The Time Is Short

Alisha says: We only have a couple of days left in Seattle so we have been trying to squeeze in a few more small adventures in between packing. It has been beautiful weather so it is making it a little hard to leave.

Canoeing from University of Washington through the arboretum on Lake Washington. I kept getting in trouble because I was not very good at steering us.

 The baby ducks came right up to the side of the canoe.

 Lunch at Golden Gardens

 A foggy hike to Lake TwentyTwo

 Bike ride around Lake Union

Watching a tug boat come through the locks

 The Fremont Troll

Lenin statue in Fremont

In addition to this we have had dinners with several of our good friends, The Burch's, The Romish's, and Chris and Sarah (which was awesome because I stopped buying food a while ago and was making us eat up things like cans of soup :)) And we took one last trip out to Duthie Park the day before moving for some mountain biking.

IVF Part 6: Ultrasounds

Alisha says:

April 13^th, 2015

This past week was a crazy one. Early Monday morning we traveled to Phoenix. Dave had a few work meetings at ASU and we wanted to check out our house that we now owned! We had a fun few days hanging out with family and even had a big family pizza dinner that my parents came down for at the new place. It was fun to show it to everyone and enjoy the backyard. Wednesday morning we got up and went for about a 3 mile walk on one of the mountain bike trails near our house that Dave is really excited about being able to ride regularly. I felt fine but when we got home I noticed some spotting. It picked up a little and never got to bad but I was definitely concerned. I called the clinic and they told me to monitor it, upped my progesterone to 2 shots of 1.5ml a day and told me to take it really easy for three days. Luckily it stopped by the next day but I still took it really easy and we flew home on our originally scheduled flight late Thursday. Everything seemed fine until Sunday afternoon when I had a lot of bleeding that came really fast. I thought for sure I was miscarrying. I already had an appointment set up for the next day so there was nothing to do but wait until the appointment to see what was going on. By the morning it had basically stopped so I was so confused and really didn’t know what to think. We went to our appointment and when Jo came in I told her what was going on and that I was concerned. I was prepared for bad news when she started the ultrasound. After looking around for a minute, she showed us where the baby was and that there was a heartbeat. It was such a relief and we even got to hear the heartbeat even though I was only 6 weeks 4 days. She then said that there was a second gestational sac, so both embryos actually did implant but one didn’t develop much and was empty.  She also said that there was a fairly large subchorionic hemorrhage and there was probably a second one that caused the bleeding the day before. I was put on exercise restriction and told to not do too much for the next week and then I would have another appointment to check on things. The hemorrhage should get smaller and eventually disappear but they also don’t want it to cause any more bleeding. My progesterone dose was increased again to 2ml twice a day.

You can see the heartbeat line across the bottom

April 20^th, 2015

Ultrasound day again to check on our little peanut. It was all good, the heartbeat was at 130 and the subchorionic hemorrhage was still there but looking better. I was still told no running but could start to increase my activity level and I could go on bike rides. Since things were looking good my next appointment was scheduled for two weeks later.

May 4^th, 2015

This was a cool ultrasound because it is actually just starting to look a tiny bit like a baby at 9 ½ weeks.  Julie took a few pictures and we could even see a tiny bit of movement. The subchorionic hemorrhage is slowly resolving itself. I have been feeling really good. I kept waiting for all the pregnancy symptoms you hear about to start but I think I’ve escaped most of them. I haven’t been nauseous and smells don’t really bother me. I haven’t had extreme fatigue but just a little tired sometimes and I’ve been sleeping in a little bit.

May 14, 2015

Today I had my last appointment at Overlake Reproductive Health which was a bit sad. I really have had a great experience with them and have gotten to know a lot of the staff. I even made a baby towel for one of the medical assistances who just had a baby.  I am 11 weeks and my next appointment will be with an OB where they will take over monitoring for the rest of the pregnancy. The only annoying thing is that I have to have only one appointment here in Seattle and then we will be moving and I will have to switch to a doctor in Phoenix. This was the best ultrasound so far because it is really starting to look like a baby, we could see hands and feet and even a little nose. The best part was that it was wiggling around so much. Julie tried to peek at the gender but it is still just too early to tell. Before I left I said goodbye to as many people as I could. They were all so kind and wished me luck; even Dr. Rehman gave me a hug. They really made a hard situation much better. I have still been feeling great, Dave thinks that I have been eating a little more and am maybe starting to show just a tiny bit. I weighted myself this morning and I weighted 108, it will be interesting to watch that number just keep creeping up. After my appointment we went mountain biking at soaring eagle and Duthie Park. We have been doing quite a bit of mountain biking as well as a little running and some walking/hiking. I am just really careful and walk anything that is technical. While I still feel good and am not showing I am very comfortable mountain biking. As I start to show more I will cut back more and more on the mountain biking but I hope to continue to be quite active throughout the pregnancy.

May 21, 2015

Today I am 12 weeks and the most exciting part is that I gave myself my last progesterone injection last night. In total I gave myself at least 115 muscular injections. I got pretty good at it but am really glad to be done and not always have the constant soreness in my upper derriere.

I had my one and only appointment with an OB here in Seattle. I had an ultrasound and then met with the doctor. It was a fine visit but a little weird because I was like “nice to meet you AND I’m moving” but she was nice and I still got some blood tests done that should be done in the first trimester so it was all good. 

Wedding Celebration!

Alisha says: We got to attend the wedding of our great friends Chris and Sarah this past weekend in Leavenworth. It was a really great weekend and a beautiful wedding, we traveled to Leavenworth on Friday and got settled in. The venue was on a beautiful property along the river. They had rented out the three big cabins at the venue for people to stay at. That afternoon Dave and I went mountain biking at fruend canyon. It was a fun trail with a long single track climb through the forest with great views and then a fun descent with a lot of burms. That night we hung out and got to know some of the other guests.

Saturday morning we helped set up the chairs and tables for the ceremony and then Chris (the groom), Keith (the officiator of the wedding), Dave and I went mountain biking again on the same trail that we did the day before. It was kind of crazy that Chris would go mountain biking the morning of his wedding but we promised to bring him home in one piece :). Chris said that it was his bachelor party but I got to tag along. I loved mountain biking with the boys!

 After mtb we grabbed some lunch. Leavenworth is a small town with a Bavarian theme and there just happened to be a parade going down main street as we ate our lunch.

The wedding was in the afternoon and was absolutely beautiful. Sarah looked amazing! The rest of the day was spent celebrating Chris and Sarah with good food, visiting, a slideshow with fun pictures from their childhood and cake. Chris and Sarah are both really great people and it was so nice to celebrate their wedding with them!

Azalea Way

Alisha says: The azaleas are out in full bloom right now. There is a path at the arboretum rightly named azalea way that is so full of color right now that it is stunning.

We spent the previous Saturday mountain biking on our favorite Galbraith trails. We always go into Bellingham afterwards for lunch at a yummy little cafe called Old Market Cafe, the breakfast foods are delicious!

Family Visit: Part 2

Day 4: My dad loves boats/water/fish so I thought they would all enjoy a ferry ride. We drove to Anacortes and took the ferry to Orcas Island. Once on the island and after some lunch in Eastsound we did some scenic driving around the island. We went to the top of Mount Constitution for some amazing views of the surrounding islands. It was cloudy but we never got rained on and the views were still great. We did some short hiking to some waterfalls before heading to a cabin on the beach that I had rented.

Day 5: We caught the ferry back to Anacortes around noon. My dad has become quite the picture taker on this trip, and on the ferry back we taught him how to take panoramas. We then took them to Deception Pass to enjoy some more Northwest beauty. It was great, the sun was out, the water was clear and it wasn't busy at all. We did a little hike out around the overlook, then looked around a little in some tide pools before heading back to Seattle. The busiest stop of the whole day was at Costco where we got some groceries. My parents bought some halibut that they turned into a really delicious dinner.

Day 6: Since we don't have church until 1:00 pm we used the morning for some more sightseeing. We took Amber back to the Ballard Locks then drove through Discovery Park, Magnolia and then stopped at Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill for a great view of downtown.

Day 7: Amber had to leave on this day so we got ready and then took her to the airport. After the airport my parents and I went to some relatives that live in Renton. We visited Don and Bev Dillion who are relatives on my dads side of the family. Don is my grandpas half brother and he and his wife are in their 80's. In the evening we took my parents for a walk through Ravenna Park.

Day 8: Sad day, my parents had to leave this day. Even though we will see them in a month or so when we move to Arizona it was still sad to see them leave. They are doing us a big favor though, they flew up here and then are driving our white car all the way back to Phoenix for us. They are road tripping through Utah to visit Mandy/Shane and then stop at Richard and Brittany's to see their new baby Olivia.

Family Visit: Part 1

Alisha says: We really enjoyed having my parents and sister visit us this past week. We tried to show and do a variety of things to give them a good taste of Seattle.

Day 1: Downtown Seattle Day. We parked downtown and first had lunch in the revolving restaurant in the Space Needle. I wanted to do this before we moved and was really glad that we did. It was a cloudy day but we still got great views. After lunch we went up to the observation deck to look around some more before returning to ground level. We then walked through the Olympic Sculpture Park and along the water front to Pikes Place Market. It was great walking around in the middle of the day on a weekday, it was not busy at all. My dad loves fish and we stopped at each fish vendor so he could check them out. One place had smoked salmon and asked my dad if he wanted to taste it and then gave him a huge chunk, it was enough that we all could have several tastes. Yummy!

Day 2: After some light rain during the night we woke up to clear blue skies and warm temperatures, it was probably the nicest day so far of the year. We took a nice walk through the arboretum where the azaleas of many different colors were in full bloom. Our next activity was renting canoes from the UW and paddling around by the arboretum on Lake Washington. The water was smooth and we saw lots of ducks, a few dozen turtles sunning themselves on logs, a handful of herons (one eating a fish).
In the late afternoon we went to the Ballard Locks. We were lucky and got to watch a really big boat go through the locks as well as a few smaller ones.

Day 3: After a morning stroll at Magnuson Park we spent a wonderful afternoon at the Seattle Temple. I then had to battle Seattle rush hour traffic all the way to the airport and home. It was crazy but so worth it as we picked up my sister to join us for a few days. For dinner we took them to a Thai restaurant, not only was it Thai which is a bit adventurous for my family but it was a vegetarian Thai place. I don't think my dad has ever had thai or tofu before so I was a little nervous. We ordered a few dishes to share and hoped for the best. Everyone tried everything and they all said it was tasty, whew!