CD71?!

Really?? It's as if she went on Vacation or something... A really loooooooooong vacation :-/

On top of that, I had some wicked cramps the last two days, and some bloating. Been better with the Metformin, so that may mean she may be returning from her trip, which is the only positive thing about these symptoms.

This.is.so.frustrating... :(

On the other hand, I did hear about a Fertility Clinic nearby that is awesome!!! Going to be calling them soon...

Other than that, not much else to report. My periods have officially gone crazy, and they are making me crazy too!

Until next time...




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy Anniversary!

Just wanted to pop by quickly today and wish Mr. Magnolia Bud a VERY happy anniversary! Four years ago, he was hanging out with his groomsmen, and I was in the middle of hair and makeup before our 4:30 photos and 6:30 wedding.

Four years later, we've been through a lot together--two graduations, a move to a new state, a second bar exam, three new jobs (Mr. MB-one, me-two), buying a house, paying off our cars, a big promotion (me), making lots of new friends, health issues, a miscarriage, and now we're almost at the end of a VERY happy, healthy pregnancy. Through it all, I wouldn't trade a day. Mr. Magnolia Bud is my best friend and the love of my life, and I can't imagine sharing my life with anyone else. I know our relationship will change in so many ways once we welcome Baby MB to our family in just a few weeks, but I also know my love for Mr. MB will only continue to grow as I see him grow into his new role as a dad.

Hitting A Wall

I really think we made the right decision to do our shower early. Seriously. The shower was at 28 weeks. I'm now at nearly 30 weeks and Holy Toledo am I feeling it. This past week every.single.day my feet and lower back ache something awful by days end. Its seriously so bad today that I'm about to walk our dog and then take a nice soothing shower. After that, quite possibly bed.

I'm pretty confident what I'm feeling is just normal 3rd Tri uncomfortableness. I'm not going to lie though, I've been struggling. The best I can do to explain how I'm feeling mentally is to compare it to running a race. There is often a point in a race where you hit a wall. Where you've come more than halfway, but still have a seemingly long way to go. Most often this wall happens somewhere around 3/4 of the way through the race. Ironically, I'm about 75% through my 40 weeks of this pregnancy. I'm amazed at how far I've come, but I have to be honest with you, mid-October seems really far away right now. I'll get through it though. This, too, shall pass.

Might as well do my 29 week update now...

How far along: 29 weeks and 5 days

Total weight change: I guess technically I need to stick with my +21 since I've been going with weigh ins at the doctors for my official tally. Unless the bloating/swelling has upped my weight more than I realize, I think I'm actually down a little from last week. Have I mentioned we ate like crud on our trip?

Maternity clothes: All.the.time. I'm starting to outgrow more things as well. Gotta love the strip of baby bump that sticks out of the bottom of at too small shirt, lol.

Stretch Marks: No new ones.

Movement: Generally he's pretty still during the day and is more active at night. Today was an exception to that rule. I think he's been making up for taking it easy during the warm weather we had earlier this week. He's been an active little bugger today. Started the day off with a bang by having a party in there at about 4am. I'd gotten up to go pee and he apparently took that as a sign that it was game on. Lots of BIG movements.

Sleep: Overall, this mornings wiggle fest being the exception, I've been doing alright this week. I've been having really vivid and strange dreams though. Not directly baby related, in fact the baby hasn't been in a single one, but more major life change related. Strange dreams...like about my husband being arrested by Mexican Police and me hiding underneath a bush to get away (As if I'd fit underneath a bush these days. Ha!).

Best Moment This Past Week: This mornings wigglefest.

Most Difficult Moment This Past Week: Evenings. My back and feet aching to the point that I just want to say uncle. Realizing there is still 2.5 months to go.

Belly Button In or Out: Still an inny.

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing

Symptoms: Tingly fingers, particularly on my right hand. Bloat, including the infamous cankles. Achiness of my feet and lower back, especially towards the end of the day.

What I'm Looking Forward To: October? Just kidding (sort of). In the short term I'm looking forward to the company we're having tomorrow. In the longer term I'm liking seeing the progress we've been making on the nursery. We're slowly checking off the things we need to have for his arrival, which is exciting.

Nothing Great

So I am doing a quick post.... more or less to say hey I am still here. I seriously can't wait for this move to be over with. There is so much going on that I haven't been able to focus on anything else. Well, I do try to, but it usually doesn't work.

Unfortunately, no update on my TTC progress as I will have to wait till we finally get to where we are going. The movers packed up our stuff today and will load it into a truck on Monday. Then we just have some more final things to finish here and then we hit the road the next Monday.

It's crazy everything that is going on... I'll just be glad once we get settled in to our home there and can focus on TTC and other things we need to think about again.

Hope all of you are doing well.

25 weeks - 99 days to go

Summer School is over!!!!!!!!!!!!  I only had 2 full weeks with out school activities before it started, so I haven't really felt like I've had much of a summer break yet.  I only have 3 full weeks off before school starts, and I'll be on vacation for one of those, so I have to squeeze in a lot before then!  I ended up enjoying summer school.  The kids are not the same ones we have during the year, but even in only 4 weeks, they really grew on me, and I think I grew on them.  Many of them asked about Baby TB, were excited (as excited as high schoolers get - excitement is generally not "cool") to hear that Baby TB is a boy.  They were not happy with our decision not to tell people the name (that we haven't chosen yet) until after he is born.  I told them they'd just have to come back and visit if they wanted to find out.  I hope they do anyway. 



Today, we officially hit double digits - 99 days until my due date of 11/11/11.  I can't believe we've come so far.  It seems like we still have so much left to do.  I haven't even looked at pediatricians yet, we haven't picked a car seat or stroller, so much to do - so little time.  I know we'll get it all done, it just seems daunting right now.




25 week update
Belly Measurement/Weight: Up 3 lbs at my last appt!  Finally! 

25w4d

Physical Progress: Getting rounder, and rounder. 

How I am feeling about my body: Pretty good.  I'm sore sometimes, but it amazes me how much my body can do.  It does feel some times like the skin on my belly is going to split open, but I just lather on more tummy butter, and hope for the best.   I am hotter than I feel like I've ever been.  The end of July was really hot, heat indexes above 100 multiple days.  The weather people keep comparing this to the summer of 1995 - which I have clear memories of as the summer that my family got air conditioning, and I got heat exhaustion.  When it is so hot and humid, I just can't be outside long, I am miserable. 

Energy Level: Better now that I can sleep in and take naps! 

Baby Movement: He's a wiggle worm!  Mr. TB has now felt him move several times.  Last night he was talking to Baby TB, and I felt the baby start to move in response, so I lay down so that he could really feel.  Baby TB was kicking up a storm!  Mr. TB gave me this surprised look and said "Is that him??  That's not your stomach muscles or something?"I assured him that was the baby he was feeling, and he marveled at how much stronger the kicks have gotten just in the last week. 

Birth Plan Highlights

As a bit of background, we are being seen for prenatal care at a freestanding birth center, and are planning to deliver there under the care of midwives. The biggest reason we chose the birth center was because we agree almost entirely with the midwifery model of care, and believe it's the best option for us as a family. The average stay is 6 hours post-birth, and the two interventions they strongly prefer patients have are antibiotics if GBS+ and the Vitamin K shot. (That said, they put a saline lock in the middle of the non-dominant forearm, give antibiotics, and unhook the bag from the lock so it doesn't interfere with labor as much as possible). We finally finished our birth plan last week. I wanted to share the highlights. If you'd like a full copy (it's probably too long!), drop me an e-mail. My contact info is in the sidebar...

Name/EDD
Introduction/thanking our birth center for prenatal care.
Relevant medical history/drug allergies (these are serious for me)
From there, it's broken into two parts--"Birth Center Requests" and "In Case of Hospital Transfer"

Birth Center Requests:

Dim lighting, quiet voices preferred;

Touch and guided relaxation are how I best relax;

Mr. Magnolia Bud would like to assist in catching the baby, announce the sex, and cut the umbilical cord;

Specific religious requests with Hebrew/English transliteration (I probably won't remember the prayers, so this is my reminder);

Tearing naturally is preferential to an episiotomy;

Refusal of eye ointment and heel stick for jaundice testing; and

Postponing PKU test until nurse comes to our house for post-birth home visit.

In Case of Hospital Transfer

Request to abide by birth center preferences when possible;

Skin-to-skin contact for a minimum of one hour;

All post-birth care to wait until baby has finished breastfeeding;

No pacifier, no bottles, no formula;

Discussion of drugs should be with father, midwife and/or doula, not mother directly unless a birth partner requests this;

Father to be present for all medical procedures on mother and/or baby, and to accompany baby anytime baby needs to leave mother's room;

Preference for laboring in "alternative" positions, no continuous fetal monitoring, eating and drinking freely, and no drugs (i.e. pitocin) following birth unless there's a medical emergency;

Induction preferences; and

C-section preferences (continual epidural for 24 hours, epidural over general if possible, at least one arm not strapped down, skin-to-skin immediately, no bath until breastfeeding has begun).

That's it! If I'm forgetting anything, please comment or email me. We're scheduled to go over the plan with one of the midwives next week at our 34 week appointment. It covers our biggest concerns/wishes, knowing that no matter what, we need to be flexible.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Catching Up

I thought I would bring you up to date with our embryo adoption. We had actually started the process last year before we adopted Baby Lucky Bud #2. We did some research and decided to use the National Embryo Donation Center(NEDC). There were a few main reasons why we chose the NEDC. One of them was because they were one of the few places that will let you persue a traditional adoption at the same time as embryo adoption. The cost was also less than other places. Also the program fee includes up to 3 transfers to achieve a pregnancy. We would have to pay some expenses for a second or third transfer, but just a fraction of the total cost.
Here are some of the basic steps to embryo adoption (there are some smaller steps in between)

1. homestudy...check
2. application with the NEDC...check
3. Blood work...check
4. Drive to Tennessee for a fertility work up from the Dr...check
5. Matching process for a donor
6. Travel to Tennessee for embryo transfer
Some of these steps we already had completed because we started this process before Baby Bud #2 was born, but then stopped the process when we were selected by his birthmother.

Right now we are in the process of being matched with a donor. There is a family and we have accepted them, and then they were given our profile, and likewise accepted us. Since it will be an open donation(meaning that some information will be shared) we are currently trying to agree on the terms of the open agreement. This has been going on for a week or so. We have agreed to give the donor family basic info from the transfer and birth, as well as updates and photos at least twice a year. (We are happy to do much more, but that is their minimum.)

Our minimum that we would like from them is to have a picture of them for any future child we might have(at the time that the child is born), as well as a letter to them from the donor family that describes their personalities, hobbies, interests, ect.

The donor family is not comfortable sharing a picture in fear that we will somehow track them down via the internet, and that their children will find out about the whole situation before they are ready to tell them. The photo and letter are very important for us to have for our children, so if they are not willing to do that, then we will probably start the whole matching process over. This would be very disappointing to me, so I really hope we can work it out.

At the moment, the donors are considering telling their children sooner, and then they would feel fine with us having the photo. Our social worker was sopposed to talk to them yesterday, and so I am anxiously awaiting her phone call today!

image credit

33 Week Update

How far along: 33 weeks, 1 day

Total weight change: +33 lbs as of last week. Oops. But at least it's continued to slow down!

Maternity clothes: All the time. I've actually found some maternity tanks that are a little too short. Boo!

Stretch Marks: No new ones since my last update.

Movement: All the time. Mostly rolls and waves now. It's really neat to be able to feel Baby Magnolia Bud if I push on my belly. S/He is head down, and his/her butt is what shifts. His/her feet stay pretty consistently lodged up in my right-side ribcage.

Sleep: Not terrible. Could definitely be better, but I'm sleeping except when it's interrupted by yet another pee break.

Best Moment This Past Week: Our big baby shower :) And then unpacking everything into the nursery--it's really starting to look like a baby could live there! Another best moment was on Monday (August 1)--when we both realized we're having this baby NEXT MONTH!!!

Most Difficult Moment This Past Week: Spending a weekend with both my mom and my in-laws at the same time and realizing yet again that we have VERY different parenting ideals and goals than my mom had/has with her kids. And realizing this is going to grate every time we see her.

Belly Button In or Out: In. Mr. MB still thinks it's hilarious that it's getting so shallow. Thankfully it hasn't gone flat yet!

Symptoms: Consistently swollen ankles on the days I don't get into the pool, and upper back pain on days I sit at my desk all day.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Our 4th wedding anniversary is on Friday (August 5)--we're going out for a nice dinner, and spending the weekend doing a mixture of fun "us" things (boating) and baby-related things (returning shower gifts, washing things). Also, my work is throwing me a baby shower tomorrow!

That's it for now! Have a great night!

Baby Shower!

This past weekend, Mr. Magnolia Bud's family threw us our "big" baby shower in Maryland. We drove up on Friday, and got back early Monday morning. As a summary, wow! His mom, grammy and sister-in-law really outdid themselves.

Here's a recap. About 40 people came--a pretty equal split between family, our/Mr. MB's friends, and MIL's friends. My mom flew in from Chicago, and one of my best girlfriends drove up from Virginia since she's not going to make our North Carolina shower in a few weeks. The decorations were adorable, the food was awesome, and the games were a lot of fun.

We ate wraps (turkey, roast beef & veggie), chicken salad, veggies, fruit (in the shape of a baby buggy), and other munchies. The cake was gorgeous and SO delicious. The non-pregnant guests drank peach sangria (quick recipe: 1 bottle white wine, 1/2 c. brandy, two airplane bottles of peach schnapps, a couple of diced/sugared peaches, and a diced apple; let sit until the flavors meld).

The gifts were overwhelmingly generous. We were gifted our bedding set, high chair, one of our carseats, two jumperoos, two bathtubs (with tons of matching bath supplies--washcloths, robes, hooded towels, bath products, bath toys), our floor mat, two handmade blankets, burp cloths, bibs, bottle supplies, books, stuffed animals (including a stuffed Bo--the white house dog), and loads of cash and gift cards. We definitely have enough in gift cards to buy our BOB now (and then some), which is SO exciting to both of us since we both run...or one of us does, and one of us used to before pregnancy.

Here are some pictures!

Travels with AF

I have been very lucky to be on vacation the majority of July and enjoying being able to focus less on no baby. I have finished reading Unsung Lullabyes which I would say is a must read to anyone going through infertility. I loved reading the whole book and I thought was great how it went over all the emotional side of each stage of infertility even the mental/emotional parts after you have a baby.

So as for vacation I have been working diliegently on my tan and would say I am successfully dark and relaxing and enjoying friends and family. I got to go visit my friend in California who just had her baby and was able to help out so she could get some much needed rest. It is always fun to hold a newborn and have them snuggle up to you, I think that is my favorite stage by far! Then I was able to go to a family reunion and hang out with the little cousins around the ages of 2 and 4 which was soo much fun to see them discovering things and getting soo excited about stuff, probably my next favorite stage.

Inbetween my trips AF arrived and hung around for about 5 days which was pretty average and it has been about 70 days or 10 weeks. So at least there seems to be some consistency of an average 3 month span between AF. We will have to see what the RE thinks at our first appointment this Thursday.