Christmas 2009

This year we were really late getting our Christmas tree. Usually we go to a Christmas Tree farm and cut it down the day after Thanksgiving but this year we waited around till the last minute and bought it from a Christmas Tree lot. This was the first time in years that we bought one from the store and I couldn't believe that they spray painted the trees green!

We picked out a little one and it actually ended up being just the right size for us. Christmas Eve we spent over at my moms with family and had a very nice time. Christmas Day we spent at our house with my mom and Dick, along with Ryan and Melissa. It was such a nice holiday.

Nursery is Coming Along!

The nursery is really starting to come along! Pat put together all of the furniture and it looks great! We love going in the room now because it feels so warm and cozy. Im in love with her bedding and we have started to slowly decorate the walls.

Pink, Pink, & More Pink!

Yesterday Pat had the day off from work so we decided to go out and do our baby registry. Of course Pat got to use the scanner and we spent quite some time looking at all the baby things. What an industry! The advertisement for just about all of the items makes you feel like you just can't live without it but in reality it will probably sit in the corner and never be used. With that being said we were suckered in and have a ton of stuff on the registry!

I do have to say little girls are fun to shop for since there's so much to choose from. But boy oh boy it equals out to alot of pink! All in all we finished our registry's yesterday. We ended up registering at Babies R Us & Buy Buy Baby. Once we got home I ordered the bedding for the crib and window treatments. We fell in love with this set and I can't wait to see it all put together. Here's a sneak peak at what the bedding looks like.



Pat is almost done painting the nursery and then we can start putting away all the little goodies we have gotten. I love redecorating and getting ready for Grace. I do have to say there sure is alot of pink!

It's a Girl!!

Today was our 2 year wedding anniversary and we received the best gift today! We found out that we are going to have a little girl. We are going to name her Grace Ryan Clouse.

We were able to see her 10 fingers, 10 toes, little working organs, a cute button nose, arms and legs. It was amazing. She already has Pat wrapped around her little finger and he couldn't be happier. A little princess we can call our own.

We can't wait for May 5th, 2010 for her estimated arrival. Let the pigtails, ribbons, and tea parties begin.

Thanksgiving 2009

This year Pat and I celebrated Thanksgiving at our house. It was just the two of us and we had such a lazy, relaxing day. We soaked the turkey overnight in a brine and started cooking early. By 2 o'clock we were finished eating and both in a turkey coma...including the dogs. (We had to give them a special dinner too!)

We watched movies, football games, and looked through the ads for black Friday. Oh by the way we still have enough food to feed an army!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Turbo and her Snuggie

The other day I had to run down to CVS to pick up some laundry soap while I was there I walked past the aisle of "As Seen on TV" items and the Snuggie for Dogs caught my eye. No Way!! I had to get it for Turbo. I know it was probably my craziest purchase so far but I had to get it. The scary thing is...she LOVES it!!

We graduated!

It's official! We have graduated from the 1st trimester!! It actually went by quick (except for the days I wasn't feeling that great) but we did it. We are officially in our 2nd Trimester! Yipee!!

Zeus

Our new addition to the family from Aunt M to Baby Clouse.  Hopefully the next time I post a picture of Zeus our new little bundle of joy will be sitting in his lap!

To give you an idea of big Zeus is here he is with Emma & Turbo

We cant wait to add our new addition to the next picture :)

Mackinaw Island

Pat's Aunt Laura & Uncle Jeff surprised us with a weekend get-away to Mackinaw Island. With the hectic work schedules and finding a dog sitter Pat and I decided that instead of the two of us going I would invite my mom.

It was such a nice long weekend. The two of us had so much fun.  This was my first time to the Island and it was beautiful! All the leaves were at their peak for fall colors, and they had their fall decorations up along Main St.

We stayed at the Island House Hotel. It was beautiful! We had a beautiful view of the water right out front. 

We had lunch at the Grand Hotel. This weekend was the last weekend the Island was open for tourists and the stores were starting to pack up for the winter. We had a nice table overlooking the water and after we walked along the front porch. It was huge!!

Later in the day we went for a bike ride. The ride was so pretty right along the water all the way. I wouldn't mind having a house with a view like this one!!







We had such a wonderful relaxing weekend. Thank you again Aunt Laura & Uncle Jeff!!

Long time no post

So it's been a while since my last post. Both Pat and I have been feeling under the weather lately. Pat caught the flu last week and is just starting to feel better. Between taking care of Pat and having a low immune system due to the baby I caught the dreaded virus too. I highly suggest getting your flu shot because this is not fun at all!

I went to the doctors yesterday and since they have a protocol to follow when people are sick I was greeted with a mask and nurses in full head and hand coverage as well as blue paper gowns wrapped around them. They treated me as if I had the plague! How embarrassing, especially since this was my first visit to my new doctor's office. We went over a few things about the pregnancy and how I was feeling. They tested me for the H1N1 flu...not fun! They stick a long swab down your nose that feels like they are digging into your stomach! We then tried to listen for the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler monitor but we didn't have any luck so I got to have an ultrasound.

This one was so much better than the first. I could see the baby moving around, kicking its legs, moving its arms, its ears, its little nose and heart beating. It even looked like it waved to us :) Pretty amazing! 

We are going to have a baby!

Well after a little over 2 years, fertility meds, IVF, and lots of prayers we are pregnant! We are having 1 little bundle of joy expected to arrive May 5, 2010.

Happy Birthday Pat!

 

Happy 32nd Birthday Pat!

For Pat's birthday he spent the long Labor Day weekend up at the Leelanau State park camping. For his birthday I thought it would be appropriate to have a camping cake. Happy Birthday Pat!!!

Frozen peas for the new era

This has to be the best invention I have come across in a long time! They are cold therapy packs and they act just like a bag of frozen peas. I found them at CVS when I was waiting for a prescription to be filled. I picked up the little star fish :)

I use mine everyday after my shot and it stays cold for just the right amount of time, moves when you move and only cools a small area instead of a huge area like the original cold packs we grew up with.

CVS sells other shapes and sizes as well but I personally liked the starfish the best. They have them for your back, knees, wrists. Perfect to keep in the fridge or freezer and great if you have kids or have a sore joint. I highly recommend having one handy in the fridge. My little starfish has minimized bruising and pain for me! Plus it's much more fashionable than walking around with a bag of frozen peas taped to my body :)

Relaxing with my embryo's

Never in my life did I ever think we would be traveling down the road we have been going down for the past 2 years. I knew in my heart we would have a difficult time starting a family but IVF? Never!

Pat and I have grown stronger together as a couple in so many ways throughout this process. He has been so supportive and I can never thank him enough.

Friday we went in for our embyro transfer. There they are! How many people get to see their possible children at an embryo cell stage? Not many! We are praying these two little ones stick and find a happy home inside for the next 9 months. The ART lab decided on these 2 since they were 8 cells and graded A.

It was very exciting watching the whole process on an ultrasound machine. We were given a picture of the 2 embryo's and 2 ultrasound pictures of them inside my uterus after they were transferred. It was truly amazing. We pray that this works and we will have a good outcome from all of this. We would love to be able to have the two stick but we know our odds and chances. We are staying positive yet also guarded. The ART lab was going to freeze the other embryo's not used and I believe we have at least 9 they were going to be able to freeze.

Since the transfer I have been doing nothing! I lay in bed or lay on the couch. Thats about it! I went to acupuncture the day of the transfer and CVS the next day. Exciting!


Yesterday I received a package from Erin, Lindsey, & Alta. (and Rich too). It was filled with a ton of little goodies to help me relax. They wrote a beautiful card and gave me a zebra print snuggie, an eye mask, tiara, candle, relaxing bath salts, candy, and put a couple coloring books and crayons in there for Pat to practice his creativity on instead of drawing on me...long story! Let's just make this short and sweet...Im getting daily progesterone shots that have to go in the muscle, aka butt. I had Pat draw a circle on each cheek with a black sharpie and I ended up with a big happy face on my ass for the day of the retrieval.

Im off work until Tuesday and then we sit and wait. We will be able to take a blood pregnancy test in a little less than 2 weeks but we have decided to wait on sharing the results with family and friends until after we come back from vacation. We hope that you will all understand and grant us this one wish. We have been through so much already and if this doesnt work we will need time to adjust and accept the outcome together without a ton of people asking us if we are pregnant the day we receive the results. We will share the outcome after September 7th. Until then only sticky thoughts!

Octomom + 10 in a peatree dish

We just got our call from the lab! 18 out of the 25 eggs have fertilized normally! Hopefully all 18 will stay happy, healthy, warm & strong till Friday!

Eggs, Painter Suits, & Good Drugs

Yesterday Pat and I went in for our egg retrieval. When we got there they had us go in and change since the room we would be in was sterile. I had covers for my feet, a hair mask & gown. Pat looked like a painter in a white jump suit, mask, hair net and booties.

It took forever for them to get the IV in but once they did I told them to fill me up with the meds. We had 8 people in the room and each one had a job. I loved the nurse with the meds. She made the experience more enjoyable. We watched on an ultrasound machine each follicle being poked with a 16 in long needle connected to the ultasound probe, they would vanish instantly and the egg and fluid was transferred into a special test tube. When we got there the doctor told me he thought I would have 15 good eggs out of the procedure. They had about 18 test tubes and I heard them call for more. 30 test tubes were filled and the lab called in about 5 min after the procedure was over and told us all they found 25 mature eggs!! Everyone was so happy and excited. More than we all thought I would have.

In fact I was told I had the most eggs retrieved this month. Under the influence of meds I clearly stated to them that they needed to put a plaque on the wall and put my picture up on it and give me a discount for being the winner this month. They thought it was funny but I was pretty serious! They shared with me that the lady that had the same procedure the day before only had 7 eggs. I felt so sad for her and almost started crying. I thought of the whole process of meds and the torture your body goes through and then the devastation of only having 7. Pat as joke told me I should give her some of mine but I wasnt in the joking mood so the nurse gave me another squirt of meds very quickly to take me back to my wonderland.

Recovery was tough. My body shook uncontrobly and I could barely move. My mom told me she had the same thing after giving birth. Well I just gave birth to 25 eggs so I think my body had a right to do what ever it felt like doing to show me it wasnt happy!

While at home recovering the lab was hard at work making us our embryo's. We decided to do ICSI. (The picture above is an example of ICSI) They will manually insert a needle into 1 egg and insert 1 sperm to fertilize it. They are going to save a couple eggs to see if they fertilize on their own. If they dont...well then we know what has held us back from having a family these past 2 years.

I should get a call from the embryologist today with an update on how many eggs survived and how they are coming along. They will tell me what stage they are in. I guess they have a process of lettering them A,B,C, & D. We want A's!! Friday we will go back and will hopefully have Grade A embryo's. We signed a waiver to transfer 2 embryos and freeze any that are left for future children.

We are hoping the embryo's are happy and will stick. Who know's what our future holds but things happen for a reason. There were so many different signs and everything just seemed to fall into place for us throughout this whole process. The money, the med coverage, support from family and friends, the amount of eggs retrieved, acupuncture, even driving to the appointment yesterday we saw a truck with one of the names we decided on if it works. Little signs everywhere.

Pat and I are so excited to have such great results from this. We want to thank everyone for being there for us through this long and difficult road. I will update later once we have more info.

Got Eggs? I do!

So I thought I would update everyone on our status. This month we started our hormone treatment for the IVF. The hormones will help me produce mass amounts of eggs. The more the better and this will help our chances in a good embryo transfer.

Over the past week I had 3 blood draws to measure my estrogen level. Day 1 it was at 26, 5 days later it was 265, 2 days after that it was up to 615. I am woman hear me roar! I feel like a walking zombie that can throw up and cry one minute and bite the head off any living thing around me the next. Luckily Pat is a wonderful husband and has done everything he can to make me feel half way human.

Today I went in for my ultra sound to measure and count the follicles I have been growing. I had a feeling I had a lot growing since I am no longer able to button my pants and elastic or draw string pants have become better than sliced bread in my eyes.

I heard the doctor start to count, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22...thats when I started to feel a little dizzy. Over 20 follicles mature enough to retrieve for IVF! They told me they were going to recount them again and would be back. The doctor came back into the room, went over my pre-op work sheet and explained the risks of everything. I signed away still dizzy from the numbers. I asked him as I was walking out of the room...how many did I have again? All of them, he said. He told me he was going to recount all of them and call me this afternoon. They were impressed with the amount of follicles I produced. Lets just hope each follicle contains an egg!

Looks like Tuesday we will go in for the retrieval and then Friday they will do the embryo transfer.

Below is an example of an ultra sound taken of ONE ovary with multiple follicles. Yep I saw two ovaries today just like that one!

Sand Dunes

This past weekend I surprised Pat with an over night camping trip to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes near Traverse City, MI. We had perfect weather & came back so relaxed. It was a great time.

We saw a wild turkey that wanted to eat Turbo or was it the other way around? Emma was a bundle of nerves, out of her element but I think she had a good time. We walked around the camp ground with the dogs and they enjoyed all the new smells.

We enjoyed cooking hotdogs over the bonfire, Pat brought his solar panels so we could listen to music and have light once it got dark.

The pictures arent in order but hope you enjoy them!

I did it!

So I went for my first acupuncture appointment today! I just got home and actually feel relaxed. I think that 45min of laying in a chair listening to soft music might have something to do with it!

Before I left she put two seeds on each ear and taped them on. She told me that the one in my ear is stimulating the acupuncture points for the IVF/stress/wellbeing/etc. The second one outside of my ear is so I dont smoke. She said if I get the urge to just push on the seed. So far so good!