HCG Take 1

Good news!  My HCG level was 196, which is right on track for the range for how far along I am.  I have to go for another check tomorrow; we're looking for a 60%+ increase for a healthy pregnancy.  If that happens, then I go back next week (& weekly thereafter until the levels are above 15,000).  Then my doc will set us up with a viability and dating ultrasound - yay, we get to see baby!!!

I am brainstorming ways to tell Craig the news on our anniversary.  I know I can sign a card from me, Gabe, and baby due Nov 2018, but I feel like I should be more creative, haha!  Maybe I need to get Gabe a big brother shirt (NOT through Amazon because Craig gets notifications, haha!) and leave it out for him to put Gabe into when he dresses him.  Then see how long it takes him to notice!!  In the meantime, hide the card so when he texts me if I need to tell him something, I can tell him to look there...  Hmm... that's a good start...

Anyway, I'm feeling good, though a little crampy in my lower belly, which is apparently normal.  Oh  and tired!  But that could be chasing after a 3 year old!!

(From www.2heartsnetwork.org:)

Powerful is your intercession with God, Mary, for you are his mother. Tender, too, is your love for us, for you are our mother. Confidently , then, I come to you as a child, poor and needy, to seek your aid and protection. In every trial of motherhood, I beg your aid. For the grace of a happy delivery, I come to you. For your holy assistance in guarding  and directing each tiny soul with which God entrusts me, I call to you. In every sorrow that comes to me in my motherhood, I confide in you.

That I may have strength to bear cheerfully all the pains and hardships of motherhood, I lean on you. That the sweetness of motherhood may not through my neglect be embittered in later years by pains of regret, I trust in you. That the will of God may always be fulfilled in me through each act of my motherhood, little and great, I beg your aid. Never forsake me dear Mother, my hope, my consolation, my confidence, and my trust, but ever be at my side to aid and protect me, your needy child. Amen. Mother of Love, of Sorrow, and of Mercy, Pray for us!

Updates

Well, it's been quite some time since I posted here!!  Gabriel is a whopping 3 yrs & almost 4 months.  He is a three-nager and throws the occasional tantrum.  Overall, he's pretty well-behaved and he's super smart (though that could be mom bias!).  He knows his ABCs but hates singing it, counts to 20, knows colors & shapes, and I'm pretty sure he's used the F-word without us really understanding what he said.  (Note:  He absolutely did NOT pick that up from me!!)

Craig & I are approaching our 10th Anniversary in about 2 weeks.  We've been working on building our family since Gabe, but we suffered two more fairly early miscarriages (bringing the total to 3) in July 2016 and June 2017.  It's such a fine balance between keeping on working to have another baby and making sure our current kiddo is first & foremost.  Plus a big emotional drain.

I had a really good feeling about this month, though.  We started it off with a week-long venture to sunny Florida for 2 conferences - one for my business and one for my teaching job.  Gabe & Craig got to go around and see some of Craig's family while I was "stuck" inside at events.  It gave us a little chance to unwind though.  (Gabe did great on his first plane ride, by the way!!)  I felt like we were much less stressed after this, though we came home to a snowstorm after a week in 75+° weather!!  We also had planned to begin our 3rd bedroom renovation once we returned (the last room on the main level to get a facelift) -- we DID start this project last weekend and we are right on track to be done perhaps by Easter.

Anyway, as I was saying, I had a good feeling about February.  As most of you know, I am NOT a particularly patient person (call it type-A or being a Virgo or what have you), so I decided to rush into a pregnancy test a week too early.  And wouldn't you know it?  Faint positive!!  I'm a meticulous fertility charter, so I realized how this could easily end in an early miscarriage (or chemical pregnancy, if you prefer that terminology -- I do not) like the last 2 times.  So what did I do?  I have taken a pregnancy test at least once (ok, in reality maybe twice) daily for 3 days straight.  Still a faint positive, but also a "pregnant" reading on a digital test!

Well, I am a little more apprehensive about telling Craig, and anyone else for that matter, until I know this baby is sticking around.  Can't really blame me after our track record, right?  I already had an annual ob/gyn appointment scheduled for 2 days from now, so I plan to have them take a blood test to make sure (and I'll continue testing everyday for my own personal verification, haha!).  I was thinking to wait till our anniversary to drop the big news on Craig -- maybe a card signed from me, Gabe (who now writes his own scribbles that usually contain a well-decipherable "G"), & his future child due November 2018.  That might be cute. 

In the meantime, I am praying all the time that God allows us to keep this blessing this time.  Heaven already has 3 of our angels.  I would love to have another baby to hold in my arms here on Earth. 

Funny thing, Gabe sat down next to me this evening and told me I have a baby.  No prompting or anything.  It struck me -- the angel Gabriel announced to Mary.  Was my Gabriel announcing to me?  Anyway, he said he wants a crying baby.  I asked if he preferred boy or girl and he said he just wants it to cry.  Haha, I will remind him of that when he complains the baby is crying too much!!  I told him a baby would grow in my stomach, and he put his face close and talked to it.  I was laughing/tearing up too much to make out what he said.  I love that he is already enchanted by the idea!!

Praying all the time for this baby to be healthy & happy.