The BIG Announcement! :)

Justin and I feel so blessed to announce that our family will be growing by one in October!!! Yep, we have a baby on the way or as our announcement card said a "BUN in the OVEN!"

This is a scanned copy of the card we sent out to our close friends and family! :)

                 Justin and I knew we wanted to start a family and began praying for God's will in the Spring of 2012. I went and had blood work done to make sure everything was checked out okay before we really moved forward with the baby process. The initial blood work looked fine, but after some convincing from my Aunt Tish and Meme Greta, I had additional blood work completed. I am so thankful for their pushing me to get additional tests ran because I discovered I have a blood clotting disorder called Lupus Anticoagulant. It sounded pretty scary when the doctor called me to confirm this diagnosis,  but luckily it is treatable with baby aspirin and daily injections when pregnant. Lupus Anticoagulant does not mean I have Lupus or will ever get it. It just means my blood clots too much. This can lead to problems such as pulmonary embolism and other clotting issues, but the biggest or most common problem with this disorder is recurrent miscarriages in pregnancy. Most women do not know they have this disorder until they have miscarried several times. I feel so fortunate to know about this disorder before ever conceiving .  I see a Perinatal Specialist as well as my regular OBGYN to monitor my doses of Lovenox and eventual Heparin shots. 

             Getting pregnant took Justin and I much longer than we anticipated, but now looking back we know God's timing was perfect. We moved in our new house in December and conceived in January. Even though at the time we tried to convince ourselves that building a house wasn't stressful, we know it truly was chaotic and stressful to our bodies. Once we settled in and relaxed, God took control. I got my first Big Fat Positive  on February 11 and we shared the news with only our parents on February 17 at our House Warming Party. We kept it a secret from most other family and friends until  now because I had a large cyst on my ovary (the size of a softball) that caused complications. With a cyst that large, if it ruptured I may loose the baby. With the chance of a large cyst rupturing, getting on Lovenox shots to thin by blood didn't seem smart because if it did rupture I could bleed internally. Yes, pretty scary! My OBGYN instructed me to just take it easy and rest hoping that the cyst would not rupture. The waiting was such torture! We were scared to get excited because we just did not know how it would turn out. My specialist eventually instructed me to take only one shot of Lovenox a day, which was both good and bad. I was glad to take the shot to treat my blood clotting, but also scared of what the blood thinning medicine would do to the cyst. Luckily, the cyst did not rupture (at least not yet!) When we went back to the doc for our 10 week appointment, the cyst had shrunk from 7.3 cm to 3 cm! Praise the Lord! We got great pictures of Baby O and heard a strong heartbeat of 185 bpm! This was my third ultrasound since being pregnant and was by the far the best, we got to see so much! The doc even commented how unusually good the images were for so early on because the placenta moved out of the way allowing for perfect views our our little one! :)

This is my favorite! Of course the 4D helps, but I just love how he/she is rubbing his eyes! It makes it so real! :)

I am now taking two shots of Lovenox a day, which initially sucked but it is getting easier. Now, I can give them to myself which helps ease the burning sensation and cuts down on the bruising. We still have a long journey to get this baby here safely in October, so please keep us in your prayers! Overall, we are SO EXCITED and feel SO BLESSED!!! :)