We're on the move...

A week ago today, on February 15th, we bought a house! We had no intentions of buying a house this soon. We started looking last October and early November. We had decided that we were going to move to Kalona which is about 15 minutes north of Washington and would cut Steve's drive to work almost in half. We had looked at some model homes and decided on builder. We had actually decided on a subdivision that we wanted to build in and thought about August of 2013 was when we would start building.

Once we got pregnant, we realized that our plans needed to change. We could still build, but probably wouldn't be finished until after the baby got here. So we started looking and a found a house that we both really liked. Once we went and looked at it, I was sold, I just needed to convince Steve. That wasn't hard.

We took both of our parents through it and then decided to make an offer. It was a week of negotiations that Steve dealt with. I got nightly reports and gave a little input, but Steve handled it all.

Now we are packing because we close on April 1st. We also have to sell our house, so we are putting as many things as we can in storage and cleaning out. If you know of anyone looking for a cute rental property or starter house in Washington, we can hook them up!

I'm so super excited we are going from a little over 800 sq. ft. to over 2400! 1 bathroom to 3. I don't think I know what to do with all the room and storage!

We're PREGNANT!

Yes, we're pregnant. We.are.pregnant. I still can't believe it and there are times that I have to remind myself, but it's true...we are having a baby.

We tried for 2 years to be parents before we decided to adopt Jaxson. We had 3 IVF cycles, 2 miscarriages, and as a result of one of those cycles, we had 1 frozen embryo. In early fall, I got a letter from the University of Iowa that I needed to do something with our frozen embryo. We had paid for 2 years of freezing and either needed to pay up again or have it transferred. We decided to have it transferred.

On Nov. 19th, we had the egg transferred. I remembered being so calm. One of the doctors was part Korean and we talked about her wanting to adopt from Korea. Then our favorite ultrasound tech, Michelle, was there. She actually signed up for clinic duty because she saw our name on the schedule. Michelle is so good at her job and she was the one that was there for our miscarriages and helped me understand what was happening. 

On Nov. 29th, we found out we were pregnant, BUT my HCG was low. They want it to be 50 and mine was 34. My first thought was here we go again we're pregnant, BUT. I had to go in for a repeat beta test 4 days later. They want the number to double every 48 hours and since I was going 4 days later is should quadruple for be around 140. My HCG came back at 365. I was so excited. Hurdle #1 was over.

Then it was time to schedule our first ultrasound on Dec. 10th. With in vitro, there are lots of ultrasounds. Our first ultrasound was to see if there was a gestational sac and a yolk sac. Sorry, these pictures are not the best, but in the ultrasound we saw a two perfect sacs. Hurdle #2 done!

2 perfect sacs waiting for one perfect baby to form.

Our 3rd hurdle was the biggest one. This is when we (not really we because Steve and I have no idea what we are looking for) would see the heartbeat for the first time. To say we were scared is an understatement. We had NEVER seen a heartbeat before. We had come to this appointment before and were told your baby is not growing.

Our appointment was scheduled for Dec. 20th, but we were supposed to be getting a bad snowstorm, so I called to see if we could move our appointment to the 19th. I remember driving to pick Steve up at work and preparing myself for what could happen. I prayed and prayed and prayed and as we were walking to the clinic a sense of calm just came over me and I knew that everything was going to be ok.

During our appointment we saw the heartbeat, I'm going to be honest, I didn't see. I felt a little bit like Rachel on Friends because I didn't see it. I trust our ultrasound tech that it was there, but I couldn't see it myself. It was perfect 152 beats per minutes!

We were then released to a general ob/gyn, no more IVF doctors, no more waiting room 3. We picked a doctor and made our first appt.

Our first ob appt. was normal. There was blood work, patient history, and another ultrasound. For the first time, it looked like a baby! This time its heartbeat was 171 bpm.

Last Monday, we had our 13 week appointment. We had another ultrasound and everything is going great. The baby is growing well. I'm doing great. Our doctor said we are out of the danger zone and we could shout it from the rooftops and have we ever!

 

Everyone has been so supportive and happy for us! We want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. We are truly blessed by the people in our lives.

Looking forward to August 7, 2013 (or sooner) when the newest Brokaw makes their appearance!