ONE Sweet Little Baby!

Today was our first ultrasound and it was amazing!  Seeing that little flutter on the screen and hearing our baby's heartbeat really made us realize how awesome God is and what a miracle this little life inside of me is.  Our baby's rapid heartbeat was measured at 120 beats per minute!  As we are leaving the doctor's office and entering the elevator we were talking about how fast our baby's heart was beating and Tim says, "That's double the frequency of the electricity that comes out of the wall socket!"  ...what do I say to that?  I don't know, sometimes its just best to smile and nod.

The baby looked good and based off its size they changed my due date to May 19th, 2012.  So now our "week change" is every Saturday instead of every Thursday.  So this Saturday, October 1st I will be 7 weeks along in my pregnancy!

Having PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) it is common for me to have ovarian cysts and today they found one about an inch big on my right ovary and four more on my left that were slightly larger.  This explains why I have been experiencing some pain and discomfort.  As for now we will just wait and pray that the cysts will pass on their own, being absorbed by my body...the natural way.  Dr. K did have some concerns on a dark spot found on the scan.  Either it is a second gestational sack or a bleed.  PLEASE pray that for whatever this spot is that next week when I go back for another ultrasound we will have better results and that there will be no harm to our sweet baby.

How Many Will There Be?

So maybe the question right now should really be how many babies do you thing we are having rather than will it be a boy or a girl?  Since we were able to conceive by the aid of fertility treatment along with the will of God, there is a possibility that there could be more than one baby.  In fact our last cycle of treatment revealed that there were four good follicles!  So here is the new poll for you to participate in...WILL WE BE HAVING 1, 2, 3 OR 4 BABIES?  Hurry up and vote because we find out on Thursday September 29th at our first ultrasound.

September 22, 2011- Six Weeks

Well we have arrived at week six of my pregnancy and doing great!  Our baby is the size of a sweet pea, approximately a quarter of an inch big.  This week our little sweet pea will continue to grow at a rapid rate, doubling in size.  The nose, mouth and ears are beginning to take shape and the spots where its eyes and nose will be are starting to form.  His and/or her ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of it's head and little arms and legs are starting to limb out as little buds.

Next week will be very exciting as we will go to our first OB appointment to hear our baby's heart beat and to also get a "head count" on how many babies God has blessed us with.  This week our baby's heart is beating 100 to 160 times a minute, almost twice as much as mine.  So much is developing all at once, it is amazing to think of this beautiful miracle inside of me.  Thank you God for your precious gift!

Morning Sickness Anyone??

So the most common question I am getting lately is "How are you feeling?" or "Do you have any 'Morning Sickness'?"  And my answer is... I feel great!  Tired...but great!  Every once in a while I feel as though someone disconnects my power source from the wall and I have to take a nap right then and there.  But feeling sick has not been a problem for me.  As long as I snack and don't go too long between meals my little "apple seed" and I are doing fantastic!

Please continue to keep our growing family in your prayers.  Next week we will hear our sweet babies heartbeat!

"Spaghetti Sauce"

So right now Tim is obsessed with calling me "Spaghetti Sauce" because the only brand we use is Prego and he correlates that to me being "preggo".  To top it off we are now referring to our baby as "The Meatball" for now (no relationship to its current size).

To give y'all an update on HCG levels; I went back on Friday September 16th for blood work and the nurse called me with the new number.  We were at 1899 mIU/ml...once again, I am an over achiever!  The nurse calculated that I needed to be around 1080mIU/ml but as you can see I was well above it!  High numbers are good!  Only ten more days until we hear the tiny little heartbeat(s)!

5 Weeks

Tim and I are thrilled to be starting our family!  This week (9/15-9/21) I am five weeks along in my pregnancy and our baby is the size of an appleseed.  Exhaustion has taken over and although I say I have no "morning sickness" if I don't snack constantly I start feeling a little...odd after a couple hours with no food.  On an average day I end up napping on the couch once or twice.

Tim told me he thought he would make the crib for our little one but then we remembered that there is a higher chance that we could be pregnant with more than one baby!  Conceiving multiples is a risk of the treatment but we will not find out until we have our first ultrasound.  So until we find out we are holding off on designing any cribs, making one..OK, making two, three...oh my! :-)

Last Monday I had my HCG levels taken and from the following Friday my levels went from 90.1 to 325.  On average every 2-3 days those numbers should double, the nurse said I was an over achiever because my numbers were so good.  This Friday September 16th I will have my levels taken again and hopefully they continue to rise as they should.

We're PREGNANT!

Yes that's right, we are going to have a baby!  After trying for six years God has blessed us with the precious gift of life.  Friday September 9th, 2011 I had a scheduled appointment to have blood taken for a pregnancy test.  In the previous week I could sense that I was not as energetic as I have been in the past.  My friend Marie even asked me if she was boring me because I just was not acting like myself and was tired all the time.  Back to September 9th, Marie and I were driving in downtown Pensacola and I received a phone call from my doctor.  They were calling with the results from the lab and they were positive!  I pulled over and after confirming with the nurse on the phone that she was talking to the right patient and I could regain my composure Marie and I sat in the car in utter shock.  Together we prayed, thanking and praising God for this great news!

When I found out I was already four weeks pregnant and our baby was the size of a sesame seed!

Fertility Treatment

After I graduated from college with my teaching degree Tim and I thought it was a great time to get serious about seeking out a new form of fertility treatment.  After many trials that resulted in failure, the doctors finally said that I needed the expertise of a Reproductive Endocrinologist.  This meant that I would be referred to a civilian physician instead of an OB-GYN from the Naval Hospital in Pensacola, Florida.  We were referred to Dr. Koulianos from The Center of Reproductive Medicine in Mobile, Alabama.

Our first meeting with Dr. Koulianos was great.  Dr. "K" was the first doctor that showed genuine care and concern in meeting our desires to become parents and gave us hope.  We went into this meeting expecting the cost of treatment to be quite large but we knew that God would guide us as we made these financial decisions.  He provides for his children and to our surprise that day in Dr. K's office, his treatment plan was covered by our health insurance with the exception of co-payments on prescriptions!

The treatment consisted of constant monitoring of blood work and ultrasounds two to three times a week.  These were to follow hormone levels and follicular growth while I routinely gave myself injections that would cause follicular stimulation.

The first cycle of treatment was primarily to see how my body would respond to the new fertility drugs but ended up canceling the treatment cycle because I was not responding correctly.  The dosage needed to be adjusted properly for my body and this information was gathered in all the tests in the first cycle.  The second cycle I was able to complete but the timing was not quite right yet and received a negative pregnancy result.  Upon starting our third cycle of treatment I had to be cleared of any problems.  They needed to make sure there were no cysts present.  During my ultrasound a large black spot filled the screen and I knew that this was not what we wanted to see.  It turned out to be a cyst twice the size of my left ovary.  Dr. K thought it would be best to put me on birth control and let nature take its course and see if the cyst would be absorbed.  This delayed us for a month and once I was cleared we started our third cycle of treatment which was successful!

Together Forever!

In 1997 Tim and Alyssa met at Tammany View Baptist Church in Lewiston, Idaho.  Over time their friendship grew stronger and they fell in love with each other.  After dating a few years they married August 2nd, 2003.  As Tim continued his career in the U.S. Navy, the newlyweds departed for San Diego, California where Tim was stationed for three years.  In 2005 Tim and Alyssa decided they were ready to start a family but to their surprise things wouldn't happen as easily as they thought it would.  You see God has a plan for every one of His children and His timing may not always match that of our own heart's desire.

Six years of varying degrees of fertility treatments ranging from Clomiphene (Clomid) to follicular stimulation, that required Alyssa to give herself nightly injections; was a learning experience for both Tim and Alyssa.  Throughout this experience God opened Tim and Alyssa's eyes and hearts to understand that God's timing is perfect and if it was His will for them to have a baby it would be done.  Once it was ALL given to God, there was peace in their hearts that all would be fine.

So here we are, married for eight years and trying to have a baby for six years and the feeling is amazing.  God has blessed us and we are expecting our first baby Spring 2012.