A much needed update! Pregnancy with Twins

I cant believe I have not blogged in over 6 months! That's most my pregnancy!

Life is so crazy with a toddler and this summer I was too sick to even care about blogging. And then Ben took my laptop for his office and I got a tablet, which is way harder to blog with.

But today...Im catching up. Just so that the last blog post isn't from the day after we transferred the embryos. So lets go back 6 months!

 

 

Monday, June 2nd 2014 we transferred the embyros. The process was a matter of 10 minutes. They said that everything went great and they sent us off.

My cousin Abby was in town helping me since I had to have 2 days of bedrest after the transfer.

It was nice having her here to help me and distract me from being anxious.

Now the schedule said that I was going to take a blood pregnancy test on the following Tuesday. 8 days after the transfer...but I couldn't wait.

So on Saturday (4 days early) I took a pregnancy.

Immediately a 2nd line appeared. I started screaming and ran to show Ben and Abby.

I was shaking. I was so excited. When I took a pregnancy test with Lily I had tested 2 days early and at first it said negative. So I felt like this pregnancy was a little different. I instantly thought twins.

So for the next 4 days until the actual blood test, I would take a pregnancy test just to make sure

it was still saying positive. I had a nice collection of them. LOL

Our announcement picture

 

On Tuesday I had my blood test and the nurse called me back with CONGRADULATIONS!

She said that the HCG numbers looked great at 127. She said that was really good for an FET(frozen) transfer and that maybe there could be twins. Lily's HCG numbers were 119. So it was a lot

higher than her, but according to google, most twin numbers were in the 200 range.

So I thought either it was a boy and that's why the numbers were different, or there were two babies.

Two days later I had a repeat test to make sure numbers were rising. Numbers are supposed to double every 48 hours. Well they were like 20 point off of doubling which is still totally fine, but I was pretty positive that their was only one baby. I felt like if it was twins the numbers should be  a lot higher and be doubling more. But I was still happy knowing that so far things were going good.

So then about a month later came my first ultrasound.
It was a Friday morning and we had just gotten back from our

Branson family vacation. I was anxious about the ultrasound and seeing the heartbeat. Its always scary to go in for the first time and hope their is a heartbeat. The minute the ultrasound wand was placed, I could see 2 sacs. The Dr didn't even have to tell me. I just looked at Ben and giggled

TWINS!

I was so excited. Ben's family were all still in Missouri so we went back with the ultrasound pic in hand. It was really fun being able to share the news with most of the family there.

My family was shocked and thrilled.

We were all so excited!

 

The next few months consisted of morning sickeness, afternoon sickness and evening sickness.
I think I was way more sick with the twins than I was with Lily. But we were able to still have
some fun. We went to Cheyenne for Frontier Days which is always fun.
Then we were home for only 3 weeks before we went back to Cheyenne for a week.

 

Finally around 16 weeks I started feeling so much better and the sickness/tiredness disappeared and I
was full of energy and back to normal. It was so nice being able to feel normal and give my full attention to Lily.

On September 9th we had my 17 week ultrasound where we found out that the twins were
a
BOY
and
GIRL

I had guessed that it was either a boy and girl or 2 boys. I had an instinct that baby B was our boy and sure enough he was.

Our girl will be named

Genevieve Marguerite 

Ben and I had talked about the name Genevieve once when Lily was really little and we were just having fun thinking of other names for future kids, but I hadn't thought about it until right before we
found out what we were having. So it was a pretty easy decision.
Marguerite (Marg-or-eat) not Margret, is Bens grandmothers name and my great grandmothers middle name. My great grandmother was from Switzerland and spoke French so I thought it was fitting to go with Genevieve.
And our boy will be...

Rhett Madsen

Rhett was the name Ben and I had in mind for a boy when we first got married. It would
have been Lilys name if she was a boy...but she wasn't.:)
Madsen is a family name on my side and I just like the sound of it.

 

 

 

Now I am 27 weeks and things are chugging along pretty nicely. I am still feeling pretty great in the day but night time is terrible. I just am really uncomfortable and have to switch sleeping positions once an hour. But I can live with it! I have always been a night owl anyway...and as long as I get a little nap in during the day I am good!  We are just so excited for our babies to come and join our family!



Out of the Freezer!

Here they are...out of the freezer and into my uterus!

Dont they look so pretty! 

The embryologist said they were very good quality and expanding nicely. YOu can see that they are

already hatching by the stuff coming out of the circle. 

I am really hoping for twins but one will do!

Now I just lay low for the next 2 days and then the waiting begins!

Its going to be a long week!!!!! 

I really really want these babies. I have always felt good about my frozen babies 

and I am hoping for the best. 

It is nice to know that we do still have one more embryo...but I hope I dont have to use it until 

after our twins turn 2!:) 

I think it would be so cool if we got all our babies from one cycle.

They were all once in the same petri dish!

Science is AWESOME!

I love these guys!

(And on a side note, when I trasnfered Lily and the other embryo, only one was hatching. The other one was

still a good quality embryo but one was already expanding. So I am thinking that Lily was the embryo 

that was in the hatching stage. SO maybe there really will be twins because both of these embryos were hatching.) 

Now I must watch Pretty Little Liars with Abby so I can keep my mind off negative thoughts! 

Nothing is better than teen dramas to get your mind off of your own mind!:)

Our Newest Adventure

Ben is opening up his own law firm!!!!!

(here is his future office)

For a month now Ben has been searching high and low for a job and nothing was coming 

of it. I have always told Ben that I just didn't want to leave Topeka. I love it too much here!

But our options seemed a little bleak! 

When I came home from Utah I had one of the worst days ever! 

I was anxious about everything and was stranded in Kansas City and just frustrated about everything.

When Ben picked me up, with tears rolling down my face he hugged me and said

"The good thing about having a really bad day is that there is a really good day just around the corner"

And aint that the truth!

On Thursday Ben got a call from Adam Mack, a  Bankruptcy Attorney here in Topeka. 

I had met his wife a few times and she is super nice. We both were pregnant at the same time and named our daughters Lily. 

So Ben went to lunch with Adam and they talked for 2 hours about law stuff. 

Ben came home pretty much telling me he was going to open up his own firm and share an office building with Adam. I didn't even feel scared or shocked, just a tad bit suprised.

It was suprised because Ben said that he would never open up a law firm until he had

some experience. But Adam got out of law school and opened up his own law firm and he has

done very well for himself and will be Bens mentor in a way. He is really helping Ben 

get on his feet and giving him good ideas. 

We went to their house last night for dinner and stayed for 5 hours. Adam was giving Ben tons of tips and ideas. It will also be really nice that they will be sharing offices so that they can help each other out. 

Ben is going to focus on Immigration Law. There are only 2 other immigration attorneys here in Topeka and Ben has always wanted to use his Spanish with law. 

Now he just has to do the nitty gritty stuff that is involved with starting a buisness. 

My sister in law Aubrey knows how to do website and buisness logos (she did it in college)

So she is already hard at work designing for us. 

Ben also has to get his name out there and thats going to be lots of work. 

He is probably going to take out an add in the Spanish Newspaper and the Spanish radio here in Topeka. 

I think that in the long run this is the best decision for us and I am just really excited. 

Life Lately

Life for the past few weeks have been pretty much the same.

Ben is eagerly looking for a job and I am anxiously awaiting any news about potential jobs.

Looking for legal work is a lot harder than I thought it would be. But Ben hasn't even been sworn in yet so I know I just need to chill out. Its just that the thought of living in a rural town in Kansas makes me sweat and have mean butterflies in my stomach. Not the nice ones that flutter when you are excited...the ones that seem to eat away at your guts!

But I know that if we are led to a town I'm not to thrilled about, it will be for experience and I will do fine. (but I'm praying I don't have to go down that road!)

Ben gets sworn in this Friday so he will become an official Attorney of Kansas! YAY!

Now onto the baby news.

I just started birth control and will be on that for 3 weeks and then do 3 weeks of estrogen and then it will be time to transfer our embryos. We are looking at the first week of June.

In all honesty, I have barely thought about this transfer. My mind is so focused on our future as in where we are going to live and what Ben is going to do for work that I havnt really been thinking about anything else. Its so different from when I did IVF the first time. I think it is actually

a good thing that my anxiety is focused on something besides the transfer because I'm so much

more relaxed about it and just feel at peace about the whole thing.

I feel like I have a good chance of having at least one embryo stick so I'm sticking with my good vibes and not thinking negatively about it.

Lily keeps us pretty busy these days and she is so darn cute. She makes everything better and even when I am anxious about our future, I know its still going to be good because I will always have Ben and Lily (and hopefully another rugrat!)

Spring is of course as beautiful as ever here. I just love Topeka in the Spring.

Lily and I even planted a garden. Its my very first garden so its special to me because I get to share it with Lily. even though she stepped on a few flowers today. LOL.

We also had a very nice Easter and it was the first time we ever spent it with just us. Usually we go to Missouri. It was nice going to our home ward this time.

Lily looked adorable in her little dress and she even had fun going on an Easter egg hunt.

She kept calling them balls.

So thats whats going on in our neck of the woods!

Here are some pics!



PASS

PASS

The best word to see on something besides a positive pregnancy test!!!!

We just got the results early this morning that Ben passed the Kansas Bar. 

I am so excited and proud of him. 

To say my anxiety for the past few weeks has been high is an understatement. 

I feel like I can finally breath again. 

SO PROUD of Ben. He studied so hard and totally deserved this. 

So excited to see what the future holds for us now!

15 Months

Wow..I cant beleive Lily is 15 months.

She isnt a baby anymore and definitely keeps us busy!

She loves to run and run and run and I sware she never stops.

Church is almost impossible because she can barely sit still for 5 seconds. 

Ben and I are always taking turns running around the halls with her. 

But she is just as cute as ever.

Her favorite words right now are puppy and thank you. 

She says thank you everytime she gets food or a snack or a toy. 

Its the cutest thing. 

She loves dogs and when she hears them bark she says 

"puppy, woof woof"
I am in the process of weaning her from nursing which started a month ago. It has definitley
been a challenge completely stopping. She just likes nursing still and I like it too.
We only nurse at night though. She is fine without it in the daytime.
But I need her to be cut off when we start our next round of IVF. 

Things with Lily are always entertaining. She is always doing something funny, whether its her
expressions or what she says. I just love her.
She has 10 teeth and she is looking more and more like a toddler.
She loves bath time and just started dunking her head under the water while she is sitting up.
She thinks its hilarious.
 She has a really high vocabulary and she is very good at mimicking us!
Here are the words she can say.
1. mommy
2. Daddy
3. Aubrey
4. UH OH
5. Yummy
6. Yeah
7. NO
8. Nana
9. Owey
10. Bye
11. puppy
12. Baby
13. Turtle
14. THank you

I think thats pretty good for a 15 month old.
SHe is still a very happy little girl but she isnt as resilient as she used to be.
I cant take her shopping with me as much because she will only tolerate one store.
Shes starting to throw more tantrums and becoming impatient so when she wants
something, she makes it known. She is definitely getting into that stubborn stage.
But she is our little princess and we love her so much. I cant believe it was almost 2 years ago
I saw that little embryo on the monitor and now she is a healthy happy little girl!

Round 2

Well I made the first move to officially start round 2 of our baby making.

We have a consult with our RE on April 2nd where we will go over all the meds 

I have to take and our timeline on doing our FET.

We have our embryos stored in a different state so they will have to send them to Kansas City which 

can take a few weeks. 

We are looking at transferring the embryos sometime in May. 

Its a weird feeling this time around. Its not that Im not excited, its just that Lily still seems like a baby

to me so Im not as baby hungry like I was last time. 

Of course if I get pregnant, by the time the baby is born Lily will be a little over 2 years old and definitely wont be a baby anymore.

I am excited about doing IVF again. I had fun doing it last time. It is so interesting and fun to learn 

all about embryos and hormones and the womans body! 

If I was smarter in math and science I totally think it would be fun to be a reproductive DR. 

(or mabye juse the sonogram girl!)

So thats the plan!

Hopefully everything goes great with the transfer and we get another baby into our family!

Lily will be one cute big sister!