Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Pregnancy Kills Blogging!

God, I thought I was a bad blogger before, but being pregnant is sucking every ounce of spare time and spare energy out of my body, rendering me Worst Blogger Ever. It doesn’t help that I go to bed at 9 every night (often quite panicky about getting to bed before I completely lose my ability to put myself to bed properly), that I’m struggling to perform the bare minimum of my job, and that every spare moment is spent trying to complete my baby registry or plan what classes we’re going to take or appease all of the family that’s come out of the woodwork lately and wants to be a big part of my life.

Oh, and I have SO much to say that that thought of writing a blog entry has been kind of intimidating. So this morning I decided, fuck it, I’ll just say what I can now and say more later, if I get a chance.

So, first, the BIG news. On Christmas Eve, J and I opened the card that would tell us the sex(es) of our babies. Actually, we had two cards—the first was written by our doctor who was looking at the CVS results. The results she had didn’t identify which baby was which, so if they were opposite sexes, she wouldn’t be able to tell us which was Baby A and which was Baby B. So at the next sono appointment we also got a sealed envelope from our sono tech, identifying the sex of each baby.

Before we opened the cards, J gave me two Christmas presents—our babies’ first stuffed animals. For Baby A, he selected a super-soft, floppy donkey. Just fucking adorable. Baby B got a soft, kind of funky-patchworky stuffed dog. Very different, but also cute as can be. J told me that, after he found the donkey, he had a really hard time finding another animal that was different but “equivalent.” Do you go by size? Quality? Price? And then, right there in the store, he realized that this was his life—that this question would hound him every Christmas, birthday, and other special occasion. We laughed for a long time over that.

And then we opened the card. We started with the card from our doc, because if the babies were the same sex there would be no need to find out which was which. J opened it, and I sat there with my hands over my eyes. Finally, he said, “Well, on to envelope number two,” and I started bouncing up and down on the couch, clapping my hands and trying not to be a total sap by crying. Envelope number two revealed that Baby A (the one who never stops moving, and appears to be banging on the walls of their cage in the sono I’ll post as soon as I get home) is a boy, and Baby B (the one who is much more mellow, and always just sits there calmly during the sonos) is a girl.

We couldn’t be happier. I mean, I’m sure we would have been just as happy to have boys and just as happy to have girls, but we really wanted to experience both. So with four years of trying, more than $40,000 in medial bills, and a little help from our friendly neighborhood cryobank, J and I finally seem to have hit the IVF jackpot.

Have tons more to tell (mostly whining, so let’s save that for another post), but I’ve got to get my ass in gear and write this brief.

Love you all, and miss you. I need to get back on track with catching up with everyone, and I’m going to try to do that in little bits and pieces in the next couple of weeks.

13 comments:

Malloryn said...

That is incredible! I am SO happy for you and J. You both have been through so much and it's great that you've hit the "IVF jackpot". The story about the first stuffed animals was so sweet too :)

Good Egg Hatched said...

So great to hear from you! And congratulations -- what amazing news. I can only imagine how exciting it was to open those cards and see that. Hoping you are feeling good despite the fatigue (which I know is really tough, and I'm only growing one). Thinking of you and hoping to hear more from you soon (though I totally hear you...I definitely have not blogged as much as I had imagined throughout this pregnancy).

Frenchie said...

That is wonderful! Congratulations!!

Astrid said...

Jackpot indeed. How very perfect! You guys deserve it. I'm so happy for you! And how sweet that they're already nestling in to their little personalities.

kate said...

WOW! IVF Jackpot, indeed! I am so happy for you and J. I totally get what you mean about wanting one of each, just for the experience of raising one of each sex. I have the hardest time answering that question when people ask, because I don't really know what I want. One of each seems like the easiest answer, but after dealing with infertility, how do you give an appropriate answer? I don't care. I want two happy babies. While having at least one girl would be cool, it'd be just as cool to raise two sons. Brothers have such a special bond, more even tempered than sisters sometimes. So really, other than wanting the chance to parent one of each, I really, really REALLY don't have any preferences.

And the u/s techs at my clinic are a bunch of assholes, because even though they *could* have looked for sex at either of my two recent ultrasounds, neither tech *would*, because "it's a little early". Um, yeah. That's why I have the anatomy scan scheduled on the 18th. It's not like we're going to go out RIGHT NOW and purchase thousands of dollars worth of unreturnable merchandise and furniture based on the best guesses of an ultrasound tech at 16 weeks-- we just thought that since you're cramming that scanner into my belly anyway, you could do a little angle shift and try to catch a crotch shot. But I guess not.

However, try as they could to hide it, at my 15 week u/s, there was a brief glimpse between A's legs, and there were definitely three lines, which would indicate the whole Team Hamburger thing, though I certainly wouldn't swear to it this early and with such a fleeting glimpse. But yeah. Two more weeks till I find out myself.

And Earline and Joe-Cletus got their first stuffed animals this Christmas as well in a rare stroke of insight (and woah, attention-paid!) from my mother who had seen me stroking these stuffed sheep at Bath and Body Works the year prior, and so bought two this year for the babies. Of course, Oma on the other side of the family has already gone way way WAY overboard in purchasing for the twins, gifts for every occasion (Thanksgiving, christmas, new years, just because, etc.), so we have some stuffed animals from her now, too. And booster seats. And a twin stroller. And sleep sacks. And Rolling Stones onesies. And a baby heart rate monitor/microphone thing .

Yeah, she's *clearly* not eager for grandchildren or anything...

Me said...

Huge congrats!

annacyclopedia said...

Oh! Oh! Oh! I am so happy to hear from you and with such great news to boot! Congratulations!!!! And can I just say it took every ounce of strength I have to not skip down to the part where you revealed the results!

Thrilled for you. Just thrilled.

MissNoAngel (find me on Twitter) said...

Chills. I got CHILLS when I read your post. I am so FREAKING excited for you guys!!! Congrats a million times over.

Kate said...

Wow, congrats! That's the combo I originally wanted, but with all the tightenings freaking me out since 16 weeks, I'm just as glad there's only one little one in here to worry me. Maybe next time :)

Dora said...

What a lovely story! Congratulations!

Two Kayaks said...

Congratulations!! We just had boy/girl twins in August and life is SWEET! Enjoy this quiet time before they are born and soak up the sleep while you can!!

Amanda said...

Congratulations on your boy! Congratulations on your girl! (I only put them in that order because you announced in that order) I'm so excited for you!

Love that he's realizing already some of the things you two are in for. And, of course, there's the why-does-s/he-get-to-go-first thing. Life is definitely going to get more and more interesting every day!

Sonali n Chetan said...

Love the way you put it - the IVF jackpot :) It truly is!