First Trimester Recap

So, I left off on week 4 where the nurse just confirmed a positive pregnancy via blood test. However, later that afternoon I get a call from my infertility doctor and I don't think he believed the results either because he wanted me to come in for a 7 week ultrasound to confirm it. I was very glad about this because while my body is horrible at getting pregnant it turns out it is great at being pregnant (so far,) no nausea, indigestion, food aversions, heartburn - nothing to make me feel pregnant. I thought I would feel much better and more pregnant after the ultrasound but this is what I saw.

O.k. it had a heartbeat but didn't look anything like a baby and I still wasn't convinced.

Week 9 came and our agency called with travel dates for Russia. I felt the need to disclose the pregnancy to them except I hadn't actually seen a doctor yet. My OB doesn't see patients until 12 weeks. I called the clinic a little hysterical and my doctor agreed to get me in earlier. She found a heartbeat right away so I told our agency about the pregnancy. I was ecstatic when our Russia agency would allow us to continue with the adoption. I would travel early in my second trimester which my doctor thought was fine and it turns out to be a blessing that we are in a region with a loooooong wait for a court date because we wouldn't go back until after the baby was born. We had all sorts of plans in place for how we were going to make this work. Yes, it would be tough but we have lots of help and support. A couple days later our home study agency told us they had a policy and we weren't able to continue our adoption. We were devastated! We have spent so much time, emotion and a huge portion of our savings on this adoption. While we were excited about the pregnancy, at this point, it just seemed like another way to ruin our chances at adoption.

Week 10 our adoption was put "on hold." However, if I had a miscarriage we would not be allowed to return to the same region since they get offended if you turn down travel dates so basically it meant we would have to start over - again. So of course week 11 I had spotting. My doctor assured me it was normal and it was just because I was overdoing it - apparently 12 hour shifts as a nurse on my feet with lots of lifting and bending aren't good for a pregnant person plus I don't have the normal first trimester symptoms to remind me to slow down. She set me up for another ultrasound just to make sure.

Week 13 I saw a leg kicking, arm waving, hiccuping baby. And I finally allowed myself to get excited about this pregnancy.
So the Russkiy will have to wait a little while longer. Maybe by then they will finally have this bilateral agreement worked out.

We Got Travel Dates For Russia, BUT....

Apparently even God got annoyed that our adoption journey has reached the 3 year point with no end in sight because.........

I'm Pregnant!!

Shocked? Tell me about it! Here is what happens when you have tried for 5 years to become a parent - including 6 failed rounds of IUI, 1 failed round of IVF, and 1 failed adoption.

I'm about to head out of town with my husband to celebrate our anniversary and my period is a few days late. Years ago I stopped taking pregnancy tests when this happened because it was more emotional for me than just waiting for my period. However this weekend we had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge, had booked a hot tub suite and I planned to eat my fill of mercury infused walleye so I dusted off an old pregnancy test that had not yet expired, used it, set it on the counter and forgot about it. I ran some errands, did some laundry and packed. At one point I walked by the bathroom and realized I had forgotten to throw the test away only when I looked at it, it said pregnant.

I was totally numb and wandered around the house aimlessly for a few minutes until I remembered Brian will be home soon and I should wrap the gift I bought long ago when I thought getting pregnant would be easy. I dug it out of the back of a closet that was now filled with toddler boy clothes for our pending adoption.
Brian opens the gift and says "Are you serious?" Then he says "I really can't get excited about this." To which I replied "Yeah, me neither." After all we have had our dreams of being parents crushed so many times - in multiple languages!

I spent the rest of the weekend convinced the hormones I had been on in the past had wreaked havoc on my system and from now on I would have false positive pregnancy tests. So on Monday I called my infertility clinic to discuss my theory. The nurse assured me the hormones would be out of my system in a matter of weeks and that I was probably pregnant. I reminded her that this is not possible. She informed me that, in fact, it looks like it is possible but sensing that this debate could go on for awhile she said I should c0me in for a blood test. That afternoon I had a message from the nurse saying congratulations you are going to have a baby and you might even be able to afford to send it to college (might sound rude but if you've been there, you understand.)

This post is going to get very long and I want to remember it someday so I will get to the Russia part in my next post. Oh, and please keep the news off Facebook, I'm not telling at work yet :) To be continued.......

Weekend Update

Vivian attended her first jewelry party this weekend, hosted by Auntie Em, at International Market Square.
The Chaing Mai Thai Book Club helped Jenny celebrate her upcoming wedding at her bachelorette party.And we made our annual trip to Pine Tree Apple Orchard so I could have Dad's apple crisp the way it was meant to be made.

Fall

This fall we went to cheer The Knights on in a volleyball tournament coached by Jeff. Everett's parents went on vacation so he tagged along for the weekend.

We celebrated Ruby's 3rd Birthday at the apple orchard.


We froze at Steve and Jen's wedding!

Yeah, it was that cold.

And Maren had her first baby shower, where I delegated gift wrapping to Brian.

Girls Weekend 2010

This was our 10th annual girls weekend!! We stayed at Leslie's cabin, took over Jed's bar, ran a meat raffle, tubed down the Namekagon River and had lots of good girlie fun!

About Time

We finally made it to a Twins game at the new stadium. We had amazing seats thanks to Mom and Uncle Brian!!

Another Update

7 months down....

And the only news we have is the Ministry of Education in Ekaterinburg is being reviewed by the federal authorities. I seriously don't even know what else to say.

The situation has made me like my book find of the month even better....

Not only because it is about a Siberian Tiger (Did you know....Almost all wild Siberian tigers live the Southeast corner of Russia in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range east of the Amur River. Their former range included northeastern China and the Korean Peninsula, and as far west as Mongolia. They are the largest of the tiger species and can grow up to 13 feet in length and weigh up to 700 lbs.)

Or because it is written in Russian and English. What a fun way to introduce The Russkiy (русский) to the Russian alphabet.

But also because it is about a tiger that loses his smile and on his journey to find it realizes it is the people and places along the way that put the smile on his face. It has been very easy to lose my smile as this journey gets unbelievably, almost comically longer for our family and I am so thankful for the people who put the smile back on my face every step of the way.

We still have hope we will meet our child before the end of the year!