The Unexpectedly Unexpectant Mommy

Oh, my sweet boy! Where do I begin? Entering into my 26th week of pregnancy & baby boy is growing fast! He is really starting to roll around & has started interacting when you poke my belly. He's not afraid to kick or punch back. I had my ultrasound to recheck his heart & he was given the all clear. All four chambers of his heart were looking amazing & he's caught up to where he needs to be. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am feeling that he is healthy. We are looking at March 1st, 2018 as his birthday and my OB has made me feel very comfortable with having a repeat C-section. This pregnancy has been FAR from anything that I experienced with Penelope. My pregnancy with Penelope started out with 5 minutes of morning sickness as soon as I woke up from weeks 6-10. I had insomnia, but even then, I didn't feel too horrible or tired. I had food adversions during the first trimester, but those left as quick as they came. I didn't get head

I am really excited about this post! I am in my 23rd week of pregnancy and can't believe that we have only 17 weeks to go until we hold our son. Giovanni and I have finally agreed on a name for our son, but we wont be announcing it until he's born. Just a little hint though.... When we ask Penelope what her brother's name is she replies with, "Chicken".  My belly is starting to really poke out and Little Man is starting to show his moves! I worried about whether or not he was growing properly, but according to my OB second pregnancies can take longer to feel the baby finally move. I could feel and watch Penelope roll around by 14-15 weeks. I finally saw him move and really feel him move as of last week. So far I've had an ultrasound at almost every appointment to make sure that he is growing properly and that we don't have any life threatening issues. I found out that I have placenta previa. My OB isn't very concerned due to the fact that I'

I don't even know where to start with this post. I have started and stopped this post a number of times as I couldn't find the words to write. This year has been hands down the hardest for not only me, but for my entire family. I feel like 2017 has been our year of loss. My best friend passed away in January of this year. I still find it a rather suspicious passing, but I wont get into details with that. I met her when I was 12 and we instantly clicked. We were inseparable and our family were friends. You didn't see Kristin without seeing me in the mix as well. We stayed in constant contact when I moved away in 2004 and when I came out of the Air Force I immediately moved back to Alabama to be with her and my childhood boyfriend, who happened to be her cousin. During my brief stay there she got married and I was the one who bought her the pregnancy test that came out positive. Unfortunately she had a miscarriage, but she knew I was right there with her. We had a sill

I have been thinking about how I was going to start this post, but I don't think there is anything to do except to dive in. I had my first blood work drawn since our transfer of our two embryos on Monday. My doctor was awesome and called me so excited to tell me that they were looking for my numbers to be around 20-25 and they were 59.5! Excellent! It was a great start. I did cheat though. I was taking pregnancy tests to make sure my HCG trigger shot was out of my system that way if I received two lines, I knew I was pregnant. Low and behold, I got my first set of pink lines on Saturday June 24, 2017. Giovanni could not keep his mouth closed. At all. He was telling anyone and everyone that would look at him that I was pregnant. Seriously? I haven't had much of an appetite lately, but that is pretty normal for me during pregnancy to begin with and I have been sleepy after I eat. This next part is what has me on edge. I went back today (Wednesday June 28, 2017) and had my

I was pretty bummed after our retrieval due to only having 6 eggs and my doctor not being very optimistic. I was in a TON of pain. . . emotionally and physically. I began to ask myself, "Why?" Why did my body respond so well to the stimulants, yet only ended up with 6 eggs? Why did I think that this process was going to go so smoothly and it didn't at all? I found the graphic above and it spoke to me. Let It Go. Elsa style. HA! I have to remind myself that my body DOES know what it's doing. It's capable of carrying a child. Hello? Earth to Jes... It's done it before! Created our beautiful little Penelope Adaline. The next morning I received the call that I had been waiting for. 6 eggs were retrieved. 6 were MATURE! ALL SIX FERTILIZED! I can't begin to tell you the relief that I had when I was told that all made it to fertilization. Huge step!  Now we just had to keep our fingers crossed that all 6 made it to day 3 (Saturday) when I would be getting m

I didn't update on Monday like planned, but it's been a whirlwind of emotions. I went into my appointment on Monday and had my follicles checked up on. Thankfully the number went from 37 to 30 and my doctor was more than thrilled. having PCOS and so many follicles put me at a greater chance for OHSS. I had my estrogen level checked and was told to wait by the phone because it could be the day for trigger! I was so happy when my favorite nurse called and told me to take my trigger at 8:30 and that egg retrieval would be Wednesday!!! I have been waiting anxiously for this whole process to come! Next was trying to find someone that would be willing to give me my intramuscular HCG injection that is done on the butt cheek. If you know my husband, then you know that he is the type of person that needs a lollipop and TWO stickers when he has to get his blood drawn. He gets weak behind the knees even if I even describe something that might be gnarly. My best friend Justine is a bart

Today was my follicle count since starting Follistim, Menopur, and Ganirelix on June 4th. I had really bad pressure migraines for the first few days, but once I upped my water intake I was good to go. The Menopur is what really hit me hard. The Menopur causes me to have insomnia worse than I had with my pregnancy with Penelope. I feel as though I'm hooked up to a Red Bull IV drip. I get the jitters and it seems as though I bloat more the day after Menopur injections. I happened to hit two tiny blood vessels in my stomach and so I bruised more than normal. That was tons of fun. I went to my doctor appointment this morning for more blood work and an ultrasound. My body was super reactive to the stimulants to the point where my specialist lessened my doses and even cut me off two days early. I had 37 (20 on my right, 17 on my left) follicles that they are almost positive will be up to at least a 15 on Monday when I go in for another follicle sizing and blood work.  I had size

Oh my, I have been slacking in updating lately, but things were pretty uneventful as we waited for June 2nd to roll around! I have been keeping occupied by reading other bloggers' journeys and have joined a couple of IVF support groups. I have been wanting to completely prepare myself for everything that could come. . . The good, the bad, and the worst possible scenarios. There have been the most amazing stories and the saddest of stories. It's part of reality & I would hate to only think that there are positive outcomes and be one of the unsuccessful stories. Speaking of bloggers, GUYS! You have got to go read one of my FAVORITE Bloggers ever! I discovered Kate and her husband Gannon right after they found out they were pregnant from this last round of IVF. They are so flipping cute and just like us, have had challenges while trying to have a baby. They have also had great loss in their journey and I love and respect that she was willing to share it. I have read thr

They're here!!! I can't believe that they are officially here! I am so excited for this post! After my ultrasound (last post) I was so excited that I received my protocol & set up another appointment for my saline ultrasound! I also have my saline ultrasound to check my uterus on the 9th. It's a super easy ultrasound to check for any abnormalities in the uterus by filling it with saline. I'm finishing out the birth control until the 29th & should receive the dreaded period around the 1st or 2nd of June. I have my baseline ultrasound and baseline blood work on June 2. The ultrasound is just to check the ovaries to make sure that there arent any follicles that could possibly disrupt the process altogether by already being bigger than normal. This is important for us because of my last follicle count being so high & being diagnosed with PCOS. We will be keeping our fingers crossed that we wont be dealing with any cysts with the meds. This can derail every

On Monday I received a call from my specialist's office asking if I would be available to come into his office for an ultrasound for a follicle count. I wasn't expecting an ultrasound so quick in the game, but I was nonetheless excited. One step closer to having another little baby(ies) in our arms. I couldn't sleep at all. I specifically stayed home from the gym Monday night so that I would be able to get to bed early. 6:30 AM rolls around EARLY for a mom when her child sleeps in until 10:30 every morning. I finally fell asleep around 3:30 AM Tuesday morning & was almost positive that I was dying from exhaustion. Having to wake up Penelope at 7:30 AM was a chore in itself, but we prevailed and she had an excellent time snoozing at her godmother's house and watching Finding Dory in nothing, but a diaper. Auntie for the win! As always, I was super early to my appointment and stayed in my car trying not to throw up from the nerves for almost an hour. I started repla

Blog Day! I have been looking forward to this all week long!!  It has started to set in that we are really about to do IVF. With that being said, I started doing research about IVF & quickly became overwhelmed. The meds, the syringes, the needles, the organizing of it, the timing charts, etc. I found comfort in Pinterest when I found an easy and inexpensive way of organizing the insane amount of items that would be cluttering my bathroom in the near future. . .  I never knew the extent of IVF. I knew the ins and outs of IUI and what work went into it, but I think I knew and researched that because I had the "we wont need IVF" mentality. If I would have known then, what I know now I think I wouldn't be so overwhelmed. I quickly became overwhelmed and could only think of how much it was going to cost. The possible numbers were going on over and over and over in my head and I couldn't break the feeling that IVF was just going to be out of our reach. Those jit

Where does the time go? How are we at the point where my daughter is about to turn two? That's right. Penelope Adaline is turning two in July. So many things are happening right now. Giovanni left his last job and is currently with one of the largest banks in the nation. It's been a huge transition for all of us. I am still a stay at home mother and I absolutely love it. I am now a LulaRoe consultant & have found my little place in the world once again. Working hard & showing Penelope what a #bossmom is has been wonderful. You can check out my inventory  here . Let's get to Penelope & her accomplishes: 1. Penelope had her first birthday party. Poor kid was sicker than a dog & we ended up having to take her to the ER on her birthday, but dammit. . . we made it! 2. Penelope then decided that age one is a wonderful age to learn to climb. She decided to climb out of her crib and received her first broken bone. 3. She learned how to walk just two