The Latest

I guess it's time for an update!

My AmeriCorps term has come to an end, so today is my first official day without a job. I'm really glad I decided to serve with AmeriCorps. No, I didn't make a lot of money ($12,300 living stipend over 11 months + $5,000 education award), but I met tons of cool people and learned a lot about water quality and other environmental issues.

Now that I have tons of free time on my hands, I started watching The Vampire Diaries. It's so cheesy, but it's fun. There are 7 seasons with about 22 or so episodes each, so this will fill my free time quite nicely. :) If you have any other show recommendations for me, let me know!

I am 35 weeks now and will hit 36 on Thursday. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday. Not sure if the doc will check to see how far I'm dilated and effaced or not. I do know they'll do the strep b test. Vaginal and butt. :oP Wonderful. If I'm positive, I have to go on antibiotics so I don't pass it to the baby when I deliver. After Thursday I'll be going to the doctor weekly. I'm due September 3rd - we're ridiculously close. Sometimes I'm excited and anxious for the big day(s) and other times I freak out a little and just want time to suspend. I'm hoping those are normal feelings to have!

I'm feeling pretty good. I can't sleep on my right side anymore because my hip will hurt for several days afterward, so I'm strictly left side sleeping now. TMI FOREWARNING: I started having diarrhea yesterday. It's like anything I eat is immediately...let go. I think if it continues into tomorrow, I'll call my OB.

Here's my latest picture:

35 weeks

 It's pretty crazy to look back and see how skinny I was in the beginning:

5 weeks

We had our family baby shower at my grandmother's house the other day:

Isn't this frog so fun?!

We had red velvet, coconut, and peanut butter/chocolate cakes.

I think 'boy' won.

We also took some maternity photos after the shower. This is my favorite:

I need to crop Chris' Fitbit out. :)

Another thing I wanted to share because I think it's so cute (and I love that Chris thought of it) is what we decided to do above the crib. By the way, we got the crib at our shower and Chris was so excited he put it together that night. Love him. My mom made the crocheted mobile (sun, moon, stars, cloud), those are leftover "clouds" from our wedding, and from the clouds we hung the dragonfly finger puppets that my aunt gave us. In case you're curious, my grandmother made the quilt hanging over the back of the crib and my mom made the crib bedding.

And that's what's going on in my life right now. Many thanks to my mom, aunt, and grandmother for their tireless work on the shower. It was very fun and emotional for me since it's been a long road to this point.

Love,

A Fitting Poem for the Title of my Blog

I'll admit it. I'm not a huge fan of poetry. If someone wants to discuss poetry (actually happened to me recently, believe it or not), I cannot contribute to the conversation at all. Does Dr. Seuss count as poetry? I can talk about Dr. Seuss...

At any rate, my sister sent me this poem the other day and it really spoke to me I think it's really awesome.

It was published in 1917. Enjoy.


Deep in the Quiet Wood
James Weldon Johnson 1871-1928

Are you bowed down in heart?
Do you but hear the clashing discords and the din of life?
Then come away, come to the peaceful wood,
Here bathe your soul in silence. Listen! Now,
From out the palpitating solitude
Do you not catch, yet faint, elusive strains?
They are above, around, within you, everywhere.
Silently listen! Clear, and still more clear, they come.
They bubble up in rippling notes, and swell in singing tones.
Not let your soul run the whole gamut of the wondrous scale
Until, responsive to the tonic chord,
It touches the diapason of God's grand cathedral organ,
Filling earth for you with heavenly peace
And holy harmonies.



Much Love,

Five Months

We had our "big" ultrasound yesterday. Baby Parrish is 13 ounces, has a 3.2cm long left foot, and a heart rate of 150bpm. The brain cysts are still there, but the doctor isn't very concerned and thinks they will "resolve". They can be associated with Trisomy 18. She was more upset about me not getting a tetanus shot after my friend's dog bit me on Tuesday! The tech couldn't see the four chambers of the heart, so I'll go back at 28 weeks for another ultrasound.

I really wish I had kept a tally of all of my ultrasounds since starting on this infertility journey. It feels like it has to be in the 30s by now. And unfortunately, more have been trans-vaginally than abdominal. TMI?

I'm still getting headaches every night so she recommended I buy a hypoallergenic pillow and see if that helps. She doesn't think this is normal and says she could recommend me to a neurologist, but that they would charge $500 and tell me the exact same thing. I purchased the pillows this morning, so we shall see. Cross your fingers!

20 weeks

Much love,

Now We Wait (Part 2)...

...for a baby!!

With all of our IUIs, I was told to test at home. With our IVF, I was scheduled for a blood test. I couldn't wait, so I tested the day before. And lo and behold...that sure looks like a positive.

Our reaction? Subdued optimism. Basically, we didn't want to get our hopes up. Especially since we read that false positives are common if you do the type of "trigger" medication I had done.

And then my blood test said I was pregnant. And then the next one said everything was still looking good. And then the next one said everything was still looking good. By the way, it was incredibly annoying to have to drive an hour into Asheville for these little blood draws! I think I did three or four total. We told our family and select friends right away since a lot  knew we were doing IVF.

Then we had our first ultrasound at 6 weeks and got to hear the heartbeat!

Teeny, tiny Baby Parrish

At 8 weeks and 6 days, we had another ultrasound and this time we recorded the heartbeat.

A lot of people asked us if we were excited. We were, but again, it was subdued excitement. After so much disappointment, we were emotionally preparing for more disappointment. I don't know when we finally relaxed and said, "This is really happening. This is awesome!" I think for me it was maybe at 12 weeks when there was still a heartbeat and I was starting to actually feel something going on in my belly.

By the way, being pregnant is the WEIRDEST feeling (physically). To me at least. I'm pretty sure I felt the baby turn the night before last and then yesterday morning on my commute into Asheville. I told me supervisor and she goes, "Isn't that so neat?! I always thought that was the best part." And I said, "Well, it made me kinda nauseous actually." Haha!

So now I am four months and 1 week and just fit into my workout pants now. It's been quite the journey and I am so thankful for all of the support we have received from our friends, family, and the staff at PREG. I am absolutely thrilled with what is to come.

Picture taken last week - 4 months on the dot

Notes:

• We have decided not to find out the gender until he/she is born. Why did we decide to do it this way? Because we didn't choose to have problems conceiving...this was something we could choose. If that makes sense. It makes sense to me. :) 
• We transferred two embryos, but only one "took". I hope. I'd really like to not be surprised with a second at my 20 week ultrasound! (sometimes they hide)
• We have 4 frozen embryos that we'll use to try to add to our family at some point. I'll probably be older than 35 at that point (the cut-off age for Down's Syndrome testing etc) so I can't wait for the docs to push it on me and me continuously reply, "No testing. They're 33 year old embryos." I already know it'll happen. Assuming I get pregnant, of course. I think the quality of the embryos goes down as they're frozen and unthawed, so who knows what'll happen.

Thank you all for listening (or reading, rather) to our story. 

Now We Wait

It happened. Now we play the waiting game.

Planned Pins for December's Pinstrosity Challenge

Pretty excited to try these babies out this month (click picture to be taken to website):

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake

Chocolate Cupcakes with Mint Chocolate Chip Frosting

Peppermint Popcorn Bark

Peppermint Whipped Cream