Super Turkey

This is a song that we will always sing at Thanksgiving. The first time that I sang it to Dennis, he looked at me like I was crazy and suggested that I made up the song. Truth be told, I only WISH that I could've come up with a song like this. It's a classic and yes, Dennis and I will definitely sing it together on our way to Missouri to visit my family. Ohh...I cannot wait!

Baby Martin

Sept. 2, 2008: Ok, so I am trying something new. I am going to keep quiet about what Dennis and I are up to. It is going to be a difficult challenge, but I am up for it. I have to keep my mouth shut for three months! Three months? Yes, I can do it. My Dad used to say "you can telephone, telegraph, or tell-a-Krista". Not anymore. My lips are sealed.

Dennis and I do not want to ginx this baby-making-thing this go round so we're going to wait until 12 weeks to spill the beans. So, I will be confiding only in my blog until that day comes. Lucky you, oh Bloggo. I am telling everyone that it will be "several months" till we get to try again. I love it - the drama! The excitement!

Sept. 4, 2008: Taking estrogen now through just about every orphus possible. And I'm wearing estrogen patches. Gotta love it. I told the nurse that I'm feeling especially moody, tired, and I've definitely put on a few lb's. She said not to worry, that those three things are the most common side effects. FANtastic.

Sept. 8th, 2008: Spoke with the nurse today and we are doing the transfer tomorrow at 10:30 am. I am excited. I feel like I need to drink a lot of wine or beer or a keg since it'll (hopefully) be many months before I can do that again. It is sorta like my last meal in a weird way. Oh, and the nurse told me that they will either implant two or three. Dennis had to sit down when I said "or three". Dennis & Krista Plus three.

Sept. 9th, 2008: We were all ready to do the transfer and they pulled up a picture from the lab of three "beautiful" embryos. The conversation went back and forth between us, our MD and the embryo specialist (not sure of his exact title), for about 10 minutes as we considered implanting two or three. I guess at this stage, after two days, the chances that all three embryos would make it wasn't really high. But, you never know. So, we would probably want to implant three since (most likely) not all three would take and we wanted to get atleast one pregnancy out of this. But, that also meant that we could have three - yes, three - embryos develop and grow into little babies. Plus, it is not too uncommon for an embryo to split, resulting in idential twins. So we could have four babies from this whole transaction. Dennis & Krista Plus four.

We decided to wait until Friday to see which embryos appear to have the most promise. Then we can implant two of the best looking embryos and feel much better about our possibilities of getting pregnant with one - or two, max - babies.

I am now going to have a margarita. Or ten.

Sept. 12, 2008: Well, we did it! We are officially preggo! These two little cuties were implanted near each other so that they can start getting to know each other right away. The nurse told me she thinks that one is a boy and one is a girl. They both look like boys to me.

Sept. 20, 2008: Just went to the store to buy beer and a pregnancy test. The beer is obviously for Dennis and the test is for me. It would be nice if the pregnancy-test-makers would package them in bulk - and I mean BULK - at least in boxes of 20. Not just "buy 2 and get 1 free".

And yes, I know, I know, I know that it is too early to necessarily feel pregnant but it is concerning to me that I've been feeling "normal" the last few days. The home pregnancy test results came back positive so I can relax a little bit. Maybe.

Sept. 24, 2008: The relaxing continues... atleast for now. I went in for blood work on Monday and then again today and the good news is that my results suggest that the pregnancy is moving forward and progressing as expected. My beta levels, estrodial, and progesterone levels were good - - and my beta level almost doubled from Monday to today, which is a very good sign. I guess the beta level is the key measure of how things are going. It should keep going up and up and up.

I was especially nervous because I had some spotting a few days after the IVF transfer and then more spotting a few days after that. Since I have had that bleeding, I'm not allowed to work out. So I am being a total bum these days but an excited bum, none-the-less.

Sept. 27, 2008: More spotting. Great. It makes me so nervous and so scared - - especially since I do not get to go in until Wednesday to get my blood drawn again. Trying to be patient sucks! Dennis told me not to worry because it is out of our hands. He is right, but... it is still hard!

October 3, 2008: We're going in for our first ultrasound next Monday instead of Wednesday because of the spoting that I've continued to experience. I am hopeful that we have one strong heartbeat that shows up...but what if we have two? Or more?

I've been overly emotional (which is hard to imagine, I know, poor Dennis), my boobs got in the way at golf lessons last night (lucky Dennis), and I feel sick, which are all hopefully good signs. I never thought that I would say, "I am so glad that I feel sick" but those words actually came out of my mouth several times this past week. I think we are technically 5 weeks as of today.

October 6, 2008: We had our first photo shoot today. But, it wasn't without drama. We went in, I had my blood drawn, and while we were waiting for the ultrasound tech to come get us, I went to the restroom. I came out crying, sure that I had just miscarried. There was a lot of blood.

Dennis tried to help me be positive and to just wait to see the results of the ultrasound.

Well, just when I had given up all hope, we were informed that everything is OK. After seeing one heartbeat, the tech said, "wait...I think I see another one," and I thought that I was going to start crying again. Dennis quickly quipped, "I guess it's buy one get one free!"

Apparently we have three sacs but only two of them have a heartbeat. One of those embryo's must've split!

The third sac explains a lot of the bleeding and spotting that I've been having. The continued bleeding, though, still keeps me from being allowed to work out. I guess I'll have time for that later...

We are very happy right now. A cautious, scared, emotional happy.

Oh yeah, we told our parents. Woopsy.

November 21st, 2008: You may have noticed a HUGE jump in dates from the last entry. Y'know the sound of a record screeching to a halt? I wish that I could've inserted that into this post.

The reason for the screeching record noise (let's pretend) is that we went in and found out that there were actually three heart beats. Three! The physician told me that there is a 1% chance of this happening, so she was really surprised. I started to cry when I heard the news. Dennis smiled, and all that I could say as I freaked out was, "I don't have three boobs! They don't make sidewalks big enough for a three baby stroller. We will need to move! Our house is too small. Oh no...and we'll be immediately outnumbered! What if they decide to attack?" And yes, you know me: I am a slightly anal planner. And this is a huge deviation from what I planned. So I lost it. Luckily Dennis apologized to the nurse for my reaction and helped me to stay somewhat together.

A week or two later, we went to see the high-risk doctor who wasn't optimistic about me being pregnant with three babies. The risks to all of the babies was very high if we continued the pregnancy with all of them. Selective reduction was discussed and Dennis and I went home.

Selective reduction is when you basically choose which babies to continue with in an effort to have the most healthy baby(ies) possible. Are you kidding me? Where is this in the book on IVF (if there was such a book)? This was too complicated and too heart breaking to think about. Plus, we're not supposed to have to even discuss something like this. So, as you can imagine, we were emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted as we continued to discuss all options over the next few weeks.

When we went in for another check up with the high-risk specialist, she noticed a lot of fluid accumulating behind the head of one of the identicals. She was extremely concerned about it and said that it is an early sign of a chromosomal or birth defect. I guess this is fairly common with identical twins. The prognosis for the identicals was getting less and less bright.

As you can probably guess, since we are pregnant with one cute baby right now, the identicals didn't make it. God helped us to make a decision that we didn't want to make on our own. A decision we didn't know how to make on our own.

The wonderful news is that the third little one looks really healthy. And, isn't that why we started this process in the first place?

So there. That's all of the nonsense. Dennis and I have decided that no more drama is allowed. We are not going to think about the sadness, excitement, and worry that we've already been through. No, we aren't. We are just going to focus on being pregnant with a happy and healthy baby.

We are very excited about this special blessing!

Shiba Inu Puppies

Ok, I'll just say it. I think that baby humans (aka 'babies') are very cute but I don't think that they compare to baby dogs (aka 'puppies'). Once Dennis and I have our own children, I'm sure that I will change my mind but until then, I'm sticking to that opinion. Baby dogs are cuter than baby humans.

The live webcam below is absolutely adorable. I don't know anything about Shiba Inu puppies except that they are so cute. I guess there is a couple in California that decided to upload this live video of the puppies playing together and it has taken off because people will open it up while at work and just watch the cutie-patooties play when they need a break.

So, regardless of whether or not you need a break from whatever you are doing (and I know you aren't doing anything too important because you are lolly-gagging on my blog right now), please watch this for a few minutes. You'll be hooked just like I am. Promise.

Live video by Ustream

Domesticated.

I'm not sure if it was the excitement that I had when the alarm went off at 7am, telling us that it was time to get up and open up our garage for the hugely acclaimed neighborhood garage sale (or, the garage-sale-of-a-lifetime, as I like to refer to it) or how I looked forward to re-arranging our guest room that made me feel official. Officially domesticated.

My sister stopped by for a few minutes, so I spent time with family today, too. Dennis and I cleaned the house a little. I took a nap and when I woke up, I listened to Dennis and one of our soon-to-be-a-father neighbors, Jason, (and by soon-to-be I mean his wife, Tina, is due to deliver sometime this week) talk about pregnancy, breast milk, starting a family, and things like breast pumps and doctor appointments. It was actually really sweet.

All I needed to do to make being domesticated official today was to cook. And yes, I'm still working on that. Maybe tomorrow I can make some boxed brownies or pancakes and we can call it even.

Who would've guessed??

Ok, so something must've happened. I am not sure what it was, but it was definitely something. And a really big one, at that.

Just when I crossed over into the new world of being 30, leaving behind any 20-something ideas, goals, and thoughts, it happened. My brain stopped working like it used to (and yes, I know it's hard to imagine, but my brain does function some of the time. Not much, but a little.) I keep trying to think of something to blog about and as soon as I come up with an idea, my next thought is, "no, that won't work" or, "that's too personal to put on the blog". What? I am usually the biggest blabbermouth on this side of the Mississippi and I am now developing some type of filter? It can't be. It just can't. What would I do?

So, please stay posted. I will make it through this rough spell. I will come through it and immaturity will continue to prevail. I must be suffering from a flare up of my non-ridicilousopathy.

And now, for the next trick...

This is awesome. Echo and I now have some major dance practice scheduled for this weekend.

It's sad to say but the dog, Gin, can dance better than I can!

Thanks, Stephen, for sharing.

Closeness

How do you define closeness? I often struggle with this question since my parents live in Missouri and I, obviously, live very far away. My mother and I have a very close relationship. We've always talked every day and recently it's been several times a day. She is really one of my best friends and it is so hard when I talk to her and she says, "oh - I wish that you were here. If you were, we could go to get some coffee and catch up" (as if we really have anything else to 'catch up' on, but that's another story).

My younger sister, Kelly, lives here in Atlanta, too. It's nice when my parents drive here (yes, they drive the entire 11 hour trip without any complaints) because we can all do things together - with my parents, Dennis, and my sister. Echo gets to hang with us, too. The Griswolds do Atlanta.

My mom and I often talk about how it would be nice to live near each other. Obviously that would make the whole going-out-to-get-coffee-thing a lot easier. I can tell that she is jealous when I tell her that Dennis and I saw the Martins or that we dropped by their house for a few minutes. So I came up with a solution that makes me feel a little bit better, and her as well.

It's all about the minutes. The minutes we spend on the phone together. The minutes we spend together when they stay with us for an entire weekend or when Dennis and I stay with them in Missouri. There are tons of minutes that we spend together each day, really. So we are both trying to focus on the minutes and not the miles.

Dennis and I have talked about moving closer to my family, but I don't think that is in the cards for us right now. We need to do what is best for us as a couple and right now there isn't a good reason to move. Plus, I love being close to Dennis' family, my sister, and all of our friends. We're in a very good place right now and who knows what the future will bring. But, for right now, we'll just focus on the minutes and enjoy the 11 hour drive.

Phoney Business

Please go to this website! Select your country from the drop down box and then enter your phone number.

Using Google Earth, a sattelite can locate your position using your cell phone. It'll only take one minute - you'll be glad that you did it.