Sunday School Shower

Anytime now baby Keller. We are ready for you!! I did my last camp training session of the summer on Wednesday and VBS just wrapped up last night. Those were the last two items on the agenda that I was holding out for, but now those are finished Keller can come anytime. We went to the doctor last Monday and not much was happening. Our next appointment is Tuesday morning so we'll see.
I've been up since 4:30 this morning. Couldn't go back to sleep but it's just now 8:00 and I've completed half of my to-do list. Left on the agenda today is to get Keller's car seat installed, finish up some laundry, and write some thank you notes. The girls in my Sunday School class gave me an amazing shower last weekend. We made personal pizza and had salad and yummy cake. Keller got tons of cute clothes and some really great practical things as well. I still can't believe how blessed we have been. Here are some pictures.
Here I am offically "full term" before the shower. 37 weeks.


Some of the girls.

Adorable diaper cake!

Burp cloth!!

Hopefully the next time I post it will have a picture of our sweet baby boy!!

Finally!

I feel like so much has gone by and so quickly that I haven't had time to write about it. It's the end of the school year which makes it a crazy time where I have meetings on all my kids and a schedule that is out of my routine. Add on baby things, church things, and family things and my life feels like it's flying by. Since my last post we've had Easter and Easter egg hunts, birthday parties, baseball games (Travelers, and nephews), book club, mother's day (Coby cooked me a wonderful breakfast in be but I accidentally erased the photo :( ) nursery decorating, and I've had two showers. We are so blest to have so many people care about Keller. My fellow OT's and PT's gave me a wonderful shower and I received lots of cute things.


And one of the schools in my district, the one I spend the most time at, gave me another shower. So nice of them and I got some diapers, wipes, onesies, and other cute things. Here's the loot.

We are also really working on our budget. Most of our issues come with eating out. I am glad to say we haven't eaten out in about a month and by just eating what we have in the fridge and freezer we haven't even been to the grocery store in 2 weeks. We've been using Mint.com and so far it's working great. Coby made homemade pizzas last week. They were so good and much cheaper that ordering. The trick to a good crispy crust? Crank the oven up as far as it will get.

As far as baby stuff the nursery is getting there. Just a few decorating/wall deco stuff left. Also organizing as we have more showers. I also have daycare and the pediatrician lined up. That is a HUGE relief for me. Daycare was so stressful but I am pretty sure I have found the perfect place and we also have a spot reserved!! We are now to our two week appointments, AND we have childbirth class tomorrow at the hospital. It's getting close...

Week in Review

This past week has been anything but normal. We were out for MLK day then I had a continuing education course on Tuesday and Wednesday and it snowed some on Thursday causing school to be let out an hour early. I feel like I still have not gotten into a post Christmas routine yet and it's almost February! Friday night Coby worked late and I laid in the recliner all night. So unproductive. Saturday Coby got up and ran errands and took the dogs to the park while I worked on a Sunday School lesson. I got caught up on laundry and went to the grocery store. I also got started on some baby shower presents. (I'll post about them when they are done.) Today we got up and went to church and I taught Sunday School. Then we went to lunch. Planning on spending a low key afternoon at the house then heading to Coby's parents for dinner.
I am still feeling good as far as this pregnancy goes. My hips and back are achey at times but I figure it's just stretching out and making room for the little one. I can also tell when I think the baby is having a growth spurt. Every few days or so I will be ravenous, eat a good meal, and then be starving 5 minutes later! I'm 16 weeks today. It's hard to believe that in five weeks or so we will be half way there! It is fling by! We have a doctors appointment a week from Friday and then they will schedule a radiology appointment within the next week or so for a good quality u/s. Let's just hope that the little one is wiggly and not too modest. I have been looking at nursery decor ideas. I like the darker brown crib sets but I just keep coming back to the modern looking white crib. I've got some really great ideas for a boy or girl and all of them go along with this type of crib. I have also found some Ikea furniture to go with it. Another bonus is that it is the least expensive option and I feel like the other furniture could be used for a long time. We'll see. I'm trying to hold off on making any big decisions until after we find out if we have a he or she.

In other baby news I ordered a fetal heart rate doppler off Amazon.
And I LOVE it. Some friends gave me other type/brand of heart rate listener but said they were never able to get it to work. I decided to spend a little extra and get a good one. I figured since I have tons of borrowed maternity clothes I could splurge and then share the doppler later on. It is totally worth the $70!

We also made another big purchase. After some research we decided to invest in a new vacuum cleaner. We figured with the baby coming and the dogs that we needed a good vacuum, not to mention the fact that our old one was smelling like burnt hair every time we used it. We decided on a Dyson and got a really good deal on ebay. It came in yesterday and we tried it out right away. So far so good.

P.S. I know my layout and header look a mess but the place I got my old one from changed servers and did not have new codes to my old layout. I don't feel like really messing with it right now and I am debating paying someone to make me a good one. Any ideas or suggestions on who does good designs?
I am still adding to my weekly meal database. It has meal ideas, ingredients by meal, and instructions. Most of the meals are super easy and don't have instructions. Let me know if you want me to e-mail you a copy. I also read about these on Org. Junkies blog. She is giving away one and you have until Jan 27th to enter! It looks like a great project that I might get to one day, one day.

Meals for this week and last:
coconut chicken with side and veg
salmon with side and veg
chicken quesidillas
mongolian beef with brown rice
bison burger with green beans and scalloped potatoes
flat iron with okra and mac and cheese
homemade pizza
chicken and orzo pasta
cod with roasted potatoes and asparagus
blt with chips and pickle

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It's over. It's done. It was fun while it lasted (75% of the time). The Sugar Bowl. The lead up to the game was fun. The hype, the spirit. It was electric. The game was, well, it was nail biting. At first it was a bad, real bad. Then it got better. Then we had a few attempts to pull ahead in the last few minutes and just couldn't do it. It was dissapointing to say the least. I know it is a big deal that our Hogs actually made it a BCS bowl and we are proud of them for that. I think, for me at least, it's just the fact that I've seen our team play much better than they did last night. Oh well. It's just a game right?

That's about all that has been talked about around here for the last few days. Not much else going on except trying to get through our first week back at school. We have a doctors appointment on Friday. She probably won't do a u/s but hopefully we will get to hear a strong healthy heartbeat and learn when we will get to find out the sex! Can't believe it is getting so close. Happy hump day!

2011

It's officially 2011. 2010 was a good year but I am so excited to see what 2011 has in store for us. Speaking of baby (you know that's what I meant, right). Here are some new baby things.
My parents gave us this Razorback bib for Christmas and I got this monkey at a gallery during an after Christmas sale. I am leaning toward these colors for the nursery if it's a boy.

These are some Christmas goodies my cousin Audrey sent. Love Dr. Seuss!

We went out yesterday to look at baby furniture. I have found a few sets I like but we are trying to decide wether to get am ok set, that I would be happy with, for less, or to go ahead and splurge on a really good bedroom set that he/she will have for a long time. Any suggestions?
Just one more day of break then I head back to work, work, work. Only half a year left though! Well I'd better get cooking. We are having black eyed peas, and corn bread, fried potatoes, and greens for dinner, along with apple skillet pie. Not the most healthy but definitely a new years tradition.

Before the old year ends

I am behind in posting what's been going on around here and I figured I'd better get our Christmas post in before the new year. I've been on Christmas break for the past week and half. The joys of working in the school district. We had a great Christmas but I failed to take any pictures. We went to Coby's parents on the night before Christmas eve. The whole family was there. We ate and watched football and had a great time. On Christmas Eve we ate dinner at my parents then went to Christmas Eve service at church. Christmas morning we woke up, got ready and headed to Coby's brothers house for breakfast. This is always a fun but crazy time. About 25 people and all the kids are so excited about their Christmas gifts. I some how always get roped into putting together someone's toys. This year is was my nieces zu-zu pet tree house. I really like all the excitment of Christmas morning but think that we will end up spending most of our mornings at our house from here on out. It would be nice to be our little family in our little house on Christmas morning. I got lots of good presents. Coby got me a jigsaw puzzle and some books. Exactly what I had asked for. I was a very nice, warm Christmas.
Today I really cleaned the house, got caught up on laundry, and rearranged our closet. We are starting to get the nursery cleaned out. Right now it is the junk/craft room. I am hoping to move most of my craft stuff the the closet and get the room cleaned our before we find out what we are having. Which should be around late January/early February. Then we can get started decorating. Here is a picture from the last appointment we had. Little baby at 9 almost 10 weeks. He/she is looking straight at the "camera". He/she looks like he/she has Coby's chubby cheeks. Too cute.

We have our next appointment a week from tomorrow. She probably won't do an u/s but hopefully she will at the next appointment, I will be almost 18 weeks, and we can find out what it is. I'm not really showing yet. But once I have an actual belly I'll post a picture or two.
Coby has tomorrow off. We plan on running some errands. Looking at baby furniture, and baby bags (part of my Christmas) and then going to see True Grit. We don't have any New Years Eve plans. When I asked Coby what we were going to do he said "what we do every year". Which is watch a movie and go to bed at 10. We are old!
Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!!

Baby's First Things

Flowers from my dad the day after we found out.

Baby's first teddy bear from my mom. SO SOFT!!

Thanksgiving onesie for next year. I was on $3. How could I pass it up?

A little-bit news...

After 2 years and 3 months of trying to conceive, clomid cycles, IUI cycles, and a failed fresh IVF cycle we are proud to announce...

I'm pregnant!
It's still surreal to me but we are super excited. It is still very early so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
I'm going to write out a time line of what has happened so far just for personal memories.
October 22 we went in for a frozen embryo transfer. It was a different doctor from the first (failed) transfer and he utilized a different method. We both felt much better about this experience. They gave us and ultrasound picture of the exact moment they transfered the blastocytes.

Do you notice something?

We didn't at first. It wasn't until a few days later that I passed quickly by the photo (it was on the fridge) and I saw the profile of a baby! Do you see it? Is that not the weirdest thing ever?
I went in for a blood test on the morning of November 1. Coby and I had planned on taking the afternoon off. Last time we got devastating news and so this time we just wanted to be together to hear the results no matter the outcome.
I got home a little earlier than Coby. (Last time they did not call until 3 in the afternoon). I was watching tv when the phone rang. I saw it was the doctors office and thought it was the insurance lady. She said she would call and it was still early. I answered the phone and it was the IVF nurse who right away said "IT"S POSITIVE!". I was in shock, thrilled, and relieved all at the same time. She then told me some numbers and my next blood test date but I barely heard any of it. As soon as I got off the phone I ran to the bathroom to take a pregnancy test. I had taken so many that had turned out negative I just wanted to see a + sign on one.
I waited an agonizing 40 minutes for Coby to get home. I was waiting on him with this.

The positive test and this onesie I bought 2 years ago and had always planned on giving him when we got pregnant.
His face was shock and disbelief. He said "What is that?" "Are you for real?". I was glad that I got the news first because I had always dreamed of the time I could tell him "I'm pregnant", with out just getting off the phone with a nurse. It was great. After we recovered from the shock we went and had Mexican for lunch. Of course;)
Then we went off to find grandma/grandpa bibs for the grandparents. They knew we would be getting the results that day and we wanted to try to surprise them . The plan was to just put the bibs in their mailboxes. This worked for my parents. But Coby's dad was home so we went in and gave it to him and left the grandma one for his mom. Needless to say all grandparents were ecstatic!
We told a few close friends that day. Audrey (my cousin) texted me soon after we found out and I couldn't keep it from her. She was the second to know after Coby and I. Then I told my two closest friends Dee, and Jenny. Both were trilled and so happy. Later that day we told our brothers and Coby told his grandparents.
We had another blood test on November 3 and everything looked good.
Our first ultrasound was on November 17th (6 weeks 3 days). Just one little baby in there. We got to hear the and see the heart beat. So amazing to think that there is a little pea sized baby with a heart beat in me! Crazy. He gave us a due date of July 10th.

This past Wednesday (December 1) we went back to the doctor for another ultrasound and bloodwork. Every thing looked great. The baby's heartbeat was 16o and he released us to my regular obgyn. We have an appointment with her on Friday.

Coby has told some people at his work and I plan on telling my work before Christmas break.
And I am telling all of you now! So now pretty much the whole world knows. Like I said it is still early but I have a lot of faith and hope.
When we started trying I had a feeling about 3 month in that this was not going to be an easy road for us. People kept saying "it just takes some people longer", but I really felt like we were going to have to go above and beyond to get our baby. Now I have a feeling that this will all be okay. We have relied on God. Prayed everyday, every night for this blessing. He gave it to us in His own time. That is the biggest lesson I have learned from all of this. This was always meant to be our journey that He cleared the path for. Had we not followed this path, and tried to follow someone else's, we would be so lost. We have grown in faith and love and know that whatever comes next will be easier to handle because of this journey.
I am not in control. He is. And for that I am grateful.