Chugging right along baby!

Today I am 17 weeks and 1 day today! The baby is the size of a sweet potato! Our official countdown is 22 weeks and 6 days until we see our little baby girl. Which makes it even more real that we are rolling on this train faster than I expected! When we first got pregnant it seemed like time was super slow and I counted for the weeks to change. I couldn't wait to be 10 weeks and now I sit here typing and were just 3 weeks away from being at the halfway mark! For me this is a HUGE milestone and my next milestone is to complete 24 weeks once vitality is here! Which means we only have 7 weeks to go! Come on baby girl you got this!

This past week we went to a 4D place because once you are discharged from your RE your OBGYN doc doesn't really give you as many ultrasounds as one would like. Luckily my OB is awesome and will give me ultrasounds when I request but she told me the next one wont be for awhile so we decided to see her early! It was the most amazing experience ever! Seeing her move and her little body in 4D made my heart melt and fall more deeply in love with her than I already was. Funny thing is she sure is one stubborn little baby. There is no denying that at all. What was supposed to be a 15 min ultrasound turned into a 2 hour ultrasound off and on and three walks around the building. It also consisted to drinking apple juice and eating candy to get her to move from the stubborn position she was in. She was only showing us her back and kicking away. Finally we were able to get some good shots but the lady was not accepting that so we have a free come back visit at 18 weeks. Yay! Can't wait to see her in just another week!

This is by far my favorite photo of her and shes smiling if you can see it. Can't wait to see her grow throughout the months!

I leave everyone with a photo of me at 16 weeks. I took photos before 16 weeks but I really couldn't see anything until now! Its a tiny, tiny bump but it's there LOL!

How far along? 17 weeks and 1 day :)

How big is baby? Sweet Potato

Total weight gain/loss: Still ZERO!

Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity shirts because I am not going to lie but they are the most comfy shirts ever! 

Have you started to show yet? a little, little pooch

Sleep: Off and on

Best moment this week: Watching our baby girl move a storm in the ultrasound and seeing her face smiling at us!

Miss Anything? honestly soda and sandwiches

Movement: None :(

Food Cravings: Sweets, sweets and more sweets!

Anything make you queasy or sick? Mexican food

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Nada! Love it!

Major purchases this week? Storage ottoman for baby toys

Looking forward to: Our next ultrasound at 18 weeks!

2.5 years ago....

2.5 years ago this month we were preparing for our first IUI. We were so excited and nervous. We had everything ready and felt like this was it. We never knew at that moment that our world would be changed forever. We never knew how naive we were about this entire TTC process.

Thinking back to that first time and the times after that it boggled my mind as to why it just wasn't working. It seemed like we were doing everything right....were we not meant to be mommies? As our first failed IUI stared at us clear in the eye we knew it would get easier and harder at the same time. What we never knew was just how strong we would become, together.

I never in a million years thought we would be able to go through the emotional journey of TTC. We were both put to the test with our first IVF. All the countless injections, pills, exams, driving and crazy hormones were all so daunting at the start. I remember crying before we started....there next to me was my wife Sarah holding my hand with tears streaming down her face just as nervous as I was. Together we held hands tightly and went through our IVF battle ready for whatever came our way. By the second IVF we were ready. Our wounds were healed but there was still band-aids all over our broken hearts. Despite the past we kept going and kept smiling. Happy and blessed to be able to go through it again. Happy that everything went without any problems. Scared shitless we left our faith in God and let our worries out the door. We both always agreed that no matter what we would NEVER give up.

Then we got the best present in the entire world....at the moment of our positive pregnancy test all negative energy and bad memories went out the door. Only happy ones were filling the room. I remember looking at Sarah in front of me. We started jumping up and down and immediately stopped so our miracle wouldn't get hurt. We hugged each other so tight. I never wanted to let go because in her arms I felt safe. Ever since that positive test that has forever changed our lives our days are filled with daily talks to our baby girl and blissful thoughts of what she will look like and how exciting we are to become the mommies we have always longed for.

This year we celebrate 9 years together and I remember on our 4th date we were talking about children....and here we are getting ready to meet her in just five months!

Life is great, and one thing I can pass along is to never, ever give up!

First come love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage and a tighter budget!

I was trying to be creative with my title but seeing as I am falling asleep and my allergies are kicking me in the butt that is all I could come up with at the time.

Ever since we became pregnant my mind has been in a totally different ballpark. I now have daily things on my mind such as the health and safe being of our little girl, what she will need, and making sure everything is in order for her as she is born. Along with the endless thoughts a tighter budget has also been on my mind. I want our baby to have a great future. We already started talking about college funds, preschool, activities....yeah I know we may be jumping the gun a little fast but I am a HUGE control freak and I have to have things somewhat researched and prepared.

So with all that talk....our budget came next. Before the baby it was just "us". Now that we have a baby in the picture I want to provide the best for her so we are making sure we don't just spend to spend money anymore. I never have been a savvy shopper when it comes to food and gas but starting now I need to be more on top of things like that. I have decided that creating a baby budget will help us with all the extra costs involved in having a baby....first stop.....to stop buying for the baby because its cute!!

Ever since finding out we are having a girl we have been buying what ever strikes our eye...thing is if we don't stop now there will be nothing for anyone to buy off our registry. First person I need to get on board is my lovely wife who so happened to convince me to buy her two more pair of shoes tonight...ARG!

SO besides getting our budget ready here is a "list" I found to help us get on the "right" track.

Preschool

We would like to put her in preschool at age 3 to help with developmental skills. We want her to interact with other kids on a daily basis and get to know life outside of just her family. 

HEALTH INSURANCE

Bye bye “Individual +1” health plan. Hello “Family Plan.” This means our deductible with be $3,000 and monthly cost will go to $70 a month. I know really good insurance.

FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNT 

Need to look into starting one of these accounts to help with co-pays and unexpected "medical" expenses.

LIFE INSURANCE

Got one in place but I need to look at getting it increased in case anything was to happen there would be enough money.

WRITING A WILL

We really, REALLY need to work on setting up a will and getting it certified with our attorney. 

COLLEGE SAVINGS

The only thing more frightening than imagining our itsy bitsy Baby Girl as a college-aged young woman (who will still wear turtlenecks all day, every day per Sarah's orders) is how much her tuition will cost. And while we haven’t yet figured out how much (if any) she’ll be expected to contribute to her own education, we’d like to start saving to cover 100% of tuition. That means it’s time to figure out all the specifics of 529 plans and the amount we’ll need to set aside for tuition plus inflation starting as soon as she is born.

Ok, I know this is a bit extreme but for me this is how I cope with the many changes that are soon to come. The many changes I would never trade for the world!

Name Change

Yesterday was such an amazing day for me and our family! When we got married in 2009 I was just hired with my new job at the hospital and all my paperwork was being finalized that the thought of me changing my name would hold a stop to the process of me starting my job. Stupid thought and I regret it more and more each day that went by but I can't keep holding that grudge on myself. Anyways we knew that we wanted to change my name but with the cost of TTC it was out of the question. After finding out we were pregnant we knew the first step would be to change my name. In fact on December 31, 2012 we put in the paperwork to make this change and FINALLY yesterday at 8:45 AM my name change was official!!

I stood in front of the judge while I was sworn in and he said my old name to my new name and my heart was beating a mile a minute. I said "yes" and was dismissed. I got the paper in my hands with the certified copy that it was for sure official. Such an amazing piece of paper!

Right away we went to the social security office and DMV and changed my name immediately. Now I have the wonderful task to changed everything else! 

Now I feel like a cohesive family and once the baby is born we will start the adoption process for Sarah to adopt her. 

Life is going so well!

15 weeks

Ok....well almost! Tomorrow I will be 15 weeks preggo! I can't believe time is flying right by us. Today at lunch it sank in that in about a week I will be four months pregnant! Wowzers....they sure do not kid when they say that time goes fast when your pregnant. This leaves us with 176 days until we see our little peanut!

Things are coming along in our household! We are cleaning and weeding still. As you can tell we are in no hurry to weed out lol. We sure are taking our sweet time. Its nice to get rid of stuff that we have been meaning to do for YEARS!

The babies room got painted this weekend by my lovely wife. She also finished building all her closet units so I have more room....because based on the clothes we have recieved from friends and family she sure is going to be one spoiled little girl!

Other than that nothing really going on. I do wonder at times when the "pregnant" feeling will hit me. I know that I am pregnant because I think about it on a daily basis but I still have a teeny tiny bump and my clothes are still fitting...they are getting snug as we talk but other than that I feel pregnant but not....does this insanity make sense?!

Sarah and I were talking about it the other night and we came to the conclusion that we won't really feel pregnant until she moves and we can feel it or see it. Right now she is still so small and while she is doing baby zumba in my tummy I still do not feel her. I honestly can't wait for that moment. Until then I cherish everyday of being pregnant. Everyday that passes by is a HUGE milestone!

Getting things done!

I feel like time is flying by. When we first found out we were pregnant on Christmas Eve I kept thinking about the weeks ahead. I had so many thoughts about 6, 8 and 10 weeks. All of a sudden those weeks came and went! Now here we are almost 14 weeks and in our second trimester. Now I know what my friend meant when she said just wait....time will fly by. I didn't believe it one bit!

Ever since we found out we were pregnant we started a "list" of things that need to get done. Not urgent things but things we have been meaning to get done for sometime. This list consists of the following....

• painting baby room
• organizing all closets
• organizing all drawers 
• getting rid of stuff we no longer use
• having a garage sale
• building closet unit for baby room
• replace all area rugs in three rooms
• retouch paint within house
• get garage in order
• purge, purge and purge some more!

I know my list is way more but for now this is a good start. Well today Sarah decided to start on the baby closet. While she is almost done I decided to be some help and sit next to her and take pictures! LOL as you can tell I am a big help.....NOT!

We also cleaned the entire fridge inside and out and cleaned every bin. Cleaned the filter and moved the fridge. Phew!

I also decided to start putting up some of my Easter decorations. I got tired and stopped...oh what a poor excuse!

After that Sarah's mom came over and surprised us! She knew we were getting ready to buy our crib for the baby and she wanted to be the first to buy us a gift for our baby girl. She bought us our crib/furniture set! We are so excited to receive in through the mail!! I feel like a little kid at Christmas time! 

Isn't it puurrtty?! We are still undecided on the crib bedding. We are going to be searching on Pottery Barn or Amazon for our "dream" bedding. We are also going to start looking at paint colors this weekend! 

Phew writing all of this sure makes me tired!

Till next time! Toodles!

Our pregnancy announcements!

I remember 2.5 years ago gazing at baby stuff and having ideas in my head about how I wanted things to go. It seemed like we would never, ever get there. I thought we would never get be pregnant and here I type on the couch almost 14 weeks along. We knew we wanted to announce our pregnancy to our friends and family and I knew there was no better way than photos! Who doesn't love photos?! Here they are! Enjoy!!

Nuchal Scan

Yesterday was our nuchal scan. I wasn't one bit nervous because the day before we got out blood test results stating we were in the normal range for any chromosomal abnormalities. So this appointment was more of an exciting time to see our baby peanut!

When we got there they had me empty my bladder and took me to the next available room. I was full of excitement! The tech told me I had officially graduated to the belly sonogram. I was delighted! I didn't have to take my pants off anymore who isn't excited for that?! Anyways I laid down and she put the cold gel on my belly and started moving the wand on my belly. Holy smokes was it painful. She used so much pressure and it hurt. Needless to say I have many bruises from how hard she pressed on my belly. She was completely rude. Not sure why there are rude people working around pregnant women. This is a time for happiness! After ten minutes of the tech sighing back and forth and complaining about our baby not cooperating...whoops she must be stubborn like her momma she finally decided that she needed the vaginal probe. As soon as that happened she was able to get a better picture. Our little peanut was just showing us her back the little stinker! She was able to get three measurements and our average was 1.34! So after that little let down and rudeness the doctor came in and proceeded to say that all is good and that I don't need to come in until the anatomy scan....she doesn't know that we know already, LOL!

Hope all is well with everyone!