Thank you Quianna for these incredible announcement photos, and Brave and True Designs for our sign!

When/How did you find out you were pregnant?

We’ve been trying to get pregnant for 3 years and at this point I was very used to taking pregnancy test, hoping for 2 lines, staring at it for a solid minute or two just to make sure nothing was there. I kept telling myself this was the last cycle before I contacted the fertility center at Stanford. I did everything I could think of and from my previous period took an ovulation test every day (sometime twice a day) to make sure I didn’t miss a positive, and wore my Ava bracelet every night. 

If you don’t know I have a couple health issues going on that effect this whole process. One is, I have PCOS. It can come with a wide array of problems like hormone imbalances, funky periods, funky ovulation, cyst on your ovaries which could rupture, and overall makes everything a guessing game. Second, I have type 2 diabetes. I’ve had it at least since high school and for a majority of that time I didn’t manage it (yes, I know very very bad). Once we started talking about trying to have a baby I went to the doctor to “get it under control”. I could write a whole blog post about how doctors currently treat diabetes and how it put me on a very unhealthy road. Long story short I did my own research and found a much more healing way to treat my diabetes which made me much healthier. It is still something I manage everyday, and pregnancy makes it much much more complicated.

It was Nov 12, 4 days before my missed period but I couldn’t help myself and I took a test, and there it was a SUPER faint line. I’m pretty sure if I would have shown anyone they would have thought I was crazy and I thought maybe I’m getting “line eyes”. A few months before I got a couple false faint positive from blue test (don’t get me started) and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I knew that if it was positive it would be darker the next day, so I waited. I had a session early that morning and totally forgot to test until I came home. I was a little bummed because I knew the first morning tinkle would be the strongest, but I took a test when I got home anyways. I sat there in the bathroom and set the timer on my phone cause I couldn’t bare to watch it process, and there it was, stronger than the day before, 2 lines. Two real lines. I remember bursting into tears and falling to my knees in the floor and sobbing while smiling all at once.

While the road to get pregnant was bumpy, long, and had many sad moments, I’m so incredibly thankful that we didn’t need a more invasive process. My heart goes out to everyone who has gone though things like IVF. Besides the financial toll it can take, going through infertility can be incredibly lonely and frustrating. I’ve had so many incredible clients who have shared their journey with me, and given me advice and encouragement and hugs. Thank you for opening your heart and sharing your story. So many people prayed for this little girl to be in our lives, and I feel so blessed to have this many people love her already.

What symptoms do you have?

Ive been pretty lucky. I keep telling people that the universe must know that I can barely handle all the diabetes stuff so it hasn’t thrown more at me. I had morning sickness for about 3 days, but once I switched my prenatal vitamin from morning to night it completely went away. I’ve had cramming and Braxton Hicks from really early one. Even at our 12 week ultrasound the tech was having a hard time cause he told me I was having a Braxton Hick contraction right then. They aren’t so bad and right now it only happens once to a few times a day. I also have started getting vertigo. It usually only happens at the end of the day, and I think it’s from being dehydrated cause once I drink a ton of water it usually goes away. I also had round ligament pains form before I even got a positive test, let me test you sneezing is really fun, lol! I literally had to hold my stomach and brace myself. I also, like every other pregnant woman, have to pee every 5 minutes.

Cravings
I’m obsessed with chicken nuggets right now, lol. Partly because they are easy and they have some carbs but not a ton. Also I’ve been craving tomatoes, which I know is a pregnancy craving cause I basically hate tomatoes and ketchup and now I want it on every thing.

Weight Gain
This has been a stressful one. Of course the doctors didn’t want me to gain any weight, so when I see the number go up it makes me dread having that conversation. Plus being pregnant and diabetic they have me on insulin ( which is your fat store hormone). As of right now I’ve gain about 10 and I’m making peace with that. I know that I’m eating close to the same as I was before I was pregnant, and I’m trying my best.

Gender Prediction

Heart Rate- Girl
Chinese Calendar-Girl
Morning Sickness-Boy
Pregnancy Glow-Boy
Mom’s Prediction-Girl

I was right (and you know I love to be right!) It’s a girl! I knew long before we even got married, when we had kids I wanted to know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I’m way too much of a planner- no surprises for me. I also wanted to find out as soon as possible. At first kaiser told me that the genetic screening would show gender, but then every person I asked gave me a different answer about that. Finally I got a definitive no. So I bought the SneakPeek test. https://sneakpeektest.com/early-at-home-baby-gender-blood-test/

You send away for this kit, prick your finger, send off your blood and they tell you the gender. I thought, well this can’t be that bad, I pick my finger multiple times a day. Well let me tell you, this is not the same! It’s a huge vial and literally was a bloody mess. I am sure lots of people have success with it, but I found it really difficult. I tried my best and I got an email a few days later that the sample couldn’t be processed. I was so annoyed, but they did refund me. When we had the 12 week ultrasound I casually told the tech if he though he could see the sex he could tell us, but he was having a hard time measuring the baby so that was a bust. We did have a pretty good photo of her legs and I swore then you could tell it was a girl, Bradley was as convinced as I was.

Then we had a bit of a scare. I had a positive screening for Down’s Syndrome. Basically that means they put my info like race, age, weight, health into an algorithm and told us we had a 1 in 19 chance of having a down’s syndrome baby. We were so scared. They sent me for more genetic testing, and after the longest week and half of my life everything came back negative. I literally felt a weight lift off my shoulders when I got the results. I also got our gender results and right there next to sex was a capital F. We are having a little girl!

Baby Names

I’ve had multiple friends not reveal baby names until the baby was born, and I’m not gonna lie I always thought it was a little ridiculous. But now I’m in those shoes and I don’t want to share either, lol. We do have a name picked out, but we have an open mind to other names. Basically my family tends to be very opinionated and I don’t want it to ruin how I feel. That may not happen but for now it’s our little secret.

Due Date

My official due date is July 25th. That would out me at 40 weeks, but being diabetic makes me high risk and they won’t let me go past 39 week with a very real possibly of inducing as early as 37 weeks. We just have to wait and see, and I’m ok with that.

Baby Movements

I swear I felt twitches at 10 weeks. I didn’t feel proper movements until 16weeks. I can definitely feel her falling around and little kicks once in awhile but it’s still hard to feel it from the outside.

Photos

This question I get a lot- will you be doing your own newborn session? The answer is very much NO! If you don’t know doing a newborn session is pretty physical and I want to be able to depend on someone else to handle it. Not to mention I want photos of all of us together. I’m definitely going to do some of my own newborn photos of her, cause I think that will be so special, but I just don’t want the stress of having to d it all myself. I’m really looking forward to being on the other side of the process too.

Next common question I usually get is- will you have a birth photographer? Right no the answer is yes. This was such a journey for us, I really want to document everything, and I don’t want to have to worry about it myself or have Bradley worry about it.

That’s all I’ve got for now. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them below and I’ll probably do a follow up blog in a few months. If you have any questions about fertility, PCOS, type 2 diabetes that you’d like to keep private feel free to DM me on IG or send me an email. I’m happy to share what worked for me/us, or just answer any questions.