Welcome Baby #2

Hello, friends! We are so excited to welcome our 2nd son to the world. Logan Scott Fehrenbacher! He was born on 11/11/19 at 11:12am. He weighed in at 7lb 2 oz and 21 inches long. He and mama are both doing well.

We are so thankful for this sweet miracle boy, and cannot believe that we get the honor of raising 2 sons! We are still pinching ourselves to make sure this is real life. We prayed to become parents for so long, and God has blessed us abundantly.

After Liam being born 4 weeks early, we were concerned with this pregnancy  that Logan would be premature too. We saw a high risk OB and took weekly injections from weeks 16-36, and they seem to have made a difference, as Logan stayed put until 6 days before his due date! On Sunday, my pregnancy reached 39 weeks. Sunday was a beautiful day, so Lee, Liam And I went for a slow walk around our hilly zoo. I think that walk did the trick, because I began having contractions Sunday afternoon, and by 2am Monday morning, we headed to the hospital. We joked that on 11/11 it would be fun for baby for be born at 11:11, and ironically, he was born at 11:12am. Also, after having a beautiful 60 degree day on Sunday, we got our first snow on Monday, the day Logan was born. 11/11/18 was a day of sadness for our family, as my mom’s cousin Brian went to heaven on this day last year. Now, 11/11 will be a day of joy for our family, thanks to sweet Logan, and I know Brian would love that so much. Lots of special memories for our special boy!

Logan is looking a lot like big brother Liam! We are so excited to watch these two brothers grow up together. Liam hasn’t been too interested in Logan yet, but we think once Logan gets bigger, that will all change. So far Logan is sweet, snuggly, and calm. We are so in love with our handsome boy. 😍

Pregnancy Update... Better Late Than Never?

Hi everyone! I wrote a post ALL about our pregnancy in April 2019, but just recently published it. Since it's been about 3 months, I figured I'd better update.

I am currently 23 weeks pregnancy, and our family is expecting a baby BOY in November 2019. Lee, Liam and I are SO EXCITED. Really, just Lee and I are excited. Liam is clueless as to what's going on, but he has learned to point to my belly if we ask him where mama's baby is.

This pregnancy has been progressing smoothly, and other than being super tired, I've been feeling great. I'm just now, in the last 4 weeks or so, starting to get more energy. Up until this point I've been pretty exhausted, but that is to be expected, I think, when you're growing a baby and raising a toddler.

Since Liam was born unexpectedly at 36 weeks, our OBGYN said the risk of this baby coming even earlier was pretty high. Because of that, she referred us to a high risk OB. He has been monitoring me every 2 weeks to confirm that my cervix is not shortening (so far so good), and this doctor's office has also taken over doing our grown scans, etc. So far, baby boy is doing great! We were able to learn his gender around 16 weeks with a unexpected ultrasound with my regular OB, and confirmed again at our 18 week anatomy scan (and several scans after that). I'm still meeting with my regular OB every 4 weeks, but my high risk OB is doing the ultrasounds every 2 weeks. At last week's appointment, I got the great news that since I've made it this far with no cervix shortening, I can now wait 4 weeks between visits with the high risk OB, and will continue seeing my regular OB every 4 weeks as well.

Around 16 weeks we started this injection called Makena (aka 17P), which is a progesterone shot. Its supposed to keep me from having contractions, which will ideally help prevent the baby from coming too early. We did the first shot in the doctor's office, but have done the rest of them at home. I thought this would be no big deal bc we did a bajillion shots during our fertility treatments, but this shot HURTS! Its worse than any other shot I've ever had. It burns going into my skin, and causes the back of my arm to be sore for a few days afterwards. Maybe that's why it hurts so bad- its given in the back of my arm, which is a sensitive area for everyone. I will take these injections until 35 weeks, so I have about 12 more, and then I'm done. Totally worth it if my baby will stay in keep growing like he's supposed to.

Other than all of that, this pregnancy has been very smooth, much like Liam's, and I am so thankful. Right now I'm enjoying summer break at home with Liam, working 1 day/week teaching an online class. I'll go back to work teaching full time in late August, and am hoping to work up until this baby is born!

Our next big appointment for this baby will be with my regular OB, and she will schedule my glucose test (probably next week or the week after). When I was pregnant with Liam, I failed the first test, and had to go back and do a longer one, which was no fun. Let's pray that I pass this one the first time, and that baby continues to grow and cooperate, as he has thus far. Thanks for reading! Can't wait to update again as my pregnancy progresses. Below are a few pics of my baby bump.

Here I am with the proud big brother at 16 weeks.

16 weeks!

Here I am at 19 weeks! Lee snapped this pic during our weekend away in STL for the MCAI Convention. 

Here I am on vacation in Daytona Beach at 21 weeks. 

This is me and baby boy enjoying the Rise Conference in Dallas at 22 weeks along. 

Pregnancy #2

Pregnancy #2... I can't believe I'm typing those words. Does anyone remember how long it took us to get to pregnancy #1? About 3 years, 7 rounds of fertility treatments, a LOT of tears, prayers, drugs, and heartbreak.... all of that led us to the 2nd greatest blessing (our greatest blessing being salvation) of our lives: Liam.

The last 18 months with Liam have been scary, exhausting, fun, happy, exciting, joyful, exhausting, and full of gratitude. Lee and I have learned and grown so much, and we are humbled daily by the colossal opportunity that parenthood is.

After experiencing all of that, we knew we wanted more children. We just weren't sure how realistic that was for us. If you remember, when we did IVF to conceive Liam, we had 2 embryos that were viable for transfer to my uterus... we transferred both of them at the same time, and got our sweet boy. So that meant that if we needed to use fertility treatments, we would be starting all over again, financially, physically, and emotionally. Liam is so incredible, that we were prepared to do that.

If you wanna get real personal here (as if a blog post about the conception of your children isn't personal enough), we've pretty much been trying, or not preventing, for baby #2 since Liam was born. Despite our lack of prevention, due to breastfeeding and everything else a woman's body goes through after birthing a baby, I didn't have a menstrual cycle until 12 months after Liam was born. So although its possible, we weren't really expecting a chance of conception until after that. It took about 3 months for my cycle to get regular, and then I could really tell what was going on in my cycle. Even more so than before Liam. Things really did feel different... I knew to the day when my cycle would start, and I thought I was doing a good job identifying signs of ovulation (thanks to Natural Family Planning!!!). So once I got to that point, we were really counting days, and being intentional with trying to conceive.

Although I was identifying ovulation, I was not keeping a chart. I didn't want that daily pressure, stress, or reminder of the fact that we want another baby. Lee and I talked about it, and we decided that if we didn't conceive on our own, we would go back to our Reproductive Endocrinologist (fertility doctor), this summer and give IVF another try. We both assumed that despite our efforts, natural conception wasn't in the cards for us.

Can you just go back and read that last sentence again..., "We both assumed that despite our efforts, natural conception wasn't in the cards for us." HOW AWFUL DOES THAT SOUND?? Real faithful of us, right? True prayer warriors here trusting that Jesus will take care of us LIKE HE ALWAYS DOES. Time and time again God shows us that despite our unworthiness, he provides for us. We are constantly showing how undeserving we are of his forgiveness, of his blessings, of his care, yet HE STILL SHOWS UP. Talk about being humbled to the max.

Lee and I were lucky enough to take a trip together to Phoenix, AZ for a conference, and this was the first time I'd left Liam for more than a night. I was nervous and sad to leave my baby, but excited to spend some quality time with my husband. Of course we have a 4 day trip together and I'm anticipating the start of my cycle, but I've only had 5 cycles since Liam being born, so who knows if they really are THAT consistent yet, or if the last 3 just happened to be lucky timing. So maybe I won't start while we're gone? News flash: I didn't!

One morning we were sitting in a conference session listening to Lori Grenier from Shark Tank, and I noticed my wedding ring being tight and my hands a little swollen. This hadn't happened since I was pregnant with Liam. I also remember being super tired one morning, which was odd because I had slept uninterrupted for over 8 hours the night before, which is unheard of at home. The last thing I noticed was that I enjoyed this frozen fruity cocktail by the pool one day and noticed that it made me feel AWFUL. I was so bloated and uncomfortable from one single drink! So I told Lee I thought I might be pregnant, and he totally blew me off.

Let me give him some credit here: I literally say every single month, "Oh my gosh I'm so bloated right now... maybe I'm pregnant!" "Ouch I have some cramping... maybe that's implantation cramping!" "Hmm feeling emotional today, maybe those are pregnancy hormones..." You get the picture, right? I say these things EVERY SINGLE MONTH and have for most of the last 4+ years. So OF COURSE Lee thinks I'm crazy because I've only ever been right ONE TIME out of dozens. We opted not to go get a test, but I stopped drinking just to be safe.

We arrived home on a Wednesday, and it was LATE. Like 11:00pm. By the time we got settled at home, Liam was starting to wake up. My mother-in-law headed home, and Lee put Liam in bed with him. I needed to finish getting ready for bed, which actually meant take a pregnancy test. The infertile girl in me keeps these things on hand ALL THE TIME bc every time I have one of those "symptoms" I might wanna test, just in case, right? So I took a test and it was POSITIVE!! I was so excited and was trying to quickly think of a cute way that I might plan out and tell Lee the next day, but ultimately I gave up that plan and I just went to bed and whispered (over Liam between us), "Hey Lee...? I'm pregnant!" Lee was shocked because he really didn't think my "symptoms" were pregnancy symptoms, and we whispered and hugged as not to wake up our sleeping baby.

The next morning I called our fertility doctor and our OBGYN to see where we needed to start. Our fertility doctor said the OBGYN was the best place to start, and our OB scheduled blood work for that day. Later that afternoon they called back and said I was definitely pregnant, but it was a super early pregnancy, so they'd have me come back for follow up blood work.

So that was it! Lee and I were so excited and thankful that we were PREGNANT with no medical intervention! We never thought that this would be a reality for us, and we were so wrong! I'm 8 weeks pregnant at the time of writing this post, so I'll write a follow up to tell you all about the pregnancy and how things are going. For now, I'll end with reminding you  and me that God is bigger than ALL of our symptoms, diagnoses, illnesses, etc., and HIS plan will always prevail. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! If you're praying, we'd love for you to pray prayers of thanksgiving, and ask that God keep both me and the baby healthy, strong, and full of growth over the next several months.

Birth Announcement

Friends, Lee and I are so very thankful and excited to share with you our pride and joy, our biggest accomplishment, and our greatest blessing:

William "Liam" Andrew, born on October 6, 2017. 

Isn't he the most precious thing you've ever seen? We are head over heels in love with this little boy, and we are in awe of God's greatness. Lee and I are incredibly thankful to be Liam's parents. Our family is blessed beyond belief, and we owe God every bit of glory. 

Baby and momma are both doing great, and we cannot wait to share more pics and details about Liam once we are settled at home. 

Thank you for everyone who has prayed for us leading up to this moment, and during this wonderfully exciting time. 

September Joy

Happy Friday, friends! Today I'm trying something new and linking up with Stephanie and her crew to share 5 things that bring me JOY. I'm also linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites! 

ONE: PREGNANCY

As of yesterday, I am 34 weeks pregnant! That makes this pic a few weeks old, but I especially love this new nursing top that I got, which is currently doubling as a maternity top :). This pregnancy has been such a blessing. Can you believe that I've not eaten a single Tums since being pregnant? I have been so fortunate with minimal nausea, no morning sickness, etc. I am so thankful that it has been such a pleasant experience. Now we are less than 6 weeks from meeting our miracle boy, and I am just so excited! Through this pregnancy, God has shown us truly how great he is, and I know this is just the beginning.

TWO: COMFORT FOOD
Comfort food has been my thing lately... Last week I made my Sausage Stars recipe, and I snacked on them all week. I ate them for breakfast a few days, for snacks, and one night I had them with a side salad for dinner... they're good anytime, any day!

Sausage Stars and Alfredo Pizza... YUM!! 

This week, I made my very favorite Alfredo Sauce, which my sister-in-law introduced me to, and then we put the sauce on pizza with grilled chicken, spinach and mushrooms... it was so good! Comfort food has been my jam lately, and as a woman who is 7.5 months pregnant, it brings me JOY ;). 

THREE: FRIENDS AND FAMILY

I could go on and on about how supportive our friends and family are... We have been especially reminded lately as they have all showered us with gifts, love, and support and our two bridal showers. We had one in IL and one in IN to celebrate with both our our families, and let me tell you... the mamas, sisters-in-law, and friends in our lives went above and beyond to throw us beautiful baby showers. This baby has everything he could possibly need and more, and we are so very thankful! It brings me JOY to see everyone celebrating our baby boy. 

Here are a few pics from both of our baby showers: 

 

From left to right, the first pic is my niece, Layla, and I at our IN baby shower. This little girl is SO EXCITED to be a big cousin. I have no doubt she will be the best helper. The 2nd picture is my Great Aunt Toby, myself, and Lee at our IL baby shower. I love that our baby has a pic with his Great Great Aunt. The bottom left is Lee and I in front of our adventure themed cake at our IN shower. If you can, zoom in on the detail... this shower was SO cute and personal! The bottom right is my mom, myself, and her bff and our IL shower. It was so fun to celebrate with everyone, and the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme was adorable. 

FOUR: IT'S FALL, YA'LL 

Today is the first day of fall!! I am so excited! Although we have a high of 95 degrees today, I'm embracing fall despite the weather. I think next week it is supposed to cool down into the 70's and 80's, and that will, without a doubt, bring me joy. I love celebrating each season by decorating my house, enjoying seasonal activities and foods, etc. Lee has gotten my fall decor out of the attic, and I'm hoping to put it out this weekend. This week we started celebrating fall by watching Hocus Pocus. It's a silly kid movie, but we enjoyed it none-the-less. Bring on cool weather, leaves changing colors, and everything cozy! 

FIVE: HAPPY FRIDAY!

The final thing that brings me joy today is that it is FRIDAY!! I am so thankful it is the weekend! We  have a busy one planned: Tonight we are going to be productive around the house, tomorrow we'll go to our niece's 4th birthday party, and tomorrow evening Lee's buddies are throwing him a diaper party. While  he's at the diaper party, my step-mom and I (my brother and I love to call her smom for short ;) ) are going to a wine and paint party. No wine for me, but I'm excited for the pallet painting! Then Sunday we are hoping to finish up some decorating in the baby's room. It's going to be a great weekend full of time with friends and family! 

Have a great weekend everyone, and happy FALL!! 

Pregnancy Month 7

Can you guys believe that we are only 8 weeks +/- out from meeting our baby boy? This whole pregnancy seems to have flown by! These past few weeks have been a tad rocky, but overall the pregnancy is still going great. As I get bigger, I'm starting to get more uncomfortable, but that is to be expected.

Around 31 weeks I got a little worried bc the baby hadn't been moving much, and I called the doctor. They told me to go home and drink a sugary/caffeinated drink and wait about 20 minutes. Then I had to lay on my left side for an hour and measure his movements. 15 is what I counted. The nurse said that his movement is great, and I didn't need to go in. This little guy is usually super active, so even though his movement was OK, it still had me a little worried. Thankfully, I had an appointment a few days later, so the doctor decided to do a non-stress test and measure his movement, heart rate, and my contractions. I was not having any contractions at the time, and the baby measured just fine! This made me feel much better.

Also at 31 weeks, I really started to feel the baby moving around higher up and poking at my ribs. So far he has been very low with his movement, but now I can feel him moving all over the place. That same week, I think I felt him hiccup for the first time! Lee and I were watching my belly move each time he hiccuped, and it was so cool.

As far as our baby preparation goes, we are cruising right along! We spent part of labor day weekend getting the crib put together. Lee had put the dresser and glider together the week before. We had our IL baby shower in August and were completely spoiled with all kinds of goodies for the baby. We've been cleaning out and organizing closets these past few weeks making room for all of Baby F's new stuff, and leaving space for even more stuff, since we'll be having our IN baby shower in mid-September. Our baby is already so loved, and SO SO  spoiled!

Over the past month we also finished our 4 week baby class, chose a pediatrician, and signed up for CPR class, which we'll take later in September. Now that we're feeling a little more prepared, we are counting down the days to meeting Baby F. As you can guess, Baby F's name is still on our to-do list, but we're getting closer. Another thing we are excited about is we are now going to the doctor every 2 weeks! We had previously been going every 4 weeks, but since we're getting closer to my due date, we'll be seeing the doctor more often.

We are still so so excited and thankful about this pregnancy. I have been hugely blessed with minimal pregnancy symptoms, and am so grateful that this has been such an enjoyable experience. We're praying everyday for our baby and his health, and I am still praying for all of the families who are still waiting on their miracle. I'm *trying* not to take a single day of this pregnancy for granted, because I know how much of a blessing it truly is. Thanks for all of your love, support and continued prayers! Here are our most recent bump pics of Baby F:

Pregnancy Month 6+

Wow... can you believe how close we are to meeting our baby boy? Less than 10 weeks and he will be here. We are so excited.

This past month has been a busy one! At our last appointment (around 27 weeks), baby boy was measuring around 2 lb. 3 oz., and growing right on track. He is an active little guy, and I love feeling all of his kicks and wiggles.

This past month I took my glucose test, which was not too bad, but unfortunately I failed.... so then I had to take the 3 hour test as well. The 3 hour test required that I fast for about 12 hours prior to my 8am appointment. By the time my appt was over at about 11:20am, I had fasted for 15 hours and I was so hungry! Thankfully, I was able to meet Lee for lunch right after the appointment, and we got great news that I PASSED! Praise the Lord!

In addition to the glucose test, this past month we finally made some progress in baby boy's bedroom... we (mostly Lee) got the room painted, his furniture purchased, and his car seat/stroller purchased as well. We are still working on getting his bedroom furniture put together, but we've gotten to dresser and glider done, and next will be his crib.

Overall, I'm still feeling pretty good as far as pregnancy symptoms go. Lots of feet/hand swelling, which I expected would happen being pregnant through the summer. This past week or 2 I am just now starting to notice my big belly, and am getting uncomfortable. Sleeping on my side all the time is causing me some back pain, and bending over has become a task I try to avoid, but those are all symptoms I've expected would eventually come. I keep telling myself that if this is the peak of my symptoms, I'm a lucky lady!

During the last month we took our babymoon, a weekend getaway to Nashville. We also celebrated our 5 year anniversary on this trip, making it extra special. We stayed at the Opryland Resort. If you've never been there, I recommend checking it out! It is a beautiful place. We walked around and saw the resort, laid by the pool, ate way too much good food, did some shopping, and we also caught a Matchbox 20 Concert, which was my birthday gift to Lee.

As I'm finishing this blog post, I am now 31 weeks pregnant, and this pregnancy is more than 3/4 over! These past 7 months have flown by. I'm starting to have a mix of emotions: excited to meet our baby and wanting that time to be here, thankful to have this big baby bump and not wanting to wish way this pregnancy, and feeling a little nervous about going into labor, which will be here in no time.

Other than some swollen hands and feet, a mix of emotions, and a growing baby, we don't have much else to report for this month, which is great!! That being said, here are some updates of our baby bump. It's been OVER a month since my last bumpdate, so there's some extra pictures this time... next month's bumpdate will have a few less. :)

Normally this blog post would stop at 28 weeks, but since I'm late posting, here are weeks 29 & 30 as well! 

Pregnancy Month 5

Month 5... how is that even possible?! Has it really been 6 months since Lee and I were praying that our upcoming embryo transfer be a success? Time is FLYING by. I am now 24 weeks pregnant and am feeling lots of kicks and movement from baby boy. Lee is starting to be able to feel him more too, which is so exciting!

In addition to baby moving, this past month has brought plenty of feet and ankle swelling, and a new found appetite for vegetables. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a sweets, bacon, cheese, and junk food loving girl. I have been trying to eat a more balanced diet since being pregnant, but at the beginning, the only new thing I had tried and loved had been asparagus. This past month I've also found that I love Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and zucchini! I'm hoping to keep eating more fruits and veggies and less sweets once baby boy gets here... we'll see how that goes! I'm also noticing baby boy's growth is making bending over a little more difficult, but not unmanageable yet. I've also noticed that my sleep pattern has changed. I still get tired here and there in the afternoons, but pre-pregnancy I was pretty much always sleeping about 9 hours a night. Now I am sleeping more like 7-8 hours a night, and I feel like I'm functioning just as well. I realize that 's only 1-2 hours difference, but for me, that's progress. I feel like my body is already starting to adjust to less sleep, which I suppose is good prep for when baby gets here.

At our last doctor appointment, our doctor said my blood pressure is still good, baby boy's heart beat is strong, and our impromptu ultrasound showed he is growing right on track. I had a little spotting prior to my last appt and even though we didn't have one scheduled, my doctor suggested an ultrasound just to double check that all is well. I appreciate that my doctor is so cautious and caring with our pregnancy. I feel like she really 'gets it' that it took us a long time to get to this point, and we are so excited, but also a little nervous. She really does everything she can to make sure we are comfortable with all that is happening with our pregnancy. 

At my next doctor's appointment, I will do the dreaded test for gestational diabetes, but the upside to that is we have an ultrasound scheduled and should get a good view of baby's face if he cooperates! We got to see his face a little with the last scan, but our doctor said this next time should be a great time to see him, given his size around that time. We are really looking forward to that. I am praying over these next few weeks that the testing go well and that I will not have gestational diabetes during my pregnancy. 

Our little guy still does not have a name, but we have began choosing a nursery theme and picking stuff out for his room. We are going with an adventure/outdoorsy theme, and I think it is going to be so cute! Here is a pic of the fabric for part of his bedding.

Other than that, we don't have much news to report, so I'll leave you with some bump pics. :) 

21 weeks and getting ready to celebrate my cousin's bridal shower!

22 weeks during 4th of July! My shirt says "Baby You're a Firework!" 

23 weeks and barely able to squeeze into a few of my non-maternity shirts like this one! 

24 weeks and going strong!

This is not the best pic of my face, but you can definitely see how by Baby F is in this front view pic! 

Pregnancy month 4

Pregnancy month 4... how is it possible that we are halfway to meeting our baby already?! 2017 is flying by! I am torn between being wanting it to be Nov. so we can meet our baby boy and wanting time to slow down so I can enjoy every moment of pregnancy. This past month we got to have our anatomy scan, which is a longer ultrasound that gave us all kinds of good pics of our baby. We got to see many of his organs, all 4 of his limbs, a good look at his head, and even got pics of his tiny little feet. It was incredible! He is developing right on schedule, and we are so thankful. He is very active. I have recently started feeling lots of little kicks and flutters.

I'm still fortunate to be feeling well as far as nausea and morning sickness goes, but I am getting to a point where I'm starting to feel more discomfort when I move certain ways, and at night when trying to sleep. Lee ordered me a Snoogle Pillow, and let me tell you... I am a huge fan! I am listing the Snoogle near the top of the list of fav gifts Lee has given me.  I had a few days this past month where the weather got pretty hot and my hands and feet started swelling... there was a period of 2-3 days where I had no ankles whatsoever. I was afraid I wouldn't get rid of those kankles until Thanksgiving, but thankfully, the swelling has gone down for now. I have no doubt that it will come back as we get deeper into the summer. 

As far as plans for the baby go, you're probably wondering about his name. Lee and I are so stumped in this department. There are a few names that we like but nothing we are sold on yet. We've decided to keep our name ideas to ourselves. We don't want to be swayed one way or another by all kinds of opinions, so we're keeping everyone in suspense until we decide. Once his name is set, we will probably share. :) 

In other plans, we haven't really done anything to the baby's bedroom except clean out one of his closets... Our plan is to finish our basement remodel and then start on baby's room. This his been a long project, but Lee has made some strides in our basement recently! My mother-in-law is a rockstar, and she painted almost all of our living room/stairway for us. It looks awesome!! Lee has recruited a few friends to help lay our floor this weekend, so a few more weekends, and we will be on our way to spending lots of family time downstairs this winter. I am SO excited for this! Also once we finish this project, we can focus on putting together our son's bedroom.

Typing 'our son' is still so awesome. Every time he moves or wiggles I am reminded of how REAL this is, and I am just so thankful. Are you guys tired of reading that on every post yet? I don't know how else to describe all of this... somedays I am overwhelmed (in a great way) at the reality of experiencing pregnancy and planning for a baby. There were so many days where I wondered if this would ever happen for us, and now that it is, I still have a hard time believing it even though the pregnancy is more than halfway through. Pregnancy is so temporary, and it is going by so fast... for those of you who are still waiting and praying for this miracle, don't give up. It is worth every tear, every shot, every pill, every sleepless night, etc. It is already worth all of it, and I haven't even held this precious little baby yet. It's crazy how we can love someone so much without ever having met them.

I'm a little late getting this post finished, so by now, we are only 18 weeks away from meeting our little guy. Here are a few pics of his growth during month 4:

17 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks, halfway to meeting our baby boy!

P.S.  I am NOT getting paid to promote the Snoogle pillow... I just really love it that much! :) 

Pregnancy Month 3

Hi everyone! Month 4 of pregnancy has FLOWN by, as we have been pretty busy these past few weeks. Despite our busyness, I am so happy to share that this month has gone smoothly in the pregnancy realm. I am still crossing my fingers and being extra thankful that other than some occasional nausea, I've not had any morning sickness.

I'm now in the 2nd trimester and the exhaustion of the 1st trimester has mostly passed. I'm starting to get some energy back. It's good I've gotten some energy back because in the past month we have celebrated my mom's 50th birthday in Nashville, spent Mother's Day cooking out with all the the wonderful momma's in my life, threw a little birthday shin dig for my hubby's 30th birthday, and finally planted my garden for this year.

My 16 week appointment with the doctor showed that baby's heart rate was strong, baby is growing right on track, and my blood pressure is looking good. We didn't initially have an ultrasound scheduled with this appointment, but Lee and I didn't know that.... We've had an ultrasound with every other appointment so far, so we just assumed that was a normal thing. The doctor explained that our next ultrasound isn't scheduled until our anatomy scan, which happens around 18-20 weeks. She knows we are always anxious to know that baby is doing well, so she said she'd check to see if someone was available to do an ultrasound.

It was late in the day, but thankfully someone was available for an ultrasound, and it was the same woman who I saw previously when I went in due to some bleeding. When I went in bc of the bleeding, I was a crying, nervous wreck and she was incredibly sweet. She was incredibly sweet once again, and she asked us when we went in if she was allowed to say what she knew, etc. and we told her to tell us what she saw... so she started scanning and went right to the pelvic area of our baby. She explained what was being shown on the screen. Our baby's little butt, two legs, and then the moment of truth: our baby is a.... BOY!!!! We are thrilled to know the gender of our baby boy! We also got to see his spine, his little ribs, and his facial profile. We are already so in love with our little boy!

Finding out the gender of our baby has been an incredible surprise this month. We thought we wouldn't know gender until later in the pregnancy, but we're thankful we got to know sooner! So now you can find me on Pinterest creating boards for our baby boy's room, and Lee and I are throwing out ideas for all kinds of different boy names.

We shared the news of our baby's gender with a some of our friends and family during Lee's 30th birthday cookout. Although we've known for over a week now, we are still in shock, and so thankful and excited!! We get to have a baby boy! Is this real life?!

We get to have our anatomy scan in early June, and we are looking forward to seeing more of our little guy and see all the growing he has been doing! I'll let you guys know how the anatomy scan goes with my next blog post. We are still thanking God everyday for this experience, and continuing to pray for our baby boy and his health, growth, and development. Everyday Lee and I look at my baby bump and are just so thankful. We are so lucky that the pregnancy thus far has been so smooth. We are loving being able to plan for our future as a family of 3. We are now in week 17 of pregnancy, but I'll leave you with pics from weeks 13-16.




Here I am at 13 weeks pregnant. 

Here I am at 14 weeks along.

                

Here is another from 14 weeks. A friend gifted me this tank for my birthday, and I love it!

I failed to take a 15 week photo, but my mom snapped this one Mother's Day weekend. My brother did an awesome seafood boil for all of us ladies, and our baby boy made his way into the pic! :) 

Finally, here is my bump at 16 weeks. We are excited to get to use the gender card now!



Pregnancy Month 2

Hi everyone! I am almost finished with my 12th week of pregnancy, and have so much to share with you!

These past few weeks have been pretty great. I almost feel guilty typing this, but I have been so very fortunate with my pregnancy symptoms so far. I have not thrown up once (yet)! I have to add that 'yet' in there so I don't jinx myself. I've been tired, which I hear I can pretty much expect for the next 18 years or so, and I've had a little nausea here and there, but over all I'm feeling really great.

As of tomorrow, I will be 13 weeks pregnant. I'm SO CLOSE to being done with my 1st trimester. The 2nd trimester starts on my birthday, and I can't think of a greater gift. I have had a little spotting a few times, so we have had several ultrasounds just to make sure all is well. Our ultrasounds have confirmed so far that our baby has a strong heartbeat and is growing right on schedule. Seeing the baby move around on the ultrasound screen is a dream come true! We go back for our next appointment around 16 weeks.

One of the most exciting milestones from this past month was that I have been released from my Reproductive Endocrinologist, aka fertility doctor, and am now seeing my usual OBGYN. Although I am going to miss our doctor and the nurses that have been here for us for over 2 years, I am so excited just to be a normal pregnant woman! I have also gotten the green light to stop taking the estrogen and progesterone, so for almost 3 weeks I have been sustaining this pregnancy  all on my own! Woo Hoo! Every little step forward is a huge victory for Lee, myself, and our precious little miracle.

Lee and I are so thankful for all that we have to look forward to. Finding out the gender of our baby, preparing the nursery, and choosing a name are all at the top of our list! A lot of people are asking if we are going to find out the gender... The answer is YES!! We have been waiting a long time to experience this pregnancy, and we want to know as much as we can about our child! So we are definitely hoping to find out the gender. We haven't decided if we are going to do some type of fun gender reveal or if we will share our good news right away.

Everyday I am thanking and praising God for this experience. There were days (months, years) where I wondered if this would ever be a possibility for us. Now that it is, we are both so excited. Some days I am still pinching myself just to make sure this is real life. Other days, I don't have to pinch myself, because the fact that most of my jeans no longer fit is a good reminder! haha. Never have I been so thankful to be gaining weight!! That being said, bring on the bump pics! Here are pics from weeks 9-12, and a few funnies. :)

I already shared this pic on my Instagram account, but its too good not to share again. This is one of my fav. baby  purchases I've made so far. I got this prior to us getting our IVF results, and prayed that we would get to use it someday. 

Here I am at 9 weeks pregnant. 

Here I am at 10 weeks along. If you're thinking that I look rough in this pic, that's because this pic was taken the same day I woke up with some spotting, and I was a crying mess most of the day. Thankfully the ultrasound showed everything is great with baby. In the morning I cried bc I was terrified that something was wrong, and in the afternoon I cried bc I was so happy everything was ok. It was an all around emotional day :). 

Here I am at 11 weeks, and 1 whole week hormone free!! You might notice the cute little signs I'm using. My cousin sent these to us and we love them! 

Here I am last week at 12 weeks pregnant, wearing maternity pants and a maternity shirt! I can still squeeze into a few of my normal pants, but I'm mostly embracing maternity pants bc they are way more comfortable. 

For funsies, here is Lee 12 weeks into my pregnancy... of course he is staying his usual handsome self and isn't gaining any sympathy weight so far. 

Lastly, another funny. Here I am estimating what I might look like in the next few months, haha!


Thank you for following along with our blog and your continued prayers for a safe pregnancy and healthy baby. We appreciate you all so much!