Thanksgiving 2008

This year we spent Thanksgiving in California. We stayed part of the week in the condo in Oceanside and then on Wednesday we traveled up to The Grand Californian hotel at the Disneyland resort.


This was a big family vacation with Dad and Mom, Jesse and I, Steven and his wife Liz, and Sara and her fiancé Max. Dad thought this was a good time to get the family together before there are grandchildren in the picture.

We had 4 nights and 5 days in the park. Dad rode his scooter around as usual and I ended up needing rent one as well. There was too much walking for a pregnant mom of twins. I didn't ride on many rides, but Jesse was all over the park with Linda and the rest of the able bodies. Linda stole the show riding on the most rides over the 5 days.

Uncle Jim came up for a visit on Friday and shared his wealth of Disneyland knowledge. The Haasis family is big on going to Disneyland and Jim is just like a kid in a candy store when he is there. We had a blast.

Spotting Scare

On Monday afternoon I started spotting and cramping. I was worried that something was wrong with the babies. I cramped throughout the night and into the next day. I called the Dr. in the morning and they took all day to get back to me. Finally they sent me in for an ultrasound to make sure the babies were okay.

We went to a very nice ultrasound place where they did an external and internal scan of the babies. The babies were just fine and they had heartbeats of 174 and 175. One baby was jumping and wiggling all over the screen. Apparently he or she was giving us a show.

The tech searched around my uterus and ovaries to see if there was anything that was causing the bleeding. They couldn't find anything at all, so I guess all is well. We got a 3D scan and a regular scan of the babies. They are so cute and growing big already.

Update Time

I haven't had the energy to update lately. Today is the beginning of the 9th week of pregnancy. I'm only a few weeks away from the 2nd trimester. I was feeling really well for a few days and I was starting to wonder how the babies were doing. Well ask and you shall receive. I threw up this whole weekend. I was nauseous the entire weekend and very weak. Jesse rented some movies and we stayed at home all weekend. I left the house for an hour to go have dinner with my parents, but sadly that meal came back up.

Today is a much better day. I hope I can keep down my dinner and my vitamins. It has been hard to take and keep the vitamins down and I know that the babies and I really need them.
We are looking forward to the Disneyland trip even though I can't ride on very many rides. I will hang out with dad and enjoy the park that way. Heck I may even rent my own scooter to get around because I know the walking will get to me after a while.

Once we get back from Disneyland we will have our next OB appointment and get another look at the twins. My belly is growing and I feel more comfortable in maternity pants or lose fitting garments. I don't have much left in my wardrobe that fits so I need to start buying some bigger items.

8 Weeks Pregnant

This pregnancy is moving along. I'm already 8 weeks pregnant and my body is slowly starting to change. Here is a picture of my baby belly.

OMG it is TWINS!!!

After waking up this morning, I started to realize what having twins really meant. We now have to buy two of many items and go through double the diapers. An average newborn goes through 8-10 diapers a day times that by 2 and we are almost going through a bag of diapers a day. Whoa nelly!!!

I started reading up on websites for multiple births and learning as much as I can. My belly is growing at a rapid rate and I already look like I am 3 months pregnant when I am not even 2 months pregnant yet. The good news is I still feel great. I'm tired every day but I really haven't been too sick. I get a little sick at night but I don't throw up. I really enjoy eating cereal as that is the only thing that sounds good to my tummy most of the time.

We have told most of the family and friends and everyone is being very supportive. I am getting advice and asking as many questions as I can. Jesse is excited but scared about how we are going to make it. I told him God wouldn't give us two babies if he didn't think we could take care of them. I know we will be fine and our family will be there to help. Sara is going to move in with us and help after the babies are born. We are trying to get her to stay for 1 year if she can.

Ultrasound Update

Today was our first ultrasound. After having to wait an extra week because our Dr. had emergency surgery it is finally time to find out if we have 1 healthy heartbeat or 2.

We slept in and Sara stayed the night at our house so she could go with us. At the appointment I was very nervous, but very excited to see the baby(s). We got the appointment early but luckily, they took us back right away. I don't think I could stand anymore waiting. The Dr. came into the room and we got started right away.

He inserted the ultrasound probe and I saw a baby sac right away. Then he moved the probe and I thought we were seeing another angle of the sac, but it was actually a second sac!!!! We are having TWINS!!!! OMG there are two babies in there. Sara was holding my hand and as soon as the Dr. said twins, we both started crying. I think the color ran out of Jesse's face and he really didn't say much. I was crying so much the Dr. had to tell me to try and calm down because he couldn't get a picture of the moving target. LOL

The doctor did all of his measurements and the babies were measuring right on track. 1 baby was measuring a day behind the other but that is okay at this point. We got to see the heartbeats and actually listen to them as well. Both babies are healthy at this point and we got to take some pictures home with us.

We called the family right after we left the building. Grandpa was first and he already thought we were having twins. He was so thrilled for us. Sara called mom to tell her and then I made a bunch of calls to friends.

Overall, we are very blessed to have two healthy babies!!!

Last and Final Blood Test

My third blood test was today and we jumped to over 2800! It looks like we have a strong baby in there, we are still not sure if we have 1 or 2 babies in there, but I am leaning more towards just having a singleton. Our first ultrasound was scheduled for next Monday at 8:45. At that point we will know for sure. I'm so excited and I don't know how I can get through this week waiting! We hope to see the baby's heartbeat at the appointment.
Here were the bloodtest results from the last week:

1st beta 13dpiui = 264
2nd beta 15dpiui = 608
3rd beta 19dpiui = 2800+

A Day With Family

Sunday is always a nice day of rest. I finally got caught up on some of my sleep, but I am still having a little trouble sleeping through the night. I wake up more often, not to pee yet, but I need to move positions. When I move too quick, I get a sharp pain and have to move more slowly. My abdomen is starting to feel tight and it doesn't like to be stretched during the night.

Today my little sister Sara came in for a visit. She is living in Fort Collins, CO right now. She is down for a week to visit family. Her 20th birthday is next week and this was her present to herself. I'm glad to see her and talk about baby stuff with her. She is going to be a fantastic aunt.
Sara and I went with mom over to Grandma Jean's house for a weekend visit. Aunt Jennie was also there. We looked at pictures of their Hawaii trip and talked about baby stuff. It is so nice to be around family when you are expecting.

I finished my homework early this week so I feel a little less stress; However I will be doubling my classes for the next two weeks in order to have the week off during our Thanksgiving Disneyland trip. 6 more weeks to go and I will have a little break from school.

Jesse started making room in the office to turn it into the baby's room. He got rid of an old dresser and now I need to go through all of the old clothes and things and see what I can sell or donate. I'm excited to start getting the nursery ready. I have picked out the crib, changing table, and bedding. All we need to know is if we are having a boy or a girl

The Day of Exhaustion

Today has been a rough day. I am experiencing the complete and total exhaustion that pregnancy can do to a woman. I went to bed at my normal time, slept well, and woke up fairly easy. After getting to work, I couldn't keep my eyes open or keep from yawning. I tried my best to work and try and get my body going. I didn't have any luck and had to go home after 5 hours of work. I took a two hour nap and still felt just as tired. I think I will have to start going in to work later, as I currently work at 5 am. If I move my schedule back to 6 am, I may do better with an additional hour of sleep. That means less overtime at work, but a happier mama.

Once the fatigue finally wore off and I got my second wind I decided to go do some shopping. I do not fit into my work pants anymore because they were already tight before the pregnancy. I don't like the maternity work pants so I bought some nice pants at New York Co. that were a size or two bigger that way I could grow into them and use a Bella band to increase the waist size as I get bigger.

I did go into Motherhood Maternity and buy two pairs of work pants for when I get really big and bought a very cute maternity shirt. I tried the shirt on with the strap on belly to see what I would look like. I think I will look pretty cute, but I fear gaining too much weight. I want to stay active, go on walks, and do pregnancy yoga to stay in shape, yet still give the baby what he or she needs.

So all in all, the rough day ended in some fun shopping and I was pleased to start shopping for maternity clothes. I just hope I didn't jump the gun.

2nd Blood Test

I woke up today feeling pretty sick. I can't decide if I am hungry or just sick. Food doesn't really sit well with me.

I drove to the Dr.s office again with my appointment with the vampire (person who draws my blood). My nurse stopped by and said she thinks there is two in there. Ugh...not another person saying that. I would be happy with twins but the finances and logistics of twins is a little scary.
2 hours later I get the results. 608!!! That is a perfect number and I think that indicates we only have 1 healthy baby in there!

Today, I am looking at cribs and changing tables, trying to get an idea what I want for the nursery.

The rest of the day should be quiet and I am looking forward to a nice quiet night at home.

Slow Day

Today was a slow day. Nothing new or exciting to report.
I'm feeling more and more tired and I am very distracted with work. I need to concentrate, but my mind wanders to baby things.

In the afternoon I started feeling tired and a little sick. I visited my parents because my dad is headed out to California after being gone on his trip to Hawaii and his comedy tour.
By the evening I was pretty nauseous, but I didn't throw up. I went to my cousins house to pick up some of her maternity clothes. Too bad she is tall and skinny, so most of them don't fit. It looks like I will need to get my own maternity wardrobe, and that is fine with me. :)

Blood Test Day

My blood test was set for first thing the morning. I was a bundle of nerves. I knew it would be positive but I was hoping for a high number. The blood test measures the amount HCG hormone in the blood. Once the baby implants, he or she starts producing the hormone and the hormone doubles every 24-48 hours. A home pregnancy test can detect an HCG level of 25. So I knew our number would be at least 100 or so.

At the office I had my blood drawn and told my nurse Jennifer that we did have a positive pregnancy test. She was very excited for us and surprised it worked on the first try, and so were we! She told me she would call me with the results in 2 hours.

I waited by the phone, but forgot the phone was on vibrate and I missed the call. I listened to my message and Jennifer said I was "good and very pregnant". OMG, what does that mean. So I call back and she tells me my beta number was 264. I did some more research and that high of a number can be an indication of twins; However, beta numbers are not a direct indication of twins, but it can be a small indication.

The Dr. wants me to come back every other day to see if the numbers are doubling correctly. I go back Thursday and probably again on Monday. Once our numbers get to 1500, they will stop the blood tests, wait one week, and then we will have our first sonogram. At that point we should be able to see the heartbeat and tell if we have 1 or 2 babies in there!!!!

Symptoms

So now that I am officially pregnant, I am looking for those elusive pregnancy symptoms. I'm not really feeling anything yet. My bb's are a little sore and I get very tired at several parts of the day, but other than that, life is the same.
I went to the hospital to visit Brea and Chris and baby Cohen. I got to hold him and take some pictures. Having a child is really one of the best things in life. I thank God everyday for blessing me with a pregnancy.
1 more day until the blood test. I hope we have a good beta number.

Playing the waiting game

Sunday was a long day. We stayed at home and watched football and I worked on homework (something I was neglecting since we found out the news). We had planned on visiting our friend's baby later in the day. We were also anxiously awaiting our blood test to confirm the pregnancy and to see how our little bean was doing. The test was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

In the afternoon, I received a phone call from by best friend Brea. She was 38 weeks pregnant. She told me to get ready because she was going into labor. I was so excited because she wanted me to be there with her during the birth. I changed my plan with our other friends and headed out to the hospital. I got there and helped Brea as much as I could. She had a fast painful labor that caused her to get a epidural at about 6cm dilated. After that she was much more relaxed and ready to push the baby out. She was doing a vback (vaginal birth after c-section). She tried her best but the baby would not descend down, so another c-section was the best way to go for the health of the baby. Brea was upset, but happy to have a healthy baby. Cohen Michael was born just before 8pm weighing 8lbs 10 ounces and 22 inches long. He is one the cutest babies I have ever seen.

I was informed greatly about what birth is like and I think I will manage once it is my time, but I am definitely getting a epidural. No super woman for me!!!

Telling the Parents

On the next day, I woke up and my first thought entered into my mind. OMG I am pregnant. This is a wonderful feeling. The plan for the day was to go see my mom and tell her about the pregnancy.

I drove to her house with a bag of items for her. In the bag I had a card that said "Congratulations Grandma to Be", a bib that said grandma's cutie, and a onesie. My mom was so happy when she opened card and read the first line. We went out to lunch to celebrate. My appetite was increasing so Mexican food sounded great!

Later in the day, we had dinner planned with my dad and step mom at Olive Garden. I had a bag for each one of them. I made a pink and a blue photo album where I scrapbook the news into the first few pages. I also had a bib for each parent and a positive pregnancy test in the bag. When my step mom opened the bag, she saw the test right away and said "Are you pregnant?" I told her yes and dad told me to come over and give them a hug. We got up and hugged and cried together in front of everyone at Olive Garden. The rest of the dinner was spent talking about the pregnancy, due date, and baby names. This was the best news we could give my parents.

Our journey to get here

Family Journeys

Jesse and I decided it was time to start our family back in December of 2007. We thought our journey to parenthood would happen fairly quickly. Little did we know, we would have many struggles before finally getting pregnant.

We tried the fun old fashioned way for many months without success. After 6 months I decided to have some tests run to see if everything was okay. A few things checked out okay but something was preventing us from conceiving. After a few months of testing we learned that IUI (intra uterine insemination) would be our best bet to for us to conceive a child.

In September of 08 our 10th cycle of trying we started our first IUI cycle. This involved me taking hormones and Jesse to provide a "sample" to get the job done. We then waited out the dreaded 2 week wait. Well of course I wasn't patient enough and I started testing early. My tests were positive early on because of the hormones used to get me pregnant.

After a while the tests became negative. I knew that any day I could get a "real positive". I tested the day after the negative and it was still negative. My heart sank because I thought the cycle had failed. I went on believing we needed to try again or go for more aggressive treatment options. The very next morning I tested again, but I didn't have much faith. I tested and placed the test on the edge of the bathroom tub. I began getting ready for work. It was time to get into the shower and I hopped in and I finally looked down at the test and low and behold, there were the 2 prettiest pink lines I had ever seen. We had finally conceived a baby. I cried right there in the tub, almost forgetting how to bathe myself. I cried the whole way through. I just couldn't believe we were finally going to be parents. Our dreams had come true!!!