Here goes nothing!

My story
I’ll start off with the fact that I’m from a great area in Southeast Texas. I love living here close to my friends and family and in-laws (ok for the most part). I went to a local university and have a degree in chemical engineering and work in a chemical plant.

The fun part… I love to read science fiction and fantasy and classic literature. I love to write, and hopefully this blog will be a good outlet for that. I’ve always wanted to have a baby!! Now I am blessed to be pregnant. I was married in 2004 to my lovely husband. We met in 2001 in college – in Physics class. Kinda nerdy, but hey – it worked. We started trying to get pregnant in May of 2005. It was very exciting at first. Then came hurricane Rita… Yuck… Then after a year of trying, I realized that something was wrong, and it wasn’t going to come easy for us. That may have been the hardest part, going from thinking I’m going to have a baby soon to realizing that it might not happen – ever. What a major let-down. Then (crazy) me heard about a program to host an exchange student. So I did that. That was quite an experience. Then we bought a new (old) house and restored it.

I will elaborate on each of these topics one at a time. Otherwise I’ll sit here and write 500 pages… So let this be a teaser to come back and visit me.

Then after our exchange student left I tried Clomid for 3 months with no luck. Neither of us have any diagnosed problems, so I figured we would wait a little longer before doing anything else. At that time I was 26 years old. Then throughout the next year, my periods were crazy, cysts were horrible. I was pretty miserable during AF.

My GYN/OB suggested I either get on the pill or find a way to get pregnant. She recommended I see a local RE who was conducting a clinical trial on IVF. That was February of this year (2008). Things went really quickly after that. I saw the RE in Feb. for the first time, filled out lots of paperwork, learned what IVF was, learned about the clinical trial, had many heart-to-hearts with DH, and got started on our IVF journey. We basically decided to do it and enrolled within a week! It was such a great opportunity for us to get IVF for about $1100 instead of the usual 10-15K. We could have financed it or saved money, but it would have taken a little more time to get that together. I started birth control pills in the beginning of March, then Lupron, then ovary stimulation, then egg retrieval April 30, then embryo transfer of 2 great blastocysts on May 5. I took a home pregnancy test on May 11 – Mother’s Day – and got BFP!! (Big fat positive) What a great 1st Mother’s Day! Then on May 16th, the first beta (blood test) came back positive too. The 1st ultrasound at 6 weeks showed us two babies. Sadly, at 10 weeks, one of the babies didn’t survive. Luckily, I had no bleeding or symptoms from the loss that would jeopardize the surviving baby. That was a hard hit for us. But from then on, things have been going great! We found out at 15 weeks that we are having a little boy.

His name will be Chesley Jefferson P** after DHs late grandfather and Jefferson for my maiden name to honor my family.

We had a little scare with some screening results that came back with a risk for spina bifida. I had to wait 3 weeks to see the perinatologist for an ultrasound. But things looked great! No spinal problems or other problems. The dr did mention that I am at risk for a placenta function problem because of the elevated alpafetoprotein. He will watch me closely throughout. That was Sept 18.

Hurricane Ike greatly affected our area. We were blessed to only have minor damage to our house. It will still be a pain to fix and dip into our savings, but we’ll be ok.

So now I’m sitting here at 24 weeks 2 days, feeling my child move and kick, and loving it. Monday I go to get my first gestational diabetes screening test, so wish me luck.

My next OB appt is Oct. 20, and the next peri appt is Oct. 24.

I’m hoping to do my baby registry soon! Nesting is starting to kick in!

Now you’re caught up with me so tune in for more later!