Back to blogging the basics

Blogging feels like so much pressure to me, which I know isn't the way it's supposed to be. It's like "blah-ging". Especially if I'm going to blog about my family life, I just need to keep it to the simple memories I want to remember. SO- I have a new goal. I want to blog at least a sentence a day for at least two weeks. It will get me in the habit of thinking of things to blog about and hopefully will help me see the shining spots in my day.

Aaron and I were talking about what it's like to stay home with Bright and although I love it, the days can be monotonous. So this will help me find humour in everyday life... I hope.

Also, sweet Aaron bought me a camera for my birthday. He has a big-honkin' digital SLR and every time I want to take a pic of something during the day I have to drag it out. So he bought me a tiny Kodak easyshare, which is perfect. I keep it right on the kitchen bar so I can whip it out and take pictures.

PERFECT!- As I was writing Brighton came in the room and said, "watch this!" She was attempting to pat her head and rub her tummy at the same time and actually doing a pretty good job, so I snapped a picture. (Yes, she's still in pajamas, but aren't those the cutest PJ's ever?)

Yesterday's picture was of her sleeping on the couch, but you'll notice she's wearing a diaper over her pants. She wanted to play baby and so I put a diaper on her, lol... And the funniest thing she said yesterday was at Costco. We had just had a sample of soy milk (I could write a whole blog post about Costco)... Anyway then I went to buy milk and Bright says "but you just had milk." Me: "This milk is for our house." Bright: "But I thought houses couldn't drink milk." :)

Also, I promise every day won't be solely about the funny things Brighton says. Actually, I can't promise that. Maybe nothing else funny will happen. But I'll try. Promise.

Prediction for the next 9 months

One of the best things about pregnancy is that it's like a "get me out of everything" or "get me into anything" card. It rocked with Bright. Once like a week before I gave birth I got pulled over for speeding. The officer walks up and I had left my license in Aaron's car for some reason and didn't have proof of insurance or registration or anything. The cop walks back to his car to call in my plates and I got my DL# from Aaron. So I get out of my car and waddle on the icy road back to the cop wearing my HUGE Deseret Industries coat to read it to him. He gives me this pathetic laugh and tells me that I'm off the hook. He said he knew he could find me later if there was a problem. (As if my huge body were detectable by police radar or something.) It was sweet.

HOWEVER- I don't see this pregnancy being quite the same, at least not at home. Here are predictions of words sure to be uttered by me and the response sure to be garnered by Aaron.

Me: "I'm going to barf."
Aaron: "Don't complain, at least you're pregnant!"

Me: "I'm SO tired!"
Aaron: "Yeah, but be happy that you're pregnant!"

Me: "Holy cow, my ankles are the size of Maine."
Aaron: "But wouldn't you rather have fat ankles than not be pregnant!"

You get the picture. True, it's hard to feel bad about the fact that at 5 weeks I already look 12 weeks pregnant, when I'm just so GLAD I actually am pregnant! I am just disappointed that I'm not going to get as much sympathy from Aaron simply due to the fact that my gratitude should outweigh any negative side effects of pregnancy. And there are many!

Also, I am not a cute pregnant person. My face gets all puffy, I get acne, cankles, not to mention that the progress of my pregnancy can be measured by the size of my nose. Can I say how grateful I am that I'm not on TV anymore! That was NOT attractive. Ratings were probably high that period because I was the side-show freak that people liked to see. "Hey Vern, let's see how big this anchor's nose is this week!" Like those squishy rubber bugs you put in jars of water and they grow 1000%. But maybe this time I can actually answer "yes" when people in public say "You MUST be having twins." or "You must be due ANY day." (No, I'm 7 months along.)
But hey, at least I'm pregnant!

They attached! (Well at least one of them.)

Most people already know that we found out Saturday that we are pregnant!!! I think I am still in shock. I'm like "technically" pregnant but it doesn't feel real until I'm barfing! We were walking through the Boise farmer's market and I gave my phone to Aaron because I wanted him to answer it because I was too scared. The nurse told him to put her on speaker and then said our numbers were great and that we are pregnant! My first "beta" count, which is my HCG levels was 15 on day 8. She said they look for it to double every two days and on day 10 it was at 80! Then two days later (yesterday) I was at 565, so I am definitely pregnant! yee-haw!

Attach Feti, Attach!

The feti are in me! (Feti, being plural of fetus) Although I know they aren't even fetuses yet, but we still call them "the feti". Anyway, just wanted to post the cool pics we got of the embryos before they did the transfer. I did a blood test today and they'll do another one Saturday and then will be able to tell me if my eggo is preggo. I'm SO tempted to go take a pregnancy test, but I don't even know if it would work and don't want to get the wrong answer. So I'll be patient. Maybe.

49 shots!

I counted on my calendar today and today marks the 49th shot I've given myself. And I just found out yesterday that these horrible progesterone shots I just started continue for months after I get pregnant! I'm trying not to think about that because they kill!
So everything went well with the egg retrieval. They put me under for the surgery and they said they got 15 eggs. He said 60% will fertilize and then half of those will be "good". So we're looking at having about 5 embryos when all is said and done. Hopefully we'll implant two and freeze the rest. :) Science is so crazy, right? My future children are chillin' in a petrie dish right now. What a trip! ha ha.
They plan to do the transfer tomorrow around 1:00, which I won't be put under for, but I'll be given some Valium, which I'm stoked about. ;) I'm just glad it's almost over and I know the two-week wait will be horrible waiting to see if it worked, but we're just really confident that it WILL! I have felt all your prayers, which I am so grateful for!

My daily poke and prod

And shame on you if you think that title is dirty! (heh heh)
So not many people read this that I don't regularly communicate with, except maybe Jonathan (allegedly) but I'll update anyway about what's going on this week. Basically I have to go into the Dr. office every morning for my daily poke and prod. I get blood drawn to check my estrogen levels and I get an ultrasound to check the size of all my "follicles" which are the soon to be eggies. (And don't be fooled into thinking it's a nice ultrasound like you see pregnant women get. No, this is more "invasive" shall i say? Gal pals will get it.) This morning the tech said my uterine lining was gorgeous and I said "I get that all the time." She was not amused.
Anyway, my follicles are not developing as quickly as anyone would like, so I'm on the max dose of hormones and we're still a day or two behind for the egg retrieval. I have 14 eggs right now, so that's fair, not great, but good I guess. They said anything over a dozen is good. When she said that I pictured my eggs in a Styrofoam egg carton. So they don't know how much more hormone I need so I have to call the pharmacy in Arizona every day and have them overnight the drugs, which are like $400 a day. Yikes. So pray that these eggies start maturing quickly!
Lynzi is coming today to help me. yay! We thought the retrieval would happen Thursday or Friday so she's coming today, so we'll just get to have fun for a few days except I'm ordered to keep things at a "slow pace" which I've taken to mean, no rigorous house cleaning. I think it's starting to smell. ;)

I don't know of the hormones are making me crazy or just the waiting and stressing. I think it's just the stress. (And the dirty house, which I'm going to try to slowly clean today.) Stay tuned.

She tried to eat the remote

Oh how the little things crack me up. Brighton fell asleep as I was working at the table and she was on the couch eating a gogurt. I took the gogurt out of her hand when I noticed she was asleep. About a half hour later she wakes up and I'm peeking in on her. She reaches down and grabs the remote control and with her eyes still closed starts going to town trying to eat the remote. The entire thing was in her mouth and she was just sucking away. Then she threw it on the ground and went back to sleep. This just happened so it might not be as funny tomorrow, but it's halarious to me!

Well since I'm here I might as well do some journaling. I just got back from a fun week in Idaho Falls where my entire family was there. I LOVE that. 4th of July is seriously a close second to Christmas at our house. It's probably just that we're always together that makes it so special. Bright had SO much fun just spending time with cousins and I love that she's old enough to play with them now. When I was in labor I was trying to picture happy thoughts and three things kept popping into my mind:

1. My mom walking through the hospital door. I REALLY wanted her there and knew I'd feel a lot more calm once she got there.

2. My friend Katie and I sophmore year of college having a blast. Just random memories to make me smile.

3. A 2-year-old Brighton with my whole family at the 4th of July fireworks. Of course she looks nothing like I pictured. I pictured her with really dark, really curly pigtails. But I just couldn't wait to see my own daughter experiencing what I had loved growing up.

One highlight of the trip was doing a 5K race with Lynzi. Lynz is awesome and has lost like 85 pounds and looks incredible. She has the tiniest little waist now! So her goal was to run a 5K and I just went along for the ride. It was a rush!

Another fun thing was boating with the fam. After spending two days on the lake we were almost out of gas and ready to go but Tami and I really wanted to do a crazy tube ride. We decided we are the only two grown women who LOVE tubing. ha ha.. Or maybe just the ones who'll admit it. So we're going wild and laughing and screaming like kids when all the sudden my dad goes over the wake going Mock-10 and Tami goes FLYING off... well Lynzi and Heather were supposed to be watching but were apparently engrossed in their conversation and NO ONE saw her fly off. I start screaming (which I had been doing anyway) for like an entire minute and finally they look and I'm doing the turn-around sign and they STILL don't realize Tami was gone until I pointed to the vacant space next to me. There Tami's little head was (she actually does have a really small head) bobbing in the water just waiting for us to turn around. It's a good thing the lake was pretty empty that day or she likely would have been decapitated. It was dang funny though.

Pictures:

4th of July! God Bless Idaho! I mean America!

Brighton pondering on the consequences of our forefather's actions and our resulting independence from a far away tyrant.

Eh, life's too short:

I just had my permanent eyeliner done, so I look a tad freaky.

Oh Also, happy Anniversary to US today! 5 years! Crazy!