⚡ Match Highlights: Match Update & Schedules

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Wehadababyitsaboy!

And I've got 8 short weeks of maternity leave left. My goal is to be caught up on this blog by then....wish me luck :)

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Our new little love was born Friday, December 20th at 6:05 AM. He is such a perfect little addition to our family and we are so lucky he's ours! Love at first sight!

My due date was December 28th and I always thought I was one of those "the baby will come when the baby is ready" kind of gals. Turns out this whole December birthday thing trumped any of those thoughts (plus I was dying to get out of the office ;) )and I asked my OB how early I could be induced. He said with a second baby they will go a week early, which put us on a Saturday. I suggested Friday instead and my doctor said okay! Sold!

My parents were going to have Mariah and the dogs overnight so we went out to one last dinner as a family of three and dropped our girl back off at grandma's. We headed home and I did my last clean up and shoveled the driveway then lounged in the bathtub for a while. We were expecting a call from the hospital about 6:00 AM to let me know when to come in so I tried to get to bed early. I woke up at 11 PM to my water breaking and it was go time!

We got to the hospital a little after midnight and I was at a 4. The contractions were worse than I remembered with Mariah and coming faster. The dork nurse blew veins in both my hands trying to get an IV in before she called someone else in. New girl used this numbing spray that was fabulous. Dork nurse needs to take a lesson :) I let them know I was willing to accept my epidural any time they were ready and I think it was about 1:30 when the anesthesiologist (a.k.a. my new best friend) showed up. This is the part you should stop reading if you've had terrible labors....I basically slept through the rest of my labor. I know. I KNOW. It's ridiculous. Just before five the nurse checked me and it was baby time! We waited for my doctor to show up and then the fun began. I had some scar tissue from Mariah's delivery that was not being very cooperative. My doctor had me push through several contractions and tried to make it stretch but no luck. He finally gave it a snip and baby was out on the next push! Mason Thomas Smith joined our family at 6:05 AM and stole our hearts at 6:06. He is so sweet and perfect and loved - we are so lucky!

I hadn't told my family that I went into labor - I figured why keep them up all night wondering how it was going. I text my mom a picture of me and my new baby boy and she didn't believe me. HA!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Movin' On Up

We accidentally bought a new house this year! We are LOVING the more open lay out and the extra space. I had been nagging Clint about moving ever since Mariah became mobile - I knew there was no way we could have two kids in our first home. It was cute and cozy but it just wasn't a great layout for kids and just tooooo small. He had been saying no no no for over two years. That hadn't stopped me! I was always keeping an eye on homes for sale and builders we might be interested in using. I had looked up a new floor plan I wanted to check out because we were finally on the same page that we would build in the Spring of 2014. So we decided to check out this new floor plan, just to see if it was something we'd be interested in down the line. The first house we looked at was nice, and we liked the floor plan, but there was one feature it was missing (the famous Costco closet door). We asked if there was another house that had one, just to see what it looked like. Turns out the house right next to the model home DID have one. And it was also the floor plan we liked. On a lot we liked. With finishes we liked. And did I mention it was available? Clint said "let's just get this one" and after 2 years of no I didn't hesitate, we were under contract within a week!

We still had the not so fun project of selling our current home. I was super stressed about it. I knew we would sell it but worried it would be for less than we wanted and that it wouldn't sell quickly enough, etc. We did a total de-junk, cleaned up the back yard, deep cleaned the house and staged it for photos. The pictures turned out great - I almost wondered why we were moving! The day the house was listed my agent was calling me non-stop. I lost track of how many showings we had at 12. We ended up with 4 offers on the first day and sold our house above asking price, whaaaat. It was clearly meant to be.

I failed to take pictures of the house before we moved in and now all our junk is in the way, so these will have to do :)

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Number 2

And no this isn't a potty post :)

Clint and I started talking last year about when we wanted to give our frozen embryos a chance. We decided we might as well get going with the new year when I could move back to my insurance which has some fertility coverage so off we went! I started meds at the end of November with hopes of doing a cycle first thing in January. Unfortunately insurance companies are lame and I had to have cycle testing done on an UNmedicated cycle so there went that plan. We waited a cycle and got the green light in mid-January, yay!

After Mariah's IVF, we had four day-6 embryos remaining. We had a lot of debate about how many to transfer, because what if we do two and they both stick? And then what if they are whack-a-doo's like Mariah? I was exhausted just thinking about it. Ultimately we decided we would transfer two and cross our fingers. My transfer date was February 22 and everything looked great. They ended up having to thaw three embryos because one of the first (and best!) ones didn't survive the thaw. The transfer went great and then it was time for the waiting game.

Four days later I got a positive on my home test! It worked again! We were so excited. I couldn't wait to find out how many had nestled in to stay. We had an appointment for an ultrasound on March 15. Clint was able to go with me which turned out to be a blessing when the ultrasound revealed one sac but no heartbeat. The doctor was not optimistic but told us to wait for the blood results to be sure, maybe it was just a slow grower. The results came back later that day at less than 5, definitely no baby. I drowned my sorrows in chips and salsa and spent the weekend snuggling with Mariah, wondering if she would be my only baby.

I had a follow up with my doctor on Monday, March 18. We went over the options. We had one frozen embryo left. It was the lowest quality one we had. There was only one. I was certain it wouldn't work and we needed to start saving up for another fresh IVF. We decided to just go ahead and get this cycle out of the way so it wasn't looming over us for the rest of the year. We looked at the dates and if the cycle worked, I would be due December 28th. I always swore I would never subject my kids to a December birthday, but it was only one embryo so it wasn't going to work anyway.

We had our second frozen transfer on April 11. The lone ranger survived the thaw beautifully and the transfer went great. Imagine my surprise five days later to get another positive test! I didn't let myself get too excited because I'd been here before just a few short weeks earlier. My clinic was great about getting me in the office every two or three days for a blood draw to make sure the levels were still rising as we expected. The lab had a mis-read one day and put me in a panic when it appeared my levels had gone from 1800 to less than 5 in two days. They did a re-draw and sure enough it was over 5000, phew! We eventually got far enough along to do an ultrasound and were so relieved to see one little bean with a beautiful heartbeat!

Everything was going fine until my family took a trip to Moab. We had stopped for lunch on the way home and I started bleeding. Too good to be true, I thought. I spent the four hour drive home and the rest of that Sunday night preparing myself to hear that we had lost the baby. My OB was able to get me in right away on Monday for an ultrasound. Guess what? Still one cute little bean in there with a strong heartbeat. I knew bleeding in the first trimester wasn't uncommon but since I had a picture perfect pregnancy with Mariah, it was super scary! Turns out I had a sub-chorionic hematoma but it appeared to be located in a place that wouldn't impact the baby. My OB monitored me every week until I hit the 12 week mark even when the bleeding had stopped by about 10 weeks. Everything still looked great with the baby and we were so thankful!