Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What do you think??

So we are less than one week away from finding out what gender are baby is! How exciting. We are excited and nervous. I am not really nervous, Brandon probably is just like most men out there, he really would like a boy. Me on the other hand, I am ok either way. I just hope the baby is healthy! So I am asking my readers to vote. What do you think we are going to have.
I will give some hints, some of you are probably thinking that hints will not help. But those who are already mothers it might help you in your decision.
1. The Chinese calendar says we are going to have a girl.
2. I feel that I am carrying low. So take that however you interpret it.



 















I will let you know next week!! Have a great Easter.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Nala in Bed

About a month ago, Brandon was out of town and so instead of dealing with Nala in the morning I wanted to sleep in. So I invited Nala into bed with me. Little did I know that I would create a very bad habit for her. Since that one incident she has never forgotten how wonderful our bed is. One of the main reasons why we don't want her on our bed, is because its rather high. We don't like her to jump up, in fear of her tearing her ACL again, or the ACL in her other leg. Second thing is that she likes to nest in our bed. The bed can be made, and we walk in and she has the sheets and comforter all pulled up and in a nice plush area where she has been sleeping on. So we thought we had out smarted her. We started putting one of our bar stools on the bed, thinking that would have prevent her from jumping on the bed. We were wrong, she would find the area that was not covered up by the chair and she would nest her self in to her perfect sleeping position. So again we took extreme measures and decided to put two chairs on the bed. Well as you can see by the picture below, were were wrong again.

Also if you notice in this picture she is actually still sleeping. Brandon came home from work, and she didn't hear anything. He walked all the way into the room, and she was still sleeping. We have a very good guard dog!!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Christmas Surprise

I was so excited. Ever since we have been talking about getting pregnant, I always wanted to surprise our parents and do something special in telling them. God gave me what I wanted. It was the weekend before Christmas, so what an amazing Christmas Present to share with the rest of the family. So I started thinking of fun ways in telling our families. The last Christmas, I had purchased this ornament for our friends who were pregnant. It was a husband and wife standing together, and she had a belly. So that was my mission to find one of these ornaments. Now remember this is the Sunday before Christmas, so it was starting to look like finding this ornament was going to be a challenge. We went to our local mall, and they were sold out. We came home from church, and I stared searching the internet. I found a couple, but the problem was because it was going to be personalized no one would guarantee that I would get it before Christmas. We were leaving the next day which was Monday for Christmas vacation. Heading to Ohio first. My final thought was this place in the Laurel Park Mall, which is close to my parents house they have the best place for personalized ornaments. I called them, they informed me that they had a online store and I would have to submit an order that way. It was Sunday night now. I placed my order and followed up with email. Saying what I was trying to do, and that I would pay for the additional mail rush but I needed these before Christmas. I didn't care if they arrived on Wed, I just needed them before Christmas Day. They were great, they worked with me and got them out on Monday. We got them in Ohio on Tuesday in plenty of time.
This is a picture of the ornament, I can't believe I didn't get one of the actual ornament I gave to the family but you will get the idea. On the belly we put baby due Aug/Sept 2010.


Christmas morning we were in Ohio, and if you know me I am always excited for Christmas. This year was no exception. Usually we open our presents first, but at the Hoops house, I just couldn't keep it in. I wanted them to go first. So once they had finished opening all their presents, we handed out the final three. Brandon's parents were the only ones that got the ornament, the grandmas got something a little different. They don't have trees that they put ornaments on, so we had to be a little creative.


Later in the day, we headed to MI to have Christmas with my family. We had to do things a little different. My parents knew their Christmas presents this year, so we had them open them at the very end. We had each of them open a present at the same time again, however my dad got the present that didn't relate. I just didn't want them to suspect anything.

Monday, March 8, 2010

God's timing is Perfect


That next month I started taking Fermara, you take a small pill for the first part of the month. I had my blood checked and everything seemed to be working right, just like it did the month before. So I wasn't going to get my hopes up. The time finally came and nothing happened. I waited a couple of days, I know most people would take a pregnancy test but I was afraid. I didn't want to see the negative, and than have to basically start all over, or have to start taking or do things that were going to be pretty expensive. I called the fertility clinic, and than they said once you are five days late and get a negative test they would give you something to start a period. So I waited one more day. Finally Saturday morning came, and I decided it was time to take a test. The first test I took, it was the one that it had to show two lines which meant you were pregnant. I didn't really wait for the results, I checked it before going back to bed and it looked like a negative so I went back to bed. About 45 min later I got up, because it was Saturday morning and I had my spin class to do and it was the Saturday before Christmas and I had a ton of things to do that Saturday. I walked into the bathroom just to double check and it turned into a positive!! Brandon was still asleep at this moment, and so I walked into the room tapped him on the foot and said we are pregnant. He didn't believe me. I said we are really pregnant. So that day while he was out getting baking supplies, and I was home baking for our party that weekend I gave him clear instruction to pick up another pregnancy test. One that was digital so the whole line situation would not confuse me. I wanted one that said either pregnant, or not pregnant. He called me when he was leaving the store, I asked him did you get the right test. He said yes you wanted the one with the lines on it right. I said NO! I wanted the digital one, he said I know I got it.
Sunday morning I took two more test, instantaneously the digital one said pregnant.
That night we had our annual Christmas party with close friends. Friends that have known that this journey has been a little longer than we had planned. Before we got to the party, we agreed that we could share the news with them. Because we knew that they were probably going to ask how things were going, and when you find out you are excited and want to share the news. So during the night, we shared the news they were all so excited and some teared up. It was a fun way to share the news.

So if any of you are out there readying this and you are also struggling with getting pregnant, I just want to encourage you, I know some of you maybe getting frustrated but don't give up. Embrace the life you are currently living, enjoy the time you are having. Everything happens in life the way God intends it to be. We give God time tables a lot of the time, and over the past couple of years I have learned that we can't. God wants us to be happy, and he knows what is best for you. What we may think will make us happy, are maybe not what God wants for us at that moment. Like I said I had this perfect plan about getting pregnant and had the perfect time line. Things obviously didn't work out that way, but one of the best things God gave me this Christmas was a baby in my belly. I couldn't plan a better surprise, and than sharing it with our family over Christmas was perfect. God likes to Laugh with us as well, something I am sure he is laughing at is that my baby's due date is Aug. 24th. Some of you are probably thinking what is so bad about that. In my perfect plan which we will call plan A I wanted the baby before or the start of summer so my mom would be out of school and if I needed her help she could. So when the baby is actually due she will be or getting ready to start school. Also another reason was because the child's birthday would fall on the school calender. I was one of those kids that had a summer birthday, so no one would remember your birthday. You didn't get to bring treats in for it or anything. Aug. 24th is a summer birthday. Also Aug. 24th scares me a little because here in TN schools start in Aug. So when is the cut off date? Who knows if we will still be here when the child goes back to school or not, but if so will the child be young for his class, or old? Most people say if you have a boy, to hold him back. But I am not sure I want him to be the oldest of the class. So God is laughing at me because I am already nervous about this situation. I just hope the baby is born before September 1st! So enjoy and embrace the life you are given currently, pray that God will give you the desires of your heart. Keep a positive outlook, and remember good things are in store for you. You may not see them right at this moment, but a couple years down the road you will see what was planning all along.

Monday, March 1, 2010

In God's timing.....not mine! Part 2

So the next day which was a Tuesday, I was not about to wait for them to call me. I called Nashville Fertility. They had received my information and we had scheduled an appointment for next week! When we got to the office, while waiting in the lobby I was looking around and noticing the other people that we were waiting. The majority of the couples that were waiting in the office with us, look about the same age as we were. It caused me to think, why are there so many fertility clinics in the US? Why are so many young people sitting in this office. Does it have something to do with what we are eating, drinking, or medications we are taking? I feel like there needs to be a study conducted on this statistic that is out there.

Eventually we were called into the room, where a nurse came and look at my information asked Brandon some questions and pretty much came to the conclusion that I was the person having problems. When the Doctor came into our room, she was very concerned with my appendicitis that I had last year. She asked me if it actually ruptured. I assured her suspicions, and since it had ruptured she wondered if it cause any problems on my right side. When your appendix ruptures all that poison sits in the lower area and for a female that isn't good. So she wanted to have a test done, because in most cases it does cause a problem on your right side. They also suggested while we were in there to have an IUI (intrauterine insemination). They made it sound like once this happens, you would be pregnant. After the doctor left I looked at Brandon and said "you mean we could be pregnant next week" with a shocked expression. Brandon replied "well you came here to get results" my reply "I said I know but not that fast" "I mean you keep trying to get pregnant and so when the possibility of it happening you kind of get freaked out a little. Just because you are so use to either having a negative test, that when you see a positive its almost unreal. Anyway...we couldn't have the IUI that month, and we would have to wait for the following month. Which was a good thing, because we really needed to go home and sit down and talk about what measures we were going to take. Plus the cost of an IUI is rather expensive. Our insurance doesn't cover any fertility, so this first visit was a rather expensive one as well. So that was late Oct/Nov. The next month we were going to try a different drug, one that can be taken orally. We also decided to have my tubes checked. So as of late November we were on Fermara and I had my tubes checked. As to their suspicion, my right tube is blocked by scar tissue. In the test, they thought they had opened my right tube, but I found out later that its not. So we left the doctors office with a lot of thinking to do. We did discuss that we were going to give Fermara a couple of months, before we would go down the road of IUI. To be continued....(last one)