Can you believe it, we’re finally having a baby! It’s been a whirl of excitement, lots of anxiety, and pure happiness over at the Rucker household lately! Also, a lot of little white lies to family and friends as we decided to keep this one a secret until we were farther along.

We found out on Memorial Day while visiting family in IL! A few weeks prior we had had an appointment to start IUI. I kept putting it off after our miscarriage, thinking we could get pregnant on our own or as soon as we made the appointment and paid the ~$350, I would be pregnant. So I decided to make the appointment anyway because if that’s what I really thought then let’s make it happen! I’m pretty sure God knew we couldn’t handle twins so as soon as we got serious with IUI, He let us get pregnant ha (since my progesterone levels rise 10x more than necessary on Clomid there’s a chance I would get twins from an IUI).

I had taken a pregnancy test before we left for IL and it was negative. I was so convinced this cycle was a bust that I bought the Clomid and the super expensive ovulation predictor kits to prep for the IUI. I did, however, bring one pregnancy test just in case. And lo and behold a positive 4 days later!

I’m not gonna lie, a lot of the first few weeks were full of anxiety and wasting away the days waiting to confirm this baby’s heartbeat. But Ryan is good at calming me down. He has been such a sweetheart, running from the dental school to the hospital for our appointments sweating so that I wouldn’t be alone at them. I was ready to tell people earlier but he was adamant on having it be our little secret. I think it was tough for him to have to explain the miscarriage to so many people and since it was over Christmas, it stretched out for a few weeks until everyone we had told knew.

Just another shout out to this guy, while I was enormously fatigued and had no motivation to do anything but lay on the couch, he made dinners for us, did the laundry, cleaned the house, ALL the things. As soon as his summer break was over I started feeling normal but we still had a pretty great summer together!

I won’t really do weekly updates here because I know how they can be tough for those struggling to start their family, but here are a few things I wrote down to remember the weeks by.

Week 3-5:
Very tired and sluggish, lots of naps

Week 6:
Nauseous when I let myself get hungry, chest is huge! Sleeping 14 hours a day

Week 7:
Heightened smell, nauseous, constipated. First appointment and there’s a heartbeat!

Week 8:
Craving fruit, smaller appetite but more meals. Second appointment and things are good.

Week 9:
No more fatigue or nauseous (which was scaring me), eating all the fruit, bloated bump that looks like I need to start going to the gym 😉

Week 10:
Used the doppler at home and found baby’s heartbeat quickly and strong, told family the good news!

Week 11:
Heartbeat a little harder to find, moving around and hiding a lot more!
Told a few friends the news, started craving Diet Coke and nacho cheese. Graduated from fertility clinic to OB!

Week 12:
No more fatigue, heartbeat very easy to find. Hair is crazy, lots of regrowth

Overall, I haven’t been that nauseous, only if I let myself get hungry so easy to manage. Plus the fact that I am loving fruit it’s totally guilt-free! I feel incredibly lucky for the very easy pregnancy so far and getting very excited for this bump to turn into a real one and start feeling some kicks!

We’re both thinking it’s a girl but I would be happy either way! Compared to my first pregnancy, everything is the same except for craving fruit instead of spicy food.

I also didn’t take any photos compared to last time. I took one photo of the positive pregnancy test and that’s it. I was nervous to jinx it maybe. We had an ultrasound at 7 weeks that showed the baby was measuring 8 days behind and so we had a second one 10 days later to make sure everything was progressing well and the baby was only measuring 6 days behind then. I knew I had ovulated late so this wasn’t a big surprise, just happy to see a strong heartbeat! We got ultrasound photos each time and I quietly slipped them face down in our junk drawer because I just wasn’t quite ready to get my hopes up yet. Now baby is proudly showcased on the fridge. For most people after you hear the heartbeat, you feel you’re in the clear. I mean 98% of pregnancies are successful after a doctor confirms the heartbeat, but because of my last pregnancy, I knew I would be anxious until our 12-week appointment when we got past where we did previously.

It became a little more real when I heard the heartbeat at 9.5 weeks with our home doppler that I bought. And then at our OB appointment. So once this baby passed the time the first pregnancy had stopped I felt like I could finally get excited! And as soon as we started telling people I definitely got more excited!

I am completely booked for work until the baby comes and probably won’t take any new clients until August 2019 but I’m excited to take some time off and enjoy being a mom that I’ve been looking forward to for such a long time! We seriously can’t wait to be parents 🙂