This week marks the 20th week of our pregnancy! As Brant and I were walking the other day, I looked down at my ever growing belly and said, "Did you ever think we would get this far?" Some days I still can't believe it, but I know that our God knew all along just the right plan for our sweet little family!



We had a check-up yesterday and Baby G measured 20 weeks 5 days! All of the organs looked great and everything is developing just as God sees fit! This child has the longest legs I've ever seen on a baby! And large feet too! I guess G inherited Daddy's traits! Baby G is also very entertaining during ultrasounds. At 12 weeks, the tech told us we are going to have our hands full! She said the same thing again yesterday! She also said she had never seen a baby with this much personality, I then said, "Well, you don't know this child's daddy very well then!" I have prayed for this baby to have Brant's personality, his passion and love for people, and especially his sense of humor! Looks like God is hearing me!

For as long as I can remember, I have loved babies. When I was little, my favorite thing to do was play "mommy" with all my babies... my cabbage patch dolls, my water baby, my barbies, etc. I had my first babysitting job at the age of 11. Yes, you read that right, 11. I'll never forget the summer of waking up at 5:30am to go keep a 6 week old baby girl and a 5 year old little boy. That's the summer I fell in love with children and knew God would make me a mommy one day.


I continued my baby-sitting adventures through high-school. One summer I kept a total of 5 kids at my parents house! Total insanity, but I loved it. I even managed to take them swimming at the Wilks' pool at least once a week. I think I was nuts or I just didn't know any better!

When I moved away to college, I immediately began babysitting for families I met through church. During my second year of college while getting a manicure, I met Rebecca. She was pregnant with AM and little did I know how much their family would come to mean to me. I began babysitting AM that next summer when she was about 6 months old... AM turned 9 this past November and we are still together! Though we are now in seperate cities, we still find ways to spend time together. She has provided so much joy in my life and now in mine & Brant's life together!


Shortly after Brant and I got engaged, some of our very best friends had a baby. It definitely got me thinking that I couldn't wait to be a mom, but just wasn't sure when. After we got married, we were unsure of what the next year held for us. We didn't know if Brant would go ahead and join a dental practice, open up his own practice, or do a residency.

In October of 2011, we began praying about things and I actually dropped the pill soon after. We had planned to wait a few months before we started "trying," but we immediately got pregnant and could not have been more excited about it! Then we had the first miscarriage.

We let my body heal and then we did start trying. Throughout that time we made the decision to move to Tuscaloosa, Brant joined a practice, I started a new teaching job, we found a church, I got a new doctor... I still wasn't pregnant.


November 2012: my new doctor suggested we start running some test. We prayed about it and agreed it was best for us. Through a series of some general test, she discovered my body wasn't ovulating on it's own and I needed a little help with that.

December 2012: I took my first round of clomid. I can still remember the very morning I started the clomid. It was a Sunday morning and I woke up very early, I think because I was anxious. I went ahead and got a cup of coffee and Cooper and I snuggled up on the couch. I began reading through some scripture and happened upon this verse, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 I knew then it was a direct verse from God and He calmed my fears that morning. At the very beginning of January, we found out we were pregnant!


February 6, 2013: during an ultrasound the tech told us our sweet baby didn't develop a cardiovascular system. Talk about absolute heartbreak. We had told family and sweet friends and then we had to tell them differently. I had a scheduled D&C on February 14. One of the hardest days of our lives to date.

Throughout the time thus far, Brant and I continued to pray and ask God to bless us with children. I went back to my doctor a few weeks after the d&c and she suggested we see a fertility specialist. I began  crying immediately. I was not ready to hear those words from her, but I had a feeling deep inside my gut they were coming. At no point in my life did I ever think it would be me that needed to see a fertility specialist. Though, you never think it's going to be you going through the trial. I went home that afternoon and cried. A LOT. Brant comforted me and told me it would all be alright. We began talking about a specialist and I finally made the call in late April.


May 2013: I drove to Birmingham for my first appointment with the fertility specialist. I went by myself knowing that Brant needed to stay at work. The waiting room was peaceful and airy. There were several other women waiting as well. It was dead silence. I wanted to look at each of them and say, "We are all here for the same reason so let's just talk about it!" But you see, it isn't that easy... no one wants to talk about it. INFERTILITY. It's a word that you never want to hear, much less experience, especially as a woman.

I immediately fell in love with my doctor and the staff at the clinic and they assured me we would figure out what was going on with my body. Later that month, we got a positive pregnancy test! We knew this would be the one since I was already a patient of Dr. S and he was a specialist after all! Wrong. A few days later bloodwork revealed that my body had already started the process of a miscarriage.


June and July were very hard months for us. We couldn't understand why this continued to happen to us. I questioned God a lot throughout the summer. I even screamed at Him a few times. In July, we got another positive pregnancy test! My bloodwork was good the first round, but the second round revealed that we were having another miscarriage. 4 miscarriages in 2 years. I had never longed for Heaven so much...

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." Micah 7:7

August 2013: I was sitting at my desk at work one afternoon and my phone started ringing. It was Dr. S's office calling. I stepped out in the hallway to answer the phone and it was the head nurse on the other end. She told me to grab some paper and a pen and have a seat. I did just that. She then went on to tell me all of our genetic testing had come back and it was me. Something was wrong with me. The next few minutes were a bit of a blur, but then I snapped back into reality to hear her words. My PAI-1 gene was abnormal and all we needed was a little baby aspirin to get it back on track. She then told me when we did get pregnant, I would need to take an injection of lovenox daily during my 9 months of pregnancy. Also,  my TSH levels were high so I immediately began synthroid to get that under control.

I immediately started the medications and Brant and I thanked God that we had a doctor with enough knowledge to figure out what was going on inside of my body. He truly is the God of all! Each month we continued to hope and wait for a positive pregnancy test. Each month I kept going to the doctor's office to check my levels to see what they looked like.

" But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:25

November 2013: Dr. S released me from his care for 6 months. He sat me down and told me since we knew the problem, I no longer needed his care for the time. I cried. A LOT. His office had become like family to me and I wasn't sure how I could go 6 months without seeing all of them on a monthly basis! He assured me I would survive!




Throughout this entire process we have been reminded of God's love so much. From family to friends, to people I work with, to Brant's sweet work family and his patients. My doctor's office has been absolutely amazing through all of this. I knew "graduating" from their office would be a bittersweet feeling and it truly was. Dr. S and his staff have been nothing but a true testament of God's love and faithfulness. Their knowledge allowed us to be able to have this sweet baby! We haven't been very open about talking about it, but we both agreed that now is the time to tell our story. God's miracle story through our journey to a sweet baby.




One of the things that has helped me most over the past 2+ years is reading/listening about other peoples stories and then hearing of their miracle children. If you are struggling with infertility I encourage you to write down your thoughts, especially your prayers. Starting a prayer journal helped me so much along the way. Finding other couples going through the same thing is also a huge help. Having friends that we could talk to about this journey has really been a relief for us.



We ask that you continue to pray for this precious child growing inside of me right now. Each morning that I wake, I thank God for this child and thank Him for giving us our own miracle.

October was a busy month for us!
Warning: Picture overload

I started off the month with five events in three days at the Law School! By Saturday at 12:30, I was ready for some much needed sleep/rest! I continue to be thankful for my job and how much fun I have while working at the Law School!




The third weekend of October, Brant and I took a "Carolinas Road Trip!" We were able to visit friends in Asheville, NC and Spartanburg, SC.


On Thursday night we drove to Asheville and stayed with some friends that I used to teach with at Auburn High School! (Shout-out to AA & Jason!) Friday morning we had a delicious breakfast at the Grove Park Inn with a beautiful view of Asheville. The leaves had just started changing colors and I think we both could have stayed there all day just walking the grounds!


We spend the day at the Biltmore... where I never knew I could love history so much! It's amazing to think a family had so much during the 1800's. Did you know that the Biltmore is still the largest privately owened home in the US? Crazy!

During Brant's residency, his co-residents were more like family to us! On Friday afternoon we drove to Spartanburg, SC to stay with Whitney & Paul for the weekend. That night we had dinner with Ellen, Whitney, and Paul. It reminded me how God's plans are always perfect and Brant doing a residency in Birmingham was His perfect plan for us. He brought new friends into our lives that year that will remain our friends for a life time. Brant and Paul went to the Clemson game on Saturday night while Whitney and I hung out and snuggled up with sweet baby Hudson!



The end of October my parents came to town and Brant & my dad painted the garage. It's amazing how big of a difference a little paint will do!  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, unless you want to see more of Cooper! ;)
 

Brant and I hosted a "Pumpkin Carve" for our supper club and of course enjoyed all of our little trick-or-treaters on Halloween!

I have always loved the fall, but now I truly appreciate it! Living 3 hours away from some of your best girlfriends and favorite little person is hard, but football season always brings us together!

We were able to go to Auburn for the MS St. game a few weeks ago and had a great time. We had not been to Auburn since May (Joanna & Sellars' wedding) so the visit was long overdue!



Not to mention the game ended up being so much fun! I hate that I didn't get a picture of all of the little kids together or all of us adults together, but we had such a fun time catching up with everyone!

Ooops... I have fallen off track again! You would think I would be able to keep up with this thing, but I just haven't made it a priority! So, here is August in one post!

We have been busy! And I have been slacking (yet again) on the blog. Here is a review of our July through pictures.