Presentation Sunday

Last year, my parent's Pastor told them about a church in Bothell that devotes the last Sunday of every January as: Presentation Sunday, in commemoration of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary and Joseph 40 days after His birth. On this day Cedar Park Church (in Bothell), along with a growing number of other churches in the area and around the world, will be praying for couples who are desiring to have children but have encountered difficulty in doing so. Hundreds of babies are known to have been born in response to previous Presentation Sunday Prayer Services. Some babies arrive miraculously, some with the aid of fertility treatment, and some by adoption, but all are in response to prayer.

My husband and I attended last year for the first time. It was truly a blessing. The church has been doing this service for over 20 years now. After praise and worship, the Pastor shares his own testimony of how he and his wife have had 11 miscarriages throughout their marriage, which is why he has such a heart for couples struggling with infertility.

Last year, after the Pastor's message, he opened up the floor for couple's to share their testimonies. It was amazing!! Some couples shared how they have struggled for YEARS at trying to conceive. Some couples received their blessing through a miracle of pregnancy, others through adoption, and to my amazement...there were a couple stories of "snowflake" babies!!! There were a couple of women who adopted frozen embryos and were able to experience pregnancy. After being renewed with encouragement from hearing story after story of how...everything eventually worked out, couples who were currently struggling with infertility were asked to come forward and receive prayer. Craig and I, along with a TON of other couples came forward and knelt down as others walked around and prayed over us. One truly amazing thing about our experience was that it wasn't just adults that prayed over us...but also "Presentation Children" (Children who came to be after their parents attended a Presentation Service and received prayer). These children, ranging in ages from 12ish-3ish...walked around each of the couples, laying their hands on them and praying for them. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

So, needless to say, Craig and I had the pleasure of attending this year and being able to share our own testimony in hopes of providing encouragement for other couples. As those couples went forward for prayer, I was just filled with so such emotion. I just remember how, not so long ago, I felt so lost. I remember saying that I felt as though I had "faith without hope". I don't know why we went through what we had gone through, but I do know that I am a better person because of it...though if you had asked me in the middle of our challenge I would have thought that that was load of bologna. Nonetheless...I went through it...key word: "through".

13 Weeks Today

I had my "12 week" physical today with my regular OB. I was all excited for the appointment, unfortunately it was a bit of a let down. Keep in mind, I have been at the fertility clinic for three years now...going in for check ups, ultrasounds, etc., at least every week, if not more. Now that I am past my 12 weeks, I've been kicked out and sent to the regular OB. Now...I only have appointments once a month (I get that), but I was at least hoping that I could have an ultrasound. I guess I still need that verification of my pregnancy. I see my belly starting to pooch...but I just so badly want to feel the baby inside of me. Because I can't feel the baby, I am terrified to admit to the world that I am pregnant. I desperately wanted to see my baby on the screen today, but as you can guess....that didn't happen.

Instead, however, I did hear the baby's heart beat. It was a little nerve racking at first because the midwife was not able to find the heart beat. She ended up moving on with the exam and she discovered that my uterus is tilted way back, which is what would make it extremely difficult to find the heartbeat. To get around that, she tried using the doppler again, only this time she pressed pretty hard down on my belly. Then...there it was...the faintest, tiniest, itty bittiest sound of a heart beat.

Nursery

Before Craig and I knew we were pregnant, we had already talked about decorating the nursery neutral colors because, at the time, we were considering adoption and wanted the nursery to be prepared for both genders. The colors we chose were: sage green and chocolate brown. Now that we are pregnant...our color choice hasn't changed. With the many hours that I have put into watching HGTV, I found the perfect wall painting idea for the nursery. Craig and I have agreed to paint all four walls a light sage green, with the exception on one wall. After painting the one wall the same color as the others, we would then create about 12 inch wide stripes and paint them the same color, only in a satin finish. I saw it on a home design show, and I loved it!!!
As for the nursery set, we never really found a set that we both agreed on, so we decided to piece one together. We bought a couple different sage green sheets (solids, stripes, etc), a soft/fuzzy chocolate brown bumper (it has raised polka dots on one side), and then my mom is going to make the crib skirt based off of a picture we found on the internet (The one pictured above). It will be a solid chocolate brown and the bottom three inches will be a sage green stripe.
My mom is also going to make a quilt for the baby. This is a tradition she does for each of her grandkids. So, for most of the day yesterday, we went to JoAnne Fabrics and picked out fabric for the quilt. That was a lot of fun. The quilt pattern is called, "Drunk Love in a Log Cabin". A bit of an inappropriate name for a baby's quilt, but what baby doesn't know...won't hurt it.
Last, but not least, we found a pattern for the window valance. It is a simple valance, made out of the same material as part of the quilt, chocolate brown with small cream polka dots. The bottom of the valance has a wave and then we will be attaching small brown fuzzy balls. As I am writing this, it sounds pretty odd and maybe a bit ugly, but trust me...it will be too cute.
Once all is in place, I will make sure to take pictures and post them...but that won't be for quite some time.

Long Overdue

An update to my blog has been long overdue. Sorry about that.

Things have been going really well!! One thing I failed to mention in my first "pregnancy" post was that during my first ultrasound, the doctor found a cyst in my left ovary. At that time it measured 22mm. It was actually larger than the baby was at that time. The doctor told me that one of two things would happen. Either it would just get reabsorbed back into the body, or it would rupture. Because I was pregnant, there was nothing I could do except wait to see what happens.
I remember during my many procedures in the past, I had developed a cyst. At that time, they gave me options of going on birth control pills or waiting for it to rupture. They said that it could be painful enough to need painkillers. From what I remember, that cyst was just reabsorbed into the body because I was never in serious pain.
Well, at the end of my school day on Friday I started to have a constant dull pain on the lower left side below my abdomen. I didn't think much of it at all because by now (11 weeks)I had already forgotten about the cyst. When the pain didn't go away, I started to get a bit worried...then it finally dawned on me: my cyst probably ruptured.
On Saturday, the pain was still annoying but not horrible. However, Sunday was a pain (pun intended). I could not get comfortable and at times...there were a few tears shed. I ended up calling the doctors office to see if there was anything I could take. When they returned my message, she asked me: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much pain are you in?" I hate this question, because right now...I am thinking 10 is reserved for my future labor pains, so compared to that this ruptured cyst is nothing!!! I just told her that it was really annoying pain. I can live through it, but if I don't have to bear it than I wanted to know what I could do. My next scheduled appointment was for Thursday, but she bumped it up to today, Monday, so that the doctor could check everything out and make sure it was OK.
That made me a little nervous...just moving up the appointment made me wonder if there was something that I needed to concerned about.

Well, the time finally arrived for my appointment. And as expected...everything was just fine!! The cyst wasn't completely gone, but it was much smaller (16mm), so the doctor determined that I actually have a small leak in the cyst which would explain the constant dull pain. He reassured me that it in NO WAY affects the baby. He then moved on to view our little bambino. The little thing wouldn't stop moving!! It's heartbeat was between 140-150 beats per minute (that's good). The newest development was that I could actually count the teeny weeny fingers because the bones are starting to calcify which makes them a bright white on the screen. It was pretty amazing the see the individual fingers.

So, all is well...VERY WELL!!! As of today, I am 11 weeks 4 days, so Thursday will be my 12 week mark...sending me into my second trimester!!! WOO-HOO!!!

10 Week Ultrasound

I went in to the Dr.'s office today for an ultrasound. I am originally scheduled with the Dr. on Monday, but I called the office today to see if I could come in today so as to put my concerns to rest before heading back to school on Monday. Concerns...yes!!! I'm sure that I am not the first one here, but I just still don't believe that I am pregnant, it doesn't seem real to me yet. I know we have already had an ultrasound at 8 weeks, and I know that I saw the heartbeat...but I don't know if it will ever feel "real" until that baby is resting peacefully in my arms.
Well, there was no doctor in the office today, but the nurse did let me come in. She said that I would still have to keep my original appointment on Monday, with the doctor, but that she would let me come in so she could show me my baby's heartbeat and put my mind at ease...and did it ever!!!
The baby definitely looks like a "baby" now. We could make out the arms and the legs. We could see the brain...and then we saw the heartbeat, strong as ever. And then the COOLEST thing happened...the baby started moving!!! You could see the head moving, and then, I'm not even kidding, one of the hands waved at us. Did they know they were on camera? Probably not, but it was pretty special regardless. The nurse even got a kick out of it.
I will be scanning the ultrasound pictures so I can post them up for you all to see.