Week 12 Appointment

So I was going to combine my 8 week and 12 week appointment posts, but I have so much to say about my week 12 appointment.

**Before I continue with this post, I wanted to put it out there that I am not an expert nor am I a doctor. I am merely posting my experiences and advice as a second time mom, any opinions on my blog are my own. I have not been paid or reimbursed to post opinions on any products or services.**

12 week appointment: This visit was a little odd, the nurse checked my weight and blood pressure and was very friendly but wouldn't directly look at me. I saw when I stepped on the scale that I had lost 11 pounds, but I guess that's normal. I had a different midwife than last visit, but I expected that. This midwife spoke quietly and I missed her name too, she also never made eye contact. She asked me to lay down and said she was going to check the baby's heart rate, squeezed on the gel and moved the doppler around. While doing this she got the gel all over my pants, she told us the heart rate and let us listen for about 30 seconds. She tossed tissues onto my belly for me to clean the gel off and asked if we wanted to get genetic testing done. I asked if it was covered by my insurance and she told me to ask the people at the front desk. We were sent to their lab across the hall to ask them if the genetic testing was covered under my insurance. The ladies told us they wouldn't know until they billed our insurance. The woman who drew my blood was the same one from my last appointment, she is soft speaking and an absolute sweetheart.

To be completely honest about my experience at this office, I will be switching doctors offices because of the poor quality of this visit. I didn't wait long for the midwife to come into the room, but the experience was very impersonal. The encounter with the midwife I wrote about above, all happened within about 3 minutes. I say that with no exaggeration, it was actually that short of an appointment and she didn't make eye contact at all. I felt like a number and not a patient, not what I expected from a midwife's office. I wanted a midwife because I've read a few bloggers posts talking about how warm, welcoming and supportive midwives are compared to a regular Gynecologist's office. We also want to try to have as natural a birth as we can (I'll talk more about this in my birth plan post).
A good friend of ours (we call her Mama), has suggested seeing if the midwife she goes to takes our insurance. I'll be learning some more awesome stuff from her on Monday so stay tuned next week for some posts about making cloth diapers, birth plans, and more!


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8 Week Appointment

Well hello there readers! I know I haven't posted an update in almost 6 weeks, my house has been quite crazy. I started taking college courses and haven't had much time or energy to create new posts, but no worries I'm starting to get the hang of it. For today's posts I'm going to catch you guys up on everything.

So to start off, I am now 12 weeks pregnant and have had two prenatal appointments so far. My wife and I have started discussing what we want included in our birth plan. Also, today I'm going to share with you my experience at my 8 week appointment. 

8 week appointment: This was the first time I had gone to this new Ob/Gyn/Midwife office, it was also the first 8 week appointment I've ever gone to. The office consists of nurses, receptionists, and midwives. There are about 9 nurses and midwives in total (both combined), you never know who you're going to get until the nurse tells you. The midwife I saw at this visit was polite, but she spoke so fast I didn't catch her name. She had a student in her last weeks of training to be a Gynecologist that my midwife asked if she could join us. The midwife didn't ask much and also told me they don't do first trimester ultrasounds, which I thought was quite odd. She did a pap smear and a pelvic exam but was very rough, which I expected since most female doctors in this practice are. The office never told me the results of my tests, which I've never had happen with any doctor. 

Overall, my appointment was 45 minutes long but felt very rushed.

If you liked this post make sure to check for more posts! If you have any questions, want to leave a request, or just want to say hey please Email me or leave a Comment!

Our Journey: The TTC Journey

Our TTC Journey

Since I didn't really make an interesting post last week, I figured I might make up for it with two new posts this week!

 So today I thought I'd talk about our emotional and faith testing journey to conceive baby #2, from the very first try up until now.

Wifey and I were talking about trying for another baby for about three months before we actively started trying. In total it took us only three inseminations to get pregnant, which in truth isn't as long as most.

Before I continue with this post, I wanted to put it out there that I am not an expert nor am I a doctor. I am merely posting my experience and advice as a second time mom, any opinions on my blog are my own. I have not been paid or reimbursed to post opinions on any products or services.

I also wanted to let my readers know I do not have any fertility issues, but since I am married to a woman it is a little harder to get pregnant. It was difficult for us schedule wise, and even more so when our first donor had to back out due to his own personal relationship.

We can't really inseminate more than once in a cycle due to the distance from our first donor's residence to ours (3 hour drive). We have had three donors in total through our journey, two were donors from a private sperm donation group.

In October 2015, we inseminated using sperm from a good friend. The two week wait was dreadful, I tortured myself with imaginary pregnancy symptoms. Every twinge, every bathroom trip, every muscle spasm was a "sign" that I thought meant I was pregnant.

I can assure you, that I was definitely not pregnant and I was getting my hopes up. My period was out of whack after our first insemination, I only spotted for about forty-eight hours. I went to the doctor for a blood test and it was negative.

We had so much going on for the following months that we didn't exactly have time to try again. Once everything settled down an finally found a new donor, we planned to start actively trying again. 

In February 2016, we inseminated and got our hopes up too high and we were let down again.

Our donor was graciously helping another couple out when we were going to try for the third time. 

So, in late April 2016 we contacted another donor from the private donation group and inseminated again. This third try, I felt I needed a different approach to handling my two week wait.

 I prayed and I told God I would trust his decisions and I put my faith in him to choose the outcome. I stopped trying to control the situation, I didn't pay attention to my "symptoms", and I fully trusted in my faith.

Twelve days past ovulation, as suggested by Ovia, I took a digital and a dollar store test but both were negative. I personally thought it was still too early, my period wasn't due for another five days. That being said I was not discouraged, I waited until the day before my period was due to re-test with another dollar store test.

Sure enough I got a faint positive, I was completely shocked and needed to be certain that I wasn't seeing things. I yelled downstairs for my wife and she examined the test and reassured me that it was indeed a positive. We threw our arms around each other and I wept tears of pure joy.

I was in denial and had Wifey take me to the store to get a pack of First Response tests. I was most definitely preggo, there was no mistaking those clear double pink lines. I called the OB/GYN and scheduled my eight week prenatal appointment with excitement.

I have not yet had my appointment because I am only six weeks pregnant. I didn't have my insurance figured out until about week fifteen with Mr. Z, so I never had an eight week appointment. I am anxious and excited to see what is going to take place at the first doctors visit.

Well, that's all for this post tune in tomorrow for another insider look at our Journey to TTC and Cloth Diapering..

If you liked this post, have a question or suggestion for what you'd like to see on my blog, or simply want to say Hi, feel free to Leave a comment or Email Me!

Thanks for reading and I hope to see ya next time!!!

Update: 6 Weeks

Hey, sorry I'm late posting, it's been a hectic week in our house! So last week I revealed that I am pregnant, and since then bean (baby's nickname) has made some changes to mommy. I've been running to the bathroom every 20 minutes, and not just to pee. Nausea has been horrible, I never had morning sickness with Mr. Z so this is all a new experience for me. We're already really anxious to find out the baby's gender so we can buy some non-gender neutral clothes and decor. We have no preference, just a happy healthy baby. I have my first prenatal appointment in June, with Mr. Z I didn't go to an 8 week appointment. Long story short, I didn't have insurance until I was about 16 weeks. I have NO idea what an 8 week appointment is like, so I'm kinda nervous. We have all of our cloth diapers ready, I can't wait to actually use them. Truth is, I don't really have the attention span to blog today. I'm a little bit too nauseated and exhausted, I'm having a hard time with all that today. Stay tuned next week, I'm going to try harder to get a post or two in by then at least.

What was your 8 week appointment like? Leave a Comment or Email me!

Our Journey: Updates for May!

A lot has happened this month for my family, and I'd like to update you guys! As I  revealed in my very first post, my wife and I have been trying to conceive baby #2. We've inseminated three times in our journey, and spread the insemination's out from October to April. After the third insemination, during the dreaded "two-week-wait", I tried my very best to avoid looking for the little twinges and signs. I also avoided taking pregnancy tests before 10dpo (days post ovulation), which was nerve racking. I told God it was in his hands and I trusted him, I let go of controlling the situation and actually blindly trusted Him. Ladies and Gents, I tested on 12dpo, I got a negative. I thought it was too soon to test, with my first child it took until missing my period to get a positive test (even with the early detection tests). So I waited until the day before my missed period to test again, I got my first positive! It was a Dollar Tree test and it was a faint positive 

so Wifey and I went to the store to get some First Response tests to confirm. 

Sure enough, we got another positive! To be extra sure I took another test with first morning urine the next day and got another positive. Now, I am still quite young (22), I do not have any fertility issues but, it's a little harder for us to conceive. I say it's harder considering we have to buy sperm (which we do through a private group,not a bank), and only get one sample. It's basically a hit and miss kind of process for us, but the third time was a charm! I am currently 4 weeks and 4 days into this pregnancy and I have shared the news with our family and VERY close friends only. Since you guys don't personally know me outside of my blog, I thought it would be awesome to tell you. Stay tuned for more posts, now every Thursday or Friday!

If you have ANY questions, feel free to Email me or Comment below. Thanks for reading!!

Intro

              As my very first blog post I would like to introduce myself, and basically describe what my 

blog is about. I am a DIY kinda gal, you'll find me in the kitchen creating a new recipe or in front of 

my sewing machine. I enjoy spending my (non-working time) with my almost 3 year old son Mr.Z and my wonderful wife . We are currently on the TTC Journey, and are planning to cloth diaper our second child. In my blog you will find loads of links to my favorite recipes, DIY projects and cloth diapering stuff. Thanks for reading, and if you have any suggestions to what you'd like to see leave me a comment or contact me through Email!