My Pregnancy with Sara: The whole 9 months

February 2017: 12 week scan 

When I went in for this scan, the student Dr. told me that her heart rate was completely normal at like 112? or something really slow? My regular Dr came in and knew that I didn't buy that load of bologna, and took me in for an ultrasound, and I was able to see little Sara. . (of course I didn't know it then) And it was a normal heart rate at 155 bpm. 

March 2017:
March was the month for growth in my belly. I got bigger quicker with her.

April 2017- Finding out it was a girl! 

We had our 20 week scan in the month of April. All looked healthy and awesome for Sara, and we had the tech put the gender in an envelope and we found out later that night on the couch as family what the rest of our lives would look like. Would it be a boy? or a girl? We were so thrilled it was a girl. Daniel? not so much, but he has warmed up to that fact by now. :) 

I bought this little outfit for her before I knew I was buying for a girl. 

May 2017: 2ish weeks.

Mother's Day was in May, and we celebrated by going to Damascus to a town wide flea market/yard sale thing and hanging out with some dear friends. 

I woke up every morning still in disbelief that my belly was still there, bigger than it was the day before, and that it all wasn't just one long dream. 

June 2017

The month that I was so so so sick, and the month that we finally decided on a name. 

I was sick. It started out as a cold, then I got a persistent cough. That cough turned into asthma related issues that turned into me needing a nebulizer, my inhaler every 4 hours, and eventually tuned into a fairly bad case of hemorrhoids. :/ Sorry for the TMI. 

And on top of that, it was a VBS week that month, and I shot a wedding. Not much fun. 

A nod to my HORRIBLE heartburn! 

 We were going to name her Sara Ray, but I eventually felt completely comfortable with Jaymes.

This was a photo of me taking a break at a wedding in Charlottesville. A hot day. 

July 2017: 

This was the month that I was pretty sure I couldn't get any bigger. I also was dealt with gestational diabetes, and had to start pricking my finger 4 times a day.. 

 and we also bought the vehicle of my dreams that month. .

Dennis and I went on an overnight date right here in Roanoke. We had "drinks" at Frankie Rowlands. (I had tea) and then we finished off at dinner at Hotel Roanoke. 

At the end of the month, my friends threw me a BEAUTIFUL baby shower. We gathered at my friend  Lias's home. It was perfect. 

August 2017: 

This was the month that never would end. .. 

I started 1st grade with Daniel, and tried to get the house ready, myself ready for her to finally arrive. 

We had weekly visits to check Sara's fluid levels toward the end..

We had a total eclipse this year, and we waited in the parking lot waiting for the sky to darken. I didn't get the glasses. . 

This was clearly after a very long day. I was "helping" Dennis put together a changing table. 

The end of August came, and then the countdown was REALLY ON.... When would she come?!?!?! 

September 2017: 

These photos were taken on September 3rd. 

On September 5th, I started having some contractions toward the evening.. 

And then they got pretty intense, and right after this photo was taken, my water broke... 

Details are in the next post! 

This is the last time I took his photo as an only child. :) 

Getting Pregnant & Finding out

I plan to talk about my birth story very soon, but I thought I would talk a little bit about our experience getting pregnant.

Dennis turned 38 last year, September 2016, and he suggested that we go ahead and maybe REALLY TRY to get pregnant again if we were going to have another baby because he didn't want to have another baby past 40. So, I called the Reproductive Medicine and Surgery Center in Charlottesville, VA and we made our first consult appointment in November of 2016. In November, he prescribed me Femara, opposed to Clomid, told me to track my ovulation, and to call once I got a smiley face.
So, I took the medicine, tracked ovulation, and called once I got that solid smiley face.

not quite yet..... 

Once I got the smiley face, I called, we made an appointment for the next day, and Dennis and I packed a bag, headed to Charlottesville, and stayed at a hotel to prepare for our appointment. This was December 15, 2016 pictured below: 

It was a cold day, and I was so nervous to do this. It was actually a really quick appointment. I did ask for an ultrasound first because I wanted to see how many follicles I had, how big it was, and decide if I wanted to go forward. They obliged, and we discovered that I had only 1 34mm follicle that had not yet dropped. So, we decided it was worth a try although I thought were immediately out because I thought that a 34mm follicle was most likely a cyst, too big, and was going to be a bust.

For the next week and a half I kept myself busy with shopping for Christmas, wrapping, etc. On December 25th, we woke up, I took a test, and we had a very faint positive. But I wasn't confident enough in the test, and so we didn't make any big announcements or even feel convinced ourselves. So we waited another morning to test.

December 26, 2016, my 31st birthday I felt pretty sure that we were indeed pregnant, and we felt like we could share with some family and a couple of friends. 

December 27th and 28th I continued to take tests just to be sure they were getting darker, and looking normal. And they were! 

I called the clinic, we made an appointment to drive up (2 hours one way) to draw some blood and check some levels. I had great numbers. . . and we were all very confident!

 At 6 weeks, we made the drive one last time for an early 6 week ultrasound to see how baby Maggi #3 was doing. (Baby #2 was lost in an early miscarriage, if you want to read about that experience, look at previous posts) And all was well. We had a perfectly normal looking little baby! We were so excited!

At a normal 8 week appointment, we went to see how baby was doing and (she!) was still doing great! 

Because I had suffered a miscarriage before this pregnancy the year before, I was very nervous, very cautiously optimistic, and I was happy at the same time. Next post: bumps, symptoms, etc.