Update on Beck

Whew! The past two days have been a whirlwind! I figured that this would be the easiest way to update everyone since some of you only know bits & pieces of everything going on. There may be a few parts in here that is a little too much information, but it makes better sense to know all the details.

Sunday--

I had a rough day on Sunday. I just didn't feel good--my back was hurting & I was having a few contractions. I had a doctor appointment scheduled for 3:45 on Monday, so I just thought that I could make it until then to ask my doctor about why I just didn't feel 100%.

Monday--

We went back to work last week, and this was the last day that we were going to have before all of our kids started back to school on Tuesday. I woke up Monday morning to go to school, and while I was getting ready, I thought that I had lost my mucus plug. (Sorry if that is TMI, but that is how it all started on Monday.) I felt normal when I woke up yesterday, so I didn't think too much of it since we already had a doctor's appointment scheduled.

I went on to work, and I had asked a few people about it, and they all suggested that I call my doctor to just let them know. When I called, they told me that they wanted me to be there around 1:30, instead of 3:45. So, Ben and I loaded up & headed on out to Lubbock. On the way to Lubbock, my vision started acting weird. It almost felt like I was going to get a migraine. Then, once we actually got to Lubbock, I started to get a headache. We got to Dr. O's office, and as soon as we got there, she had to leave to go deliver babies. Overall, it ended up to work out great because they let me lay in one of the rooms with the lights off to rest & help my headache. They did my vitals before I went back to the room, and my blood pressure was a little elevated. Once Dr. O got back to her office, she came straight back to check on me. She wasn't for sure if I did lose my mucus plug, and she wasn't concerned about that since I was already further along. She told me that if I was only 25 weeks, she would be WAY concerned. We talked about my other symptoms & she told me that I could be developing preeclampsia. She decided to go ahead and check me, and I was dialated to a 1 & was about 50% effaced. She felt it best to keep us overnight for observation, since we live 85 miles away. She didn't want to risk us driving back home & having to go back up to Lubbock if something were to happen.

We got to the hospital around 3:45 Monday afternoon, and they started a 24 hr urine analysis, did a lot of bloodwork, gave me rounds of steroid shots (in case he did come early), and started IV fluids. This was my first IV of my life, and I handled it like a champ! :) I was pretty swollen yesterday, which was another concern of theirs. I had been swelling pretty bad, but I just assumed it was from going back to work & just going 90 to nothing all day long. We hung out all afternoon, and my brother-in-law & future sister-in-law brought us dinner. When they were there, I was hooked up to the monitor, so the nurses could monitor Beck, and I started to have contractions again. They made me drink A LOT of water, and that seemed to make them stop.

I had to call in for a sub for Tuesday (the first day of school), since I was having to stay overnight in Lubbock. Writing sub plans for the first day of school is NOT an easy task at all! That took me awhile, and then I decided to try to attempt to sleep.

Tuesday--

My steroid shots ended up wiring my brain, and it would not stop going. I ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep Monday night. My doctor came in to visit me around 8:15 yesterday morning, and she told me that Dr. A (my maternal-fetal specialist) would be in for a consult & they would do an ultrasound to check the fluids, cord, and Beck's measurements. She also said that she would review all of my labs/tests & the ultrasound results later on, and that we would work up a game plan for later. That was fine with us, and in about 20 minutes, Dr. A was there to talk to us. He said that based on my symptoms, I could be developing preeclampsia, and he was glad that I was there, and they were able to monitor me so closely. A few minutes later, one of his tech girls came in, and we went for the ultrasound. Everything looks great with Beck! The fluid levels were great, and he was getting great circulation in the cord. Based on measurements, his head is still really big & he weighs about 5 1/2 pounds right now. I felt so much better after seeing his sweet self on the screen, and knowing that everything was fine with him.

I went back to my room, and we just hung out ALL day yesterday. My mom & sister ended up coming up yesterday, and they stayed with me while Ben ran some errands. I ended up deciding to take a shower, and they got to help me with that. I felt a lot better after a good shower, but I was just still so exhausted. At around 6:30, my sweet nurse who had taken SUCH great care of me yesterday came in, and she said that she had just gotten off the phone with Dr. O. Dr. O told me that I could be discharged last night, and that she wanted to start seeing me weekly for regular appointments. Her and Dr. A also felt that it would be good for me to start going to Dr. A weekly for non stress tests. She said that she reviewed all of my labs & the ultrasound, and everything seemed to look more normal than it did on Monday, and she felt that I would be good to go.

So, I was discharged around 8:00 last night, and we ran and grabbed some food & headed home. We ended up not getting home until about 10:00, and we were both beyond exhausted. I think the best thing about coming home was getting to our little Ellie Mae (our schnauzer...who will have a rude awakening once Beck comes!) get so excited about seeing us! I went ahead and put in for another sub for Wednesday because we weren't sure of the game plan, or if the doctor's were going to keep me another night or even put me on bed rest. I finished up my sub plans, and I just prayed that I would be able to get some sleep since I had another round of steroid shots before we left the hospital.

Wednesday--

Today, I feel MUCH better. I'm still a little tired, but I was able to sleep ALL night last night!! I will be taking today to rest up. I called my doctor's office this morning to schedule my appointment for next week, and I got to talk to Dr. O's awesome nurse for awhile about everything. I wasn't sure about what they wanted me to do about work because my hospital nurse from last night forgot to ask Dr. O about that when they were on the phone. Dr. O's nurse told me as long as I felt good, I could try. I told her that I would try out the next 2 days, and we would go from there. I have my appointment with Dr. O & Dr. A scheduled for Monday afternoon, so she told me that if I didn't feel I could work after these two days or if I was developing any more pre-term labor symptoms, we could discuss all of that at my appointment on Monday.

So...there is the past 48-72 hours in a nutshell...sorta! :) Thank you all for all of the calls, texts, Facebook messages, and concerns. That means more to us than you'll ever know! I'll try to keep regular updates from now until Beck is born, but I'm not making any promises!

20 Weeks

Yesterday officially marked the 20 week milestone for me! It is just crazy to think that this pregnancy is half way done! Here is a quick update...

After my last appointment with Dr. P, she let me choose who I wanted to see next as far as OB-GYN. I chose a doctor who many people have gone to here, and I have been so pleased with her. Dr. O is incredible! I had my first appointment with her when I was around 15 weeks, and she was so sweet and genuine. She did all the routine stuff that goes on at a first OB-GYN appointment. During my pelvic exam, she did notice that some of my pelvic bones are pretty flat. If this sweet baby gets too big, she told me that she would feel better if we scheduled a C-Section. She didn't want to risk it for my sake. We have a history of big babies in our families, so we will see what happens!

When I left Dr. O's office, we scheduled another sonogram with a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. We had that sonogram last Friday (13th) and it was incredible to see how the

baby has grown. It was SO detailed, and we could see the baby's profile, legs, arms, hands, feet...even the bones that were forming.

We did get to find out the sex of the baby too. There is NO doubt that we

are having a...

BOY!!!

We were able to take both of our mom's and my sister ended up going with us too. It was so fun to be able to find out all together. Then, of course we went shopping! :)

Our sweet baby will be named...

Hunter Beck Boyd

We decided to name him after my little brother, and we both loved the name Beck. Even though his first name his Hunter, we will call him Beck.

Other pregnancy highlights:

How far along: 20 weeks

Size of Beck: He is about the size of a small coconut.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: (This could come back to bite me in the end...) I have only gained about 2 pounds so far. I did lose a little bit of weight during my first trimester, but I have gained 2 pounds according to my pre-pregnancy weight.

Maternity Clothes: Mix of regular clothes and maternity clothes

Movement: I felt Beck move for the first time last Saturday after my best friend's wedding! :) He must have liked the music! He has been pretty active throughout this week! It has been SO neat to feel his little flutters inside of me!

Sleep: I'm still sleeping great!

What I'm missing: Definitely sleeping on my stomach!

Cravings: I haven't had weird cravings yet! Lately I have wanted a lot of fruit & Mexican food...not together though!

Symptoms: I'm still tired all the time.

I really want to start doing weekly updates like this, so I can keep track of all the accomplishments! Maybe since school is winding down, I will have more time to blog. That is the latest update. We are going to see Dr. O again on Tuesday, so pray that all is still going well! Thanks again for ALL of the love and support. Beck is already loved so much!

Goodbye 1st Trimester! Hello 2nd Trimester!

First off, I want to thank all of you for the OVERWHELMING love & support that you have given Ben and me the past 7 weeks. I really cannot believe that it has been a whole 7 weeks since we found out that I was pregnant. I'm hoping to update on a weekly basis from now on, so we can track the growth of Baby B!

The past 7 weeks have been the best & most tiring weeks of my life! I have been beyond exhausted the whole time! I know that part of the exhaustion issue is dealing with 60+ 5th graders on a dail

y basis, but I just feel like I want to sleep ALL the time. I told someone the other day that I am ready to go back to sleep the moment I wake up in the mornings. I'm hoping that since my first trimester is officially over, I will gain some of my energy back! I have only actually gotten sick once throughout my entire pregnancy, but I'm almost wondering if it was a little stomach bug. I was SUPER nauseous that night and the next morning, but I was fine after that. I also had a student get sick with the bug in my class the following Monday, and it seemed like a lot of kids were absent due to the bug, too. I have been nauseous off and on during the day the past 7 weeks

or so, and Dr. P went ahead and gave me some Zofran & Phenegren to help out with that. Everything else has been going pretty smoothly! I have had 2 appointments with Dr. P since our very first appointment with her on February 10th. She has been really pleased with my progression over the past few weeks. Last Friday was my last appointment with Dr. P because since she is a reproductive endocrinologist, she only sees O.B. patients through their first trimesters. It was a little bittersweet walking out of her office. She was an INCREDIBLE doctor, and I'm going to miss seeing her & her nurses regularly.

I am officially on week 13 of pregnancy, and so far it's much better! My due date is October 8th for now. I'm so excited to have this summer to work in the baby's room and get a lot done before school starts back in August. We have had time to actually let the shock set in, and we're beyond excited about this little baby! It has been great to share the great news with our closest friends and family, and we're so blessed with so many peop

le who love us and will love our baby. After our last appointment with Dr. P last Friday, I pulled out sonogram pictures from our very first appointment at 6 weeks, our second appointment at 9 weeks, and our last appointment at 12 weeks to compare them. It is absolutely incredible how fast this little bambino is growing!

We did get to hear the heartbeat for the first time during our second appointment at 9 weeks, and it was so cool! The heartbeat was nice & strong at a whopping 177 beats per minute. The last appointment we had, the heartbeat was at 173 beats per minute. According to the old wives' tale, if the heart rate is high (150+), it means it is a girl! We will see how true that is in a few weeks. Regardless of if it is a girl or boy, we will LOVE this baby like no other. We are just praying for a healthy baby! We do have our names picked out, but we're waiting until we found out what we're having before we leak them. My sister was able to go with me to my last appointment, and she captured this video of the sonogram with her phone. I'm SO glad that we were able to get this on video because it was so neat to watch the baby wiggling around like crazy! If you look at the end of the video, you can clearly see it's little butt & long skinny legs!

I will try to keep the blog updated from now on because I really do want to document everything that goes on! We're beyond excited to share this journey with you all.

Oh, baby!

We had our first appointment with our SUPER reproductive endocrinologist yesterday morning! I was so nervous walking into the building with Ben. I had NO clue what to expect. We got to our appointment around 10:15, and we were able to get back to do my vitals before my appointment time. After the best nurse ever took all of my vitals, she told us to go sit in the waiting room until Dr. P was ready for us. We sat in the waiting room by ourselves for almost an hour, and I thought that we would NEVER get to talk to Dr. P. Finally around 11:20, she opened the

door and invited us back. I knew from the instant she opened the door, she was definitely the right doctor for us! When we got back there, she introduced us to a medical student, Dr. W, who was working with her for awhile.

We walked from the hallway into her office, and we got started talking right away. She had our basic information from all of the paperwork that we had sent in, but she wanted to really get to know us. We talked for about 15 minutes just about us. She wanted to know ALL about us, which really impressed me. She didn't look at us as just another couple coming to see her, but she genuinely wanted to get to know us first. After that, we started talking about my medical history with PCOS, and she proceeded to tell me that she studied PCOS and did tons of research on it in the past. We went over all different types of medicines, treatments, tips, and information that she thought would be helpful to us. We all sat in her office probably over an hour just discussing our "game plan." Towards the end, she told us that she normally likes to do blood work, an exam and an ultrasound on new patients, so she can get a visual of what she is working with.

She took us down to a room that was pretty tiny! She asked if I cared if the medical student, Dr. W, could come and join us during the exam and ultrasound, and I told her that would be fine. I got changed into a "gorgeous" gown, and hopped up on the table anxiously awaiting to see my "crusty ovaries," as my sister has referred to them over the years. Dr. P and Dr. W came back into the room, and she completed the exam, and she was explaining everything she was going to be looking for on the ultrasound. She moved the little probe around for a good while just checking everything out. Of course, Ben and myself, had no idea what was on the screen. All of a sudden, she looks up and says, "Oh...Oh..." Deep down, I had NO clue what she was talking about. It almost scared me because I had no idea if it was a "good oh" or a "bad oh." She looked around a little more, and then stopped the probe on this one spot. There was a tiny oval on the screen, and I didn't think anything of it. She then proceeded to explain to us that when there is a sack like that, there is usually a baby inside. She then pointed out this tiny silver c

ircle on the screen. She asked if we could see it, and then told us that was OUR BABY!

I was in shock. Ben was in shock. We both sat there with our eyes glued on the screen. Neither one of us said anything, until I finally mustered up a voice to say, "You're kidding me, right?" Dr. P lo

oked at us, and told us that there was no way she would have said anything if she wasn't certain. Dr. W was in shock, too! His face was all smiles as he watched the screen with us. Of course, he had never seen anything like this! We all sat and looked at our TINY baby on the screen. She then started to take some measurements. Based on the measurements, she calculated that I am about 6 weeks along. I know that is not very far along, but we are still so excited. After that, she went on to show me my ovaries. Talk about a crazy sight... On my right side, the ovary was almost outlined in a thick black line of dots, and she explained to us that those were all the cysts that covered my ovary. She went over to the left side, this ovary was twice as big and had cysts on it, but not near as many. She told us that my left ovary is the one that ovulated. She went back so we could see ou

r baby again before we left, told us that everything looked great, and she printed out some fun pictures for us to have.

I sat up and all she could do was hug me! Her and Dr. W were so excited for us. In that moment, my heart felt like it could explode! I had no clue what to think! They left the room so we could have some time, and so I could get dressed. Once they left the room, Ben and I just looked at each other, and we were both speechless!

We opened the door, and all of the nurses were out in the hallway anxious to greet us with cheers and applause! That is such an irregular occurrence in their office. They were so excited to celebrate with us! We went on down the hall, so they could do some blood work to confirm everything. All of the blood work came back great, and it confirmed everything! We are pregnant--due October 8th for now! We'll go bac

k in 2 weeks from today to have another ultrasound, and to hopefully hear the heartbeat for the first time!

We wanted to tell our parents in a fun way, so we went to Target and bought them "grandparents" Valentine's day cards. We wrote out a brief message, and we stuck one of the sono

gram pictures in each card. It was SO much fun to watch them open their cards last night and freak out! :) I wish that we would have videoed my mom's reaction because she was hysterical! We are beyond blessed to have such WONDERFUL family and friends. I wish that I could thank each and every one of you personally for all the texts, calls, emails, Facebook comments, etc. We have been overwhelmed with love and support! We really appreciate each and every one of you. We will be keeping everyone updated on our jour

ney...we're so excited to share it with you all! :) Until the next post, check out the SWEETEST, CUTEST, MOST PRECIOUS picture I have EVER seen...

It started with a bang...

2011 has been quite a year already! The past few weeks have been pretty rough for my family. I'm not going into any detail because 1) it really isn't anyone's business (even though there have already been many people who have MADE it their business) 2) it's done and over with and we can't go back and "fix" it and 3) God's in control, and we KNOW that. I just ask for prayers for Ben's parents.

The first week of February has been an interesting one! Tuesday we woke up to a phone call from the school district telling me that school was CANCELLED!! Our weather has been so wishy-washy the past few months. It was SO nice last Friday..like in the high 60's. This week, the "hottest" temperature we have been is about 20 degrees! The wind chills have been ridiculously cold, like -15ish cold. It was nice to have a snow day and just relax! We have had delayed starts the past 2 days, which are great for kids, but not so much for teachers who have to be there on time! I have always loved winter, but I have found myself wishing it was spring already! I can't wait to plant some new geraniums!!

If you remember, I posted a few months ago about Orphan Sunday. You can scroll down to read it if you didn't get a chance. I mentioned that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and it might be harder for me to have kids. We definitely know that we want kids of our own, and we have always been passionate about adoption. If something were to happen, and we weren't able to have kids of our own, we will be turning to adoption. But, I have been referred to a reproductive endocrinologist in Lubbock, and we have our first appointment with her on Thursday of next week. We are hoping that we will get some answers about certain questions next week. I am having mixed emotions about it. I am so excited because I am ready to start this journey. At the same time, I am scared out of my mind! I have known since my junior year of high school that I have P.C.O.S., but now it is more of a "reality."

I never have been real public about my P.C.O.S., until the Orphan Sunday post. It has been interesting to see how many people have e-mailed, texted, or I've talked to in conversation who are in the same boat. It has been so nice to have those people who vent to because they all know EXACTLY how I am feeling. Infertility has become so common among women, and it has been so nice to have a support system.

Pray that we find some answers to our questions, and that we have the patience to deal with whatever is to come! :)

"but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31

Wedding Pictures

The new year is here, and it has been pretty good so far! School has gotten back into full swing, and I am so glad to be back in a routine. Our school district is in the process of issuing Macbook laptops to all teachers AND students. I have had mine for a few months now, and I am LOVING it. I have always been a "PC girl", but I am totally loving my Mac.

I created this video/slideshow at one of our Mac trainings the other day. I thought I would share it with you since I haven't posted ONE wedding picture! I hope that you all have had a great start to your new year!