Spencer's First Trip to Disneyland!

For Christmas, Chris surprised with a trip to Disneyland! We opened it on Christmas morning and left the next morning! 

 First day at Disneyland! And we had a blast!  We didn't stay at our normal hotel, but one with a shuttle.  It was nice to not have to walk as much, especially for the prego mom! We still walked 5 miles that day, but still had so much fun!

 I finally got my Disneyland Pickle I have been craving the whole pregnancy! I ate one (or two) everyday! Pure happiness for me!

 Matterhorn Monday! And Weston got picked for a photo shoot from one of the photographers! It was so much fun! The sun was shining and we had blue skies that whole time we were there.  The morning we left, it was raining, perfect timing!

 By the end of the first day, my body was done.  I plopped myself in a wheelchair the next two days.  It ended up being beneficially for rides.  Plus, I had somewhere to sit while the boys rode all the big rides.  The crowds were crazy busy and Chris said, never again will we go around Christmas! But it was so much fun and so worth it!

We can't wait to take Spencer back when he is here! I sure hope he loves Disney as much as us! 

21.5 Weeks

I had a checkup today with Mr Spencer, he is growing great! And so am I, haha!  Spencer gave us a great frontal face shot and he still loves his hands.  He is a very active boy and loves to move around.  It's still tiny movements, but it's enough to feel him all the time.  He loves to have dance parties until 2am.  Yup, he is like his momma, we are night owls. I was reminded today, that I am still a high risk pregnancy and I need to take it easy.  No heavy lifting and I need to limit my activity.

And it's a.........

A BOY!!

Spencer Gerard Remkes!

Due on April 27, 2017

 Weston is so excited for a brother!

 We asked everyone to come dressed in the color they thought the baby would be.  We had a lot of pink in the house! Except for Weston! He knew it! And he screamed it! He said, I was right the whole time!  We couldn't be more excited!

What do you think?

Signed, sealed and delivered! I have the results.  I drove them straight to my friend.  Dropped it off and left.  She sent me a text before I was out of her driveway, she opened it.  She knows.  We don't. Ugh.  Today is Tuesday.  We find out Sunday! What do you think? Pirate or Mermaid?  Weston is positive it's a pirate, Chris says Mermaid and me, I don't care! I'm having a freaking baby! Wahoo!!

It's a Remkes!

So here's the skinny.  On the 21st I went to our 4 week checkup, baby is doing great and growing right on schedule.  I have had normal weight gain (let's give that a few more months, free willy) and my doc tells me, I am normally 90% wrong when it comes to telling you the sex of the baby.  WHAT! Fine, we will wait.  But we don't want to wait.  So what do I do? I text our friend Brit; her mom works at labor and delivery at Ogden Regional and I want her to work her magic and find out what we are having!  So, we head up there, and guess what, we found out it's a Remkes.  The little turd would not let us have a good view.  And we went twice!  It was still really fun to be up there spending time with Brit and her mom Kathy.  We laughed and joked and watched the baby do some crazy things.  We got see it do some fetal breathing with it's lungs; Kathy said this is the earliest she has ever seen a baby do that.  It was way neat to see.  Baby even pounded on it's chest to show us that it was a Remkes and would not let us see anything else.  Did I mention I was on my hands and knees trying to get it to turn? And the next morning Chris was holding me on my head trying to get it to turn? No dice.  Like I said, we are having a Remkes!  Or a Heslop, however you want to look at it, this kid is as stubborn as it's parents and brother.

Our perinatologist appointment is next week though.  We will find the sex out then.  Chris will be out of town, so we will have to wait until the weekend when he is home find out what it is.  Gender reveal party anyone?

Family of Four, yes please!

My cup runneth over..........

Blood Work

Over the last few months, I have had a ton of blood work done.  Lots of blood work for the fertility process to makes sure my levels stayed normal, due to a high amount of drugs and hormones being pumped into me.  Now, we are having blood work done for any defects that the baby could have.  No matter the results might be, we are 100% comfortable with the outcome.  We just want to be prepared this time if there is something.  After Weston was born, being unprepared sent us on a tailspin and if we can help it, we will.  So, I had the final part of my blood work done on Friday and got the phone call today.  The blood work has come back in the clear.  No signs of defects that we need to be concerned about.

Halloween!!!

It's Halloween!! It's big brother Weston's birthday! His 6th birthday! Our baby is 6! Why does it always go by so quickly?  We got to spend the day together as a family.  Chris & I went to school with Weston where he was King of the day! They had a Halloween assembly we attending and got to help with his Halloween party.  We of course went trick or treating and Weston scored a ton of candy!

On the baby side of things, I went to the doc first thing in the morning, did a quick ultrasound, baby looks great and I passed my urine test.  Water is my friend.  Baby is the size of a lemon and we are 14.5 weeks!  We are now starting to get anxious if we are having a boy or girl, only time will tell.

Drinking Water

Well, I got in trouble today.  I'm not drinking enough water and I have had protein show up in my urine.  I have to go back in a week to double check.  So, here is to water.  I thought I had been doing really good.  I didn't drink any caffeine until a couple weeks ago.  I have been traveling a lot though.  I got to experience a Remkes girls trip to Napa (missed out on the yummy wine, still worth it) and we went to Colorado Springs for 10 days to spend time with Chris.  And traveling all day yesterday, I didn't drink a lot.  So here is to water!

1st Perinatologist Appointment

Yesterday, I went to our first perinatologist appointment.  Everything is looking great!  I am 13 weeks and baby is growing great.  Weston went with me to the appointment and we got to FaceTime Chris so he could see a lot of the ultrasound.  Baby loves it's hands and loved whenever Weston would talk.

 We are going to be proactive and check out the baby's heart as much as we can, since it's older brother has his heart defect.  So far, it doesn't look like we have anything to be concerned about, but we will also go see Weston's cardiologist to have fetal echo cardiogram done in a couple months to double check.  Baby A is still floating in there and doesn't seem to be effecting anything.  The perinatologist advised me also to take it easy and listen to my body.  We also found out that I have an anterior placenta; which means, my placenta sits right in front of the baby, so it may take me longer to feel the baby move.

The sickness is finally subsiding and I am feeling more and more like myself and a human being.  It's amazing how you reach the second trimester and everything starts to feel good again.  Let's hope that keeps up all the way into the third trimester!

Week 11

 Hey there Baby Remkes!  Week 11 and everything is going great! Baby is growing really good.  Mom is sick and doing a whole lot of nothing.  I am also on "careful rest", which means, no lifting anything above 20 lbs and taking it easy.  I forgot about the no energy part, literally, no energy and nothing sounds good.  Except milk.  I am drinking a gallon every few days, by myself.  And I have become a vegetarian, and if you know me, I love meat.  The joys of pregnancy!

Bye Bye Progesterone

See ya later! It's been real! Glad I am done with you.  Even more glad you were a suppository and not a needle.

Baby Announcement

Its official! Weston (and his parents) are so excited to announce, he is getting a new crew member April 2017!

#IVF #ivfsuccess #fourthroundsacharm #familyoffour

Bittersweet

Today is a bittersweet day.  I had my follow up and last appointment with my fertility doc, Dr Gurtcheff.  She has been amazing and wonderful to go thru this process with.  We have been so blessed to have her in our lives!

Last night, I decided to ask my mom to go with me to my appointment, Chris couldn't make it home for this one, even though he tried (out of town projects suck).  My appointment was at 11am, we headed down and waited.  Dr Gurtcheff started the ultra sound and went immediately to Baby B, who looks great! Strong heartbeat and is growing great! Baby A on the other hand, no longer has a heartbeat.  The medical term for this is "vanishing twin" and happens often.  Many mothers don't know about it because it happens before the first ultrasound.  It does raise our pregnancy risk a bit higher, as it could effect Baby B; but it should dissolve back into my body.  We are devastated.  Yet, we are eternally grateful for Baby B!  We are feeling many emotions and working thru it.  Chris FaceTime with us and we were both able to tell Weston about Baby A.  He is such a sweet kid and has been very understanding.  He said he is sad, but know his baby is in heaven.

 So here we are! Expecting! It still doesn't feel real.  After one success, two failed attempts, here we are with another success!!  Our due date is April 27, 2017........my 36th birthday! How crazy is that timing! And I am more than willing to share a birthday!! Now to let baby grow and develop.  We need to make it to week 10 and should be out of the clear.  Only a few more to go. 

I go see my OBGYN next week and I continue the progesterone suppositories until the 29th.  I am on baby aspirin also until October 13th to help with blood clots.

Twin Update

This afternoon, I went in for a check on the babies.  We didn't get bad news, but we didn't get good news either.  So Baby A (the baby that would deliver first) is growing, but is significantly smaller than Baby B.  Dr. Gurtcheff said it could be because Baby A implanted after Baby B and is appearing smaller.  When measured, they are measuring about 3 days apart.  Both have strong heartbeats, so now we just wait and see what happens.  We could keep both, loose one or possibly loose both.  Only time will tell.

Here is a comparison picture.  The top was last week and the bottom is this week.

Once again, we will have to wait, have patience and put our faith in God's hands. 

Two for the Price of One!

 The video says it all! Twins! Holy Moly! We are having twins! We are only 6-7 weeks along, so we will see what happens.  We go back in a week to see how things are going.  We got lucky, Chris was in town for a meeting, so he was able to go with me to the appointment and see the two little embryo's that could!

Two!

Pregnancy Test

 

Yesterday was quite the day! I didn't sleep at all Thursday night.  Every thought and emotion was running thru my brain.  Weston and I got up and headed to Murray for the pregnancy test.  Simple blood test and we waited.  Chris flew in that afternoon, so we had a few hours to burn.  Weston and I went over to City Creek and shopped the Disney Store and had some lunch.  Weston was great thru the whole day.  Every time my phone rang, Weston would jump and say "Is it the baby doctor?"; love that kids heart.  We had some time to burn, so we headed to the airport.  Instead of parking and waiting for Chris, we walked into the airport and waited.  Chris called me and told me he had just landed.  I hung the phone up and it immediately started to ring.  I knew the number and panic ran thru me.  I grabbed Weston and we stood against the back wall while I took the phone call.  After I said Hello, I heard "Holly........Congratulations! Your pregnant!"  The tears started immediately and I was at a loss for words.  Threw the sobbing I said Yeah and Thank You and scheduled my follow up appointment for September 6th.  Weston was staring at me the whole time.  I got to look in his eyes and tell him, "Buddy, your going to be a brother"' he started screaming and right then, Chris walked up to us.  Weston started yelling, "Pop, I'm going to be a brother!" I was crying, he was crying, we were all stunned.  The timing of the phone call couldn't have been better.  Even though our moment was in the airport, shared with a million other people, who cares! We are pregnant and going to have a baby! Or TWO! Who knows! We find out on the 6th!

Patience

I don't have any.  None.  Zero.  But I do believe the quote.  You have control over your life, but sometimes, you have to let life happen.  Today, I have paced.  I have cried.  I have stressed.  I want my husband home.  He will be home tomorrow after the pregnancy test.  He continues to tell me that it's going to be ok and that whatever happens, it's meant to be.  Good or bad.  I must allow tomorrow to unfold and follow what my path is.  Patience (go suck it!)

Bed Rest

Three days alone, doing nothing, sound fabulous right? Wrong.  Halfway thru day 2 and I am over it.  It's so hard to sit still.  You really can only watch so much Netflix, read and sit, before wanting to go outside and just walk around.  But, it is totally worth it and I will sit and let those embryo's do what they need to do.  In the meantime, Chris has been a fantastic help! He took the whole week off to help with Weston and help around the house.  In fact, today he took Weston fishing with friends and they had a blast!

Transfer Day

Well, here we are! After all the prep and time, we are finally to Transfer Day!! We arrived at the clinic in Pleasant Grove, were taken back to our room, and this was waiting for us.  A lucky pair of socks! I was so excited! I put those puppies on as fast as I could! I will take any luck I can get!

The infamous chair with stirrups, just waiting. 

 You could say, I was freaking out a little bit.  Just a bit.  Chris had a level head the whole time, haha!

 After waiting, what felt like an eternity, Dr Gurtcheff came in and gave our news about the embryos.  Out of the 8 that were growing, we ended up with 6 really good ones.  Next, was decision making time.  How many embryos do we put in? How big of a chance was it to get twins, etc.  Once we saw the picture below, we knew the answer without hesitation.  Put two in.  The top two pictures are the embryos that were implanted.  The other 4 have been frozen.

A very beautiful picture of my uterus, willing and waiting for implantation.

 The embryo's have been implanted and now we wait.  And wait. And wait.  I have to stay on bed rest for the next 3 days, continue the progesterone suppositories and wait for the 19th to roll around.  That is pregnancy test day.  It's going to be a long few days.

I also want to add really quick; we know everyone has different views about IVF and how the process works.  We value what you believe and what you think and we support you.  Please, do the same for us.  We do not know at this time what we are going to do with the frozen embryo's.  We don't even know if the two that were implanted are going to work.  Please, just pray for us that we will make the decision that is best for our family.  All we ask if for your support, even if our opinion is different than ours.  Loves!

Growing babies

Today we got the phone call to update on our embryo's.  All 8 are still growing.  Seven of them are doing great, and the eighth one has slowed down a bit.  That's ok.  Our goal is to get 2-3 embryo's and hopefully pregnant.  We go back to the Pleasant Grove clinic on Tuesday at 2pm for the transfer.  Transfer day is the worst day for me.  Once that embryo is implanted, I feel like all the pressure is on me and my body for it to work.  Lots of prayers are happening.  Lots of toes, fingers, wishes and anything you can think of is happening in this house.

How many Embryos? And Progesterone

This is our 4th round of IVF.  Each time we have done a round, I have needed progesterone.  Progesterone is the natural hormone that is created when you become pregnant.  Its what help your body from miscarriages and early delivery.  The first round we did, at 8pm every night, I would begin crying.  I hated the progesterone shots.  They are a thick liquid that you have to place into your hip/butt.  Imagine putting honey in a syringe and then shooting it into you skin.  Not fun.  The second round we did, I had a reaction to the oil base in the progesterone and I got hives.  The third time, we ordered a different oil base progesterone that was a bit thicker and left nasty bumps and bruises on my backside.  This time around, I get to try something new again.  Vaginal suppositories; and I love them! No pain.  No needle.  No bruises.  Downside, I have to take one 3 times a day, but I can handle that.  It's very simple to do and takes under a minute. 

 Onto EMBRYOS!! The embryologist called me today.  Remember those 15 eggs, 8 of the fertilized! 8! Holy moly! We were hope for 4-5.  We are pretty pumped and excited.  We will get a phone on Sunday to update us on the growth of the embryos and the time for the transfer Tuesday.  Day by day it is getting more real. 

Egg Retrieval Day

Today was Egg Retrieval day! And boy, did it go pretty good! We had to be at the clinic by 7:15am. Grandma Lee went with my, while Aunt Mandy & Uncle Danny watched Weston.  Chris had to go back to Colorado Springs to work, that way he can take all of next week off to help with Weston while I am on bed rest after the egg transfer on Tuesday.

 We made it to the clinic on time and they took me back to get started.  The first time we did an egg retrieval, they didn't knock my out all the way; this time they did, and it was heavenly.  I had my good luck socks on and we were good to go.  I had a great nap and during that nap, they were able to retrieve 15 eggs!! Much more than we expected.  Dr Gurtcheff was very pleased and said everything looked great! Chris & I are so excited!! Fingers crossed we get some good embryo's.

 Grandma Lee came in and sat with me for about 30 minutes and we headed home.

(Don't you just love the no makeup look)

Once we got home, I rest and relaxed.  For the most part, I did ok.  I had small pain on my ovaries, but my stomach was another thing.  Every time I would eat, I would get a sharp pain on the upper end of my stomach.  I knew I had to stay hydrated, so the remaining follicles would stay calm and my ovaries wouldn't hyper stimulate.  All and all, I feel ok.  Definitely worth it!

Pregnancy Test

Well, well.  I have never ever taken a pregnancy test that has been positive.  That is one thing I could say on, never have I ever.

 But now I can! My first positive pregnancy test and I'm not even pregnant! The whole point of the pregnancy test is to make sure I have enough HCG in my system.  Thank goodness it has all worked

The rest of today is pretty simple, I don't have to do anything, besides a water & vinegar douche (I know TMI).  Tomorrow is the big day for egg harvest! Fingers crossed, toes crossed and lots of prayers!

Last Ultrasound & Blood work

Today was my last day to check on the follicles growing and my bloodwork.  The nurse practitioner told me everything looked great and I was ready to start my "trigger" process with my HCG shot.  I was told to wait until I heard from the nurse or doctor that afternoon before I started anything.

Dr Gurtcheff called me in the afternoon to discuss how everything was looking.  She said she was super glad that we chose to do a minimal stimulation; my ovaries were doing exactly what they should be doing and in fact, my ovaries are a bit over stimulated (way to go ovaries for being over achievers). When we met with Dr Gurtcheff back in February, we decided to the minimal stimulation, mainly because we didn't want to have a bunch of embryo's frozen not sure what to do with.  We discussed this again and decided that no matter the amount of eggs we received, we would fertilize them all and go from there.

The nurse called me this evening and gave me my instructions; here goes nothing.  At 7:30pm tonight, I take my HCG shot.  Tomorrow morning, I take a pregnancy test to make sure my HCG levels are where they should be; the test needs to come out positive.  And tomorrow night and Thursday morning, I will have to do vinegar & water douche to make sure the path is clear and clean to my eggs. 

Here is the HCG shot.  I had to mix it together.

It was a rough shot, it stung and left a huge bruise behind.

It seems so crazy that we are already to this point.  We are used to this processes taking a couple of months and here we are; about 4 weeks later and we are harvesting.  If everything goes smoothly, the embryo transfer will be next Tuesday.

Tese day for Chris

Today was all about Chris! And he didn't like it.  When we did our last round of IVF at the University of Utah, we were so positive that it was going to work, that we destroyed all of Chris's sperm they have retrieved.  When we decided to get this process going again, I felt terrible.  We both knew they would have to someone get the sperm out of Chris once again.  Luckily enough, we were referred to a Uriologist doc, named Dr Hotaling, who is phenomenal! He was able to use a syringe to extract the sperm from Chris.  The procedure took about 5-10 minutes and went great.  They got 4 frozen viles of sperm!

Here is Chris when we first got there.  He was pacing the room.

Chris was more nervous about the anesthesia then he was about the procedure.  The Utah Fertility Center has an amazing anesthesiologist that had Chris happy and asleep.

In recovery after the procedure.  Dr Hotaling said that everything went smoothly. 

While Chris was in recovery, I had another ultrasound and another blood draw.  My follicles are stilling growing at a great rate and we are getting closer everyday.  Hopefully one more day of shots and we will be good for harvesting!

Since we have been keeping our process very hush hush this time, I wanted to get us both something to have the day or our procedures, so I ordered Chris these socks and they were a huge hit! The doc, anestheologist and the nurse loved them.  They even asked to take pictures with them.