continued...

read this part first 

"Katelyn?"

"Yes?", I shakily replied.

"How are you?", she said with a smile in her voice.

"Ummm, I'm okay...", I said. Somewhat annoyed she hadn't already gotten to the point.

"This is so-and-so from Dr. Slater's office. I'm calling with the results from your blood test this afternoon".

"Yeah, okay...and?"

"Well, you're pregnant!", she said ecstatically.

IMMEDIATE RELIEF.

"Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh", I said. 

I really, genuinely, didn't even know what to say. I was completely overwhelmed with about a million emotions. Everything we had experienced the last three years was gone. All the pain and heartache. The countless negative pregnancy tests. The jealousy. The anger. The tear soaked pillows. The continual prayers for one special blessing and not understanding why He was making us wait so long. It was all overcome with a happiness I'd never experienced. Truly, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or fall on my knees and thank my Heavenly Father for putting me through the hardest trial of my entire life, because it was all leading to this tiny moment. 

She continued on, telling me the blood count numbers, what they meant, etc. But to be honest, the rest of the conversation was a blur. I just wanted to call Chad and let him know he was going to be a father! 

Much like the previous conversation, the rest of the day was a whirlwind of emotions. We let family know, surprised Chad's parents, and thought about just how blessed we were. 

Two weeks later, we had our first ultrasound. We were going to get to see our baby! OUR baby! When the nurse came in to get started, I was literally shaking with excitement. Yet, I was so nervous at the same time. Is the baby still in there? Is it healthy? What will it look like? My mind was racing. But all that craziness in my head was washed away when we saw this:

Yep, two babies. Two. TWO! Not only were we pregnant, but we were pregnant with twins. Oh my. Chad was so cute during the ultrasound. He had the biggest smile on his face. He wouldn't look away from the screen. And for the first time since I've known him, his eyes welled up with tears. I was so excited, I didn't know how to express it. But Chad was able to express enough happiness for the both of us. I'd never felt a feeling like that. Pure joy.  

So, here we are. Halfway through the pregnancy of our first children. I've never felt better. I've never been happier. Sure, I've had some scary moments. Have I been sick? Yes. Am I uncomfortable? Of course. Is it worth it? My goodness, yes. I feel ungrateful when I complain. Heavenly Father has given Chad and I the greatest gifts we could've ever asked for. Not only is He blessing us, but He's putting His trust in us to raise two of His children here on this earth. I would never want Him to feel anything from me other than pure gratitude.

Below, you will find updates via instagram from the last 20 weeks or so. 

You're welcome:

 13 weeks

 14 weeks 

 15 weeks

 17 weeks

 Halloweenies 

 18 weeks

 Big ol' belly

19 weeks

I have more ultrasound pics, but I don't feel like scanning them right now. Maybe next post?

STATS:
How far along: 20 weeks tomorrow!
How big is baby: About 7 inches each
Total weight gain: 8 pounds
Sleep:  Not bad - just switching sides a lot. My hips hurt if I lie on one side for too long.
Best moment of the week: Feeling these babies kick up a storm. They sure are active little things!
Food cravings: Frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries
Food aversions: Costa Vida...ick.
Symptoms: Heartburn, lower back pain.
Gender: We know...but that won't be announced till after Thanksgiving :)
Movement: They are having far too much fun in there. I feel them kick a lot, but I'm also noticing when they're changing positions. They also really like Taylor Swift. No joke, every time I turn her new album on, they go nuts in there. It's pretty adorable.
What I'm looking forward to: Wednesday - I get to see my family and FINALLY announce what the twinlets are!
What I miss: Nothing - I'm loving it all.
Next appointment: December 10th

March can't come fast enough!

well?

Welp, turns out I'm the worlds worst blogger. A LOT has been going on in the last few months, and to be completely honest, I've felt so overwhelmed I was a little nervous to even try to tackle this post, so I've decided to break it up. Too much info to cover in one post!

First off, IVF is amazing. I have no other words to describe how blessed we were. I thank God everyday for giving us this opportunity. 

So, should I pick up where I left off? Okay, I can do that.

The post below shows a calendar of how the best case scenario for this round of IVF. They used a lot of words like "give or take" or "possible transfer". Basically, don't go exactly off this calendar because your body would have to react perfectly to everything. We're just giving you an outline so you have an idea of what to expect. Well, my body reacted perfectly. We retrieved the eggs on Sunday, July 15th. Easy peasy. I fell asleep and they did all the work. That day I was a little sore, but back to work the next day. Blessings. They were able to get 16 eggs which was fantastic! Chad and I were hoping for 10 so we were thrilled. They told us they'd call the next day to let us know how many made it to the next stage - most likely about half. When they called me on Monday, they told me 15 of the 16 had made it! WOOHOO! I couldn't believe it. The lab tech who called me said they'd watch the eggs for five days and go from there. 

When we went in five days later for the transfer, two eggs had made it to the full-on implantation stage. Dr. Slater said it was up to us how many we chose to implant, but they'd continue to watch the other eggs so we'd know for sure how many we could freeze (for the record, two more made it to implantation stage - so we now have two little icicle babies). She told me I was a "candidate" for implanting just one egg, but we wanted to be sure we'd get pregnant so we decided to implant both fertilized eggs - just to be safe. The transfer was simple, about 10 minutes, and we were done. I had to lay low for the next two days (which was fine because the transfer was on a Friday, so I didn't have to take off any work - blessings, again), and I'd go back a week later for a blood draw. 

The morning of my first blood draw, I took a pregnancy test, even though they told me not to (it's possible to get a false positive from the HCG shot I had to inject myself with before the retrieval, or a false negative if it's taken too early). When I took the test, I was sure it would be negative. When I looked down two minutes later, I saw a big fat positive - however I showed no emotion. I refused to get excited. I put the test in the top drawer of my bathroom counter and told myself not to think about it again. When I went in later that afternoon for my first blood draw, they told me they wouldn't be calling with the results, because they needed two blood samples on different days to be sure. That was frustrating! I just wanted to know! But I totally understood why. As I was checking out, I told the nurse I had taken a pregnancy test earlier that morning. 

Her immediate response was, 

"Oh honey, don't get too disappointed. It's still pretty early, and things could totally change. This is why we don't want people to take pregnancy tests! They see a negative and immediately jump to conclusions." 

"Well, it was positive..", I replied.

"POSITIVE? Either you have a strong pregnancy test, or you're having twins...", she said.

My response? "It was just the Target brand...?"

She laughed and told me, excitedly, to just hold my horses and wait until the next blood draw. 

At this point, I was getting somewhat excited - I mean, if a nurse was surprised by my positive pregnancy test, how could I not be?  Two days later (the morning of my second blood draw) I decided to take one more, just for funsies. It was positive again. I tried not to get excited, but at this point, I was feeling pretty good. I felt optimistic we were pregnant, but again, didn't want to give myself false hope. I kept telling myself I'd know for sure in just a few hours. 

I went in for my blood draw, went back to work and held my breath. I had my phone attached to my hip - I was NOT missing this call! Chad kept calling me to see if I knew (which was very frustrating because I'd feel my phone vibrate and immediately start freaking out, only to find out it's just Chad). For some reason, he seemed to think I would forget to call him after I heard the news. What a weirdo.  

About three hours after the blood draw, I got the call that would change our lives forever.