Punkin Chunkin

Have you ever seen that show? I get hooked every time it's on.

Every year we hit up the pumpkin patch with the Hood's.

This was honestly the first time I had gone out in awhile. People ask, are you sicker with triplets? The answer is yes, you are. Three times actually. You feel sick because of the HCG (baby hormone) in your body. My levels are obviously extremely high. But I have been taking Zofran which has been saving me. I never had to take it with my other pregnancies but this one was a must. I am so grateful for modern medicine, in all ways possible.

We love us some Hood's. Some fall weather. And some Cafe Rio.

.TEAM BABIES.

.Our thread of hope turned miracle.

Up to this point Kim and Curtis have never heard a heartbeat. They have done invitro SIX times . Never hearing a heartbeat. Take a minute and try to imagine that. 

And honestly they thought this ultrasound wasn't going to be any different. I think they had already began the mourning process once again.

As soon as the technician put the probe in she said. Wow. It's like I'm doing an ultrasound on a completely different person. One week made all the differnce. Or maybe it was all the support and prayers that made all the difference.

I want you to know that the whole time and every time I am on that table. My legs are shaking. The technician has to literally hold them still.

That one sac. The one that was definitely empty one week before. There was a baby in it. Our little miracle baby came through. This baby is extra special to me. All five of us in the room saw no baby one week and then to see a little peanut with a heartbeat. We HEARD the heartbeat. Kim and Curtis heard their baby's heartbeat for the very first time. 

Kim and Curtis are a mess again. But it was the good kind.

The tech goes over to the other sac. ANOTHER baby with a heartbeat! She started measuring the baby. That's when Tyler said I think that baby has TWO heartbeats! She looked a little closer and said you know, you are right. This is two babies! TWO more heartbeats. Identical twins. 

We only put two embryo's in me. So we always knew twins could be a possibility. But TRIPLETS? This doesn't happen too often. So we feel pretty special. 

For Kim and Curtis to have done invitro 6 times prior to this with no babies to show for it. Then on the 7th time to have both take and then one splits! It was just meant to be.

This time we all left the appointment in complete shock. Our lives will be forever changed.

Never in my life did I think there would be a baby A, baby B and baby C in my belly. Here is their first of many many pictures (we couldn't even get them in one frame, there's just so many of them).

6 weeks 4 days

.TEAM BABIES.

.SPOTTING.

It wasn't even 24 hours after I took those pregnancy tests that I started spotting. 

I was like WHY! Why is this happening. I NEVER bled with any of my four pregnancies. Not even a drop. I was in St. George with the whole family and had to tell Curtis the bad news. Him and Kim were devastated. Tyler and I left to the store to get some pads expecting the worst.

We called our nurse in California and she said it can be normal. She told us to head over to the St. George Hospital and get my blood drawn so we could see my beta score.

Beta Score: When you get pregnant you immediately start a beta score. It's your HCG level, which is like the baby hormone. The higher the number the better. It means a strong pregnancy. So say you are 4 weeks pregnant and you go in and your score is 20. Not always but most likely that pregnancy will not last. And your score almost doubles every 48 hours.

This day I was 1 day shy of 4 weeks but we wanted to see if my number was low and if I was miscarrying.

About 1 hour after getting my blood drawn the nurse called Kim and Curtis (we were at Zion). She said a normal score would be 50-250. Mine was 433! They said we shouldn't be worried about a miscarriage but that we should be more worried about TWINS. Ha.

We were still worried. But the spotting stopped that same day.

.

.

.

Like a week later...... More bleeding. I wouldn't even say spotting but more bleeding this time. Again we were so on edge. Apparently every single person I know has bled during one of their pregnancies. Info I did not know. I didn't know it was so common. The nurse said to go get an ultrasound. I was only 5 weeks 4 days. This is super early to see anything on an ultrasound but it was worth a shot. They also wanted to make sure I wasn't experiencing an ectopic pregnancy.

Kim and Curtis were a mess. As you can imagine. I didn't feel good at all. It was a horrible day. We had the ultrasound with little answers. She could see blood. We could see one sack that was completely empty and almost squished. So we thought that was probably why I was bleeding, I was miscarrying that embryo. And the other sac had two yolk sacs inside of it.

Yolk sac: All our babies have yolk sacs until about 10 weeks when the placenta is formed. So this is what the baby is feeding off of.

Seeing 2 yolk sacs in the same sac was bizarre. The technician said this embryo split into identical twins. But she couldn't see any babies. Like she's looking for a baby the size of a rice kernal. But she didn't see anything. She said it could just be too early OR they are just not forming properly. Again devastation. I kept myself together until she started talking about the steps of the D&C procedure. Then I lost it. We all left the apppointment sad. But she wanted to see us in exactly 1 week to see if there is progress or not. That was a very very long week. We were all preparing for the worst but still hanging on a thread of hope.

My Friend Michelle

OCTOBER is breast cancer awareness month!

Breast Cancer meant nothing to me until about 5 years ago, when a dear friend was diagnosed. Changed my life and view of cancer forever. I always think of "old" people getting cancer and that's just not the case. 

A lot of my family and friends ask how Michelle is doing and this video shows it very well! 

Michelle's Story

I love this girl, and to think with all she is going through, she's always there to take care of me.

.TEAM BABY.

.The day I found out I was pregnant.

{09.18.12}

I did in-vitro in June. I could have sworn I was pregnant. I would have put money on it. But I wasn't. It didn't work in June.

I did in-virto again in September. This time I would have bet I wasn't pregnant. I had absolutely no symptoms and no feelings that I was. I was even already telling some people, I don't think it worked.

(So much for my motherly intuitions. Obviously it's because I'M NOT the mother!)

Taking a pregnancy test was on my mind. Even though it was really too early to take one. But once something is on my mind..... I went to the store and picked up a cheap-o test. I just wanted to see the negative sign to get me through another day of wondering.

I took it after lunch with Tyler. I couldn't even wait for the first morning pee. It was immediately POSITIVE. I seriously could not believe my eyes. I called Tyler right away and told him. He had me text him a picture of the test because he wanted to be sure. So I did! 

I saved a digital test from our June experience. I didn't want to use that one early because they are expensive and I didn't want to waste it. Should I use it? I needed a second opinion but I was so worried it would say negative. I thought oh well I'm taking it! But I had to wait until I had to pee again. 

So about 45 minutes later I took the digital one... POSITIVE! I was shaking at this point! I could not believe it. I could not wait to tell Kim so I texted her right away, she was in St. George with her Mom, waiting for the rest of us to arrive the next day. 

Obviously Kim and my Mother-in-law were freaking out. And Kim later surprised Curtis with a picture of the tests and balloons!

I could not wait to get there the next day to celebrate...........

.TEAM BABY.

I know I know, a lot of you are patiently waiting for an update. 

All I'm going to show today is this cute video Kim made about their journey and then I hope to go into detail later. Enjoy!

San Jorge

The "adult only" trip to Saint George

{Sept. 19-23}

Tyler's parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a couple months. FORTY YEARS! We all know that is not super common now a days so it's definitely something to celebrate. And all they wanted for their big year was their very own 5 kids and spouses together for a few days. So that's what we did.

We did a lot. But I did not take pictures a lot. 

I had not been to Zion since I was like 12. So it was so neat. I wasn't allowed to hike with the rest of the gang so Tyler and I relaxed under the big tree. For hours we talked, he slept a little and we ate the best ice cream I've ever had. Just me and Tyler.

The guys of course golfed while the girls got massages and relaxed by the pool.
The Men of the Family.

And the Ladies.

We also visited the best Temple in the world (so I may be partial). Tyler and I were sealed forever again. Well for someone else, but it felt like it was for us. 

It was a wonderful 4 days in a town that means so much and with a family that means even more.

Brigham Young Weekend

.BYU baseball alumni weekend.
Tyler looks forward to golfing with his old teammates every year. The kids look forward to some BYU fun and lets be honest I look forward to seeing the white tight pants come out of the closet.

Because the baseball team just recently had a head coach change, which the new coach is actually Tyler's old coach from Dixie, it was especially fun this year.

Eating Pizza/Pasta Factory on the field.

The locker room.

BYU VS Hawaii Football game

Alumni VS current BYU baseball players

 (And he still has the heat)

I would love if my boys followed in their Dad's footsteps.