Wednesday, November 9, 2011

So the verdict is in!

We have had 2 appts in the past two weeks. Since there are twins the doc wanted us to go see a perinatologist to have a couple extra pairs of experienced eyes on the little growers to make sure that one doesnt get too competitive and steal the other ones growpower.

Nov 2nd we saw Dr. Kuhl who asked how we were doing, assured me that the contractions I had been feeling were both normal and nothing to worry about and listened to the heartbeats with the doppler. Frog was 148bpm and Turtle was 139bpm...

Nov 7th Jace and I went to see Dr. Aeyr at the specialists ready with dvd in hand to get our REAL verdict on what the genders were, keeping our fingers crossed that everyone cooperated. And cooperate they did! Frog weighed in at an estimated 10oz and 149bpm hr, playing a little hard to get when they tried to measure and visualize the heart for morphology.
Turtle weighed in at a perfect 10oz as well and continued the trend of slightly mellow compared to the sibling at 138bpm hr, but did perfectly with the heart echo. All 4 perfect chambers!
Frog, not to be outdone, did a pirouette and showed the doctor a perfect 4 chambered heart.
And both babies revealed in all their glory that they are indeed GIRLS.
Both are currently sitting on my pelvis with Turtle practicing her yoga/tai chi in a perfect lotus position and Frog stretching her frog-legs by standing and crouching as she felt like it.

We got lots of video but not a whole lot of good still shots, so we'll save those. We did get the following still shots courtesy of my sister (http://www.pagesturnedphotos.blogspot.com/) to help announce the great news.

Baby names are as follows:
First born will be: Jaedyn Kaylee Bridgeman
Younger will be: Evellyn Hazell Bridgeman
or just plain Jade and Eevie.
Can't wait to meet them!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Skipping the honeymoon

So its been 2 years almost to the week since we said our vows.
Our trip to Mexico was wonderful and exciting and though a Hurricane put a damper on our last couple days there, we did a great many things!

We decided, though Jase wanted to begin immediately, not to start planning our family when we returned because my sister was having a challenging pregnancy with my beautiful niece Aubrie! Obviously, all worked out well and Aubrie came into this world, happy healthy and ready to take it all on in January of '10.

As soon as it was "safe", Jay and I began "not, not trying" or letting nature take its course. We soon found this to be traumatic and frustrating as month after month we found that nothing happened. After a full year, we decided to go to the doctor for some help. In February, we were put under the guidance of a couple doctors skilled in the art of helping couples with barriers have babies. We tried to work up the right Karma for IUI to work, but no luck. In June we all decided that our only recourse for a "quicker" solution was IVF. And though my philosophies said that wasn't what i wanted, i was terribly tired of being sad every month with the disappointment of  having to start again. The constant cycle of  "two week wait" was very trying for my heart and our relationship. So we opted for the technology.

One cycle of IVF. We started the drugs at the end of June '11 and I gave myself shot after shot. 2-3 a day in preparation for the procedure we would undergo. Jason and I both underwent an "outpatient" procedure under general sedation on July 11th. They successfully removed 10 eggs and enough swimmies to give them all a try. On July 12th, they let us know that 9 had successfully fertilized but not to expect that many to prosper. Sure enough, our appointment set for July 14th, we returned to the doc to find that 5 had grown well enough to be candidates. 3 were perfect and 2 were B students. Because of my age and health, they only wanted to transfer 2 back inside. Each embryo had only a 60% chance to reach implantation and they wanted to give us as good a chance as possible for one baby. More, however, is not always better. So 2 was what we went with.

Embryo 1
Unfortunately, even though there are fantastic, amazing pictures of the embryos at 8 cells, there was no magic way to tell if they would implant! Or if even one would take hold and snuggle down. So the two week wait was twice as grueling. At first i had no doubt that anything they put back would take hold and grow. But as the days toiled on, I grew more nervous and more doubtful. My beta, or blood test to determine my hcg level, was not until July 28th. And they warned me that taking a home pregnancy test too early could lead to false positives and false negatives! Scary.

Embryo 2
I was a basket case, so my mom and sister had planned accordingly and whisked me and my niece and nephew and little sister off to Galveston for a  "girls' weekend" to try to keep my mind occupied. My body had other ideas. I was giving myself progesterone shots still and wearing estrogen patches to encourage my body to do what it would have done naturally had all been normal. I began experiencing horrible piercing pain on my left hip that would come and linger a few moments before disappearing. I was tired, scared, and felt exhausted more than normal. I was just positive everything had been for nought. That it had all failed and the beta would be negative.


I came home very scared and very sad even though we'd had a wonderful time. Monday morning I determined was late enough in the 2 wk wait to be through the false positives caused by the trigger shot. I had several at home tests left from my months of disappointment. They weren't in boxes anymore but they are all pretty much the same. I woke early Monday morning before work and thought "3 tests left. I can test today to make sure the trigger is gone. Test wed. And then test thurs before the beta, that way if its negative i will know before they have to call me at work to tell me the bad news." I was that sure it would be bad news. I took the test. Sure enough. 2 straight lines. Parallel.

I took this for the negative i thought it was going to be and was neither disappointed nor excited. I just was assured the trigger was gone, well, long gone by all calculations so i let my hopes drop just a little farther. I went to work and did work things. I went to the CVS cause i decided that i didn't want to use the last 2 digitals i had left as reading "not pregnant" is thoroughly depressing, much more so than just 2 straight lines. I sat and looked at all the tests in the booth and realized with a start that the lines i saw were parallel. Parallel lines on those tests were POSITIVE! My heart began to race! I rushed home, well as much rushing as a 50min highway trip would allow and pulled the test from the garbage. two parallel lines!!! I grabbed a digital and ran it right then and there, knowing that it was possible it would be negative since it was late afternoon. It read "PREGNANT"!!!! I bounced around the room, yelled, threw myself on the floor and kicked my feet so happy was I.

Pregnant indeed
We couldn't tell anyone until the day before the Beta. We went to our parents after the 3rd positive test and presented them with the presents. Tears everywhere.

Thursday morning we went in, and despite everything, i was sure they were going to tell me it was negative. Instead they called and said "I'm sure you know already, but its positive." Apparently, I am one of THOSE patients, lol. They made us wait till Aug 10th for our first confirmation ultrasound at 6wks. What did we see??? Two, two tiny little tadpoles had made their home there. The next 2 months we had ultrasounds almost every 2 wks like clockwork... which brings us to today.

We still, as of yet, do not know what they are boys or girls. The Ultrasonographer gave us her best guess about 10days ago, but told us not to get attached to names until the next appointment.She gave us a white envelope, with a sticky inside. Like this. The next post you get will be at the regular doc and then the one after that we will reveal genders and names! Expect big news the evening of Nov 8th!
 See below for a chronological picture book of the Bridgeman twins.... lol, oh horror.
Aug 10th:6 wks: just two dots and two heartbeats
Aug 23rd: 8wks: tadpoles: A baby is Turtle 16.4mm and hr 165bpm







    8wks side by side, B baby (left side) is Frog 17.4mm and hr 164bpm                                                   

Sept 1: 9.5wks side by side
Frog 27.3mm hr 165bpm
Turtle 25.3mm and hr 158bpm




Sept 15: 11.5wks, top of their heads
Sept 15: split view.


11.5wks Frog  50mm and 160bpm hr


11.5wks Turtle  49mm and hr 153bpm


Oct 3rd:14wks, Frog sitting on Turtle's head
Turtle at 14wks

Frog at 14wks
Oct 12th: 15.5wks Frog
15.5wks Turtle
Turtle from the front. See the face, belly hands and feet?

Lastly, a first "baby bump" pic. 4 months. The deliberation is: is this a big baby bump or a small one? I've had both stated! Some say it barely looks like I'm pregnant, like I had a good meal, or gained some weight. Some people want to know where the babies are cause i'm still "small" and yet others say it looks like a 5-6m pregnancy already... Since its my first- i have no clue. lol.



And the teaser....

Beneath these stickers lie the ultrasonographer's thoughts... to be continued...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The big day has come and gone!!!









Ok, so as you can probably tell, I am not nearly as good at this blogging thing as my sister is.


I blog a lot, but mostly on facebook. If you have facebook that is the best place to keep up to date with me... When I get as cute a munchkin as she has, I will certainly have a much better reason to blog. That's what all my friends with kids use their blog for! And you guys certainly aren't as interested in my furrbabies as in the homosapien variety. We'll wait a little before I have one of those to post.... For now, lets go back to the journey.






October 10th 2009 marks the origination of our married life:



My faith held out without doubt and the day bloomed brilliantly blue with a flawless sky. The air was crisp and chilled as the reception went on, but hey! That meant no misquitoes! I was calm as a cucumber up until two days before when everyone started asking me questions!!! Where does this go? What about this detail? Whose going to do this thing? When will this arrive? What about this? AHHH!!!!!! I about had a breakdown on the rehearsal night. Came down to me asking my mom if it would be ok if nobody else ever asked me another question.... She said she'd handle it.





LOL. She was just as riled as me inside but on the outside she was chill. The morning of came and we whisked off to breakfast at a waffle bar,


had a marvelous pedicure/manicure spa,

 got our hair done by the marvelous ms Rinfro (of Hairtech plus in Bulverde, she's worth the almost month long waiting list to get in to see her) Who plied me with almost a full bottle of redwine (yes I got tipsy on my wedding day...).... and then I was keen to continue. Despite the one minor flaw of the day that the groom's cake was iced-despite telling the company twice not to ice it.



I found out that my two best friends who I have each known from A&M undergrad have never been introduced before, gosh can we say "my bad!" and that they thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.




We decorated the carriage, got me into my dress and somehow into the carriage and then waited for the ceremony to begin..


The walkie talkie crackled to life... cue the carriage.... and the bagpipist started our walk up the long caliche driveway.
Yes.... the bagpipist....

Harrell Sutherland


Well, we almost started the walk. The stallion, Six, could not get the carriage out of the muddy pasture onto the driveway, though he tried valiantly. So the carriage driver, my friend Heidi, jumped out and led him up onto it. Then she jumped back in the carriage to my father's orders and off we went.






We made it up there in time and I was so enthralled with the sight of my new husband at the alter






that I failed to notice the lack of ringbearer..... until he wandered perfectly up the aisle after me.




Nature had called... and when you are potty training, you listen.... he took his job very very seriously and did the best anyone who is 2.5years old has ever done as a ringbearer. He actually had the rings too....





So the only hitch in the entire getty-up was God's decision that the vows I had prepared weeks in advance and had planned to study that day were left on my desktop computer at home, along with my vows to him that Jay and I were going to prey during the ceremony.... OOPS!!! So I spoke from the heart my vows to my husband, hard pressed to match the enchanting vows that he read to me, as we both preyed that God would be the heat and the glue that makes us one in our marriage and our life.



We lost one reading as one of our "readers" had family issues late in the game and could not come and I could not figure out who to replace her, but overall, it was perfect! Nobody noticed the perceived "issues", including me, and the evening was spent in splendid perfection..




Our first dance was "Far Away" by Nickelback and we danced a choreographed number that was more challenging than we anticipated on the outdoor carpet and in my giant dress, but everyone said it was wonderful.







The dinner was magnific, catered by Druther's cafe from San Antonio and was tasty as I remember....




We even had improptu fireworks set off by a random neighbor who saw a party and thought he'd help.





My father thanked everyone and their brother in a marvelous, if a bit long, speech and my brother loved, and trashed, us both in his best man monologue.










My sister, for her bit, said the guys had said enough and toasted us with a blessing. We got pics of everybody thanks to our wonderful award winning photographer, Chris Grazyiek.





Due to the cold, the party thinned early and the hard core of us, yes, bride and groom included, awaited the arrival of the '64 rolls royce to pick us up and take us to our first night of wedded bliss at the Serengeti Resort...


We presented each other with our first presents as a married couple to each other:

A cello for me...

A violin for him.... funny huh...? No we didn't coordinate it...

Oh, and I got him an x-box, rock band and dance dance revolution... cause I am a good wife...

roll the black scene...

-Sunday-

We dressed back up and in the rain that my mother had feared would fall the day before, my sister graciously took pictures of us and the white stallion AND all the pups who our roommate Chelsea brought over to my parents' house just for that reason (Thanks!!!) We didn't want to risk trashing the dress before the ceremony was over. Big paw prints!!





















Presents was fun and so lucrative... Thanks everyone. I promise I am getting to the thank you notes...

Back to serengeti and a tour in the rain... Dinner at the Dodging Duck in Boerne (great food), and then back to work for a couple days.






















Then Wednesday we hopped on a plane for Puerta Vallarta, and that will be the story for the next installment!


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