Valentine's Flower Heart

I love holidays but mostly I love decorating for holidays! This last thanksgiving, Isla and I started making something to hang on the playroom door for each holiday and it has been such a fun tradition so far! For Valentine's Day, we decided to make an easy craft that only took about 30-45 minutes to create.

Supplies needed:
Artificial hydrangea stems (about 5, but it depends on how big you make your heart.)
Cardboard (we used a Target box)
Scissors or box cutter
Glue (I always use hot glue because it dries so fast)
Ribbon for hanging

First, trace your heart onto your cardboard and cut it out. I used the flap of the box so I could easily fold it in half to create a symmetrical heart.
Second, pull the blossoms off of your stems.

Then begin gluing your blossoms on until your cardboard is covered. The more blossoms you add the fuller your heart will look.

Last, attach a ribbon to the back of your heart if you would like to hang it. Ta-da you're done!

This was so simple to do and Isla loves making something special for the playroom. Happy Valentine's!

From Blast to Birth to Birthday!

On Wednesday, my sweet little babe turned one. I can't even tell you how many times someone has told me, "They grow up so fast, my baby starts college this year!" They were all right! She has grown up way too fast and I've never wanted time to slow down so badly. I love every minute of every stage and I just wish they would last longer. 

One thing that is actually really neat about having a baby through in-vitro, is that you get to watch them grow from day one (well, technically day 5 for us!)

These are the actual blastocysts that they implanted for our third transfer. We're pretty sure the top left is Isla because that is the only one they said looked like it could turn into a viable pregnancy. Who knows though, Isla could have come from one of the other two and be even more of a miracle than we think!

In the ultrasound from our transfer, you can see three tiny bubbles. Each of these bubbles has a blast inside it, they're just too small to see. IVF really is an amazing process. Did you know that if you have multiple babies from one egg retrieval, they are conceived on the same day but can be born years apart? Our doctor told us that during our consultation and it really is kind of crazy if you think about it!

Our final ultrasound was just six days before Isla was born. Look at her huge cheeks! We knew she was just going to be perfect!

And then she was here! We couldn't have been more excited! (Read her birth story here!)

Every week for the last 52 weeks, we have taken a picture of Isla on Tuesday (lets be real, sometimes Wednesday or Thursday, but mostly Tuesday). It has been so neat to look back and see how much she changed from week to week. You forget so quickly what they looked like only two weeks ago.

Isla has been our biggest blessing throughout the past year. She has been the best baby. She rarely cried and I can honestly count on one hand how many times I've stayed up the whole night with her. Right after she was born, James and I kept saying that we were going to be in trouble with our next baby. Isla was honestly so easy that now we expect that! At the time though we didn't realize that she needed to be easy so we could handle what was ahead of us. We needed her to be happy so she could add light to James' day when things got hard. She has been everything to us and we are so thankful that we have such a beautiful spirit in our home. Hopefully we have taught her as many great things as she has taught us.

Happy Birthday beautiful girl! We love you!

Isla Rae

Dear Isla,
You were born on October 9, 2012 at 3:15pm, 11 whole days before your due date. You were a whopping 8 lbs 2 ounces, which was a huge surprise to me! You were so perfect and looked so much like your daddy! The night before you were born I thought it would be a great idea to finally get our Halloween decorations up, so naturally, I made a complete mess of the nursery by getting them all out in there. Your dad kept pestering me to do other things like get my hospital bag ready but I assured him that we had a few more days and I promised I would pack it first thing in the morning. Little did I know how true that was going to be.
At about 3:45 in the morning my water broke! So I (somewhat) calmly woke up your dad and told him it was time to go. We weren't the fastest to get ready though. After about an hour of getting my things and your things, we were off to the hospital. Lucky for us it's only about 2 minutes away. We arrived at the hospital, checked in, confirmed that my water had really broke, and then we waited... and waited... and waited... I still wasn't in labor or having contractions at 7 am when your doctor arrived, so he decided we should speed things up and induced me. I was so nervous about being induced but we decided you were ready to be here finally and my body needed to get with the program. After about 3 hours I finally started having contractions and decided I most definitely wanted an epidural. It was so much better after that, I wasn't in pain and I wasn't so stressed anymore so things started to move much faster. I was even able to get a little nap in!
Around 2:30, one of the nurses came in and said that your was getting ready to perform a hysterectomy on another patient soon. If we didn't have you now he wouldn't be available for about an hour. My nurse knew that you were going to come much sooner than that so we decided it was time to start pushing. They set everything up and your doctor arrived just in time. After about 15 long minutes of pushing you were finally here! It was amazing, I've never seen your dad so happy! Hearing your first cry was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. The nurse asked if I had waited a long time to hear that cry, she really had no idea how long. They put you in my arms after what seemed like forever and I have never felt so much happiness, love, relief, peace and pure joy in my whole life.
It was a glimpse of Heaven. You were beautiful. You had lots of blonde hair, the sweetest eyes, and of course some chubby, chubby cheeks! I will never forget holding you for that first time. I never really thought it was going to happen. From the moment we found out we were pregnant, I was just waiting for it to not work out. Every appointment, every ultra sound, every day, I was just waiting for something to happen. For the doctor to tell me something wasn't right, they had missed something, or that you were gone. I was always so scared, I just wanted you here so badly.
Isla we love you so much. We hoped for you, we prayed for you everyday, and we were blessed far beyond what we could have ever hoped for. You have been the sweetest baby, you're so content and happy all the time. You have changed my life in so many ways and I thank Heavenly Father every day that you are here, that you are healthy, that you are ours. I hope you always know how much we love you. We still hope for you and we still pray for you. I love you so much my sweet, beautiful Isla.
                                                           Love always,
                                                          Your Mommy

Sugar and Spice, Heavy on the Spice

Our baby is stubborn. There is no other way to say it. She is the sweetest, happiest, most loving little girl but since before conception she has been stubborn. Why else would she make us wait so long to get here?
When we had our 20 week ultrasound to find out the sex neither one of us had any idea what we thought our baby was going to be. We didn't really care much either, we were just thrilled to be this far along and healthy.
My OB was called out for a delivery when we arrived in the office. We were more than fine waiting since things like that are usually unexpected. So we waited almost an hour before they told us we were up next. As soon as the nurse told us they were ready I felt it. A roll, a complete, giant summersault in my belly. I knew this was going to happen.
Sure enough, the first thing we see on the ultrasound is a tiny little spine and some feet. Our baby was back to us and legs crossed. We continued the ultrasound to do our general health check up and hoped that by the time we were done with that we would have a better view of the goods. No luck though. So he poked and prodded at my belly, I rolled to my side, everything we could do to get this baby to cooperate. Finally we get it to turn around and there's a tiny hand placed just between the legs. Could she be any less cooperative? More poking, more prodding and then a movement, just enough to let us know it's a girl! A beautiful, healthy baby girl. My heart melted and James almost immediately broke into a nervous sweat. How was he going to handle a mini-me? He knew I was enough of a handful and now he was going to be a daddy to a baby girl that was already outshining me with her stubbornness. He was over joyed, but boy was he nervous!

The Sweetest Sound

This time around we decided to wait a little longer before having our first ultrasound. We scheduled ultrasound for 8 weeks this time and patiently waited. Our little baby had other plans though. We were 6 weeks along when I started spotting. Panic set in and I thought for sure this was the end. Immediately we called the clinic and they said they would get us in during their lunch break and we could come down as soon as possible. James was at work and I was a mess but luckily my mom was able to rush home from work to drive me downtown. James met us there and they took us back for an ultrasound. There it was, our little circle, with a heartbeat. The sweetest, softest, flutter of a fetal pole. For once everything was ok. I just needed to breathe, get lots of fluids, and take it easy. We were ok though and that made us more than ok.