And then there were TWO of them

As a parent, you are tasked with doing everything for your second child that you did for your first child. Not that it is a bad thing, it's just how it is. So, you may be better off doing NOTHING for your first child picture or memory-wise if you don't want to do it again the next go-round. And as I write this, I must tell you that I am hopeful that this IS our next go-round.

So, here I am, attempting to keep a 'secret' journal to be posted only when we reach the 12 week mark. Please let us reach the 12 week mark without any problem.

12.17.10 : Over the last few months, I've been prepping to do the IVF transfer that we did today. Shots, estrogen, the whole bit. It was a lot easier this time since I knew what to expect. And, Connor didn't allow me to have any pity or attention focused on me AT ALL so the process went by quickly. I definitely wasn't able to milk it for all that I did last time.

We went in today and transferred one embryo. We'd rather be safe than sorry. And they did the PGD testing on the embryos to weed out any possible embryos with genetic problems.

I told Dennis that I'm not going to think about this pregnancy at all and that I'm just going to be laid back and patient until we do the first blood test on December 27th. But, HELLO, that requires patience and I always come up short in that department. So, it's been on my mind in a huge way and I just re-read the blog post that I did while I was keeping the secret about being pregnant with Connor. That didn't help with the patience factor. And I just googled, 'early signs that IVF was successful', 'day of IVF transfer signs of success' which confirms to any nay-sayers out there that I do have zero patience. Unfortunately, I have come to the realization that I have to do one - and only one - thing: wait. Pray, and wait.

12.27.10 : I went in for my blood work this morning and Lynn, the nurse, called me right about noon. Not that I was watching the clock or anything. Connor and I were on our way home from his check-up at the doctors office when Lynn said the magic words: Your blood test results look great. Apparently, anything above a 50 (not even sure what measurement that we're talking about here) is a very positive sign about the pregnancy. And my number was 99.7. Go Krista, it's your birthday, have a party...

After I got the news, I called Dennis. And then I started to cry. A happy, overwhelmed, excited, and nervous cry. Bring on the hormones.

I haven't posted anything even though I wanted to write something EVERY DAY because I was afraid to do so. Every time that I write about the pregnancy, I get excited. And I need to hold my horses in that department for a while.

Things are good now, so I'll go ahead and share the picture of the little booger from the lab with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

12.30.10 : Cramping, a little bit of spotting and I am nervous. I'm nervous if I do have pregnancy symptoms and then I'm nervous if I don't. Screwed either way.

1.5.11 : We had another blood test this morning. I was SO nervous because I had a nightmare the night before that we had a miscarriage. So, I stalked out the nurse until she gave me the results. Everything is a "go" and we get to go in for our first OB check up next week. We might even get to hear his (or her) heartbeat. Wow. I'm grinning ear to ear right now.

1.10.11 : Today was a long day. I woke up at 6am and went to the bathroom. There was enough blood to make me very scared. I crawled back into bed, looked out at the window at the snow, prayed, and grabbed my iPhone. I googled '5 weeks pregnant, IVF, bleeding'. The results that I found were 50/50 so my nervousness wasn't relieved. I sent an email to the nurse asking her if I could please come in for an appointment today. I didn't care if the whole city was shut down.

Fast forward several hours, and I received a phone call from the clinic. The nurse that called talked me off of the ledge. She said that since I didn't have a ton of bleeding that I was probably OK. Plus, I confessed to her that I went to the gym yesterday. She said that could have contributed to the bleeding but my role for the next 24-48 hours was to put my feet up and not do a single thing. Hello...has she met Connor?

1. 17. 11 : We are so thrilled because we were able to see - and hear - the heartbeat last Thursday. Snow and ice still covered the roads but Dennis and I managed to make it in to our appointment. Both of us had smiles across our face as we squeezed each others hand when Amy, the ultrasound tech, said that the little one looks perfect and has a healthy heartbeat.

Progesterone shots continue every night until about week 8. At that point, I **get** to switch to vaginal progesterone. I don't mind the shots but Dennis (the shot administrator) strongly prefers the other option. He can't wait to leave the shots behind us (no pun intended).

I couldn't keep my mouth closed much longer and neither could Dennis. Our parents are now very excited to be grandparents for the second time. We still aren't telling anyone else. Shhhh.........

2.13.11 : And I've told a few more people. Mostly randoms. Y'know how you lose control of your bladder when you are pregnant? Well, I think that the same thing happened to my mouth. It just comes out, unexpectedly. A lady that I don't even know very well at work asked me when we are going to have #2. And, well, before she knew it, she knew that we are expecting again.

My nausea has been fading a little bit the past few days so I am hopeful that is a good sign and that it simply means that we are moving closer to the 12 week mark. My cravings have been all over the place so I hope that calms down but I doubt that it will. Lucky Dennis.

I had some spotting again last night and so I am especially excited for our visit with Dr. Grogan (our OB) this week. I'll be 11 weeks on Monday (tomorrow) but the spotting makes me nervous. Yes, I know that we've heard the heartbeat two times already but still...

2.17.11 : We saw the baby and his/her heartbeat again today! Dennis, Connor and I all went in for my 11+ week check up. That wasn't the original plan, but it just happened to work out that way. Connor was home with a fever and an ear infection and Dennis was really excited to see the heartbeat, so, well...it was quite the family affair.

Dr. Grogan pointed the little baby on the screen and looked at Connor. "Connor, see that little baby? That will be your favorite person to torment in about 9 months..."

2.28.11 : So I guess it's official that we are telling people because Dennis mentioned it to a few people at his gym. And I wasn't so slick at keeping a secret when I was drinking Shirley Temple's at dinner on Saturday night. Don't get me wrong - Shirley Temple's are great, but I usually prefer a more adult libation. There will be time for that, I keep telling myself...

We went in for the nucal-translucency test today and were able to see the baby again! Everything looked good from the ultrasound but we are still waiting on the blood results to confirm everything is going as great as it looks to be. I LOVE the ultrasound tech because she told me that the baby's due date is September 1st. We're moving up a few days with each physician visit! I imagine we'll stick with the September 4th due date but I'm always up for considering an earlier debut of this little beauty.

We sort-of did and sort-of didn't want to find out the sex today. We were wishy-washy and Dennis swears that the "test" the blood draw lady did (a very unscientific test involving a bracelet being dangled over my wrist) indicated that we're having a boy. But I swear the ultrasound tech was hinting that it looks like a girl. So we're still at square one not for sure if this is going to be a little brother or little sister for Connor. Either way, we're extremely happy and excited to meet this little person!

Leaving Las Vegas...

...in 4 days.

I have a meeting this week in Vegas so Dennis and I decided to extend the my week long meeting with a little bit of fun on the front end. After all, this is my first trip to Sin City and my parents were nice enough to drive in from Missouri to watch Connor (and Echo) for us.

We decided to stay at the same hotel where I'll be ALL WEEK LONG. That had it's benefits: I didn't have to check in with everyone else this morning and I've been able to turn off all of the lights in the room with my bedside controller every single night. I can even open the curtains by pushing a button on the key pad. But the drawback is that I'm ready to go home. I've been here, done that.

The hotel, Aria, is one of the newer ones on the Strip. It's very modern, sleek, and fancy-pants, just like Dennis and me. So we fit right in. We gambled away some money on roulette, slots, and blackjack, but the place that I had the most fun was in the Sports Book. We spent hours figuring out how to bet on horses, which horse to bet on, and the like. Don't be jealous, but some of our winnings are shown below.

We set up shop in a little cubby - - you know, like what we had in college at the library. And YES, I went to the library in college. I was the little mad scientist doing calculations on who was favored to win and then I'd ask Dennis for his gut feeling and we'd place our bets. We won a few times but mostly just enjoyed ourselves. And Dennis was able to get "free" drinks while we did our very technical 'calculations', too.

Other than that, we did the normal Vegas stuff: we went to see a Cirque de Soleil show, "O", marveled at the intricacies of every hotel and saw the water show at the Bellagio. Oh, and I also saw the shortest skirts that I've EVER seen in my life. I'm not just showing my age here - - these shirts barely covered the girls butts! I've dressed up to go out but never like THAT!!

Random side-note: Do you see the horse in the picture above? It was in the lobby of the Bellagio (my favorite hotel) and I would love to have it for our living room. Just FYI in case you want to save up for my birthday. Isn't it just gorgeous?

So, short story long, we had a great time together. And then he got to go home this morning and I'm stuck here for another 4 days. Four days that are sure to be very long.

Yay for me!

Very recently (a few hours ago), I was nominated by Whine & Cheez as someone who is a "stylish blogger". Many thanks to Kristi for the nod! If loving to wear stripes (horizontal, the non-flattering kind) makes you stylish, then I'm a definite shoe-in for this. Or, maybe it's the fact that my underwear says, "IN YOUR DREAMS" in bold gold letters. And I'm not even kidding about that one.

As part of the deal, you have to nominate other 'stylish bloggers'. Here are some great blogs I follow:

• Whine & Cheez Because she is awesome. Obviously. Great taste. And she posts fun stuff all. of. the. time.
• Chronicles of a Baby Wise Mom Do I need to say more? Babywise is the bible around our house.
• Chasing Tails Betsy is a wonderful writer and I hope she sees this and realizes that she needs to post something again. And soon.
• So Fetching a charming blog about fashion
• What A Wonderful Life Katie keeps us up-to-date on her wonderful life

Here is where it gets really fun. At least for me. I have to reveal 7 interesting things about myself....only 7?!

1. I'll start by breaking the rule. This one isn't about me but I still think it's hilarious. One of the girls in my dorm freshman year told me that her roommate (who was incredibly overweight) was always having sex with her (also overweight) boyfriend in their dorm room. And my friend never knew this, but apparently it smells like pancakes and bacon when fat people do it.

2. I don't really follow rules. I don't like to. Isn't that one of the few really fun things that you get to do as an adult? I've been known to put Sprite in my cereal and eat breakfast for dinner. Ewww...craaazzy. I think I've even driven my car too fast a few times.

3. I was accepted onto a the show "Change of Heart" in college but it didn't work out for me to travel to participate in the show. Damn. I don't think Dennis was there, though, so I would've definitely walked away empty handed.

4. I feel like this is an obvious one here, but I love icing. The cake or cupcake is just the vehicle for transferring the ewey-yummy-goodness. Why can't they just serve blobs of icing?

5. I was once compared to Deon Sanders in the Columbia Daily Tribune. The article should've been nominated for a pulitzer.

6. I sell drugs by day and margaritas by night. Ah-hah...now you want to come to my parties, huh?

7. If I had a million-billion dollars, I would do everything possible to help homeless animals. I would offer free clinics to spay and neuter pets and work around the clock to save every little animal that I could.

Food Pyramid

I am so happy to see all of the cupcake shops that have opened their doors in Atlanta. It seems like all of the sudden there is a Gigi's Cupcakes or a Camicake store on every corner. And, believe me, I'm not complaining. I'm just observant. And, when I see the American Express commercial and the lady is talking about how she opened her store to sell nothing less than wine and cupcakes, I have one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that moments.

Since I'm just now learning that cow's milk isn't all that it's cracked up to be and actually isn't even all that healthy for you, I'm re-thinking my own, personal food pyramid. The Food Pyramid is sponsored by the Dairy Association so I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that a group like that might have some personal interest in getting you and me to drink more cow's milk. It's something to think about. That's why they have dairy (or milk) as one of the food groups. Duhhh.

I'm not suggesting that everyone lives and breathes the details of this Egyptian food guide but I am suggesting that there might be a place for cupcakes on the pyramid. I mean, seriously. I need to find a way to start the Cupcake Coalition. And then we would come up with our own food pyramid and go head to head - or utter to utter - with this group to earn our place. Instead of a pyramid we could make it in the shape of a cupcake. Pyramids are so 20th century. Hmmm...now we're talking...