Lately...

I've been noticeably absent from this blog lately. I even missed posting about Abby turning 13 months! We've been busy as usual, of course, but the main reason that I haven't been blogging isn't because of that. We have some big news in the Main family...but we're not quite ready to go "Facebook" public with it just yet. Thankfully, I'm pretty certain that most of the people who read this blog already know our news, so I feel comfortable sharing it here.

Dave and I are expecting Baby Main 2.0! Due to our fertility struggles the first time around, we decided to stop preventing pregnancy back in October. I was not having regular cycles at all, and they were lasting between 50-60 days, so I knew I probably was not ovulating. We had decided quite a while ago that we would just let nature take its course until June, and then we would head back to The Fertility Center in Grand Rapids to try another IUI. I had also made up my mind that I wanted to wean Abby when she turned one so that I could start taking Metformin again and hopefully regulate my cycles. So, I nursed Abigail for the last time on the morning of her first birthday, and I started taking Metformin. I got really lax about it though and only ended up taking it for about a week before just kind of forgetting. The day before Valentine's Day I realized it was cycle day 31 so I randomly decided to take one of my cheap internet dip stick pregnancy tests. It had a super, super faint line once it dried, but I honestly didn't give it much thought. The next day, on Valentine's Day, I casually mentioned to a friend that I had a super faint line on a test the day before and she immediately told me to retest. So, that afternoon while Abby was napping I took another test, and a faint line popped up. A really, really faint line. Then I took a different brand of test, and a slightly darker line came up. I started to get really excited!! Abby was napping but I wanted to go get a First Response. I finally ended up waking her after two hours because I was so impatient. And of course, the First Response was positive as well!! Dave had absolutely no idea about any of it at that point, so I put the positive test in a plastic bag and then in a gift bag and gave it to him when he got home. He freaked out and was so surprised and excited too!!! To say that we were shocked is the understatement of the century. Obviously it was always a possibility, but we really didn't think that we would be able to get pregnant on our own. I'm still in shock even now!

Unfortunately, everything hasn't been super smooth sailing. I started having some very bad cramping a few days after we found out. It turned into some really intense abdominal pain, so my doctor had me go get a blood test to check my hcg levels. The good news is that the blood test did confirm my pregnancy, but my level was much lower than it should have been for how far along I was. The reasonable explanation is that I ovulated late and found out that I was pregnant super early, which makes sense because my tests were so faint in the beginning. The pain could be a cyst like I had with Abby. I went back and had my blood drawn two more times to make sure that my hcg was doubling appropriately, and it was, so that's great news! My doctor wanted me to go back one more time this week just to check again, and by that time my level was over 6,000 so I am thrilled. I have yet to talk to the doctor after my last blood draw, but the hope is that on Monday she will be thrilled with the number too and we can schedule an early dating ultrasound. I will feel much better once we see the baby and hear the heartbeat!!

So, that is our exciting news! So far I've been feeling really good, and have just had some very mild breast tenderness and some slight nausea. It's been absolutely nothing like my first pregnancy, which makes me happy and worried that something is wrong all at the same time. I'm trying to stay positive that all is well and baby is happily growing in my belly! I'm honestly a little terrified about having another baby when Abby is only 21 months, but of course we'll make it work. We've been thinking of names and are getting really excited. I'm due somewhere around the end of October, and hopefully we will have a more specific date soon. I told Abby that there's a baby in my tummy tonight, and she lifted up my shirt and looked for a baby! Then she went and got her baby doll and brought it over to me. What a smartie pants. I hope that she will love having a sibling and that they'll grow up playing together and will be the best of friends!