1st Belly Pic

You're forewarned...there are many more to come! I've had some requests so here it is in all its glory at 10 weeks 2 days. At this point most of it is still bloat (or that top ramen that I HAD to have for lunch). Although when I lay flat I can feel my uterus in my pelvis. It kind of feels like a hard tennis ball. My uterus is now a little bigger than a grapefruit and the little one is supposed to triple in size in the next 3 weeks. I love how I can now feel and see the changes happening in my body. I honestly can't wait until I have a nice, round baby bump! I've been waiting for a long time for it. Happy Halloween everyone!

10 fingers and toes at 10 weeks

I'm 10 weeks today and still feeling pretty good. Just the same nausea and exhaustion that can be dealt with. The baby now has fingers and toes that are separated. I can't wait to see them in the next u/s. The baby is the size of a prune which I think is a little gross. I think they could have chosen a fruit that isn't all shriveled up but oh well, it's probably pretty accurate. The baby is probably a little shriveled and wrinkly! Nothing else to report, pretty lazy here at the Vann household. Other than the enormous amount of leaves that are falling in our backyard and need to be picked up we don't have much going on this weekend. We are ditching out of all of our Halloween parties because it sounds like too much work. I keep telling myself that my energy will come back in a few weeks and I hope it's true!

Shooting up in the bathroom!

That's right, I'm now officially a bathroom druggie! At J's office no less! Yesterday morning I was getting ready and J had already left for work when I realized we had forgotten one very important detail of our Friday Morning routine...the progesterone shot. I called J and rather than make him come all the way home I decided to pack up the meds and go to him. I loaded the syringe, quickly finished getting ready and ran out to his office. There was no where to do it except for the men's bathroom and luckily the office wasn't very busy yesterday morning so there weren't that many people around. I had to just lean over the sink and he stuck the needle in my bum. It was definitely one for the records. Only a few more weeks of these and we're done for good. Hopefully we can do the rest in the comfort of our own home!

On another note, in case any of you men out there were wondering, this is how you give your pregnant wife a heart attack! This is where I find J today when I look out the window! Great, just what we need are more Dr's and hospitals. Luckily he finished without a scratch and I was very happy to see him climb down that ladder for the last time!

9 weeks 1 day...but who's counting?

I hit the 9 week mark yesterday! Only a few more and I'll graduate to the 2nd tri and I'm really looking forward to that. All is normal on the home front. We had an uneventful weekend last week and I'm looking forward to another one this weekend. I'm exhausted so I'm really happy just hanging out at home as much as possible these days. You'd think that since my bedtime is now between 8-9 I'd be rearing to go during the days but miraculously I'm still tired and the nausea doesn't help! Our next u/s appt isn't until the 19th of Nov. so we have another month to wait to see our little guy again. By then it is going to look so big! I can't wait to see it moving around in there and see all of its little features. Apparently this week our little olive is starting to really look like a baby with distinct facial features.

We Graduated

That's right we graduated from the infertility clinic on Friday. I have mixed feelings about this. It was a little bitter sweet. I feel like we really got to know our nurses and our Dr. and we really enjoyed them. On the other hand, we are now normal! I am having a normal pregnancy and I'm no longer classified as an infertile or an IVF patient. Although I will always be infertile and it is a label that will stick with me for the rest of my life and has also forever changed me, I can now for the time being, move on and join the rest of the normal fertiles at the OB for the rest of my pregnancy. When we were leaving the fertility clinic on Friday they told us to be sure to bring our baby in and show it off and I said I'd be back in a few years so we can have #2! I know I will always have a special connection to this clinic. They have given me the greatest gift and they are also harboring our 8 little embryos that will someday become our future children.

Our little raspberry is growing right along and it's heart rate was up to 162 bpm. It is actually growing ahead by 3 days which puts me at 8w4d today. I can't believe we are this far already. It feels so much more meaty to be able to say 8 or 9 weeks, it is actually becoming real! I'm a little worried that our baby is growing so big so fast, although he is still so small. Jimmy weighed over 9lbs when he was born and this scares me to death. I'm not sure if the husband's weight when born has anything to do with how big your baby will be but It's on the list to ask the Dr. If we do have a huge baby it's all Jimmy's fault! It definitely has nothing to do with those cheeseburgers I've been craving!

I swear I already have a little baby bump. I had a head start with IVF on the weight gain but I have a feeling I'm going to be showing pretty early. I'll take our 1st baby bump pic this week so you can see what I'm talking about.

Here is a pic of our little bean as of Friday. We are so in love!

Growing a baby...

Everything is going perfect so far! My symptoms are minimal and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still ravenous and it hits me quickly. All of a sudden I get a feeling that I need to eat NOW and I get pretty queasy if I don't but as long as I keep food close by I'm fine. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm growing a baby. It's little systems are forming and it already has hands and feet that are waving around.

We had our 1st appt at the ob-gyn this AM and all is well. We saw the baby again via ultrasound and it's little heart was beating. We have another u/s at the fertility clinic on Friday when they will measure the heart rate and we will be able to see the little raspberry in more detail. I love having all of these appts so I can keep an eye on this little bean and make sure it is growing right on track!

This weekend my parents spent the night on Friday and brought us a little package of fun baby stuff, a maternity shirt and a bella band. On Sat my mom and I went shopping and my dad and Jimmy went to The Man Store (Home Depot) and looked at a few things for the house. On Sat. night we went over to our friends Mark and Janna's house with Morgan & Nicole and the precious girls, Sophie and Ella. They are just the sweetest little things and getting so big! Here are a few pics of the little rascals!

The joys of pregnancy

I couldn't be more happy about my nausea, exhaustion and bloating. I've been waiting to feel this for a long time. I feel so blessed to have our little blueberry growing away inside of me. I tried to imagine being pregnant so many times and it always seemed like such a far off thing for me. I can't believe it is actually here and I thankfully have the symptoms to prove it! Right now our little bean is the size of a blueberry and is forming over 100 cells every minute. I could sit around and daydream all day about what is happening inside of me. I just love it!

Not much else going on in the Vann household lately. Just lots of baby talk. We have our 1st ob appt next Tuesday and I'm hoping they do an u/s so we can see the little guy (or gal) again. J and I want to thank you all for your well wishes, congratulations and kind words. It's been a long journey and we feel so blessed to have so many great friends and family members supporting us.

One Bun!!!

The wait is over. I feel like this week had been dragging because I have been so anxious for our ultrasound this morning to find out what is going on inside of me. The news...we have 1 strong, healthy, growing little baby inside of me. It was measuring 2 days ahead at 6 weeks 1 day and it had a strong little heartbeat. We are thrilled! Our lives just became so much simpler! Although we had really become used to the idea of 2 babies we are so happy to have 1 little bean to bond with. My due date is May 28th and we will go back in for another ultrasound at the fertility clinic in 2 weeks. My 1st appt with the obgyn is on Oct 14 so we still have quite a few appts coming up. Hopefully we will have several more chances to see our little baby soon! Below is a video of our ultrasound this am. If you look closely enough you can see the heartbeat!