Half Way Point

Well here we are already 20 weeks into my pregnancy!! Crazy we are half way done already.  This pregnancy hasn't been quite as easy as Mr. Bentley's but still blessed to be on this journey. In the beginning I had some spouts of on and off nausea, thankfully that didn't last too long so that is wonderful!

Around the 9 week mark we got the official "Graduation" from the fertility clinic. It was great to hear those words but also a little sad knowing that this will be the last baby for our family. We are grateful that this place was able to give us two babies despite all of our struggles. We will still have to make the decision on what we will do with the remainder of our frozen embryos. 

We did the Chromosome testing that we had done with Bentley that also checks the Gender at our 12 week appointment. Since I found out I was pregnant I was convinced that I was going to have a girl. The entire process after the embryo transfer was completely different then what it was with Bentley. Some of it was a little concerning but also made me really think we were going to be seeing lots of pink this go around. But, Once I saw that US at our appointment it changed my mind. This baby looked exactly like Bentley at his 12 week appointment. It was so crazy to see how much of the same things the baby was doing compared to how Bentley was. We got all of the test results back that were normal from the scan so that was great news. We decided to do another gender reveal but this go around Johnny and I did not find out ahead of time. We let my mom get the gender results and then we would be surprised along with everyone else that was there. And the results showed we were expecting another little Mister!! We couldn't be more excited. Nevaeh was thrilled to know that she will always be Daddy's only Princess! 

We decided to take a family vacation instead of a baby moon this time. So we took a trip to California to visit Disneyland. The kids had a wonderful time. Nevaeh loved Seaworld and of course the beach. It was a great trip but beyond exhausting for Momma. Since coming back it has seemed to be non stop sickness around our house. First it was Johnny and then Nevaeh and I both came down with bad sore throats. Hers turned into Strep and mine was just a virus. I also had to take a trip to the ER because I had severe back pain and the doctors were concerned I had a kidney infection. So I spent 5 hours in the ER. No fun but got out on some antibiotics to cure a UTI that hopefully wouldn't turn into anything worse. 

Nevaeh turned 13!! Cannot believe we have a teenager! We celebrated with a party bus, mall scavenger hunt, a sleep over, and brunch with the family. She and her girl friends had lots of fun!

Now we are on the back half of this pregnancy and have LOTS of activites coming up. Bentley's turning 2, numerous camping trips, birthday parties, and our annual trip to Glenwood Springs. Between all of that we have to figure out when we are going to get the nursery ready and pull out all of Bentley's old clothes so I can get those washed and ready for the Littlest Cashmore. Hopefully the summer heat is good to me! 

HCG Test Day & Our First Ultrasound!!

Sunday is Day 9p5dt and our first HCG test!!! Day 9 – By this time, the levels of the hormone hCG, are high enough in the blood stream to be detected. You may take a home pregnancy test today. If the test is negative, it could still be a false negative. Wait for another two days and take the test again. The blood test for beta HCG is much more relaible and is usually done about 10 -12 days after blastocyst transfer.

Since I will just be getting a blood draw and not the results I went ahead and went to the clinic by myself, while Johnny stayed home with Mr. Bentley. I got there around 7:40 AM. They got me in and out in about 30 minutes and then we went and did our grocery shopping before the store got crazy. It seemed like time was taking a lot longer than usual. Probably because we are waiting for phone call!!!

Like any other Sunday, it was full of cleaning, and playing with Bentley. Phone finally rang about 11:00 am to let us know that my HCG levels came back at 130.8 which meant that I was in fact Pregnant!!! They want to see the number above 50. When I got my first HCG test done last transfer  my level was at 195. So this time around it is lower but still well above the 50 mark. I had taken 4 tests prior to this day because of how skeptical I was. Three of them showed positive. The nurse went over all of my medications to continue taking, told me that I needed to go back to the clinic for another blood draw two days later to make sure that my HCG level was doubling.

WE DID IT AGAIN!!! WAHOO!

So from the time I got the phone call on my first HCG, I was already 4 weeks. It is still new to me and all I can think about is how the heck I will handle a teenager, a two year old, and a newborn. I think that thought runs through my mind every day. We are still very excited and cannot wait to watch this miracle grow.

12/17/17

I got a congratulations phone call from our Doctor on Monday and then I went back into the clinic on Tuesday for my 2nd HCG test. The nurse called me in the later morning and told me that my levels were at 358. She told me that I needed to continue on all of my same medications and to schedule my first ultrasound for a few weeks later. I will need to call and get another order of medication since I will be on them until I am 10-12 weeks pregnant.

This go around the exhaustion and nausea have been so much worse. I always feel like I cannot get enough sleep. We literally go to bed by 9:00pm at the latest every night even on the weekends. I also get super nauseous, but mainly when I go too long without eating. Thankfully the nausea has slowed down by week 7. We had our first Ultrasound at 6 weeks and 5 days. Everything looked great! Baby measured at 6 weeks and 1 day and the heart rate was 127 bpm. We will have our first appointment at the OB in a few weeks and hopefully get to start weening the meds and get the official "Graduation" from CCRM.

We had our first appointment at the OBGYN on January 19th. I had an ultrasound and everything showed baby was doing well measuring a few days ahead so that is exciting. Baby's heart measured at 180 bpm. We finished the appointment with discussing the timeline for future appointments. 

Everything else has started to be smooth sailing so I hope that this continues. 

Bed Rest and the wait for our HCG Test

I was on bed rest for the remainder of Friday after the transfer and then all of Saturday. Laying around doing nothing is not my forte' at all. I have so much I could be doing and my back was killing me from laying down too much. As I laid in bed the day of the transfer I noticed a little light cramping here and there but nothing major. I decided to give you all an explanation of what happens inside the body after a transfer. Because our embryo started hatching before it was implanted the timeline of everything may be a little off but it gives you an idea.

Best rest way harder this time than last time. Bentley would whine and cry for Mommy and I could not pick him up. My discharge instructions say that I can not lift more than 10 pounds for 2 weeks. Well the doctor and I both know that was not going to be possible especially having a 22 pound toddler. I did my best to take it easy for that first day and a half while Johnny was in charge of keeping Bentley occupied.Day 1 – After the embryos are transferred, the cells keep dividing. The blastocyst begins to emerge from its shell and this process is called hatching.

Sunday marked 2dp5dt (aka 2 days past 5 day transfer). Johnny gave me my progesterone in oil shot that morning and then it was off to the races. Okay not really the races but we did have a super busy day! I really hope that I did not over due it because I was on my feet all day long and didn't get much rest or relaxation. By the evening time I noticed a little bit of cramping as I was laying in bed. Nothing much just a little here and there still.Day 2 – The second day is crucial because this is the time when the embryo begins to attach itself to the uterine lining. The blastocyst continues to grow.

Day 3dp5dt was back to work. I changed out my patches that morning. As the day went on I had pretty bad cramping all day. I am not sure if it was because I was sitting or what but they finally went away after I was home and was reclining on the couch. Last time around I was very anxious at this stage wondering if it worked or didn't work. I have those same feelings this go around. Day 3 – On this day, the blastocyst invades into the uterine lining and implantation begins. The woman may have light bleeding and spotting on this day

Day 4 Johnny had to give me my progesterone in oil shot that morning. I didn't have any new symptoms really during the day. Day 4 – On the fourth day, the blastocyst continues dig deeper into the uterus Light bleeding and spotting may continue on this day as the embryo invades the endometrial blood vessels to nourish itself through the maternal blood supply. However, the absence of any bleeding, cramping and spotting does not mean that implantation has not occurred so don't let your mind play games with you.

Wednesday is Day 5p5dt, I woke up around 1:00am to Bentley screaming at the top of his lungs, not sure if he had a bad dream or what but at that same time I had some more pretty bad cramping. By the time I woke up for the day they had gone away. Last cycle I had taken at at home pregnancy test this day and it had given me a very very faint positive line. Day 5 – On the fifth day, implantation is considered complete. The embryo is developing vigorously.

Day 6 Johnny gave me another Progesterone injection. No new symptoms to report except I did however develop cold like symptoms. Stuffy head, exhausted, sore throat, and sneezing. I am not sure if I was getting a cold or if it just from the medications. I will say that I have had a lot of doubts this go around. Don't get me wrong I am still praying for a positive outcome but because of all the cramping and weird symptoms that I have had so far compared to last go around, it just gives me some doubt. Every cycle and person is different so it is not really a sure sign if it did or did not work just my opinion so far. Day 6 – The growing embryo triggers the release of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into the blood stream. This is a hormone that is produced by the syncytiotrophoblast, the specialised cells which will form the placenta later on

Day 7.... It was finally the weekend which meant we were only a few days away from out HCG test ;) Last cycle I had taken 3 at home tests by now! ......... the anticipation is killing me AGAIN!! And with all of the weird symptoms I really have been thinking a lot about it. I changed out my patches first thing in the morning, then had to work for a little while before heading out to do some shopping. As the day went on I became so so so tired and finally called it a night at 8:00 Pm. Day 7 – The fetal development is in full swing and the embryo continues to develop quickly. As the placenta begins to take shape, it continues to release more hCG into the blood stream

Day 8 - Weekends are so crazy busy so really there was no time to notice any symptoms. Just anxiously waiting for the HCG test tomorrow and being completely exhausted!!! Day 8 – More hCG is released into the blood, as fetal development continues and the placenta begins to function.

FET Day # 2

I received the call for the transfer time on Wednesday, cycle day 22, around 5:30 PM. The nurse confirmed what day I started on my Endometrin. Told me that I needed to check in to lab by 11:45 AM on Friday and then the transfer would be at 1:15 PM. I opted not to do the acupuncture this go around since it costs an extra $250.00 dollars. She made sure that I was going to have a ride to and from the clinic and also went over all of the bed rest instructions as well as my medication instructions. She told me that I should receive a call from the IVF lab either the next day or the morning of transfer to confirm that we will only be transferring one embryo.

I got the call from the lab on Thursday around 2:30 PM. They wanted to confirm that I was feeling good and was still planning on coming in for my transfer. They also confirmed that they would be thawing and only transferring in one embryo, and that it was our highest grade embryo. I confirmed that it was a day 5 grade scale 4AB. The embryo that turned into Mr. Bentley boy was a 4BA, The best grading you can get is a 4AA. So we again have a pretty close to perfect embryo. 

Cycle day 24 was our Transfer day. The morning's are always hectic! We got up with Bentley, got him ready for the day with Auntie, and sent Nevaeh off to school. I had to do a couple hours of work that morning while Johnny went to the gym. But I made sure there was time to take our picture to remind us of that morning, and then it was off to the clinic.

We checked into the clinic at 11:30 AM for my labs. After that we went upstairs and checked in for our transfer. The nurse came out and let us know that they were running about an hour behind. At that time I already had a half full bladder and knew I wouldn't make it another hour before peeing my pants so I had to use the restroom. Finally about 12:30 the nurse came out again and let me know that I should start drinking water and they would have my room ready by 1:00 PM. We got all settled into our room and waited for the ultrasound tech to come in. She came in and checked my bladder to see if it was half full, and decided that I needed to drink a little more water and that she would be back in about 15 minutes. So I just chugged a full cup of water because I didn't want to push it back any more than it had been.

Our doctor came in and confirmed we were ready to do this again LOL. He got me all prepped and said that everything was looking great. He did a test run and that went very smooth. He told us that our embryo looked awesome and that it had already started hatching, which is a good thing!! Then the embryologist came in, verified my name and date of birth, showed us our Embryo so Johnny could take a picture of it. Then it was time to insert it in. Watching it on the ultrasound monitor was super cool. Only Johnny got to see it last time so I was excited to be able to see it this go around. After he was all done I needed to lay there again for another hour with minimal movement.

Our Day 5 Embryo

After the hour was up I got to go to the restroom and then they wheeled me to the front of the clinic and waited for Johnny to go grab the truck and pick me up. The lab had called with my results and said they looked perfect. My progesterone level was at 27 and they want to see if above 15 and my estradiol was at 924 and they want to see it above 300. I needed to continue on all of my medications as planned. Now onto bed rest......... This should be fun with a toddler. 

Blood Draw Level Checks

As we are going through this process I find myself looking back at all of the old posts I did from my first FET. Its so crazy how different its been so far. Looking back they had me go in for my third lining check and blood draw on cycle day 15.  My lining measured just about 11mm, and my estrogen level at 114. That's when they had me start on an oral form of estrogen daily while wearing 3 patches every other day.


This time around I didn't have my first lining check until cycle day 17. I went into the office that morning and the nurse told me that my lining was measuring 12.2 with a tripple pattern. Which is good. At this time they want it to be between 8-14mm. She told me that I will most likely stay on the same calendar schedule that I have been following but that I'd get a call later that afternoon with my estrogen level and at that point I'll be told what to do next. When I got the call the nurse told me my estrogen levels came back at 629. They like to see it above 300. My progesterone level was less than 1 which was perfect. So as of now I will follow the calendar I have.

Cycle day 18 I took my last Lupron injection. WAHOOOO! I called the pharmacy to make sure that my scripts were ready for pick up of the Medrol and the Doxycycline and they had no record. So I sent an email to my nurse but since it was the weekend I wouldnt hear from anyone until Monday. Little did I know the nurse would call me later that afternoon and she resent my scripts to the pharmacy. Thank goodness!!


So I started those meds on cycle day 19 along with my Endometrin, 4 patches, Vit D, and prenatals.

The next day I got up bright and early so that Johnny could give me my first Progesterone in oil shot that morning. Man oh Man do those hurt so damn bad!!!!!! I will have to do these every other morning.  I will go back in to the clinic on Cycle day 21 for another blood draw to have my progesterone levels checked.

The nurse called me to let me know that everything is looking great and that my progesterone level was at 25, they want to see it above 10. She said that I will just continue on all of the same medications and that I would hear from the office the next day to let me know what time my transfer would be.



Update on the progesterone in oil shots.... well I think Johnny is trying to pay me back for all the times I have had to stick him with a needle when his blood sugar is low. I have a giant bruise on my rear from that first shot. :(

When your body doesn't follow the rules

Well my body had other plans.. because good ole' aunt flow came a day earlier than my "mock up" calendar had projected. I sent in an email to my nurse to let her know that I started my cycle. She called me back to let me know that we will need to move some things around on my calendar and to check my patient portal later that afternoon for an updated calendar.

I started on my Estradiol patches and my daily aspirin on cycle day 3. Let the hormones begin!!!!!!!!  I will start out with just one patch every other day. I also was able to reduce my lupron injections to 5 units per day.
                                      

Man oh man are these headaches killer!!! And the lovely heart burn has come back. Not terrible but it comes and goes at least twice a day now.

I received my updated calendar and the only thing that changed was the days I needed to go in for blood draws. So for now everything is still right on target.


But let me tell you that keeping up with all of this and chasing a one year old is tough. Remembering all of the medicines was challenging the last cycle but it is way harder this go around. And my poor tummy has little bruises all over it from the injections :(


                                                                                   
I went in for my first blood draw on cycle day 8. Since I was here I dropped of the checks to pay for this FET to the business office. At the rate I am going I will forget to put them in the mail on time and then we'd be screwed.

The nurse called me that afternoon to let me know that my levels were 138. Last cycle my estrogen levels were at 109. They did not do a lining check this time, which I thought was weird but they are the experts not me. I was instructed to increase my patches to two a day starting on cycle day 11, to 3 a day on cycle day 13, and then to 4 a day on cycle day 15. I will go into the clinic for another blood draw and a lining check on cycle day 17.


On cycle day 14 I received a phone call from one of the nurses at CCRM. She called me because she did not have a good phone number for Johnny, even though we just updated all of our information. She needed to get permission and the OK that we are going to be doing an embryo transfer. Thought it was a little odd since he was with me at the one day work up appointment and signed off on all the papers. But whatever LOL.

I am trying to update as fast as possible but there is not always time LOL. So bare with me! I hope that you all have a great Christmas and New Years. I will check back in next year ;)

Starting the FET meds

So when our nurse gave us our "mock up" calendar she also gave us our estimated transfer date. Like before this date is just an estimate. As long as my body follows the schedule they have then this will be a set day but we wont know for sure just yet. 

I started on my 10 units of Lupron injections on 11/9. Lupron overstimulates the body's own production of the usual hormone exchange that cause follicle production and ovulation.

 I will continue the 10 units every day. I havent had to take any injections for a while so after the first one I instantly remember how bad it made my stomach burn and would turn red immediatly. The last time this medication made me have outrageous hot flashes and wicked headaches, and sure enough those lovely headaches were back. I didnt have those hot flashes like I did the last time. Which was definetly a good thing. 

That same day I received an email from a lady at the buisness office reminding me that we needed to get our payment in no later than 2 weeks before our scheduled transfer date. We had to make two seperate payments. One to CCRM for $2830.00 and one to the FLC (Fertility labs of Colorado) for $3516.00. 

I sent a check in email to my nurse just to make sure that I was doing all that I should be doing. We havent had much contact so I felt like I may not be doing something right. I got the response back and everything is right on target. I started on my second pack of birth control on November 11th and continued taking that until the 13th. Yep, had to get a whole new pack of birth control to take 3 pills out of it. Now I just continue my lupron injections and wait until my cycle comes.

Check in with CCRM and medication order

So I finally started my cycle on 10/19. I called into my nurse and let her know. She sent me the list of all medications that I needed to order for this go around along with our "mock up" calendar. She also called in my first pack of birth control to the pharmacy so that I could start on that on cycle day 3. I called around to the pharmacys that I used last time to check on the cost for all of the medications. I found out that this time I was able to use some of the generics for the medications so that was going to make the cost a little bit cheaper. Hey a little bit adds up to a lot in this case. I was able to find that one of the pharmacies I used the last time could get me all of the medications for $1467.53. They were able to submit some things to my insurance which was nice.

I continued on my birth control pack #1 and placed the order for all medications.

Since I get to work from home on Fridays I scheduled the appointmet for both Johnny and I to go have our communicable blood draw done on 11/3 as well as have my medications delivered this day since it needs a signature. Bentley and I went and had my blood drawn early in the morning so that we could make it back home for when the Fed Ex driver showed up with my box of goodies and Johnny went after work.

I recieved an email from our nurse on Monday 11/6 telling us that she was going to be leaving for maternity leave and would not be returning to the clinic. She introduced us to our new nurse through the email portal. Not like we could see her or meet her but hey at least we have her name and her extension. I guess that will do for now. Within the same email she let me know that our lab results from our communicables came back negative. This was a good thing. :) 

Starting round 2....

So eventhough we have our frozen embryos the doctor says its been too long and we have to redo the majority of all of the testing in order to do another round. We scheduled our one day work up for August 25th. I had to do another HSG test. This is where they insert a gas into your fallopian tubes to make sure they are open and do not have any blockage. I also got an ultrasound done to check on my resting follicle count. and blood flow. Anything greater than 8 follicles is a lot. The last time I had this test done I had 35 resting follicles on the right ovary and 20 resting follicles on the left. This time I had 32 on the left and 36 on the right. To say I am fertile is an understatement LOL.  Then the last test I had to get was the hysteroscopy, this is a test that shows the inside of your uterus and checks for polyps, scar tissue, or any abnormalities that would cause a reason for pregnancy not to be successful. Again because our insurance does not cover any fertility we paid $ 1436.00 for these tests.

We also met with our nurse to update all of our paperwork with new phone numbers, address, and emergency contacts. She gave me the list of blood work that I needed to get done. The majority of these could be done at an outside lab so that we could use our insurance. We talked about they time frame we wanted to shoot for the transfer. Since we had planned to take a cruise in September we wanted to wait until well after we got back. One other blood draw we both had to get done was our Communicable disease testing. We wanted to put this off for a little while just because they are only good for 6 months and we did not have an ideal date set for when we wanted to do our transfer. We got our cost outline from the business office and then on to our last appointment.

The last appointment we had was to talk with our doctor and talk about our 8 frozen embryos, the grade scale for each of them and how many we would like to transfer this time. Since we had sucess with just one embryo we are going to do the same for this time around. We were reminded that in order to prep for pregnancy alcohol and caffiene needed to be cut out. I would need to stop playing sports before I could start on any of the medications again. Now that I have finished with all the summer sports and coaching Nevaehs volleyball this would be just fine with me.

We had our cruise cancelled because of the hurricane in Florida. So we had to push it back a few weeks. We finally made it on the big boat in October just in time to celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary. We had a great time on the ship but missed Nevaeh and Bentley so much. We couldnt wait to get back home to see them. Once we were back I had to wait until my next cycle came so that I could get in touch with my nurse and schedule for the remainder of our blood work, get the list of medications I was going to need, as well as talk about getting our "mock up" callendar for transfer.

It's so crazy to think that we are now going to be going through round 2 of this very stressful yet exciting time. Please keep us in your thoughts over the next few months. ;)

Catching Up

Wholly Guacamole.....… I noticed it’s been a while since I blogged anything. But life has been full of crazy lately.. Not complaining here at all because I love to be busy….. Well I left off with Mr. Bentley’s birth story. Wow that doesn’t seem that long ago but really it has been a whole year already. I was fortunate enough to take off 14 weeks to spend with my handsome. During that time Nevaeh was also out of school for the summer. We spent our days at the pool, Splash Park, lunch dates with our friends and most of all lots and lots of snuggling. J Bentley was two weeks old when took our first road trip to Pueblo for a friend of the family’s wedding. We took Bentley on his first camping trip when he was 2 months old and then had to rush back home to welcome little Miss Piper to our family. We made our annual trip to Glenwood Springs, played Mudd Volleyball for the March of Dimes, had a Luau to celebrate my 30th birthday, celebrated the birth of another friends little boy, and attended a friend’s wedding to finish out the summer. My grandpa came into town and was able to meet Bentley and take family pictures with us.

We were fortunate enough to have family and friends watch Bentley when it was time for me to go back to work. As hard as it was to go back I knew that he was in great hands. And plus I am not made to be a stay at home mom LOL.

So me being the one that thinks ahead all the time decided that the layout of our house wasn’t going to work with small children because it was so closed off. SO…. We decided that we would sell in the heat of the market again. I said that I am not moving again before but this time I REALLY mean it! Well at least for a long long while. We stayed in the same area so we didn’t have to switch Nevaeh schools. We love our new house and the open layout that it has. Oh and the best part is there are NO snakes!!!!! We moved just in time because Bentley started crawling at 6 months old. So having the open layout is so much better for us to keep our eye on a busy bee.

 Nevaeh decided to try out Volleyball. So we signed her up for a recreation league through the City of Aurora. Bentley had to have his first surgery on December 16th because he had a hypospadias. This was heartbreaking for me. I didn’t want my baby to be put under anesthesia. He did fine but this momma was very sad.

So since we had a gap of time between when we sold our house and when we could close on our new house we had to stay with my mom for a month. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the family and then got all moved into our new house just a few weeks before Christmas. We had Christmas dinner at our house and it was fun to watch Bentley open presents even though he was still kind of young to fully enjoy it.

After returning to work I quickly found out that I was not welcomed back like I thought I would and therefore it created a lot of problems with myself, coworkers, and manager. I thankfully found a new job in February of 2017. Bentley started at a new daycare a little after I started my new job. He loves his daycare and we couldn’t be happier.

In April of 2017 we celebrated Nevaeh’s 12th birthday with a spa themed birthday sleepover party. And Bentley’s first air plane ride to Tucson Arizona to see my great grandparents. It was a nice little get away we just wished Nevaeh would have come with us.

May means that our little boy was not so little anymore. We partied with all of our friends and family at the house to celebrate our Mr. ONEderful. I cannot believe that our little (well not really that little, weighing 9 pounds at birth) miracle baby is now a whole year old. I wish that I could stop time and he would stay little forever but that is just not possible. So now we are snuggling (only when he lets us) a 20 pound toddler when he is not running all over the house screaming “Dada”. We are so blessed to be his parents and love him beyond the moon. We think he likes us too, especially his sissy.

Now to ponder when we will decide to go through with another round of in vitro…… for now please send all your good vibes and sweet thoughts our way as we look in that direction.

My Labor Story

My due date was approaching and we started walking a lot the last week, well what we thought would be the last week of pregnancy. I didn't really want to go into labor while my mom (grandma) was out of town so we just walked a few nights during the week. I went in for my 40 week appointment after walking around the mall for 1.5 hours. When the doctor checked me and told me that there had been no progress made in the last week.... it was a bit disappointing. We looked up all the at home ideas for inducing labor. I tried eating lots of pineapple, we went out for Mexican food, kicked the soccer ball around with Nevaeh, did some more walking, tried acupressure points, before giving in and trying Castro oil on Sunday night. I drank the oil around 5:30pm before eating dinner. Went to bed about 9pm and started having contractions about 11pm. I just waited them out and all that really happened was I got cramping and had to use the bathroom. Around 3am all the cramping and contractions stopped. I went in to my appointment on Tuesday The 17th to have a NST test done. This test measures the babies heart rate and contractions.Everything was looking like little Mister was perfectly content inside my tummy. The nurse told me to hit every pot hole and speed bump on the way home and to drink lots of Raspberry leaf tea. I continued drinking the tea and even tried Castor oil on Wednesday afternoon and all it did was send me to the bathroom. I went back into the doctor on Friday for a second NST test and everything still looked good. Doctor checked me again and said that I had dilated to a 1.5 now but still hadn't effaced. We discussed the induction process and agreed that Sunday the 22nd was the day for induction. I continued to walk and drink the Raspberry tea throughout the weekend in hopes he would come on his own. But NO luck!! We checked into the hospital at 9:00pm on Sunday the 22nd. The nurse came in and checked my cervix for dilation and I was still at a 1.5, she also started me on Cytotec at 10:00pm. This medicine is supposed to help your cervix dilate. I wouldn't get checked again until 2:00am. I tried to take a nap but the nerves and excitement kept me from doing that. At 2:00am she came in and checked me and I had progressed to a 2, so she gave me another round of Cytotec and said to get some rest and wait another 4 hours. 6:00am was shift change so we got a new nurse. She checked me ans said I had made it to a 3 and that we could start on the pitocin. We started this at 6:30am and then the long slow process continued. I just wouldn't dilate. The nurse and doctor recommended that I get an epidural to help my body relax and hopefully dilate more. At about 2:00pm on Monday they checked me and said I had made it to 4cm. I finally agreed to the epidural in hopes that it would help me progress. I did not want to get an epidural from the get go but whatever was going to speed up the process I was game for. They came in around 2:30pm to do the epidural and shortly after my Doctor came in and broke my water. The waiting game continued. I was slowly progressing still and by 8:00pm I had made it to 6cm. We were all starting to have a little hope that he was on his way soon. By 10:30pm my epidural had worn off so the nurse had to refill the meds. She also checked me again and I was still at 6cm. She noticed that my cervix was starting to swell and that was a sign that things were not going well. At 10:50pm we decided that a C-Section was what needed to happen in order for this little man to come out. They brought in all of the needed dressings for both Johnny and I. They pumped me full of morphine so all of my body from the chest down was numb. They wheeled me back got me prepped and went to get Johnny. With all of the meds I had taken I was very nauseous and could hardly keep my eyes open while laying on the OR table. All that I remember was shaking really bad and the doctors telling me that I would feel a lot of pressure. Bentley Jayce was born at 11:53pm on Monday, May 23 2016. Weighing in at 9 pounds and measuring 22 inches long. Thank goodness we choose C-Section when we did because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and he was sunny side up. We are so blessed to have been given this little baby and are so grateful for this precious gift. We will cherish every moment we have with him.

Nursery Project

Even before I was pregnant I knew that if I had a boy I wanted a sports theme nursery. So once we found out we were gunna have a litter mister we began shopping right away. I wanted to more of a vintage type sports but that turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought.

I found the crib and dresser that I wanted right before Thanksgiving. I saw that Target was having a sale on the dresser so I bought that right away and then Target had a special that if I spent 75.00 on  Black Friday that I would get a coupon to save 20% on a future purchase. So I went ahead and made a trip to Target and got some necessity stuff so I could get the coupon. Well when it was time to use the coupon the crib that we wanted had got out of stock. Go figure. So I waited and waited and waited and it still never came back in stock. We found out through the manufacture that it was on back order until March. I decided that I would wait it out. Well then it got to be beginning of Feb and I started to freak out so I changed up what crib I wanted and we got that order (thanks to Grandma).

I changed out the knobs on the dresser so that it would match the sports theme. Our friend Reilyn made an awesome growth chart with the sports decals on it. And Johnny and Sean put up a floating shelf for accent pieces.

We set up the crib so that we could get a better idea on placement for the letters to spell out little mans name. They of course had to be hand painted first. ;)

I really wanted a glider chair but did not want to spend 600+ on one that was comfy and that matched the room so I found one on a local site and just threw a throw blanket over it for the time being and called it good.

Reilyn also helped us by hand painting each of the balls that became the side table. It turned out awesome. :) (It needs a little touch up paint still but I love it)

I got a couple of wall decorations and a cube stand to hold all of the extra stuff, and that completes the nursery.

I love it and I hope that as our little man gets older he will love it just as much.