The Best Compliment

Today was a very special milestone for me. My first stranger noticed my belly and felt confident enough to say something to me! I told Shaun on our way into the restaurant for lunch that I really shouldn't have left my jacket in the car because I didn't look prego...and my belly just looked "weird." We were in line for probably not even a minute when I heard....
Old Man with his cute wife: Ma'am! Ma'am!!(Don't forget that I live in Mississippi)
Court: (turned around to talk to him)
Old Man: You are a beautiful mother..and you sir (pointing to Shaun)are a lucky man!
Court: Oh thank you! thank you!!
Shaun: I'm very lucky...you are right.
Well I don't think the smile left my face for the rest of the lunch. Shaun was cracking up because he knew I was so, so happy. It was seriously such a sweet thing for him to say, and it was so cute how hard he worked to make sure he got my attention. He also called me a mother, which was just music to my ears.

On a side note...I'm happy to report that I don't think my RE is going to forget me anytime soon (not that I really thought for a second that he would forget my craziness/medical-wanna-be questions--my support group does not just call me Dr. Courtney for fun!). I know seven of his current patients...two of which are my really good friends. Well apparently my one good friend went to an appt and kept saying...."yeah Courtney told me that." The next morning, my other good friend must have also mentioned my name because she texted me "Dr. H says that you know everyone." I really don't know that many people here since I just moved here twoish years ago, but I do know a lot of his patients, and I'm so grateful to God that He has placed these women in my life. I can't put into words what a blessing they are to me.

Lately I have been especially blessed by some very special comments left by women who have stumbled to my blog through google. A big shout out to Sue in Canada. Your comment really touched me, and I hope with you that this is your cycle. As much as I want to keep everyone updated about my pregnancy, I still feel called to talk frequently about infertility and to provide encouragement to those of you still waiting. I'm not going to promise, but my goal is to post an infertility related post once a week. I think my first topic is going to be the most common misconception about infertility (and there are many!!), but I believe this is the most common. Another item that has really been on my heart lately is praying for my little one. I pray often for the safety and health of my baby, but I want to start praying more specifically. I plan on including these prayers at the end of any pregnancy related post, and I hope that many of you will join with me in prayer for the baby that we trust that God has for you.

Prayer for My Little One: Lord I pray that my little one will come to know you at a very young age and that his/her faith in You will continue to grow deeper as he/she grows.

2nd Trimester Bliss

Hey Girls!! I'm back! I finally have a new healthy (lol) home computer so expect much more blogging from me in the near future. I feel like I need to be honest that it is difficult for me to blog about pregnancy when I know so many of you are still going through extremely hard times. My hope is that with sharing my entire journey with you the ugly, the bad, and now the good that reading this blog will leave you with hope. I can honestly say now that every single moment of heartache was worth it. I'm actually grateful for going through infertility. I'm not the same person that I was before this journey...my marriage isn't the same...and I wouldn't have it any other way.

This past Saturday was our first big shopping day for nursery furniture. We started looking a little last weekend, but we decided to actually go to every baby store in our entire area in one day. I loved every second of it. My favorite moment of the day was when Shaun and I decided to take a moment to talk things over while we sat on the gliders in B R US. It is going to be hard to really explain this moment, but I think it finally set in with both of us that we were preparing to bring a baby home. On our final stop of our baby store tour, we found the perfect crib and dresser/changing table. Shaun and I have very similar taste especially in furniture so we usually know right away once we see it...and it was definitely the style/price/size that we were looking for in our nursery furniture. I will post pics soon from the catalog (it takes 10 weeks for the furniture to come in).

Update on symptoms: I feel great!! My energy is back, and I'm starting to show a little more. My bbs have definitely grown...actually so fast that I now have my first pregnancy related stretch mark. Shaun thinks that all stretch marks can be prevented with the pregnancy stretch mark cream that I purchased recently lol. I'm now trying to apply the lotion in front of him everyday to prove that these stretch marks are just going to happen...lotion or not. Next dr appt is tomorrow morning so I will try to post an update and some pics tomorrow!

Five Cute Little Fingers

I have missed blogging...I'm having major withdrawals. I need a computer!! My work computer won't let me post! I can post from my Blackberry, but we all know it isn't that easy to blog a long entry from a cell phone. So here's the long story of what happened last week. Last Saturday, I started having these sharp shooting pains that would not go away. It almost felt like my cervix so I started to get really worried, but then they went away so I relaxed a little and went to church the next day. At the end of the church service, I stood up to sing, and there they were again. I of course put myself on bedrest for the rest of the afternoon and night and called the on-call nurse who told me that it sounded like a UTI because I also had to pee frequently. The next morning, I called my sweet nurse, and she felt that we should come get an ultrasound and to get checked out. I really started to worry at this point as you can see in my post below. I called Shaun, and he immediately dropped what he was doing and picked me up at work. He knew better than to let me drive to the doctor's office by myself again (I found out about the loss of our first baby by myself at the doctor's office and somehow made it home). We were immediately called back for an ultrasound, and the tech could tell we were very scared. She did a transvaginal ultrasound first with the screen turned to her to "check the cervix length" while I knew she was checking the cervix...I also knew she would be looking to see if our baby still had a heartbeat. I kept looking desperately at her face for a reaction to know that everything was okay. Shaun was holding my hand so tight. And then she turned on the heartbeat...I think we all just took a nice big sigh. She then switched to the abdominal scan so that we could see the baby. And I know I'm partial, but oh my goodness...what a cutie. Both hands were by our baby's face, and we could see all five fingers on one hand. She even showed us baby's little feet, and they were crossed at the ankles. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world to see our baby so comfy in there...already displaying such a sweet personality. Shaun said in front of the ultrasound tech..."It's a girl, Courtney." I'm still thinking boy so it will be fun to find out soon who is right. I have the u/s pic right next to my desk, and I look at it all of the time. I love to count my baby's fingers. 1,2,3,4,5. I'm so amazed...what a miracle. Five perfect precious little fingers. I long for the day to feel those fingers tightly wrapped around mine. Most u/s pics are profile shots, but baby was looking right at us during the ultrasound. I hope all of you can tell what is going on in the pic. It is so much easier to see clearly as video, but we didn't have our dvd since it was an emergency. I ended up having to get a catheter to see how much urine was left in my bladder after I peed…ouch! Apparently my bladder was completely full during the ultrasound even though I just emptied it. My dr thinks that this could be contributing to my pain but he thinks that I could also be starting to get round ligament pain. I honestly think that was probably the pains now that I've read more about round ligament pain and have experienced a couple more episodes. As far as the bladder goes, I need to go to the bathroom every 2 hours, and they will keep a close eye on me for UTIs (urine looked great last time so hopefully it will stay that way). But I have to agree with my friend who replied to my everything is okay text..."woohoo...bring on the bladder issues...we want a baby...whew..thank the Lord."