BFP...and hello, 2nd Trimester???

Well, it's been a heck of a long time since I last blogged. It's not because of a lack of things going on, that is for sure!

On June 28, I met my friend Courtney for lunch and we were talking babies. At that point, I was 12dpo and really didnt think I was having normal AF type symptoms so I thought maybe I would test. Steve ended up taking that day off because he wasn't feeling well but went to visit his parents when I got home from lunch with my recently purchased tests. I tested on my own and...lo and behold..there were two lines!! I waited patiently (ok, not patiently) for him to get home and shared the news! Of course, we were both so excited!!

We had planned dinner with our parents that night and it was a perfect night to tell them our news! Everyone was so excited!!

At 7w1d, we had a viability ultrasound and it went very well! We got to see the baby's heartbeat beating and our LO was actually measuring ahead! great news!!

At 10w, we had our first apt with our OB. Again, our appointment went great! I was measuring perfect and got to hear the heartbeat! That was the best sound in the world!!

Unfortunately, at 10.5w, I had a bit of spotting and they had me come in to make sure everything was alright. It was!! Mom came with me and we got to hear the heartbeat again!! The spotting eventually stopped, thankfully!

The 1st trimester was filled with all kinds of nerves, sickness, fatigue, etc but I knew that meant my little baby was growing and thriving! Many days I was pretty uncomfortable but I wouldnt have changed it for the world!!

On Thursday, Sept 3, I finally entered the 2nd trimester and finally, my symptoms started to settle. Some things still make me nauseous (milk!!) and my energy is still low but I am feeling better!

We were able to find the baby's heartbeat on Saturday the 5th with our at home doppler! So exciting!!

Today, we had our 14w appointment and everything went well! Baby's heartbeat was 162bpm!!

I can't wait to start feeling kicks and get a baby belly as opposed to the bloat belly I have now!! :) We were also able to schedule our big ultrasound for Oct 12! Can't wait to find out if we will be expecting a boy or a girl! Hopefully our baby cooperates!!

I plan to be a much better blogger in the future! Right now, Steve and I are off to start cleaning out the nursery! Holy crap! Is this baby really coming??? YES!!!

Lunchtime Visitor & Busy Weekend!

I haven't updated the blog in a while so I thought would sit down and write a few lines.

Steve and I had both had a really nice Easter weekend. While Steve was finishing up his shift on Friday night, my sister and I went to see the Fast and the Furious movie. We both loved the first one and were excited to see this one since all ofthe main characters came back for this one. I think we both really liked it! Lots of action and lots of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. You can never go wrong with that!

Saturday, Steve got home early so we went for dinner and watched our Netflix movie, Righteous Kill. I was pretty excited for this because I love Robert Deniro and Al Pacino. In the end, I was pretty disappointed. It did nothing to suck me in...in fact, I couldn't wait for it to be over. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't good either.

The Sunday Easter service at Kensington was phenominal as always! Definitely the highlight of the day! The rest of the day was spent with Steven's family and then mine eating and socializing! It was a good day!

And last but not least, I had a visitor for lunch today! My hubby! :) It was so nice to spend some time with him since life is so busy with work and school. I am glad he came down and he definitely made my afternoon! :)

31. Make a Pot-Roast

On my 101 list, number 31 on my list was to have my mom teach me how to make a pot roast. She usually makes hers over the stove and I found a recipe for a roast made in the crock pot so I decided to give it a try! This was my first time ever making a pot roast and my first time using a crock pot. Could I master this thing?
So far, so good. Everything is in and the pot was a cookin'. Prep is so easy...I may be in love!
And yep, total success. I had a little bit of help along the way (thanks, mom!) but I knew it was done when it basically looked like it was starting to fall apart on it's own. I did open the lid once because the meat had tipped and half of it was in the liquid and half was out. I didn't want to take the chance of half of it being dry so I opened it, cut the meat in half, and then put the lid back on. The end result was VERY good...dare I say, better than mom's?? It was very tender and it basically fell apart when you put your folk through it. I will definitely be making this again and I am currently looking for other yummy crock pot recipes so if you have one, make sure to let me know!
Finally, is this a pic of a man who is happy to see a home cooked meal?? Especially one that consists of meat and potatoes? I think so! I even went the extra mile and made him dessert! I was a good wife this weekend but truth be told...I take after mom...I love to cook!
Here is the recipe (from allrecipes.com):
INGREDIENTS:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 (3 pound) top sirloin roast
6 cloves garlic, slivered
6 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces
2 large sweet onions, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup beef broth
3 cubes beef bouillon
1 bay leaf

DIRECTIONS
1. Rub salt, pepper and paprika into the meat. With a small knife, make slits in the roast. Press the garlic slivers into the roast.

2. Place the potatoes, carrots, and onions in a large slow cooker. Place meat on top of the vegetables. Pour in water and beef broth, and add bouillon cubes and bay leaf.

3. Place lid on slow cooker, and cook for 6 hours on High, or 8 hours on Low.

(I chose to make mashed potatoes instead of putting the in the crock pot but that is the only change I made to the recipe).

My Beta Levels

Since the miscarriage, I have had to go in and get bloodwork pretty much weekly to make sure my beta levels returned to 0. I went in yesterday to get a blood draw and I hoped it would be the last time.

I got my results back today and it was very good news!! My beta levels are finally zero and I am finally in the clear!! wahoo! no more blood tests for a while! Physically, I am finally past the hell I have been in since a week after we found out we were pregnant and mentally, I am coming along as well. I still have my moments where I just want to punch something because I want my baby to be alive so bad but thankfully, these moments are coming fewer and farther between and I am thankful for that as well.

At this point, we are taking it one cycle at a time. This cycle, we are not trying. I want to make sure my body is physically healed 100%. Besides for that, I just dont feel mentally ready. Maybe I never will and we may just have to jump in the TTC waters anyway. Only time will tell...

Jamaica!!

ahhhhhhhh, Jamaica!! We had such a great trip! It was a blessing to be able to take this trip with my hubby. The trip down to Jamaica went pretty smooth. We arrived and got through customs pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were heading to the resort. We chose a resort very close to the airport so we only had about a 15 minute ride and we were in paradise.

The Sandals Royal Carribean resort is beautiful. As soon as we arrived, they offered us a wet towel and some rum punch. Right then and there, we knew it was going to be a good trip!

When we visited the travel agent to pick up our travel documents a week prior, we asked about upgrading our standard garden view room to a concierge, suite level room. The travel agent made a call and informed us it would be a $1,600 upgrade but that those rooms were full anyway. Fast forward to our arrival: we were told we were upgraded to a standard ocean view room. We walked in and it looked awesome but the bell thought it didnt look clean so he escorted us out. At that point, we dropped another couple off at one of those concierge suite level rooms and he asked us if we wanted one as well. Of course we said yes and he made it happen!! We were upgraded to a concierge level suite at no additional charge! That meant a stocked fridge and room service! We were definitely counting our blessings! So far, our vacation rocked!

We ended up never leaving the resort. We were more than comfortable hanging by the pool, participating in resort activities (I learned to basket weave!), eating the yummy food and well...drinking. :) The weather was perfect, the drinks were cold, the food was decent and the resort was beautiful! We could not ask for anything more. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip:

This is my favorite picture of Steven and I!
Ahhhh, the sunsets were completely amazing and I love how these pictues turned out!


Steve drinking by the pool bar (which ended up being closed for 1/2 our visit) but we managed to survive!

One of my favorite pics of my hubby. Note the green hat...that is the hat Steve bought when meeting one of the guys from the Jamaican bobsled team. The guy came onto the resort and took pictures with everyone and signed autographs. Ahhhhh, and now for the best part of our trip: Kari and Byron. We met Kari and Byron on Sunday at, of all places, the pool bar. Go figure! ;) Kari and I started chatting and the rest was history! We spent every day of our vacation with these guys and they really did make the trip! By Wednesday, we were eating every single meal with them, drinking with them, renting a few cabanas with them and generally, having a blast with them. By the end of the week, we knew Kari and Byron would be our life long friends! We already have plans to go see them in June in PA and they are planning on coming up here in August.

On Monday, Kari and Byron renewed their vows and Steve and I were honored to be part of it. We had our cameras so we took some pictures and I also got to be her matron of honor and flower girl! :) It was an awesome few moments to witness and here are a few photos that captured their renewal:


We love you guys! :)

Overall, our trip was AMAZING and PERFECT. We will definitely do something like this again in the future. Steve and I were able to spend some time talking about our future and where we would like our lives to head in the next few years. As always, we were on the same page and it felt good to talk and plan. Hopefully, those plans are realized soon!

What a Wonderful Weekend!

Even though Steven ended up working the whole weekend, I had plenty going on to keep me quite busy! Saturday morning, I headed over to Michele's for Joann's surprise party and it was nice catching up with my girlfriends. I haven't seen a lot of them since before Christmas!

Saturday evening, I met up with Bonnie, Anna, Emily, Deb, and Hope for dinner at Champps. Hope is in town from Dallas and it was SO nice to see her. I have missed her so much since she moved to Dallas. We used to meet every morning for coffee at Starbucks and worked together for about 6 years. So many good times with her, we could laugh for hours!

Today, my mom, aunt, grandma, sister and I met at moms to make homemade ravioli. The recipe is my grandma's and of course, she was there to direct us quite well. The ravioli are a lot of work but I am SO glad I learned how to make them. They remind me of my childhood and they are probably my favorite meal. So not healthy but SO, SO, SO good! I have to say, they turned out quite amazing!!

Here are a few pics from the day. Can you tell we were starting to get slap happy? My aunt is giving me the finger and my mom decided to get in on the action as well while my poor pappa is totally clueless! :) This picture makes me totally smile!
Here is a picture of mom's old girl. She was sick all weekend with a collapsed trachea but she is starting to feel better.
Nanna and Auntie Mary:
I love this picture of auntie mary. I think she was looking at some old music that my grandpa had put together long ago. He was a folk singer in Malta. We were able to listen to some but it was pretty scratchy.
And perhaps my favorite picture of all! Here is Sonny girl with a smile on her face! She is so beautiful! Look at that face!
All in all, what a wonderful weekend! Well, as good as it could be without my hubby. I have to admit, I am pretty tired and not at all ready for work tomorrow. The good news is we have an appointment with our travel agent after work to pick up our travel documents for our trip on Saturday! Wahoo!! Can't wait!

Been So Long...

It's been so long since I updated my blog! Not too much is really going on right now. Both Steve and I are real busy with work and life has pretty much settled back to what it was before the pregnancy and the miscarriage. Normalcy is good but there are some days where I am just so sad, I ache. Fortunately, those days are becoming fewer and farther in between and it is getting better.

One thing we are most definitely looking forward to is our trip to Jamaica! We leave a week from tomorrow and we are both just so excited. I can't wait to be in the warmth and the sun and am looking forward to leaving our life behind for a bit. Once we get back, I will update with our pictures since we are both taking our cameras.

Physically, I am completely recovered from the surgery which I am so glad about. Though we'll never forget our little bean, it's definitely time to move on. We are both more than ready. :)