Our little family is growing...

We had our family over for dinner last night

and gave them each a cupcake with a special color inside that they had to find.

I'm not sure who discovered it first, but there was only 1 color PINK!

That's right TWO girls!!!

We had an ultrasound Friday to find out what we are having (i'm sure it was for more important things but our focus was the gender).

I have had a few posts saved as drafts to post about our upcoming arrival and i'm not sure why I haven't posted them. I have had a lot of people ask me lately to make a post so they can hear more about this fun adventure, so I figured I would make this my official post about this exciting time for us.

Kevin and I did Invitro Fertilization (IVF) during the months of May-July. I guess first I should start with the fact that the only diagnosis doctors could find for me was endometriosis. In January of this last year I saw my OB to get it under control again and the only way to treat it was to operate and burn off the tissue that is causing the problem (which I have done before a few years prior), so the first of February I had that operation and started talking to Kevin about the possibility of undergoing fertility treatments again. In 2005 is when I called it quits with fertility treatments and swore I would never return down this dark and disappointing road. However even though we put our profile back up with our adoption agency I still didn't want to completely rule out ferility treatments again. There was one Sunday morning in March when a less active mom in our ward came in the nursery to help me out and I had just met her for the first time. We began talking and found that our husbands worked for the same company and then she told me how much she loved the health benefits and asked if I agreed and I just thought "yeah I guess it's been good". Then she told me how the insurance paid 100% of IVF for her twin boys and I about jumped through the roof! In the 4.5 years that Kevin and I did fertility treatments (before we got Reese) we had to pay 100% cash for all treatments because there was ZERO coverage. I couldn't believe what I was hearing so as soon as we got home I told Kevin about my conversation and he reassured me that our luck would not run that smooth but I still wanted to try; low and behold 8am Monday morning I confirmed with our insurance that I had the same benefits. It was truely a miracle & blessing!

I knew we had to get on schedule fast with a fertility specialist because we were moving in June. We were given the green light from Dr. Craig (my new hero) and he said he could get it all accomplished just in time. He said I had a 60% chance with IVF which is the best chance we had been given thus far. In April I began rounds of fertility medication. It was the craziest couple of months with my hormones all out of whack. I struggled with the 6 injections I had to do everyday. I was lucky that Kevin was able to do all of them. There is actually a funny story, one night when Kevin was getting home late from school and I had to do 1 injection at exactly 8pm every night, I asked my sweet 2 year old if she could do it for me. She was delighted! It was only in my thigh and I prepped everything and just had her stab me with it and then I could do the rest. What can I say, it's a family effort.

This was my first round of medication all in a 3-4 week period - YUCK!

In May they retrieved all my eggs with a minor little surgery and were able to get 11 little embryos out of the batch. The doctor's policy was to only implant 2 embryos (on any patient), I was a little nervous because I had friends whose doctor would implant 3 or 4 and it still never worked for them. My doctor said that with 2 implanted my chances were 67% so I was at least grateful for the two. They were supposed to implant the embryos on day 5 but my estrogen levels were too high and it would have killed the embryos shortly after implant so my doctor said he would freeze everything and try again the 1st week of July. We ended up scheduling it for July 13th and went back to Arizona for the procedure. We were so excited on July 25th for the first time in 8.5 years to get a positive pregnancy test. I did not take a home pregnancy test because the nurses told me that I could get false results with all the medication I was on so I waited for the blood test and when the nurse called me I didn't even know how to react, I was in shock and then as soon as I hung up the phone I started crying, it was such a great feeling!

We found out a week later at my first ultrasound appt. that the IVF cycle was 100% successful because both embryos took. Kevin was a little nervous about TWINS but I was ready to be the new octomom just to be able to be pregnant (glad now that its not 8). So our little twin girls are fraternal twins. I'm an identical twin so i'm interested to see what these girls are going to look like. We can't wait!! We are so excited!!

I seriously thought this day would never come. 8.5 years (and a lot of money) later we are going to be blessed with TWO babies. We have waited so long and feel so blessed. Reese is so excited to be a big sister and we know she will be a good one. She talks to my belly everyday and always includes them in her prayers. She keeps asking if they are coming out soon but we are only 18 weeks along so we have a long ways to go. We are SO GRATEFUL!!