more updates

I know I just posted about all of this, but wanted to share with you all that theres a new vlog and journal entry up on TLC today featuring us.

You can watch it here and go check out our journal entry here

Dont forget to check out the other ladies, Im sure everyone can relate to at least one of them!

TTC: update-month #3

So if you havent been following along with our story on TLC's: A Conception Story, we are now in our third month of trying for a baby. Complete honesty here? I thought Id be pregnant by now. :(

note: this may be a little TMI for some people


I know we havent been trying for nearly as long as alot of couples out there, but this is what I was afraid of all along. I hope this isnt the beginning to a very looooooooong journey. But I cant help but think in the back of my mind that this might be the case.

Since we are still working on the kitchen renovations--I know, what like 3 months now?--this may actually be a good thing that it didnt happen right away. First hubs has this crazy idea that women shouldnt get pregnant the first month coming off of birth control. His reasoning? "There's just too many chemicals to get out of your body." First of all, I very calmly explained to him that they weren't specifically "chemicals" but just different hormones. Then I proceeded to explain to him that many women (not all) get pregnant right off birth control and have perfectly healthy pregnancies and babies. But my hubby is one very stubborn man sometimes, and still refuses to believe that its a good idea.

Anyways, were obviously past that stage now, since its Month #3. But something else thats kinda been on my mind is that we had decided since we were still doing renovations, that we wouldnt hassel with the whole charting/temping/plannedsexytime thing. But instead we would just see how it goes the first couple of months. Well? where has that gotten us? And please dont think Im being overly analytical about this, Im just ready for a baby!

So, ever since Ive gotten off birth control I've been just keeping track of when my periods are, just to have a clue if they are normal or not. (Which they) And Ive been using the PinkPad app on my Evo to do this. Conveniently, it also gives little blooming flower predictions when it thinks your about to ovulate. Now, up until this point I havent really bothered to plan sexy time around this because of our previously mentioned decision to just go with the flow. But now Im wondering if I should and Im just not sure how to bring it up to the hubs. I dont want sex to become planned or routine, so Im thinking maybe Ill just keep my knowledge of blooming flowers to myself. But at the same time, I want him to know that we need to have alot more action during that week if we want to get pregnant soon.

Any suggestions? What did you do while TTC?

and so our journey begins

if ya'll are new here you may not know but me and the hubs are a part of the second season of TLC's: A Conception Story.

Its basically 6 couples and their journey trying to conceive. Ill admit, I did kind of feel like the odd ball out when I read/watched the intro stories for the other couples. It sounded like everyone seemed to be having difficulty getting pregnant or had some kind of fertility issue. Two of the girls are going through IVF, but one is also considering adoption. One has a child but miscarried her most recent pregnancy. One couple already has i think 7 children (previous marriages and adopting nieces & nephews). Another actually has two complete female reproductive systems. And then theres us.

me and him

Whats our story you ask? Whats our journey been like? Simply put, we havent had one. This is all new to us. Its us stepping into unknown territory.

Well that all changed on July 17th. We officially took that leap. Im no longer on birth control. We are officially trying. Well maybe a better way to say that is we are no longer preventing. And although I am extremely close to my family, ironically the first person I told about this was the pharmacist at CVS. (yeah had to call and cancel my automatic refill for the BC perscription lol)

Unfortunately I feel like the outsider in the series again. All these wonderful couples are actively trying to get pregnant. Whether it be charting, OPKs, chlomid, ivf shots, etc. And us? Were kinda not worrying about it right now. We understand that we could get pregnant this month, but if it takes a few more months, thats ok too (we still got a lot of renovations happening to our house). So is it bad for me to feel this way? I kind of feel like were not taking it as serious as all the other couples. But I guess they probably all started off this way. At least when they first started trying to conceive.

Either which way, Im excited for us and what the future holds. I get anxious just thinking about the possibility of me getting pregnant the first month we try. And when the next vlog goes live on TLC you guys will be able to see how anxious the hubs is too. His vlog this month was actually very sweet and sincere. I cant wait until he become a dad. I know he'll be sooooo good at it.

Well I guess thats it for now. Maybe spread any spare baby dust on blog if you have any! :)

back from a well needed vacation

Hi everyone! Oh how I have missed you all!!!!! We got back last night (after driving 2 straight days from Connecticut to Florida. yuk) and I cant wait to show you all the pics I took. I have to some how organize them into multiple posts since it was a span of 10 days with 3 destinations and a couple of very long days of driving through basically the entire eastern coast.

Until then, why dont you go over and take a peek at our latest entry on TLC's A Conception Story. Theres some pretty exciting news to look forward to if I do say so myself.

Ill also leave you with a beautiful picture of the new Mr. & Mrs.

Congratulations you two! Im so happy I was able to be part of this special day! Luv you both!!!!

Families are like fudge ...

"Families are like fudge ... mostly sweet with a few nuts"

If you read my most recent blog entry for A Conception Story, you may already know this, but we've had a lot of family in town the past couple of weeks on both my side and my hubby's side. Unfortunately, the visits were not for happy reunions, but for memorials for a close relative. My grandmother passed away and we will be doing a memorial for her in late June up in New Jersey where she is from. So most of the family that we saw was for Hub's uncle. 

Although it was unfortunate that the reason we were all together was to celebrate the life of a loved one, it was still nice to see cousins, aunts, and uncles that we havent seen for a while. Everyone was able to catch up on recent life events, particularly our life, our house, and the oh so talked about future "lil one." Ill be honest, I havent told most people (except for you lucky followers out there), that we are a part of the TLC thing. Not because I dont want them to know, I just would prefer to let them read or watch our journey once we "officially" start trying. Of course my mother, my sister, and his mother all know, but the rest of the family hasnt been told yet that we are going to start trying extremely soon. Which brings me to my next story....

So after the memorial we all went back to hub's grandmothers house to eat dinner. Now the memorial was from 6pm - 9pm that night, so by time we actually started eating dinner it was already 10:30. Of course, since the whole family was together everyone was enjoying the night with a few glasses of wine, a couple mixed drinks, and the inevitable few rounds of shots. I knew that we had to be at the church the following morning at 9am, and that it is approximately 35 mins from our house, so I chose not to indulge in the alcoholic festivities. Plus we still had to drive home, take showers, let the dogs out, and go to bed.

Well, the next day at the funeral when the hub's cousin (the son of the uncle who passed away) got up to give his speech in front of all the family and lots of friends he spoke about how the family shouldnt have to wait for things like this to see each other. He went on to talk about how close the family used to be and that he hates that he doesnt see his cousin for this reason, or his aunt for that reason, so on and so forth. Then he goes into saying that everyone is growing up, his cousins are getting married, his grandmother is going to be a great grandmother soon, and his aunts and uncles are going to be grandparents soon. It was actually a very truthful yet touching little speech he gave. 

After the funeral we all again went back to grandmas for some food (man these italians! all they do is eat! lol). Once everyone had calmed down and were sharing fun things again, a close friend of the family say "So I want to know, who's pregnant?" (referencing the speech his cuz gave). All of a sudden his other cousin, and one of the cousins boyfriends were both staring at me. I look at them and said "WHAT?!?!" And what do I get in response? 

"Well you did refuse every drink I tried to make you last night...." 

me:"And????.....you think IM PREGNANT?!?!?!" 

cousin: "well it kinda looked like that" 

cousins boyfriend "yeah, I thought so to..." 

cousin #3 "me too! 

me: "Well Im NOT!..(insert bunch of laughter here).....I just didnt feel like drinking because we had to get up early, and i dont like shots!"

By now everyone was cracking up. It didnt help that on top of that, my mother-in-law saw a toy chest filled with diapers, baby lotion, wipes, a bouncy seat, diaper rash ointment, etc in my spare bedroom the night before. Again, innocent coincidence. Its for my friends who just had the twin boys. Since their baby shower got canceled I havent had a chance to go to Orlando to give it to them. 

Sigh. I guess I should have been prepared for this. lol.

Needless to say, when his cousin and his girlfriend came back the following week for a planned vacation, I made it a point to have multiple drinks at dinner. lol. Dinner was then followed by a traditional stop at one of the familys favorite ice cream parlors in our city: JAXSONS. (Please, if youre ever in the south florida area, make it a point to go to this place, you wont be disappointed.) Pictures following are of my wonderful, yet slightly "nutty" family-in-laws. (and if theyre reading this, please know, I am proud to call myself part of your "nutty" family! <3 ya!)

I highly suggest requesting the marshmallow topping, it is to die for!

he actually ate that entire thing by himself

they shared a version of the above pic together and still couldn't finish it

my sundae

it looks like I barely made a dent in it

our dead soldiers (we did pretty good if you ask me) (and yes, that pitcher right there is what they serve the Root Bear Float in)

Hubs' best friend growing up, hubs, and me

All time fav photo of the night, Grams is the absolute best!

TLC: Conception Story Goodies

So as I've mentioned before, Matt and I are part of this years Conception Story on TLC.com. Its the second season and were both really excited to be involved. . .  Well at least I am. I think the hubs is more doing it because he knows I want to. But I also think that this could be really fun for him. He doesnt really express his feelings all the time, and it will be nice to hear his perspective on our journey to start a family.
You can read our first entry introducing ourselves -> here. <- And of course read the other couples stories too. We all are on the same journey, but all in different ways. But I also want to make sure that I dont just abandon my personal blog, so Im going to make sure I never really post the exact same thing on both.
So, Im going to start off with the giant box I received from one of the producers on TLC before they came here to shoot our first video.

 

 Any guesses on what was in side?

Lets just say, it felt like the box was never ending....

Lots and lots and lots of pregnancy tests, ovulation kits, fertility tests, dvds, flip flops, a coffee mug, a t-shirt and a basket with getting pregnant pamphlets and such. I layed it all out on our dinning room table for Matt to see when he got home. (I think it actually ended up freaking him out a little, this being the first time we've actually had pregnancy related items in our house lol)

On top of all this, I was also given a Flip Video recorder to do all my vlogs with (I know, Im kinda nervous about this part, seeing Ive never done a vlog before.) And the crew that came here to shoot the intro video that you'll see on the site sometimes this month, well lets just say they were way cool. One of the guys even gave us the 2 full seasons to HardTime because he did the sound work for the series. All I can say is that TLC has made the beginning of this extremely exciting and so much fun

secrets out

Remember I told you I had a secret?

♥ ♥ ♥ WELL THE SECRETS OUT! ♥ ♥ ♥

(remember to scroll to the bottom of the page and pause the music player before you hit play. 

And no thats not us in the still of the video)

Im so nervous about having my TTC journey out there for all to see. But extremely excited to actually start this journey with the love of my life

You can follow along if you'd like (no pressure, promise) by going here: TLC: Conception Story

p.s. look out for another post either later today or tomorrow morning with an update on the roof