4.25.13

I saw this & just had to smile.

Today was a good day.  I found out that another great friend is also expecting a babe around the same time as mine.  That makes 3 of us now........and/or potentially more to come cause hardly anyone knows yet........so who knows who else will have similar news to share when I finally do officially make my special announcement:)

I feel so much, in spite of how hard the waiting was while I was going through it, that this is precisely when & how this was meant to happen for me......and what a great feeling that is.

xo

4.24.13

So is it totally ridiculous to buy your acupuncturist flowers just because you love her that much?

My first appointment since officially *knowing* is at 6pm tonight & I just couldn't imagine walking in there with "the news" empty-handed...?!

She's a saint.  And a gem.  And everything that is good in this world.

Flowers aren't nearly enough to properly express my gratitude.....but I had to bring her something.

I hope she likes lilies:)

4.23.13

When I got home from class tonight, RJ was hanging our new dining room chandelier fixture.  He needed me to help him hold a couple of the wires & all I could think the whole time I was doing it was..."How am I going to eat the popcorn I am so badly craving for dinner after I've touched these birth-defect causing, lead-covered wires?"  

Pregnancy paranoia has definitely set in.

And so.....I washed my hands but still ate my popcorn with a spoon:)

Today marks the 5-week mark, by the way....which is super fun.  Second trimester definitely feels light years away...but I know it'll be here before I know it.

I also made an appointment for orientation next week at the Birth Center in Bryn Mawr.  I really looooove my OB but I thought I might consider the midwife route this time.  Not sure which way I'll go yet; but I'd like to at least going to see what they're all about.  

4.22.13

I haven't been real symptomatic yet.  Its so hard to remember when all of my symptoms hit with Stella so I'm going to try to make a more concerted effort to blog about them this time around.  Maybe it'll help me someday if/when we try for # 3.........

Funny thing is, I'm starting to be more in tune with them I think, now that I know that its for real.  Or maybe they are honestly just really starting to kick in today...?  I can't be sure.

What I do know is that I could not keep my eyes open reading stories with Stella this afternoon.  No matter how hard I fought the urge, sleep just overcame me...and that never happens!  I got a full night's sleep last night....so my 1st trimester fatigue must be starting to set in.   I remember it well with Stella....I just don't remember how early it started.  But there was many a night I was out for the count by 7 or 8pm back then.  RJ didn't know what to do with me....lol.

I was peeing a whole lot last week & over the weekend but I didn't notice that as much today.  There was the tiredness for sure though & a wicked headache/slight sort of nausea-type feeling came over me riding in the car today. It was almost like carsickness, which was weird...kind of like the feeling I get when I try to read in the car....only I wasn't reading; I was just daydreaming out the window of the passenger seat.  

I am kind of hopeful for lots of symptoms because I feel like they are signs that the pregnancy is flourishing & healthy.  So hopefully I'll have lots more to report here before long.

:)

4.21.13

I found it so lovely to blog my pregnancy the first time around & I seriously couldn't wait to do it all over again!  Being pregnant with Stella back in 2008 was such an amazing time for me.  We got our happy BFP news so quickly.....much, much faster than we'd anticipated would happen for us.....and then the time she spent in my belly was just a joy.  Not a single day of morning sickness, a relatively easy & fast delivery & the most perfect little bean in my arms when all was said & done.

Our perfect little Stella Olivia.

Fast forward a few years & I started to get the itch again.  

I couldn't wait to have another!  

To be fair....I got the itch kind of almost immediately after Stella was born;)   I really missed being pregnant.  Most of all, I missed laying on my bed after work & feeling her wiggle all around in there.....and having RJ come home from work shortly thereafter & laying down again for him to do the same.  

We didn't actually figure we would start to try for another until Stella was 2 or so.  Maybe a bit thereafter.  Or so.  With my first pregnancy, we were pregnant before we even had time to think about basal temperature charts or ovulation predictor kits or anything like that at all.  And...like the silly girl that I am...I kind of just assumed that it'd happen just as effortlessly the second time around.

Not one to push the issue, I found comfort in the thought that it would happen "when it was meant to happen". So we didn't calculate things or complicate things or buy fertility doodads or anything.  We just went about life as usual and assumed that I would get pregnant.

It didn't exactly pan out like that.

Stella turned 3.....and then she turned 4.......and still, hers was the only BFP I ever saw.

I just couldn't understand or believe it.  People seemed to be having babies all over the place.  Why not me?

I kept telling myself that all of this one-on-one time spent with Stella was a tremendous blessing & possibly the  underlying reason behind this tremendous wait we were being put through.  I've been lucky enough to stay home with her for the first 4 years of her life & even found the time to nurture & grow my portrait photography business in a way that would've been much more challenging with a newborn on my hip.  

So yeah.
Maybe that was it.
Makes perfect sense now.
But still.

I really wanted another baby!

So a couple of months after Stella's 4th birthday, I bit the bullet and made an appointment with our local fertility doc.  He's been on TV & won awards & his success rate is through the roof.  If anyone could get me pregnant, it'd be him...right?

I went there for a few months but resisted any advanced sort of treatments he offered me.

Injectables?  That I had to inject myself?  

No thank you.

I figured it was harmless enough to take Clomid for a few months & hopefully that would do the trick.

Problem was; I didn't believe in it much.  

He had done blood tests on me & tested RJ just the same and everything had checked out just fine.  We were fiiiiiiiine.   My cycle was regular.  I'd had a baby before.  Hormone levels checked out as they should.  And u/s monitoring proved that I ovulated monthly....just a bit later than is considered typical.

So I was taking this medication to artificially convince my body to release eggs.....when my body had no trouble releasing eggs in the first place?  

I just didn't like it & gave up on the whole idea before long.

I try my best to eat organic as much as possible & avoid artificial anything.....and yet I was willingly taking these drugs to have a baby??

I
just
couldn't
do
it
another
day.

Back in October, RJ & I bought a new home, which, interestingly, turned out to be 2 doors down from a Chinese acupuncturist/herbologist.  I'd heard about the wonders of acupuncture & wondered what it could potentially do for me.  It was mid March that I called Dr. Sheng & made my first appointment.  She gave me my first acupuncture treatment that very night & I started to drink a highly nutritional (but not particularly delicious-lol) Chinese herbal tea twice a day thereafter.  She had me start to monitor & chart my basal body temperature every morning when I woke up, so that she could take a look at it as I visited her weekly & assess where I was in my cycle.  In only two (lovely, calming, beautiful, meditative) treatments, she regulated my ovulation.  I had believed in her from the moment I met her.....but this was extraordinary!   I learned from the fertility doctor that I had been ovulating late for months...around Day 20-21...and now, this month, on Day 14!  My eggs were not over-mature this cycle...they were just right.  I continued to visit Dr. Sheng with more faith than I've had in anything in a long while.  2 more treatments.....and a different mix for my herbal tea now that I was post-ovulation in my cycle........and I started to TRULY believe that this was our month.  I don't know what it was but everything just felt right somehow.  And suddenly I was visiting the bathroom much more than usual & I remembered that being a very early symptom in my pregnancy with Stella.  Plus my legs were achy at random times of the day & I smelled my friend's daughter making lemonade in their kitchen when we were sitting in the middle of their backyard.  

"What'd you plant some lemongrass out here?  It smells awesome."
"Um, no.  Maya's actually making lemonade in the kitchen.  How the heck did you smell that?!"

Lol

But could it be?
My first month with her?
Only 4 treatments in?
After alllll of that time spent trying?
Was acupuncture all I needed all along?

Well, as it turns out...it was.

I visited Dr. Sheng on April 17th for my 5th acupuncture treatment & she smiled when she saw my temperature chart.  "Take a test in 2 more days," she told me.  "You just might be pregnant."

I waited til today to test but even before I took it, I knew.

Baby #2 is due on December 24th, 2013.  

I don't know whose plan it was for things to pan out this way but, right now...in this moment...they feel just about as perfect as can be.  

I feel like I need to shout acupuncture's praises from the rooftops.  

I hope that someone out there reads this & ends up with a similar happy ending for their family.  It was a long & winding road to find her............but now that I have, everything seems to be falling into place. 

...xoxo...