Retail Therapy, A New Baby & A New Plan

I woke up yesterday ready to spend the day at the hospital with my sister Kim and her new baby. Plans changed though. She was scheduled to be induced that day, but the hospital kept delaying her coming in. Our other sister, Melissa, had spent the night at her house, planning on going to the hospital with her first thing in the morning. While they waited for the call, my 7-year-old niece, Brinlee was keeping my grandma company at my mom's house and her 9-year-old sister Kenzie was home with her dad.

When I found out my mom was planning to pick Kenzie up before her dad went to work at 1:00, I offered to go get her instead. My sister had mentioned previously that Kenzie was in desperate need of summer clothes and money has been tight. Shopping usually makes me feel better. Shopping lately, with the weight I have gained from the hormones I've been taking over the better part of the last year, is not so much fun. So I decided to introduce my niece to "Retail Therapy."

First we had lunch at Chili's with Ryan, then we started our day of shopping. We went to Justice, Kohl's, Nordstrom Rack and Old Navy. I taught her the art of shopping the clearance racks: find something you like, decide how much you would pay for it, look at the price and keep it if it is less than you guessed, or put it back if it is more...unless you REALLY like it, then you carry it around and think about it some more. She picked up on the method in no time! I also taught her to always take LOTS of clothes into the dressing room because once you try them on, you'll put half of them back. She tried on a ton of stuff and ended up making out pretty good. 

She got 3 pairs of flip flops, 2 dresses, 3 pairs of shorts and 12 shirts in all. We even picked out some shirts for her little sister, who isn't in need of much, thanks to hand-me-downs. The most expensive item she picked was $12.00, the least expensive item was $2.00. If you know me, you know I LOVE a deal; our best deal was at Justice (I had never been there before) where everything in the entire store was 40% off and clearance items were another 40% off on top of that! She got two $30.00 shirts for $5.00 or less each. It was so fun! She was so grateful too-I'm so proud to have such a sweet niece. It made me feel good to have the time with her to do something special and help my sister out. I even made her pose with her shopping bags in front of each store so we could document our shopping adventure. Shopping always cheers me up, so it was a perfect way to transition from the sad news of our negative pregnancy test on Sunday to the happy event of a new baby Monday.

My little protege!

Just before we left our last store we got the call that my sister's doctor was finally going to break her water. We went to my house and went through everything she got, then packed it all back up and left once Ryan got there. We stopped and picked up my brother-in-law at work (Kenzie's dad) and headed out to the hospital in Provo. We timed it perfectly, arriving 15 minutes after baby Dylan David (David after my dad) was born. My mom, grandma and Brinlee had been there for a few hours and little Bailey had spent the entire afternoon at the hospital waiting for her little brother to arrive (she was a little grumpy, but still adorable as ever). Luckily the delivery room was fairly large! We passed little Dylan around, each taking a short turn holding him, before they took him to the nursery (with his dad) for shots and a bath and cleaned my sister up to take her down to the new mommy floor.

My mom and grandma left, but Ryan and I and Melissa and her family waited alongside Kim's in-laws for Kim to come down from labor and delivery. After what seemed like forever, Kim, her husband and their new baby all made to the room Kim would call home for the next two days. We did not stay long after that. Even though it seemed like we only got a very brief time with the new baby, we still didn't get home until around 9:00. I wish I could have cuddled the new baby a little longer, but keeping it short probably saved me from getting too emotional. I still looked at my sister wishing it was me spending the night in the hospital with my own new baby.

Dylan David, born 6:30 pm June 9, 7 lbs. 5 oz.

 Just before we went to bed, Ryan received a text message from a friend telling us to look on the front porch. I was delighted to find a yellow watering can full of sunflowers that our friends Nate and Mel had left for us on the patio table. It was so pretty and so sweet of them! They also left a note extending their sympathies for our failed cycle and hope for the next one. It was so kind and thoughtful of them. I smile every time I look at the flowers on the kitchen counter.

Today we talked to our doctor and found out what our next step is. I will start taking birth control in a few days and the rest will depend on when I get on the calendar for our embryo transfer (we should have dates tomorrow). The next step will be an endometrial biopsy (which I am dreading) then I will start Lupron a week after that followed by estrogen a week and a half later and progesterone injections the week before the embryo transfer. Our transfer will likely be about 6-8 weeks from now (which means late July or early August).

We also reviewed the quality of our remaining embryos and told our doctor we do want to transfer two this time (which will definitely increase our chance of twins, but we are okay with that). Now we just have to decide which two because they are not all of the same quality.  I just hope everything goes smoothly and there are not any delays this time. It still seems so far away! But I have waited this long, so I what's another two months? I still feel a little helpless for the moment. Waiting is the hardest part and there seems to be so much of it.