THE Pregnancy Test - Baby #2!

WARNING: I've said this before and I will say it again...I'm not a beat-around-the-bush kind of person. I'm not afraid to over share and I'm not into sugar coating. There will talk below of periods and bodies and birth control and the like so if those words alone make you uncomfortable now is the time to close this window and go back to watching YouTube videos of baby farm animals.  ALSO, if you are one of those people who gets weirded out by seeing used pregnancy tests -  that's here too (YES I did pee on it!)  Plus, like I have also mentioned previously, I learned so much from women who were willing to be open about their stories that I want do the same for anyone else out there who may be curious. 

Okay SO...For those curious about the personal details regarding HOW we found out as well as our experience with the whole "trying" thing... here are the nitty gritty deets.

Once Heidi turned one, (aka we had managed to make it a full year without another surprise - woo woo!) we knew we wanted to start trying for baby number 2. This has always been my desire, I think mostly because my sister and I are 21 months apart. Growing up that close together was not always easy, but now that we are adults I LOVE how close we are in age! I definitely want Heidi to have that same experience of having a sibling close to her. Shortly after we returned from our cruise vacation, my ovulation monitor suddenly jumped from low fertility to ovulating. (Remember, by practicing Natural Family Planning [the Marquette Model] I use an ovulation monitor each month to help me track my cycles to know when sex is okay/not okay/maybe take other precautions if said activities are desired.) Since weaning Heidi, my cycles have been slightly less regular.. not totally unpredictable but still slightly longer and random ovulation days (not on the usual day of my cycle.) I was quite surprised when suddenly on the 4th of July (day 11 of my cycle - which is very early for me to ovulate) I saw that little symbol on the monitor that meant peak fertility/ovulation! And so the waiting began...

Since we were "trying" this time around, I started taking tests 14 days after I know I had ovulated. (This was what I had estimated it took with Heidi to get a positive test.) Negative. I began taking tests like they were candy. (It's truly an addiction - and an expensive one at that!) I took WAY too many. Finally, I was convinced that it hadn't worked and just gave up. I started to experience a certain disappointment that I had never experienced before. Trying is truly a bizarre thing. Trying, then waiting, then testing, then waiting more, then more testing... I cannot even begin to fathom what couples go through emotionally, physically, spiritually when that process lasts months, years... I was so surprised (and sad) that it didn't "work" the first time around (or so I thought). With Heidi, I literally woke up one day and was pregnant. Since we weren't "trying" we had never had to deal with that excruciating process of trying and waiting and testing and being disappointed, etc... It is so stressful.

As a last ditch effort, I did a little more digging online and found some sort of calculator online where you put in your last several cycles/dates/length and when you ovulated/conceived and then it tells you when to test. After plugging in all of my information, it told me it was still too early to get a positive test and to wait a little longer. "That's weird," I thought. I was CERTAIN that if I wasn't getting a positive test by 16 days past ovulation/conception that it would never turn positive. I was most certainly wrong! A few days later, I started testing again. This time, I was able to see where the line SHOULD be... before I couldn't even see a faint shadow. But it still looked like my eyes COULD be playing tricks on me. I showed Ryan, who was not convinced. "I'm going to need more of a line than that." Haha. I think he just wanted to be more certain before getting his hopes up :). I waited another day or two, then bought MORE pregnancy tests... including a digital one this time.  FINALLY. A convincing line. And the words spelled out: "pregnant". I took a picture of those 2 tests and sent them to Ryan while he was at work. "Todays results are....!" He was pumped (and may or may not have teared up at work hehe). 

An obnoxious number of pregnancy test. Also, this is like an entire paycheck's worth of tests (most of which are negative). Pregnancy tests and stupid expensive. WTF?!

Finally! Sent this picture to Ryan followed by a necessary "BOOM!"

I got some congratulations flowers from Ryan on the day he was finally convinced ;).

We are SO excited to welcome this second addition to our family. Pregnancy is totally my jam and bringing babies into the world is something that I truly love to do. I am so excited and SO grateful that God is allowing me to experience it all again. We look forward to sharing our journey with you for a second time!

Baby #2 On The Way!

I've been neglecting the blog lately. Summer was crazy and it just seemed that I never had enough free time to justify the hours I spend writing. We are now finally settling into our fall routine, Heidi has started MDO (insert tears-streaming-down-face emoji) and I now have a few short hours all to myself each week (although, they are already filling up so fast!) In late July, things also got crazier because... I'm pregnant!! Yes, it's true! We're doing it again. I LOVE being pregnant and bringing babies into this world I am so excited to go through it all again. I have been super exhausted so most of my freetime up until now (which was basically never anyway) was spent resting. So let's answer some of those basic questions!

(*Note: This post was written the day we officially announced our pregnancy on social media when I was 7 weeks pregnant, August 18, 2015.)

Due Date: March 30, 2016

How many weeks along am I now: 7 weeks (aka almost 2 months, aka 1st trimester)

How big is Baby Kresta: We have not been to the doctor, but he/she should be roughly the size of a blueberry, or .5 inches. So small!

Boy or Girl: It really could go either way at this point. I have no clue! Most people are on team boy...

Morning sickness: None! (Yet...)

Exhaustion: SO tired. I have forgotten how the sleep deprivation literally starts DAY 1 of your pregnancy. Tossing and turning all night, uncomfortable, waking up to pee all the time, ugh!

Belly:  Nothin!

Planned: This time, yes! As I have said before, by practicing Natural Family Planning (NFP), we are always saying YES to God and His plan for our family, BUT this time around we were able to avoid getting pregnant when we wanted to and conceive when we wanted to. Success! SO grateful to have found a natural method of "birth control" that actually works for our family. (Also, the whole "trying" process is weird...more on this later.) 

How did we find out: After many many home pregnancy tests, I finally got the faintest shadow of a line... several days (and yes even more pregnancy tests) later we were 100% certain! (More details on this soon.)

Why did we decide share the news now: It seems that lately we have been hearing about the subject of miscarriage a lot. The taboo that surrounds the topic, whether or not you should talk about it, tell people, when it's appropriate to announce your pregnancy after the "risky period", etc. (Even Mark Zuckerberg has recently discussed the miscarriages that he and his wife endured.) Should a miscarriage occur, it's not something that I want to keep a secret. I don't want to feel like it's something that I can't talk about, or share (with a lot of people). As difficult as that might be. By announcing early, we would be forcing a miscarriage (should one occur) to be a topic of discussion. Also, if that happens we trust that my body has recognized that something wasn't right. Openness, honesty and transparency are my priority, even when that means that it isn't easy. 

How far apart will Heidi and baby #2 be: 22 months