The Pregnant Pause:Our TTC Journey

Thursday was a fun day.  My dog, Laila, would not leave my side that morning. She's normally more of a cuddle bug to my husband but she was all over me that morning before I left to take our son to preschool and head to my every Thursday NST (non-stress test). Of course, that appointment went longer than usual. The nurse came in after about thirty minutes saying, "Baby looks fine but she hasn't quite passed my test just yet." So, she had me turn to my other side and sit for another ten minutes or so. I was confused because I had seen quite a few peaks and accelerations on the NST but maybe she just didn't hold them long enough. Oh well, she ended up passing just fine. So, off to work I went. I had been pretty uncomfortable at work that day and just felt kind of... off. Around lunch time I started having really intense contractions and pains that radiated out to my hips and back. I immediately knew this was different because normally when I have contraction

Well, a LOT has happened in the last week or so since I posted last. I'm 32 weeks and a few days today. I spoke with my doctor earlier this week about how we were going to move my induction to 36 weeks because of how high my liver numbers have climbed. She said she was having dinner with the high risk doctor and they were going to discuss my treatment and delivery plan. After their discussion, they decided to have me get some repeat labs drawn and see how my numbers came back. If they come back showing they're still increasing we will be moving my induction date to closer to 35 weeks. WHOA. That's just two and a half to three weeks away! Talk about crazy... Baby Girl could be here in August instead of when she was due in October. Being born at 35 weeks is kind of a coin toss. I've done a ton of reading and some babies come out completely fine needing no NICU time and some come out needing days to weeks of NICU time. I'm very fortunate we already have the steroid sho

Well, this pregnancy is flying by. I'm now a little over 31 weeks and man have things become crazy. I've been managing 4-5 appointments a week while trying to keep up with my 40 hour a week job. It's been a lot to handle. We only have 5-6 more weeks left MAX and we all have a feeling she's going to show up earlier than that. So, what does my typical week look like right now? Monday: 9AM NST at the Hospital Maternity Ward Tuesday: 8:15AM BPP at MFM Wednesday: OB appointment at SLWHE Thursday: 9AM NST at the Hospital Maternity Ward Friday: No "scheduled" appointments (meaning, this is the day they'll randomly make me come in for more tests. So, as you can see it's a lot to keep up with. This past Thursday I had my liver enzymes (AST and ALT) and my Bile Acids tested again. My liver enzymes came back extremely elevated. In fact, they are at the levels they were at when I went into spontaneous labor (water broke) with my son at 35 weeks and 5 day

Hello again! It's been awhile since I've posted. Life has just been so crazy busy since I last updated! I'm almost 28 weeks now and getting ready to head into the third and final trimester! First things first, we announced that we are having a... We are so excited! Reilly was really tired during that picture but it's kind of funny if you think about it. We are keeping her name under wraps on social media right now  (because we're so famous, haha) but we've had it picked out since the moment we found out we were having a girl! Girl stuff is a little overwhelming, I'm not going to lie. I remember finding out we were pregnant with Reilly and I was terrified of having a boy. Boy stuff was so easy though and it's amazing how excited I get when I see cute boy stuff. Now, whenever I see girl stuff I get anxious and overwhelmed. I did find her an adorable Rainbow Baby outfit that I'm hoping she'll be big enough to come home in. Her nurser

Say hello to the second trimester! We announced our pregnancy a couple weeks ago! I think it turned out pretty great! There's even a hidden Mickey in there if you can find it! I'm a little over 14 weeks now and as happy as I am to be in the second trimester, I am hating the debilitating migraines that have taken over my life. I now know I can 100% honestly say I'd rather deal with nausea and vomiting than migraines. Doing anything with a migraine is taxing. I've been sitting at my desk at work with a can of ice cold Diet Coke pressed against my temple hoping for some relief while waiting for the 6 hours between Tylenol to expire so I can take another two pills. I'm not one who likes taking medicine while pregnant so if something is severe enough where I'm taking Tylenol multiple times a day, you know I'm hurting. Unfortunately, Tylenol doesn't help much, if at all, but I hope every time that maybe these two pills will work their magic and I'l

Today marks 11 weeks for this little one! My morning sickness has lightened up but the fatigue has definitely increased. I've been asleep by 8:40PM two out of the last three nights. So much for being hoppin' 20-something year olds. We've heard our baby's heartbeat again and it's steady in the 176 range. That sound never gets old, let me tell you. The bump is definitely getting hard to hide and to be honest, I haven't been hiding it at all. The only days I tend to hide it are when I have big meetings with higher ups and all of our market. Ironically, I had one of those Tuesday and I have two of those this week. *eye roll*  Those days I wear more loose clothes. Here's a picture of me yesterday at 10w6d. It's just hard to muster up the energy to take pictures on a Monday, let alone any other day right now. 😏 I had my first OB appointment this past Wednesday. Everything went well! I did just find out today that I have a UTI but that should get solved

EDIT: Was supposed to post awhile back. Oh well, it's an exciting post so you just get it late! We are now 9.5 weeks pregnant with our second! Let me tell you... When 9 weeks hit, it hit HARD. I was already battling some pretty intense morning sickness and fatigue. A couple days before I turned 9 weeks, the nausea started getting pretty worse. Then, the headaches came on. I've had a headache for four days straight now. Not to mention, the fatigue is ridiculous. I'm ready to fall asleep by 7:00PM and have a hard time making it through work without falling asleep now. This pregnancy is just so different than my son's. I never really had a lot of nausea with Reilly. I definitely had migraines almost daily. That was really it though. This week marked an exciting milestone for us! We used our at-home doppler on Tuesday and after only five minutes of searching we found the heartbeat! It was beating a glorious 184bpm! After suffering through two losses last year, this wa

I feel this might be early to be having a meltdown over food but I figured I should share in case anyone finds this funny. As I've mentioned, I'm struggling with pretty intense morning sickness. I'm extremely nauseous a majority of the day (even on medication) and food isn't something I'm crazy about right now. So, last night my husband said he wanted to just order in pizza. Well, for some reason even though I normally LOVE pizza, it just hasn't sounded good the last week. I told him I'd rather have a meatball sub from Casey's or something. Well, of course, subs didn't sound good to Devan but being the wonderful husband he is he went for subs anyway. He decided to hit up Subway because he doesn't like the experience of getting subs at Casey's. So, he drove 10 minutes further down the road to Subway. When he walks in and starts ordering my sub the employee regretfully informed him that they were out of meatballs. I'm sure Devan's heart

Yesterday, I was getting ready for a big day at work. My boss's boss was coming in to do some coaching and observations on us so I had a lot on my mind. That was lucky because it kept the nerves and anxiety from really kicking in until about an hour before my appointment. I had woken up extremely nauseous that morning so I was expecting good things but you can't help but be nervous after the last two pregnancies we had. This ultrasound had not gone well in either of those. I decided I was going to stop and get myself something to eat for lunch beforehand and Devan asked if I should be eating before the ultrasound. I told him I didn't think it mattered considering it was a transvaginal ultrasound but that got me all paranoid and decided on a corn dog as a snack. I was called into the exam room by the same ultrasound technician who had helped diagnose both miscarriages... She remembered me and asked me how I was doing. I told her I was nervous and she was very positive. S

Let me start this by saying to all of you women who have dealt with morning sickness or Hypermesis Gravidarum, I applaud you for making it through it. Holy cow. When I was pregnant with Reilly, I did have some on and off nausea but mostly I suffered for debilitating migraines. I always said I'd rather deal with nausea than migraines. That still might be true though I'm not too sure now. Yesterday, I hit 6 weeks of pregnancy and celebrated with a bang. I invited my toilet, a trash can, and all the food I'd eaten at the Super Bowl party the night before and we just had a blast. Yes... For the first time, I threw up while being pregnant... Not only did I do it once... No, I did it FIVE times. All within a span of 2.5 hours. I was completely worthless the rest of the day. I was so nauseous and weak that I couldn't do anything. I was literally confined to the couch all day. At the advice of some of my friends who've dealt with bad morning sickness in the past, I swallowe

There comes a time in your life where you go to bed at 7:30PM every night... That's me... At the ripe old age of 27. I have never been so tired in my entire life. That includes my pregnancy with my son and the two miscarriages last year. For those of you that don't know me, I'm a pretty energetic person so to barely make it out of bed every day after 10+ hours of sleep is such a strange thing. I've also been blessed with early morning sickness and heartburn. I didn't get morning sickness with Reilly until probably 7 weeks. I didn't get heartburn until closer to my second trimester. To be getting both of these things before I'm even 6 weeks is blowing my mind. I sometimes have a feeling I'm carrying twins but I'm probably crazy. I keep getting that inkling though... Maybe it's wishful thinking. I've always wanted twins. I was a twin and never got to experience that twin bond because my twin was miscarried. I've always wanted to see that bo

It's been awhile since I posted on here but today I felt the urge to write. I started an email for my almost-two year old son a few weeks before his first birthday. I was reading through the emails I sent him and came across two emails telling him he was going to be a big brother and two emails telling him we'd lost both babies. It's a weird feeling going back to those moments. They feel so long ago even though they really weren't. We were lucky to find out we were pregnant again last week on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As weird as it sounds, it is perfect. We found out on a day that was dedicated to a man who had a dream. Granted, his dream was a little different than mine but the sentiment is the same. We are also due the month of Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness which is pretty special. What is strange is you'd think I'd be terrified! While I am scared I've also realized that stressing over everything isn't going to help anything. I'm just goin