Week 8 vs Week 11

7.5 Weeks

It's amazing how much a baby grows in a week! I now have full blown morning sickness complete with throwing up, oh joy! I spent the entire day in bed yesterday and couldn't manage to keep anything down. I was given a script for Zofran at my doctors appointment this morning. I have also scheduled my first appointment with my ob for next week. I can't believe I am already into my 8th week already. Here is to hoping this whole morning sickness thing can subside and I can start to function like a normal person again!

6.5 weeks

My baby is the size of a blueberry, having grown 10,000 times bigger than it was at conception! AMAZING! The other amazing thing is that we saw and heard the heartbeat yesterday at our appointment. The heartbeat is already at 120, which we were told was pretty strong for 6.5 weeks, which puts this momma at ease. I am so excited every Monday because I get to see our baby!

Morning sickness has set in this past week. Although I was dealing with nausea @ night which was easy to just go to bed to feel better, I have started to not feel so hot in the morning! So I have saltines and preggie pops on hand (which the preggie pops helped the other night thank goodness!) I have tried to stop drinking anything past a certain time which has helped because I haven't gotten up to go to the bathroom the last few nights.

All in all, I am doing pretty well.

Love at First Sight!

See my little bean sprout on the left!

Somebody Pinch Me!

It's been 6 days since we found out we are expecting a little one and I still feel like I am living in a dream! I still can't believe after 5 years of trying, I am pregnant! Maybe it will be more real to me when I go in for my first ultrasound on Monday. I am in my fifth week and I am feeling good so far. The nausea really hasn't been present this week like last week, I have just been very very tired! The only restriction the doctor has me on is that I can't lift over 10 pounds which has been hard with the kids I watch but my sister has been very helpful with picking up the kids for me.

So excited to see my little peanut on Monday!

I'm Lucky #3

Some may say this is a little early to announce, however there are not that many people who keep up with my blog and I am too excited to keep it in and I know some of you are waiting to hear so.......here is my announcement, I am indeed pregnant!

Coincidence?

Totally Random but.....

So yesterday I found out that two friends are expecting their second child are due a day apart from each other....all while I am enduring my 2 week wait! aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Well, I find out in groups of three so here is to hoping I am lucky #3!

Just an update, I went in for blood work this morning and my numbers are looking good. Estrogen is about 1860 and progesterone was like 360 or something like that. The Dr. doesn't want me to do anymore HCG injections which is good because my hormones are doing their thing. I totally had this whole waiting thing under control and out of my head...until I got a call with my results and was told my Beta (pg test) would be Thursday....I thought I had until next Tuesday...so now of course I am thinking about it...I thought my girls weekend would be a good distraction to get me through the last few days but I guess I will have to occupy my mind some other way for 3 days. I am so not looking forward to the long wait on Thursday afternoon, last time it felt like an eternity!

I have been unusually tired the last few days, had a dizzy spell on Saturday, go from full to hungry in no time at all- I actually finished ALL of my dinner when we went out the other night which is totally unheard of! I even wanted Tacos & had them for breakfast this morning. But I am trying to not read into it all and get too excited, don't want to get my hopes up again.

So here is to lots of praying over the next 72 hours!

Blizzaster 2011

February brought us a whopping 20 inches of snow, the third worst blizzard in recorded history. I was left with 2 extra days in the house and I took full advantage of the extra time, I began a

project and tried to be productive but we all know how that goes.

Just a few side notes about the blizzaster 2011.

1. We had a piece of siding torn off of our house

2. I swear our patio door almost busted from how strong the wind was, it was flexing bad

3. I decided to venture out 3 hours before the projected start time, who knew that the weather men would be right and the storm even hit a few hours early, leaving me to drive home in a bit of it, FUN!

4. There were a ton of cars left stranded on LakeShore drive due to a bus that jackknifed. I would not have wanted to be one of the people stuck out there, scary! I heard a story of a husband who drove as far as he could to get to his wife on LSD, walked on foot when he couldn't get any farther and looked in every car window until he found his wife who was stranded because she was out of gas!

5. Our HOA shovelers informed us the next morning that we had a pile of snow on our front porch that reached well over the top of the door, taking him over an hour just to shovel it out!

6. An ambulance got stuck in the snow drift in our neighborhood, 2 plows almost got stuck trying to get them out

7. Closed area schools for 2 days, I can't remember the last time we had 2 snow days in a row!

Happy Valentines Day!

Wednesday Words of Wisdom

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."

D Day

Friday is the day! I am so excited but trying not to let myself get to excited and I am grateful for the strength the Lord has given me.

Round Two

I didn't blog about my first round of I.V.F and I wish I would have so I could look back on it. So now that I am starting round two, I wanted to document my thoughts. I am three days in on my shots and set for retrieval on Valentines Day. I am excited to try again but am a little nervous about being let down. Last round after learning we miscarried, it was very emotionally straining on me and I am a little nervous about going through it all again. I am trying to remain positive that this will be our lucky month and we will get our little bundle of joy!

$ome dolla$ $aved

Jewel has been having these deals lately where an item is $1.75 when you purchase 4. I have done 3 trips so far with coupons for the cereal. This weekend, I got 4 coupons for 2/$2 skippy, making it $1 a jar....not bad for food storage stock up considering a jar is normally around $3. So grand total spent this trip was $20.....total saved was $29...can you believe these 16 items would have cost me $50! I just love saving more than I spent!

Winter Blues

Today I have a very strong desire to put my house on the market and move somewhere warm! This cold weather gets to me every year and it seems to get worse each time. I think its time for a change!

Happy Tuesday!

This Year I Will Resolute to....

I heard on the radio that people are 85% more likely to follow through on a resolution if they write it down so here goes. Here are a few goals for 2011

1. Build a closer relationship to the Lord

2. Read my scriptures every day

3. Pray more

4. Become financially fit

5. Scrapbook more (digital)

6. Take more time for myself

7. Create more

I think that is a good place to start for now.

Struggles slow the Stride

Its a brand new year and with that comes a new church time. This year we meet from 1-4pm and I absolutely despise it! My Sunday afternoon bread making or nap or simply lounging around is completely cut out. 2 years ago when we had this time Dennis and I found ourselves sleeping until 11, getting ready for church and then heading out for the day. It makes Sundays feel so rushed and they go by so quickly. So to no avail, yesterday came and I really really didn't want to go to church. Like really really didn't want to go. I asked Dennis is we could just go for first hour and then come home. He said we will see.

So off to church we went and I was in a crabby mood. All I kept thinking was why do we have to go to church so late in the day and was really just there to be there so I could finish sacrament and go home.

After listening to the testimonies my attitude changed and I was reminded of why we go to church and why it is so important to go every week, spiritual strength to get us through the week.

I can say that I have been blessed to have a better perspective on things while going through the struggles that I have had over the last few years. Yes what I am going through really stinks but I have had the opportunity to learn so much and to grow so much spiritually. Through my struggles I have slowed things down and seen things that I would have otherwise passed by, the realization of things through talks with friends and the gratitude for others who take time out to make sure I am doing ok has forever touched my heart. While I know there is a reason for everything I am getting a little anxious as to the reason we haven't been blessed with children yet. Notice how I say, yet. I know we will have children one day as both of our patriarchal blessings say so. This has just been a test of Faith and my ability to trust that the Lord will provide.

I am reminded of a quote from a friend.....true strength is being able to hold it together when everyone expects you to fall apart. While I haven't completely fallen apart, I have continued to remain "pieced" together through the strength that the Lord has provided to me and wonderful friends he has placed in my life.

So as I start 2011 off on a good note, I am optimistic that this year will bring so many blessings to my life. I will try to remain positive in light of the negative and I will try to do better in staying closer to the Lord this year.

I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who carries my burdens when they are to hard to bare. I am thankful for the Gospel on Jesus Christ in my life and the opportunity that I have to live with it in my life. I am thankful for great friends and a loving and uplifting husband. I am thankful for opportunities to learn and grow. I am thankful that the struggles that I have endured has slowed by strides through life so that I could stop and see the true beauty around me. I have a testimony of the Gospel that God lives and loves us and is present in our daily lives and if we do all that we can do he will pour His blessings upon us. I know that if I continue to life worthily and faithfully, the Lord will provide all the desires of my heart in His time.

I say these things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Merry Christmas 2010

I am very happy to write this letter and get 2010 out of here! This last year was a bit of a challenge and wasn't really all to exciting. I guess I am just happy to get a fresh start in 2011 and make it the best year yet! So sit back and enjoy the ride as you read about the challenging year that we have had, I promise I will try to remain positive in light of all of the negative. I was able to get a way for a girls weekend in Galena Illinois in January. I had a wonderful time with my girlfriends shopping, getting pedis and having late night talks. The end of my trip however led to 5 months of pneumonia that 5 different meds couldn't seem to kick. I felt like I was sick for an eternity!

In April, I was informed that my position as Intervention Specialist was to be eliminated due to extreme budget cuts in our district. I had the opportunity to have various interviews but the Lord had better plans and brought me back to a thought I had had in the back of my mind for almost a year. The job market for teachers didn't look very promising so I decided to start my own business and open Little Orckids Preschool. Within a few weeks of this decision, I had a number of families signed up to start in the fall and I knew this was the path I was to take. I was excited to work from home and I must say I am still happy with this decision. In May, Dennis and I had the chance to go to our first ever Cubs game. Sad I know, we have lived in Chicago all our lives and we just now got around to seeing the Cubs play.

June brought much excitement and hopes that 2010 was going to become a better year. We started fertility treatments after 5 years of trying to start our family, Dennis was offered a job doing commercial pest control with Orkin and I started a summer job as a nanny. One of my all time favorite jobs for summertime. I had fun going to Chicago, getting into an accident in a cab, hanging out at the water park with friends, visiting Legoland, bowling, playing mini golf and relaxing. In July, I attended Girls Camp in Indiana for my third year. Our Stake picked a new camp site this year and it was great. I volunteered to take our Pathfinder and haul the trailer, a first experience of trailer driving for me.....it was a little scary at first but we made it there and home safely. My sister, her fiancée & my nephew moved in with us during this time. They relocated to Northern Illinois in hopes of finding a better life up here. It has been nice watching my nephew grow and sharing his firsts, like walking this past week!

August was a busy blur. The day after I returned from camp, Dennis & I went to a Bon Jovi concert at Solider Field This was the first time in our married life we have gone to a concert together and it was our first & only date night since June as Dennis has been extremely busy with work. Our seats were so high up, we had a great few of Navy Pier. Fast forward 2 days later to Sunday.....we attended the wedding of my cousin Anthony and his gorgeous bride, Elise. The ceremony was very nice and the reception was alot of fun.

The next morning I left to go spend a week with my cousins at my grandparents house. It was nice to just lay around and visit but I was happy to come home and sleep in my own bed, plus two weeks away from the hubby was starting to make me miss him. That next week, Little Orkids Preschool opened its doors to 7 anxious children. In barbeque business news, That's Barbeque was introduced to a slew of restaurants this summer and picked up by a few stores. Dennis has taken a lot of time to get the business to a great point this year an we look forward to its growth in 2011.

We celebrated 5 years together in September with sushi and a stroll around downtown Wheaton, started our first round on IVF in November that led to a miscarriage. We have plans in January to jump back on the IVF bandwagon and try again. We stayed local and spent Thanksgiving & Christmas with family. Although this year has brought many challenges to our family we have keep our faith in the Lord that he has a plan for us. It has been hard to come to the realization that its all in the His time. He has done a wonderful job in tuning my patience this year and I know even Miracles take a little time.

We look forward to a better & brighter 2011 and hope that is the year that our dreams come true.

Wishing you & yours a Merry Christmas & a Happy healthy New Year!

Happy Birthday Dennis

Last Tuesday we celebrated Dens birthday. We went to Maggianos for dinner with the family for dinner that night. Dennis wanted to make sure this years birthday wasn't forgotten as I had to call 911 the day before his birthday to have him rushed to the ER. He was woken up early in the morning to a noise. I went out to check on him because I heard a groan. I found him hunched over the kitchen sink. He was breathing but not responding to me. I laid him on the floor and tried to get his attention. His eyes were bulging and he was staring off into space. I kept saying Dennis are you ok? Finally I got a "I can't hear you" from him. I ran to grab my sister to help me. This was the scariest point in my life thus far and I don't want another one.....as I called 911 I was holding back to tears but my adrenaline was going so fast I found it hard to dial the numbers and even find the words to answer the dispatchers questions. The paramedics arrived within seconds of the call and we rode off to the hospital in the ambulance. Before I had gotten in the ambulance I called Dennis' mom to meet me at the hospital because I didn't want to face this alone.

It is about 4:45 am and we are getting settled in the room and in walks Dens entire family all worried about him. Needless to say the Dr said he just had a fainting spell also know as Syncope. They did an EKG & ran some blood work just to make sure all was well.

We walked out to the hospital at 6:15 with that diagnosis not a clue to why he passed out in the first place. Of course this left me freaking out for the next couple of days following this incident that something was wrong with him and this was going to happen again.

So for his birthday, I was just thankful that he is here with us still and it was nothing major.

Gingerbread Houses

Tonight we built gingerbread houses with Tonya & Gary. This was a first ever for me, I have never made a gingerbread house before and now I know why......the icing is horrible to maneuver. The nice little white blob in the front on the house would be from my bag of icing exploding so I decided to add candy and call it a patio.....over all it was a fun activity.