One Healthy Baby! 8-31-10

Finally the ultra sound day arrived after the longest two weeks (since waiting for the pregnancy test). Brett and Christine went with me and there was one baby with one strong little heart beat! Today I am officially 7 weeks making the due date April 19th. One more ultra sound with Dr. Kristiansen in two weeks and then I move on to Dr. Kirkman.

First Bout of Sickness 8-29-10

Well I thought I was getting off easy with no signs of queasiness or morning sickness yet. Saturday night Brett and I went with Amy and Scott to Mockingbird Bistro in Midtown for Restaurant Week. It was wonderful, and I ordered the onion soup, diver scallops (cooked well done), and dessert sampler. Everything was great, but about half way through the scallops, something just didn't seem right. I knew something was wrong when I couldn't eat the dessert (bread pudding, creme brulee, and a chocolate truffle). Then, the feeling came and there was no going back. I headed to the bathroom, and I don't think I've ever thrown up that much in my life! It was definitely the scallops, and just the thought of them makes me nauseous to even think about. Looks like I need to start being careful about what I order from now on!

First Day of School! 8-23-10

We were up bright and early for Lili's first day of 2nd grade! Aspen wanted to ride the bus with all of her friends which was fine with us of course. Here are a few pics from Lili's first day!

HCG is good, whew... 8-18-10

I got almost as nervous as Monday to get my blood work back today...I think I am going to stay stressed throughout this the entire pregnancy! Anyway, Monday's HCG was 89 and today's was 255, so I definitely hit the double mark which was what they were looking for. The nurse told me I am 5 weeks pregnant...sounds great since the baby was only "conceived" 3 weeks ago...I got a free 2 weeks! My ultra sound is now scheduled for 2 weeks from today when we will find out how many babies there are!

The only bad news is that my doctor thinks I should go to injected prometrium if I can take it. That means we get to head in at 9am tomorrow morning for Brett to learn how to give me a intramuscular injection in the hiney so he can start doing it every day...ouch!

Happy Happy Anniversary! 8-16-10

Brett and I went in to the doctor's office at 9am for my blood test (thinking we would get immediate results since we were paying the $50 fee for immediate results). Turns out it takes about 3 hours before they would call us back. I worked from home and Brett went into the office. I wanted to be at home in case I got bad news and got upset. At 1pm, I finally gave up waiting and called the doctor's office. Results in and positive! It turned out to be a wonderful 2 year Anniversary!! Next step, another blood test on Wednesday to confirm that my hcg has doubled and then 1.5-2 weeks from then an ultra sound to determine how many babies and possibly get a heart beat!

I had to cheat 8-14-10

Well, despite my plan to wait until the blood test for my results, I bought a early detecting home pregnancy test Friday night. I waited until first thing Saturday morning since it says your hcg is strongest in the morning. Test came back positive! Of course, it was light which made my question it as well as the fact that there still is the small possibility that it could be a false positive since I took hcg shots before the egg retrieval. The test definitely raised my spirits and hopes for Monday's test though!

Bad News 8-4-10

I called the doctor's office this afternoon and it turns out that the two embryos that we did not put in stopped growing Monday afternoon. I'm praying that I was the thing the ones we put in were needing and that maybe one of them made it...will have to wait until the 16th to find out.

Embryo Transfer Date 8-2-10

We did not receive the news that we were expecting when we went in for the transfer this morning. Dr. Kristiansen. All six of our fertilized embryos were still alive, but all of them grew a lot slower than she had hoped. On a scale from one to four with one being the best, all of our embryos were fours. The reason...unknown...all of the eggs and sperm looked good prior too fertilization. The doctor recommended putting in four, so that is what we did. Hmm..went in thinking no more and two and left with four. The two embryos that we did not put in are not good enough quality to freeze today, so we will have to watch them for the next day or two and see if they grow enough to be frozen. We'll have to wait two weeks (which falls on our two year anniversary 8-16-08) to take a blood pregnancy test and find out what happened. I may have to cheat after a week.

Milwaukee for Karen & Paul's Wedding 7-30-10 to 8-1-10

After a day in Chicago on Friday, we headed up the coast to Brown Deer, Milwaukee for Karen and Paul's Wedding. As we pulled up to the Four Points Sheraton, I realized that it was the exact same hotel I had stayed in about three years prior for a work trip to see the Desert Aire factory....small world. Mom brought some new drink recipes she got from her friend who recently went to Africa..so we partook!

Saturday we got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel with Farmor, Eirik, Ana Marie, Carl, Rolf, and Pat. We decided to drive around and try to find the closest beach on Lake Michigan to see how cold the water was. It only took about ten minutes to find public access to the beach. On our walk down in addition too all of the beautiful trees and flowers, we saw baby chipmunks, baby squirrels, and several rabbits. After the steep walk, we made it to the beach. It was beautiful, and it makes it hard to believe that is is actually a lake and not the ocean with all of the sandy beach, waves, and water as far as you can see. The water was chilly, but after you walk around in it for awhile, it's not too bad. Mom and I collected pretty rocks. There are millions of beautiful polished rocks all along the shore in place of sea shells. They were all different colors and sizes. We took a cup full home to give the girls.

Next we headed to Cedarburg which is a historic town with dining and shopping about twenty minutes from Brown Deer. We went in to several antique and gift stores and then found a bakery and got some bread and a chocolate cheesecake bar. The guy working gave us a recommendation for a good bar, so we walked over for a beer and to eat our food. The brewery was called Silver Creek Brewery. It was really neat. As we walked up there were about fifteen ducks including one cute baby. The seating was mostly outdoors with a waterfall in the creek right next to us. It must have been some sort of old mill, because as you walked in there were more small waterfalls running under the walkway into the brewery. We tried some good beers and ignored the signs and fed the ducks. Next we went to the Cedar Creek Winery and sampled all of their wines and hit a few more gift shops. We all bought some which ends up a lot more expensive since it meant shipping it for my parents and paying to check a bag for us. The wine was definitely worth it though!

The Wedding took place at the Schlitz Audobon Nature Center which was only a few minutes from the hotel and from the beach that we visited earlier in the day. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and an equally as impressive reception afterward inside the nature city. Karen looked beautiful, and Paul looked great as well. Everyone had a blast at the reception...especially Brett who probably danced more than he has in his entire life!

Chicago 7-30-10

Brett and I flew into Chicago Friday right before lunch time and rented a car to head downtown. We met my parents and headed to a nice lunch outdoors right on the river. Next we went on an hour and a half boat ride that took us through the city on the river and also through the lock and out into Lake Michigan. Chicago is a beautiful city, and the skyline is huge and amazing! We learned a lot about the history and architecture on the boat tour, and I would definitely recommend taking one to anyone heading to Chicago. We walked and saw the big silver "bean" next and then hit up the 12 floor Macy's for a little shopping. We hiked from there to eat pizza at the restaurant that my parent's concierge said was the best pizza in the city. We got there early and still had to wait and people kept piling in for waits well over an hour. We ate outside and the pizza definitely lived up to its reputation and was wonderful! Next we headed back to the casr and headed up the coast toward Brown Deer for Karen and Paul's Wedding Weekend!

Egg Retrieval 7-28-10

I went in starving for my egg retrieval. There was some waiting, but once I went back and changed into my surgery garb, the procedure didn't take too long. I went from my gurney to the surgery table and then the next thing I knew I was waking up back on the gurney in the recovery room. I had some cramping at first, but after resting there for awhile, it was much less than before. I got wheeled out to the car, and then Brett and I picked up some soups and a sandwich from the Tea Room on our way home. We ate and got our first pay per view movie for the day, Up in the Air. Next, both Brett and I passed out and slept a few hours. When I woke up, I felt terrible and figured it was more cramping from the surgery. I got up to go to the restroom, sat down, and then the next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor with my pants at my ankles. I called for Brett and was really freaked out. The rest of the day I got worse, and I started to think that I got OHSS (over hyperstimulation syndrome) after I started to google my symptoms. After two more pay per views, (Hot Tub Time Machine and Men Who Stare at Goats) I went to bed with my heating pad and waited for the morning so that I could call the doctor's office. Luckily, the next morning I felt slightly better, and my nurse told me that if I felt better at all, then I did not have OHSS. I stayed home for another day of rest.

Surfside Beach 7-21-10 to 7-25-10

We headed down to Surfside Wednesday morning with the girls to meet James, Lori, Maverick, and Macoy for vacation through Sunday. We stayed in a great house which was the third house back from the water with a little bridge over the sand dunes making it very easy to get to the beach with all of our stuff. We brought tons of food and cooked two nights and went out to eat two nights. We headed into Galveston the second night there for a little shopping and dinner right on the water. We hit the beach every day and Brett, James, Aspen, and Maverick went fishing on our boat several times and caught a bunch of different fish. On one trip, they saw a bunch of sea turtles and porpoises. It was a great week with beach time, good food, and lots of games. Everyone had a blast, and I hope it is the first of many vacations with both of our families!