Can I Get Your Attention, Please?

I know Romulo and I already announced our big news on Facebook but that doesn't really count! We know that on this blog we can go further into details! As many of you have heard, we are (finally) having a baby! And we couldn't be more happy and kind of shocked! Why shocked you might ask? Well, long story short (as of now) we were told that for us to have a baby "on our own", our chances would be less than 1%! If you didn't notice at the bottom of our blog we had a link to a private blog, Aguilar's Pursuit of Happiness. Well that blog was my lifesaving grace this past year. It has allowed me to vent without being too public about this little trial of ours! It allowed me to get it off my chest without feeling like I was hanging my dirty laundry out the window! I'm sorry to be so closed on this subject but if anyone has ever gone there Fertility Issues knows quite too well that it's sad, personal, rocky, and frankly a big fat can of worms!

(This is our story, our feelings, our experiences and hope that nobody is offended because we love you all and have been there and done there! Sometimes the best medicine is laughter! And there was a moment through this that I forgot that! So please remember to smile and laugh!)

Ever since we got married we knew we wanted to start a family but every time we discuss it it just wasn't the time. So when Romulo graduated BYU in April of '08 we were like "game on"! So that's what we did, we started trying! Well the months went bye, the year mark came and went and we were no where close to our goals! So finally after some stubbornness we went to the doctors after 1 year and 5 months of "trying". After discussing "family planning" with our doctor she gave us a list of tests (too many blood viles to remember) that we needed. Mine was mostly all blood work but Romulo had his own; sperm count! Oh, how I loved this process! Ha-Ha! After our run of tests came back, we were told (and who would ever have thought this) that we both had issues that was holding us back! Oh great! (If you must know or are curious or are going through fertility issues or have gone through fertility issues please ask if you want to know more. I can give you permission to our private blog and all I have to say is HAPPY READING! I posted a lot!)

After getting news like this it really does a number of to your mind. You start playing the "What If Game" and I just hate that game. It opens a can of worms that nobody should ever have to open. But through it all it made me stronger and made us as a couple tighter and stronger! After some discussion with our doctor and researching our insurance we found out that PWC's (the company Romulo works for) Fertility coverage was A-MAZING! Seriously, amazing! So we told our doctor and we quickly jumped into fertility treatments. We did multiple rounds of IUI (intro-uterine insemination) and all failed! After running more tests we basically were told that for us to get pregnant we needed to do IVF (in-vitro). Okay, well if they are telling us that together on our own we had less than 1% of getting pregnant and then with the IUI less than 5% we knew we needed to do something more. With IVF and with our situation they told us that our chances of having a baby was roughly 33%! Much higher and brighter than the other two! So in February/March we did it! We did IVF! Not getting into too much details, it failed! It failed! I mean who knew IVF WOULD FAIL US! Oh but it did! And its funny because while your going through this whole Fertility process you try to only focus on the POSITIVE statistics and ignore the negative ones. If I would have paid more attention I would have remembered that per the "average" (I hate that word by the way!) couple it takes 2.3 rounds of IVF to work or achieve a positive outcome! So what, they were telling us that we fell into that "average" category! Ha up to then we weren't "average" at all! :) Oh that makes me smile now!

The day we got the sad news we knew we needed to change things up for sanity sake! We rented an apartment in San Francisco (moved from East Bay to SF, bought a Mini-Cooper (perfect planning on our part, right), and even bought white Italian leather couches (another brilliant idea)). In the month of May we had 3 different set of visitors come and stay with us and in early June we went to Disneyland! And in June we knew we wanted to start the whole Fertility process over again! We had given ourselves a good month plus to recover and get our heads on straight! Well, that didn't need to be! After a week of waiting for my period, nothing! And Lord knows I'm never late! I didn't think much of it but knew I wanted to start the treatments up again so I got a pregnancy test! (Conceived in May with all those visitors, I don't know how that happened! Also, it was 23 months since we started trying.) And sure enough I was pregnant. But to confirm I went to my doctors and with blood work my HCG levels were high high! And at 6 weeks along I had an ultrasound and we were able to visible see a little heart beating and hear it! Then at 9 weeks I was released from the Reproductive Center to go to the OB/GYN! That visit we had another ultrasound done and its amazing how after 3 weeks it grew. They were able to see a little head, body, and a little arm bud growing! And now I'm 13 weeks and heading to the doctors on Friday the 13th for another check-up! How perfect to be 13 weeks on Friday the 13th, I'm not scared people!

So with that we are due February 16 2011 and am enjoying every moment of this ride! As of today I am 13 weeks along and doing great! I can't complain about anything except a little heartburn (thank you Tums) and/or tummy aches. I did have a case of a stomach virus a few weeks ago but besides that no hugging the toilet for me! I'm sorry for all you ladies out there that do experience this; its no fun!

Well enjoy these pictures. Here I am at 13 weeks!


Here is the 6 week ultrasound and 9th week!