24 Weeks

Another week down...hard to believe we're only four months away from meeting our little guy!  He's one active little thing, that's for sure! He's already trying to keep up with his big brother :o)

I don't have much to talk about this week.  He's getting bigger and stronger.  The kicks and punches are getting harder/stronger all the time.  Such a reassuring feeling!  It actually feels strange when my belly ISN'T moving, compared to when it is.  He's big enough that I can see my belly moving at times too.  Matthew still hasn't been able to see it.  Every time I get his attention, then Scout stops moving.

Griffin has started spilling the beans on the baby's real name.  We always knew it was a possibility that people would find out the name earlier than we planned if we told G this soon, but we also felt like we needed to get him used to the idea that the baby's name isn't really going to be Scout.  He definitely was not a fan of the name we picked out, at first, but he's come around, thank goodness!  He says his prayers at night, and prays for the baby, calling him by name.  What's funnier though, is he still prays for Baby Scout as well.  We're trying to get him to understand that Baby Scout and Baby ____ are the same person, but he insists on praying for them both separately.

This past weekend was really enjoyable.  Griffin and Sophie (the dog) spent Saturday day and night at grandma and grandpa's, which meant Matthew and I had uninterrupted adult time.  We weren't really sure what to do with ourselves!  We had all day to run errands without little hands grabbing at every shelf, and the car rides around town were so quiet!  We  had tickets to see White Christmas, the musical, Saturday night, so we got a grown up dinner beforehand, and saw the show.  It was great!  White Christmas is my absolute favorite Christmas movie, so when the stage musical was coming to town, his parent's bought us the tickets for our anniversary present.  It was a great show.  Although no one can compare to Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, the two actors playing their characters did a great job.  We fully enjoyed our kid free time, but of course, missed our little buddy too.

Well here comes the weekly picture.  The belly is getting bigger day by day :o)

22 & 23 Weeks

Well I'm behind again...no surprise there :o)  The last couple of weeks have brought about a resurgence of the muscle/rib pain I had in my last pregnancy.  I was really hoping to avoid it this time around.  The doctor told me when I was pregnant with G, that it was because my because my muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc were being stretched further and faster than they'd ever been, which totally makes sense.  I was really hoping everything was already stretched out, and I wouldn't have to deal with it again, but no such luck.  It's not only in my sides this time, but has also migrated to my back.  All week long, after meals, the pain in my sides would start, and soon after came the back pain. It always got worse with Griffin when he was going through a growth spurt, and I think the same thing is happening with this baby as well.  My belly has gotten quite a bit bigger, (I think any way) and that always brought about the worst pain before.

Anyway, enough of my complaining.  I guess if that's the worst I have to deal with while pregnant, then I don't have much to complain about :o)  Overall pregnancy has always been very good to me, so hopefully these little spells are short lived when they decide to come around.

Griffin is getting more and more excited about his baby brother.  He has started giving "Baby Scout" kisses and hugs on a regular basis.  It makes his mommy very happy!

Well, here are the pics from the last two weeks.  Baby K 2.0 is definitely growing!

21 Weeks and We're Having a.....

Well, we are officially past the half way point and on the downward slide to Baby K 2's birth!  I really can't believe that it's more than half way over already!  Time seems to be flying, just like my last pregnancy.  I do have to admit, it makes me sad.  Pregnancy is always pretty easy for me, and I really enjoy it.

Baby is SUPER active.  I absolutely love it!  This is by far my favorite part of pregnancy.  Feeling all the wiggles and movements is so reassuring and enjoyable for me.  I've been able to feel movement from the outside, but only a few times.  Every time baby starts moving, and I put my hand on my belly to feel it, then the little stinker either moves elsewhere or quits moving all together.  Matthew has tried to feel the movement a few times as well, but no luck.  Same thing happens.  I think it's safe to say this kid is gonna give us a run for our money!  I'm anxious to see my belly start moving and dancing around along with the baby.  I feel like I'm still a couple of weeks from being able to see anything.  With Griffin I was about 23-24 weeks along when we finally were able to see movement.

Well, here goes...the big announcement!  Griffin is going to have a baby BROTHER!  Baby K 2.0 is most definitely a boy again :o)  I think Matthew is more disappointed than any of us about it not being a girl.  We're obviously just happy that the baby is healthy and things look great, but having one of each would've been nice.  We are thrilled that G will get to grow up with a brother, and hope that they are best buds from early on.  It will definitely be easier (and cheaper) than buying all new clothes!!!!

Baby officially has a name, but like last time it won't be revealed until he's born.  Griffin has named him Scout, and it's definitely a nickname that's stuck.  So until he's here, his name will be Scout :o)  I really think we should win some sort of award for how quickly and easily we are able to name our kids.  It's one of the easiest decisions we've ever made, both times, amazingly enough.

Ok here is this week's belly pic :o)  19 weeks left to go!

Hi Baby Scout!

Weeks 19 and 20!

I'm a little behind again (surprise surprise), and holy cow, it's already week 20 of this pregnancy!  I honestly cannot believe that we are half way there.  It doesn't seem possible.  Griffin continues to be very excited about "Baby Scout" (as he's named it) and is convinced the baby is a boy.  We will find out in 6 (hopefully) short days!

This pregnancy has felt very much like my first, so G may be right, it could very well be another boy. There really haven't been any major differences at all.  I've had a lot of fun comparing both pregnancies, especially belly pictures.  I'm fairly similar in size this time as last, which surprised me when I did the comparison.  I felt like this time I've been a lot bigger from the beginning.  Reassuring I guess, that I'm not :o)

Scout is moving all over the place now, and I love it! At times small movements can be felt from the outside.  I have to be really patient, but I have felt a few little love taps.  Such a great feeling.  The only thing I like better than feeling movement, is being able to see it.  My favorite part of pregnancy with Griffin was lying on the couch watching my belly move all around because he was wiggling up a storm.  I'm very ready for that part again!

19 Weeks!

20 Weeks!  Half way!!!

Griffin vs. Baby K 2.0

Bump Shots

Hopefully I can be more on time with the updates from now on.  Since I've slacked on the blog this time, a catch up post was necessary :o)  The plan is to update more regularly now.

Footprint at 14 weeks 

Baby K 2 .0!

Baby's 1st Picture...here's hoping!

It worked!

Proud big brother!

Baby at 6 weeks 5 days

8 weeks 5 days!

10 Weeks!

Time to Stop Being a Slacker!

Oh my, this poor neglected blog.  It's definitely been way too long since I've posted.  I guess it's true, when you have a toddler running around, there really is a lot less time to do the things that were priorities before.  You'd think that once he was in bed, I would get motivated to post, but Griffin is such a ball of energy, that once he's in bed, all I'm good for is vegging out on the couch.

Considering it's been over a year since my last post, A LOT has gone on.  Our little guy is now 2 1/2, working his way towards turning 3.  I truthfully cannot believe he's this old!  Time has flown by since the IVF cycle we did to get him here.  He never ceases to amaze either of us.  He is so full of life, so inquisitive, and it blows me away with how smart he is.  (I know every mom probably thinks the same things about her child(ren) but I really am amazed by him every single day.)  Time for a little shameless bragging.  He knows all of his colors, counts to 15, recognizes most numbers up to 10, recognizes a handful of letters, and gets so excited to learn new things every day.  His language development has absolutely exploded in the last few months.  I am blown away by his ability to communicate.  It's amazing to listen to him speak in full sentences.  Obviously, I knew he'd be able to do all these things eventually, but now that the time is here, it's just so incredible to watch.  I'm so proud of him each and every day.

Well now that I've bragged and gushed about how great I think my little guy is, here comes the big news (and the reason I've resurrected my blog).  Griffin is going to be a big brother!

In June I went through a frozen embryo transfer (FET).  After G's IVF, we had 5 embryos frozen and waiting.  I contacted our fertility doctor's office this past spring to see what all we needed to do to prepare for a FET, when I needed to start blood work and various monitoring appointments.  I was relieved to hear that a FET would be way less invasive than a fresh cycle like we did with Griffin.  I knew in general that it wouldn't be as bad, one whole procedure is eliminated with doing a FET, but there would still be injections and blood tests.  And because my body can never cooperate and be easy when it comes to this stuff, I was on a new medication this time around.

One of my hormones was elevated, which wasn't a problem last time, so I was on an oral medication prior to the procedures, and all the way through my first trimester.  While it really isn't a huge issue to take a pill every day, it was frustrating to me that there was yet ANOTHER issue to deal with when it comes to my reproductive health.  Because of this hormone being elevated, it put me at risk for my body's natural killer cells to be elevated as well.  If those were elevated then there was a very good chance they would attack the embryo after transfer, because it would be viewed as a "foreign body" by those cells.  In order to prevent this from happening, I had an intralipid transfusion done once prior to transfer, and a 2nd time after my pregnancy tests came back positive.  Again, not a huge issue, I got to do a lot of reading, which is something I haven't taken the time to do in a while, but when you're stuck on a gurney with an IV hooked up to your arm for two hours at a time, there's not much else you can do.

All of the rest of my procedures went fine, meds were going well, minus the horrid progesterone shots, but we'll get to that later, and we were set for the transfer on June 18.  Matthew had to go with me, because before the transfer I was given a Valium, so I was not allowed to drive afterwards.  This procedure really is easy and fast, however I won't call it painless.  The transfer has to be done with a full bladder.  The doctor is guided by ultrasound, which means one of the nurses is then pushing on that full bladder to give the doctor as clear of a picture as possible.  Talk about uncomfortable!  The whole time all I could think of was how I really hoped I didn't pee all over him!  Thankfully it's a very quick procedure.  The embryology tech brings our embroy in, tucked nice and safely in a catheter.  The doctor runs the catheter up to the uterus, and presses the syringe, so it leaves the tube.  We watched the whole thing on the monitor, and saw exactly when and where the little embryo landed.  After that I had to lie on the table for half an hour (still needing to pee)  and hoping that it would stick tight.

I spent the next 10 days going absolutely crazy, analyzing every single little twinge in my body, hoping it was a good sign.  When I finally couldn't take it any longer, I broke down and took a home test, even though I swore I wouldn't.  Thankfully my sanity was saved because that BFP popped up quickly and was very strong!  My two blood tests confirmed that yes we were pregnant, and the numbers were increasing at a great rate, so that was also a great sign for the viability of the pregnancy.  I was on pins and needles until our first ultrasound, but all went well!  We had one stubborn, squirmy, strong little nugget on the way!

This little one is already getting the 2nd child treatment.  I didn't mean to not document the process this time like last, but the pregnancy has zapped me of any amount energy I possibly had.  Chasing a toddler around has added to my exhaustion, so some days I'm amazed I can put coherent thoughts together!  It's my hope and goal to do a better job of updating now.  March will be here before I know it, and Baby K 2.0 will be here!

Love our little family.  Can't wait until Baby 2 joins us!