A little catch up

Realizing I haven't posted since February reminds me that a little catching up would be nice.

Here's a timeline:

February:

• IVF the week of February 9th.  Implementation on February 14th.  Spending Valentine's Day on my back has a whole new meaning.
• Phone message from hospital.  Hubs and I listened to the message in our living room, sitting on the couch, ready for bad news.  
• We're going to be parents.
• Multiple pregnancy tests.  All positive.
• IVF medication in all it's glory - including progesterone shots.

March:

• Continue IVF medication and progesterone shots.  Hubby heads out of town, call in a few favors from friends to give shot in the buttocks, and take friendships to a whole new level.
• More positive pregnancy tests.  High numbers with a possibility of multiples.
• See the baby (singular) on the monitor.  The most beautiful little blur I've ever seen.  Tears from my eyes and hubby's eyes.

April:

• Genetics referral and NIPT.  Genetics reveal it's a BOY.  
• Medication is weaned and Infertility sends us on our merry way.  Until next time.  Deuces.  

May:

• Appointments with Midwife begin.  
• That heartbeat aka the rhythm to a beautiful love song.
• I begin to "show" and wear different clothes.  Also, looks like I may have eaten Chipotle, hard to tell.  
• Finally allowed to move around a bit and "work out" again.

June:

• I discover the elastic waist band.  Genius.
• Take up a summer job in an office with A/C.  Also genius.

July:

• Continue to see the little man grow.  It's a boy.  It's a boy.  It's a boy!
• Take last vacation before becoming a mom.

August:

• Return to work and feel the first flutters in my belly.  
• Baby shower 1.
• Plan to work through 39th week.  Sounds like a good idea at the time.

September:

• Bum out the kids in my classroom since I can't play tag, but become a favorite target in Duck, Duck, Goose since I can't get up quickly.  
• Start to get awful sciatica.  Possibly from IVF scar tissue build up...?  Working out daily to fight the sciatica.
• Baby shower 2.
• Baby shower 3.
• Take labor and delivery classes.  Hubs masters the art of hand massage and hip squeeze.
• Find out the baby is breech.
• Wish I discovered the legging phase sooner.

October:

• Breech Version is successful.  Phew, no cesarean. 
• Work through my 38th week.  Realize that was a crazy idea.
• Find out I'm strep B positive = penicillin every 4 hours when i go into labor.
• Water breaks Oct. 30 @ 9:50 pm.  First contraction 10 minutes later.
• Check into hospital @ 1:00am October 31.  Silently pray child is not born on Halloween.  Publicly announce I do not want my child delivered by a nurse wearing a costume.  

November 1:

• Baby boy is born @ 2:56am.  Cesarean.  
• Fell deeper in love with hubs, now a daddy.
• Fell in love with a tiny baby.

It's a BOY

Hallelujah, it's a boy!

We had our son on November 1, 2015.  He is perfect.  He is beautiful.  He is loud.

On this Christmas I have made a few observations:

•  The song "Silent Night" seems a bit of a pipe dream or it was Mary's 2nd miracle.  
• In "Away in a Manger", the line of how the cattle are lowing and the poor baby wakes... shout out to Mary.  I realize "no crying He makes" is the rest of that sentence, but you still have a newborn with interrupted sleep... which means that Mary is also now awake and probably has to feed Jesus again or Joseph is up walking and rocking the baby and thinking about how good that noisy cow will look on his dinner plate.  
• The gift of a nap was a perfectly wonderful Christmas gift.
• After all that riding on a donkey, Mary must have been exhausted, no wonder she went into labor.  Which, I sympathize with since the minute I relaxed at the end of a long day, I did too.  That story to follow.
• Finally, it blows my mind and tears stream down my face to think God sent his son to Earth to die for mankind.  My heart broke a little when my son didn't fit into newborn clothes anymore, let alone the thought of handing him to teenagers to raise.  As I held my son this morning and listened to Christmas carols, I reflected on how precious the gift of baby Jesus really is.  It's amazing what I could "see" when I looked into my child's eyes this morning.  

Bruises?

Are they black and blue?   Or white and gold?

Why I love my doctor

He orders labs "stat".  I get to cut in line.  I feel like such a rebel!

Test day

It's test day.

It feels like a final for a 5 unit class.  I did all the prep work and I now just have to stick out my arm, get blood drawn and wait.

Waiting for results is where I get nervous.   No taking the test, but the after.   It's the same as when I was in dance competitions, cheer tryouts, and every judged performance.

I will be turning off my phone upon arriving to work and not tuning it back on until I see my husband at home.   I don't want to know the results.  I do want to know the results.  No, I don't.  Yes....

Anxiety will not change the results.  Whatever the answer will be, is the same as it is.

perhaps a clutch would be better.

What no one tells you about IVF is that the daily shots will make you sore after a few weeks of stabbing injections of pure love progesterone.   They also fail to tell you that the bottom of a standard purse hanging off your shoulder also hits the same height on your body as your said puncture sites and bruises.

You will also forget that the purse hits that spot from time to time, but I can assure you it's a quick reminder when you hurry out of your car.  You will also end up carrying your purse in front of you like a cartoon henchmen smuggling gold coins.

Overwhelm

...and sometimes you will break down and feel like the walls are closing in like an Indiana Jones movie.  The last injection was the straw that...  The tears feel hot and you can't make it stop.

Thank God for my amazing husband.