April 29, 2011- 20 weeks pregnant

Today marks my 20 weeks, my half way point. I just wanted to post a picture with my baby girl. Its funny cause we are having a girl, yet I am wearing blue and it looks good LOL! I can't wait until I start feeling her kicking and moving. It hasn't started yet... I asked couple of my friends when they started feeling their baby, and they said it usually starts around 24-25 weeks. I know it varies, other people experience it sooner, others later. She definitely a wiggly girl, so I won't be surprised if I start feeling her very soon. Can't wait... I will definitely post a blog when I start "feeling" her.

Are we going to find out the gender???

On Thursday, April 21, 2011 I had an appointment at the Jean McLaughlin Women's Center in Poway which is basically located at the Pomerado Hospital. I was very anxious that day since I knew that I might find out the gender of Baby Barnes. I really didn't care whether it was a boy or a girl, but since I did have two stepsons, it would be a nice change to have a little girl in the house. I thought, as long as we bring a healthy baby into this world, that is all that matters to us.

My appointment was at 4:00 so I was excited and anxious all day. After work, Josh picked me up and we went to our appointment. My younger stepson, Lachlan, wanted to go see the baby for the first time, so he came with us. He seemed very excited. We asked him and his big brother, Ian if they wanted a baby brother or a sister. They both said sister, LOL!

I had to go through the registration process and waited for a while at the waiting room. I was getting more anxious as time went by. Finally, they called my name and we went to the back of the sonogram room. I laid down and they put the sonogram on me...and there it was...our baby. The baby was so wiggly and squirmy. There were two nurse technicians who helped us out. It seemed like one was more experienced than the other. They started taking pictures of the baby. They said it was hard since it was moving around so much. They asked me if I had eaten some sugar before my appointment. I had mentioned that I had ate some jelly beans throughout the day, lol. Hey, what can you say, its Easter!

So after taking different angles of our baby, the more "experience" nurse took over. She started taking more pictures (by the way, they couldn't get all that they needed since it was so wiggly), she asked us, "Do you want to know the gender or is it a surprise?" We said, "No, we want to know definitely." We were getting so excited! The nurse says, "Well, here is the butt cheeks, the legs and here is her labia" Josh and I started laughing. She said, "Its a girl." My first words that came out of my mouth was, "OH MY GOD! YAY!" So, my predictions were wrong...I thought it was going to be a boy, Josh knew it was going to be a girl :) But, as I mentioned before...I didn't care if it was a boy or a girl. As long as if it has 10 fingers/10 toes.

Last note: Now, since it she was a little wiggle worm, they told us to make sure again in 3 weeks. We are going to the doctor's office to check again on May 9th. Stand by for confirmation!!!

Starting to show, slowly but surely...

I took some pictures of myself today since I noticed that I was starting to show. This was me 16 1/2 pregnant. Gender still unknown... still "wiggle worm" LMAO!!!

March 17, 2011: St. Patrick's Day ultrasound

Today was St. Patrick's Day and we had a blast in our class. My co-teacher and I messed up the room and put green food coloring into the toilet bowl to make the kids think that the leprechauns came to visit our classroom. It was a lot of fun!

After work, I went to my doctor's appointment. I invited my parents to go with me since Josh was on a business trip to Jacksonville. He was bummed out that he could not go, but I made sure to take pictures and send them to him.

At this point, I was at 14 weeks pregnant. My parents got to see the baby on the ultrasound. It was definitely showing off this time. He/she was very wiggly, stretching its legs and arms. It was the cutest thing ever! I started calling the baby "wiggle worm." Thought it would be a cute name until I find out the sex of the baby.

A first look at Baby Barnes

On February 3, 2011 Josh and I went to Pomerado Hospital to go to our ultrasound appointment. We got to see the baby and the heartbeat for the first time. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I could not believe that this day had finally come. At this point, I was about 7 1/2 weeks pregnant. The nurse said that the heartbeat was 163 bpm. What a strong heartbeat!

Although I was 7 1/2 weeks pregnant, Josh and I decided to wait until 12 weeks to share our wonderful news to our friends. We did tell our family members; we had told my parents 2 days later that we were pregnant. My parents were so happy, my mom could not stop crying. We also told Josh's parents and family and they were very excited for us.

One of the many pregnancy tests I took...

We started talking to Dr. Lasting, my OB/GYN about the process of intrauterine fertilization. I read about the procedure, but I got a better understanding after I spoke with him. It was less scary and more reassuring, since he let us know what the success rate were.

We started the procedure in December of 2010. We did the actual procedure on
December 22, 2010 to be exact. It was a very simple procedure and less invasive then the IVF procedure. I was nervous at first, but at the same time I was praying that this would work.

On January 7, 2011 I decided to take a pregnancy test. I was so nervous. All those feelings that I had faced all these years came back to me. After taking the test, I started to pray. As I opened my eyes, I saw my result...it was POSITIVE!!! I was so happy, but then at the same time, I was thinking to myself, "What if this is one of those false positive results again?" I was feeling so happy, but felt like I needed some reassuring.

The next day I went to CVS and bought myself a 2 pack pregnancy test (different from before). I took those tests, it was positive again. Then I started buying more pregnancy tests, the ones with the double pink lines, digital and the ones that said yes or no. I felt like I was reliving the movie "Knocked up" where she grabs all the pregnancy test at the drug store and starts taking them. It was so funny. Josh was asking me how many pregnancy tests do I need to take? I told him until I get a blood test at the doctors. We had a good laugh.

I decided to go to Pomerado Hospital to take a blood test and the pregnancy test results came back positive. I was officially PREGNANT!!!

How it all started...

Josh and I got married on June 16, 2007. We didn't want children right away, so we decided to wait for a while. Starting beginning of January of 2008, we started considering having a baby. My first thought was, "Oh, how hard can it be to conceive? All my friends are having babies left and right." What a big mistake...

For three years we went through many fertility treatments, blood work
and on top of that, I had surgery which was one of the scariest things I had to do in my life. Our doctor, Dr. Lasting is one of the best OB/GYN in Poway. He is the most patient, determined, loving doctor I have ever met.

Then after a while, we stopped trying. There were just too many times where we thought we were pregnant (getting a false positive) but ended up not being pregnant. We faced too many disappointments and we were getting emotionally exhausted.

Then, Josh and I started talking about our options. We talked about adoption, invitro-fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI). We had never heard of the IUI procedure, so we decided to ask Dr. Lasting about it. It was a less expensive, less invasive way to try and get pregnant. To find out more about IUI process go to www.sdfertility.com/iui.htm

This is where it all started...