29 weeks and counting

Well things have been uneventful since my last post which is a really good thing! Everything with out little man is looking good, I recovered from surgery well and the cerclage is working great! There were a few days that I did have to go up to the hospital because I was having contractions but after about an 8 hour day hanging out with the labor and delivery nurses they were able to stop them and send us home. I am now 29 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

I am a little behind on belly pictures because it is not very often that I get ready since I can't go out of the house and I just lay around all day. We have officially set a c-section date so I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. We will be meeting our sweet angel on December 10th as long as he doesn't decide he needs to come sooner. We are still doing shots at home every week that help strengthen my uterus and having frequent doctors appointments to make sure everything is looking good. Jared gives me my shots at home and they are the worst shot I have ever had! They are so thick and my butt burns all night long! 

My belly is only measuring like I am 26 weeks along so we had an ultrasound to check and make sure he was growing on track and that everything still looked good. Everything looked great! He was the size of a 30 week 3 day baby and I was only 28 weeks 6 days at that time and he weighs about 3lbs. 2 oz. We got some way cute 3D pictures of him and I can't wait until I can kiss those sweet little lips and face! 

 And we have finally agreed on a name for our little guy! We are naming him McCoy Michael Malone:) We had picked the name Jaden for a boy before we got pregnant and then after we found out it was a boy my dad suggested McCoy and we really liked it. Not too long after I decided that was the name I liked best. Jared fell in love with it after we looked up the meanings of both names and McCoy is an Irish name, which is where his family is from and means son of Adoh which also means son of fire. He loved it because he is a firefighter and thought it was perfect. We later found out that his grandpa and great grandpa were named Coy, so it kind of had family ties. And last but not least his favorite player for his football team the Eagles is LeSean McCoy. So there are so many reasons why this name works so perfectly. And for the count down we are only 43 days away from meeting this little boy! 

Pregnancy Update

I have not updated our blog in a while but now that I am on bed rest until this little boy gets here I will have plenty of time to keep everyone updated on how we are doing! First of all the big news WE ARE HAVING A BABY BOY!! We are both so excited for this little man to get here. This pregnancy has definitely been a long journey but well worth it and I would't have it any other way. At 13 weeks I was having some bleeding and cramping so we went to the doctor and found out that I had a Placenta Previa where his placenta was covering both of my cervix and could cause some serious bleeding issues if I did anything so I was put on bed rest for 6 weeks hoping as he grew it would pull the placenta away and everything would be fine. Luckily at our next ultrasound everything looked good, the placenta had moved and I was no longer on bed rest! YAY! This lasted for about 4 weeks and then I started having some contractions and cramping so after a few days of these we decided to go up to labor and delivery and get things checked. They did an ultrasound and found that my cervix was thinning already! I was only at 23 weeks at this point! We met with our doctor and talked about our plan from here on out and he felt that it would be best if I went back on bed rest and had weekly ultasounds and appointments to make sure I was not thinning out more. I had to go to the first ultrasound by myself because it was Jared's first day of work in the emergency room. I had thinned so much since our last ultrasound they made me stay at the office until my doctor could come talk to me between surgeries and decided that it would be best if we did what they call a cerclage and sew my cervix shut to keep this little man in there for as long as we can. I called Jared and told him the news and he had to leave his first day of work after only being there for 30 minutes! We were added onto the surgery schedule that afternoon. The surgery went very well and as planned and me and baby boy are doing great! They gave me a steroid called Betamethasone to help his lungs develop since we don't know how soon he is going to make his grand entrance. Jared also has to give me a shot once a week at home of Progesterone to help prevent pre-term labor as well. We can't wait to meet this little guy but he definitely needs to stay in and cook a while longer. We also have an appointment and tour with the NICU so we can know what to expect from them when he gets here as well. I will try and keep everyone updated as best I can over the next little while as to how we are all doing!

Here is a belly picture at 22 weeks!

Baby Malone Due January 9, 2014

As most of you know by now Jared and I are expecting our little miracle baby, it is due in January but due to my previous surgeries we will be having a C-section at 36 weeks so the second week in December. So to back up a little bit as to how we found out I had not been feeling well for a few days and was having a lot of pain in my lower abdomen, we waited and waited for it to go away and it just got worse and was spreading to my back so we decided to go to the ER to make sure I didn't have a ruptured ovarian cyst since I get them all the time with my PCOS. While there they asked if there was any change I could be pregnant. We told them there is always a chance but really not likely due to how long we had been trying and were told we would have to do In Vitro to have a baby. They did a pregnancy test just to make sure and they were not able to tell if there were really 2 pink lines or not, they said maybe but we are unsure. So they did a blood test and my HCG (the hormone in your blood and urine when you are pregnant) was 36. Not pregnant is less than 5, so WE WERE PREGNANT! Barely pregnant but it was there. I took pregnancy tests every day just to watch the second line get darker and darker as my HCG levels kept going up. They were still concerned that it might be ectopic with all of the pain I was having, so we had an ultrasound as soon as it was big enough to see, and everything looked great, no problems!! Yay! We couldn't keep it a secret any longer we called all of our family and told them the news, it was so fun getting everyone's different reactions because everyone was so surprised. I didn't cry until I told my mom and then I lost it. I am now 15 weeks pregnant and am already on bed rest because I have placenta previa, where the placenta covers the cervix and can cause extreme bleeding problems for me. Out little baby is doing great and is so far a healthy little boy or girl. I can't wait to find that out. We have an ultrasound on August 6th and will find out then:)
These are the latest ultrasound pictures we have of our little one. We could not believe how big it was and that we could see all the little fingers. We could not be more excited for this little one to come into our lives, we love this little baby so much already, I cannot even begin to imagine the feelings I will feel when I get to hold it and see it's little face.

 Our ultrasound tech was so nice and gave us a little video of the baby sucking on its fingers and doing a little flip for us. She was amazing, she was on the night we were in the ER and found out we were pregnant.

My Firefighter!

Large rookie class tested by fire, smoke - Large rookie class tested by fire, smoke: Local: Pocatello Fire Department trains nine firefighters in live-fire drills

This is a local newspaper article Jared was in this past week.

These are some pictures of Jared at work during training. I stole them from the Pocatello Fire Departments Facebook page.

The Big Move

At the beginning of March we moved to Pocatello, ID! Jared got a job with the Pocatello Fire Department as a Paramedic/Firefighter. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments and how hard he works to support our family. We had to make many trips back and forth from Cedar City to Pocatello while he was going through the interview process. He first had to come and take a written exam which started out with 250 applicants. They then ranked them according to where they scored in the group. Then we had to come again for him to have an oral interview. After that they offered him the position contingent on him passing a doctor's physical exam and then a combat challenge the next day. The physical and combat challenge were on a Monday and Tuesday and then after he passed he had to start week that following Monday. With us not knowing if it was a definite thing until he passed these tests we had to find a place to live and move very quickly. It was a crazy hectic week.

Driving through Arby's on our way out of Cedar City.

It is a 6 hour drive from Cedar City to Pocatello so we spent a lot of time in the car, Daija and Jazelle did so good while we did all this traveling.

It was Daija and Jazelle's first time staying in a hotel when we came for testing and interviews and they did pretty good at behaving while we were there.

Jared studying hard for the written exam, and Daija and Jazelle being good little girls while daddy is studying.

The day we moved there was a huge snow storm and the roads were terrible. Jared was driving the moving truck and the heater didn't work in it so he was freezing the whole way to Idaho, and I was driving our little car that was just sliding all over the road. It was quite the adventure but we made it safely and the fire department was at our house to help us unload the truck and had everything out in less than an hour. They were amazing! We put our house in Cedar City up for sale and exactly one week after is was on the market it SOLD! I got a job at the hospital here on the Same Dy Surgery floor. Everything just came together for us so well and we are so blessed for everything going on in our lives right now.

1 year Anniversary

I know this is way late posting it but this is my way or scrapbooking and keeping track of everything that happens in our lives that I am doing it anyway. This past July, Jared and I celebrated our First Anniversary. The past year has been full of so many wonderful things. Since we were married we both graduated from school. I finished nursing school and Jared finished the Paramedic program, we built and bought a house and have just enjoyed being with each other.
To celebrate 1 year together we went to Mesquite for the weekend and had such a blast just relaxing and hanging out.

 We hung out at the pool on our floaties:)

Getting ready to go out and eat

And my favorite part of the whole weekend was spending the day at the spa and getting massages. It was so much fun and so relaxing! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend to spend with the love of my life. 

On our actual anniversary the only thing I wanted to do was have a night at home just simple. So we ordered pizza and rented a movie and just had a night in. Best year ever!

Our journey with infertility

I have decided to start blogging about our journey with infertility to help with the many emotions I feel and to hopefully reach out and help someone else going through the same thing. Jared and I have been married for 14 months now and have been wanting a baby since our honeymoon. All I have ever wanted in life besides being married to my best friend and growing old with him is to have kids together and to be a mom. I cannot wait for the day that I can hold my baby in my arms and know that Jared and I created this child together and to love him/her unconditionally forever.

When we got married we knew that having a baby would have its challenges with some problems that I have. I am so lucky to have found Jared and to know that he loved me so much that none of that mattered, he still wanted to marry me and be with me forever. After many months of hoping that it worked and then getting the answer no we became very discouraged and went in to see the doctor. After a few tests and some trial and errors with medications it was determined that we were not going to be able to get pregnant on our own, we were going to have to undergo Invitro Fertilization (IVF). We were crushed! to say the least. Not only did I not respond to any of the medications Jared's sperm are not very good. There are plenty there but they don't have the ability to penetrate the egg. I don't think I would stop crying for a few days. Many thoughts and worries went through my head, all to which my amazing husband comforted and talked through with me how it was all going to be okay. Having fertility issues is a very emotional roller coaster to be on. It is so hard for me to not get my hopes up and think maybe this drug will work this time, or maybe a miracle will happen and we won't have to pay the thousand of dollars for IVF and then every time there is only one pink line it is devastating. Jared is always telling me to not get my hopes up and it wouldn't be so hard when it is negative but it is nearly impossible to think maybe just maybe it will work.The only thing I have left to do at this point is to hope and pray that a miracle happens.

Now that we have both accepted the challenges that have been placed before us the biggest challenge we are facing is being able to afford the IVF. It costs about $10,000 per cycle and is not even guarenteed to bring us the result we want to badly. This past weekend our doctor was giving away a free cycle in a drawing and we were so hopeful that this was our chance to make our dreams come true! Unfortunately we were not the lucky couple that day to be able to make those dreams happen but since then we have decided to do things a little bit differently. There is no way that we are going to be able to do this on our own so we have agreed to let our family and friends help us where they can. This was a very hard step for both of us to take because we felt stupid or embarrassed to ask others for help. One thing I can say for sure is it has been very humbling these past few days to know how many people care and love us and want to help. We are so appreciative of what everyone wants to do to help us make our dreams come true. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and all of our family and friends for going through this journey with us. Our hope is by branching out and receiving help from all those that love us that we can also be able to help one other couple who is going through the same challenges as us not be stressed about how they are going to pay for it because there are so many other things that need to be worried about.

The last and most important thing that I will share that I have taken away from this journey so far was from a speech that someone gave right before the drawing. She told all of three things we should do while on this difficult emotional journey. I have no idea what the first ones were about but the third one was the one that stuck out to me the most. She said that no matter what happens we need to be able to look our spouse in the eye and tell them that they are enough for you the rest of your lives, even if that means that you will never have children. And right after she said that Jared pulled me a little bit closer to his side and kissed me so tenderly on my head and I knew in that moment that he was enough for me if we are unable to have children. Going through this journey has made us so much closer as a couple and makes it easier to go through something like this with your best friend.

Me and Jared at the Footsteps for Fertility 5K

We are so grateful for all the support our family gives us through this journey. Jared's mom and brother Lewis came to the race with us.