Secret's out!

And it's a bit bittersweet. We were very excited to tell everyone about a big news, and so happy we did, but our little secret is not a little secret anymore. We did enjoy keeping it to ourselves for a little while. But now we're happy with all the love we are being given!

So one week has passed since I told you guys about this exciting news. I have my weekly update. My weeks turn on the monday so this is a bit late but monday was a day off so I enjoyed it instead of being on the internet.

I realized that although I told you guys how I came to be pregnant I didn't say how I found out.

Well basically, if you saw us at our wedding, you were also seeing baby because it turns out I was about 3 weeks pregnant. I found out 5 days after the wedding. After a few days of abnormally high temperatures for that part of my cycle, I woke up at 7 am, took my temperature, still high... okay pee on a stick time. I sat in my bathroom, in my PJS, my heart racing and the test facing away from me. Had my countdown going on my phone, 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute.... I check it and burst into tears! I'm balling, the ugliest cry you have ever seen. There are two lines!!!!! I decide to take a more expensive test and a digital. Two pink lines and the word YES + shows up! I can't contain my joy!

Now, it's 7 ish am, I text my best friend (even thought I once got mad at her for texting me this early, F it! I know this is a sucky thing to do, but I have to tell someone!) It's 7:15, I start putting together the surprise announcement I had planned for Aaron in the event this might be our month. I get it all wrapped, bring it to work, mail it express post. And wait... He doesn't get it the next day, not the one after and I suddenly realize, the mailing system on base is probably delaying it's arrival! Darn! Friday night, I'm driving back from work, talking with Aaron on my headset and we are discussing posting and the justifications we have for wanting to stay here and I can no longer wait and I just announce it to him while driving. I start crying again... not good for driving. He is overjoyed!

Fast forward to our announcement to our families. We were going to film it but I think my mom would have killed me. I was expecting screams, we got a melt in tears reaction, tears of joy of course... and then she told everyone at the restaurant! We then told my dad and stepmom, they were so excited and my dad got a bit teary. We managed to tell our siblings who all live somewhere far away by phone or skype. Aaron's parents were also very excited. Some had already guessed the news but like I told Aaron, nobody knew before we told them, they only suspected. I hate videos where people are like "i knew it!!" because it's like no you didn't really know... and just let people have their little moment! lol

So 15 weeks! I have been blessed so far with mild nausea and only puking three times. I think smells is what has gotten to me more. Now that I am in the second trimester, the nausea has gone away, knock on wood, but I am always starving and I got my heartburn back; and smells remain pretty strong and gross to me. I have some pretty smelly neighbors ... I can't wait to move! My complexion is not as nice as it was in the beginning of this pregnancy. My skin had completely clear up... now I'm seeing those pesky pimples make a reappearance. It's for a very good cause though, so I don't complain too much, just enough to annoy Aaron, sometimes!

Here's my weekly update pictures:

Exciting news this week, we booked our honeymoon trip. It's not completely booked but the process is started. I am not going to share the dates we are going on here as I'd rather stay on the safe side and tell you after. But I can say that we are going to ... drum roll... Spain and France! Thanks to all the lovely gifts we got at the wedding, we can afford an amazing vacation, and what great pregnancy pictures those amazing views will make! And don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you, we are very appreciative of all your gifts, your thank you cards will be a little special too... you'll see!

In other fun news, Aaron and I went to Ikea to look for nursery furniture and as always we made a pit stop at the As Is section and found an amazing deal! We had been eyeing a couch for a while and a month ago we saw the display model in the As Is section and really considered it. Well since we had no room, we decide to wait. Well this time around, the couch was still there but there was now also the chair that match that we also wanted. Well Aaron asked for a better discount and we got both at 50% off. A pull out couch and a chair for a steal! They are lovely! A bit of a splurge but we ended up saving the price of a brand new couch! Plus now we have room for people to stay over when the baby comes... if anyone is interested! We just had to wash the fabric and they were as good as new. Thanks to my dad everything got moved around in lightning speed. I couldn't help Aaron lift it so my dad came to the rescue, thanks Papa! Here is the website model:

 




That's all for now folks... I'll see ya next week!

First comes love, then comes marriage...

You know the rest. Well that's not exactly how that went for us. And we are overjoyed!

So yes, as some may know by now because that's all I can talk about, finally! We are indeed having a baby!! And boy is it ever nice to be able to say the words "I am pregnant"! We had been waiting for this for quite sometime and it is finally happening.

First some basic: our little one is due November 10th, 2014, so that makes me 14 weeks preggo. We will not find out the sex of the baby and we will be welcoming our little person with the help of a midwife. I currently meet her every 6 weeks and she is so calm and relaxed, I just know she will be of great help. Further down I will post a few fun pictures I have taken of this pregnancy so far! But first...

Now I said I would talk a bit about infertility when I posted the news on Facebook. I want to talk about this subject because I feel like there is misinformation that is being perpetuated regarding pregnancy and getting pregnant. I think that a lot of people think that getting pregnant is easy, but the reality is that for a large percentage of women it is not. It is not surprising that most doctors say to wait and try for a year before consulting. The reason is because it is normal to have to try a bit and not have it work on the first try. When it becomes alarming is when it is taking longer than a year when you are in your peak years.

Having Aaron be away for most of that time didn't help, but when the official 1 year of combined months of trying had gone by, I knew I had to check what was up. During all that time I had been doing research to help me pin point ovulation, we had Aaron tested to make sure his "friends" were great swimmers, I looked into natural supplements, I took my basal body temperature EVERY morning at 7 am sharp to chart my cycles (best thing I have ever done), I took prenatal vitamins, I changed my eating habits, I peed on countless ovulation predictor strips (they don't work, don't waste your money) and cried so many tears I couldn't even begin to count them. Throughout all that, I had good intentioned family members telling me to "just relax and it will happen" and others that were not aware we were trying were telling us things like "it's so easy, you just have to want to get pregnant". And how crushing was that. I know they meant well, but that is just another example of why people need to be better educated about pregnancy, we probably would have enjoyed our family gatherings more.. at the time, I hate to say it, but we dreaded them.

Now you don't necessarily have to wait a year if you know something is up. The problem with that is that you will meet a bunch of doctors that don't take the time to actually listen to you and just say "oh it hasn't been a full year yet, be patient!" This is what happened to me. Now I know my body pretty well and it doesn't take an expert to know that a menstrual cycle should not last over 60 days. Yet when I met the first doctor she sent me for regular blood work, nothing to do with hormones, and told me "everything looks great!". Hmm excuse me, I don't think so! I had to beg her to send me to a specialist. It took a month or two before I decided to check and see why I had not been called for an appointment with the specialist. All along she had sent my referral request to the wrong doctor and when it was sent back to her she simply did nothing with it. It's safe to say I will never go back to her clinic.

So a couple months went by, a few more crazy cycles and I finally met the specialist. What a great guy! He listened to me, he made me feel better about it and I think he knew I was on the verge of tears the entire meeting because he made me feel like it was all going to be okay! Surprisingly enough, that very same month, I had the most regular cycle I had ever had since going off of birth control a year and a half before. The following few cycles also were better. I was very excited about that. This meeting occurred in November 2013. By December I saw him again and he had my blood test results. He had my hormones checked, unlike that other idiotic doctor,  I mean even this doctor said she was quite useless. He told me how my blood test didn't show anything abnormal but they were tentatively diagnosing me with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)... my heart sank. I knew about PCOS and what that meant. It does not mean you cannot have children, it just means, it might be more difficult for you. He told me that PCOS is not only diagnosed with hormone levels but it must be combined with a clinical diagnosis. To diagnose PCOS they look at things like abnormal cycles (ding! ding! ding!), extra weight, hair, etc. This, combined with an ultrasound to see if there are cysts on the ovaries, are the different ways to tell if a woman has it and to what degree. The doctor didn't feel I needed an ultrasound because I had only mentioned one ruptured cyst before and he thought my hormones were normal enough that if I did have PCOS is was most likely a mild form. Good and bad news.

He put me on ovulatory meds... not fun! I started them in January, and had three cycles worth. The following month Aaron and I decided to save them because he might not be able to make it home at the appropriate time. Well... he did! We decide to skip the medication and it still worked! I do have to say, I think it is thanks to a little something called pre-seed. Look it up it you are trying... it's what made the difference for us in my opinion. Other brands don't work, don't waste your money.

And here we are now! I wanted to share this because I think it is important that these things be discussed. I think that a pregnancy should never be taken for granted. If you are super fertile that's awesome but women should remember that it is not necessarily the norm. It sucks to find that out when you are so wanting a baby and seeing pregnant women makes you jealous and sad. That should never be the reaction to seeing a pregnancy. It's such a beautiful thing. I feel amazed everyday when I speak to other pregnant women who have gone through similar and thougher infertility issues. I feel proud for them, for us, for keeping their heads held high and knowing that these experiences only made them stronger and thankful for this new life growing inside them. Infertility is still a shameful subject for many women who feel they are not normal or not good enough... let's break that, let's embrace and help these women speak up!

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Okay so maybe that was a little long for some of you... here's a treat! Please keep in mind I was going through the woes of the first trimester in these pictures... not the best look! And my weeks turn on the monday, Aaron is not here to take the pictures, its just me, my camera and my tripod :(

     

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll try to update this weekly!

P.S. if anyone has questions about anything I talked about feel free to message me. And yes you can expect to read a whole lot more on this blog regarding this pregnancy... just wait until I start talking about cloth diapers, natural labor and breastfeeding. I have always been passionate about these subjects and now I get to talk about them! Yay!