Ohhhh Babies!!!

Brian and I are pleased to announce that we are pregnant with twins. Two babies are now busily growing inside of me, and I have never felt better. No morning sickness, no anything! I am 8 weeks along and feeling great.

We were in Las Vegas for our wonderful friends wedding at the Four Seasons, it was a spectacular event!

But, along with having twins comes holy cow I look like I am 4 months along...opps! That would really only be about 2 :-) So I thought I would share our cute little baby bump as well as my hot husband!

Have You Been Waiting For the News???

I know that I said I would wait to write, but dangit! I have to tell the world. I am just praying that all my numbers continue to go up, but Brian and I received the phone call on Friday confirming that we have a little something something growing inside me. I think its a litter of puppies because I still don't believe it!!!

Our 1 year anniversary is tomorrow! What great news to celebrate the day with!

1st Baby Pictures

Look at our cute embryos!

Two Beautiful Babies

So, I have been on bed rest for the past 4 days letting our two beautiful, little embryos implant into my uterus.

On Tuesday we transferred 2 embryos, one of which the doctor said was so perfect it must be a girl, the other a little weird looking, but all in all a great set of babies. It was amazing watching the babies be transferred into my uterus. We felt so blessed to witness our own conception. We are now just playing a waiting game. One more week until we can take the conclusive blood test (don't kid yourself though, I am peeing on a stick every morning! So far they have all been positive!)

This picture was taken right after they transferred the babies, if you look closely at the ultrasound you can see two little dots, that's the babies! Amazing!

Brian took a not so great picture, but you can see the two little embryos on the far right as one big white blob.

This picture is a little bit better at separating the two little ones! I pray that they both take, am I nuts for wanting twins???

This Could Very Well Be...

the last day that I don't have a little something something growing inside of me.

My egg retrieval was moved up to Saturday morning instead of Easter Sunday. They originally thought that I had 30 follicles that were beautiful and waiting to hatch into little Courtney and Brian's. I overstimulated at the beginning of the week, and I just knew that we were going to be done, because you can't overstimulate. They got me back on track, and retrieved a day early.

Of course, Brian took some lovely videos of me with no makeup, hair back with no product, glasses, and in sweats, those I think we will save for our children when they are grown.

We went back, I have no veins left in either of my arms because I have been poked about 80 times and they are all blown. The Anesthesiologist however took my warning of leaving the top of my hand out of it, and found a nice vein in my left arm (which mind you had been poked about 8 times within the week prior). I went to sleep nicely, woke up with this amazing heating pad on me and my wonderful husband sitting next to me.

Dr. W. came in and said out of the 30 beautiful follicles only 11 were mature enough to use, the rest either were too small, or didn't have an egg inside of them. Bummer...only 11...that's okay right??? No answer, he didn't want to tell me one way or the other.

Next, it's Brian's turn. Needless to say I will not go into any details, if you would like to do a google search on PESA, you can then say that my husband loves me unconditionally. I sat with him rubbing his head, as they cannot numb the inside of the vein, they can only numb the outside, and he was in pain. The first sample looks beautiful...a beautiful sample with no sperm.

No sperm, I am thinking, we didn't go over this scenario in our head. We never even thought that he wouldn't have any...it has only been 3 years since his vasectomy. They go in for round 2...

At this time I am shedding my clothing as the temperature of 97.3 degrees is starting to affect my breathing. I finally decide I need to leave the room, and as I do I pass out in the waiting room. 30 more minutes go by, and by this time I am crying and consumed with, "why didn't we think about this!" We had prepared ourselves for everything else!

Finally Traci, the godsend of a nurse, pokes her head out the door and yells, "We have swimmers!" I immediately run back to see my husband laying down, all I can do is just tell him how much I love him for doing this!

Sunday morning we have another appointment to receive our progesterone, and have more blood work done. More blood work, I have no more veins. So after 8 pokes, and no luck, they hit the same stinking vein that the previous 8 pokes plus the IV was in! Ahhhh!!!

We were at the doctor's office so long that we missed church, of all days that we needed to go! So we took off for Winnemucca a little early. About half way there the phone call came.

Out of the 11 total follicles 6 were mature, and 5 fertilized. So that means we have 5 little Brian and Courtney's toasting in a petri-dish! Woohoo...

Transfer is tomorrow at 1:30. Everyone should call Brian and tell him what a trooper he is! After this, I know that there is no one that can love me as much as he does!

Belly Wounds

I have determined that I look like a junkie. I look like I have track marks on my stomach, and to top it off my right side is bruised. I just thought I would share in this wondrous occasion.

Antiphospholipid Antibodies...Big Word...Big Meaning

We are well underway into our cycle. I have begun giving myself my stimulation medications (3 shots per day mind you), Monday I go for a blood test to determine if I am getting enough hormone or not enough to produce enough follicles.

With my age, I can be overstimulated, which then I will be disqualified from the study, or I may not be stimulated enough because they are holding back on the stimulation medications, but that really isn't what this blog is about...

I am really really excited to become pregnant, and I really feel that when you work as hard as we have worked in order to do this whole thing, that the let down is even more if by chance it doesn't work. And the let down may be even greater if by chance you have something called Antiphospholipid Antibodies.

I was diagnosed with 4 strains of this disorder, which is a blood clotting disorder that doesn't allow the blood to pass through the uterus into the placenta to nourish the baby. There are a few strains of it and I have the strain causing 1st trimester miscarriages as well as the type causing 2nd and 3rd trimester still births/miscarriages.

With this new found news, what are our options....Heparin shots twice daily for 32 weeks of my pregnancy. I should be a real junkie if this all works out right.

So...are we telling anybody...the answer would be no. We are going to wait until I make it into the 2nd trimester, but I am sure that all of you will be able to guess if there is nothing about it, because I will tell everyone if by chance it doesn't work. I will just not be ready to go public with it for a while, which is what a lot of people do anyways.

So...the end of the month is retreival and transfer. Pray that it will all be okay!

Injection Day #1

Today, bright and early Brian and I headed over to the fertility clinic to learn how to administer shots. Pinch an inch, shoot it like a dart, squeeze the plunger, and remove. Easy right...

Um no, after the 4th, 1, 2, 3 go! I finally did it, to my surprise, it didn't hurt at all, I just felt a little weird inflicting said pain onto myself. When it was all said and done, it felt like a little bee sting, but nothing that I couldn't live with.

My next injections begin next Wednesday. On Wednesday I will begin giving myself three injections a day, I should be a real gem, living in my bedroom by the time this is all said and done.

It's True, It's Real, and Dangit...It's Happening SOON!

On Valentine's Day I had the "real" appointment with Dr. F. Brian was not able to attend this oh so special appointment, but I was, and that's all that stinking matters.

Of course I went through the typical routine, blood work, pee test, weight, height, yadda yadda. Then I got to go back into the little nurse's office where I had no idea that the next hour and a half of my life would be a heatwave of information thrown at me so fast, and with no one there to hold my hand.

We were given our final schedule, and let me tell you, the next month and a half of my life is so planned that I am scared to go to the bathroom without asking permission first.

We have gone over what I can and can't do (and thankfully for going to church I have eliminated a lot of my old habits), but still, no pain killers (ahhhhh I have the worst headache today), if I have an issue I must write it down and state whether or not it hurts kinda bad, really bad, or shoot me I am going to die bad....then if I do cave and take something, I must write it all down in my handy dandy notebook. And, my study number is 007/006, I was kind of upset that I wasn't double 007, that would have been great!

I now have birth control, prenatal vitamins, and two large bags full of needles, vials of drugs, alcohol pads, and anything else you can think of that is injected into your butt or stomach. Looking forward to that one.

We then go over my appointments and what is going on. If all works out correctly, we will be doing our egg retreival on Easter Sunday, and transfer on Wednesday of that week. And if you all remember correctly Brian and I got married on Easter Sunday. Coincidence...I think not! THIS IS MEANT TO BE!

I have about 8 appointments total in March, and by the second week of April we should know whether we are having a baby or babies. I only get one shot at this, so dangit, I am taking all that I can get!

I keep inviting people to our conception, I told Brian that I would like him to play soft music and have flowers and give me a massage while we are watching our little babies be placed into my womb. I mean come on...how many people get to watch their little ones 3 days of dividing into 3 trillion cells be placed into your little belly to be made into little humans??? Call me silly, but it is remarkable.

March 3rd is our next appointment, wish us luck, this is when Brian learns to inject me with Lupron.

Happy Valentines Day

Cupid came to visit the kids a couple of nights ago, and brought them mounds of candy and a stuffed animal that acts like a pillow and snores.

They loved it!

An In-Vitro Update

We haven't had much baby news as the study was a few weeks late.

I had my water ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, and they found no fibroids inside of my uterus, or anything that they felt would cause the fetus to not stick to in the womb. This was exciting news! So...we have now completed all of our blood work, and we know that we are not HIV positive :-), and also all of my hormone levels are normal. This is lots of good news for us!

I am just playing a waiting game now. I will have two more cycles before we begin the medications, and we are shooting for the week of the 22nd of March to do egg retrieval and implantation.

This means if all goes right we will find out if we are pregnant by the first part of April, it takes 10 days from the date of conception to test whether or not the "babies" made it.

Wish us luck, we are praying that everything goes smoothly, and we never have to do this again!

...Chandler Takes The Pinewood Derby

So, we have been actively attending church now, and Chandler has decided that he would like to be a Cub Scout. This Sunday he got his pinewood derby car, and the cub scout leader told me that she felt bad because the other boys had had a few weeks to make theirs. Brian took that as a front, and he and Chandler made an undefeated car. Can you imagine being a cub scout, going to scout meetings every Wednesday, and this punk kid comes in and takes it? Chandler was ecstatic, but I think he had an even prouder dad.

His car was modeled after a Porsche GT-2.

Chandler received his very own Pinewood Derby Driver's License.

No one ever came closer than 2 feet of catching him, even through the finals.

Darby and Forrest were sitting in the sidelines rooting their brother on.

When it was all over with Chandler took the entire Pinewood Derby undefeated, and even won the craftsman award for his awesome car. We were so proud of him!

Sock Puppets

Today, while Brian was at work, the kids and I sewed sock creatures. They are the cutest things ever! The kids learned to thread their own needles, stitch, and put their animal together. I told the boys that they needed to learn to do things, like sew on buttons, as they may be single until they are 30 and not have a wife or girlfriend to do it for them. Forrest thought that only Chandler would be single that long! So fun!

Christmas 2007

Christmas Eve 2007 we all said goodbye to Grandma Bunney. The shock was evident as I broke down at 8:00 pm with dinner guests over. I knew that she said goodbye to us the night before Christmas so that she could spend Christmas with Grandpa, and wake up with her family and watch the excitement after seeing that Santa came to visit. She said goodbye peacefully in her own bed with family nearby. Grandma came to visit us setting off an alarm at midnight, I am sure to say, "It's Christmas!" She then set it off at 12:10, I am convinced that she did, as that is my birthday, and she never has missed a card until this year (Brian also reset the alarm and turned it off)

Christmas morning was filled with excitement as the kids woke to see what Santa had brought for them.

A new BMX bike for they boys, and a Nintendo DS for Darby.

After the kids left, Brian and I headed out to Winnemucca to give my mom a hug and spend the rest of the day with my family.

What a great day, lots of memories shared, family close, and Rhonda was able to be with us from San Diego. A few years ago, I don't think you could have told me my family would be this important, but it is now so evident...they are my everything!

**Side Note - This year we did not get the best photos for Christmas, the kids were way too interested to take pictures, and so needless to say they weren't the best. Oh well, I guess there is next year!**

Darby's Christmas Program

Darby was so adorable at her Christmas Program. She made us all smile, and remember the true meaning of Christmas. To laugh, to smile, to love!

A Year Back In Review

I can look back over this past year, and realize that it was just "us" this year. No memories of what "was" at the beginning of the year prior.

This year was a tremendous year, with lots of memories and fun things that we all accomplished as a family.

Trials and tribulations have been evident in our lives, but we have stuck through it all, been thankful each day that we wake up with a healthy family, put a smile on our faces and walk down the street with the confidence that it will all eventually come our way.

My dearest sister-in-law, Shauna, sent us a book today with a title that is unforgettable, and means so much to our place in life. "If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard" This definitely struck a chord with us. We are thankful looking back over the last year for the family ties that we have.

Christmas last year was fun, my parents shared the day with us, and it was my first Christmas waking up with children of my own to watch open presents, and it was also Brian's first Christmas in a new family unit.

Mom and Brian made Christmas dinner.

While Dad and Lola took a nap.

Easter 2007 brought a new meaning to new beginnings with Brian and my decision to run off to Las Vegas to elope. After the hassles of nothing going right while planning a wedding, we made the best choice ever to run away together and do it for ourselves.

On Mother's Day Weekend my mom surprised us by having a little family reception and a cake for us to smear all over each others faces.

Not only was April 8th our wedding day, but my brother-in-law, Bob, while serving in Iraq flew an American flag over Iraq in honor of Brian. On Mother's Day Brian was given the flag that was flown just for him.

I don't have any pictures right now, but in May Brian and I attended his family reunion in Florida and had such a sweet time. We ventured to the Keys with Trevor and Calee, for a pseudo honeymoon...couldn't have asked for a better time!

Finally after 40 some odd years, my sister Rhonda married for the first time. I can honestly say that this was probably my mom's happiest day of her life. Rhonda and Bob decided to come to Reno on short notice, so my dad was not able to be there, but I made the bouquets and did Rhonda's hair, and it was absolutely beautiful. Not as cool as our wedding, but close :-)

In June we celebrated Chandler's birthday at the water park. It was tons of fun, with good memories.

My sister Kerri, my niece, and I also went to Wyoming to visit my grandmothers and also to celebrate my Grandma Willey's 90th birthday party. What a phenomenal celebration! (Sorry Mom, I know that Dad has something on his shirt, but come on...if he didn't would it really be right?)

This picture is hard for me to post because I know that it is the last picture that I was able to take with my dear Grandma Bunney. She was diagnosed with cancer, and it has taken over her body. It is even harder at Christmas time to know that it was the last. I had such a great time while there, and so happy I made the 19 hour trek to visit with her one last time, and tell her all about my new family.

Over July 4th weekend we made an impromptu trip to Fort Bragg, California with the kids. We had no reservations, no plans, we just took off for the coast, and we had a blast for 3 straight days.

We stopped at a hole in the wall on the way through to have breakfast, and took a scenic shot.

When we got there, it was foggy, and freezing. We stopped for a quick picture, but quickly got back into the warm car.

We found a Holiday Inn Express, that had a pool, and we swam for the night, and stayed inside. The next day was beautiful and we spent the day at the beach playing.

And at the end of the day we went for a scenic hike to watch the sunset.

The following day we hiked to a lighthouse overlooking the ocean.

We then found ourselves at the beautiful Glass Beach, where we could play in the waves, and look at all of the beautiful ocean glass.

And on our final day, we took a family horse ride on the beach. It was absolutely the funniest thing we have ever done. The seals were having their babies, and they were covering rocks within our site, and playing in the ocean.

Darby and Chandler began school in July after we returned home, and by the end of July Darby was already star student. We prepared a super cute board to tell about her favorite things and family.

Darby and Chandler have found a love for cooking and baking, of course Brian and I love the help in the kitchen!

Forrest celebrated his 13th birthday party at the skatepark with his good friend Jeremy.


And we were luck enough to have Granny here to celebrate with us.

Brian turned 36 and he spent the beginning part of August in Park City playing in the Kemosabi Golf Tournament with his brother. He had loads and loads of fun, and we were all able to get together at a fun function.

Gotta' Love Trevor!

Darby began cheerleading, and I coached. Our team placed 4th at competition.

The rest of the year has been so busy, with not much to talk about.

We find ourselves at this time of year caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and the holidays I sit back and just remember how blessed our life has been this year regardless of how hard it is. We have something that money can't buy, and it is a true family, with true values, and a family that truly loves every one of us.

Happy Holidays to all!