Life is a Beautiful Ride

I am a little behind on posts.  I have tried to write this post for 3 days now.  I made some changes to it yesterday and it didn't save!  So here I am trying again!

Almost 4 months old!

April is a special month for us.  After 3 years of trying and 4 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, the 5th one finally worked.  I took this picture last Friday the 8th because that is the day we did the transfer last year.

April 24-30 is also Infertility Awareness Week.  Not a lot of people talk about infertility.  I know I didn't.  It's a hard process and it changes you.  I saw this quote the other day (not sure by who)

"Infertility damn near broke me, but it also brought me my greatest blessing in life: a little girl I would walk through fire for today."

So much truth in that statement.  For anyone that has struggled with infertility you know the feeling.  I am so thankful for all the encouragement I got, all the people that listened to me and all the prayers we got.

For those of you who are following along (not sure if anyone is)...I left off on the last post with us doing the retrieval. 

You go in for the retrieval and then have to wait 5 days before the transfer.  So last year on April 8th, we went in for a transfer.  As I mentioned in the last post, this was the best cycle we had.  When we arrived at the clinic we learned that we had 7 embryos that made it to day 5. That is the most we had ever had.  They chose the best 2 to transfer which means that we were able to freeze 5.  We had never had any to freeze.

The transfer process is very short and you are awake the whole time.  After the transfer we had to wait an hour before we could go home.  After my hour was up, we were free to go home.  I just had to take it easy for the rest of the day.  

Next comes the waiting game!  We didn't go back for blood work until April 17th. So I had 10 long days to wait!

My parents came to stay with me because Collin was going out of town and I was suppose to take it easy.   My parents brought these geraniums to us last April when they came.  I have a knack for killing every plant we buy.   Collin laughs every time I want to buy plants.  He says our house is where plants come to die.  We have managed to keep these alive for a year!  I see these 2 plants every time I drive up in the driveway and I am reminded of our sweet Ella. 

I am so glad that we never gave up.  I will never get tired of seeing that beautiful smile!  We are so lucky and I count my blessings everyday.

Yes, we are having our challenging moments getting her to SLEEP!  She doesn't like to go to sleep, but once she does she is down for 10+ hours!  Some nights it takes us 2+ hours to get her to sleep.  I am hoping that it is just a phase.  Doesn't she realize how precious sleep is??

We will survive.  I am trying to enjoy the extra snuggles and enjoy the extra rocking.  She is growing way too fast.  Time needs to slow down.

Life ain't always beautiful but it's a beautiful ride.  Our beautiful ride brought us this special little miracle baby!  

Feeling Sentimental

A couple posts back I touched on our IVF journey.  Well one year ago today,  we did our last egg retrieval. I have to admit I had no expectations.  This was our 5th retrieval.

Some of you might be familiar with the IVF process and some (like me when we started) have no clue.  It's a long and hard process.  After weeks of multiple daily shots, weekly and sometime bi-weekly blood draws and ultrasounds...you are ready for the egg retrieval process.  You never know what to expect.  With the other retrievals I had high hopes so this one I was trying to be neutral.  

The retrieval process is very time sensitive.  We had to be there at 6:45 am.  It's done under local anesthesia and takes maybe 30 mins.  We chose a wonderful Dr. who was so great and I can't imagine going on this journey with another one.  I would have to go back and look at how many they retrieved this time.  I do remember this was our best one yet.  After the retrieval there are still daily shots to take and it's a waiting game.  You have to make sure the eggs fertilize and then they grow to 5 days.  The transfer is done on the 5th day after the retrieval. 

I explain all this to say...one of those little eggies we retrieved gave us Ella!

So as I sit here writing this and watching the ACMs with "our greatest adventure" sound asleep in my arms,  I am feeling sentimental.  We have come such a long way in one year.  She was 15 weeks yesterday.

My many faces!

Time needs to slow down.   She's growing too fast.  I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy every second.  So if I blow up your newsfeed with A Daily Dose of Ella, it's only because we are so in ❤️ with her.  I honestly didn't know if I would ever know what it felt like to be a mom.  I will say it's the hardest job and the most rewarding job I have ever had.  I would not change the adventure that we went through for anything in the world.

April 24-30 is National Infertilty Awareness Week so in the next couple of weeks,  I will post more about our journey.  I recently read an article on Facebook about IVF and it explains the process so well.  If you are interested in reading here's the link to the article.  http://www.self.com/wellness/2016/03/11-things-you-should-know-before-considering-ivf/

So tonight I am going snuggle Ella a little longer and cherish this little blessing!

More to come!

Never Grow Up

3 Months @10:02 am

3 Months already???  Where has the time gone?
Yesterday morning I happened to snap a picture at exactly 10:02 am (the time she was born).  I love to watch her sleep!  I could just kiss those chubby cheeks all day long.  I don't know what I am going to do when I finally move her to her crib :(.

Pure Innocence

I have been trying to be good about snapping a picture of her at everyday. I know I know I am that mom, but she changes so quickly!

I was able to snap this picture 2 weekends ago.  I mean what did we do before camera phones to be able to capture such a sweet and innocent face?  Those eyelashes...she sure didn't get those from me!  Now the cheeks are mine!

Here's a collection of all her pictures from 9 weeks to 13 weeks!  I love seeing how she's changed.
https://flipagram.com/f/lymwCb29J7
I try to remember the milestones each month...it's hard because they start to run together!  Here's a few I can remember!

• size 2 diapers
• 3-6 month clothes
• sleeps 8-9 hours
• can almost rollover -the other night Collin and I were cheering her on-didn't work
• hates to nap
• loves a bath
• loves to talk/jabber
• loves to be held
• wakes up with the biggest smile

We went to see the Easter Bunny yesterday.  I was surprised at how well she did.  I am not so sure she will do that well next year or even this year with Santa!  I snapped this picture real quick before we left and am so upset-it turned out so cute but I had some dang filter on my phone.  Oh well...it's still cute!  Here's a couple from our Easter Bunny experience!  We don't get many family shots, so I am glad they captured this one.

I will say that this is the most rewarding job I have every had but it is also the hardest!  We are trying to enjoy every moment of her because it is going way too fast!   I am sure FB gets sick of the Daily Dose of Ella but living so far away from friends and family-this is the best way they can experience the joy that we do!!! 

Until next time....

3 Month 3-19-2016

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Welcome to The Daily Dose of Ella or what we like to say "Our Greatest Adventure."  I never thought I would be a blogger and who knows I might stink at it!  I am going to try though!  With family and friends near and far, I figured this would be a great place to keep in touch!  

I figured it was time to share our story and explain why we call Ella "Our Greatest Adventure."  Yes,  parenthood is adventure for everyone but our adventure started long before December 19, 2015. 

 I am starting with this post because I am feeling extremely LUCKY on this St. Paddy's Day.  

I say "what a difference a year makes" because this time a year ago, we had just done our 4th unsuccessful round of IVF.  And 1 year later we have Miss Ella!  After the 4th round, we had to decide to try again or give up.  I will say at this point I was ready to give up.  But we decided to try 1 more time in April.  So last St. Paddy's Day  we partied it up and had a blast bar hoping with all our friends.  It had been awhile since we had cut loose and had fun without the stress of IVF.  It was much needed break!  We just put it all behind us for the day and had a blast!  

I feel like I am leaving out major pieces but I will post more details on another post.  Today I am just cherishing how far we have come and how lucky we are.  After we decided that we were going to try again, we said we were going to stop trying to control it (or maybe I was going to stop-because Collin was the strong one through the process) and just continue to live our life.  So many times before we would say, "oh we can't do this because we might be pregnant."  No more of that.  So on that St. Paddy's Day last year we decide to plan a trip to Vegas with our friends in April.  Then we put a deposit on another dog- the one known as "Lucky Stache."

Lucky "Stache

We were just living our life.  Side note...Stache was born April 1st and we had our best egg retrieval on April 3rd, so we felt he was our lucky charm! That's where the Lucky came from, but we couldn't explain that because not many people knew our situation. 

So in April of last year we started our 5th round of IVF.  It's hard to tell people you are going through a round, because then they want to know the results.  And it's hard to have to tell them the news-it didn't work- as you are still processing it.  Many prayers were said for us and many fingers were crossed.  We did the transfer on April 8, 2015.  My parents came to stay with me because Collin had to go out of town for work and I was suppose to take it easy.  Let's say that week and a half was the hardest.  You try not to think about it and try not to get your hopes up.  This had failed 3 other times.

So on  April 16th, the night before my scheduled blood test, I took a home pregnancy test.  I wanted to be able to find out like everyone else.  I wanted the surprise of seeing the + on the test.  I took one early in the day and it came back negative.  I was heartbroken and defeated.  Note they advise you to NOT take a test before your scheduled blood work.  I NEVER listened.  This time I swore I wasn't, but I gave in.  When Collin got home, I decided to take another one.  (I had thrown the first one away by this point).  To my surprise a + came up right away.  It was very faint, but still there.  I was in shock!!!  I went and dug the first one out of the garbage and it was + too!  Collin was on the phone so I waited until he got off to show him.  I was still unsure-I didn't want to get my hopes up.  It was a cheap off brand test, so we get in the car and run to CVS for a digital one.  Sure enough it came back + (2-3 weeks)!  We were in disbelief!  I still didn't want to believe it before the blood work.

Collin was scheduled to go out of town the day of the blood work.  So we went to get the blood work done, had lunch and then I dropped him off at the airport  Now all I had to do was wait for the phone call!  LONGEST wait EVER!!  My nurse called me as I was waiting to go into acupuncture.  Here's how the call went:
Nurse:  Robyn, did you take a test last night?
Me:  Yes, I broke down and did
Nurse: and what did it say?
Me:  It came back +
Nurse:  It's right YOU ARE PREGNANT!!
I honestly never thought we would hear those words.  We had waited for 3 years to hear them.  She wanted me to come back on Monday just to make sure my levels were rising.  Again, I didn't want to get my hopes up, so we kept it to ourselves.  So I had 2 days of waiting for another blood work at home alone!!! Again...long wait.  I went back on Monday April, 20th for another blood test and sure enough We Were Pregnant!  Looks like Christmas was going to be at our house!!

Ella's original due date was Christmas Day 12-25-2015.  She was born almost 8 months to the day we found out we were pregnant!  Bet we couldn't do that twice!!

So as this St. Paddy's Day comes to a close...I look at Ella and realize how extremely LUCKY and blessed we are!  I hope she will always know how much she is loved and how many people prayed for her!

Here's a picture of our 2 Lucky Charms!

Ella & Stache 3-17-2016

Stay tuned for more on "Our Greatest Adventure"