2017 – the year of the baby!! 

Wow, can’t believe January is here! Laryen and I are going to be parents – is this real life? I remember when it became 2016. So much excitement for us to start our journey. And now, one year later our little miracle and embryo that could is about to celebrate its birthday! 

Baby has dropped (as you can tell from this week’s picture!) I can anchor the news so much easier because I can breathe again! It’s crazy to think how scrunched up my diaphragm has been the past few months. I’ve also been having some pretty strong contractions. They don’t last long but definitely can notice them at the top of my uterus and into my back. We’ll see what the doctor says this week if we’re progressing at all. Now we’re going to the doctor every week so that must mean it’s almost time! 

Excited, nervous, scared, anxious, on cloud 9, surreal feeling — that’s how I feel lately. I’m guessing other moms-to-be felt that way when it was less than a month out. But mostly I just feel blessed. I can’t wait for little baby embie to feel blessed with so much love from all the wonderful people who we are lucky enough to call our family and friends – YOU. Thank you, every one of you. ❤️



Dear Baby S,

It’s hard to believe that in one year from now when Christmas is here, you could be almost walking. I know you’ll love the magic of the season as much as we do. I also can’t believe that last Christmas at this time you were still just in our hopes and prayers. In just a few weeks we would be getting our box of medicine, shots, and calendar. In just a few weeks we would start our journey to hopefully become parents. That journey wouldn’t be easy, which we knew. In just a couple months we would take our first pregnancy test after IVF and learn that it didn’t work. For reasons that we’ll never know, we lost those embryos. We’d try it again in just a few months after that with our last 2 embryos. One we’d lose. But YOU, our little embryo that could, would start off as just 2 pink lines. YOU, our little embryo that could, would finally give us the names we’ve been wanting to hear for so long: Mommy and Daddy. YOU, our little embryo that could, are our miracle. YOU are our hopes and dreams. And we can’t wait to meet YOU oh so soon. 

Love, Mommy

P.s if you could stop kicking me in the ribs, that’d be great! 😉

34 weeks pregnant and I feel.really.pregnant. Like really. Like all I want to do is eat this queso and sleep. And I might just do that. (Unless Ty beats me to it!) 

We’re getting to the home stretch though! I’m feeling a lot less stressed and overwhelmed lately which is nice. I think it helps because we have a lot of things done! Just gotta get the hospital bag done and I hear we need some things in the diaper bag, too! 

34 weeks…wow! We’re getting SO close to meeting this little embryo that could!!! ❤

This babe is getting some cheeks! 

We went in for an ultrasound growth check. I was measuring ahead a couple of weeks at my last doctors appointment so our doctor just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong or there was extra fluid or something like that. Everything looks great! We just have a healthy 5.5 pound baby in there!! Woah nelly!! No wonder I’ve been starting to feel uncomfortable! That baby is growing like a weed! So even though we’re at 33 weeks Baby S is around the size of a 35-weeker. The ultrasound tech wasn’t concerned, it’s still in the healthy range and I don’t think that means it’ll come early BUT I won’t oppose to a couple weeks early so I’m not trying to give birth to a 10 pound baby!! But as long as everything is good and healthy that’s all that matters. I’ll take the rib kicks any day! 

I can’t see my feet. 

So if I’m wearing 2 different shoes, please let me know! It’s such a funny feeling! You’re so used to doing things like normal and then one day BAM you can’t! Putting shoes on, rolling out of bed, reaching the car door, squeezing behind someone (I get stuck with that one almost daily), getting out of the bathtub…the list goes on and on. It’ll be weird once this little bundle of joy is here and all those simple things become simple again, lol.

I seriously can’t believe we are only 8 weeks away (give or take). 8 weeks. That means I’m 8 months pregnant! So many emotions are tied to that and every little jab I get from baby makes me even more excited to finally meet our little embryo that could. Will it have hair? Will it have Laryen’s eyes? Will it have my nose? Oh and will it be a boy or a girl?! So many questions will be answered in just a few short weeks. Such an amazing miracle from above. ❤

The kicks have become jabs. It’s amazing to see just how strong this little baby is!! I just wonder if I can just send a message to him/her to NOT do it during the news? PLEASE?!! It’s so hard to focus and not keel over from these full blown punches when I have to anchor the news!! Silly baby, be nice to your mama! 

Now that we’re kind of almost/maybe/hopefully getting to the end I hope the whole feeling of the little feet under my ribs is short lived. My back is starting to hurt (thank goodness for heating pads) but I know these symptoms mean baby is growing like its supposed to. Now if only I can get comfy enough to sleep — then that’ll be a good day!! 

Can it be? Is there a 3 in front of our weekly countdown?! All I can say is WOW!! The due date is almost literally around the corner! And if the weekly banner isn’t enough to let us know that, this pile of baby laundry right here does! 

BTW, how does something so little have so many clothes?! And so many toys and so many big pieces of furniture?! Lol. I think my ‘nesting’ phase hit a while back but now it’s in full swing! Nursery is slowly coming together and getting organized. I’m hoping it’ll all be done in the next week or so, then I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief! I LOVE how it’s coming together and can’t wait to see it all done! 

We met our doula this week! Our hospital has the doula program (labor coaches) for free and both Laryen and I are really excited about it. I don’t know about you but I believe that sometimes people’s lives cross for reasons out of our control. There are probably atleast 20 doulas or so in the program. Our doula Penny is so sweet and guess what? She also went through infertility. She did 6 IVF’s, all unsuccessful. 30+ eggs, none took. It breaks my heart to hear her story. She was about to adopt when she miraculously got pregnant on her own. Her doctor even said it’s all because of God that she got pregnant. And then a few years later? She got pregnant again. Now she has a girl and a boy. Her IVF’s were almost 30 years ago so obviously a lot has changed with infertility research and programs but once again it’s another story. Another struggle that another couple went through. And I’m so happy that God let her be our doula so we could hear another story of why you should never give up on hope. I’m so happy we can share our story and the most important day of our life with her.

I wish I could show how much love our hearts feel from the people we are so lucky to have in our lives! Not only did we have a beautiful and amazing shower in Colorado with our wonderful friends and family, but my friends in Lubbock also threw us a gorgeous shower. AND…our parents drove down for it!

My heart is just so filled with love. It makes me cry thinking about how blessed we are and how blessed this ‘little embryo that could’ really is.

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I have a habit of getting worried about the little things and it grows with every week we get closer to our due date: will we get the nursery organized in time? Can I do one more errand before I go to work? Should I take the dogs on a walk? My mind gets filled with so many things that I feel like I need to make sure I get done asap. But you know what? All those things don’t matter. All this baby needs is love. Thank you to all my friends and family who have surrounded us with so much love and surrounded this little miracle with so much love. I feel so special and I know this baby is grinning ear to ear because it is filled with so much joy all because of you! 

I wore 2 different earrings on the news today. Prego brain is real, y’all! You can’t REALLY tell because they’re a similar shape and color, but they’re definitely not the same pair. And now that I’m in the third trimester I think it’s even more in control of my life than before! Another thing that is real? Braxton Hicks! I’ve been really busy at work lately so I think the added stress is adding to that too.

Another thing that is real? Clumsiness! Holy cow am I so clumsy! I was taking dishes out of the dishwasher and this happened: 

Luckily it was just one plate but man did it leave a mess! How can one plate shatter into 100 pieces?! I’ve never broken a plate since we’ve been married – I guess there’s a first time for everything!

All of those are the pregnancy norm, it’s just weird because it’s so NOT the norm for me! I’m also starting to get a little more tired and fatigued. This baby is getting big and zapping my energy. I know it’s having fun in there too- doing somersaults, hiccuping, and practing its dancing and kicking skills. It’s such an amazing feeling. What’s even more amazing? When Laryen talks to our future son or daughter and it responds back by kicking or punching. I can’t even describe this feeling – it’s so surreal. Our baby recognizes our voices and surroundings and can already feel love. Miracle upon miracle.

So freaking fast. These past few weeks have been FLYING BY SO FAST I can’t even believe it! Life other than ‘baby life’ has been pretty busy so it makes sense that it’s flying by but I can’t believe it — that means this baby will be here before we even know it!

At 25 weeks we got another ultrasound done. Baby S wasn’t cooperating at the 20 week ultrasound but he/she cooperated this time! We got to see a 3D image of the heart; probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen! Technology is amazing! They said they can detect like 85% of heart defects with those ultrasounds. Obviously they can’t detect everything, but they can see so much with those scans. Everything looks great which makes us both breathe a sigh of relief!

And can you believe that this was our ‘little embryo that could’ 23 weeks ago? ~~~~~>
Yep, one of those little puffs of air that was holding our embryo to its new ‘womb sweet womb.’ And now — that little embie has a button nose, eyes, lips, arms, legs, brain, heart pumping…etc etc. WOW. Just so much amazing-ness I can’t even wrap my mind around it. This truly is what miracles are made of!

I can’t even begin to describe how blessed this little baby already is.

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My mom and sister threw me an amazing shower in Colorado. It was Dr. Suess themed from its head to its toe! So many cute sayings, poems, food, games, the list goes on and on. I am still in shock with how full of joy my heart is from all our friends and family who came and gave so much love to Baby S. It was so surreal. I had always thought about our baby shower, but at times didn’t know if we’d actually have one. When you go through infertility these are things that cross your mind — it’s not a bad thing, just part of the reality of infertility. I was almost in a haze the whole time feeling like I needed to pinch myself. This is real. This is happening. We are having a baby! (and pretty soon!!) We know how many people have hoped and prayed for this for us for so long and we can’t even begin to describe how much we appreciate the love and support for everyone! (ok, prego hormones are getting to the best of me now).

Oh and check out my Halloween costume: “Magic 8 Ball” baby can answer any question you have (expect if it’s a boy or a girl) haha!