Thursday, February 16, 2023

2023: The Year Landon Arrives! Update

 We finally made it to February. It always feels like January has 365 days by itself. I don't know if that because as a teacher our pay days our spread far apart (Dec 16th - Jan 31st) or if it just seems to always go so slow! 

Let me tell you what hasn't gone slow... THIS PREGNANCY! At first, I thought it was, but now we will be turning 32 weeks this weekend! We are in the third trimester, and the third trimester has brought me a gift (just kidding).. a cold. I have never used more tissue in my life than I have over the past two weeks. Luckily, the coughing part has gotten better. I am waiting for my nose to stop running away. 

In January, the ladies from Journaling with Jesus through me a surprise baby shower! It was absolutely wonderful and I cannot wait to use all the gifts that they got for us! This group has truly been such a blessing in my life! 

I am leading another semester with A Blessed Womb! I will have a co-leader this go round, and as of right now I think we have 4 or 5 ladies signed up! If you know someone that is struggling with infertility or miscarriage (or maybe you are), I would like to encourage you to be a part of the group if you are able! We meet on Thursday nights at 6PM via google meet!

We are almost finished with the nursery, and have things organized so when we get items from the shower they will have a place to go! 

Thursday, December 29, 2022

2022 in Review

Looking back on our fertility journey, I am always amazed by the way we see God in it! Sometimes when we are going through hard times, it is difficult to recognize that God is there because we are overtaken by emotions, etc. Not long ago, our ABW group reflected on the question that if we knew what we were going to have to go through to get to this point would we have aborted the mission? My first thought was yes, this has been so hard and difficult to handle and process. However, now that we have been through it, I wouldn't change it. God has allowed our story to be used over and over again to show His goodness and glory. It has led to relationships that I would have never had otherwise. It has led me closer in my relationship with the Lord. So here is our fertility journey recap for 2022! 

January

- Embryo transfer, positive pregnancy test, numbers dropped, negative pregnancy test, miscarriage #2

February 

-Joined A Blessed Womb Small Group, made the decision to go through IVF again 

March

-Follow up appointment, baseline appointment

April

-Birth control, blood thinner shots, celebrated Brandon's birthday, saline ultrasound #2

May 

-Shots, all kinds of meds, monitoring appointments, egg retrieval, 3 embryos frozen

June 

-Rest/Recover, Celebrated 7 years of marriage

July

-baseline appointment for transfer, diagnosed with COVID, monitoring appointment, celebrated my 31st birthday, embryo transfer

August

-Positive pregnancy test at 4 days past transfer, beta rising from 55 to 5,000 plus, subchorionic hematoma

September

-Graduated from fertility doctor, had my first regular OB appointment at 10 weeks

October

-Started leading a Blessed Womb group virtually with 4 amazing women

November

-Gender Reveal (Landon Dale Owens), hit the halfway point

December

-Anatomy Scan, Celebrated Christmas with family and friends! 


As always, thank you for the prayers throughout this journey! We will continue to keep you updated on our pregnancy journey in 2023! Only 16 weeks until we meet Landon! 

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Halfway Update!

 We have made it to the halfway point!!! Over the weekend, I turned 20 weeks! I am just overwhelming thankful for making it here! We have 20 weeks left to go and I could not be more excited that we are getting closer to meeting Landon Dale! We have finished our registries on Amazon and at Target. I have already been asked about baby showers, and as many of those that I have been to in my life, I am so thankful that some will be hosted to celebrate Landon coming into this world! 

On Friday, we have our anatomy scan. Please be in prayer that everything goes well. Also, my feet have already started swelling, and while they are way worse symptoms or things that I could be going through right now, my feet simply just hurt! I pray that they won't be like this for the next 20 weeks, but people have told me they probably will be. 

Update on my Blessed Womb group: I cannot believe that our semester for this group is almost over. This journey has been long and tough, but it has led me to being able to meet these amazing women and hopefully help them through their journey as they seek the Lord through this hard time. 

Love you all! 

Katey

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Wake up Sleeper

As of this past weekend we are at 18 weeks! I am so incredibly thankful that we have made it to this point and I pray that baby Landon continues to grow and be healthy! Our next scheduled appointment is on December 2nd for an anatomy scan. 

We had a scare last week and it really threw me for a loop. I went to bed Thursday night fine, then I woke up in the middle of night just feeling like something wasn't right. I go to the bathroom, and I am bleeding. Not heavily, but enough to make me worry. I couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to let Brandon sleep, and I would just tell him what was going on as soon as his alarm went off at 6:15. As I am in the living room on the couch, cramps start to come too. Of course, I googled and I shouldn't have. So Brandon finally gets up and I tell him what's going on. Then I called the doctor as soon as they opened at 8, and the nurse told me I could come in at 11:00. 

On the ultrasound everything looked good. The sweet lady doing the ultrasound didn't see a bleed or anything that concerned her. It was so good to Landon on the ultrasound and know that everything was ok! And in case you haven't seen the gender reveal video...we are having a boy! 

I think that I needed to be woken up! Woken up, as in Katey what have you been doing? You fought hard in prayer for this gift, but now that it is here..where are you? Well, I have been struggling with my quiet time between leading a group, attending a group, and everything pregnancy related. However, this week so far, I have felt so much better physically and spiritually. I've done my daily studies for the Wednesday night group that I attend, and I've gotten prepared for my group on Thursday. I can only pray that God continues to press on my heart to meet with Him every single day! 

If you are struggling with your quiet times/personal time with the Lord, there is no day better than today to get back at it! Find someone to hold you accountable if that's what you need! Pray for guidance, strength.. God knows what you need! 

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Baby Update

Well I wasn't really able to get someone to share their story on short notice. I apologize for that! 

So I thought I would just give y'all a baby update! Baby's heart rate was at 155 last week! We get to find out the gender really soon! We are so excited about that! I'm defintely team girl and Brandon is team boy! We shall see! 

Thank yall for the continued prayers and support! Love you all! 

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Miscarriage and Infant Loss Awareness Month 2022


We are back to October. October normally represents fall and halloween, but for many of us it is a month dedicated to remembering the babies we lost too soon. The ones that we never got to meet or that weren't with us for long. For us, this year brought our second loss. In January when we did our frozen embryo transfer, we found out we were pregnant, but not many days later we weren't anymore. A loss in 2020, a loss in 2022, but now pregnant with our rainbow baby in 2022 that will arrive in 2023. 

National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day is on Saturday, October 15, 2022. 

Click here to read more: National Today - National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

I normally have people share their testimonies, and my hope is to do so for the next two weeks after talking and seeing if these ladies are willing to share their story. Just pray they open their hearts and will view this as a way to help others in their grief and struggle! 

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Results


 08/01 -- 4 days past transfer

Well, I decided to take an at home test, and I could not believe my eyes. On the test was a super faded line. I was so excited, and hoped and prayed that I wasn't just seeing things! 

08/02 -- 5 days past transfer 

I took the same brand I took yesterday, and it was positive again. It didn't look any darker. It was still pretty light. Then I decided to take the same brand that showed up for us last time. This brand showed a much clearer pregnant line! We are still 3 days out from our blood test. However, this gives me hope knowing that it is already positive now. I just pray the lines continue to get darker each and every day. 

I also decided that I couldn't keep this from Brandon. I just did something simple this time. 

I used a party of three sign that I had actually bought a few weeks prior. This is the only time I have ever purchased something previous to knowing if we would be pregnant or not. 

08/03 -- 6 days past transfer

Well another cheapie test, another positive. It got a little bit darker. I didn't have to squint as hard to realize that it was positive this time! Today was also the first day back to school. We had our institute in Montgomery, and the speaker was actually really good! He was engaging and everything! I also had to get up in the middle of his speech to go take my progesterone shot. I am so thankful for some great coworkers that are willing to do this for me! 

08/04 -- 7 days past transfer 

So I decided to take a first response today. Now, the last time, when we our HCG beta was low, we never saw a positive on the first response test. Well today, we did! It was so exciting to know that my HCG would be higher than last time, but the question remained how much higher? 

08/05-- 8 days past transfer (HCG beta #1) 

7:00 AM I get my blood drawn. 

12:00 PM Nurse calls! I guess my tone of voice was excited, and she asked me if I had already taken a test. I told her yes, I just wasn't sure where the level would be close too. My HCG was level was at 55! She tells me I am pregnant! There was no borderline or we are worried about this, etc! This is the highest my HCG has ever started at! She says I can wait until next Friday to go back or I can come back earlier. I told her I'd rather get it checked again sooner than later. My next HCG check in on Tuesday 08/09. 

08/09 -- 12 days past transfer (HCG beta #2) 

7:00 AM I get my blood drawn. 

I had continued to take test to watch the lines get darker, and they had been getting darker over the next few days. 

1:00 PM Nurse calls! Your HCG is at 312! It had doubled just as it was supposed to over those 4 days! We are just so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to make it to this point! Until today, we had never made it past a 2nd HCG. It has always dropped, until now! She asks again when I want to come back, and I said how about Friday! Appointment is set for Friday 08/12. 

08/12 -- 15 days past transfer (HCG Beta #3) 

7:15 AM blood work

Now previous to getting my bloodwork done, I decided to take test at home. These were some dark lines and I was over the moon about it! 

Here are the test from that Friday! 

11:45 Nurse calls, HCG is 1,140. Again, it has risen as it was supposed to! We are just so thankful. And continue to thank God in our prayers for making it to this point. 

So as of 08/12  I am 4 weeks, 6 days with an approximate due day of April 15th. 

My progesterone has also gone down some at this point. So we swap to taking the shot at night to see if it helps. I am so thankful that I will not have to take them at school anymore! 

Now, my next appointment is set up for Wednesday 08/17. They will do bloodwork and an ultrasound. I did ask what to expect to see on this ultrasound because I know it is still super early. So, they said just to see the sac. They want to make sure it implanted in the correct place. Now we wait until Wednesday! 

08/17 -- 20 days past transfer (beta #3, ultrasound #1) 

I am unsure of my bloodwork results because I had an afternoon appointment. However, we did get to have an ultrasound. On this ultrasound they said to expect to see the sac (aka Baby's home). That's exactly what we saw on it too! Getting to this point, even thought I am only 5 weeks 4 days is such a miracle in itself! We are praying that the bloodwork comes back normal tomorrow. 

08/18 -- 21 days past transfer 

Our bloodwork was good. My HCG was almost at 5,000 which is in the normal range. My progesterone had gone back to 20, which was an answer to our prayers! 

08/21 -- 24 days past transfer

Today has been scary. I have been crying on and off for the past 2 hours. I started cramping. I have had a little cramping throughout the past few weeks, but not like this. Today's felt like period cramping. Go to the bathroom, and bleeding. I call the on call nurse.. she asks be to give her all the details (which I won't give y'all). She gave me directions of what to do, and if it got to a specific level of pain, etc to go to the emergency room. Luckily we haven't gone to the emergency room. However, I am so scared. We approximately turned 6 weeks today. And it is the furthest we've made it. We have just been praying this afternoon that God allows us to keep this blessing. That he or she will continue to grow, and that my body can do this! We are just so scared. I want to share this so much just so we can have more people praying for us! At this point, I am so thankful for the few people that do know and that I know they have already prayed over us. All I can do right now, is sit and listen to worship music. 

08/22 -- 6w2d 

It took a while for someone to get with us today, but luckily we were able to get into the doctor's office! Everything is ok. We did have a sub chorionic hematoma and learned that it is common with the medication that I am on. Good news today is that I also graduated from having my HCG level checked. Now I only have to get my progesterone checked when I go! I am so thankful that everything was good, and that God continues to be for us in this process! We go back next Monday! 

08/30 7w2d

Over the weekend, we got some incredible news. So I always thought because Brandon and I were later having kids that our kid wouldn't have any kids growing up right beside them. However, that is not true! Some good friends just told us they are also expecting. And they are 3 weeks ahead of us! I'm so excited to have a friend to go through this with! 

09/04 8w 

Well we have officially made it to 8 weeks! We are so thankful, and are just continuing to thank God daily for this opportunity. We are hoping to hear a heartbeat on Tuesday at the doctor's office! 

Do you know what I am counting down though? Taking these progesterone shots and estrogen pills! Only two more weeks! Thank Goodness! I have been taking these shots since July 23, and they are just so painful when you don't have many spots left to inject them. However, I am very grateful for all the people who have helped me do them through the past month and a half! 

I am also preparing to start my own Blessed Womb small group. I am very excited for the opportunity and can't wait to see what God does through it. My only thing is, I haven't had anyone sign up yet. So I am praying that women will be open to it just as I was at the beginning of the year. 

09/08 8w4d 

I am so ready to let this news out. Holding it in is so hard! Our plan is around 10 weeks to announce, but I wish it would come faster! 

9/19 10w2d

Today was our first appointment with our regular OBGYN! We were released from the fertility doctor last week, and it was so crazy! We are so thankful to have made it to this point! We are counting down until Saturday to announce! 

Two Years Later

It has been way too long since I've written in this blog. Here is where we are at now. Hopefully since I'm off for the summer I can ...