Jade is going to be a.....

BIG SISTER!!

Most of you already know, but now that I'm 12 weeks, I wanted to officially announce that I'm pregnant!!!! We are super excited. Here is a little of our journey so far.

Most of you also know that we had to do Invitro Fertilization to get pregnant with Jade. This time we did it again. Yes, it is a sucky process and costs so much money, but we are grateful that there is a way for us to get pregnant and that now we know what we need to do. We are very grateful to have had it work the first try both times. This is not the norm so we know how blessed we are.

The proccess starts with a lot of hormone shots in the stomach. Usually around 3 a night. After you get pregnant it switches to shots in the butt. It is a long needle and you have to get one every night until you are 10 weeks pregnant. Those ones suck. Here is some of the needles I went through this cycle.

After your ovaries are nice and big and full of follicles (mine were the size of grapefruits), it's time for the surgery. It's not too bad, you are put to sleep and the doctor goes into your uterus with a needle and sucks out all of the follicles. This time around I had 36 follicles. Only 12 had eggs inside though. The eggs are then brought to the embryologist and they are fertilized. We have to pay an extra $1,000 to get the sperm injected right into the egg. Sometimes they let the eggs fertilize on their own. Out of the 12 eggs only 10 were fertilized. That might seem like a lot but we had the same number of eggs fertilize last time and only one ended up being good quality so I was nervous. The doctor said that my eggs are as if I were in my high 30's. I should have had more fertilize and more good quality eggs. We then wait 5 days and let the embryos grow and multiply. After the wait, it is the day of the transfer. There we learned that out of the 10, we had 2 good quality blastocysts. We put both in. After the transfer, I was on strict bed rest and no lifting of over 10 pounds for a long time.

10 days later you go in for a blood test and then wait all day for the nurse to call with the news. Right away you will have a good idea if you are pregnant with more than one. With Jade my HCG was a little over 100, so when the nurse called and told me my level was 520, I almost fainted. That is the average level for triplets!! We went straight to Dan's work to surprise him with the good news. Jade had a shirt on that said, big sister and on the back I wrote X2. Dan of course was excited, he has always wanted twins. I was excited and at the same time very scared.

My first ultrasound was at 5 weeks and there was only one sac. We were all very confused.

At 6 weeks, two sacs but only one heartbeat.

At 7 weeks, two hearbeats!! One was noticably smaller and the heartbeat was irregualar.

by 9 weeks, baby #2 was gone. The sac was still visible but no baby. It was crazy to me that in two weeks a baby that I saw was completely gone. It's called a vanishing twin and I guess it's pretty common. We were sad at first but it is for the better. The baby probably would not have been healthy and now it will be much easier on my body and our life in 7 months.

Ultrasound week 12, baby #1 still doing great and measuring almost a week bigger!

My due date is Jan 5, but I'm hoping it will come a week early like Jade.

Jade is so excited too. She talks about they baby daily and prays every night that the baby will grow healthy and strong.

We can't wait to find out what we are having. I have already had 5 ultrasounds and have 3 more before I'm 16 weeks, so I'm hoping one of those we will be able to tell. I 100% have no preference. Dan of course would like a boy, but I do like girls a lot.

I think because I have to go through so much to get pregnant I am blessed to not be sick. With Jade I wasn't sick really. Sometimes I would start to feel a little sick but I would eat and feel better. This time around I am not sick at all. Some nights I get a head ache but that is it. I know a lot of pregnant women who can't eat because nothing sounds good to them. I am the opposite. Everything sounds soo good to me. Maybe I'm not sick at all because I'm eating so much! Either way I'm grateful. I also was just cleared to start working out again, and I am so excited. It is so hard to go 4+ months doing NOTHING.I already feel like I'm showing so much more than with Jade. With her I didn't show until at least 6 1/2 months. I know this time will be different.

We are so excited for the future months and can't wait to meet this little baby!