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Here are some pictures from early pregnancy. We went on a family trip with Kevin's side of the family in June. I was not feeling my best at that point but I was able to go through Cosmo's Mystery Area without getting sick so that was a good sign :) Here we are on a little train ride we took.
4th of July is one of our favorite holidays. I had to walk to the park a little later than everyone else because - surprise! - I wasn't feeling well :) It was still a wonderful day/night though despite feeling sick and despite the rain :)
Katie's Baby Shower! Mom, Me, and Tammy. Eagerly awaiting the arrival of Connor!.jpg)
I guess I didn't realize that we don't have too many normal pictures of me pregnant :) We have a lot of close ups of the belly and of my holding my shirt up so you can see the belly growing - but I don't know how many people want to see my big bare belly :) So I guess I'll keep those to my family albums :) Here's one with me fully clothed :) This was taken in August..jpg)
The gang! :) Before Jenny and Jerome packed up and left us :(. This was about 1 month before Connor decided to make his dramatic appearance :) I love this picture, we finally got a picture of all of us together, it seems like when we get together there's always someone missing or we forget to bring cameras!
The second month of trying after the surgery came and I was due to get my period on April 13th - FRIDAY the 13th. I kept telling my mom that maybe Friday the 13th will be good luck for me. The day came and I thought about it all day at work, just like I did the whole week, just like I did every month when that time came close. I kept telling myself that I would just wait and see and not take a test until I was several days late - I told myself that every single month but could never wait. I came home and felt a little crampy like my period was coming so I decided to just go take a test so I knew for sure. I went upstairs, took the test and walked away for a couple minutes. When I went back to look there was a very very very faint line... After taking multiple tests every single month for 2 1/2 years never did I see any kind of line, any kind of indication that possibly...
I called Kevin upstairs and had him look. "Do you see a line there?" I asked, making sure I wasn't just making it up in my head. "Yes, what does that mean?" Kevin replied. And I explained that a line means that you're pregnant. But it was SO hard to see, so I tried not to get my hopes up and tried to go downstairs, do other stuff and get my mind off of it - yeah right! I took another test that night before going to bed hoping that the line would be darker - it was still there but still just as faint. Supposedly taking tests in the morning is a better indication - so I woke up at 6 am and took another test, once again hoping for a darker line... still a line, still very very hard to see, just as faint as the day before. I told Kevin that I was going to go to the doctor and have them test me just so I know for sure because my hopes were really starting to get high and I didn't want to go on thinking 'maybe' if in the end it was just going to be 'no' again. Kevin thought I was jumping the gun just a little and said he thought we should wait a little bit, but I just couldn't do it.
We went to the doctor and they took a urine sample - I remember it so clearly - what I was wearing, how I was feeling, and exactly how she sounded when she came in and said, "It is a definite definite positive," to which we both replied "Really?" with our mouths wide open. She said usually it takes 5 minutes to get a result and it showed positive within a minute. She left the room and Kevin and I stared at each other, I started crying. But we were still in disbelief and after years of trying were very hesitant to believe whole-heartedly that this was actually happening. We started saying that we understood it was still really early but now we at least knew that it could happen - we could actually get pregnant! When we told people in the first days we always followed it up with explaining that we understood it was still early, and a lot of people seemed to think it was terrible that we were thinking that something could happen but we were just so guarded I think, after wanting this to happen for so long and being let down so many times, it was really hard to let ourselves believe that it was finally happening, what we had prayed for for 2 1/2 years was finally happening - our baby was finally on the way!
After trying for a baby for over a year we finally went to a fertility doctor in the beginning of 2006. We went through all the initial tests and couldn't find anything wrong - then came the first surgery - still nothing wrong. They recommend waiting and trying on your own again after almost every step which I found very frustrating because I was getting more and more impatient and losing hope with every month that nothing happened. After almost a year of working with the fertility doctor and still not finding anything to explain why we weren't getting pregnant, they gave us 2 options - Artificial Insemination or Laparascopy Surgery. The surgery was very expensive and did not sound fun at all, so we tried 1 round of Artificial Insemination in November of 2006 - no luck. We debated about doing another round or going for the surgery and decided to go ahead and try the surgery this time.
On February 23rd, 2007 I went in for surgery - hoping they would finally find something to explain all our problems - and be able to fix it. They found a little bit of endometriosis and removed it, it was not a lot but the doctor assured us that sometimes a little bit can throw everything off and stop anything from happening. Recovering from surgery was hard for me and it took a while for me to get back on my feet again. They recommended that we try on our own again for 3 months before deciding what the next step would be. The first month went by - no baby. Already I was getting impatient again and struggling to find the right balance between not getting my hopes up every month but at the same time keeping a positive attitude. I really felt like we were never going to be able to have a baby. After seeing so many negative pregnancy tests and getting my hopes up every month only to be let down, it was hard imagining it going a different way...
In May of 2005 I graduated from Colorado State University with my Bachelor's Degree in Human Development and Family Studies. Finally! No more school! :)
In March 2005 (still no baby) we found our dream house! After living in our cute little townhome for 3 years and looking at houses for over a year (so many houses) we finally found one that we loved! We wanted an unfinished basement, lots of mature trees and a big lot - a lot to ask for where we live. The day our realtor told us about this house I had a dream about it that night before even seeing it - it was a sign! Some people told us they thought we shouldn't buy a house and try for a baby at the same time because that's a lot to deal with - but we just couldn't pass up this house. And it's a good thing we didn't base the decision on the fact that we were trying for a baby at that time because we still (unknowingly) had a long way to go in that department... We had a lot of good times in our first home and it was a little hard to leave but we still own it and rent it out so we haven't said goodbye for good yet :)
We absolutely love our home, we've made several upgrades in the past 3 years and still have many things we're excited to do - this summer's main project will be painting the outside :)
We spend SO much time in the backyard - we love it! So do Snickers and Carmel :)
My sweet Granny passed away in September of 2004 and it really made me think about what's important in life. Kevin and I had been putting off having children for various reasons - money, school - reasons that seemed to make sense at the time. But as soon as Granny passed I thought a lot about how we have no idea how long we have and we need to do what's important to us now and not put stuff off until later. So I went off birth control and we started trying for a baby - having no idea what a long road we had ahead of us.
Our next addition to the family came in the summer of 2004 - Carmel! And when Carmel was about 6 months old he had his first seizure. We learned that Carmel had epilepsy and we had a rough time at first finding the right medicine dosage for him but since we did he's been doing much better!
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