It sold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap! We countered back and they accepted!!!! It's only $2k less than we asked!!! I cannot even believe it... I am in shock and awe!! Praise God 8 million times over!!

What a day :-)

We got an offer on our house!!!!!

Oh my gosh!!! Praise GOD!!!! it's been on the market for 1 week!!!! I am so thrilled... they offered $4k less than what we want but I think we can come to an agreement!

What a miracle! In this market, it's nothing short of a miracle!! So they want us to close April 25th so woo hoo!!!!! We're praying this works!

an update on us...

Well today I am 5w6d which means tomorrow I'm 6weeks! I know it doesn't sound like very far along but I'm so dang excited to be here :-) And I have my u/s on wed!!!!! I can't wait :-)

Other than that, we're planning on going house hunting in Chicago very soon and we had two more showings on our house this weekend and we have an open house on Sunday!

So things are moving along! I'll keep you posted after the u/s on wed :-)

Easter

We had Easter with my family this year and here's a few fun pics :-)


Onie Balogne


My brother and his wife (oops, did I cheese in?)
My cute parents.

Ella unsure of whatever Uncle Joey is telling her!


My pg belly! Oh how it will grow by the next family holiday!

Me showing my fat cheeks to make my SIL feel better about "hers" (Which she doesn't have, but she says she does)

Me and my tater salad!

Trigg....

My brother nate and Trigg the turtle.. uh I mean baby!

Ella always in the middle of the action!

Little miss Ella

About the showing, they're coming back!!!!

They called and want to come back and see it with their family in 30 minutes!!! How amazing is this?

When we first looked at this house, we came back for another showing with our parents the next day and within a day or two put an offer on.. so when you know you know! I hope this is it! :-)

My sore bum.....

I apologize that what you're about to view is my butt.... but isn't this a sad site?



:::: avert eyes if not interested:::::








:::Did you avert?::






:you're actually going to do this?:





:Are you ready?:::



No wonder it hurts so much to sit down! And this is only one cheek!

Last beta is in!!

1274!! Praise God, I was hoping for 800 so PRAISE GOD!!!

So now we just wait for our first u/s on Wed :-) 1 more week!

Also we had our first showing on our house today!!!

A pregnant man. Yes you read that right.

Wow... all I can say is WOW.

click here


Also PLEASE be praying for a nestie who went into preterm labor and delivered her twins this morning at 23 weeks. They both died. I could not be more heartbroken for her as this is the second couple I know who's had this happened. I cannot even begin to imagine the agony and heartbreak they are experiencing, PLEASE pray for them.

Her blog

I am pregnant = I am an idiot.

I have lost 1/2 if not MORE of my brain in the last 2 weeks! I can't seem to keep it together! Today I got a call at 7:05 saying I was suppose to be at work. Well I accidentally wrote NEXT weeks schedule down for this week, but it gets worse, I didn't even if write it down RIGHT!!! I had the dates all mixed up... then I keep saying my u/s is next Tuesday but it's Wednesday!!

I have become stupid. A tired stupid woman.

But you know what? I'll take it if it means I can have a baby (or 2) in 8 months!!!

Here's my belly at 5w.

House is listed!

If any of you know of anyone who's interested in buying or renting it please email me and I'd love to send you the listing! rachel32004@msn.com.

Thanks!!

I stayed up late last night!

I was up till 8:30pm :-)

I am DEFINITELY pregnant. I become unconscious about 7-8 every night. Last night we watched a super cute movie (Stardust) so I made myself stay awake as long as possible... Joey was proud of me! But I like it cuz it makes me know I'm still pregnant!!

Also my final beta is on wed!

Maroon five

I normally listen to mostly Christian music (then country) but lately I find myself scrolling through other stations hoping to hear Maroon 5 :-)

It DOUBLED!!!!!!!

Praise GOD!!! It went up to 234 so in the 48-72 hour period it a little more than doubled. We are SO thrilled!!! I cannot believe how many million times a day I pray for this baby(ies). I never knew it would be like this! I swear praying for them has become like breathing to me!!

So thank you for your prayers... we need them :-) I go back one more time (hopefully) next week just to make sure they're still going up and then have my u/s the following Tuesday!!!!!

House for sale! or rent :-)

So... we have 2 1/2 months to sell our house! We need a MIRACLE!! :-)

So I'm spreading the word! We live in northern Minneapolis (a suburb not to be named on here...) in a townhouse:

3 levels
2bed
1 bath
family room
living room
laundry room (very spacious for storage)
1 car garage (tons of storage up above)
updated kitchen
partially updated bathroom
front porch/swing
walking distance to 3 parks and a lake
on a major biking/running scenic trails
1176 sq ft
ADORABLE :-)
$135,000 or $1050 a month for rent.

If you know of ANYONE who might be interested PLEASE pass the info on! We're meeting with the realtor on Saturday and listing it ASAP... but the more the word spreads the better!

I should add as well we're very sad to be leaving, we LOVE our house.. we considered selling it for a while and decided to stay through residency. It's very cozy, very quaint and we've been so blessed!

*living room



*updated kitchen (and back door)



*partially updated back

*Master bedroom

*spare room

*basement/family room

Beta went up but didn't double.

It was 106 on Tuesday and now 48 hours later it's only 174. I'm going in tomorrow for a third beta.
I know that it's mainly important that it doubles in 72 hours.. and it went up 70%... so that's good but today has been such a whirlwind of emotions.... I hardly feel like celebrating anything...

Holy CRAP we're moving to Chicago!!

So today is our 4th anniversary and we found out we're moving to Chicago!

We are in SHOCK!

I woke up thinking we'd be in this house for another 3 years only to find out we're moving! Oh. My. GOSH!!!

Don't get me wrong, it's exciting but I am SOOO close to our families that I can't even imagine being so far away (and pregnant!). Please pray for them, they're really sad..... and for us that this process can be smooth and not hard on the baby(ies).

Holy crap!



Joey's progression of reading the news...

can you tell he's shocked?

I couldn't tell if it was good or bad!

Us holding the match day letter... we look happy right? Still not sure how to feel!

Is this a good sign?

Okay I must preface this by saying I never claimed to have the flattest stomach in the land... but my stomach never looked like this :


4w2d

"Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and
opened her womb.  She became pregnant..." Genesis 30:22

Telling the family

Here is a short video recapping sharing our news.. unfortunately we couldn't get a hold of Joey's sisters right away and by the time they called back we didn't have the camera :-( Boo.....

Joy

PS. this song was on scrubs (our favorite show) when Turk and Carla tell everyone they're pregnant. We sat and BAWLED when watching it (Joey cried first!) I honestly thought we'd never get to do that.... but here we are!

Is it just me? Has time stopped moving?!

Okay, I've know I've been pregnant for 6 days and these passed six days have moved SOOOOOO SLOOOOOW!!!!! I feel like tomorrow will never get here, let alone my u/s in 13 days!

How can 30 months of TTC have flown by and now here I sit, each minute feeling like a day?!

I sure hope things speed up a LITTLE more :-) I might go crazy!

First U/S scheduled!!!!!

I scheduled my 1st U/S schedule for 4/2!!! I'll be 6w1d and then they might have me come back at 7 1/2 or 8weeks for another one before they ship me off to the OB :-)

(Grams did you follow all that? I'm having and ultra sound at 6 weeks!)

Poll results

We were dating 11 months before we got engaged and were married 10 months later... totally 1 year and 9 months :-)

Beta back 106!

Phew I'm really pregnant! I will go back on Thursday for a repeat :-) When is it going to feel real, I thought after getting a call from my dr saying I was pregnant would do it, but nope....

Talking to the babies.

So ever since we put the embies back in Joey's been talking to them. Well last night was the first time he did that since we found out on Friday we were pregnant. So he lowers his head to my belly and slowly draws out: "uh.. hi guys... how's it going?" I thought it was so funny! What a goofy way to address our future child(ren)!

Then the convo got more natural while he proceeded to bore them with the daily details of our lives :-)

well... now we wait!

I had my b/w done this morning and I should hear sometime between 2-4 what my levels are! I'm praying for big numbers!

Guess what? I'm pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been testing positive since my birthday on Friday (best bday gift ever!!) on 7dp3dt and wanted to wait to tell my family before telling the Internet world :-)

We're so excited! My beta is tomorrow but I have 6 +Hpts (obsessive?) including 1 digital! Here's the video of me telling Joey. It's not exactly what I envisioned, but it's a keepsake for sure :-)

http://tinyurl.com/37pagz

Thank you SO MUCH for the continued support and prayers through all of this!! I can't tell you how much it means to me (and Joey)!! It was so much fun telling our families this weekend and rejoicing in the life we created together!

We know we still have a LONG way to go (due date 11/25/08) but we're praying one day at a time :-)

Poll results:

My new favorite Caribou drink is the wildberry smoothie (Which I never even liked before!) with ORANGE ZEST!!! One word: YUM!!!!!!

You must try it :-)

Poll results

My favorite food is wild rice soup with ham! (and almonds)!! Yum!! And I think Ceaser salad would come in second, then pizza :-)

I want beer?

So last night everyone ordered a drink, and I'm not going to lie, I was sad I couldn't too... all the beer and wine being passed by me smelled so good! But instead I had 12 glasses of water (seriously, what's up with that?)

But Joey snapped this picture of me and doesn't it look like I'm just oodling over the beer?! lol.

I have a great feeling!!

I'm feeling really positive about our IVF.. and for more reasons than just that "feeling". I don't have any pregnancy symptoms (minus my newly very zitty face) but that's good, cuz the PIO shots can mimic pg symptoms, so I'd rather not have those.

But I've had two very specific things happen through the 2ww that MANY others who got bfp's through IVF had as well! So that makes me happy.

As for yesterday, I had such a blast at the children's museum with my sister, SIL, mom, Joey and the 6 hoodlums :-) They loved it, we loved it!

And I had so much fun out to eat with Joey's family! I miss them so much, we hadn't seem them since CHRISTMAS (just his dad)!!!! (mind you we were gone in all of Jan and I swear Feb didn't even happen between IVF and the adoption!).

We went to a place where you can sit and play boardgames before/after you eat! So we played games and were there four hours! It was so much fun!! :-)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to....

Oh wait!! I'm not crying today :-) It's my birthday! Last night Joey lured me to applebees and low and behold were almost all the women on my mom's side of the family! It was SOOO much fun! It was such a wonderful night :-)

And today is my actual birthday and it's already a great day!!!

Want to see what's inside of me?!

These are our embryos! This is the life that was created between Joey and I! Isn't that amazing?

So this is my uterus (perty aint she?) See those tiny little white dots with the arrow pointing to it? Those are our embies inside me!!!!

Hair!

So I'm back to blonde! :-) I can't seem to make up my mind but playing with your hair is fun! Thanks again Megan for the treat!!!

And I'm out of bed!

So my very uncomfortable abdominal pain continued through last night and a bit into this morning. When I called my nurse she said it was from OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome-fun!) and I should stay in bed another day or two if I could. So I stayed in bed all day Monday and the first part of yesterday. I was up quite a bit yesterday but still felt yucky when I went to bed.

But this morning I'm up and showered and working! I work at Caribou tomorrow at 5am (gulp!) so I figured I better get up today and practice being normal again!

So far so good! I feel pretty good!

I used to be able to suck my stomach in....

If I remember way back to January before we started all this IVF stuff, I think I could actually suck in my stomach. To a size I was happy with. I think!?

But these days, there's no sucking in to be happening. NONE! It's ridiculous I look 4 months pregnant! Which would be cute... if I were 4 months pg!

I have a feeling this bloat will never go away, but I remind myself that can't be true! Can it?

How am I doing?

Well I'm VERY greasy in the hair, I've exceeded my lazy limit, I'm slimy in places I shouldn't be and I have watched more movies in the last three days than I have in the last two years.

But we're having fun! Joey's continued to wait on me hand and foot, play games and watches movies with me.

We've had several amazing friends bring us meals (YUM!) and I always win the games, so I'm pretty happy!

I can't wait to shower tomorrow though, but in the meantime things are good!

ps in case you didn't know I was put on strict bedrest and not allowed to shower.

"How do they know I don't hate you?"

Okay, so I've had several people comment on our "love" and how much Joey obviously loves me (which is true I can't deny it!). Well each time I read that I also read it to Joey.

Today I got an email from a friend who was going on and on about how much we love each other (always fun to read!) so I'm reading it to Joey and he says:

"How do they know I don't hate you?" lol... he's such a dork, always wanting to look like the bad guy when truly he's the NICEST!

So I decided to share some Joey stories.

-when we were in HS every girl I know had a crush on him, but he was truly the nicest guy so no one dated him (you know, liking the bad guy complex) When we started dating everyone admitted they had wanted to date/marry him at some point! lol

-when we first starting liking each other I had a boyfriend. He was a good guy but not for me and as we were pretty much ending it became obvious Joey and I liked each other. Joey never had a GF so it was all new territory for him. One night I came out and said "joey do you like me?" And he hmmed and haaaed and finally said with the cutest eyes "I'm sorry!" because he knew I had a boyfriend! lol he felt so bad for liking me!

-about 10 months after we'd been dating, the guy I had been dating before Joey (who I stayed friends with, after he got over me choosing another guy) came right out and asked "Do you think you'll marry Joey?" I said "we'll see" and HE said "well you better! He's perfect for you!" This coming from the guy I dumped for Joey!!! Even he knew....

-After we'd been dating a month I went to a camp for a whole month. I got a letter EVERY SINGLE day from him, and many times packages including necessities for camp. All the girls were jealous ;-)

-The first semester I went back to college after we started dating (starting dating in the summer) he sent me flowers probably 4 times!

-I am a hard person to surprise so he spent FIVE MONTHS planning our engagement and working out all the details with my family and roommates. All so it would be perfect and I'd be surprised!

-When Joey watches America's Funniest Home Videos it is a site for everyone around. TRULY! He laughs so hard and so loud and so long that you'd think the funniest thing had ever happened known to mankind. But nope it's just AFV. I could listen to him laugh like that all day long.. it's so funny. Even my friends love it!

-This morning when I stirred for a split second he came out of his sleep and said to me "what do you need?! tell me, your wish is my command!" and he meant it!

-When we're eating, if there's an ugly piece of pizza, or pie or anything slightly burnt, he makes sure I get the pretty one. He'd NEVER let me have the gross one!

-When I talk with my middle school youth ministry girls about boys, I tell them that until they meet someone as wonderful as Joey, or someone who will adore them as much as he adores me, they shouldn't settle. Anything less will just break their heart.

-My dad is wonderful, he is very much like Joey in so many ways. One day my mom was explaining to me what it was like when she married him (before Joey and I were dating) and she even said "I married MY Joey W!" I guess he's the standard!

-We had 2 leftover pancakes from last week in the freezer and I asked if he'd be willing to toast them for me and he didn't understand why I would want leftovers when he could make me as many brand new pancakes as I wanted!

-My birthday is this coming Friday and Joey decided to surprise me early since I had to be on bed rest with a 19 inch flat screen TV for our bedroom (that we've been wanting!) so I could have it during bed rest. Then when I told him it was too much ($$) I said I'd put my birthday money towards it. He said absolutely not (even though I still will) and that he was putting his leftover Christmas money towards it! (which I said absolutely not to!!)

So that's my Joey. He is more wonderful than I ever knew when I met him and every day he continues to amaze me. I know our kids will have HIGH standards when they start dating because of their dad and I just wanted to share a bit of how wonderful he really is :-)

I really praise God every day for him. He is my true gift.

Now if you've made it to the bottom of this post share YOUR wonderful significant other story :-)

What is an 8 cell embryo?

I've had several people ask so I should explain!

So when a sperm and egg combine it creates a 1 celled embryo. It's how we all start out! But approximately every 24 hours it doubles. So the next day it should be 2 celled and the next 4 celled.

Well yesterday we had 4 -4 celled embryos. They were progressing as they should be. By today it would be ideal for both of them be be 8 celled embryos, indicating that they were moving along healthily and perfectly. However today we had 2- 8 celled embryos (perfect!) and the other two had stopped progressing and died.

So for them to be 8 cells today means they're exactly as they should be! Hopefully they continue to double! Until... well I don't know when they stop doubling! But you get the point :-)

Dear Embabies

You are my babies and I am your mommy. Your daddy and I created you, you are made from us, and more than you'll ever understand we love you so much already.

And while I hate to start in with "because I'm your mommy and I say so..." here's the deal; I know what's best for you. And what's best is for you to get cozied up in me and plan on staying awhile. And if you knew how much I loved you wouldn't even bother making other plans, but just in case I'm pulling it out...

"I'm your mommy and I know what's best for you!"

I hope to see both of you in 9 months!

:-)

Get in my belly!

That's what I said to my embies this morning :-) lol... JK.

But today we had 2 perfect 8 celled embryos that transferred into me. Unfortunately our other two didn't make it :-(

And the two that they put back were ICSI'd ones.

So now we wait! I'm on bed rest until Sunday and we hope and pray that the life put back inside me decides I'm worthy of calling home!

1st PIO shot done!

Oh you thought I was done with daily shots did you? WRONG! From now until what might feel like an eternity (8-10 more weeks if I get pg!) I will get daily shots of progesterone in oil. Yes OIL! It's a thick lovely substance that hijacks my bottom 1x every day...

It shall be a lovely endurance if I get pg. But if not.. I might change it from PIO to PITA!

Dr Joe... who's also training for a marathon... hence the clothes!

Another match bites the dust.

Yes you read that right, we were chosen by yet another birth mom. While we're elated that another woman finds us worthy of raising her child, we had many reasons to feel hesitant about the situation. First she's due 10/2. So basically 7 months from now. Second she needs upfront birth mother expenses of about $1000 a month (all done through the agency of course).

While we would be willing to pay the expenses and help her out, we cannot afford to pay that amount every month between now and October and know she could change her mind. The risk was far too great for us.

So we said no. We were told we were matched on Monday and we have spent several days praying about it, but when we realized today the amount we would be risking for 7 long months, without hesitation we knew we could say no.

Fertilization report

It's not horrible... but we only got 4 embies. All 20 eggs were mature and they ICSI'd 12 and naturally fertilized the other 8.

3 ICSI'd and 1 fertilized naturally.

The reason I guess so many didn't fertilize was because there was an issue with the sperm. She said they were very round in form and most were missing the acryzome that contains the DNA to create an embryo.

Pray for Joey, I hope this isn't too hard for him to hear. We still have 4 perfect embies growing!

So the plan is we're doing to do a 3dt tomorrow at 8:30, there's a chance she said it'll be a 5dt on Sunday though. We'll find out tomorrow around 7am. But we're planning on tomorrow.

Now I'm just VERY VERY VERY happy that we had 20 eggs. If I'd only had 6 we might have ended up with 1 or 0 embies :-(

And I'm praying very hard that the other 2 will be able to be frozen. I want all of them to have a chance at life.

A c omment on the slideshow....

So I posted the slide show on the nest and I got lots of comments saying people cried. Well I though it was so funny because it didn't make me emotional one bit (even though I loved it!)! Well this is what a girl wrote about that:

"OK I cried too. I think it's because Rachel - you take something that is so hard and that so many people "hide" because there is a stigma attached to IVF - and you make it meaningful and even beautiful -- and worthy of documentation -- and it becomes so obvious that it is NOT something to hide - it is part of an important journey. I think it's a beautiful video. I wish more people could see it - and begin to understand more about IVF and infertility.

You two are darling."

I thought that was so true.... IF and IVF is NOT shameful and it's the way we'll (hopefully) create our babies, it's our beautiful story! I was so glad she wrote that to me, and I had to share.

I heart Yuckabees

Okay, so when our niece Ella was like 2 1/2, she couldn't say Charlie. So she called him Yarlie. Well we thought it was so cute we sometimes called him that too. Well since we also called him Chuck, it sort of let into Yuck. Well before you know it, one thing lead to another and we started calling him Yuckabees.

Yes.

We are those people.

That have 8 million nicknames for their dog.

I hang my head in shame.

But all that to say he's doing great and here are some pics of the poor pup all stitched up! And I do heart my yuckabees :-)


No he's not laying around reading "90 minutes in Heaven"... lol. However I am reading it and love it!



Even though he's really cute in the halo.. it only lasted for like ten minutes! He apparently prefers to be muzzled when he has to be alone!



Joey said in three weeks when his stitches come out we should take him to the groomer, point to his back end and say "can you fix this please? We'll be back in a few hours" lol.... poor dog is going to look embarrassing back there for quite a while!

Pictures from ER.....

My SIL, Bridgit came and took pics yesterday of the ER (not actual procedure) and put them in a slideshow. I must warn you I look BEYOND hideous in the pics and I was VERY VERY out of it when I first came out of the procedure so please don't judge my nastiness :-)

Click Here

Back from ER!!!

They were able to get 20 eggs, so we're really excited about that. I was in a lot of pain afterwards and felt very nauseous, but I feel MUCH better now that I'm back home. My SIL came and took pics and video of the whole thing (not the actual procedure) so I'll have to post some when I get those from her.

Thanks for all the well wishes! We get our first fertilization report on Thursday!

Bring on the pampering!!

Okay, I admit I've been spoiled by Joey. He takes amazing care of me and daily tells me how proud he is me for all I'm going through. He's just wonderful...anything I need, he gets it.

But now comes a new kind of pampering! Remember the awesome friend who gave me a spa GC? Well I made my appt for Thursday for a foil and massage! I can't wait!! My hair grows way too fast and I was just thinking how I couldn't afford highlights but desperately need a touch up! So this will be perfect :-)

So it'll be a great day! I've never done a "spa day" before!

Trigger TONIGHT!!!!

So today at the appt the nurse came in and goes "I hear you're the girl with all the follicles" lol.. I was like, yep that's me! And then the u/s tech was like "dang you've got follicles in every nook and cranny of your ovaries!" haha.. so I was being a pain again today but who cares I'm ready to go tonight!!!

So at the appt everything looked awesome! My follies are getting really big! We went from 3 that were mature yesterday to 16 today! So hopefully we'll get even more mature ones by Tuesday since I still have so many in there and that's when the EGG RETRIEVAL IS!!!!!!

I'm so excited it's getting so real. My SIL Bridgit is going to come to the ER and document the occasion (she's a photographer) and I'm super excited to have that done! My Dr was really cool about it too, she won't be in there for all of it, but some of it!

So that's that. I took another nap and was completely groggy when the nurse called but now I have more energy and we're going to Olive Garden to finally use a GC we got from Christmas :-)

Feeling terrible!!! But getting ready.

Ever wonder what it feels like to have 30 some follies growing in you? Like your ovaries have been replaced by grapefruits. :-0

My u/s went good today, she said everything was perfect, my E2 was 1970 and I have a ton of follies between 14-19 (I think we counted about 30?). So I skipped my pm meds and will skip am meds and have another u/s in the morning. She said she's sure I'll trigger tomorrow night and have ER on Tuesday!

So that's good... but I just wish I didn't feel so crappy. I've been in bed all day and I hurt when I move. During my U/S I was VERY uncomfortable as she was having a hard time reading the follies on my left side so she was repeatedly pushing on my soon to explode ovaries. It hurt so bad I thought I was going to pass out, and I couldn't breath! But Joey said I didn't even flinch so that's good! :-)

But I took a three hour nap and feel ready for bed again (at 8:30 pm).... so it's been a lazy weekend!