Baby #2

Hello everyone!

Well, we recently went public with our announcement of baby #2. It's been an interesting journey to get here. If we'd had our way we'd already have a 5 month old baby on our hands, but things definitely did not go our way, and I learned a lot. I am not going to claim to know what it is to be infertile (since I'm obviously not), but I do have more empathy for those that cannot conceive. I am sharing more on here than I would normally share, but I have this feeling that I should.

Here it goes: After trying for a little while I finally got pregnant late September/early October of 2013, and then I miscarried the day before Thanksgiving. I was truly devastated. I know that miscarriages don't really affect some women, but it definitely affected me. I spent a lot of time crying or sleeping. I had never miscarried, and I don't have any women close to me that have miscarried, and so I didn't realize that I should have gone to see the doctor (the nurse on the phone also never told me that - very confusing). That contributed to the next mess.

I spent the next four months getting positive pregnancy tests, and then starting my period 2 or 3 days later. Talk about heartbreak. I finally called the doctor and he prescribed birth control. That was definitely NOT in my plans, but it made sense. I also learned while at that appointment that it will always be harder for us to conceive because of some female issues. Not impossible, obviously, but I'll never be a Fertile Myrtle.

There was one week when I was on my period, and crying all of the time, that I received 8 pregnancy announcements and 2 gender reveals. Talk about salt in the wound. I was genuinely happy for these people, but I could feel myself turning bitter at the timing. I finally wrapped up my birth control and started ovulation testing with great trepidation. Luckily,  I was ovulating and didn't need to start any medications.

Finally, just after our fourth anniversary, I got the positive pregnancy test, and it seemed to stick. There is only one OB clinic here for all of Pocatello, and so they run a tighter ship than my last doctor. Unless you've had multiple miscarriages they do not see you until 10 weeks. This had me very anxious because I was so worried about miscarrying again. I was very sick and fatigued which made things worse.

I finally went in at 10 weeks, but this time I wasn't going to see the doctor. He doesn't actually see you until 14 weeks. At this point we only told parents and my sister as I didn't want to spread the news and then miscarry again, but I felt some people needed to know.

I finally went back in at 14 weeks and heard the heartbeat. It was relieving, but I still wasn't satisfied. I still had this anxious, worried feeling that something was wrong with my baby. So, I still kept it a secret that we are expecting. They don't do ultrasounds here until the anatomy ultrasound, and my doctor scheduled me at 19 weeks to go in. I figured at that point I would be ready to share.

The day finally arrived where I got to see my baby! I was feeling almost sick at this point because I was supposed to be 19 weeks, and I still hadn't really felt my baby. Maybe a slight nudge or two here or there, but that was it. I was a basket case, and then we found out that Mr. Mitchell wasn't going to be able to make it. Fortunately, my sister was able to come to record the ultrasound for him. I had decided it must be a boy because the world is expecting so many baby girls right now (at least that's what my Facebook feed regularly says), but, surprise! We're having a girl!!

We also discovered that we're about 1 1/2 weeks behind what the doctor had said. This did not surprise me as he based the due date off of my last period, but the ovulation kit showed I ovulated very, very late in my cycle. The due date has been changed from January 25, 2015 to February 2, 2015. Tomorrow I will be 19 weeks. Despite only being about 17 weeks at the time of the ultrasound the technician is confident that it is a girl. She got a good view a few times and each time she'd say, "There's absolutely NOTHING there. You're having a girl." Along with finding out the gender and due date I learned that my baby is perfectly healthy. The relief was amazing. At that point I was BURSTING to share.

I went home and had my sister take a picture that I then emailed to all the siblings as an announcement:

I actually had to shove my tummy out quite a bit to
get a picture where it didn't just look like I've gained weight.

As soon as I had a response from all of my family members and close friends it was time to share with the world. I had an overwhelming response of love and support for which I am grateful. I have been a wreck my entire pregnancy, and I can now just bask in it and anxiously await the arrival of my sweet, little lady.

P.S. Here is a more accurate picture of my tummy taken a couple of days before we had the ultrasound:

My butt is still bigger than my belly.
(17 weeks - apparently)

Thank you to those of you who have been just as excited as we are about this pregnancy. You have no idea what is has meant to me.