The following post was written 5 weeks ago. We have been keeping the news to ourselves for several reasons. This post is a little survey that I have seen all over the internet and that we have been waiting to do once we got pregnant.
So here it is world, after two years of tears, many doctor’s appointments, more medical bills than I care to remember, a bunch of tests, sleepless night, tearful prayers, feelings of absolute defeat and two broken hearts we are proud and humbled to announce that we are pregnant. Baby Echols is expected to arrive in the last week of January 2012. God is good!

From week 5, the baby is that little black speck in the middle there.

This is in week 7 , but the baby was measuring a week behind so it is 6 weeks I guess. We heard a strong heartbeat this week. It took my breath away, I cried and cried!

This past week, at 9w5d. You are looking at the baby from the back. You can see his/her head, back and bottom. Also notice the tiny little shoulders. The baby is right on track, and the heartbeat was up to 171 bpm. God is good!

5 week survey!

Sex of the baby?:  Probably a boy, or a girl. I have a 50% chance of guessing right. David did dream that the baby (our baby!!!) is a girl. And I did have a slight notion the other morning that it is a girl. But really there is no way  to know or guess.

Maternity clothes?: What about em? I am only 5 weeks, it would be crazy to be in them already. Although I am pretty bloated,  I have no idea how I am going to keep this from people…

Sleep?: I have a weird relationship with sleep right now. I wake up at 4:30 each morning, but I am dead tired and usually fall asleep early every night.

Best moment this week (Sunday- Saturday)?: The best moment of this week was making it to five weeks pregnant. I see every single day as a mile stone right now. We have prayed for and longed for this child for so long we are trying to drink each day in.

Food cravings?: Salt and Vinegar. The thought of eating anything sweet makes me want to toss my cookies. The worst thing I can think of eating right now is an oatmeal cream pie.
I am craving a lot of meat too.

Movement?: Baby E is the size of an appleseed today, so no movement detectable by me yet, duh!

Symptoms?: Cramping/sharp pains. Being really tired throughout the day, and HUNGER!

What I miss?: Right now nothing. This is where I have wanted to be for so long.

What I’m looking forward to?: Our first scan Thursday morning. I will still be really early so we may not see much, but what we will see is the beginning of the brand new life David and I now have. This is a great adventure!

Thought of the week?: Today I am absolutely humbled by this gift God has lavished on us. When Mark was here he asked if it would take a miracle for us to conceive a child. The answer? Yes, yes it would. I never really came clean on here about our medical diagnoses, so without going into too many details I was diagnosed with Endometriosis with a 4cm growth on my left ovary. The dr. suspects that the tube on that side is no good either. I was booked for a surgery in August to remove the growth and to explore the rest of my pelvic cavity.
The other ovary was covered in cysts, caused by Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. I know women with only one of these conditions who never have children, or who are only able to conceive with the help of IVF. Furthermore we also have a male infertility factor. With only Endo our chances of conceiving in any given cycle is only about 7%, add the other things and well it really is a miracle!
So in the last six months David and I have followed strict diets, I lost 26 pounds, and we have been seeing a fertility specialist. Dr. V as we will call him did not have high hopes of any kind of success for us. During my first visit this cycle he already had planned what we would be doing the next SIX cycles after this one failed. We were sent for a blood test at the end of the treatment cycle to see if we had been successful. It came back negative. I think that Thursday that we heard that news was probably one of the worst days we have had in a very long time. We ended up having an argument about some random little thing, I think we were venting our frustration on each other.
By Friday we were still sad but had made peace with the fact that God’s timing was still not ours. By Saturday we were much better, we had decided to stop any further treatments until the surgery in August, we were at peace.
On Sunday I took a home pregnancy test on a whim. Positive. The test was positive. We could not believe it. I took four more. All positive. On Monday I went for blood tests and they came back positive. David and I were quite hesitant on Sunday. I think we just kind of ignored it. But when the dr texted with the blood test result we both cried and whooped. We will never forget that feeling, or that day.

I am not sure when I will post this on line. Our dr. told us not to get out hopes up, and that it may not last.

Update: Ten weeks today. Our dr. is more confident. I am categorized as high risk and have been off and on bed rest for the last few weeks. I am doing well, and so far the baby is on track. Hearing the heartbeat was the most beautiful sound in the world. I cried my eyes out both times. Being high risk we get a bunch of scans, so we have already seen the baby three times and heard the little heartbeat twice.

Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this new journey. Every day I am overwhelmed by joy and gratitude, my eyes are rarely dry and tears of joy have over taken me. God is so good to us. Please pray for baby Echols to continue to grow strong and healthy, and for every little thing to continue to stay on track.  And for me to get over a bout of the flu that I have had since May, and to not worry so much about every little thing.