Interesting OB Appointment

Yesterday was an interesting day. I had my first appointment with my OB, who I really like. He did the typical stuff - some cultures and a pap since it has been a year. Took my BP which was high, but falling by the time I was leaving so he's not worried about it. Then he says "do you want to listen to your baby?" and I was like "ARE YOU KIDDING!? YES!". So he gelled up my belly and put the ultrasound wand on there. I could barely see the screen, but the baby wasn't moving and I didn't see a heartbeat (which was so easy to see on internals) so I had a little heart attack for about 4 seconds until I heard the incredibly loud beating of my baby's heart. It was so fast and beautiful. It's weird having the wan WAY down on your abdomen and hearing a heartbeat, but it was so cool. Tomorrow I get to look at the baby for a while at our NT and that's exciting.

Then we went into his office and talked over all of my questions. I was nervous about how we could tell the difference between pre-eclampsia and just.. my kidneys doing what they do. He mentioned bp and swelling, which already come with the territory, but he said there are blood tests as well, and that would be the deciding factor before an induction. When I told him the MFM said she wanted to induce at 38 weeks he said "38, 37.. we'll praise God if we get there" which was unnerving. My nephrologist and this OB said since my kidneys are filtering normally I should be ok, so this was disconcerting. I know I've done everything I could and gotten approval from everyone to even begin but it's still  freaking me out and I hope everything is OK.

I also decided yesterday that I think I want to make one of these for the baby:

It's a puff quilt found at the amazing Make it and Love it blog. Though this one is actually made by Honeybear Lane. I sort of love these, but I'm afraid my sewing skills aren't up to snuff so I may buy this one and make something a little less difficult. We'll see how I feel once I know the gender. I really love these quilts! I really want to make something for my baby, and I think this weekend I'm going to start organizing the house. I was in my room today and said to myself "This is a horrible mess!" because it really, really is. I'm going to get some totes and start packing some things away that I won't need for a while, and get things ready to take to my parent's house to store. I need to consolidate our DVDs into one tower, and throw out the cat litter box container that broke a year ago. I want the house to be organized, which means trying to convince Andy to break down his computer and get a new desk since the computer doesn't work at all. That won't go over well but I'm going to try. Our house is small and we need all the extra space we can get. I'm so excited to have a 3 day weekend to work on all of this!!

Memories

I've been reading a lot of posts from friends who are still struggling to achieve a pregnancy. I wanted to write something here that I hope to be encouraging because I remember all of those thoughts and feelings so incredibly well.

Back in the beginning of our journey we had a lot of tough decisions to make. We got married in October of 2009 and had planned to start trying right away. Not so long before that we discovered that my kidney disease was actually pretty bad. It was progressive, and the doctor told us to have kids as soon as possible. I'd been diagnosed with PCOS at 17, and Andy was showing signs of some sort of problem, so we both went to the doctor shortly after the wedding. We'd decided to postpone TTC due to the medication I was on for my kidneys. It was considered "safe" but I was certain they hadn't studied it in the doses I was using, so we decided against it.

To my surprise, all my tests came out normal. My FSH was in the 4s and I felt a lot better about things. Until we got Andy's test results, which indicated a pituitary tumor. If I recall, his prolactin was in the 300s. His S/A showed a total count of about 7 million, which wasn't enough to even try IUI. We were fairly devastated, and we started TTC in February while Andy was on meds for the tumor, knowing our chances were just about 0. Needless to say, our attempts were fruitless. Each month brought negative tests, despite Andy's improving numbers, which finally got high enough to try IUI in July. We were so excited until the MFM doctor told me to cancel. She said my kidneys weren't in a good enough spot for a baby, and we needed to try to help them out first. Devastated isn't a word I'd use for this. Completely heartbroken might be a better term.

I went back on meds, and they did nothing. I was losing more and more protein from my kidneys, thinking all the time that  at some point they were going to stop filtering and it would be too late to have a baby. I spent a lot of time crying. And trying on our own, and seeing blank white sticks. Eventually my nephrologist called the MFM and said the medicine wasn't going to work, this was the best it was going to get, and if I was going to have a baby, the best time was now. After consulting with her, she actually agreed, but we decided we didn't want to waste any time and moved directly to IVF. My RE was on board, and our insurance approved us right away. The one bright spot to that horrid year was that Maryland has a mandate that insurance companies must approve IVF if there is male factor. We didn't have to wait another year or anything.

When I started the IVF process I was incredibly excited. I though "Finally I'm doing something that really has a chance at working!" They put me on a high responder protocol and I was ready to go in April after a month of BCPs. Egg retrieval was one of the lowest points of my journey. I remember having 22 antral follicles, but only 12 developed. And we got 6 eggs at retrieval. I cried my eyes out. It was embarassing and I was a sniveling mess. 6 eggs? Me? I couldn't believe it. And we didn't know if anything would fertilize with MFI. The next day we got the call that 5/6 were mature, and 3 fertilized. I had 3 embryos. I tried so hard to be OK with it, but it was hard. And it was hard the next day when I only had 2 (Now that I look back on it I know these are decent numbers. That many people don't even get that many. At the time I was living in a fantasy land where my body responded perfectly and I did a 5 day and had 5 embryos to freeze and everything was perfect. So I hope this isn't offensive. It was just not what I expected. Live and learn I guess?). I'd just assumed we'd do a day 5 transfer, and it didn't happen. I assumed they'd put both in since I only had 2 and it was day 3, but that didn't happen either. And two weeks later, I knew I wasn't pregnant. I'd taken tests, knowing what the outcome would be. I remember getting my beta drawn and the nurse said "You don't look excited!" and I told her I wasn't. With good reason. IVF number one had failed. This would be low point number 2.

I remember at that point thinking "If IVF didn't even work for us, that's it. I will never see 2 lines. I will never hold my own baby in my arms. I will never feel my little one moving around in my body". I remember mourning the loss like it had been a confirmed pregnancy. Why didn't it sick? Why did we get so few? Were my eggs bad? Was I too overweight? Did Andy have more issues? I cried for days because I missed my baby. The little embryo I had a picture of that looked so perfect. I cried because I thought it would never happen. How could IVF fail us? We were such good candidates. And how would we afford another one? The only way I knew to get through it was to keep looking forward, so I tried my best to focus on another cycle.

I couldn't figure out why my RE wanted to use the same protocol. At this point I just wanted to get started, so we skipped our WTF and went forward. I kept thinking I was going to be one of those women for whom IVF simply did not work. And all the while I watched other people have successful first attempts. And friends get knocked up on their honeymoons. And I cried every time someone in my real life got pregnant, and I felt horrible for that. We went forward, still excited, but still wondering what was wrong. Still thinking it might not ever happen. That maybe I simply could not get pregnant.

Our second attempt was clinically much better. We got 22 follicles, and retrieved 12 eggs. We had 5 embryos, and by day 5, 4 of them still looked perfect. We were pushed to a day 6 transfer so they could pick the best one. I was a little dumbfounded, and infinitely more positive. We transferred 1 embryo and froze 2. This was the cycle I'd imagined the first time. about 6 days later I knew I was pregnant. I had this stretching feeling in my abdomen that I just knew was a good sign. I was terrified and excited to test. Terrified that I was wrong, excited that maybe I was right. And when I finally peed on that stick, 2 lines appeared instantly, and I broke down in tears. The fear faded instantly on seeing those two lines. I could get pregnant. I didn't know how it would turn out, but it was possible. After so many negative tests and thinking it couldn't happen, I... ME... I got two lines.

I'm 11w5d today, and I'm still in shock sometimes. And I read the journals of other infertiles and I remember all of the feelings of doubt an uncertainty. Of thinking it would never happen. That IVF was the end of the road and if even that didn't work....

But I'm here. And I'm still praying every day that my baby is OK. And I hope that soon all of my friends are here too. And I'm cheering you guys on so hard.

Cool Revelations

This weekend was an interesting one. My nausea seems to just get worse and worse, but I didn't have a lot to do, so I took it easy most of Saturday. We went out to dinner for my SIL's birthday which was nice. It's so rare that my parents, brother, SIL, and Andy and I all get together. Usually someone is working. Somehow we got to talking about the order of birthdays. My dad said "Matt's next, then Erika, then Andy, then mom, then me". My mom broke in and said "Actually chicky is before me". OMG! It's true. My birthday is 11/22, Andy's is 11/30, then chicky should be born 3/1. My mom is 3/9. How cool is it that my beautiful new baby will be at my mom's next birthday party!? It's out of control awesome.

It started to get really crazy with the wind and rain towards the end of dinner so we all went home. Andy and I watched some tv. The power flickered but didn't go off for more than a second, which was incredibly fortunate since a large portion of our town lost power. There are a lot of street lights out, downed trees, and I passed a road closed due to flooding on the way to work today. Irene took quite a toll on my area but Andy and I were very fortunate! On Sunday I was feeling really sick, so I laid on the couch ALL DAY and Andy took care of me. I've begun to dread the morning waking hours because I'm always sick now, and just trying hard not to throw up. But I've officially got 199 days to go! OMG!!!! Under 200. And NT is on Thursday so I get to see my baby up close and personal. I'm so freaking excited.

Everything is exciting right now. I have this amazing little person growing inside me. I'm looking forward to everything even more because of it. Christmas especially! I'm just so happy to be here and I'm so in love. I'll post pictures and maybe video on Thursday.

Dear Mrs. E

I've been trying to post on your blog and my computer hates me. SO... I'm SO excited for you. You got a great number of eggs and I hope your fert report is awesome. I can't wait to hear how everything goes and for you to get a BFP! I'm so hopeful for you. Take it easy and rest. I'm thinking of you!!

Ouch. Times 40.

I love being pregnant, but it's becoming increasingly clear that being pregnant does not love me back. It's a sad story of unrequited love. That I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Seriously. That doesn't change that it is very painful. My insurance won't pay for more Zofran until September, so I'm sticking it out. Yesterday was OK but this morning sucked. And I'm pretty sure I have narrowed down the problems with my ass hurting to sacroilliac pain. I'm not going to sit here and complain constantly because many people would kill to be where I am, and I am so incredibly thankful. With that said, though, I'm in constant pain and standing up is excrutiating.

The above picture shows, very accurately, where the pain is. If I rub that area I can feel it. It keeps getting worse so I need to talk with my OB on Tuesday.

In other news, I wore maternity clothes to work yesterday and today. They're comfortable, and most of my clothes were dirty. The first thing my team lead said is "I can totally tell you're pregnant now!". Frankly I think I look exactly the same. I can feel my uterus starting to poke up, and my lower belly is getting hard, but I think it looks the same. Not everyone does though, and that's cool. So far I've done a great job of picking out the right sizes and that's been nice as well.

I'm 11 weeks today - just 1 week until my NT!!!!

Shopping (again).

This weekend I got to go shopping with Andy's mom. It was pretty cool for the two of us to get to hang out because that never, ever happens, and I love his mom (have I ever mentioned how cool it is to get along with your in-laws?). We went to Kohl's first and I bought two sleepers, one of which has an octopus on it (yay!). Andy's mom bought me the cute little bear suit I wanted since it was like $15 cheaper than at the Gap where I found it originally.

LOVE IT.

Then we went to Burlington Coat Factory, which is, incidentally, my new favorite store. They had the Graco Lauren set set up and I fell in love. It was set up in Espresso, too. Andy liked it and said we could get it, so now I've decided on a crib!

My NT scan is just over a week away, which is pretty exciting, but there's nothing else to report!

Hi! I Love You!

This is Zofran. Zofran and I are very good friends. I had my (short and pointless) OB appointment yesterday. They asked how I was with morning sickness and I said that I'd taken the day off because I couldn't move without dry heaving or trying to throw up. Enter: Zofran. I've taken it twice now and I feel pretty good. It doesn't make me not dry heave, but it makes me not nauseated. I know that doesn't make sense, but it is what it is. I still don't have a great appetite (Up 2 pounds total as of this morning, but honestly I think the first weight was off and I haven't gained anything) but I don't feel sick, and that, my friends, is awesome.

I've been not taking my Lexapro because it makes me nervous, but my body has proven that it's not a good idea right now. My OCD has been horrendous and I need some help dealing with it. My doctors said I needed it and hubs assures me things will be fine.

In other news, I'm keeping my dress for the wedding. I've decided to wear it with black tights, and I think that will be fine since it's in September.

Nothing else is going on. I'm 10 weeks tomorrow and I can't believe it. I feel like I'm still so early but when I look at how far I've come (I've known for 6 weeks now!) it's weird. Each week seems to go by so incredibly fast. I'm sure that will only get worse when little one gets here, but for now I'm enjoying every minute I get with an inside baby.

Frozen Yogurt for Lunch - Pt. 2

Little one is not letting up on the morning sickness! I didn't feel great Saturday, but it could have been worse. Sunday, however, was a mess! Andy and I got into a big argument in the morning, which wasn't fun because he was going to spend the day with my family helping build a deck, and I was going to spend the day with my friends (planned before the family thing). It sucked, but he's been going through a lot of drama with his friends, and spending the day with my family was "just what [he] needed". Which was good to hear. I, on the otherhand, did not have a great day.

I met one of my friends at noon, and I started really feeling awful just before I went in the mall. We started walking around and it just got worse. I couldn't find a dress in Motherhood, which was disappointing, but they had much better clothes in store than they do online which was pretty neat. I didn't buy anything there, but we did come across a Van's outlet and I am in need of some new non-work shoes for fall, so I bought these:

As I was about to leave I noticed they had teeny baby Vans.  Including these:

They're almost the exact same shoe but in 0-3 month sizes!!! If I knew the gender I would absolutely have bought them. These work for an adult female, but not a teeny baby girl. I got a $20 coupon, though, so I'm buying baby Vans when I find out the gender!

We went to Macy's shortly thereafter, and they were having an AMAZING sale on Men's clothes, so I bought Andy 4 shirts for $35. Just one of the shirts was $50 originally!

I was feeling pretty good after that, and got through getting my hair cut, but at dinner... yikes. I felt awful. I kept wishing I could teleport myself home. It was a long drive, but when I finally got home, Andy and I made up and cuddled on the couch. He kept offering to get me things, and got me tylenol for the headache I'd developed. I went to bed thinking I'd feel fine in the morning. No such luck. I actually got up at 12:30 feeling completely nauseated, but managed to not throw up. I got back to bed and felt like crap in the morning, but kept everything down by some miracle. I drank a coke, which always helps. I try not to do much caffeine, but it's only 35mcg and "they" say 150 a day is OK. That helped a lot, but I still feel kind of crappy, so here I sit, again, eating frozen yogurt for lunch. But it's damn good!



Baby Clothes - For MY Baby!!

I've been wanting to buy something for the baby for some time, but I always get really nervous and think I'm going to jinx myself. I know this is silly, and I feel like I tried so hard to have this baby I should be allowed to finally purchase something for my own baby. After our ultrasound I am starting to finally feel a little more reassured. I'll feel even better after the NT scan, but I finally went out and bought something. I've had my eye on this sleeper set for a while. Andy doesn't want me to get yellow because he thinks it's too girly if we have a boy (I'm getting a ducky sleeper with duck feet and he'll deal) so I found this great set in green at Target.

The pattern is actually little frogs. It's adorable. And I found a matching hat and mitten set - the kind that you put on your baby to keep it from scratching its face. They're TINY and so incredibly cute. I wanted to get 3-6 or 6-9 because I know everyone's going to want to buy me newborn stuff, but they only had 0-3 so I got them and I'm in love. I can't believe my little human is going to fit into these teeny outfits! I was once again awed by the sweet little baby girl headbands and dresses. I want to know if it's a boy or a girl so bad!

I'm feeling very nesty, so I think I'm going to try to start gethering things up to get the nursery ready. I have a number of baby things I want to keep all in the same place instead of scattered throughout the house. I told Andy I'd like to have the room cleared out by December but I think I'd rather go with November. I'll be 24 weeks on Thanksgiving, and I need time to steam clean the floors once everything is out... and it's a lot of stuff. We have a whole bed, a desk, a tv, tons of totes and clothes in the closet, and a bunch of random stuff. Plus I need to re-paint the bookcase my dad made. And I'm going to want to get some of this done before I'm huge, and with enough time to get all the furniture set up and account for the baby possibly coming early - in February. I think if I want everything done by January, it needs to be cleared out by November, so I'm going to try to start boxing things up and sorting through it. 

Sometimes I still can't believe this is actually happening and I'm so incredibly blessed and excited. I'm finally preparing my home for a brand new, gorgeous little baby and I am so happy!

Ultrasound Photos

I wanted to post the clear ultrasound photos we got this morning, so here they are!

I Love Today!

I think this morning might be the best morning I've had in my life to date. We had our 8w5d ultrasound and it was amazing. The baby is starting to resemble an actual human, and we saw it wiggle! I didn't see it at first so they held the wand still and it just did this little baby wiggle. Then the doctors started wiggling which was hysterical. Baby is measuring 8w6d (the sac is measuring over 9 weeks!) with a heartbeat of 175! YAY! We got a ton of amazing pictures, but this one is my favorite. It's a cell phone picture but I'm going to scan them in and post more later.

You can see its little arm and leg buds, and it's waving hello! So we were very excited and I couldn't stop giggling. Andy rubbed my belly and called the baby "little wiggler" which was so cute. Then when I got in to work I had a paper bag on my chair, and inside of it was this:

I don't know if I have mentioned it on here but I LOVE sharks, so my coworker got me this 12M "Danger" shirt. SO CUTE.

I'm starting to feel a lot more relaxed. I'll feel even better after the NT scan but I feel good now that the baby looks great. I'm really going to work on my sodium because this baby needs me to lose as little protein as possible. We are so in love with this little thing. I actually teared up saying goodbye to the RE and my nurse. They've been so amazing and I just don't know how to thank them for this sweet little baby. Today I am so happy.



Doctors and a Weekend Away

I had my appointment with the nephrologist this morning. He was an hour late, so of course my dad and I were a little nervous. We didn't know why we were there in the first place. As always, there was good news and bad news. The bad news is that my protein loss from my kidneys is still very high. Higher than last time. The good news is that he thinks the measurements are off. He says that he uses a ratio of protein to creatinine, but my creatinine is much higher than it should be so he thinks the whole ratio is actually lower. We don't know how much lower, but.. lower is good. And my creatinine stayed the same at 1.14, so we're still looking good there. He expects it to go down during pregnancy which is kind of cool. So we were worried for nothing. The only thing he says I can do right now to help is watch my sodium intake. This has been extremely difficult for me because all my stomach wants is pizza and fast food. Which is horrible anyway, but even thinking of things like mashed potatoes makes my stomach turn. So I have to find a way to balance my sodium intake with the needs of my pregnant belly. He emphasized the sodium a lot, and said he thinks it will even help with my protein, so I have to try to keep it down to what the FDA recommends, which is 2300mg a day. This is no easy task. When we were leaving he asked me to make an appointment for after my next one in November. The guy books up so fast his next available appointment was March 5th. Yes.. MARCH 5th. I said I'd take it, and my dad said "Uhm.. you might want to think about that a second". Right. Trying to have a baby March 1st.. the 5th probably isn't going to work out! So I had to make the appointment for April! Meaning not next time, but the time after, I'll be bringing my 1 month old!!

In other news, my ultrasound is tomorrow and I'm excited. 3 more days until I have a fetus! And 3 weeks until my NT scan! That's super cool. I'm trying to get to the beach later in September with my girlfriends and I'm really excited. I am in dire need of a weekend of relaxation at the beach and my aunt has a condo there so it would be free! Andy will be away at a bachelor party if we get the weekend we want, so I'm really psyched and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. The water is really nice in September, and it'll be cooler at night so we can go walk on the boardwalk and maybe go to the haunted house or the Ripley's museum. I really like Ocean City so it's going to be a great time and I wish it was right now!!!

What A Night

After a night spent with the heating pad, my cramps are finally gone! I'm still not excited about the heating pad, but one of the places on the web said as long as it doesn't raise your core temp it's OK. And I had it outside my clothes. Unfortunately, when I finally woke up and sat up in bed, I immediately had to run downstairs to throw up. There was nothing in my stomach so it was pretty hard to throw up again, and it was just plain gross. I'm expecting broken blood vessels again but we'll see. Maybe not? IT really hurt my throat so now I'm working from home with ginger ale by my side. I'm so glad I didn't volunteer to cover someone else's work this morning because I would've had to be up at 7 and I probably would've been more sick. But I guess that means my morning sickness isn't gone lol.

I dunno what this baby is doing in there but I'm still pretty excited for the ultrasound on Tuesday now that I know it's growing and the heart is beating faster. I hope it's over 140 on Tuesday. It should be! I don't know why but I just feel like 140 is better. So we'll see how that goes, and we'll see if they have any idea why my cramps were so incredibly painful yesterday. I hope there's nothing wrong that they can see. But it'll be good to know from a specialist that there's no problem.

I'm hoping little one is OK. Oddly enough, throwing up this morning makes me feel better. I'll be 9 weeks this week and little one will be a fetus! I feel like I'm getting closer to second tri. It's taking forever but we're on the way!!

Update: Blood vessels officially broken. It's a good thing I wear glasses. 

Not So Fun ER Trip

I was a little crampy last night, but it wasn't a big deal. I went to sleep and got up feeling OK, so I took a shower and was planning on doing some housework. But at around 10:30 I started feeling cramps, and they kept getting worse. Eventually it got to the point where I really thought something was wrong and I decided I needed to go to urgent care. There was no one for me to call, and I had to do something. They didn't have an ultrasound machine at urgent care, though, so I went to the local hospital. They got me into a room right away and the pain got to the point where it was really hard to take and I was doubled over and in tears. Andy left work and met me at the hospital and arrived right about that time. They did some blood work (though they never gave me the results) and sent me for an ultrasound. The whole time I'm thinking "there's no way I can be in this much pain and everything could be OK". They started the ultrasound, and it was such a different experience for me because she wouldn't say anything, and the tech at the RE tells me everything. I asked her to turn the screen towards me and she did, and I saw the baby, which was a relief, but I hadn't been bleeding so I expected a baby. She took about 15 minutes and I thought I could see a heartbeat but it was hard to tell with the abdominal ultrasound. They're definitely not as clear. When she was done she told me the baby was measuring 8 weeks 5 days, and gave me a photo and said the heartbeat was good (it was 136). I'm so excited the baby is OK and was measuring 3 days ahead! But holy crap does it hurt. It actually hurt really bad for hours, and finally started feeling a little better with a heating pad later on.

I still don't know what caused it, and I hope it doesn't come back. I do have a good friend who said she had similar painful cramps early on, and she said they ended up being more painful than the beginning of labor. So I guess I'll be able to handle that pretty well lol.

I'm going to talk to the RE on Tuesday and see if they have any ideas, and make sure everything is still OK. For now, baby is growing like a weed!

A Decision

I'm officially 8 weeks today! It's neat to be here. It's not out of first tri or anything but it's still a milestone in my head. I've been very nervous today because I had a huge fight with Andy last night and today my morning sickness is extremely minimal - I feel almost normal - and I'm afraid someting is wrong. I've heard it's completely normal for symptoms to come and go, and it was AWFUL yesterday, but... overthinking is what I do. Plus I forgot my endometrin this morning and I'm supposed to be on it twice a day until the 18th. I hope that doesn't cause any problems! I really need to stop worrying and try to just focus on being calm and encouraging the baby to keep growing strong. I need this ultrasound to be a good one.

In better news, it looks like most of my weight gain was water because I'm down to only 2 pounds up so far. Whew. I feel like I can start exercising again once I get the ultrasound, and hopefully I will be able to continue not gaining a ton of weight. I'm hoping for 10-15 pounds for the entire pregnancy.

We also decided not to buy a house after all. To be honest I feel less pressure about it. Trying to pay off our IVF debt and have the baby and buy a house is a lot to deal with at once. By next year I'd like to have a promotion so we'll have more money, and I'd like to have savings and our debts paid. I told Andy I was fine with it but I waited too long for this baby to not have a nursery, so our guest room is getting converted and any overnight guests will have to deal with an air mattress. He said that's fine, so I'm OK with it. Plus I'd like to get a house we really like, and we can get something nicer if we get this loan paid off and pay down our credit cards. I just need to store a bunch of stuff at someone else's house so we have room for all the baby stuff. I honestly feel a little weight off now. Plus with Andy going back to school he won't be able to work full time so it's better not to have an even higher house payment.

So other than my worrying (which is just a part of me I suppose) everything is going well. I want my ultrasound right now, but I'll make it I think! Now I just have to start getting the house ready!

The First Item

Well, I did it. I finally broke down and bought a pregnancy-related item, and now that I've done it I want to buy everything. I've mentioned before that I have a wedding to go to at 16 weeks 1 day. Since my dresses are not made for pregnant women (except 1 that is not wedding appropriate) I figured I should buy a new one. I don't expect to be showing a lot, but I want to be comfortable and I think by 16 weeks I'll probably have somewhat of a bump since my pants are tight already. I've had my eye on a dress at JCPenney, and it's been on sale for quite some time. Today when I was looking through their online maternity stuff I realized the dress is only $19.99, originally $48! I couldn't pass up a deal like that - a dress for a wedding for $20? So I caved and finally just bought it.

This is the biggest picture I could find, but you get the idea. Hopefully it will be a warm September 30th! And I found out Andy's parents are invited. I'm really glad I'll have someone to go with since Andy is in the wedding and will need to be with the guys well before I have to be there. Plus I don't have to drive, which is good since it's up close to Philly and I'm not familiar with a lot of the area. So I really hope this dress fits and looks OK. I've already got a bit of a belly anyway, so hopefully this will make it look more like a pregnant belly than anything else lol.

I'm counting down the days until ultrasound number 2. It's a week from tomorrow and it cannot get here fast enough. I feel like the days are absolutely dragging. Fortunately we have visitors coming from out of town this weekend so I'll have something to occupy me for a while! I wish I could be 13 weeks so I could tell everyone and not have to hide it, but I've got just over 5 weeks to go. I can do it! And at least this week is SHARK WEEK so I can attach myself to the TV all night and watch shark programs. YAY!

I love that I get to experience so many cool things with my little one just hanging out in there. One day it'll sit on my lap and watch shark week with me and learn about all mommy and daddy's favorite things. This whole thing is such a blessing.