WE ARE HAVING A BABY BOY!!!!!!

Yes it's true. We did get back the results of our NIPT genetics testing from my doctor. Thankfully, it should no trisomies, so no Down syndrome, or Trisomy 18 or 13, the most common ones that are fatal.  

This test isolates the baby's DNA which is apparently floating around in my blood. And they then take the baby's DNA and examine the chromosomes and of course having the chromosomes, they can see the sex chromosome pair and it came back we are having a sweet BABY BOY!!!  

His name will be Jacob Christopher after his Daddy and we are so thrilled to find out so early the sex and that he is healthy because I sure have many risk factors. 

So with that said, I mentioned in my last post that I had my OB visit 2 days ago before I landed in the hospital. At that visit they did the 12 week sonogram and I am AMAZED at the pictures we have of our sweet Jacob. So I will post a few of them here for you to see!!

This one is my favorite!!!

 

 

I can not believe the detail they can see in these images. He was 12 weeks and 5 days along here. But something else that is also plainly evident in this picture is the low levels of amniotic fluid. They fixed that while I was in the hospital so he now is happy and floating all around in plenty of fluid. 

His beautiful little profile shot. Sweet!!!  

 

    A full body shot, he was moving all around like crazy in there- but I can't feel any of it yet!!

And last but not least, we already had total chromosomal confirmation that he is a boy, but we got a good look at the goods- so there is no doubt!!!  LOL!!!  

  Aren't they just amazing!?!?  I am so glad our high risk group takes lots of pictures. It sure makes it more fun to follow the pregnancy as we can see him progressing from a small blob on the screen at 6weeks to now a fully formed little boy!!!  What a miracle life is!!!

Once we found out we were having a boy, we decided to tell Chloe.  We video taped on my phone the conversation I had with her and it was/is so precious as she reached out to touch my tummy so tenderly. She is still trying to grasp why he is in my tummy but she is warming up to the idea of a baby brother and she has thoroughly enjoyed helping us put the crib together and wash little baby clothes!!!!  She is gonna be such a great big sister and this will be her little baby I have no doubt!!!!  

After the dr visit on Tuesday, I picked Chloe up from preschool and I took her to the park because It was finally a nice spring day and we were itching to go outside. Here is a little snap of I took of her while she was playing on the monkey bars. My sweet angel!!  Man she is so grown up now but soooooo beautiful!!!!

In my next post I will show you the progress we have made so far on his room.  It's coming together so cute!!  I chose elephants because to me little boys and elephants go together perfectly!!! 

Again thanks for all the prayers that have gotten us this far!!  What a loved little boy we have!!!    💙👶💙👶💙

Hello 13 weeks and hospital stay.....

Today we are 13 weeks along!!!  Yeah!!  But boy is this one hard fought battle to get here. I feel like this is all I talk about but truly I have been bed ridden for the last 7 weeks and the Hyperemesis and vomiting just continued to spiral downward. So the fetal medicine group admitted me to the hospital on Wednesday morning. They were finally able to stop the vomiting and get the fluids in me.

Today I had a PICC line put in my arm and I will be receiving IV nutrition and IV fluids in that line at home. It's just a fancy IV really. But it is easier to care for and lasts longer than a regular IV.  

So they discharged me home tonight and the home health company nurses will be out to the house tomorrow to hook up everything. 

Before being admitted to the hospital, Tuesday I had my bimonthly OB visit. They were pleased with the baby's progress and also did an US and we got some amazing pictures. 

I am going to do my next post on the baby's sex bc we did find out and show the pictures they took at the doctor visit on Tuesday.  They are nothing short of AMAZING!!!!

Thank you to everyone for the continued prayers. I am so hoping this sickness gets better as we move into the 2nd trimester next week!!!  Woooo hooo

12 weeks today and another ER visit!!

  So yeah.  This baby is making me sooooooo sick.  On Monday night I started having chest pains again, enough it was scaring me.  So off to the ER Sweetness and I went. After waiting over 4 hours in the waiting room, when I finally was seen the doctor seemed pretty concerned. After an EKG that was normal, they did a d-dimer test which looks for blood clots or blood clot break down materials.  They were checking to see if I could have had a pulmonary embolism causing the chest pain. 

Well wouldn't you know, the test came back positive. I was very scared at that point, so they called in maternal fetal medicine docs to handle the situation.  The specialists were in agreement that doing a chest CT scan was not in the best interest of the baby, so we opted aganist that. But they felt that since my vitals were normal, that the test was likely positive due to pregnancy in general which can make it positive. 

They then began to address the extreme hyperemesis  (nausea & vomiting) with which I have been afflicted. Trying to avoid me having an in-patient stay they ordered home health to come out and infuse 2 bags of IV fluids daily and then put me on a continuous Zofran pump to try to get the wretching to stop.  So all of the meds and supplies finally arrived today at my doorstep and the nurse called and she will be here to my home to begin everything at 10am tomorrow morning. I have never been so excited to be hooked up to an IV in my life!!!  I just want some relief. This is so bad. I've lost so much weight since getting pregnant (40 lbs) and that is not good for the baby at all.  I will keep you updated on how that goes. 

But the highlight of our 12 hour ER visit was they did so a very in depth sonogram of the baby to be sure everything was okay Bc I was experiencing some tightness and cramping as well. 

Here is the best picture from that in depth scan...... Can not believe how perfectly formed the baby is already !!!

I added the 11weeks 5days to the picture obviously, but I want to be able to remember the gestational age of each sonogram picture. But seeing the vertebrae and the brain parts and of course the precious beating heart is such a privledge, something I can never get used to!!!!   Just amazing!!  (And I did inquire about why we can't see the legs and the technician said they were there and all was fine but it was just the plane this picture was taken in kind of cut them off). I was panicked for a moment!! But baby looks great!!!! 

So we are 12 weeks along today and I am so excited to be moving into the 2nd (and from what I hear the best) trimester of pregnancy!!

Thank you again for your continued prayers and good thoughts for this miracle baby. We are moving along on the nursery and I have pics to post of that as well!!!!  Maybe that will be my next post later this week!  

The BIG NEWS!!!

Okay. I am so sorry to have not gotten this post up yesterday I have been very under the weather. But let's get going to our news that has brought me back to blogging!!

So in November of 2014, I had some stomach surgery and I did pretty well for the first 3 weeks after the surgery and then I started getting very sick, vomiting and just unable to keep anything down.  This continued to get worse  and worse. I went back to my surgeon and he said everything looked fine from his perspective and to give it another month or two and the nausea would go away. 

So fast forward to Thursday night Jan. 29, 2015. It was my 39th birthday and I had been in bed all day vomiting and felt like death. Obviously I didn't feel like doing anything to celebrate, and I was getting so sick I was getting scared. My chest started hurting and I have never had chest pains of any kind.  So my mom took me to the ER and my hubby stayed home with Chloe since it was so late so she could continue to sleep in her bed. 

So after a wait, we were finally in the back. They ran all these tests, called my surgeon, did a pelvic CT scan looking to see if I had an intestinal blockage of some kind. All came back normal.  So the ER doctor was at a loss for what the issue was but cleared my heart as not having any issues, and said I was just wretching so badly I had pulled some muscles in my chest. So he was about to let me go, told me I could get dressed but there was one test he hadn't gotten back from the lab that he wanted to get before letting me go home...... The urine pregnancy test.   I said I thought y'all already did that?!  He said there was some mix up at the lab and they had to throw my sample away and they needed a new sample from me. 

So I was irritated now, but I supplied it to them, and he comes back into the room about 20 minutes later as I am vomiting and says "Ummm that urine pregnancy test was positive."  My mom jumps up off the seat screaming "oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!!!!!" Just flipping out. I'm sitting there and I said "what did you just say?"

He said "you are pregnant."  And my infertile self said " you must have the wrong sample, you need to do it again. I can't be pregnant"

He said "Well do you have a uterus!?"

I said yes I do but you don't understand, we went through IUIs, and 5 failed IVF cycles and I have NEVER EVER EVER EVEN HAD A POSITIVE PREGNANCY TEST EVER!!!  And tonight is my 39th birthday. I just can't believe it!!!"

My mom is still crying and I'm in shock and he said well let's do an ultrasound real quick and make sure it's not ectopic or anything. So while they were getting the machine ready I called Sweetness and woke him up and told him they think I'm pregnant. He just said "Really??  Wow."  

So meanwhile they put the probe on my pelvis and I screamed "there it is!!!!"  The black amniotic fluid-filled sac was clearly visible with the little white baby flipping all around in there. I just sobbed and sobbed. 

So we drove home and I was in complete and total shock!!!  I just could not and sometimes still can not believe it!!!  

So the next morning on Friday, Sweetness and I went straight to my OBGYNs office when they opened at 8 am and told them the scenario and that I desperately needed to be seen to be checked out and I was on medicine I can't be on while pregnant and I just needed help!! 

Thankfully they worked us in and did a vaginal US, and this is what we saw!!!

They estimated that day that I was 7 weeks 1 day along!!!  We were able to hear the heartbeat and everything!!!  We cried and cried- just so in awe at the goodness and mercy of the Lord to give us this gift so unexpectedly!!! 

So we got a due date of September 17, 2015!!!  I had bloodwork done and was officially admitted into the OB part of the practice!! This dr has been my GYN for 14 years, it was so neat to finally experience this with her!!

So 2 weeks later at our second OB visit, we had another vaginal ultrasound and got some even cooler pictures of our little jellybean. The pictures below were taken when I was 9weeks exactly!

    Look at the itty bitty angel!!!  You can        

      see legs and arms up by their face!!

We are just over the moon with happiness to welcome this sweet angel into our family!!  The only downside is I have been diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarium.  This is an extreme form of nausea and vomiting associated with  pregnancy. I have been in the hospital twice because of it. I mean it's not just morning sickness. I vomit about 10-15 times a day and have been basically bed ridden since getting pregnant but didn't know why I was so sick. It had nothing to do with my surgery at all thankfully. 

But due to a number of circumstances which I will blog about later, my OB transferred all my care for the remainder of the pregnancy to the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists here. So I did have my first visit with them last week on Tuesday and got all established with them. They seem to be pretty nice. I will see them every 2 weeks, and I go back on Tuesday March 10th. I will be 12 weeks 4 days then so I should get a really neat high powered sonogram where you can see everything on the baby!!!

I have tons more to write but I'll leave this post as just the announcement of our impending miracle!!  I just still can't believe that on my 39 th birthday I find out I am pregnant for the first time ever in my life!!!  God sure does have a sense of humor!!!  

Thank you for coming on this incredible journey with us and we experience pregnancy and childbirth for the first time!!  Something that never really left my heart but I was just learning to accept I would never have, but I had my baby girl!!!  We haven't told Chloe yet, but we are praying with her every evening that Jesus would send us a baby brother or sister to join our family and for us to love. She always quickly corrects me and says "Sister!!!!  No boys!!!"  Lol. Well we will see.  

I had my blood drawn for genetic testing and they can also with 100% certainty tell you the baby's sex. When we find that out for sure next week we will tell her what we are having and talk about where the baby is etc and let her start being a part of this more!!!  

Sorry didn't mean for this to turn into the longest blog post ever, but I am documenting all this for this little baby to read one day how we found out about him/her and how much we wanted them!!!!  

         LET THE EXCITEMENT BEGIN!!!!  

I am coming back to Blogger land!!!!

Wow!!!  Has it really been over 2 years since I posted on this blog?!?!?  I can not hardly believe it, but yet I can!  This is our beautiful angel Chloe now at 3 years old.  These pictures were taken back in October 2014, for her 3rd birthday photo shoot and this one was my favorite.  She has blossomed into the most gorgeous, smart, kind-hearted and spunky little girl.  We could not have hand picked a more perfect child for us had we done so ourselves.  The Lord definitely knew what He was doing when He sent this angel into our lives and made us parents......

Life has been so crazy busy and I got lazy with my blogging after Chloe's first birthday.  I had this blog printed into a hardback book after her first birthday and it turned out LOVELY, and I hope someday my princess will enjoy reading in depth coverage of her first year of life week by week and the amazing journey we went on to bring her home!!

So many amazing things have happened in our life in these past 2+ years, and I would love to recount them all to document them but don't worry I won't do that here.  But we are about to embark on another life changing monumental journey that is so BIG I am going to start my blog back up again!!!!  I don't know if anyone is even still a subscriber to this blog anymore or will read it but I will not be blogging for anyone else really, just me and a place to put my thoughts in an organized fashion and to document this amazing journey we are now on........   What is that journey you ask???  Well you must wait until the next post where I will share in great detail.......  It is TRULY AMAZING!!!!

I remember last time I posted here something about how I had run out of blogger space and they wanted me to BUY space or I could not add any more pictures.  So because this blog address has always been my home and I don't want to get rid of all the work I did on this blog, I am going to consider paying for the extra space, I just don't know how much it will cost or even how to do that, so I'm hoping after I post this post, blogger will let me know!!

So with that said, I will sign off for now, but I will post our BIG NEWS and the reason for me to start back this blog in the next post, which should most likely be later today.  Leave a comment please and let me know if you are still subscribed and if you plan on following along with us and continuing to read my blog now that I am coming back to blogger land!!

The Blog Must Go On!!!!

Hey guys!!

Thank you all for the comments both public and private about you wanting to continue to read my blog.  So I have decided to continue blogging!!!!!  Yeah!!!  Now everyone jump up and down  :0)

Due to maxing out the picture allowance I had to create another blog altogether!!  So I have done so and I have named it  "The Chloe Chronicles"  Clever eh?  All the creative input in that one goes to Sweetness!!!

Anyways..... the URL for the blog is watchingchloegrow.blogspot.com

PLEASE come on over and say Hi and tell me what you think of the new blog look and what things you might want to talk about.  And PLEASE sign up as a follower of the Chloe Chronicles blog, All you have to do is put your email in the box down on the left side where it says "Follow by email" and whenever there is a new post, you will receive an email alert so you can come read it!!

I need followers so I don't look like the lone ranger blogger out there!!!  So come on and join the blog!!

It is bitter sweet to leave this blog home---we shared a lot of sorrows on these pages, and we celebrated the most profound joys!!!!  Because I really wrote all of this for Chloe to read one day- I have had this second installment of Sweetness and Me published in a hardback book- starting the day before she was born up until her first birthday.  Its going to be a wonderful keepsake baby book for her one day- to see her entire first year- week by week.

   Inevitably, we will experience more heartache and more joy- after all that is what life is about- but as long as all my friends' are with me along the way- we will come out on the other side a much stronger person!!! 

So come on.....Go ahead and click this link Chloe's Chronicles and it will take you right to the new home of Chloe's Chronicles!!! and don't forget to bookmark the new address!!


See ya on the other side :)

The prettiest little Kitty .......

Hi friends!!  Sorry I have not posted in awhile!!  There are two reasons... One of which is posted below and the other is the holiday season is in full swing!  Our days are sooooo busy and full of fun and laughter with a one year old,  as she is turning into this amazing little girl right before our eyes!!!

Well it seems I have run our of space to put anymore photos on here. Google has told me I have to buy more space or I guess start another blog. I have been blogging for almost 4 years now and I will admit it is tiring, but it is certainly rewarding as well. So I'm gonna see how it is by responses to this post, is there anyone out there reading this or does anyone care if I close this blog down??

If you are a regular reader and would like me to continue please comment here so I can see if there are any people out there even reading or will even miss me if I am gone permanently??

Chloe is doing fantastic and is the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen!!! I am so privileged to be her Momma!!

I'll let you know if I am going to start a new blog or if the next post will be our last! Thank you all who have prayed for me and my daughter even once !!!