The Big Announcement!!

I haven't blogged in a while and I have several reasons why.

1. We've been busy with the holidays and trying to get back into the "swing" of things.

2. I haven't felt real good for the past 2 months.

3. I've had a big announcement to make but wanted to wait till the right time to announce it.

The time has come.

We are excited to announce that we are having BABY #3.

Yes, you read that right. We will be adding a new addition to our family in July 2011.

(Warning this could be long and boring to some. However, it's my blog and my way of remembering this time in our lives.)

Now Read on:

I couldn't not be more excited about this baby but it came with MANY emotions. We had decided in the late spring/early summer of 2009 that we wanted one more child. We decided to begin our journey in Oct. 2009. Hubs' sister was expecting her first child in Sept of that year and we didn't want to take away from her joy. Seeing as how we never had to "try" with our previous pregnancies we didn't think it would take long. God had a different plan. His timing is ALWAYS right. As some of you know, 6 years ago I suffered a miscarriage at 12 weeks. (January 13, 2005). You can read about it here. We found out November 17, 2004 that we were expecting our 2nd child. It was on this EXACT same day, 6 years later, that we learned we were expecting this baby. I had so many emotions that came stirring back but yet I was trusting in God. If he had chosen this was the time for this child everything was going to be ok.

After a year of trying to conceive, I visited with my OB to discuss a plan of action. We did several blood test in mid Oct. to make sure that all my levels were where they should be. We then followed up with an Ultrasound to make sure that everything was "normal". What we saw on the ultrasound showed that I had PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). We discussed options and decided that I would start on a round of clomid in November. I had everything I needed and was ready to start with our plan. I waited and waited for my cycle and it never came. I was scared to take a pregnancy test because I had done so so many times in the past months and had been let down by the Negative results over and over. I then noticed that I had a few "symptoms" of pregnancy and decided what the heck. I took the test fully expecting it to be another negative when much to my surprise it was POSITIVE. I began to cry, I was shaking, I was shocked, and had to tell someone. I called Hubs at work and told him, "I think I'm pregnant!" I took another test that night which came up NEGATIVE. Again, I was disappointed and my heart was breaking into a million pieces. How could one be positive and one negative. I decided I'd take one the next morning first thing. I woke up the next morning, my heart was pounding, I wondered What would I see this morning. I took the test and waited what seemed like forever (maybe 1 minute) and it was positive. I called my OB's office and told them about the test and they told me to come in on Friday to do bloodwork. I went in and gave blood and the nurse called me that afternoon saying that it showed I was pregnant but my numbers were really low and not to tell anyone just yet about the pregnancy. She told me to come back in on Monday morning and they want to see that the numbers had gone up. It was the longest weekend. There I was remembering this SAME EXACT scenario as with the pregnancy I lost.

Monday morning came, I gave my blood, and waited for the call. The nurse called that afternoon and said my numbers looked great and it was ok to tell our families. She said the numbers were probably low because I was only a few weeks pregnant. I was set to have an US in mid Dec. to find out how many weeks I actually was. We still decided to wait until after the US to tell our parents because we wanted to be able to tell them when they could expect their newest grandbaby. Boy was that ever hard.

On December 4th, we ended up in the emergency room because I couldn't keep anything down and I was severely dehydrated. I ended up having gastroenteritis. While we were there they did an US and we found out we were 5 weeks and 5 days pregnant at that time. It was great to get to see the little "Dot" of a baby on the screen. It made it more real. We then had our US with my dr. on Dec. 14th and we were 7 weeks 2 days. It was amazing how much bigger the baby had gotten in that short amount of time. The best thing was just seeing the heart beating. We were told we were due July 31, 2011. This is just 4 days past when our Angel baby was due. I feel this is the baby God took from us and now he's blessing us with that July baby.

Here's a look at our precious baby at 7 weeks 2 days:

We told both our parents by having the girls both wear "I'm a Big Sister" shirts. Of course, neither set of parents got it right away. They both questioned why Macy, our youngest, was wearing a big sister shirt when she is the little sister. They were not expecting us to have any more children. They were all VERY shocked but VERY excited.

I have felt a lot like I did with both of the girls through the first trimester of this pregnancy. I have had lots of nausea, very tired, and headaches. As it got later in the 1st trimester the nausea started to not come as frequent. Praise the Lord!!

I went back to my OB for the first time since our initial visit on January 11. I was 11 weeks and 2 days. I was SO excited to get to hear the heart beat for the first time not using US. I got on the table and the nurse got the doppler placed in on my stomach. She began to search for that tiny heart beat. Nothing. She moved it aroud. Still nothing. I started to panic, I began to sweat, and then the tears came. I was remembering all to well not hearing that heart beat. I was just a few days shy of the day I lost my 2nd baby. Finally after what felt like an ETERNITY (was really about 3 minutes) we heard that swishing beat. 172 beat a minute. Thank you God. I began wiping the tears and thanking the nurse as if she had just performed a miracle. To me, it was a miracle. Everything looked great and my OB and I discussed that because of my "maternal age" he was referring me to see a Perinatal specialist. Who would have thought that 35 was SO OLD. HA!! He explained it was mainly a precautionary measures because with being 35 I'm at higher risk for birth defects and chromosomal issues.

We met with him on January 18th. We first met with a genetic counselor who got all our family history, discussed in detail all the risks we face, and all the different issues that could be. We then had an extensive Ultrasound with a high tech machine. It was AMAZING all that we could see. The baby was VERY active and flipped all over the place. We were able to see a lot of baby. After the sonogram tech was done, they came in took my blood to test for my percentages of having any of the chromosomal issues. The doctor then came in and did his ultrasound, measuring different things, looking for signs of any defects like Downs Syndrome or Edwards Syndrome. They do this by measuring the back of the neck and looking for the nose bone to be predominant. Both looked great according to the dr. He said the baby looked wonderful. I was told he's good at early gender prediction so I had him take a look and see what he thought. At this time, he's saying GIRL. Oh my, what are we going to do with THREE GIRLS. However, I'm not going to run out and buy pink just yet. We go back on March 1st to find out for sure.

Here's are sweet baby at 12 weeks 2 days: (Sorry these pictures were taken with my phone)

Profile of baby looking down.

4D picture of baby. Looks like a little alien.

This is a picture of the top of "her" head and "her" arms out.

We got some AMAZING video but I won't bore you with it. We are just so excited and can't wait to spoil this baby. We did get the furniture ordered last week because the brand we chose takes 20 weeks to get in. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through this pregnancy. I'll definetly be keeping you all updated. This is going to be my "journal for baby".

I leave you with the first belly shot. I did not take belly pictures with either girl and I wish I would have. I'm going to document as much with this one as I can. Even if I look HORRIBLE!

We go back to the dr. for a normal routine checkup on Feb 8th and then back for more blood work at the Perinatal office on Feb 15th.

Till next time.