Angela and Michael

10 weeks!!

2010-08-01T19:23:00.002-05:00

How far along? Sweet baby V is 10 weeks!

Baby's size? The baby is 1.2 in long and weighs 0.14 oz. He or she looks like a shrimp right now with a large head and a smaller body.

Weight gain? 2 to 3 lbs depending on the scale (that doesn't count the weight I gained from the fertility treatments). I go back to the doctor on Wednesday so I guess I will know for sure then.

Sleep? I have never been a great sleeper and it hasn't been better since I've been pregnant. I toss and turn a lot and just can't ever seem to get comfy. I sleep great on the couch because it supports my back some so I maybe camping out there for the next 7 months.

Symptoms? I have been really tired and take a nap almost everyday. I have also had a few headaches but that is about it. I haven't had any morning sickness or nausea. Sometimes when I get hungry (which seems to be every 3 hours) I have that really empty stomach feeling-like I better eat or I'm going to be sick.

Maternity clothes? I've bought some and my friends have let me borrow some (the perks of being the last to get pregnant) I have worn some of the shirts because they are comfy and you can't really tell they are prego shirts. My pants still fit me for now but I don't think it will be long before I have to make the switch.

Movement? Not any yet but I can't wait to feel him or her for the first time.

Food cravings? I haven't had any real cravings-nothing really sounds good actually. I have enjoyed some vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and I have caught myself drinking the pickle juice from the jar a few times but those are things I loved when I was little. (A pickle snow cone with a pickle was mine and my sister's favorite thing when we were younger.)

Gender? Too early to find out.

What I miss? Nothing. I am just enjoying being pregnant.

What I'm looking forward to? Getting past the stage where people wonder "is she pregnant" or is she just fat" haha!!

We have our first appointment with the OB on Wednesday. I'm excited to meet him. We have heard great things about him and I hope he is a perfect fit for us. Hopefully we will be able to scan a pic of the ultrasound and post it on here so everyone can see baby V!!

8 weeks!

2010-07-22T19:44:00.005-05:00

I'm 8 weeks this week. So far this pregnancy has been really easy (knock on wood). I have been very tired and take a nap almost everyday but I haven't had any other symptons. I haven't felt sick any so that's been great. I hope it doesn't start. I do feel like I'm already showing. I had lunch with a friend last week and she is 23 weeks along and I looked more pregnant than she does. At first I thought I was already showing because there was more than one in there (there was a possibility of multiples) now I just think I'm showing because I was kind of fat by the time I finally go pregnant. I haven't gained any weight but I do think all my weight is starting to shift around to the front.

We go back to the doctor in 2 weeks. This will be our first visit with our OB. I am excited to meet him and excited to have another sono just to make sure everything is still looking good. I really need to get the nursery cleaned out before I go back to work in 3 weeks. It is our junk room right now and is a disaster. If I don't do it now I won't want to do it when I'm back at work. So that is my goal-clean that room!!

6wk3d

2010-07-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

These last 6 weeks have been so busy. We are finally pregnant and are so excited!! It wasn't easy getting to where we are but it was so worth it. This is what these past 6 weeks have looked like:

May 24th-finally AF reared her ugly head (sorry-TMI for some of you)

May 26th-appt. with Dr. B-injection training and we were given a calendar of what the next 2 weeks will look like.

Started taking letrozole-its actually a medication they give women with breast cancer-because of this it was the one and only thing that my insurance covered during this process. I took this for 5 days and the side effects were not fun!!

May 29th-started follistim injections. These are given in the stomach and are meant for you to do them yourself. Well if you know me you know I hate needles so I drove 30 min. every day for 5 days so my mom could give them to me. So glad she is a nurse! The needles were pretty small but it was still very uncomfortable.

June 3rd-had a sono done in Dr. B's office. It's a follicle scan to see if the meds worked and are working. No follicles on my right ovary. 2 follicles on my left ovary-both are measuring around 17mm and need to be a little bigger. Dr. tells us its just like a chicken and a real egg-you need to sit on it for a few more days before they are ready :)

June 4th-hcg injection to make me ovulate-OUCH!!

June 5th-report to office for IUI. Michael had to be there at 8:30 to give his sample and I waited in the waiting room-poor guy! He did great. 76 million pre-wash and 16 million post-wash with great motility and morphology!! I was glad we were the only ones there that day so there wasn't any mix up :)

We left and came back at 9:30 for the insemination. Wasn't too bad-a little uncomfortable. I had to lay on the table for about 15 minutes afterwards with my feet up in the air. Ha!

Now for the 2 week wait! Wow-that was not fun. I tried to stay busy and keep my mind off everything but it was the longest 2 weeks of my life.

June 18th-9:00 am-blood test in Dr. B's office. Time stood still that day. No really it stood still. Michael was flying over the Atlantic Ocean coming home from a trip to England so I was all alone. They finally called around 1:40 with the news. My beta level was 50-I was PREGNANT!! I was in shock and crying on the phone. I really didn't think I was. I think maybe I was just preparing myself for the worst.

I tortured my friends and family that whole day because I didn't want to tell anyone the news until Michael got home and I could tell him. They were all troopers and managed to survive. Michael got home around 10 that night-he was so excited to hear the news and broke down in tears.

We share the news with everyone and celebrate.

June 21st-go back for 2nd beta-it should double every 48 hours so they wanted to see it over 100-it was 190!! God is good! Dr told me she was surprised it worked the first time-she thought because of our problems that it would happen but that it would take a few times. She said we are some of the lucky ones. I told her we had a lot of people praying for us and those prayers were answered!

July 7th-first ultrasound at 6wk3d. I had been praying that the little baby was growing in the right place. I was a little worried about my left tubes because they were "sluggish" when I had my hsg done in November. I was just hoping the baby made it out of there and into my uterus. My blood pressure was kind of high and my heart was racing because I was so nervous.

It is too early to hear the heartbeat but the Dr. said we would be able to see it. She said to look for 2 little pieces of rice that are moving back and forth. That is exactly what it looked like. Baby V was in the right place and his/her heartbeat was just beating away. What an amazing feeling. I was in tears!

Dr said everything looked so good she's not even going to see me anymore. It's bittersweet. I'm so glad everything is great and we can move on to an OB. I am so thankful for Dr. B and her office. I'm sure we will be back next summer ready to try for baby #2!

We still have a long road ahead of us but can't wait for everything! I'm so glad we kept our faith in God this whole time. That is the only reason we were able to stay sane and make it through everything!

Stay tuned for more updates and a few pics!!

Projects

2010-06-04T12:03:00.005-05:00

We (well Michael) has done several projects around the house over the last few months and he has been begging me to post pics for the longest time. We painted our door and mantle. Put in a few new light fixtures in the hallway, outside and the bathroom (he didn't even electrocute himself) and laid down pretty green sod!! Barley and I are so excited to have a nice yard to play in this summer!!

What Faith Can Do

2010-05-12T20:45:00.007-05:00

I haven't blogged about anything in a long time. Not because we haven't been busy I just haven't made myself take the time to sit down and write. Here is what we have been up to these last few months.

March:
we celebrated lots of birthdays-my mom's, sister's, jaxon's first, and michael's. i lost my father to lung cancer. i am still filled with a lot of mixed emotions about all of that. michael and i also celebrated our 1st anniversary. made me wish i was laying on the beach or swinging through the trees in costa rica again. it has been a wonderful year for us but also extremely difficult. we found out our 4th round of clomid was unsuccessful. we started our 5th and final round of clomid. another month of not getting pregnant. lots of tears were shed this month.

April:
we finally got our grass for the house. we were so tired of the dirt. it took everyone else on the block who got sod a day to put it in but it took my perfectionist husband a week. i love him for how he is and i have to say our yard looks the best on the block. barley loves being able to fertilize it for us. still need to finish the flower beds. painted our front door and mantle red. we love it. we are both scared of color so this is all we have done so far. will post pics soon. came up with excuses not to attend a baby shower this month. just couldn't make myself go. found out our 5th and final round of clomid was unsuccessful. another month of not getting pregnant. lots and lots of tears were shed this month. we were referred to a fertility specialist by my gyno.

May:
skipped out on going to church on mother's day. couldn't take not being able to stand up when they recognize all the mothers. they also had a big baby dedication and didn't think i would be able to handle that. michael and i were supposed to be standing up there with our baby by now. we went and had a nice breakfast with my family instead. had our 1st appointment with dr. b. i think we are going to really like her. she is thorough and very honest. i was diagnosed with pcos and michael has a minor issue going on too. explains a lot. the odds are stacked against us but the doc seemed positive she could help. we will do iui during this next cycle. that means giving myself injections in my stomach (not sure how michael and i are going to handle that one-we both hate needles), taking drugs and going to the doctor a whole lot. not looking forward to it but i hope it pays off. please pray for us during this time. we know God has a plan for us. it may not be our plan but we put all our trust and faith in him.

I've been reading a lot of blogs these last few months. I can't believe how many couples out there are dealing with the struggles of infertility. It is nice to be able to read their stories and have my thoughts and feelings about everything validated in some sort of way. It's reassuring to know that we are not alone on this difficult journey. Even if they are strangers and we will never cross paths we are connected-even if it is in a way that no one wants to be connected.

My mom heard this great song (on the day we actually went to the doctor) and i listen to it all the time now. The words give me peace, comfort, hope and faith.

What Faith Can Do
by Kutless

chorus
i've seen dreams that move the mountains
hope that doesn't ever end
even when the sky is falling
i've seen miracles just happen
silent prayers get answered
broken hearts become brand new
that's what faith can do

Solid Rock!

2010-03-06T11:37:00.003-06:00

Michael and I make a trip to Lowe's every weekend. Michael always jokes that he needs to buy stock in it because we spend so much money there. I guess that is part of building a new house. There is always something that we need.

For the past few weeks we have been working on the yard-well Michael has been working I have just been supervising! :) We have had some really nice weather and Lowe's finally put all their trees out so we decided to buy two-one for the front and one for the back. Once Michael started digging it didn't take him long to realize that our house was built on solid rock! There are a few inches of dirt and the rest is nothing but rock-and I'm not talking small pieces of rock, I mean huge chunks of rock!! Poor Michael had to work so hard to break through the rock but he finally managed to get both holes dug and both trees planted. We planted an Autum Maple Blaze in the front-it will have beautiful fall foliage and we planted an Oklahoma Redbud in the back-it will have pretty pink flowers in the spring!

We did plant some winter rye grass before we left for Connecticut at Christmas. We didn't think it would grow but we wanted to at least try and get some grass down for the dog. To our surprise a lot of it started to come up when we got back and it is still growing!! We can't wait until we can put in our sprinkler system and plant some grass. I want to have a beautiful yard for the summer. We will also start working on some flower beds. I know that eventually we will have the yard we have always dreamed of. Here are a few pics of what it looks like right now. We will post more when we get more done!

Third time wasn't a charm!!

2010-02-21T20:40:00.003-06:00

Michael and I were really hoping and praying that the third month of taking Clomid was going to be a charm. Sadly it wasn't. To be honest I was hoping that we would only have to take it for one month but now we are about to take it for the 4th time. I hate even taking tylenol for a headache so it is killing me to take all these drugs every month. My doc has even added another drug to the mix that I take everyday not just for 5 days like with the Clomid. We weren't even sure if this was a treatment we wanted to start but knew we had to with everything that is going on with me. We know that God has a plan for us and we are both tyring to stay strong and be positive but it gets harder and harder every month we don't get pregnant. All of this has only made our relationship stronger and I know that God will lead us through this difficult time. Maybe the 4th time will be the charm-we will see!!

CT/MA

2010-01-10T16:32:00.003-06:00

Michael and I went to Conn. and Mass. for the holidays. It was a fun filled 12 days. We got to meet our niece Julia for the first time, went tubing, spent some fun times with Michael's family and friends, attended Julia's Christening and spent New Year's Eve in Boston with Jeff and Lisa!! We were exhausted by the time we got home and have spent the last week trying to recover. We can't wait to go back for our next visit.

What to talk about!

2009-12-18T12:39:00.000-06:00

I orginally started this blog to document the process of building our first house. We wanted everyone to be able to follow along with us. Well the house is finished and we have been there for almost a month. We have a lot to do to get it the exact way we want it but we love it. Barley has a had a difficult time adjusting but is starting to warm up to it. I think my mom spoiled him way too much while we lived with her. Now that the house is done I wondered what I would blog about...of course there is one thing that consumes my thoughts-our journey to trying to have a baby.

We actually started this journey way before we started building our house-over a year ago to be exact. It has not been an easy journey for me or Michael. It has been filled with a lot of really low lows but we are hoping and praying for the best. We know that God has a plan for us and is in control of the situation. We both have had several tests done to see what the deal is and everything always seems to come back normal-which is great but it is also frustrating because we always end up exactly were we started-with no real answer on why we can't get pregnant. I have had every test you can imagine done and have had so much blood taken I don't know how I have any left. I have not been myself these last several months but Michael has been so suppportive. I would not have been able to handle all of this without him. He will make an amazing father and I can't wait to see him finally be a daddy. We both can't wait to be parents. So I guess this is where this blog will go from here-our road to trying to conceive a little Vaughn.

SNOW

2009-12-15T18:44:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago we actually got snow. That doesn't happen here very often-especially enough for it to stick. They cancelled school so I got the day off. Of course by the time I woke up at noon it was all gone but Michael got up early and took a few pics!

Appliances

2009-12-15T18:40:00.003-06:00

Michael and I are so excited about our new fridge, washer and dryer. The fridge is the one he wanted-we lucked out and shopped on the right day and got an amazing deal. The washer and dryer is what I wanted-especially red ones! Michael told me I could have them if I did his laundry-no I didn't do it before-I know I am a terrible wife :) I love them but I don't know if they are worth having to do his laundry-haha!

A Few Pics

2009-12-15T18:27:00.004-06:00

Here are a few pics of the house. I still don't have anything on the walls or everything put away. Hopefully after we get back from our trip I can get some things done.

Name Change

2009-12-03T20:16:00.003-06:00

I finally started the process of trying to change my name. Yes-I know it has been almost 9 months since I got married but I am just now getting around to it. Of course when you go to another country to get married it takes a long time to get your marriage certificate. 7 months to be exact. Oh and did I mention it is in Spanish-yes Spanish. They did send it to the US Embassy to have it translated into English. A few things were lost in translation-under marital status for me it said spinster-I had not idea what that meant and had to ask someone. For those of you who don't know-it means old maid. I guess Costa Rica considered me an old maid-real nice! Anyways I have been looking forward to changing my name for a long time-I always hated having the name Tolson that I can't believe it has taken me this long. I didn't realize that there are so many things I have to change. It's not just my license and social security card-it is a whole mess of things. Maybe by this time next year I will officially be a Vaughn!!

Moving on up!

2009-11-22T21:14:00.002-06:00

Michael and I closed on our house Wednesday but did not get our keys until Friday afternoon. We waited patiently for the city of Odessa to do their finaly inspections. We are so excited to be 1st time home owners! Holly and Jim Bob came and helped us move Saturday morning and unpack a few things. Even Avery and Ella came to help :) Poor Michael had worked from midnight until 9 that morning so he was exhausted but he worked hard and got it done. It was torture for all of us not to get to watch the Tech game but Kellye gave us updates throughout the game!! Needless to say the house is a wreck so we are staying with my mom a few more nights until we can get it organized. I don't know how we had so much stuff in a tiny apartment. We had not used any of our wedding gifts because we were anticipating this move so it was so nice to see everything-I had forgotten what all we had! We are also waiting on some new furniture to arrive this week!! As soon as it starts to look better I will take more pics and post them.

Barley will have a new home too!

2009-11-16T19:31:00.002-06:00

We thought we were going to have just dirt for a long time. Everyone kept telling us that we can't plant any grass right now but we have still had some pretty weather so we are hoping that we can get something to grow before it gets really cold. Barley will need some grass to run and play in. We finally stopped at a nursery in Odessa and they were very helpful-looks like Michael will be working in the yard the 1st weekend we move in!!

New Pics!!

2009-11-16T19:25:00.003-06:00

Here are some new pics of the house! We are supposed to close in 2 days-there are still a few things they are working on but it looks good. Michael and I are getting so excited!!

Final Walk Through!!

2009-11-14T11:12:00.002-06:00

Michael and I had our final walk through yesterday. It went a lot better than we anticipated. We did use almost a whole roll of blue tape marking things we wanted fixed but most of it was just minor things. They will work on fixing those things Monday and Tuesday and have the city come out and do their final inspection. If everything goes smoothly we are supposed to close on Wednesday at 11. I am saying my prayers that everything works out. We are supposed to have Thanksgiving with my family at our house so that will give me a week to try and get everything ready. It is so nice being a teacher because I will have that whole week off before Thanksgiving so I can get things done. We will take pics and post them when everything looks the way it should and before we move in.

2 weeks!

2009-11-01T16:32:00.002-06:00

Our house sat for 2 weeks and nothing was done to it. We were both very frustrated so we went over last week to talk to them and see what the deal was. We were told that it is just part of the whole process-we did feel better about everything after we left. They finally started working on it again this week. They installed the cabinets and the interior doors. They also did all the trim work. They moved our closing date from Nov. 6th to Nov. 17th so we have 2 weeks left. There is a lot of work to be done so we are crossing our fingers that it doesn't get moved again. We have our final walk through on Fri. Nov. 13th-good thing I am not superstitious!! We are counting down the days!! Here are just a few pics-we didn't have time to take a lot because Michael had to go to work. There should be a lot in the next few weeks though so check back!!

Locked out!!

2009-10-20T21:50:00.001-05:00

Michael and I drive over to Odessa every Sunday to look at the house. This is the only day that there usually aren't any workers so we can walk around and take our time looking at everything. We drove over there on Sunday and to our surprise the house was locked for the first time. We could see through the windows that they had put the texture on the walls and had painted-I guess that is why they didn't want anyone in there. Michael even tried to climb in the windows but all they were all locked too. We were disappointed! We are supposed to be closing on Nov. 6th which is in 16 days but we don't think there is any way that it will be finished-there has been progress but there is still so much to do. I am thinking Nov. 14th and Michael is saying Nov. 20th-the bet is on!!

More Pictures

2009-10-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

2009-10-06T13:57:00.001-05:00

2009-10-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

Drywall and Brick

2009-10-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

2009-10-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

2009-09-21T19:44:00.000-05:00

So Far So Good

2009-09-21T19:33:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

These pictures might look similar to last time but we update every week and I didn't want any of you to miss out on a step:) The frame is now enclosed so we have a better idea of space. They have also installed the ventilation/air and cut out the windows. The next step is the roofing and electrical. Once this is done, we will meet with the builders for a walk-through frame tour. I'm wicked excited now that there is some progression on the project.

2009-09-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

More pics of the frame!

2009-09-15T21:31:00.001-05:00

From slab to frame!

2009-09-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

We usually drive over to Odessa every weekend so Michael can see the progress on the house. They poured the slab last week but we never made it over this weekend to see it. (I get to see it because I am in Odessa everyday) When Michael got home from work this afternoon we decided to drive over and see what it looked like-I didn't work today so I had not seen it since Monday. We were so excited to see that they had already put up the frame. We could walk in and actually tell where everything was. Michael missed one whole part of construction. I have a feeling we will have our frame tour one day this week or next week and that the rest of the process won't take long. It is actually starting to feel like a house now that it looks like one. We can't wait to see it completed!!

It has been a while!

2009-09-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time because they really have not done much to our house. It was so frustrating to drive by everyday and it still look the same. Last week they finally started doing some more stuff. They poured our slab. Of course it never rains in Odessa, Texas but last week it rained almost every afternoon-it didn't seem to delay everything like I thought it would. Here are a few pics of the foundation and the lumber for our frame.

My Baby!!

2009-08-24T19:29:00.000-05:00

I can't wait until our house is done. For lots of reasons but the main one is my precious Barley will finally have a yard to run and play in. I know he is going to love it. Trust me he will still find the most comfortable place in the house to sleep. I can't wait to make all his doggie dreams come true :)

Finally some progress!!

2009-08-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

I told Michael at the beginning of last week that if they didn't make any progress on our house I was going to go and talk to them...I'm glad I didn't have to because I don't know exactly what I would have said :) Since work started back last week I'm in Odessa everyday and get to drive by and check in on things. They finally laid all the plumbing and sewer. It shouldn't be long before we have our frame tour.

2009-08-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

Moving?

2009-08-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

We got a phone call from our builder saying we needed to re-sign our contract because the City of Odessa had changed our address. Already? We haven't even moved in and didn't the city set these plots in the first place. Makes me a little nervous to move to a city that does not seem very competent. It didn't make a lot of sense to us but we knew we had to do it. Michael was not very excited about the change. Our old house number was 9118 and now it is 9120-being the numbers guy he is he liked the first one better than the second one and he was worried that our lot size had changed. Everything seems to be okay and at least we hadn't given our address to anyone yet. The progress is still really slow. We were warned that this first part would be the slowest part but it is driving me crazy. I am ready for it to be done-at least get the frame up for me so it looks like a house :)

Dublin, Ireland?

2009-08-05T20:44:00.000-05:00

When we picked the lot for our new house we had lots of options to chose from since it is a new area that we are building in. What street did my husband pick...Dublin Ave. of course!! Michael is very proud of his Irish heritage and can be found drinking green beer on his favorite holiday!! Someday we hope to take a trip to Ireland but for now we will just settle living "in" Dublin!!

They finally started making some progress this week on our house. They were waiting for permits from the city. They started digging the holes for all the plumbing and stuff. They said this parts takes the longest because they are at the mercy of the city and can't move forward until everything passes inspection. We are getting so excited about it though.

2009-07-26T23:34:00.000-05:00

Michael and I are lucky enough to have the chance to build our very first home. This is the empty lot in Odessa where our house will be built. We are excited about the process and of course excited to see the end result. We hope to be moved in by November-I'm sure my mom is hoping the same thing since we have invaded her house until it is complete. We will continue to post pics of the process.

(The dumpster is not in our plan!! :)