Pinch me I'm dreaming!

Happy almost New Years! I decided to blog today as we will be busy celebrating with family for the upcoming holiday. Wow what a year?! Thank you so much for sticking with us during this crazy year. I would not change blogging and sharing these struggles in any way! The love and support has gotten us through some dark times and I couldn't imagine not sharing the joy of my pregnancy in the same fashion. So the Team Baby Denman blog is not going anywhere!

Look at us last year carelessly ringing in the New Year. Any guesses as to what my New Years resolution was? If you guessed to get pregnant you were right. Winner winner chicken dinner! Hey look at that, I accomplished my resolution for the first time in my life! Go Lora!

Oh the things that have changed in the year since this photo was taken. For one Taylor was wearing a Texans hat, lets all take a moment to laugh at that. No free slushies for Ms. Lora and her girls this year. A few short weeks after this photo was taken I went in for my routine check up with my OB (you know the fun one) and I mentioned our failure to conceive. That day was the first time "infertility" became a legitimate fear of ours as we were sent for our first round of testing.

I can give you a quick break down of the nitty gritty testing went on for quite some time. I can not tell you how many vials of blood I lost this year, how many "cups" got used, or how much our insurance was billed (Thank God!). February - August was a lot of hurry up and wait and a lot testing. In August I had a hysterosalpingogram (hsg) which I will tell you was single handedly the most physically painful I endured during this battle. "It wont hurt a bit" my RE told me the doctor who preformed this procedure lied to me, her precise words were "Well it didn't hurt the doctor!"

I absolutely adore Dr. Roach who we met in September. She changed our lives, no joke. She diagnosed me with PCOS and started us right away on our first medicated cycle. I was so excited for these hot flashes and mood swings. Half way in we had to cancel the cycle and buy a box of condoms because I had to get a measles shot. A measles shot is a live vaccine which can cause the baby brain damage if given the month of conception, the same thing also could happen upon contact and my body had kicked mine from child hood. Seriously everything happens to me. A few weeks later for the second time my prolactin came back elevated and my doctor ordered an MRI to check for a pituitary tumor that could be causing it. If you don't know this about me, I'm claustrophobic, you can imagine how that went. Did I mention it lasted 45 minutes. That month we took a break from medication. The MRI came back showing now tumor only some built up fluid thats been treated with medication and we were thankful! Hick ups were all finally in tact and everything was perfect! We waited for my next cycle to start and we were back at it, the rest is history! Now we're 6 weeks pregnant!

Now infertility wasn't the only thing that happened this year. It really was an amazing, unforgetable and eventful year! We became God parents to the most beautiful little boy I've ever sat eyes on! We went to Disneyworld, Palm Beach, The Florida Keys and Destin all in one amazing week long road trip! I went kayaking for the first time when we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We went camping on the beach, to Schlitterbahn twice, to Mardi Gras, I saw the Backstreet Boys reunited for the first time in years with one of my best friends and we flew to my home town and saw some of my favorite people for the first time in years. I feel so blessed to have had the adventures and to have made the memories I have this year.

My year couldn't have ended on a better note, finding out after 18 months we're pregnant surrounded by my best friends! And then spending Christmas sharing the news with our family. It is so surreal to be on the other side of this. But strangely I couldn't imagine it any other way. Had I gotten pregnant the old fashion way I don't think I would be as grateful for every single moment. For the bloating after dinner when you can really see a bump, to the nausea and exhaustion. If it didn't happen the way it would it wouldn't be this baby, it wouldn't be these moments. My heart is happiest right before bed when Taylor kisses my belly and lays on it for five minutes or so and we talk and day dream about when we become three. We are already so in love with you Bump (this is the gender neutral name we've given the baby for now).

"We have died every day waiting for you, darling don't be afraid we have loved you for a thousand years, we'll love you for a thousand more" 

Ps: A special thank you to my friend Leah for taking the time and spending a Saturday with us doing these pictures. They're beautiful and we're so grateful!