Telling the Parents

We decided that we wanted to tell our families all at the same time so we had planned to break the news on Easter. We had brunch with Luke's family in the morning and dinner with my family in the evening. Luke designed a little announcement that we framed and had them open on Easter. Luke's design is below:

Both of our moms were the ones to open the gift first. Luke's mom burst into tears and then there was a lot of hugging and congratulating once everyone realized what was going on. My mom was in utter disbelief and it took Joel a while to understand what was happening. Thankfully, we were able to catch most of it on camera. Luke has a little handheld recorder that we set up without anyone noticing. Check it out for yourself! If you listed very carefully, you can hear my mom drop an F-bomb. My family is first and then Luke's family is second:

We also told my dad, step-mom and sister this week. Everyone is very excited! We can't wait to be able to share the news with more people.

Needles and Hormones - 5 weeks!

The last few days my thoughts have been consumed with needles and hormone levels. I had a bit of a scary moment last Thursday when I noticed some mild spotting. I called my doctor and he asked me to get some blood work done that afternoon. I left work early and headed straight for the lab. I had 15, I kid you not, tubes of blood drawn. They planned to just take all of the blood they would need for my first doctors appointment on May 10th. They tested a couple of different hormone levels to make sure they were in the healthy range. The first hormone they tested was hCG which is produced by the developing embryo after conception. My hCG level was 999.1. The next hormone they tested was progesterone which helps sustain the growing fetus. My progesterone was at 32.3. Both were right on target, thank goodness! I had to go back on Monday to have more blood drawn to make sure that my hCG was going up and my progesterone was still in a healthy range. hCG was 4,701 and progesterone was 28.4 - right on track! It was a huge relief to hear after the worry I was experiencing from the spotting.

During the blood work-up, the also discovered that my blood type is O-. The nurse explained that the + or - that is attached to everyone is called the Rh factor. Positive Rh factors (A+, O+, etc) are dominant, which means that if Luke has a positive Rh factor, it's likely the baby will also. Since I have a negative Rh factor and the baby may have a positive Rh factor, my body may develop antibodies that would attack the baby like a foreign invader. To prevent that from happening, I will need to get a series of three RhoGAM shots throughout my pregnancy to keep the baby safe. I had my first shot on Friday and will need another two. If my body does end up developing antibodies against the baby, it's likely that the baby will have severe anemia and may need a blood transfusion or that I could have a miscarriage. It would also threaten my ability to have more children in the future. So, we are praying and hoping that those RhoGAM shots do their job. I also found out that this runs in my family. My grandmother on my mom's side of the family is Rh negative and my grandfather was Rh positive. Both of my uncles ended up needing blood transfusions when they were born. Thankfully, this was 50 years ago, so I am hoping that medical advances will prevent this from happening with our baby.

Today I am 5 weeks! Our baby is now the size of an appleseed!

The embryo, which doesn't look like much more than a tadpole right now, is actually starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive). The baby's presence in my uterus triggers production of hCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests), which triggers the production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone, which triggers a bunch of pregnancy symptoms.

We Did It!

That's right - we're pregnant! :) I took a test early on Friday morning (4/15) before I left for work and it was positive! Luke had already left work for the day, so I planned on telling him when we got home from work. During the day, I took two more pregnancy tests and they ended up being negative. A little discouraged, I turned to my good friend, Google. Apparently, you aren't supposed to take a pregnancy test if you have gone to the bathroom in the previous four hours, or if you had drank a lot of water. I had done both. So, I decided to wait to tell Luke until the next morning, after I had taken another test first thing in the morning.

That Friday night, I ended up going out to dinner and shopping with a friend (Hi Kaley!) and we came back to our condo to watch a movie. We were in the middle of the movie when Luke came home from work around 9. While we finished the movie, Luke went over to do a few things on the computer. He ended up seeing the history of the computer were I had googled "positive pregnancy test and negative pregnancy test in the same day." So he asked, "Kelsey, did you take a pregnancy test today?" Feeling a little awkward about revealing the news in front of Kaley, I tentatively said "Yes..." and Luke asked "Was is positive?: Another "Yes...." from me. He then asked "Did you also get a negative test?" Finally, I blurted out "How did you know that?!" and he showed me the history on the computer. A little bummed that this is how I was telling my husband that we may be having a baby, I confessed the situation to Luke and Kaley. The plan was to wait to get excited until the next day, when I would take another test.

The next morning, on Saturday, I woke up around 6:00 AM and had to go to the bathroom. I took the test, another positive! I went back to bed to try to sleep, with no luck. About a half hour later, Luke woke up to go to the bathroom. The previous day, I had bought a Mariner's onesie to give to Luke when I told him the news. While he was in the bathroom, I turned on all of the lights in the bedroom and put the onesie on our bed. When he came back from the bathroom, half asleep and saw the onesie, he finally put it together. He asked if I took another test and I told him that yes, it was positive. We hugged, laughed and then tried to go back to sleep. We couldn't sleep so ended up starting our Saturday early! :) It was perfect.

Below is actual proof!

I am four weeks and two days today. Our baby is the size of a poppyseed!

Now safe in my womb, the ball of cells (blastocyst) is splitting into the embryo (our future child) and placenta. Outside this microscopic speck, the amniotic sac and fluid are forming into protective cushioning.

Ovulating - Again!

I am ovulating again! Keep those fingers crossed! :) I ended up taking like 10 pregnancy tests last month, so this month I am making myself wait until I miss my period before I take a test. Which means I can test on April 20th. Hoping and praying!!

Not Yet!

Unfortunately, this month was a no-go. We are trying to stay positive and hoping that this next month is our lucky month!

Ovulating!

I was a little nervous that it would take me a couple months to get back to a regular ovulation cycle since I have been on birth control since I was 16. Lucky me - I took an ovulation predictor test this morning and it was positive! Let the games begin! :)

Unfortunately, this comes with bad timing, since Luke is out of town the next three days at a Young Life training event. Keeping our fingers crossed that we have extra good luck this month!

Trying for Baby

It's been hard to keep this one a secret! Luke and I have always been excited to become parents and now the reality is setting in that we are actually trying to make that happen. When we started talking about trying for a baby, we hoped to sell our small one bedroom condo and rent for a little while so make extra space for the baby. Well, our condo has now been on the market for a month and no nibbles yet. It's a tough time to be selling. If we don't get any offers in the next couple of months, we have decided to pull the condo and stay put for a few years. While it's not ideal, we are excited to get creative about starting our family in such a small place. We really do love our condo, after all, it's our first home!

Luke and I "pulled the goalie" (so to speak) about a week ago. We are now doing all of the right things to try to conceive, which is a pretty long list. For Luke, this means cutting down alcohol consumption, no hot tubs, no cell phones or laptops on his lap. For me, this means no caffeine, no alcohol, a daily prenatal vitamin and figuring out when I am ovulating. I won't go into too much detail on the topic of ovulation, but there are a whole bunch of things I am doing to track that in itself. We are hoping to get lucky on the first try.

It's been super difficult not to share this news with family and friends but for now we are keeping it our little secret. Once we get a positive pregnancy test, we will be sharing the good news with our parents and siblings and then will wait until after our first ultrasound to share the news with others. So, this blog remains secret until then! :)