40+2

I am 40 weeks 2 days and getting impatient. At my appointment last week my blood pressure was elevated and there was a very small amount of protein in my urine. My blood pressure was not high enough to give me any sort of diagnosis but because there was also the protein in my urine my midwife was concerned I may be heading towards preeclampsia and with becoming over due she put me on modified bedrest and said that I could finish my work week by working for 4 hours on Friday but then thats it. I went back in today for the appointment that decided if we have to induce or not. Good news we don't and I haven't risked out of the birth center! Baby passed the nst with flying colors, my blood pressure was elevated when we first got there (probably due to nerves) but was perfect the second time they checked and there was no protein in my urine. We now have permission to wait for baby to decide to come on his own. My midwife did do a membrane sweep to try and encourage him to come. If he doesn't come by Thursday then I will go back in for more testing and monitoring.

I would like to give a quick reminder that when baby does decide to come we do not want it put on social media. Kevin and I have kept the pregnancy very private and intend to keep the birth that way as well. We have not yet decided if we will post about the birth on our own personal pages and if we do we ask that everyone will respect our choice to keep it low key and not share on your own pages.

We spent the weekend getting ready for baby just in case we would have had to induce today. Kevin did a lot of cleaning and got the swing and bouncer built. In between my resting periods I got most of baby's things put away. I am still looking for something to keep his toys in and there are some last minute things I would like to get like a small shelf and a small lamp. I am praying he decides today or tomorrow is a good day to be born.

33 Weeks

How far along? 33 Weeks

How big is baby? Baby is the size of a cantaloupe

Total weight gain/loss: around 18 pounds

Maternity clothes? I'm still trying to wear some of my athletic pants

Sleep: I don't sleep anymore, my midwife said this is God's way of helping me/my body adjust to a newborns schedule

Best moment this week:  The diapers I ordered back in February finally arrived in the mail
Movement: Baby moves all the time except when I try to let Kevin feel

Food cravings:  No cravings this week

Food Aversions: Nothing this week

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the entire pregnancy

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to:  Finishing the nursery 

Upcoming appointments/events:  I see the midwife on Thursday. I have said it before and I will say it again I love my midwife. Switching providers was the best decision we made.  She has a calm and caring presence, every time I talk to her I can feel her love and passion for her job, she genuinely cares about me and baby and Kevin. If we have any fears or concerns they are addressed immediately and she will not let us leave our appointments until she and we are both fully happy with each decision made.   

Milestones: We had the baby shower last weekend

Last weekend we had our baby shower. We are so blessed to have everyone come and celebrate our little miracle and to bring so many gifts. We got a lot of stuff for baby. I hate to admit it but I did end up needing to exchange things that did not come off the registry and a few that did because we got some duplicates. With the credit from the things we took back we were able to get quite a few more things from the registry that we needed.  We are slowly starting to finish up getting all the things baby will need. Now that we have so much stuff for baby I/my hormones just want me to put it all away and organize it. Kevin has been slowly getting the nursery painted and the dresser stained and is so close to having it finished for me. 

27 Weeks

How far along? 27 Weeks

How big is baby? Baby is the size of cucumber and weighs in at 2 pounds

Total weight gain/loss: around 13 pounds

Maternity clothes? I'm still trying to wear some of my athletic pants

Sleep: I am sleeping pretty well right now

Best moment this week:  Seeing baby 
Movement: Baby moves all the time except when I try to let Kevin feel

Food cravings:  No cravings this week

Food Aversions: Nothing this week

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the entire pregnancy

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to:  Getting the nursery painted so Kevin can set up the furniture

Upcoming appointments/events:  We have an ultrasound next week and I see my midwife every two weeks

Milestones: I did my glucose test today, yuck

It has been a while since i have been able to post, Kevin was gone for about a month and a half  for training and he took the laptop with him. Not many exciting things happened while he was gone so you didn't miss too much. While he was gone there was a period of about two weeks that I passed out here and there, turns out I wasn't getting enough protein, so until the end of this pregnancy I am officially a meat eater. Adding meat back into my diet has been a bit difficult because I just simply don't like anything but fish and very well marinated chicken but I am doing my best to add more meats and proteins into every meal since it is best for baby.  The past two weeks we have had some scary things to deal with. 

There are 4 zones for progesterone 

Zone 1 : the lowest zone and considered unsafe

Zone 2 : higher than zone one but still considered slightly unsafe

Zone 3 :  considered semi safe 

Zone 4 : the best zone most people when they reach zones 3 and 4 can even talk about lowering their dose or stopping all together

After starting my injections I had been staying in a low zone 2 but last week I got a call from the doctor's office that my recent labs showed that my levels have dropped back into a low zone 1 and we would need to increase my dose. We are still doing 2 injections a week but have doubled the amount I get in each injection. This has caused larger welts and a more painful injection site that stays painful longer than it was. If this does not work I will have to add a third injection, suppositories, an oral medication, or a combination of one or more of those.  Yesterday I woke up at 6am to find I was bleeding. Kevin had already gone to work so I immediately called the emergency operator for the midwives. Since all the midwives answer their own calls there is no after hours on call number so I call the hospital and they connect me to my midwife. My midwife just happened to be on her way to a medical conference in Indianapolis (Wednesdays are her day off anyway) she said since I wasn't having nay cramping or abdominal pain and baby was still moving around she had me drink some water and lay down and monitor it until the office opens and then see the doctor in office. She gave me all sorts of things to watch for and made sure I felt comfortable and confident to make the decision to go to the hospital if needed before we hung up. The bleeding slowed down so when the office opened I called and let them know what was going on, they had me take a quick shower and come in for an emergency ultrasound and check. The bleeding had stopped by the time I got there and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong, he said everything looked perfect. He said that he thinks it was just a stressed blood vessel.We go back next Friday for another ultrasound just to double check that everything still looks good. For now everything looks good and there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about. 

19 Weeks

How far along? 19 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of a large mango

Total weight gain/loss: Still only about 4 pounds

Maternity clothes? The only thing I haven't switched out is my pajamas

Sleep: I have a hard time finding a comfortable position

Best moment this week: Kevin randomly rubbing my belly
Movement: I can randomly feel little movements from baby

Food cravings:  No cravings this week

Food Aversions: Nothing this week

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the entire pregnancy, hip pain

Belly Button in or out? In

What I am looking forward to:  Our first appointment  with the midwife

Upcoming appointments/events:  We have our last appointment with Stroud's office this Thursday

Milestones: Feeling baby movements, people noticing that my belly is a baby and not flab from pizza and beer

 This week we have our last appointment with Dr Stroud's office. We are switching to our midwife at 20 weeks and Stroud's office has the better ultrasound equipment so they agreed to do our "20 week" appointment at 19 weeks so that they could do our ultrasound and so that Kevin could be there. This past week I switched out my regular clothes for maternity clothes. My scrub pants were starting to become uncomfortable so I switched over to dress clothes. My scrub tops hid my growing belly pretty well so I got a ton of comments this week from all my coworkers and the patients. 

18 Weeks

How far along? 18 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of a large sweet potato

Total weight gain/loss: Still only about 4 pounds

Maternity clothes? I am starting to build up a maternity wardrobe 

Sleep: I have a hard time finding a comfortable position

Best moment this week: Scheduling our ultrasound
Movement: I can randomly feel little movements from baby

Food cravings:  No cravings this week

Food Aversions: Banana nut muffins, my coworker ate one and I use right back to like week 3 trying not to vomit from the smell

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the entire pregnancy, hip pain

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss:  Not being a petting zoo, I'm not sure why people think its okay to touch and rub my belly without permission

What I am looking forward to:  Our first appointment  with the midwife

Upcoming appointments/events:  End of February

Milestones: Feeling baby movements, people noticing that my belly is a baby and not flab from pizza and beer
Kevin was in New York all week for work so it was just me and the dogs at home. We did not sleep well. When Kevin isn't home Silas does not sleep he stay awake and barks and growls at every sound he hears so that we don't get murdered. Kevin got back really late Friday night/ early Saturday morning once he got home he realized he still had the keys to the work truck so he had to leave to take the keys back and the dogs cried and paced the house until he came back. I hung out with my friend Taylor yesterday and we talked babies, birth, oils, and life. I have really enjoyed hearing how my friends coped with pain and family opposition to their natural births so that I can learn from their experiences.   

17 Weeks

How far along? 17 Weeks 

How big is baby? The size of a pomegranate 

Total weight gain/loss: I am up about 4 pounds, yikes.

Maternity clothes? I still have just the one shirt but Natalie is bringing me over her maternity clothes to look through later today and next week I am planning on going to find some new work clothes. 

Sleep: I still get up at least once to pee and have become quite warm at night now but other than that I sleep well

Best moment this week: Friday I had a doctors appointment and got to hear the heart beat again.
Movement: I can randomly feel little movemnts from baby

Food cravings:  Ice cream, I was craving ice cream at like 10:00 the other night but Kevin wouldn't go get me any so I had to suffer 

Food Aversions: None this week

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the entire pregnancy, hip pain

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss:  Not having to trim my nails every week. They are seriously growing so fast

What I am looking forward to:  Our first appointment  with the midwife

Upcoming appointments/events:  End of February

Milestones: Feeling baby movements


This week was was another boring week. I did take some time one evening to go a class to learn about the Rain Drop Massage. I always enjoy the times I get to spend with my oily friends learning more about our oils and how amazing they are. Tonight we are having Kevin's family over for the super bowl. (I don't care for either team but I am routing for the falcons) We have been trying to stay more connected and spend more time with family. When we found out about little Baby E Kevin decided he wanted to try to get his siblings together once a month for dinner and time together. It is really nice to finally have our house put together enough that we can invite people in and spen quality time together.

16 Weeks

How far along? 16 weeks

How big is baby? Baby E is the size of an avocado 

Total weight gain/loss: I am up about 4 pounds, yikes!

Maternity clothes? I bought one maternity shirt last weekend and wore it for the first time yesterday

Sleep: I still get up at least once to pee and have become quite warm at night now but other than that I sleep well

Best moment this week: My belly finally looks like there is a baby growing in there and not like I ate to large pizzas 

Movement: I know from all my research that baby is moving around like crazy in there but as much as I would like to feel it, it is still too early

Food cravings:  No craving this week

Food Aversions: None this week

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  My big belly, congestion that will apparently last the enitre pregnancy

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss:  Not having to trim my nails every week. They are seriously growing so fast

What I am looking forward to:  Feeling baby move, hearing baby's heart week on Friday

Upcoming appointments/events:  My 16 week appointment is on Friday

Milestones: I finally got some of my energy back!

This week was relatively boring, we didn't do anything fun or exciting. The new front desk girl at work quit so I am back to working all day everyday at the front desk, sigh. I mentioned last week that I had started a registry. Right now everything on the registry is gender neutral and even if I decide to find out baby's gender I think I will keep everything on the registry neutral and then Kevin and I can pick out the gender themed items.Kevin will be finding out the gender of the baby, I have not yet decided if I will also find out or wait until birth, at first I was completely against finding out but now that I have looked around and found how hard it is to find gender neutral clothing I am leaning towards maybe finding out with Kevin. Another decision that will need to be made is whether or not we will share the gender with family and friends. At this point in time I am thinking we will not tell and keep baby's gender a secret until birth.

 We are registered at babies-r-us and kind of registered at Target. The target registry has almost nothing on it and it will stay that way. I am not going to update it, I think it is incredibly silly to register for the exact same things at two stores(Keep in mind that babies-r-us will price match any store physical or online) You will also probably notice there are no diapers on the registry, this is not a mistake, Kevin and I are going to cloth diaper Baby E. 

If you would like to help us build up our diaper stash we will be using blueberry diapers but I can not figure out how to make a registry with them. 

http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/Cloth-Diapers
We will need a minimum of 40 newborn diapers and 40 one size diapers. If you are going to purchase diapers I ask that you please stick to solid colors and let Kevin and I shop for the prints. We will be using the capri covers and also using the all in ones or simplex diapers. Right now the inventory to pick from is minimal as they are gearing up and restocking for the new year so feel free to browse what they have and if you are interested in purchasing I would recommend waiting until they restock.

15 Weeks

How far along? 15 weeks

How big is baby? Baby is the size of an orange, or an apple, or a tomato

Total weight gain/loss: Still only about 1 pound

Maternity clothes? Not yet but I will at least need to switch out my work pants soon

Sleep: I still get up at least once to pee and have become quite warm at night now but other than that I sleep well

Best moment this week: I started a registry and once I am convinced that everything I put on there isn't crap I will tell you to find it

Movement: I know from all my research that baby is moving around like crazy in there but as much as I would like to feel it, it is still too early

Food cravings:  I haven't had any cravings this week

Food Aversions: Ranch dressing

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  Too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  Fatigue and round ligament pain 

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss:  Having energy and not stressing about how big my belly will get

What I am looking forward to:  Finally getting to meet with our midwife at 20 weeks

Upcoming appointments/events:  My 16 week appointment is coming up

Milestones: I woke up one day this week and my belly most certainly had showed up over night 

Kevin and I have been slowly buying the 'big ticket' items we will need for baby since finding out we are expecting our little miracle, So far we have bought baby a crib, a pack-n-play, and a car seat. We also have two baby carriers bought one was gifted to us and the other I have had from when I babysat. Thursday afternoon Natalie and I went and started a registry for Baby E. We walked around and she pointed out things that she uses and likes and things that are ridiculous. I put about 20 things on the registry but I feel like some of them I may want to change so once I a happy with whats on it I will share the link. 
Thursday evening Kevin and I attended the Meet the Doulas event. I didn't know much about the event but had assumed it would be informational and they would talk and we would sit and listen. I was wrong. It was speeding dating but with doula interviews. There were eight women to interview we sat and chatted with seven of them. I had 3 favorites, 2 birth doulas and one for postpartum. Surprisingly Kevin's top picks and my top picks were the same.  

The Injections

At this point my butt is basically a pin cushion. Twice a week Kevin stabs a needle into my behind and then injects a crazy thick serum for what feels like hours but in reality is about 2-3 minutes. The serum is oil based so it is very thick and has to be injected very slowly or it causes a massive welt that takes forever to heal. It doesn't matter how slowly we inject I still get a welt that is sore for a few days. At 20 weeks we are switching care from our current doctor to a midwife and will have to wean off the injections and if my hormones are still too low the midwife can prescribe it orally or in a suppository form. As happy as I am to no longer be stabbed twice a week I think I would prefer the injections over suppositories.

14 Weeks

How far along? 14 weeks 1 day

How big is baby? The size of a lemon

Total weight gain/loss:  About 1 pound

Maternity clothes? Not yet but a couple pairs of my scrub pants are getting to feel tighter

Sleep: I sleep pretty well other than having to get up to pee once or twice a night

Best moment this week: We spent the afternoon Saturday at Derrick and Natalie's house. The boys played video games and I snuggled Baby Veda and talked to Natalie

Movement: I'm sure baby is moving around in there but I can't feel it yet

Food cravings:  First few weeks it was potato salad, then fish, then bagels, and this week its fruit salad

Food Aversions: Nothing really. Things that have a strong smell still make me queasy 

Gender: Still a surprise

Labor Signs:  No way too early

Pregnancy Symptoms:  I'm tired, hip pain, and nausea 

Belly Button in or out? In and I hope it stays that way

What I miss:  Not feeling tired and a nice cold margarita 

What I am looking forward to:  Feeling baby's movements and the next ultrasound 

Upcoming appointments/events:  I have my 16 week check up in a couple weeks

Milestones: Making it to the second trimester

I have been away from the blog for a while. I didn't really have anything exciting to blog about and then when we did have something exciting we weren't ready to share the news so the blog stayed on the back burner. Now that we have something everyone will want to read about I am going to try to do a weekly update. 

November 10th I woke up and decided to take a pregnancy test before I got in the shower. (This is not unusual for me I generally do a pregnancy test once a month, I have not had a period in over a year so once a month just to make sure I take a test. I have been seeing an infertility based practice for just under a year. No matter what they suggested or what we tried my period stayed away. I did everything they asked me to and nothing worked so we set up an appointment for December 10th. I was dreading that appointment I didn't want to hear how broken my body was, I didn't want them to tell me how few options there were left.) I got up let the dogs out, dug out the test from the back of the linen closet, (I kept them well hidden just in case someone was over and need something from the closet. I didn't want to talk about why they were there) I let the dogs in, fed them breakfast, turned the shower on to heat up, and peed on the stick. Within 30 seconds there were two pink lines. I couldn't believe it. I took one of the fastest showers of my life because I wanted to get to work early and call my doctor's office. When I was finally able to call they told me to come in whenever for the blood test to confirm. I left work 30 minutes early and went to got my blood drawn and they told me it would be Monday or Tuesday before my results would come in but I would have to come in Monday for the second confirmation test. I went home and waited for Kevin. He got home and I couldn't find a time or way to tell him so I went to the bathroom and took one more test. It was positive so I decided I would just hand him the test. I was so overwhelmed with emotions that by the time I walked from the bathroom to the living room I was quietly crying. As I handed him the test I was full on sobbing and laid on top of him. Poor Kevin had no idea what was going on, he looked at the test asked if I was pregnant when I responded yes he laughed. I was crying and he was laughing. He asked if I was sad, of course I wasn't sad, I was excited, and terrified what if I had to live through every pregnant women's worst nightmare. 

Monday I left work 30 minutes early again and went and had my second confirmation test. While I was there they told me that my results from Thursday had come in and I was for sure pregnant. I started having cramps that night. The cramps continued and on Wednesday I called the doctor. They told me this could be nothing or it could mean bad news and that I would need to come in on Thursday for another blood draw. My results same in on Monday and they called to tell me that my numbers were doubling normally but my hormones were very low. They gave me all the very scary facts and what ifs and then told me they recommended that I immediately start on hormone injections but it was completely my choice if I wanted to do them or not. I told her without hesitation that if the injections were what was best I wanted to start them that night. I texted Kevin the news and went back to work. After work I went home picked up Kevin and we went to pick up my prescription. Here is the part of the story where I get extremely angry the checkout lady says here is how much you owe because insurance companies don't cover these types of medications. I was pissed. I could not grasp that fact that my insurance company is allowed to deny me coverage for a medication that I needed. Without these injections my pregnancy would not be viable so we paid out of pocket and left fuming that this is how messed up our healthcare is. 

(Infertility in America is a joke, there is almost no help for it. There are very few insurance companies that will cover the cost to diagnose it and then there are even fewer insurances that will cover treatment and then even fewer that will help cover the cost of IVF. We are in the minority, the lucky ones. The insurance we have covered the cost of diagnosis, all my appointments, and tests and we have the option of having Tricare which is one of the very very very few companies that will help cover treatment. We are also lucky that we that we can pay every month out of pocket for the prescription, there are some people who I'm sure can not and my heart breaks for them.)

1 SAMUEL 1:27

For this child I have prayed; and the Lord has granted me the desires of my heart.


Kevin, Silas, Stan, and I are delighted to announce that Baby E will be making his/her grand entrance to the world sometime this July.



(Babies are exciting and we know that many of you, as well as ourselves, want to share this miracle with the rest of the world. However Kevin and I are not ready for a lot of people to know yet, so we are kindly asking that you do not post on facebook, mass call, text or email our news. This blog is as public as we are willing to get at the moment and when we are ready to share with the world we will let you know but for now please privately share in our joy with us.)