09.03.12

Howdy! So it begins...

Ya know, if you had told me a year ago that I'd be married and on my way to being a mama again, I'd have told you that you were crazy! Certifiably, in fact. None the less, here I am - a married woman, on my way to being a mom again! :)

Where to begin..

I think it all started back on Labor Day, September 5th, 2011. I got an email from some guy who was randomly wanting to say hello. I responded.. a day later, he responded to my response. And then I responded.. We met for the first time on Friday, September 9th and the rest is history. We knew there was something there as we started talking about the rest of our lives together within 2 weeks.

On December 19th, 2011 we took the plunge and bought the engagement ring he had picked out a month earlier. As it was custom made, it didn't come in until Friday, January 6th, 2012. We went to dinner with my daughter and mom to celebrate and afterwards when we got back home, he asked my mom for her permission to marry me. She approved and he proposed. :)

The engaged couple..

The next couple of months are a blur as we prepared for a June 22nd wedding. And that's exactly what we had; a beautiful, summer wedding that could not have been more perfect! Everyone we loved and cared about was there to share our day with us.. we honestly could not have asked for anything more!

A few snapshots of our stunning wedding day..

Also in the chaos of planning a stellar summer wedding, we got wild hairs starting mid-February with a house hunt and decided we were going to not only buy a house but build one. WTH we were thinking, I don't know but once we started in on that little adventure, there was no going back. We looked for a number of weeks and actually toured a number of homes that peaked our interest but none were 100% of what we craved for our new lives. Come Sunday, March 11th, everything fell into place and an, unknown to us, under construction home we saw on the internet had us up and running to go see it at 9am on a Sunday morning. Timing as we knew it was perfect as the moment we cupped our hands to peer into the wood framed windows, the Realtor happened to be driving by and asked us if we would like to go inside. 

We. Fell. In. Love. It was so much of what we wanted! Ironically enough, the builder, Realtor and our Realtor were all able to meet that evening to discuss modifying the floor plans to make a house like what we saw into a home of our own. What we found out was there there was only one plot left in the subdivision that was big enough to build the home we were dreaming of and it was not spoken for yet. If this wasn't a sign that it was meant for us, I don't know what was. :)  The next week we signed and processed pre-purchase paperwork and checked for groundbreaking every day until we started seeing the land move. Friday, March 23rd started a whole new chapter for us.

Our home building pictures can be found here.. but here's the "finished" outside -

We ended up closing on our home the DAY before our wedding. Stress? What stress? I was building and buying a home and getting married.. what stress? hehe..

As Christians, my husband and I decided (more him than me, dag nab it!) we were going to wait until we were married to have sex. Hardest. Thing. EVER! But we did it.. We spent the first month having fun as newly weds and decided it was time to get to business. Little did I know there is such an exact science to having a baby! So many variables and factors have to be lined up and God has to have his hand in it, as well.

I was blessed with the knowledge I found on the internet to learn so much about charting, OPKs and timing that on the first month of trying, we succeeded!!

Here are some pics of our OPKs and BFP chart from TTC #1!
CD 11 and 12 have an AM and a PM tinkle stick. The black dots correspond to having DTD those days.

 

As annoying as taking my temperature every morning was, I did it knowing it would pay off in the end. And it did. :)

We got out first BFP on 8/19/12 which was at 9DPO at 7pm.

I tested again with FMU on 8/20/12 around 4:30 am.. as if YOU would be able to sleep, either. lol.. Now at 4:30 in the morning, when you see this and stare at it for at LEAST 30 minutes in disbelief, what would you do?

You buy a FRER test, duh! LOL!!  This was that FRER taken at 7:22am.

And just when you think it's too good to be true, you take a digital test at 14 DPO so there's NO mistaking what you're seeing. lol.. And there wasn't. :)

So, here it is.. Labor Day, 2012.. one year (though not to the day) that I met my husband and we're 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant. My gut tells me it's a little man in there but I guess we'll find out soon enough! It's that time, though.. start taking the weekly pics so I can reminisce about how "flat" my tummy used to be. lol.. 

Week 5 - taken 08.31.12

This is what happened just a few days later, though.. YIKES!!!

Today has been one of the first where I can't hold my head up to save my life! I fell asleep on Saturday night at 8:30pm because I guess it was just that kind of day but woke up at 5:30am Sunday morning. So, not a ton of sleep but I guess what I needed. Today I'm glad I had off work. Work up technically at 8:00am but went back to sleep on and off until I finally woke up for the day at 2:45pm. I feel sorry for DD because I haven't been awake to do much with her. But I explained why I'm so sleepy and that it's for the good of her little brother or sister. She rubbed my tummy - too cute!  We're chillin in bed watching Jurassic Park right now.. I think I'm going to grab a bite to eat and cuddle with her for the rest of the evening. 

Till next time! :)