New Baby Girls: First, I'd like to welcome the baby girls that arrived since my last post - Baby Gerschutz & Baby Geiger! Reese arrived promptly on her due date (9/22/2011) - which is shocking since her mama is not the most on-time person in the world. ;) She was welcomed by her loving parents and big sister, Abby. Elizabeth was due on 9/28 but held on to the dream of being an October baby (like me and her papa) and arrived shortly after midnight on 10/1/2011. She was welcomed by her new parents! We've met Reese and look forward to meeting Elizabeth soon. Looking forward to watching them both grow up into beautiful, young ladies!
Alrighty, now I'm going to give you a high-level recap on the rest of September and October 2011!
As you can see, we've been keeping very busy and enjoying the fall. Just doing our best to keep things in perspective on the big picture and be thankful for our current situation. Like Bill Rancic said we are "embracing the cards we've been dealt." Even though we would've loved to have been parents yesterday (actually more like 3+ years ago), we have to be thankful for the things we've been able to do in the meantime. We wouldn't have been able to go on our girls/guys weekend trips as easily this fall. We don't have to line-up a baby-sitter when we want to do things. Since we don't have kids, it's easier for us to be a more involved aunt/uncle by being able to travel to see our nephews/niece and support them in their various sports. We're also able to help out with my sister and brother-in-law down the street. When we were in my husband's hometown last month, I came to the realization that I've been able to have more quality time with my in-laws as a result of our kid-less years. So even though things haven't happened the way we would've liked - other relationships in our lives have been strengthened as a result. Trust me, we are totally ready and willing to give up the free-ness of the no-kid life when it is our turn. And we will still do our best to be the best sister/brother, daughter/son, aunt/uncle someday when we are parents - but for now we are trying to make the best of our situation and take advantage of this pre-family time! We are lucky to have each other and a VERY strong and supportive circle of family and friends. (Hopefully that makes sense - it seems harder to explain as I try to type it all out.)
Even though I've honestly been very positive in the past two months - I did have a little breakdown a few weeks ago. It was when work was crazy busy - so I think I was also a little drained and tired/stressed from work. But I was watching "Giuliana & Bill" one night and in this episode they were meeting with a new IVF doctor to review their previous IVF attempts. At one point the doctor said to them, "I'd be more worried if you had never gotten pregnant on your previous attempts." Since I haven't been able to get pregnant naturally or with our 2 artificial inseminations or with our in-vitro cycle or with our frozen embryo cycle - it kinda made me sad. :( And I did shed a few tears that night before bed. I guess it would just be a little comforting to know that my body can get pregnant - but we'll just have to wait and see how things play out. I think if I were watching that episode under less stressful conditions that I probably would've been able to handle that dialogue better. But since I'm not one to cry very often - I think it was probably good to have that release. Glad to know that I am human and have emotions! ;)
What's Next? As some of you may recall, the last step in our infertility journey was my husband's surgery back in early August. They did a procedure to tie off a vein that may have been over-heating things down yonder. Due to the long 3 month sperm production cycle, my hubby had to wait until November to see if there are any improvements in his sperm as a result of the surgery. So tomorrow he's going in to give another collection for them to analyze. Then he will meet with Dr. Lowe next week to review the results. In the meantime, we haven't been making ourselves crazy by counting days or doing any ovulation tests - but we've still been doing our best to make a baby the natural way. We are hopeful that maybe the test will show some kind of improvement. Even though his test results were fine - every little bit helps!
In closing, I'd like to congratulate my dear friends that are expecting their 1st baby in April 2012. :) They've gone through their own share of baby struggles and we are so HAPPY for them. They are giving us hope that good things do happen to good people! And Happy Anniversary Eve to the Hi Puppy and her hubby!!
Thought of the Day: Chorus from Martina McBride's "I'm Gonna Love You Through It"
When you’re weak, I’ll be strong
When you let go, I’ll hold on
When you need to cry
I swear that I’ll be there to dry your eyes
When you feel lost and scared to death
Like you can’t take one more step
Just take my hand, together we can do it
I’m gonna love you through it.