I call her lightning

Having a one year old is a totally new experience. I will refer to AB as lightning in this post because I swear someone has put some in her diaper since her birthday.
She is into everything which is what every mom of a preemie wants desperately.

This week has been pretty tame. We went for her one year check up on Tuesday. Lighting screamed bloody murder when the doctor held her down to check her but the minute she was in my arms she stopped. I love the drama! Unfortunately, the shots were no joke this time. Now that lighting is turning into a typical child (only going to the Dr for check ups or when she's sick) I found the shots to almost be unbearable. Up until this point I have had to be pretty calloused and wouldn't allow myself to get emotional. She pulled the no sound cry out on me; about did me in. Overall it's been a great week. We are getting ready for her small dinner party birthday on Saturday night. Derrick's mom and sister are flying in tonight. I'll post pictures of everything.

Life, Meatballs and photos!

So one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog more. I could have said I would blog every day but come on people that would be a big fat FAIL right off the bat. So my goal is to blog more than once a month.  Derrick and I got a new camera from his parents for Christmas and my goal is to one learn how to use it and two, actually put them on my blog. Number two will have to wait a big because our USB cords are in storage. This is a new journey for Derrick and I because we have never been good at taking photos. New year, new babies, new photos!

Christmas:
We went back to Arkansas for Christmas. Let me just say that I've turned into a horrible traveler.  Derrick said he never wants to take me that long in the car pregnant again. Frankly, I completely agree with him. I was like a fussy toddler with no nap that is teething. I just couldn't get comfortable and would have sudden outbursts letting it be known; they always involved having to stop (poor guy). So we've decided any future trips will be taken by airplane for this baby mama.
The whole trip all I could think about was that next Christmas we will have 7 month old twins crawling around!! It's not something I can really comprehend or even want to at this point. It's just all a little crazy; but good crazy. We had a great time with our family and friends; we are truly blessed.

14 wk Dr's appointment:

As you can see we could not find out the gender. So we're hoping for our next appointment on the 24th. I think it's two boys but would love one girl. We'll see. We know they are both precious miracles whatever gender they end up being.
The doctor said both look great. She measured my stomach and I'm measuring in at 20wks for a single baby:). I can't believe I'm measuring 6wks ahead. I can't imagine what 30ish weeks is going to look like. Derrick and I are going to start taking consistent photos of me on Sundays so we can see the growth. Plus that's when we know I'll be showered and dressed :)!

Weekend:
Tonight we are going to a friends house to enjoy their new fire pit. I bought some new raspberry chipolte sauce and I'm super excited about making meatballs in the crockpot.

Wiggly Wiggly Kids

Just wanted to share real quick about our Dr's visit yesterday. I had my 10 week visit and ultrasound. Below is a video of Baby "A" so you can see his heart beat and how much he moved. I am continually humbled by how good God is through this process. I didn't even see them move last week and now they couldn't stop moving!! Crazy. Both babies are growing great and their heart beats are strong. They did not find the subchorionic bleed either so that's great. Next week I see a specialist to check the babies for signs of spina bifida and down syndrome I'm sure everything will be fine. Hopefully she will release me from moderate bed rest back to normal.

Baby "A" measuring 10 weeks 4 days!

Jaden is trying to commentate in the background.

Both Beautiful Babies

First Trimester

This Sunday I will be 10 weeks!! One more month and I'll be waving Buh-Bye to my first trimester. Can't believe time is going so quickly. We can't wait to find out what we're having!!  I'm really trying to rest as much as possible! 

Thanksgiving:
Derrick and I drove to Arkansas for Thanksgiving and stayed a week seeing friends and family. We had an offer on the house so Derrick was getting all the requested repairs completed (buyer backed out after work was done, poor Derrick). The movers came to pack all our stuff up; man was it nice not to have to pack hardly anything. The day before Thanksgiving we had a little scare. I woke up to some unexpected bleeding and we rushed to the hospital. In the car I looked at Derrick and said "I will not be afraid. God did not bring us this far to take us back again. His faithfulness is the same no matter what the outcome of this is, we can't control it." We prayed and both felt a peace. God really is faithful. Well come to find out I have a subchorionic bleed in one of the placentas which means the placenta has separated from the blood source a bit. The babies heart beats were great and they said it will heal on it's own. My doctor put me on moderate bed rest. Derrick's definition of this was strict bed rest which I know I should appreciate but not doing anything was driving me crazy. In 6-7 months I will have plenty to do and look back at this time with fond memories.
We really enjoyed seeing all our wonderful family. Both our moms really went out of their way to make us extremely comfortable in their homes.
Jaden and Mel came back with us to Georgia for the next three and a half weeks. I am tired, but really am really enjoying having them here. Jaden and I went to the park today, bought new shoes, and had milk shakes; we're liv'n it up!

Babies at 9 weeks

 

We are so in love with these precious miracles. I got to hear their heart beats; so amazing. Caring these babies is the most humbling thing I have done in my life. To know that they are so dependent is such a reminder of how I need to rely on the Lord.

Double Blessings

Derrick and I went to meet with our new doctor on Wednesday afternoon. It was so nice he was able to leave work and meet me there. Definitely not something I was used to in Russellville. It is a huge perk of his new job. As long as he's not in class he'll be able to make all our "big" baby appointments. I was so nervous and excited before the appointment. Our blood work led us to believe it might be multiples so I really wanted to find out. So we found out that we are having twins!! There were two sacs and two little beginnings of babies. I was just 5 weeks on Wednesday which is really early to try to see anything, but we saw them. We are nervous, excited and overwhelmed by God's faithfulness.

 

Dr. Julieann Parker

Above is our new doctor. I really liked her. She took the time to answer all my questions; which we all know I had a bazillion!! So I will be going to the doctor once a week for the first trimester because we have IVF babies and I will need to be seen more. My second and third I will hopefully get to go like normal. I will be having a sonogram next week too. :) I can't get enough of seeing those precious kiddo's. My nephew Jaden refers to the babies as Spiderman and Superman. So that's what we've started calling them until we find out what we are having. 

Please pray that we live in peace!! It's hard to not have fear set in. Will both make it?? Is everything going to be ok?? I'm dead set on enjoying this time and resting in the fact that God gives and he is in control. I think it's really funny that we are having twins. It's like God is blessing us with more than we could have asked for. Derrick loves to say "Two for the price of one"! :)

 

Psalm 30:4-5 (MSG)

All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
      Thank him to his face!
   He gets angry once in a while, but across
      a lifetime there is only love.
   The nights of crying your eyes out
      give way to days of laughter.

Now what.....

Derrick and I are very excited to announce that we are pregnant. I had bloodwork done yesterday
and my beta came back over 600. Which means we either have a strong strong pregnancy going with one precious baby or we have two :).
So the Dr's office calls yesterday and tells us the good news, I hardly had a response. I've known the whole time I was pregnant and it felt absolutely wonderful to hear it. But all of a sudden I started realizing this is real!! We spent so much time and effort to get here, now what do we do now that we've got what we wanted all these years! It's going to have to take a while to just sink in. Oh my gosh we are pregnant!! So the now what phase begins....
We told our parents yesterday which was a dream we've had for a long time. The truth is we've dreamt about this for so long, believed in God regardless of Dr's words that its just weird to even say it. "We're going to be parents!"

We are not the same people that started this journey. Our life motto is God is faithful. As you read this I want to encourage you to dive into the desires of your heart that God has given you. As you identify them grab hold as hard as you can and dive into Jesus. I reminded God every morning that He had promised me something and I would not let go. I didn't care about how it looked anymore I just knew that He would fulfill his promise. I stand praying for all of the couples that long to hear the wonderful news we got yesterday. I will never forget the feelings and pain but will rejoice that our God is faithful!!
Thank you God that you never grow weary, that you never give up, and that your word never returns void. You have heard my cries in the night, my longing for this child. We will praise you our whole life because of your wonderful ways regardless of the outcome you are a good and faithful Father!

The biggest day of my life!

I've waited way too long to write this, but here it goes. Derrick and I arrived at Fertility Partnership at 8am Wednesday, October 12th to conceive our precious bundle or bundles of joy!! All of this hard work had finally paid off. The whole morning was pretty surreal. Just the fact that we were even given the opportunity to have a baby has been a miracle in itself. The actual transfer only lasted about 30 minutes. I had to drink TONS of water so I was ready to get the show on the road. Can I just say we absolutely love Dr. Simckes!!  I am so grateful that God allowed our paths to cross.

The cute couple right before their whole life changed:)!

So now we wait! Derrick flew back to Georgia and I drove to Arkansas for a week. The next step will be for me to take a blood test next week to make sure it all worked. So we're in the two week wait. Because anyone who knows me realizes I LOVE to wait!! Believe it or not I'm doing fairly well with not going crazy.

God gives life and He is good!