Since I'm (still) waiting for baby Savannah to come I figured I might as well use these last free moments to post the pictures from my baby shower. These are in no particular order, but here's some shots from the fun day!
The two women on the left are Hayley Hansen and Alyssa Cordell. They helped put the shower together!
David's sister Courtney made this amazing cake and mousse-filled cupcakes. So yummy!
Woops, I forgot to turn this picture right side up but you get the idea....lots of presents!
My good friend Virginia made these wonderful shirts for David, Savannah, and I about how Savannah is a true miracle. It was so thoughtful.
I am so grateful to all those who helped prepare, plan, and pull off this baby shower for me. It was so special to have so many wonderful friends there supporting me. I especially want to thank DeAnn Carlson, Heather Johnson, Courtney Howard, Alyssa Cordell, and Hayley Hansen who spent so much time and effort to make this day wonderful.
My amazing friend, Susannah, took the below picture of us at her baby shower for her little boy. I love this picture so I decided to share.
Weight gain so far: 17 lbs
Baby is down and ready to come out!
I've started to feel her have the hiccups. Unfortunately she only gets them at night when I'm trying to sleep.
Most women will never experience infertility personally. However, I’m sure that all of you have known someone who has experienced it. Maybe you wonder what to say to them or if it’s ok to ask questions? What about announcing your own pregnancy or bringing your own children to visits and lunches? How should you act around someone going through infertility?
Every woman who experiences infertility is different so I can only speak for myself. If I could give those around me four bits of advice concerning how to be sensitive to my situation it would be these:
1} Don’t give advice, especially if you’ve never experienced infertility yourself. David and I told very few people about our situation while we were experiencing it. This was mostly because I couldn’t handle all the advice thrown my way when people did find out what we were going through. I know everything said was said with love and was meant in the best way and I tried to take it as such but getting advice (i.e. take an ovulation test, make sure the timing is right, “maybe you’re doing it wrong”) just made me feel like those around me were implying it was my fault that I wasn’t pregnant.
2} Don’t ignore infertility. I was grateful when those who knew what we were going through asked us questions about it instead of trying to steer clear of the topic. When they asked questions I felt like they cared and really wanted to know how I was doing.
3} Getting pregnant doesn’t mean your struggles with infertility are over. While David and I now have a slightly higher chance of conceiving on our own, we still have to realistically face that it may not happen. We have to plan for insurance in case we need to do IVF again meaning I probably have to go back to work after I have this baby. We have to decide how long to try naturally before we try IVF again and we have to realize that our dreams of a large family are probably not going to happen. I am so grateful for the one the Lord has given us, but I still cried when I recognized that getting pregnant didn’t mean this was over.
4} Love your children. In our society it seems like it has become common place, or even expected, for mothers and fathers to talk about how horrible their child is or how bad parenting can be. How many times was I told by parents, “Well, you can have my kids if you want them.” I know parenting is hard and I’m sure sometimes I’ll fall into the pattern of bemoaning being up all night or not showering for days but I really hope that the majority of the time when I talk about my child I mention the good things and not the bad.
“Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts….” 2 Nephi 18:18
Where do babies come from? It’s the question every parent expects to hear one day and the question we all hope we never have to answer. Unless, of course, you’re like David and I. We look forward to the day when our child inevitably asks where she came from and we can explain to her the story of her conception. We will tell her how Heavenly Father answers prayers and how He provides blessings during trials. We will describe how much we wanted her and how lucky we feel to have her in our family.
Where do babies come from? For us, they come from a multitude of prayers, years of waiting, lots of medication, even some laughter, and, of course, a great insurance policy.
BEFORE:
Lots o' Needles
AFTER:
30 Weeks Along (I look way tired in this picture...probably because I was)
Weight gained so far: 9 lbs
I had my first craving last week: jalapenos
Baby is moving around a lot and waking mommy up early in the morning.
We had a doctor's appointment last week and was told she is a "bum shaker" (just like her cousin Mabel).
“And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?” (Alma 26:2)
The two weeks between the embryo transfer and our pregnancy test were some of the longest of my life. We were hoping for the best but in the back of our minds expecting the worst. I didn't want to get me hopes up.
When two weeks had (finally) past, we went to our clinic for a blood pregnancy test. Due to the types and amount of drugs you have in your system from IVF you need to have three separate blood pregnancy tests performed to insure you are pregnant and not just “drugged up.”
While signing in at our clinic we were told they had just gotten a new computer system that morning. We didn’t think much of this and completed our blood test and went home. We were told our results would be sent to our IVF clinic and they would be in-touch with us around four that afternoon.
By four-thirty we still hadn’t received a call. I called our IVF nurse but she had already left for the day. David called the on-call nurse at our clinic to see if they could tell us our results. Both of us couldn’t believe it when we learned that, because of the new computer system installed that morning, our results had been lost and we would need to wait until the morning to find out if we were pregnant or not. Oh no, you did not just tell me you lost my pregnancy test results! I could have screamed…ok, so I did scream. I was so entirely frustrated.
Finally, our IVF nurse called us back and told us to go ahead and take an at-home pregnancy test just so we didn’t go crazy. We knew the results wouldn’t be definitive but she told us they would give us some indication (i.e. if the test was negative we almost certainly were not pregnant).
I went upstairs and took a pregnancy test just waiting for only one line to show up. And then there were two lines. I couldn’t believe it. I slowly walked downstairs and told David the test was positive. We both broke down sobbing. We held each other for a long time and I remember whispering repeatedly, “Please let this be real, please let this be real.” We cried and we laughed and we called our parents to let them know. The next day we received the news that, yes, our blood pregnancy test had come back as a definite positive. We were pregnant.
“And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?” (Alma 26:2)
I included the song below because of the last verse. It reminds me so much of the night we found out we were pregnant.
{God often grants us the most tender of mercies in the midst of our darkest trials; the difficulty is to notice the light in the darkness.}
“The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works (Psalms 145:9).”
After my egg extraction, I was put on progesterone shots for a month. These shots help your body prepare for and maintain a pregnancy. The progesterone shot was extremely scary for both David and I for several reasons. First, the medication was in oil form causing it to take longer to move from the syringe into my body. This also caused large pockets of hard, painful spots under my skin where each shot had been given. Additionally, the needle was much bigger. Finally, the most worrisome thing about the progesterone shot was that it had to be intramuscular, meaning not only under the skin but in the muscle as well. Because of this, David had to give the shot to me correctly. If he didn’t there were a lot of things that could go wrong.
When David asked one of our nurses for help in finding the right spot to give me these shots she laughed. She grabbed a permanent marker and told me to pull down my pants. Then she drew two circles on my rear end with the permanent marker, showing David exactly where to give me my shots. David and I laughed so hard to have me walking around drawn all over with a permanent marker. It definitely helped ease the tension of having to take my shots.
Still, when it came time to take the first progesterone shot we were both scared. David suggested we say a prayer beforehand and I agreed. He prayed that the Lord would help him give me the shot, that his hand would be steady, that he would do it right, and that it wouldn’t hurt me too badly. Then he gave me the shot. I was surprised at how easily it went it and that I didn’t feel much pain. I turned to David afterward and told him he had done a great job. He looked at me funny and said, “I felt like someone was guiding my hand as I put the needle in. That wasn’t me who gave you that shot.” We were both in awe and felt such gratitude that the Lord had guided David’s hand and helped him with that first shot.
