Some Change Is Around the Corner...

Because this little boy's world might get a little rocked!!

Cale is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!

Baby Cooper #2 is coming to our house in November!

So, to back up and give some details (since this is my scrapbook)...

Adam and I became pregnant with Cale pretty quickly after we had come around to the idea of it being a good season to start a family.  We had no reason to think that trying for number 2 would be any different...but oh, it was!  To make a long story short, after 8 months of trying, I went to my annual OB appointment, told her what was going on, and she gave me the name of a Reproductive Endocrinologist.  That took a little bit for me to wrap my head around...a RE, as in a Fertility Specialist??  Who us?  Who got pregnant quickly and had a relatively easy pregnancy with Cale?  WOW.  We weren't sure we were ready to move into the fertility world, but we decided it would be best to at least go for a consultation before making any decisions.

We loved the RE we were referred to.  He was quick to tell us that he could help regulate my body and hormones to make things function as they should, but he was not the giver or creator of life and he would not be able to guarantee us that he could give us a baby.  Good thing.  We know the only One who is capable of that.  Glad we were all on the same page.

He did a sonogram, looked my ovaries, and summed up that I have PCOS.  This is a common diagnosis, but tricky and difficult, nonetheless.  He told me that the cysts that were forming in my ovaries were secreting hormones that were throwing my body off and not allowing me to ovulate.  He said that the reason that he thought that we were able to get pregnant with Cale so quickly was because I had been on birth control (which regulated my body's hormones), up until just a month or two before I got pregnant.  After having Cale, I never got back on birth control, because who really wants to pay $50/month for BC when we were planning to have more children sooner rather than later...

Anyway, all that being said, I needed help regulating my hormones and kicking my body back into action so that I would ovulate.  Without ovulation, there is 0% chance of pregnancy...duh.  That was going to require A LOT of blood work, a lot of doctors appointments, medication, etc... for an unknown amount of time....without any insurance coverage....YIKES!  The estimated $1200-1500 a month was a little more than we could budget, so I consulted with my OB again, who was so gracious to prescribe the lowest amount of fertility drug (Clomid) for me to try on my own (without monitoring = $$) for three months.  If in three months the Clomid had not kick-started my ovulation, I would need to go back to the RE.  So we had three months of $8 in fertility meds, instead of the originally estimated $1200-1500...whew!  Thank you, Lord for giving us those few months to process and come up with a financial game plan for the next steps.  

Month 1 of 50mg clomid came and went.  I took the pill on cycle days 5-9, and went in for a blood work to check my progesterone levels on CD 21.  The magic number was 10.  Any blood work that was above a 10, meant I technically had ovulated that month.  I had been doing Ovulation Predictor Kits to more accurately monitor my cycle, and was encouraged to see a positive OPK that cycle.  Unfortunately, it was a false alarm, since my blood work back back at a 2.5.  The elevated LH levels (due to the hormone imbalance) is what created the "false" positive OPK.

So, month 2 was 100mg of clomid, and not a whole lot of hope on my end.  Took the pills, did the OPK's and never got a positive.  "great", i thought, "so my body is continuing to regress".  It was not looking good.  To my shock, when I had my CD 21 blood work done, it came back at a 10.5, which basically meant that I sputtered.  But hey, at least my body was indeed moving in the right direction!  

With one moth left to try clomid, I shared my blood results with Adam that night and told him that we needed to really fine tune our game plan, since we'd be back at the RE the next month.  Adam was way more optimistic than I was, and told me that we didn't need to talk about it until after this cycle had completely finished and I knew I wasn't pregnant.  I laughed at him and went to our bedroom on a mission to shut down his optimism with a negative pregnancy test.  The Lord decided the joke was actually going to be on me.

After a few minutes, I went into the living room, white-faced, and handed this to Adam...

There was a second line.  Barely.  But a line, no doubt.

I didn't believe it.  I took 2 more that night.  They were so faint that I still didn't believe it.

I woke up at 2:30 am and took another.  So faint.  I woke up that next morning and took 3 more.  

Still faint, but visible.  After looking at my line up, Adam rolled his eyes with a big smile on his face and said, "Kasie.  Stop.  You're pregnant!"

I still couldn't believe it.  Until I saw this...the final test.

After I saw the words, I decided to believe it! :)

Adam's parents were arriving the next day to celebrate Cale's birthday and we had planned to tell everyone all together that weekend.  Morning sickness hit hard and we had to abort our original mission, since I was NOT acting normal and Adam's mom was becoming worried over my behavior.  We went to my parents house and told them (well, technically, Cale told them) the news.  Everyone was so excited.  It was so much fun to tell all of our family all together.  The Lord orchestrated it perfectly.  Even down to my negative OPK's that entire month.  He wanted to show me, again, that He is truly the one in control.  He is the giver and creator of life.  And, we are SO thankful that he saw it fit to breathe life into our little bean, and begin our journey to a family of four.

A few weeks later, we went and saw this...

and heard a precious heartbeat of 155bpm.  Same as it's big brother's first monitored heart beat.

We are so thankful for this story.  Infertility is hard, and scary and unknown.  I know we "barely" faced infertility, but if you've ever struggled with infertility, you know that there is no such thing as "barely" facing infertility.  You're either staring it in the face or you aren't.  We were.  And it was hard and scary and unknown.  We are praising the Lord, as hard as it was, for our journey.  We have grown closer, and learned in even greater depths about surrendering our plans to the Lord.  His plans are perfect, and furthermore, CANNOT be thwarted!  Praise the Lord for the miracle of life!  

Updates to come...

Easter 2013

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

We had a great Easter celebration!  Cale has been learning so much in BSF and Sunday school this year, so Jesus dying on the cross for us was not a new truth for him.  We have been teaching him about Jesus, who is God, and how he came to live a perfect life on earth, and pay the ultimate sacrifice for those whom he loves, by dying on the cross.  Cale loves to point out crosses whenever he sees them...driving down the road, in people's houses, at church, etc...  He always follows it with "Jesus sleeping", since most pictures he has seen of Jesus on the cross have Jesus' eyes closed.  At age 2, we go with the sleeping idea.  So, when Easter Sunday came, we were so excited to take Cale to church and celebrate the Risen Lamb!  

We brought Cale with us to the "big service", since there was sure to be wonderful hymns sung, and Cale does love listening to hymns.  Funny, the choir and instruments were so grandiose, that Cale got a little scared, but soon calmed down and was able to enjoy the music!  After the first part of the service, we took Cale to his Sunday School class, where they celebrated Jesus' resurrection 2-year-old style!

After church, we went to brunch at Breadwinner's Cafe, at Northpark Mall.  We love this location, because on their patio, they have a huge wooden connect four game and a bean bag toss, and there is a huge courtyard that the patio overlooks.  This was perfect for Cale, as he was able to play and burn off some energy while we waited for our meal.

After mealtime was nap time, and after nap time was...

Cale's First Easter Egg Hunt!!

He woke up from his nap and immediately spotted his Easter basket full of goodies!

Of course, he went straight for the candy...

And after that, we headed straight outside to see what we could find...

Once Cale discovered that some of the eggs were filled with candy, the hunting process became more tedious...

By egg 5-6, he had the hunting process down and loved finding more and more eggs!

He was such a diligent little egg hunter - focused and strategic in his tactic! :)  Looking forward to  many more egg hunts, and most of all, continuing to teach Cale about the the awe and gratitude that Easter should bring.  Our prayer is that as Cale gets older, and understands in depth the great sacrifice that Christ made for us and for him, that he too will place his faith in Christ alone and follow Him all the days of his life.  And then, he will grasp the true significance of how glorious the celebration of Easter really is - the day we celebrate Jesus CONQUERING death, once and for all!  Hallelujah!!

Cale is TWO!!

Cale turned two a few weeks ago, but life has been busy and I'm just now able to post this!

Adam's parents came in town for Cale's birthday, along with my sister & Brett.  We woke up on Saturday morning and headed to the Arboretum.  Since Cale was born during Spring Break week in Dallas, I have a feeling that we will always be fighting crowds when celebrating his birthday.  This day was no different - everyone in Dallas thought it would be fun to visit the Arboretum!  Thankfully, we got there early and valet parked.  That made all the difference!!

Cale kinda has a thing for Brett.  He loves his whole family, but there is something about Brett that Cale just adores.  Maybe it's just because Brett is so much fun!

We found an open space and put down the picnic blanket, unpacked our Jersey Mike's sandwiches and brought out the frisbee and ball!  Cale was having too much fun and barely ate his lunch!

After about 2 hours at the arboretum, we decided to head back to our house and continue the celebration!

This was Cale's first year to blow out his own birthday candle!  We re lit it twice because he loved it so much!

 After cupcakes, we began the present extravaganza!

Cale loved his day.  He loved being with family, he loved his cupcakes, and he loved opening his presents!  

He is officially a toddler - and he reminds me of that every day by running circles around me!  His sentences are becoming longer, his emotions are becoming stronger, and his personality is becoming much more defined.  Here are some Cale-ism's as of late:

- Anything that is his (or he wants to be his) he says "Cale's turn", instead of "mine".

- He tells us when he needs his diaper changed a bit more consistently (uh oh!  Potty Training time?)

- He still is attached to his lovey, but he has recently become attached to 2 blankets at bedtime - instead of saying "blankie", he calls them "mbonkey".

- He got a golf set for his birthday and LOVES to play with it in the backyard.  When he hits the ball, he yells, "BOOM!!!!"

- He wants to do EVERYTHING by himself

-He loves to "fix" things with his Daddy's tools

- He loves to color, paint, and string beads 

- He also loves his blocks and Tinker Toys (little engineer)

- He loves to tell us when he wants to pray - then squenches his eyes closed tightly (but still tries to peek to see if our eyes are closed too)

-His favorite songs are "The Wheels on the Bus" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider"

It's hard to believe that Cale is staring his third year of life!  We are so thankful for him and the joy he brings to our house!