9 Weeks & 4 Days

I've decided to start keeping a semi-regular record of the next 7 months and beyond at the suggestion of my very good friend Meegan who says "There is no way that you CAN'T keep a record of some sort about what's going on to you!"
Well, crumbling under peer pressure (after-school specials be damned) I've jumped into the "have you read my blog" ship.

How I got here...
Let's start with the fact the according to my doctors I shouldn't be pregnant. Last year on our first night as a married couple (though Cheyenne swears that this convo took place on our honeymoon...he's wrong of course) we decided that we would start trying to conceive on our 1st wedding anniversary, which would give us a year of marriage without the pressures of being a mom and dad.
In September, in a fit of boredom brought on by a lack of wedding to plan I started taking pre-natals and getting a bit lusty eyed at the idea of having a baby. By December i had already created a registry (because yes folks, i am a freak), decided on a hospital, subscribed to Fit Pregnancy Magazine and several pregnancy related websites, and purchased and read the entire What to Expect series. At this time I also started to take my birth control pills as prescribed (as opposed to skipping the sugar pills and thus my period every month as I had done for years on end) in preparation for baby making in the early summer.
The thing is, I should have had that first period on or about December 31st...but it never came. By March I still hadn't had that proverbial visit from Aunt Flo (gross) so I went to see my doctor about the whole thing as all manner of freaking out was going on in my head.
After several tests and exams she came to the conclusion that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) with a tendency towards metabolic disorder, both of which are a combination of genetics (always my downfall) and poor eating habits (i like good food and i like it in quantities too large for someone who is 5 foot 1 inch tall). I was told that unless Cheyenne's numbers were "outstanding" my ability to conceive naturally were almost nill and that most likely i would need to go on the medication Clomid and go in for artificial insemination (or the turkey baster method as we call it in my home).
I was crushed and quite a bit of crying and self pity followed where my poor husband had to remind me nightly that it didn't mean that we couldn't have children and that it was only the beginning of spring and we weren't supposed to be checking this stuff out and having this kind of stress until at least June 28th. Poor guy.
So a plan was made, I would spend the spring and summer doing what i could to get as healthy as possible (Chey's test came back fine so he was off the hook) and in September we would go see the fertility specialist about the Clomid and IUI. This was a plan that i am constantly reminded we BOTH agreed upon.
However, having been told that I was all but barren i stopped taking my birth control all together (what was the point of adding those hormones to my body and paying that money for nothing) and I did some research. Much of it was depressing and i had started to prepare for the worst and try to come to terms with having a child in a less than traditional sense (this included a brief email sent to a few Chinese adoption agencies). In my research i found several medical articles discussing the use of acupuncture for infertility with good results. I brought it up to my doctor and she whole heartedly pushed me toward it as an option to pursue before going to something stronger (this is why I love living in the West).
So in April I went to my first acupuncture appointment at the Qi Spot with Wade McCullogh not expecting anything really but thinking it was worth a shot. I had 3 sessions with him and got mysterious Chinese herbs (which smelled of beef bouillon) which i was supposed to ingest in tea form twice a day.
At about this same time Cheyenne & I had finally gotten fed up with our apartment in NW Portland and decided to try and move in August if we found the right place. Well, of course i have no patience and a complete inability to wait for anything and started looking up houses for rent on Craigslist immediately. I found a few that seemed promising and was able to talk Cheyenne into going for a look by saying that it was the only smart thing to do ("we need to see what's out there and what our $ gets us in different neighborhoods and which neighborhood we really like" etc etc) The first was a total dud, the second I liked but Chey hated, and after a bit of frustration (me at not being able to move into the perfect place this second and Chey at being taken to look at houses MONTHS before we had decided to move) after promising that this 3rd one would be our last until later in the summer we decided to go have a look at what appeared to be a charming Cape Code house in St Johns.
We arrived at our destination a bit early so we decided to walk around the neighborhood a bit to get an idea of what it would be like. First thing i noticed? The house was directly across the street from an elementary school...the exact one that I went to from 1st-3rd grade when we first moved to Portland from St Joe! I hadn't been to the area in 19 years and let me tell you, it had totally changed. What was once "sketchy" to say the least had now been replaced with quiet streets and quaint houses occupied by people about our age and the same places in their lives. There was Pier Park just 1 block from our house (no longer the terrifying forest of my youth but now a cleared out and beautiful old growth forest park well maintained and with added features). We finally made it to the house itself and fell in love at first site. An adorably charming 1925 coco brown Cape Code with white trim, large windows, 2 beautiful fir trees in the front ("cant you just picture them at Christmas?"). Inside we were met with all of the things on our "must have list": hardwood floors, wood burning fireplace, built-in bookshelves, kitchen with windows and good storage, gas stove/oven, full basement with new washer and dryer, 2 bedrooms of good size, and a huge backyard (with 2 lilacs - 1 deep purple & 1 white - 2 azaleas, roses, and a new tree - we think dogwood) with a cobblestone patio and a huge garden shed. The house also had a fully finished attic ("wouldn't this be perfect for a media room where we could have the big couch, TV, sound system, and office. The we could have the living room downstairs the TV-free reading room I've always wanted"). Needless to say, we had fallen in love. We were smitten and spent the entire ride home crunching numbers and figuring out if it was possible. The thing was, we had a 2+ week vacation planned in May which was going to take up money and time that would be crucial for such a move, with a little sweet talk and cajoling I was able to convince the owners of "our" house to hold on to it for us until we got back from our road trip in May. On this trip the acupuncture and Chinese herbs seemed to have helped since i was able to have my first period in ages. This gave me some hope and caused me to let go of some of the anxiety that had been following me.
To say that we rushed into a couple of highly important decisions is putting it lightly (getting on birth control, moving) and we definitely felt the crunch and stress.
In May we went on our trip (a drive from Portland to Reno to visit family and then Reno to Denver to visit more family and back to Portland) only to have to start our move the day after getting back into town!
We had been moved in for about 2 weeks (still not unpacked) when we went to our friends David & Abigail's new house (they moved into the same area at the same time!) so a small get together that included that old Chole favorite the Grey Hound...in a nutshell things happened, these things may or may not have included hanky and/or panky.
With our first anniversary on the horizon I was suffering from what seemed like either prolonged PMS ("must be that acupuncture" which i was still going to bi-weekly) or the flu ("seriously, am i car sick for the first time ever?"). I was going to make an appointment to see my doctor about my PMSy-flu-like symptoms and had the thought "I just know that they are going to ask me if I'm pregnant. Then I'm going to have to go into the whole PCOS story and admit that it's not in the cards for me etc. I know, I'll just take an at home test so that i can show the doctor that i am in fact just sick and need some meds". I was so confident that i was right that i went ahead and took my test at work in the ladies room. 3 minutes later i looked down and was shocked! "PREGNANT"?!?! How?! I mean i know "how" but ya know...how? I was shaking and in shock, I ran upstairs and pulled my boss aside "Louise, you know how i have really bad vision, well can you check something for me? I don't think I'm reading it right". She takes a look at it and says "How can you not be reading it right? It says PREGNANT it's not a fuzzy line or something, it's digital...you're pregnant."
Panic. Good panic but panic nonetheless.
What does any woman do when in a state of shock, disbelief, and panic? Does she call her husband? No. She calls her best friend...and this is just what I did. I called Amanda at work and explained everything, and with that calm voice of hers that I will never posses she said "Hun, I think you're pregnant." And that's just what it took to make it sink in, it took Amanda telling me what a test already had confirmed.
I made an appointment for a blood test the next day to confirm what was surely already true.
Now, I have to tell Cheyenne. 2 weeks before our first wedding anniversary (where we were supposed to start actually trying to conceive) I am already pregnant.
Like the dork that I am I had had a plan for telling him already laid out (it was one of my prep things back in December). I called Meegan and asked her to stop by the mall (gross, and I still owe her for this) and pick up a Cinnabon. Then I called Cheyenne and said that I still wasn't feeling well (remember he thinks that I have the flu) and would he please pick me up from work early?
I hid the Cinnabon in my bag and when we got to the house told Cheyenne that I was going to change and to go ahead on upstairs and i would meet him there.
In the meantime, i got out a plate for the Cinnabon and attached a little note that said "Ours will be here this February" (I had figured out a rough date from google) then put my bun in our oven. I called Cheyenne downstairs saying that there was something "scary" in the oven that i needed him to take care of. He opened it and pulled out the bun, looked at it in confusion and says "What is this? Who put a bun in our oven?" and it's so funny to me that i just look at him waiting for him to listen to what he's saying "Honey, what's going on? Why is there a bun in our oven? Is it a message from the landlords?" uh, wow. I chalk this up to sometimes never ever expecting what's right in front of you. So I tell him to look at the note. "What's this m...wait...oh my god...is this US?!" at which point i nodded and started to cry like a silly girl. It's very cute in a sappy and funny way.
After the blood test confirmed everything was on the up and up we called everyone and told them (my dad cried more than both of our mothers put together and it will always be one of the best moments of my life).
In the time between then and now i have thrown up my own weight in vomit, have peed more times then I ever thought possible, and have been physically miserable, but, this will pass and a new and better trimester is on the horizon and with each day all of the changes that have happened in the last 6 months seem more and more real and less like a bizarre dream that I'll wake from at any moment. If you stay tuned you can follow along with me as weird things happen to my body and amazing things happen to my life....welcome to my blog