WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Well, I went to the doctor on Tuesday, as planned. Everything was going really well until the ultrasound tech went to check the gender. She said that she was unsure, and called in a lady who had worked there for 17 years. She is known as "The Ultrasound Queen" and can tell any gender right away. She walked in and right away said "It's a girl!" I was totally shocked!! I really thought that they would still see boy parts! She continued to say "there are no boy parts, whatsoever. There are no testicles or anything...even if they weren't decended yet, we'd see something...there's nothing like that here!" The first ultrasound tech almost started to cry. She continuously apologized and said that this had never happened before. I was in absolute shock that I really didn't know what to say. Then, I started to wonder what I was going to tell Paul. He had been so excited that we were having a boy. Well, I had to go see my doctor next. My regular doctor, Dr. Baker, was sick, so I saw a midwife. As I was waiting to see her, I called Paul to tell him the news. He, too, didn't know what to say. I cried as I told him, as I was afraid of his reaction. He told me that he was thrilled either way, as long as the baby was happy.

Because we'd been given so much run around about the sex, I wanted a second opinion. I decided to call my sister. Because she is a doctor, she has many friends that have offered to help us out if we ever needed anything. She was great and called a doctor friend that worked at her hospital. He said that he would be happy to help us out. So, today we went to see him. He and his ultrasound tech, that had been reading ultrasounds for 26 years, said that we were undoubtably having a girl. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....we're having a GIRL!!! We haven't decided on a name yet. I have liked Sarah Grace, but when I mentioned that to Paul today, he wasn't so sure yet. Luckily, Paul painted the room khaki, which should still go fine with girl stuff. I'm going to have to go back to re-register for my stuff at Babies R Us. I don't think our little girl is going to want sports stuff!!! Anyways, I'm hoping many people haven't already bought little boy stuff!! It'll have to go back to the store! Either way, we are thrilled the baby is healthy. That's all that we can really ask for. Now we have a healthy girl!! :)

Registering

So...yesterday, my mom and sister met me to help me register at Babies 'R Us. I asked them to go, since I figured Paul would poop out in 15 minutes max. Well, we got there and were ready to get moving. I had written down friends' recommendations on a list to make sure I got those things. First to the bottles...There are so many different kinds of bottles!! I had one friend recommend Avent brand and another friend recommend Playtex. So, I registered for both! Then, we moved on to pacifiers, cups, bowls, bibs, etc. By this time, I was already exhausted and I hadn't even seen a fourth of the store!! I started to get really hot and was already ready to quit!! Nope...I was charging on. I was determined to get my registry done in one day. I was not going to come back and do this again!! Then, onto the baby monitors. Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to have a claustrophobia attack!! There were so many people with so many suggestions....Finally, I just picked one that I thought would be good...Then, onto diaper bags, strollers, car seats, high chairs, and tons of other things! This was ultimately exhausting!! After three hours, we were finished. My ankles and back were killing me!! I came home with every intention of taking a bath and getting a massage from the hubby. Well, that didn't happen, but he did make a nice steak dinner. After dinner, I fell asleep on the couch!! Too much excitement for the day! I just hope I registered for everything that I was supposed to! Luckily, I can add some stuff online if I need to.
I go back to the doctor on Tuesday. I'm hoping I no longer have placenta previa. But, if I do...I'll live with it. I'll be okay!! Also, we'll have to do another gender check. Last time I went in, Little Man kept hiding the goods!! The ultrasound tech was about 80-85% that he's a boy. So...guess we'll find out for sure on Tuesday. That is, if he isn't as shy this time!! I'm really hoping he's a boy at this point, since I just registerd for lots of blue boy things!! I'll post Ty's new pictures on Tuesday when I get home. Wish me luck!

23 1/2 weeks

Here are my latest pictures of me at 23 1/2 weeks! We're growing!! (You can tell this is Houston weather...one week I'm in short sleeves, the next week I'm in long sleeves!)

A couple of other things...

A couple of other things that I keep forgetting to mention that lots of people have been asking...
I am 23 weeks pregnant this week. I have been feeling great, with the exception of the stomach bug that Paul and I both have had for the past week.
Ty is still moving around, getting stronger everyday. I felt him move for the first time around 20 weeks. Paul and I went to the movies with Mom and Orbon. Just as the movie started, I felt a little fluttering!! I couldn't believe it--I felt him move!! I attribute it to the popcorn and Coke that I was drinking. I hadn't been drinking caffeine, so I'm sure this had something to do with it. Now, I feel him daily. Paul has been lucky enough to be able to feel him move in my belly on occasion. I poke at him some days, just so that I can remind myself how real this all is!!
I have an appointment next Tuesday, for my 24 week ultrasound. Hopefully, everything will be great!! I'm so excited!!!

Our fertility journey

This is a long blog, but many people are interested to know ALL of the details as to how we got to this point. WARNING: Some of this information is somewhat descriptive. If you don't want to read this blog, I totally understand. I am doing this to also help other people who are going through the fertility battle. I know how helpful it is to know that there is someone else who is going through the same issues that you are. Also, I am saving all of these entries for Ty to read one day. So, I figured I need to get this all out on paper.

This fertility journey has definitely been a long haul!! On Mother's day 2005, Paul told me that he was ready to have kids, so I got off of birth control. I did all of the things that women do, trying to have a baby...made sure to have the right timing, legs up like you're riding a bike (yes, I know, it's silly...), basal temperature charting, ovulation kits...you name it, we did it. Unfortunately, our attempts were just that...attempts. Each month, I cried as I got my period, sometimes asking God why he didn't want me to have a child. I also had many friends that were so easily getting pregnant. It was so hard to hear, yet I wanted to be happy for them too...It was very hard! They would talk about how long they had tried to have kids....it was only a couple of months. I sometimes was hurt to find that they actually thought that they had tried for a long time!! Had they met me and how long I'd been trying?!?!??! Finally, I went to an arthritis doctor, where he did lots of bloodwork. It ends up, I have an autoimmune deficiency, an anticardiolipin antibody, which triggered my arthritis. This doctor knew that I was trying to get pregnant and told me to get in touch with a fertility doctor, as I was going to have trouble getting pregnant. I wasn't really sure how to feel about this, but knew that I was going to be one step closer to becoming a mommy with a doctor's help.

So....we waited for awhile and my mom's doctor recommended Dr. Randall Dunn, in the medical center. We went to visit him, where he did lots of bloodwork and scheduled me for some tests. To make a very long story somewhat shorter, he found that I had endometriosis, along with polycystic ovaries. The following February, I had the endometriosis lasered out. This procedure was not as painful as most people tell you it is!! Of course, you have to do a lot of laying around to recover, but gimme a break!! Once this was all out of my system, I still was having trouble getting pregnant, so he put me on a pill to make sure that I was ovulating. (Normally it's Clomid for most women.) I can't remember the name of it, but it was actually a pill for women with breast cancer. It was found that it made them ovulate. This was great because my insurance covered this!! They didn't know it was for fertility treatments! I was on this pill for three months, with no success. Then, it was time to move to shots. I did two rounds of shots, producing lots of eggs!! Most women produce one egg each month and I was producing 30-40!! One month, the doctor's office called and said that if I were to get pregnant, it would be multiples and would need to do "selective reduction"....I went home and cried and cried about this...I could never abort a baby!! Luckily, the nurse called and said that this whole procedure was just too risky and that they were just going to call it off. Later on, I found out that this was called hyperstimulation. So, now we had two failed attempts at IUI (Intrauterine Insemination or Artificial Insemination). To make matters worse, I woke up with a horrible pain in my side and back. After going to the emergency room, my regular gyno, and the fertility clinic, we learned that I had an ovarian cyst rupture. It took about 12 hours to finally get out of my system with some pain medications!
So, after all of this, Paul and I decided to take about a year off of going to the fertility specialists and really try to focus on US. We still were very much in love, but this baby stuff was very stressful!! Finally, after much prayer, we made the decision to go back to the fertility doctor this past summer, knowing that the only option that we had left was In Vitro Fertilization. After much consideration, we decided to go for it, signing up for a program called ARC. This is a program that you buy that is basically a "buy one, get one free" round of in vitro. Basically, you go through the whole thing and if you don't get pregnant or end up with a "live birth", they will pay for you to have the invitro again, using any of the eggs that you froze from the first withdrawal. It's a little more expensive than paying for one round, but in my opinion, well worth it. Luckily, we haven't had to use this. Anyway, I started doing my shots in June and July, and was ready for the egg aspiration to take place in July. I even cut our yearly New Braunfels trip short because of all of this!! Well, again, I produced tons of eggs and the doctors thought it was too risky. They called off this whole procedure. I bawled!! We'd come so close to the final step and it was all taken away from us! Paul was ready to quit after all of this, but I knew God had a plan for us. I just knew this couldn't be the end for us.

I had to take a month break, and then started everything again!! Luckily, since I didn't get to the egg aspiration part of the procedure, it wasn't counted as a full round and as far as ARC was concerned, I hadn't done anything yet. So...we started again, with all of the shots. This time, we made it past the point we did last time. Paul had to give me nightly progesterone shots. Boy, was this a challenge!! Every night, I had to numb a buttcheck and have Paul stick me in the muscle with an inch and a half long, THICK needle. Finally, the day had come. Egg aspiration day!! Everything went really smoothly. I can't remember all of the details, but they took all of the eggs. This time, they slowed down the procedure to where I only produced 20-30 eggs. This is still a ton!! So...we waited for about a week to see how many had fertilized and were going to be acceptable to put back in me. During this time, HURRICANE IKE STRUCK!!! There was no power in our area of town or the medical center!! The hospital was running on generators! I even had to drive to Sugarland to do an ultrasound one day because they did have power.

This is when I started to feel bad! I ended up hyperstimulating and retained fluid. I was hurting SOOOO bad! On the day that I went back to put the eggs back in, I cried as I walked back in. I was ready to call off the whole procedure, as I knew putting any eggs back in would put me in even more pain, which I couldn't even begin to think about. We were told that if we put more than one egg back in and if they took, my pain would double or triple, which again, I couldn't fathom. Well, laying on the table, something came over me. It was a sudden calm, and I knew everything would be okay. We made the decision to only put one embryo back in and hoped for the best. Afterward, they withdrew my fluid. They got two 2-liter bottles and a coke-can sized container full of fluid. This relieved so much pain and pressure! They couldn't believe how much fluid I really had!!

So, I took the picture that they gave me of our little embryo and prayed harder than I had ever prayed. I told everyone that I was either going to frame the picture or burn it, depending on the results. They later called to tell me that they were able to freeze two other embryos for later use. Yes, after all of those eggs, only a total of three were good to use!! On October 8th, the nurse called at work with preliminary results. I WAS PREGNANT!! She told me they'd need to see me again in two days to make sure that this was not a false positive result. So, I called Paul at work, and we both were thrilled. We decided to wait until we had another positive result to tell anyone! Luckily, we got that positive reading.

I am including a picture of our little embryo, that we later have named Ty Patrick Salsgiver. We want to thank everyone for all of the continued prayers that we've had over the years. We are so thrilled that our prayers were finally answered. I continue to thank God for our little miracle. It truly is just that....a miracle.

The stomach bug??

So...the doctor's think I have a stomach bug. I'm not really too sure about this diagnosis, but we'll see...the only reason I'm buying into this is that Paul actually left work early yesterday saying that his stomach hurt. So, maybe we both have something, who knows? Either way, I left work early yesterday because the doctor told me to. I slept from 6:45pm to 5:45am when I got up for work. I went in to work, took our faculty picture, got ready to start the day when WHAM!, it hit me again. I told them to find me a sub, something was wrong, and that I was leaving. I came home and slept from about 9am-10:45. Hope that helps. I'm going downstairs to fix me some lunch and watch all of the shows I DVR'd last night. I'm really hoping to feel better soon!

That figures!!

Well, my arthritis doctor did draw blood yesterday and said that the blood results should be in today. I just called to get the results, as I'm still feeling really crappy. They have two offices, one in Tomball and one in Spring. Of course, I went to the one in Tomball yesterday and they are working in Spring today, so they won't have my results until tomorrow!! GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! I just wish I knew what this was! I was feeling better yesterday, but here at work, I'm yucky again. SOOOOOOOO...no results until tomorrow. I have a suspicion that it may be gestational diabetes, as my mom had that when she was pregnant. And, I have a suspicion it won't show up in the bloodwork because I had just eaten some cookies before the test!! I'll keep everyone updated when I know something...as of now, I'm planning to rest tonight! (I'm ready to leave work now, but I won't!)

How embarrassing!!

Well, yesterday morning, we woke up and went to Starbucks before church, like we usually do. At the beginning of church, we usually sing for about 10 minutes before the actual sermon starts. Sometimes, I have to sit down, as Little Man doesn't like me standing that long. Of course, that happened again, which was no big deal. When it was time for everyone to sit down, I told Paul that I wasn't feeling very good...kind of like I was going to faint. After a little bit, I left to go get some water and fresh air. Of course, we sit in the middle aisle in church, so everyone saw me get up and walk to the back. I came back after about 5 minutes, feeling better. When I sat back down, I started feeling yucky again! So, Paul asked if I wanted to leave...I didn't want to pull him away from church, but was really not feeling good!! So, again, we had to walk in front of everyone to leave church! How embarrassing!!
I laid on the couch for the rest of the day, feeling better, off and on.
This morning, I woke up, feeling better. I had a dentist appointment at 8:30 and an arthritis doctor appointment at 1:00, so I just took the day off to get some stuff done. I felt fine at the dentist office, though I had to ask the hygenist not to lean my chair back all of the way, so that I wouldn't lay flat. Then, in the middle of the cleaning, I had to ask her to stop, so that I could sit up. I was feeling faint again. I was getting very hot, so I asked her for some water, apologizing the whole time! She told me not to worry about it. She hurried to get me out of there, once I finally laid back so that she could finish my cleaning.
I called my doctor as I was leaving. Since I'm going to the arthritis doctor later on today, they said to tell him how I felt and that maybe he could draw some blood. Maybe my sugars or proteins are low...If he was concerned, he needs to call my obgyn and they'll fit me in. This kind of irritated me a little bit, but we'll see what he says. Hopefully it's not a big deal, though I would like to feel better!
Well, I'm starting to feel really hot again. Guess I should go find something to eat and then lay on the couch for about 45 minutes until it's time for my arthritis doctor appointment. Wish me luck!!

Callie Ann Salsgiver

I almost forgot to introduce our one and only "child" right now!! Her name is Callie Ann Salsgiver. She is 7 1/2 years old and our pride and joy. She, too, is starting to prepare for Mr. Ty to come around, as she follows me EVERYWHERE!! You can probably tell that she's even in a picture in the previous blog!!

Starting the nursery

Today Paul went to pick up the crib and mattress from Babies 'R Us. I think it's all starting to get so real!! We think we're going to repaint the blue and pink bedroom. Something simple, like a khaki color, that will go with everything. We picked up a few samples at Lowe's today. We also went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner...I think I definitely got my money's worth!! I think I went back to get more food at least four times!! Other than that, we're just hanging out, trying to enjoy this beautiful weather! Here are two new pics of me...I'm 22 weeks tomorrow!!

Getting this thing started...

Well, many people have asked me to start a blog and post pictures on it, concerning the baby. Sooo...here's my first try at it. I am 21 weeks along this week. Ty is due on June 14th. I can't wait! For those of you who don't know, Ty is an invitro baby. We tried for about 4 years, unsuccessfully to have a baby. Luckily, we got the opportunity to try invitro. It worked on the first try, after several complications! The doctor was able to only put one embryo back in, and by the grace of God, it took!! Our little Ty Patrick was a reality!

We surprised my family at my cousin, Travis', football game. I passed out cards saying "Happy Halloween", as it was the 2nd week in October, so they wouldn't get suspicious. Mom's card said "To the Luckiest Grandma", and pretty much everyone else's said "Just letting you know...we're expecting!" Everyone was shocked! Mom bawled, Kristen teared up, Aunt Donna screamed "We're having a baby!" to the entired stadium, and Mimi and Poppy were pretty speechless. The next day, we told Paul's parents and grandma. We went over their house, as they were having a garage sale. When we told them that we were pregnant, Paul's grandma, Nanny, was also speechless. She couldn't figure out how Paul could be pregnant, since he said "we're " pregnant! It was funny!! Dawna and Crissy and Nana were called next. Dawna screamed and cried on the phone, Crissy was thrilled for us, and Nana started to cry. We didn't tell my dad right away, as we were supposed to go to dinner that upcoming weekend and planned to tell him them. BUT...he called and asked when I was going to know if I was pregnant, so we went ahead and told him. He, too, was shocked and thrilled. Needless to say, this baby is going to be loved!

So far, pregnancy has been pretty easy. The first 12 weeks were not fun. I was exhausted the majority of the time and morning sickness hit at all times of the day, not just morning. Luckily, I only got really sick a handful of times. Once I hit that 12 week mark, I started to feel like a real person again!

Then, on December 30th, we found out that he was a boy. Paul grinned from ear to ear!! He was so excited. I was too, but he was just ecstatic! While we were still in the doctor's office, we called and texted as many people as we could! Right away, we knew that his name was going to be Ty, just not sure of a middle name. I was able to throw "Sarah Grace" out the window, as the ultrasound technician was pretty certain that he was a "loud and proud boy". My students were just as thrilled when I told them that it was a boy. Many of them shouted "YESSSSSSSSSSS!!" They ask about him almost every day, and want to see as many pictures as possible. They are truly amazed.

When I went back for my 20 week checkup last week, the doctor said everything looked pretty good. Ty is growing at the normal rate. This time though, he was a little more shy, and didn't want to prove to us that he was a boy. He kept turning the other direction or closing his legs!! The technician said she was about 85% sure he was a boy....Now we'll have to wait another 3 weeks until my 24 week appointment. The doctor said my placenta is a little low right now, but there's nothing to worry about. Hopefully, it will move back up soon.

This past weekend, we purchased his bedroom furniture at Babies 'R' Us. It should all be in by March. Some of it was on backorder, so that's what is going to take so long. We've decided to go with the "My Little MVP" sports theme. I'm really excited to start registering. It just seems like there are not enough hours in the day to get all of this done!

I'll try to keep this thing as updated as I can. Hope you enjoy!