How it came to be

I have to be honest, it's been pretty hard keeping this a secret from everyone.  Being married for five years  finally took the plunge.  Well, it was a little more difficult then just deciding to take the plunge.  We experienced some set backs, one was dealing with some infertility problems.  Infertility runs in McKay's family, so this was something that kept coming up in our minds after a year and a half with no successes.  So we thought we would get some help to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with us.  

Thanks to my good friend Alicia, she gave me a good recommendation of a doctor her and her husband went to when they struggled with infertility.  Dr. Heiner from Reproductive Care Center in Murray was so great.  Our first visit, we sat down in his office, I felt like I was on one of those pharmaceutical drug commercials where the patient talks to the doctor in their really nice office.  He spent over a hour with us, asking about us, our health history, our goals in life, questions we had, and gave us some really good advice.  He did this experiment that made me realize that getting pregnant is a complex process and if one small thing is not in sync, your body won't allow itself to get pregnant.  Dr. Heiner drew six houses on a piece of paper and says, let's pretend this is your neighborhood and these six households are trying to get pregnant.  He asked us which house we wanted to be.  Of course we picked house #1.  He told me to roll the dice.  I rolled the dice, it was a number six.  He then says, ok so house #6 got pregnant.  Rolled again, a three.  I rolled again, a five.  No joke, it took me 24 times to roll a freaking one.  He then told us a healthy couple can try up to 23 times and not pregnant, and on the 24th time can.  It's all about probability.  This made me feel like there's hope and that I just needed to be patient.

Dr. Heiner came up with a plan.  He ordered a bunch of blood tests and an ultrasound for me, and McKay had the easy part of doing a semen evaluation.  I told McKay to not feel embarassed about the semen test, he can check it off his bucket list.  McKay's test, my blood work and ultrasound all came back looking normal except my thyroid level was really low.  I was put on a small dose of thyroid medicine.  I was given a calendar, that would help me track the days I was most fertile.  Ten days after I had my period, I took ovulation tests (you can buy these at the store) until I got a positive.  Then that next day is when you're suppose to "try".  After doing this recipe for two months, I got pregnant.  My period has been out of whack since I stopped using birth control.  From what I read online about timing, everything was telling me to try two weeks after my period.  I didn't realize how out of whack my periods were until I took the ovulation tests.  The first month I tracked this, it took me three weeks to get a positive ovulation sign.  I seriously think the combination of my thyroid being really low and not having the timing right was what was making it hard for us.

How I found out I was pregnant.  The day after Christmas, I had a feeling I should take a test, I knew my period was suppose to be coming within a few days, but I was starting to feel some of the early symptoms of pregnancy.  I took the test, didn't think much of it because I've taken so many tests in the past and they always came out negative.  When I looked at the test, it said loud and clear "Pregnant".  I sat there and looked at it for like 10 minutes and I didn't really think much.  I thought to myself, "well if its true that would be awesome, but I don't want to get my hopes up."  The next day, which was the 27th and our 5th Anniversary, I decided to find out for sure, so I told McKay I was going to take a jog, I jogged to the local Smith's and bought another pregnancy test.  Don't ask me how I carried it home, it's pretty embarrassing.  I got home, took the second test and it came out again "Pregnant".  I sat there for another 10 minutes, and just thought, "huh, this is going to be funny to tell McKay on our Anniversary."  I wrapped up both tests in a little Nordstrom silver box and put a big bow on top of it.

We went snow shoeing up in Park City that afternoon and took dear old Winston with us.  Later that night we decided to go to a local Mexican Restaurant.  While we were waiting for our dinner, I gave the little silver box to McKay.  McKay would not open the box.  He thought it was something naughty inside and didn't want people to see it in the restaurant.  I kept on telling him it wasn't naughty and to open the box up.  It took him a few seconds to get the courage, when he did and saw the two tests, he looked at me in confusion and said, "Are you serious?"  I said to McKay, "no I'm not, I found these tests in our neighbors trash can and wanted to Punk'D you."  He couldn't believe it.  He was really excited and asked me when I found out.  I told him, I found out the day after Christmas.  He was impressed because he knows its hard for me to keep my mouth shut especially when great news are involved.  I wish I got a picture of his face, he had a grin from ear to ear.  He couldn't believe it.  We had a great dinner and mostly sat there and talked about how our lives are going to change for the better, how Winston is going to get another sibling, how this will be the first grandchild on both sides of our families, and how we wanted to wait to tell friends and family.

We had our first OB appointment where we were able to see an ultrasound of the baby.  It looked like a little tadpole, but you could definitely had a heart beat.  It was so tender to see it.  I'm due the end of August and it will be a hot summer for me, but that's ok.  McKay and I feel really lucky and blessed to be parents to one of Heavenly Father's children.  I just hope I don't mess them up!