If you can’t tell… things have been a little nuts lately – between busy season, moving, navigating my way through my first trimester pregnant with twins, travel, and James & I fighting the world’s most evil virus the past two weeks…. meant I totally slipped on doing my July behind the scenes post… and my August behind the scenes post… (and now we’re practically through September)!! Ha! I really didn’t want to let all of this slip away without acknowledging it and reminding myself what comprised the last few months. It has been a wonderful, wonderful whirlwind and I want to remember every bit of it.
So here we go – let’s look at all the crazy, new, exhausting and beautiful things that made up July and August!!
This is really insane to me that these things happened only just a couple short months ago, because they honestly feel like they happened ages ago!! July started out with finishing my last injectable meds in sooo long!! It was a happy day! No more shots shots shots shots shots shots! Then James got home from his family visit to South Carolina and Chloe and I were SO HAPPY to have him back! Chloe and I distracted ourselves the day before our frozen embryo transfer by wandering around the neighborhood admiring all the pretty blooms! On July 7th we saw our babies for the first time before the frozen transfer!! How crazy that this is their first photo – way back when they were just microscopic blastocysts! I was ready to get those babies home (and feeling super sexy (haha) in my hospital gown before the embryo transfer)! 😉
The days to come were filled with lots of Chloe cuddles and distractions (like ice cream) during the wait to see if the transfer took. And then … it was filled with lots of obsessively peeing on sticks. No really. OBSESSIVELY PEEING ON STICKS. haha. Yikes. Notice the one in the bottom right? That’s after I saw the doctor and was confirmed pregnant but felt paranoid one day randomly and decided to just make sure… again. (This process makes you a little crazy. Just a little!) 😉
The following weeks really were a whirlwind. A Taylor Swift concert with my girls… Our final walk through of our first home… The joy of finding out that our 2nd beta test had more than doubled!! The pregnancy was sticking around this time and we were crying tears of joy!! (Chloe didn’t really get what all the fuss was about yet… haha). We closed our house and of course had to bring Chloe for her first official tour! All of this happened in the matter of a week and everybody told us we were so lucky at the time that we should play the lottery… so we did! Nothing big… but technically we did win! (Even if it was only $5!) haha
The next day we found out at our first ultrasound that we were having TWINS! Oh my gosh. What an amazing blessing. Working weddings when you are newly pregnant, nauseous and need to constantly eat can be tough… but that’s why you have a husband who can run across the street to grab you Chick-Fil-A when there is a break in the action! Did I mention how much exhaustion happens in the first trimester?! The exhaustion is REAL, folks. I have never been so completely and utterly exhausted in all my life. I napped daily in July and can you see it in my eyes in that picture with Chloe?! haha!! I LOOKED SO TIRED! Then cue the funniest photo to me… I thought I was taking a photo of a “bump” here!! hahahahaha. Oh man. I had no idea. (Pretty sure I was just bloated at the time, haha.) Just wait, friends… the bump is about to get real, I can feel it. Last, but not least – Chloe was concerned about me not feeling good one day so she stood over me on the bed! haha. This was my view from below of my overprotective pup! 🙂
On to August we go!!
We kicked off the month with a weekend back in Wisconsin for a friend’s wedding! James got some practice in with this adorable little dude, and we got to dress up and relax at a wedding! The next morning I was SICK. This was my first real feel for morning sickness, and although I did not puke – oh man was I close to it. My sweet niece had no idea why Aunt Christy wasn’t feeling so good and was ALL IN MY FACE when I felt like I could vomit at any moment. haha!! Kids!! I had to snap a pic of her being all crazy and on me when I wasn’t feeling good. 🙂 She did offer to help though and eventually brought me the popsicle that brought me back to life! Then we said goodbye to our old apartment and Chloe got one last really good night of sleep in the old bedroom! haha.
We had our 7 week ultrasound and babies were growing right on schedule! They looked so itty bitty and alien like still then! Chloe got in some cuddles/carries with James at the old place. haha. The irony of the sticker that was on the FRONT WINDOW of our new house is not lost on us! Don’t worry – we immediately took that crap off! Bring on the kiddos! And we slowly but surely settled into our new place…. while simultaneously realizing none of our furniture fit well in the new layout and promptly listed it all for sale. haha.
I bought and planted a lot of flowers and plants!! I am realizing I have a LOT more to do – but I’m loving working in the yard!! Then we had our 8 week appointment at the Fertility Clinic! We saw all was well and graduated to a regular OB! I cried bittersweet tears as I said goodbye to the staff and our doctors there. I can’t believe all the time we’ve spent with them over the years and moving on to new doctors was tough, but oh so exciting to be moving forward!! And the next couple photos are more house settling/unpacking… and napping. haha.
August also became about FOOD. The aversions. The cravings. The constant need to eat or else I’d end up on the floor barely functioning. La Croix was my new best friend. So was Kraft mac’n’cheese and veggie baked beans. Who knows?! Maybe I needed the protein and fiber! I stuffed as many snacks as humanly possible in my camera bag for wedding days so I could make it through the day, and really was a very awful wife because I was never hungry for a full meal usually – I’d just have to immediately make and eat whatever it was I was craving otherwise I’d feel sick… so I oftentimes never made anything for James and basically left him to fend for himself all of August. Sorry, James!
I finally started to let the idea of actually finally being pregnant and TWINS settle in. I can’t wait to see these two on two little kiddos! We had a rare weekend off and I got to spend the day with a good friend who was in town!! We had our first OB appointment and all was well!! We LOVED our OB – though sadly had to switch last week because we realized he isn’t in our network after getting our first bill, and oh my gosh – we cannot afford to go somewhere out of network!! Yikes. Chloe has taken to hanging out in the future nursery. I like to think she’s dreaming of babies in this photo. 🙂 James got a new suit for my brother’s wedding, and much of August work days looks like the final photo here – – mess of a “desk” (i.e. dining room table) stealing wifi from wherever I could get it because it took forever to get internet & cable set up at our new place! So thankful that is over!
Whew!! So that was a look at July and August, which I’m realizing consisted of a lot of exciting new changes, lots of doctor visits, peeing on sticks, eating lots of food, feeling super tired, feeling super grateful, and generally just trying to keep running our business day to day – staying caught up with life amid the newfound chaos! 🙂 I wouldn’t have it any other way! xoxo
