Hi!! I am so sorry for the crazy long hiatus that happened unexpectedly. It has been about two years since I have updated my blog. These past years have been an emotional rollercoaster. The rest of 2019 was all about preparing my body for a transfer that was planned for November 6th. With prayers and science, the transfer happened and we were pregnant and expecting our little peanut. The heart beat and all this time!!! We announced to our parents on Christmas Day. On January 18th, we took a quick one day trip to “Our Happiest Place” on Earth, Disney to take a photo announcing the news. We have been dreaming to take this photo for 7 years, it was incredible to think that we were getting the opportunity to finally do it. We announced it to our brothers and close family on Sunday, January 19th and made a post on January 20th. It seemed unreal!

We were finalizing our gender reveal party for March and beginning the preparations for the baby shower. The week before our gender reveal, the world closed. As you can imagine we were a bit worried of the unknown, but we still wanted to enjoy this blessing. So we had a virtual gender reveal! We announced we were expecting a girl!!! Albert and I knew, funny story about that, however, the rest of our family and friends weren’t aware of what we were having. It was so much fun to share it with everyone!

Our baby shower ended up being a drive-by baby shower, it was so much fun! The count down began to when we would meet our Peanut!

Due to my health conditions the doctor recommended an induction at 39 weeks, that is going to have it’s own post coming soon. I went to the hospital on July 20th for the induction and Peanut was born July 23rd.

Today, she is 9 months old, 39 weeks! This week is also National Infertility Week! I woke up today and said it is time to get to writing again. Everyone’s infertility journey is so different and unique to them. However, most of us feel alone. My mom would always tell me, “this is more common than you realize, and there is nothing to be ashamed about”. She is right!

I will be posting soon to bring the blog up to date. I appreciate you stopping by.

We had the appointment with the nutritionist to see if I could be cleared to start planning our second transfer hopefully in May or so I thought. The nutritionist begins by introducing herself and then quickly moved on to the results, which indicated that it wasn’t going to be that simple and there are a few things that need to be corrected in order to be cleared. Here are the results: I have two copies (one from each parent) of the Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR for short), low total glutathione, high levels of absolute eosinophils, and low levels of vitamin D. As you can imagine, I was in shock to hear about the imbalances I had. Due to these results and concerns, I have been placed on an anti-inflammatory diet and on several supplements. The nutritionist also stated that is going to need to be a life changing event and I would have to continue under her care prior, during, and post pregnancy because these levels can fluctuate.

Now, I can totally follow a diet, however, this diet is VERY complex and time-consuming in regards to prep time. If you know me very well, you know that bread is MY LIFE and I cannot live without it, BUT… there is NOT one carb on this diet, NO wraps, NO wheat sliced bread, NOTHING. I had a very hard time accepting this change, so prior to starting the diet I consumed a twin pack of 16 Hawaiian Bread in a span of three days. I kid you not, feel free to ask my husband, parents, and friends. I also drank wine and Diet Coke for the whole weekend straight. In total, I think I gained like 10 pounds. I had blood work for the natural killer (NK) cell test that following Monday and I was very dehydrated that my blood was not flowing.

On Monday, April 15th the diet started in full swing. I am hoping that in 2 months we will be ready for our second transfer.  So far the food is not terrible, it is definitely different from what I am used to eating, the food does not have much flavor since it is low on sodium. A benefit of this is that I wanted to lose some weight and this is definitely going to help me with that. Wish me luck!

After living in our townhome for what will be 10 years this September, I am finally in love with my patio. It still needs work in some areas but finally it the little oasis I envisioned it to be.

Patio furniture: Target

Garden stools: HomeGoods

Cement Bunnies: HomeGoods

Planters: Life Style Co

Over the past few weeks I have been feeling so defeated with insurance issues, the doctor’s front desk scripted responses, and having to pay even more money. I know life isn’t easy but sometimes I wish it say a bit more compassionate.

In order news, we finally scheduled our chromosome analysis tests and had the blood test drawn on February 15th. We will have our follow up appointment with the doctor to discuss the findings and our next steps on March 5th. Let the waiting continue.

The miscarriage was harder than I ever thought, it occurred January 19th around 1:30 pm. I tried to mentally prepare for it, however, it was not enough. I am still dealing with the loss, the fact that our baby isn’t happening right now, and trying to maintain positive for the next steps. It was very hard to reorganize our home and turn the nursery back into the office. The hardest thing is when my husband said that he prefers leaving the room as a waiting nursery than as his office.

I know we will get through this.

It was January 15th!!!!!!! I was nervous and excited to see how our baby was doing. It was the day we were going to see the baby and possibly hear the heartbeat. I have calculated using some websites and we were approximately 7 weeks and 3 days and making the due date August 31st, 2019. According to The Bump app, our baby is the size of a blueberry this week. 2:30 rolled around and we were at the office, the doctor was running late, but it was perfectly fine. Once the doctor arrived, they placed us in the room for the ultrasound, the doctor walked into the office to begin.

As you can imagine, we were all excited and she congratulated us on our pregnancy. She began the ultrasound. I do not think I was breathing out of excitement. Once the monitor unfroze, she said, “Something does not seem right”. As you can imagine my heart sank when I heard these words. She then continued with, “The baby seems smaller than it should be”. She measures it and says, “It seems as though the baby stop growing last week (week 6)”. I did not know what to say or how to take it, the only words I could say were, “Maybe we calculated it wrong.” My husband reacted quicker to the news than I did. The moment she discontinued the ultrasound, we started to explain the miscarriage processes to us and turned on the lights. That is when the news really hit me and I placed my face into the palms of my hands. All of a sudden, I flashed back to the movie UP when Ellie and Carl were at the doctor visit, which I then looked at my husband and said, “Sometimes I feel like our life is just like the movie UP”. The doctor continued to give us the instructions, such as discontinuing all hormone treatment, and what our next steps are, such as blood test that we should get done. It just happens that we had one last test we have not had done, a chromosome analysis.

Now we have to wait for the miscarriage to start and begin to heal from this loss.

On January 7th I received a call in regards to the thyroid levels and they were high. Of course, I googled what causes an increase in thyroid levels and the effects on pregnancy. I immediately freaked out! I missed the call from the doctor’s office, therefore, I sent an email to the office since it was after hours. The next morning, I waited for them to get back to me. The nurse informed me that she sent the prescription and the pharmacy stated I would be able to get the medication in the afternoon. The pharmacist informed me that I was to begin taking it in the morning on an empty stomach and my prenatal vitamin was to now be taken in the afternoon. Therefore, I took the medication as instructed starting on January 9th. My other medications remained the same, including the dosage of my hormones. I was to come back on January 29th for another blood test to make sure that the medication was being effective.

Finally, December 24th was approaching. On December 23rd, we received a call about our appointment, it was canceled. The doctor’s office called on the 23rd canceling our appointment and asked us to call back on the 24th to reschedule it since the office will be open. I found that super strange that they would call and cancel our appointment, yet ask us to call on the 24th to reschedule. On December 24th my husband and I decided to show up and see what happens. When we got there they drew my blood and said that they may not get the results for a couple of days. At 2:02 pm, I received a call from “No Caller”. I usually screen my calls and had an internal battle of whether or not to answer. I decided to go ahead and answer and I was so happy I did. It was the call we were waiting for our beta test came back positive. WE ARE PREGNANT!!!! We were very excited, yet very scared because we had received this news in the past. The nurse asked us to go back on December 26th for another test to make sure my levels were doubling.

On December 26th, we went back and received a call around 2:30 stating that my levels were now at 196. We are so happy so see that everything was going well. We were instructed to come back on December 28th for our final beta test. On December 28th we went back and my levels were 455. At this appointment, they also drew blood to test my thyroid levels.  We were so happy to hear this news and it was hard to believe that this was happening to us.

Next step the ultrasound in two weeks, they did not have an appointment on January 11th. Our appointment was January 15th at 2:30!!

Cravings so far have been: banana chips, empanadas, burgers (especially from Shake Shack), and Shake Shack Cookies And Cream shakes.

Food aversion has been chicken.

Finally transfer day was here, December 13th. I was surprisingly calm during the whole morning, I even decided to clean the whole house so I won’t have to worry about it. The transfer occurred at 12:15 pm and they had me come in with a full bladder. I actually over filled mine and had to go empty it out a bit. The whole transfer went by fairly quickly and we were provided a photo of our embryo at the end. I was to be on mandatory bed rest for the next 48 hours.

I did feel a bit of cramping and discomfort on the left side, however, it was manageable. Everything seemed to be going well, now the 10 day wait to see if it worked!

Today was Day 1 of my Progesterone oil injection. I was so terrified, I was on the edge. I warmed up the oil with my hands for a few minutes prior to extracting the oil from the vile, attached the extracting needle, 22 gauge. Funny story, I thought that was the needle I was supposed to use to inject myself, thank goodness that I clarified it with my Doctor’s office because that needle is HUGE. I continued the preparation process by switching the needle to the injection one which is an 18 gauge (much better) for the injection. My husband and I had a pretend test run yesterday morning to make both of us feel a bit more comfortable with this entire process, that is now part of our morning routine. We decided that laying down on the bed would be easier for us. So I moved all the materials required to the bed and there it went. I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it. We both were waking up last night from our anxiety. I applied all the advice that I had received from fellow IVF warriors and nurses. I fell like the after effects, slight discomfort, is worse than the actual processes of the injection. I am proud to say is that my husband is a trooper. Although we were both very anxious He did a great job. Day 1 is done! We are one step closer to our miracle.