Operation "Tell The Parents" - Success

Of course with news like this how could it not have been a success right? It was sweet, sweet 4th of July goodie, goodness. Successful indeed.

The first pre-requisite in order to tell the parents was that ultrasound on Friday, and thank you dear internets for all of your well wishes, prayers and crossing of everything...we have spotted a measurable frijole! (For those of you not from the Southwest or who don't speak Spanish - I should explain it means bean) The frijole was right were it should be. Still too early for a heartbeat flicker, she only saw the fetal pole. They want me to go back next week for another ultrasound. Hopefully at 7 weeks 1 day there will be something more to see.

I would appreciate everyone's continued good thoughts and prayers as I most certainly don't feel out of the woods yet. Thank you!!!

Straight from the RE, we drove down to see Marvy's parents. They met us at the George Bush Sr Presidential Library. Of course they had no idea why we were coming and frankly we are museum kind of people so this is pretty typical for my family. That kind of threw in wrench in my plans as I was thinking we could tell them immediately and not keep up the pharse. But, didn't work out that way. So, we waited until we got home. And it was so much fun!

We had a lot of things we did in preparation of the telling. Marvy was the first to help by calling his mother ahead of time and telling her something to throw her off. He warned her ahead of time that since I have been talking fertility drugs, they have the side effect of making you look like you are pregnant when you aren't. So, my MIL told my FIL also to not expect that this visit was going to have anything to do with us being pregnant. They were very much in the dark.

The night before I prepared ahead of time a mini photo album. The first page said, "Grandma's Baby Brag Book". Then I put the ultrasound photo in the back of the album with a cute "Baby On Board" sticker. (just the words not those car decorations) I found a little bib that said, "World's Best Grandpa" and a onzie that said, "What Happens at Grandma's Stay's at Grandma's". Then Marvy got out the father's day card he picked up the day he found out we were pregnant that said, "For Grandpa".

Now, they are about to be grandparents in about two weeks when my SIL gives birth to her daughter. So, the first item to be opened was the card and Dad immediately got excited when he saw that it read 'Grandpa'. But, I immediately said, "Well, yeah your about to be a grandpa in two weeks." He let out a meak, "Oh". You could tell the wind was let out of his sails for a moment.

Meanwhile, Mom opened the onzie and thought it was cute...not suspecting a thing. Then Dad opened the Bib, and he held it and thought it was so neat. He really liked it. Mom then got to the photo album. I decorated the cover and inside the first page I wrote, "Grandma's Baby Brag Book". She immediately thought how perfect that will be and got real excited about it. She got up and walked to the otherside of the living room to show Dad - which was perfect. By this time I told Dad to go ahead and check out what was at the bottom of the gift bag.

As Mom is still checking out the photo album, he pulls out a positive pee stick. I knew he wouldn't know what it was a first, so he is staring at it reading the words, "Pregnant/Not Pregnant" but he still couldn't figure it out. He looks at me and his eyes were as wide a saucers. Mom, was not looking at him she's still enjoying looking at this ready made album for her. I made her then go all the way to the back, where it had the ultrasound photo. Poor Dad, still has the deer in headlights look when Mom says, "Oh, so did you get one of the ultrasound picture from C?"

I said, "No, this one is dated today." Then Dad blurted out, "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes! I am!"

Mom couldn't believe it. She had to ask half a dozen times if that was true. She started to cry. Dad was elated. We all got up and gave each other hugs.

Then Dad got back down in his chair and looked like he had just ran around the block. The up and down roller coaster ride wore him out. Mom then commented, "Well, that explains the boobs! When I saw you earlier today my first thought was, Whoa!" She said that on our way home from the museum she was talking to my SIL on the phone and she told her how HUGE my boobs were. She joked, "Wow, those drugs she's taking certainly are making her breasts look great!"

Once they calmed down a bit, we went ahead and called my mom.

"Hi Mommy! How are you?" I started.

She was excited to hear from me. I immediately started to ask her if she was home and if she was in her pajamas. She said she was but that no, she was just watching a movie at the house. Perfect. I asked if she could go to the front of the condo and allow me to talk to the guard real quick. I told her I had a favor of him to ask. We were very close with our guards at our house in Guatemala. They've known me since I was 15. They were always so nice and would do anything for us. They were even great about not telling my mom when Marvy and I were enjoying a little extra smooching in the car out side the gates, when I was 18.

My mom put Agusto on the phone. We greeted each other and he thought it was such a thrill to talk to me on the phone. I then asked the favor. "Would you please pass along to my mom this message? 'Felicitaciones Abuelita'" (Congratulations Grandma) He was confused, "You mean she doesn't know this? And you want ME to tell her?"

"Yes! Go ahead!" He said the message and then you hear my mother scream. Not once, not twice, but three times. She grabbed the phone and we told her it was true. She was on speakerphone and my in-laws were telling her that they too just found out and they we shocked. She was pretty cute. She said that just this week she had been shopping at the fabric store and found some perfect fabric to make baby pajamas and was wondering how long before she could do that. I gave her permission to go to town.

The next day we went to the house of Marvy's long time family friends. We revealed our surprise as we were about to hold hands to say Grace. They were all very happy to hear the news. And I was happy to not have to worry about hiding my belly anymore. It's crazy for being 6 weeks...I'm sure no one else can tell but me. But, I still think it's crazy looking.

So, that was the "Telling of the Parents". Next up: "Telling of Future Uncle", my little bro.

Hope you guys enjoyed a lovely, 4th of July weekend!

We Know Something They Don't Know

Marvy tried to let his sister know a while back (about a month ago) that we might not be able to join the rest of the family to Oregon to see them when she has the baby. She was sad about it. Or perhaps a better description is somewhere between sad and a pout. They also had a conversation about the fact that they'd be going to TX to my in-laws for Christmas. Marvy also tried to warn her that there's a possibility we might not be able to join them for Christmas either. He said that if we weren't pregnant by then it would be too hard. We might just end up on a cruise to the Caribbean instead.

This really got to her to. She said that we may not meet the baby for a whole year and she'd be a different person by then. He tried to explain to her that long term plans are just really hard for us. Plus by Christmas if we weren't pregnant that would mean we would have gone through 3 failed IUI's and possibly 2 failed IVF's to be at that point. That's a lot to bear. Honestly, I'd have to admit that I was the teeniest bit frustrated by her lack of understanding. I just hoped that we would not be in that boat by the time we reached the holidays.

So these last couple weeks everyone's been finalizing the plans to go up to Oregon and Marvy and I have been a big '?'. The latest news was that we were going to go, as long as we were in a position where I didn't have to be tethered to the clinic with monitoring. Then today he told his parents that we went ahead and bought our tickets but with the additional insurance "just in case" we had to cancel. Marvy's parents were genuinely concerned. "Well, is Liv going to be okay, when so much is going to be about the baby?". "Are you sure that's what she wants to do?"

Pretty sweet of my father-in-law to think that. Then my mother-in-law asked if the medications would give me a bloat that would make me look like I was already pregnant. She wanted to make sure that people didn't see me and start to openly speculate and cause further pain to an already sensitive situation.

Gotta love it. Nobody suspects a thing. One of my other SIL's sent an article to my MIL and asked if it would be appropriate to send to me. It featured "supplements" that may help with fertility. My MIL asked Marvy if it would be okay to send he said, "Well she is pretty well 'supplemented' right now. But sure send it over" HA!!!! If they only knew. When Marvy got off the phone he exclaimed, "We know something, they don't know." :o)

When asked about how our cycle went, Marvy's answer was, "Not yet. Maybe next month". Which you have to admit is brilliant. Because you are saying, "No, not yet....[you don't get to know quite yet]....but maybe next month". It does make you feel bad to receive so many words of sympathy and we are essentially leading them astray. But, oh well. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Our plan is to tell parents 4th of July weekend. Then the next weekend we'll drive up to see my brother and tell him and then we will go to Oregon on the 25th where we'll tell the rest of the family then. This is all a little sooner then I wanted, (a bump up of about 2 weeks on the time table) but considering everyone's schedules and how all the main players who we want to tell in person will be in the same city. We've decided to go with it.

Oh, man it's exciting huh?

:::other thoughts:::

My abdomen feels like I've been doing 100 crunches a day. Sometimes I'll roll over in bed or something and stretch something wrong and go "That hurt". Then I've had cramps that are AF like but a little different. Guessing this is that uterine stretching I keep reading about. But just this evening I've been getting really sharp pains on my left hand side. Like someone is taking a safety pin and poking my left ovary area.

Normal? Anything to be concerned over?

I'm going to my acupuncturist tomorrow. It was a long scheduled appointment but I decided to keep it even with the pregnancy. Figured it could be helpful to prevent lower back pain and big time nausea. Anybody else have acu treatments during pregnancy?

Nighty, Night.

New Diggs For New Stage

I created this header a week ago. I decided I would hold of on changing it until I knew what the verdict on IUI #1 would be. Well, I sure had it this morning.

First, the temp drop.

Then, well, I don't have to tell you. You can see it on the chart.

What kills me of course is the stupid thing we do when thinking about "timing". If we had been pregnant this cycle it would mean there would have been a possibility of having a little one at Christmas time. There would be enough time for passport, etc.

Last Christmas was such a beat down. One of the things discussed with my sister in law was that they were planning on going to Guatemala for Christmas this year to show off the baby. Marvy and I had been talking (privately) about going to Guatemala for Christmas so the thought of that killed me.

I have been holding on to this idealized image of us both taking babies down to introduce to our family. The family photo with the grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles etc.

I know I'm putting too much pressure on myself about this but, seriously, this opportunity really has a very small window. Marvy's grandfather was very ill 18 months ago, and he's doing much better but you never know. Plus, if my SIL goes down there this year, there's no way she could go down there the next.

Project Family Photo is a gonner.