In a Heartbeat

So yesterday was not a good day for me, to say the least.

It all started at around 6:30am while I was laying in bed, trying to find the motivation to get up and get ready for work. I rolled over onto my side and felt an enormous amount of pressure shift into my pelvic area. At first it was just uncomfortable, but after a while it started to hurt and really bothered my lower back. Trying to ignore it and get on with my morning, I got up, got ready and went to work.

It was once I got to work that the pain really set in - I was literally sitting at my desk all morning, trying not to keel over from the pain. It actually came in waves, during the "down time" the pain was actually manageable. But during the "high time", it was all I could do not to run out of the room screaming.

Around 12 noon, my mom asked if I wanted to go for a ride and get some fresh air - she would pick me up from work and we would go out on my lunch break. I took her up on the offer, but the moment I walked outside to get into her car the worst of the pain began. Luckily I only live less than 2 miles from work, and so I told her that I needed to go home. We went home and woke Bryan up (he had just gone to sleep after working his night shift), they sat with me for half an hour or so until the pain subsided. My mom had an appointment she needed to get to and asked if I wanted a ride back to work, since I was feeling a little better. I decided to suck it up and went back to work.

Of course, shortly after I got back to work was when the pain began again. I tolerated it for as long as I could and then I went down to use the faculty restroom and call my mom again. The bad pain was coming in waves and lasting for about 5 minutes each time, so of course by the time I left the restroom the pain had subsided again. I had students in my room until 3:30ish that day, and somehow I managed to stick it out until then. Afterward, I ran home and crawled into bed.

At this point, I was expecting the worst. I kept flashing back to my miscarriage and relating every little twinge and pain to that experience. I was almost positive that I was loosing this baby too.

I managed to fall asleep, and actually slept through the night. I called in sick the next morning and stayed in bed all of today, up until my ultrasound appointment, which was scheduled for 1pm.

Surprisingly, the pain had subsided since the night before - but I just figured that meant it was over for now and that this ultrasound would once again confirm my worst fears.

We went to our appointment - Bryan tried to remain positive, but I had fallen into a hopeless slump. I was literally expecting the absolute worst news and just couldn't be cheered up.

The ultrasound tech took us back to the room, asked me the basic questions (including information about my previous losses) and I explained to her what I had been going through, emphasizing my feelings that this pregnancy was now over as well. She searched around for a bit and explained to me that my ovary was engorged (due to the medication I was on) and had a couple of sizable cysts on it. She speculated that one of them had ruptured yesterday, and that was the pain I was experiencing. She wanted the doctor to have a look and confirm, but made sense and so I agreed with her.

The next thing that she showed us literally took my breath away - a beautiful little flicker of a heartbeat! I honestly couldn't believe it, even after she said it out loud to us I still couldn't believe it. I didn't even realized that I was holding my breath until she reminded me to breathe. She took some measurements and the baby was actually measuring 1 day a head of my own prediction, with an amazing heartbeat of 126 beats per minute!

Without further adieu... I present to you Baby W

I am still in complete and utter shock - the whole experience was just surreal.

But that's our baby :o)

Now that we've seen the heartbeat, the chances of a miscarriage are lower than 5% now! No less, please continue to send thoughts, prayers and positive vibes for Baby W's continued growth and stickiness!!!

Progress

We took an impromptu hiatus from our remodel over the holiday season - I honestly don't think we've worked on it since before November. But today's work holiday finally provided the opportunity to get back into the swing of things, and so we continued to trudge forward.

The last time I gave any kind of an update on the remodel was back before Thanksgiving, in my "ketchup" Busy Bee post, where I mentioned that we had been working on the electrical work and purchased all of the building supplies. So yes, that was the last time that we did any work on the remodel up until now.

Today we hooked-up or installed the light fixtures to the new electrical work. So we now have light up there!!! Which will make working into the wee hours of the night, much easier with that warm glow lol

We also installed the ventilation system for the ceiling and roof, raised the ceiling beams to heighten the room, and extended the rafters to accommodate the depth of the insulation.

Now we just have to finish installing the insulation strips, and then we can start putting the drywall back up! It's going to start looking like a room again very soon, I can hardly wait!!!

Just to recap and give you some perspective...

Here is what we started with:

This is what we did - completely gutted:

Now we're in the process of building it back up:

Someday soon, it will hopefully look something like this:

That's the plan anyway :o)

I am finally starting to feel like we're at a point in the project, where we're really going to start seeing the progress. Once the walls start going back up, it's really going to start looking like a room again!!!

New Toy

I just ordered a new toy!!!

I love online shopping lol having that package waiting on my door step when I come home from work, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning! Haha! But this purchase I am especially excited for!

I have been wanting to really get into photography for a while now - I've always had a P-n-S and done the best I could with that. But I've always dreamed of having a nice DSLR to take real quality shots with. It doesn't help that my entire family is a bunch of shutterbugs (especially my dad and uncles [his brothers]) and of course they have the high end equipment, with all of the bells and whistles. So I've learned a little here and there growing up, using their cameras - but now I think that I am ready for my own :o)

So we took the plunge and have invested in our very first DSLR!!!

Here is my new baby:

The Nikon D3000!!! :o) I'm in love, I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!

I was originally looking into getting a Cannon Rebel, but coming from a family of Nikon users I was ultimately talked into a Nikon camera instead. Plus, when it really came down to it - price was a pretty major consideration for us, but of course so was quality. Don't get me wrong - I knew that we were going to have to spend a little bit for a quality camera, but in the end the Nikon was a better deal overall.

And because we got such a good deal, I also purchased this little beauty:

An extra lens - the Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Telephoto Zoom Lens!!! I've been told that this is more than enough to start off with, especially for an amateur beginner like myself. But I found a really good deal on it, so I figured 'why not'?!

With free ground shipping, it should arrive on my doorstep by Thursday :o)

I am so excited to start learning - I've already got a nice list going of recommended photography books and a few online classes/tutorials that I would like to take, just to get me started.

Loooooong Week

So I have been out of town at a conference for work all week, and it seriously feels like it has been the longest week ever! I left home on Tuesday morning and have literally been in meetings/sessions/workshops every moment of every day since then, and I still don't get to leave for home until after noon today! Not only has the week itself been long, but the days have been long too... we've been going from 7am until around 9pm everyday this week, with minimal breaks aside from meals.

On top of that, I am sure that you all know what it's like to sleep in a bed that is not your own and/or without your significant other there beside you. Or, if you're like me and your husband usually works nights, then I have really been sleeping without this all week...

Lol Sorry for the poor quality pic - Bryan sent it to me via text message yesterday, so it's a cell phone pic, but it definitely put a smile on my face. LoVe them :o) No less, I haven't really been getting any good, quality sleep lately either. All of that combined has just made for a really draining week, and I am so excited for it to finally be over!!!

The ironic part of the whole thing, is that we were walloped with a major snow storm this week as well. And so many of the speakers/presenters who were scheduled to be at this conference, couldn't even make it into town for it! So unfortunately there has been a lot of disappointment associated with this trip as well.

Luckily the snow fall has stopped and the plows have had time to get out there and clear the roads. Hopefully our ride home will be quick, safe, and uneventful! I can't wait to get home :o)

New Year, New Us!

Hoping everyone has a very merry Christmas and a safe happy New Year!

I know, I know, I know... I've been slacking with my blogging duties lately. Things have just been absolutely crazy the past few months, but hopefully they will start to settle down now for 2011!

As I mentioned before, I started a new job back in November and with that came a lot of new responsibilities - including an entire Orientation event that I needed to organize and throw the week of Christmas (yikes!). So needless to say, I have been super busy with that - but I am proud to report that it was a success and now it's onto the next thing lol I am actually going out of town for a conference in a couple of weeks, so that will be keeping me busy for a short while as well... it's always something!

Aside from that, we just got back from our Christmas vacation to Arizona a few days ago as well. We were just north of Phoenix visiting Bryan's grandparents for the holiday. It was a great trip - on Christmas day I was sitting outside in 75° weather!!! It really did not feel like Christmas at all, which was just fine by me this year... it was perfect!

So clearly, we've had a lot going on recently. We haven't even really had a chance to do anymore work on our upstairs renovation, but hopefully that will get back on track now that the holidays are over.

It sort of has to get back on track, we need our new master bedroom finished soon because this year in 2011 we are going to need that extra bedroom for a nursery! That's right, we're expecting again!

Given our struggle to conceive and after our loss back in September, I really struggled with how to handle everything our next go-around (God willing we ever got the chance again). But then I  was reminded that most of the worry surrounding pregnancy is in regards to pregnancy loss and we've already survived that! So this time I am going to take each day as it comes and enjoy every single moment that I get to be pregnant! We're thinking nothing but positive thoughts and enjoying it all - "today I am pregnant and I love my baby" :o)

And what better way to start 2011 than that?!?!

Anyway, we're really excited and hope that you will continue to follow us through this journey as we become parents! Thanks again for reading and Happy New Year everyone!