Sunday, December 16, 2012

our baby story.

We are having a BABY! This has been a long awaited blessing and we are so excited it's finally here. I'd like to just document our whole story, so I don't forget all the details in years to come :) I know this will be so long, but I want to keep this.

The plan Jeff and I had from the beginning was to wait a year and then get pregnant. So we started "trying" December of 2010 (10 months after we were married). Looking back now, it seems kind of silly that we were planning out our future as if we had complete control over everything! After mentioning to my doctor in February that we were planning on getting pregnant at any time, he said to come back after a total of 6 months because he believes in infertility after no success after 6 months (which now I'm so grateful he believes in just 6 months is considered infertility, when most doctors say 1 year-- it has sped up the process that we had no idea we were about to endure). 

So June comes around and I was in his office curious with what the next step would be. He put me on Clomid (100 mg). Clomid is a fertility pill and they monitor you with ultrasound to see how everything looks and how big your follicles are producing. We tried 3 months of doing this, which is 3 rounds of it. After a few months with no success, my doctor felt like something else was wrong. Most normal women get pregnant quickly on this drug. So he decided to perform surgery on me to see if I had Endometriosis. This was September of 2011. After 3 hours of surgery and a painful recovery, he confirmed I had Endometriosis and one of the worst cases of it he had seen! He said, "No wonder you weren't getting pregnant! Hopefully this did the trick, if not, come back in 3 months." 

Again, nothing happened during that time, so I found myself in his office again. He decided to put me back on Clomid and was hopeful it would work, because now all my insides were scraped and cleaned out from the surgery. We did a round... nothing happened. We did it again... nothing happened. By this time, my doctor was stumped and said we should stop doing Clomid, since more than 5 or so times is unhealthy on your body and he referred me to Dr. Danishmand. A fertility specialist who we came to LOVE. 

We saw Dr. Danishmand in, I think, July of 2012 and went to a free seminar and were quick to be on board with the idea of undergoing fertility treatments. After a few weeks of diagnostic testing for both Jeff and I, we had a private consultation with him. After looking at the results, he said we could either do IUI (artificial insemination) which would give us about a 12% chance of conceiving OR we could do IVF (InVitro Fertilization) and we'd have about an 80% chance of success.

After some prayerful thinking and talking it over, we decided to go through IVF despite the extreme expense it would be for us. We wanted that baby! And we were willing to make that financial sacrifice for this precious child. 

So, in September we began our cycle. The fertility center ordered all of my medications and had it sent to my home. I was shocked when I opened the huge box! Our kitchen table seriously looked like a pharmacy with all sorts of pills, vials, needles, syringes, etc. I had to give myself 2 to 3 shots in my stomach every night for a week and half, as well as take several kinds of pills 4 times a day. A friend from our ward, Jen Eckersley who is a nurse, was so amazing and came over to our house every night at 8pm to do my shots, because Jeff could not bring himself to stick needles in my tummy and I sure as heck didn't want to do them myself. We are so grateful that she lives nearby and took time each night to do this for us. Our last shot we had to do was the "trigger shot" which had to be given in my backside exactly 32 hours before the Egg Retrieval. So at 2am one night, sweet Jen gave me my last shot. 

The egg retrieval is the surgery in which the doctor extracts all the eggs (or follicles) that my body had produced through all my shots that I had been doing. Leading up to this, I was in the office every other day for blood work and ultrasounds to monitor how many follicles my body was producing. Every woman is different and can range from unfortunately zero eggs, or all the way up to dozens and dozens of eggs (a friend of mine produced 56 follicles!). Before the retrieval, we had seen 17 follicles and Dr. D and all the nurses were pleased with that and said it's more than average. I was happy! 

The morning of the retrieval, I was so nervous because I was to be put under anesthesia and I wanted everything to go smoothly. After I had woken up in the recovery room, Dr. D came in and told me he was able to retrieve 10 eggs which is less than we were hoping and that he was hopeful we would have one or two good embryos to implant. 

After the retrieval, they had taken each egg and sperm to create embryos and the doctor called me every couple of days to inform us on how well (or not so well) they were developing. Each couple of days, a few embryos would not make it and our number of good quality embryos were dwindling. Our hope was to implant 2 embryos (and maybe get twins!) and then freeze the rest of the embryos to use for future pregnancies. My transfer (implantation day) was scheduled to be on Monday, Oct 1st. So the Saturday before that was the last time Dr. D had called about the embryo developments. He had told me that at that time we had 3 embryos left so far. 

Monday morning we came in for the big transfer day!! This was the day, we were hoping to get pregnant! I got all dressed up in that cute gown and hair wrap. Jeff and I were so nervous. I was so happy he was there with me. Dr. D came in and informed us that we had just ONE embryo good enough to implant. We were a little disappointed at first, because we had gotten excited at the thought of twins and too nervous to put all of our money and hope into just one embryo making it. But we had no choice and hoped for the best outcome! 

Oct. 1: TRANSFER DAY!


After the Transfer, I was put on bed rest for 3 days. I stayed at my parents house, since Jeff had to work, and they were so great and took the best care of me. My dad did NOT let me get off that recliner chair!  On Thursday afternoon, Oct 4th (hours after I had gone in for follow up blood work),  Dr. D called me and said what we had been praying to hear-- my levels were high and he is sure that I was pregnant!!! I was not expecting to know that soon. He said everything looked good, but he wanted me to come into the office again Saturday morning for the official pregnancy test blood work. So in I went, and they confirmed 100% that we were, in fact, expecting our little miracle baby. Our one little embryo that was left. We were so so happy. Our Father in heaven had granted us this blessing that we had been praying for for so long.


This was just the picture we sent out to our family to tell them the big news. I felt overjoyed and blessed by their love and support throughout this whole process. We have felt their prayers and we feel so grateful to have such great families on both sides who love us and were rooting for us from the beginning. 




After the positive pregnancy test, I still had to give myself shots and take pills and be monitored for the first 9 weeks, then I went to my regular OB from that point on. So this is the morning we "graduated" from the fertility center at 9 weeks along. We were stoked. 




Our announcement picture :)  



Our little bean at 13 weeks! We call him/her the Tumbler, because it seriously does flips and bounces all over the place. 

We could not be more excited about what our future holds and that we finally get the opportunity to become parents to this sweet baby. We have just felt so blessed up until now and I know prayers are heard and answered. I love my family so much for their outpour of love through this emotional process! We can't wait for June to get here!!!

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

On Saturday morning, Elizabeth Smart came to speak at our stake center to the Relief Society women of our stake! It was amazing to hear her and to be so close to her! I can't even describe the glow she had and her poise and elegance. She is an amazing woman. Her testimony is remarkable after having gone through such a hard trial in her life. She did mention a scripture that touched me.  D&C 24:8 "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days." Although the small trial I am currently facing with infertility is so small compared to what Elizabeth had to endure, it's still comforting to know we can seek wisdom and advice through the words of the scriptures no matter what we are going through. Elizabeth was so inspiring, and I hope to have the strength she has as I go through the many trials I will experience in this lifetime.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

So remember WAY back when I posted about going to conference with our friends? (I really need to get better about updating.) Well, at conference was when Chris made the decision to be baptized!! We were so beyond happy. After attending conference, he was totally pumped about getting baptized. He said that President Monson is "the real deal". I feel so grateful that everything worked out so that we were able to all go.

Yesterday was the big day for Chris. The baptism was so great. The room was filled with the Spirit and Chris was just beaming. Jeff spoke and did a great job. I feel so blessed to have witnessed his conversion process and am so happy for their family. The gospel is such a beautiful thing. 



Sunday, April 1, 2012

This weekend Jeff and I went to Salt Lake for General Conference with some friends from our ward. The husband isn't a member, but he had a great experience this weekend and really enjoyed Priesthood session. I'm excited for what may come from this in the future. It was a quick trip, arriving at 2am Friday night and leaving Sunday morning. But it was well worth it. I love the feeling that I have this time of year. I was so bad at taking pictures!! I wish we got one of the four of us, but we were so late getting to the conference center and in a rush to leave afterward. 


Friday night, while the boys were at Priesthood, I went down to Provo and stayed the night with one of my dearest friends, Diana. It was SO much fun. It had been well over a year since we've seen each other, so this was much needed.

We spent our night eating, shopping, Yogurtland, chatting, and giving each other facials.




Giving each other facials at 2am. Totally normal. 



The weather was so nice and out of nowhere there was a strange snow storm on Sunday and most of the drive home! 




We had such a good weekend and a much needed getaway trip! I feel like lately our lives have been consumed by work. I'm not complaining though. It's been great.  

Sunday, March 4, 2012


Isn't our family cute? Love them.


Sunday, February 12, 2012

great day.

You know when you go back to work on Monday not feeling totally annoyed to be there because you just had had a really good weekend? This Saturday was one of those for me. Jeff had played football with the guys in our ward that morning and I slept in and on the way home he called me to say, "Hurry and get ready because I'm taking you to breakfast!" He knows just how to make me happy. Seriously, I love food. And I all of a sudden become the happiest girl in the world when we go out to eat. It's the best. While we were getting ready to leave for breakfast, a friend from the ward texts Jeff and says he has TWO EXTRA TICKETS to the sold out Rebel game against SDSU!! I was about to die I was so happy. This is the biggest game of the season. (my Facebook plea for tickets may or may not have had something to do with this offering, but I didn't even care. it got us to the game.) So we went out to breakfast to Egg Works and then happily rode off to the game. 




The game was amazing. We had awesome seats. We won by two in the last 20 seconds. I almost had a heart attack. But then I didn't because we won. The student section was so good as always with the best signs. This beauty was my favorite. Moser, you are my hero. Please take note of how gigantic they made him.

AND THEN, just when the day couldn't get any better... it did. My little brother had planned to proposal to his girlfriend, Rachel. So we had to race from the game over to the park to set up for it. And I think it turned out lovely.



We tried to get Chinese lanterns, but those fell through, so the night before I Googled how to make lanterns, and these little gems appeared. So those are what we made.





Someone had dropped Rachel off at the park where she and Luke go to often together. Along the path, Luke had left little letters with different things written for her. So she read each letter before she ended at the little picnic that was set up with the candles.



After he had finished popping the question and had eaten dinner, we went back to the park to take a couple pictures and to clean everything up while they rode off in that scooter with the cute sign on the back.


We are so happy Rachel will be joining our family. We are small in numbers, so we're excited to have her be a part of us!!

AND just when I thought the day couldn't have been any better, Jeff offered to go see The Vow with me after cleaning up the park. He was just so sweet to me all day and it was the best day ever. I don't know how I got so lucky with him. It was a great day and  I will happily be driving to work tomorrow morning.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

2011 Recap

I still have not taken down Christmas. Not because I don't want to, but because we haven't had any TIME! I feel like everything has been go go go for that past couple months and hasn't slowed down.  I can't believe another year has come and gone. Time goes by so fast. It's kind of sad. I feel like there's so much I want to do and accomplish and I have absolutely no excuse not to, especially since we don't have any kids yet. This is the perfect time to really do things and do some personal progress and set goals and do them. Well, 2011 has been a great year for us. And I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

We had our first anniversary!! Can't believe our 2nd will be next month.




We went on a trip to Cancun in June with my two brothers and cousin, Joey.





Went beach camping in California in August with all of Jeff's family. So fun! We'll be going again this June. (Yes, Jeff and I tower over everyone else :)




We went to Canada in September for my cousin's wedding and Jeff finally got to meet my whole family!


I got surgery in September. It wasn't a fun experience, but we're hoping we'll get some blessings from it in 2012!  Sorry, guys...  I didn't get any pictures of that, because I looked horrendous.


We both got new jobs!! This has been the biggest blessing by far for us this year. Both of us were offered jobs when we weren't even looking. I absolutely love mine and Jeff is loving his, too :) We got super lucky. Jeff is the new Marketing Director  at a Honda dealership and I'm working at a cute spa called SkinBar.



Also, 2 of my best friends got pregnant and 3 more of best friends had babies! (One of them is already pregnant again... her babies will only be 14 months apart!) I love how all my friends are having little babes. I get to play with them!


Can't wait to find out what 2012 has in store for us! We have so much to be grateful for.
 

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