothes.

Gender: BOY oh BOY!!

Labor Signs: Nope.  Occasionaly I have a sharp pain and I worry a bit, but it isn’t anything thank goodness.  What a MIRACLE!

Belly Button in or out? In

Swelling?  Not yet

Wedding rings on or off? On and as pretty and perfect as ever.

Happy or Moody most of the time: happy as a clam…feeling so very blessed and grateful for a healthy pregnancy.

Looking forward to: Next birthing class, seeing the baby move, and doing more to the nursery.  Everything is so exciting!!

21 weeks

Here are 2 pictures J took the morning we left on our trip to Colorado to visit Tiff for her birthday and to meet  baby Lucy for the FIRST time!

baby is about the size of a carrot :)

Our pregnancy Journey Part 1

I want to record our pregnancy journey.  I gained so much strength and knowledge learning from others who shared their heart wrenching stories that I want to share mine, and also keep it for myself to refer to.  Be advised it is very personal and also contains a few pictures from my surgery.  (don’t say I didn’t warn you ;)

When I was a little girl I would put balls and balloons under my shirt and pretend I was pregnant.  I would play house and pretend I was a mommy all day.  I have always dreamed of getting married and having lots and lots of babies.  When I was 5, if you asked me how many babies I was going to have I would’ve told you 100.  When I was 10 I said 50, and as I grew up it slowly went down to 12, and now I know that I want as many babies as Heavenly Father is willing to give me.   I knew that the best days of my entire life would be my wedding day and when we had a new child brought into our family. 

As soon as Justin and I were serious we talked about having a family together.  I knew I had to be honest and tell him a few things about my situation.  I didn’t know much and we would learn much more together in the months to come but I wanted him to know that I didn’t know if it would be possible for me to become pregnant. 

Growing up I had extremely painful periods and was put on birth control to help control them.  At one of my very uncomfortable teenage appointment s with my OB/GYN she noticed that I had 2 cervixes and she said she’d have to do 2 pap smears instead of 1.  JOY L  Anyway they ran some tests and did some scans and ultrasounds over the next few months and they told me I had a bicornuate uterus.  A uterus with a thick septum or wall down the middle.  They also told me they didn’t know if I’d be able to have children.  Well for someone whose dreamed of being a mother her entire life this was DEVASTATING NEWS. 

Since I hadn’t found my eternal companion I tried to just put it on the back burner.  Besides we weren’t sure of anything yet and my dr. was a little small town dr. so I wasn’t giving up hope.  As I got older and after I met Justin things changed and I wanted more answers. 

I saw my amazing Doctor, Dr. Wilson and I brought up some of my concerns.  He looked at the tests I had when I was younger and said that it could pose many different complications for pregnancy but it may not too.  Some women have a bicornuate uterus and never know it until they are actually pregnant.  He said we should worry about it when the time came.  I am not very patient with this lack of information but I sure tried.

Doctor Wilson had not actually run any test himself at this point.  He had read reports from past test I had done.  What he explained to me was that I had a large septum that ran from the top of my uterus down through my cervix (making 2 cervixes) and down through my vagina as well.  (This was a very interesting fact to me because I had tried to wear tampons many times growing up and they didn’t work, well NOW it all makes sense, that is because I had TWO sides.  Crazy right?!)  The unknowns were if the uterine septum was throughout the entire uterus and if the 2 sides of my uterus had any “communication”.  See, if sperm was put on the left side and the egg was on the right side, (or vice versa) would there be any way for the sperm to reach the egg or did the wall completely block them from each other.  Dr. Wilson said that couples have about a 10% shot of getting pregnant each month, this may make our chances 5%.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear.  But we didn’t know if the sides communicated and I just held onto my hope that we could get pregnant. 

My other question was what if we DO get pregnant.  What will THAT mean for us?  Dr. Wilson said that there could possibly be some complications.  There would be  a very high chance of miscarriage.  If the placenta attached to the septum then it wouldn’t have enough blood flow for the baby which could cause a miscarriage.  OR the baby could run out of room since it only had 1/ 2 a uterus.  OR my cervix could be to weak to hold a pregnancy causing preterm labor, OR…the list could go on.  All very scary. 

Dr. Wilson also discussed having surgery to remove the septum.  It could pose its own complications making conceiving a baby difficult.  It could cause scar tissue or we would weaken the uterus or damage it or my cervixes etc.  So we decided it would be better to at least try getting pregnant first before trying surgery.  (at this point we didn’t even know if my issues would create a problem getting pregnant.)

Justin and I were married and after 8 months we were ready to start trying.  I went off the pill in January of 2011 and didn’t know what would happen.  We went and saw Dr. Wilson just to talk about our options and complications etc.  He encouraged us to just enjoy trying and to be patient.  We may not even need to help to conceive so why try anything that could potentially have side effects or make it more difficult to conceive.  If we didn’t conceive then we could worry about looking into why and possible solutions etc. 

I wanted answers and didn’t want to try for a year if something was wrong.  But I thought we could at least give it shot.  So we prayed and fasted a lot and had fun trying. ;)

After 6 months my patience had run out and I wanted some answers.  We went back to Dr. Wilson and after much thought and talking to Dr. Wilson we decided it would be best to have the surgery to increase our chances of having a baby.  Dr. Wilson’s plan was to go in and look around and see if the two sides communicate and remove the uterine and vaginal septum, and possibly the cervical septum as well if possible. 

We had the surgery at the end of June.  It was very scary for me, but I was so grateful for my sweet and supportive husband and for the priesthood.  We went in for surgery and I got very weak and thought I was going to pass out after they got me all ready.  I was so embarrassed.  But sweet Dr. Wilson held my hand and so did my hubby. 

The surgery took 2-3 hours LONGER than expected (about 5 hrs total) and poor Justin was terrified.  He was expecting it to be an hour or two and he waited and waited with NO WORD of how I was or why it was taking so long.  FINALLY Dr. Wilson came out to Justin and explained everything and showed him pictures and also told him while they were in there the found extensive endometriosis that they scraped away as much as they could and they got a large amount about the size of a golf ball. (this is what took all the extra time)  He explained to J and later to both of us that there was NO communication between the  2 sides of my uterus.  The cervical septum was not removed, and there are actually 2 openings therefore 2 distinct cervixes.  He didn’t want to give me an incompetent or weakened cervix so he just left that septum alone.  He didn’t remove the entire uterine septum either because it is dangerous to get too close to the top of the uterus, so there was still some remaining at the top.  (sort of making my uterus heard shaped, if that makes any sense)

The recovery was long it seemed, but I was surrounded by a loving husband, family and friends.  And I felt like it brought us one step closer to reaching our goal.  A BABY!  I am so grateful everything went so smoothly. 

Funny Dr. Wilson sent the pictures of my insides (upon my request) and said it could make a great “FHE activity” haha always the funny man! 

Here are some of the pictures I found most interesting from the surgery.  I WARNED YOU REMEMBER ;)

(Dr. Wilson says my case is rare and interesting so he documented well with pictures)

Here is my left and right side of my uterus (you can even see the  fallopian tube in some of the pictures) the septum is labeled and white (not a lot of blood flow to it) and the last pic on the bottom right is the tool they used to remove it and you can see how thick it was.  The top left picture shows a probe that was inserted into my abdominal cavity outside of my uterus and they were pushing down on the uterus)

This picture is so cool to me.  Dr. W inserted a light into one side and it only lit up 1/2 of the uterus because of the septum.  The bottom is a pic of the endometriosis.

A pic of my pretty uterus and ovaries (the white things) and below is the other 1/2 of my uterus lit up.  Crazy right?

I saved the best for last...the top 2 are my 2 cervixes.  and the septum down the middle.  The bottom left I wish I could remove so we didn't have to see it but I can't...it is the large vaginal septum I had.  The bottom right is who knows what ;) 

Well it is late so I will finish this saga soon.  TO be continued….