A little over a year and a half ago Erik and I felt like we needed to grow our family. We were so thrilled and nervous at the thought of having a baby. We soon realized that it may not be so easy for us to conceive. This was hard and a lot of long days and negative tests. We started looking around for a specialist after almost a year and we feel so blessed to have been recommended to Reproductive Care Center. We made an appointment with Harry Hatasaka and that is the best decision we have made thus far. He was a little magician and so proactive about our family growing. We felt cared for and felt like we were always moving in a forward direction. Not making a negative test easy but making it one more thing that we could figure out and lead us closer to bringing a sweet spirit home one day. Our Plan was to start to look into adoption this Fall. We met with a close friend in July and started looking into it earlier. We were pretty saddened when LDS Services closed a portion of their adoption making it hard for us to show that we could pay for adoption. We continued on and adjusted medicine and checked out everything we could. It was hard to feel like I was the reason we could not bring children into this family and I so badly just wanted my body to work the way that it was supposed to. We took a much needed two and a half week break to California. It was so great to just get a way from everything and relax together.... And apparently thats just what we needed. When we got back up to Utah I tested:
July 24th:
Erik had left early to pick up his parents from the airport. We were staying at his house and I could not wait it was 6 am and I decided I would test. This may be way to much info for everyone but I have to write it somewhere. I learned with infertility to always pee in a cup incase you had a bad ovulation or pregnancy test. So I tested and sat the longest three minutes of my life just praying so hard. I had no symptoms at ALL so I was trying not to be to hopeful. I looked down and I could not tell if I saw a cross. Well I am way to impatient so I took my cup of urine and got in my car and drove to the nearest walmart where I purchased a digital test and a first response test. I then sat in my car testing and praying again. I couldn't wait the whole 3 minutes again so I peaked. The words Pregnant were showing on the digital test. I could not believe what I was seeing. I obviously started screaming, while parked at walmart, and called my mother (it was 5:30 am there) she was awake and said she couldn't sleep! I let her know the great news and we celebrated a little over the phone. I then hung up and got Erik a little gift. I went back to his house climbed into bed and waited for him to get home. When he came up I gave him his little gift and he was honestly SO confused at first and then was like "you tested, were going to be parents??" We were beyond thrilled and so grateful to our Heavenly Father for trusting us with this little spirit.
That day and every day since we have celebrated
Surprising Erik!
Red Robin Celebrating! Baby doesn't let me eat onion rings anymore so I am grateful I got those in!
I just kept taking pictures through the day because we couldn't stop smiling.
We went to Trafalga since thats where we met and fell in love three years ago!
I then decided we needed to get ready for a cool announcement! Luckily Utah has construction ALL the time so we asked Hannah to come snap a couple pictures of us next to this lovely construction sign!
These last two were us showing off our baby bumps and showing how thrilled we are!
I ended up posting one of those and just altering it to say Baby Bump Ahead, we got an outpouring of love and excitement when we announced. This sweet little one is so loved by so many.
This picture is from the day that we went up to Sandy (Reproductive Care Center) to get some blood work done to make sure numbers were rising as they should, We also stopped off at Nordstroms where I found a cute diaper bag for myself. Erik let me get it since we got the call while in their that confirmed I was definitely pregnant! It also helped that it was the anniversary sale and like half off!
We celebrated at a Real Soccer game
about a weekish later we had an appointment to see that a baby was inside me. We have felt so spoiled that we were able to see baby so much before I was even out of my first trimester. I guess thats an infertility perk. There is the little nugget at 5.5 weeks! Harry told us that it was a fetal pole at this stage, Erik and I decided to call the baby Tad after a tad pole. Everything looked great and we would come back to see a heart beat in a few weeks.
Hannah surprised me with flowers. We had told a lot of our family pretty early on!
This was such a special appointment. We invited my Grandma Edginton to come with us since she would be leaving for a mission in Hawaii. This appointment we got to see our baby's heartbeat. We have a cool video of the heartbeat but I am not to great with videos and blogs. Baby was just over 8 weeks old and everything in my body was looking awesome. My body may have been slow to work for conception, but it had made a beautiful home for sweet little one. We also started calling baby Bud then since it had little buds for arms and legs and they just looked so cute! This is our graduation bag since we now were pregnant and on our way to be being parents. I am so grateful for Dr Hatasaka and all he taught us and helped us through his staff is amazing and we feel so lucky to have worked with them.
I talked Erik into going to Build-A-Bear! We made a soft furry friend for little one.
Erik took care of making sure the bear was properly fluffed!
We decided a little Cinnabon would be a yummy end to the day!
by 10 weeks symptoms actually hit! I couldn't keep down any food besides
1. english muffins
2. green beans
3. potatoes in any form
4. Popcicles
Everything else comes back up even 17 weeks in. Which probably explains why I haven't gained more then 4-5 pounds and im almost halfway!
My entire family had decided it was a girl. On the way to California we listen to lots of music and Erik often tries to show me that Billy Joel is the best. A song came on that he didn't really know and I was like this one is awesome I love it. The chorus began and I think from all the Femara that was being pumped into my body I had some extra emotion because I started crying and realized that this would be our baby girls name. It goes:
There's nothing else I can do
Cause Im doing it all for Leyna
I don't want anyone new
Cause Im living it all for Leyna
There is nothing in it for you
Cause Im giving it all to Leyna
In my head I literally realized that at some point we would get pregnant and it would be a girl and she would be my Leyna. My one that I gave everything up for and did everything that I could for her. It was so cheesy and Erik admitted it was a cool song but wanted me to realize it wasn't about a baby girl. Anywhoo most of my family decided it was going to be Leyna. So they all called her Leyna which was one more reason that we kept up with our little names like Tad and Bud so we wouldn't be swayed. Aunt Hannah got this little outfit for baby at about 10 weeks. We also met with our new Dr at 10 weeks and saw baby moving a TON and waving its little hands and legs. We decided they looked more like little Finns now and we started calling baby Finn.
Megan Came up and we all showed off the babies we were wearing. This was I guess a 12 week bump picture. More like bloated and full of Waffle Love and Sodalicious.
Erik and I spent Week 12 shopping for a Baby Boy and Girl outfit. I was still kinda holding on hope for a boy. I needed my Leyna but I actually wanted 5 boys and 1 girls when we started on this trek.
This is my 14 week bump! basically non existent. but not completely flat!
We took baby to a concert and I could just tell that they loved it! Erik cant wait to start in with music.
When I was 16 weeks my bump was actually visible, and this was before I ate dinner! What we have decided is it pops out when it feels like it and definitely more at night.
I made this cute pregnancy t-shirt with my mother-in-law!
Hopefully I still fit into it at 40 weeks!
Gender day:
We invited Hannah and Max to come with us and find out the gender so that they could wrap the outfit for us! We were so excited and I listened to everyone and had juice and sugar and caffeine and let me tell you little babe decided she was going to have some fun with us. She wasn't even just crossing her legs she was bending her knees out and putting her feet in front while waving her hand at us. She is such a little Drama Queen already. I had to continue to roll around go to the bathroom jump around get stabbed for 30 minutes with the little wand that is not to comfortable. We finally ended up getting a good shot and me and Erik looked away while she showed Hannah and Max. We then went outside and waited for them to wrap it. Erik said he thought it was a girl I had not given hope on my boy but when we unwrapped the outfit I was not surprised. We knew little Leyna had decided to make her way into our hearts long ago and in just a few months our home!
Bump at 17 weeks
So glad I could share this with them, wish that Megan lived closer!
Me and Hannah left from the appointment and drove to San Diego for a girls weekend where we ate bomb food ( I actually don't eat to much but I did manage to eat strawberries and whip cream).
We jumped on our bed, swam, and just had the best time reconnecting and hanging out just girls no kids (besides Leyna of course).
We also went shopping. This was the first time in my life I literally didn't even look in my section I was so excited to buy stuff for baby girl that I just stocked her future closet and not mine! So fun shopping for a little one.
We cannot wait to meet her and already lover her so much.
xoxo
Em and Er
