MadGab fun for sharing the news with friends

One night Michelle and I probably spent an hour online looking for creative ways to share the news with Marty, Carrie, and Carrie (our roomies from Seattle).  Turns out the are lots of fun and lots of really dumb ways to tell people you are pregnant!  We finally settled on a MadGab because we have played this game together in the past.  If you aren't familiar with this game, you should google it because it is lots of fun, but basically you get a card with a string of words like "oak Abe Abe" and you read it out loud until you can figure out the common phrase that it sounds like. (In case you haven't gotten it yet...the example I gave says "okay babe").  In fact, one night at a happy hour a bunch of us made up our own MadGab phrases and texted them to each other. (Yup, we're THAT cool!)

So we video chatted with MCsquared (Marty, Carrie, & Carrie) and sent them this text while chatting: "gay swat wee arf eye null leap egg nut." See the attached video to watch them figure it out. It is pretty great!  MC^2 MadGab videochat

We used this same text to share the news with Scooter & Margo and Quita too.  We were with Quita and she was pretty hilarious to watch too.  I wish we'd videotaped her!

Telling the Therriens

Well the whole Therrien crew was together in Hawaii and knew we had done the test so we had to tell them that day.  We were having an early birthday party for Abigail so we decided to do it then.  I made a gift certificate to put in her card that said "Gift certificate redeemable this Halloween for a baby cousin." Kate read it to herself and gave us a big smile so I told her to read it out loud.  It took everyone else, except Vicky, a while to get it and eventually I think I just said it out loud,  My mom started crying and there were lots of hugs all around.

Of course..none of us knew at that time that the gift certificate should have been for THREE baby cousins!  We got the faxed copy of the HCG results from Nina that night and it was a terrible copy.  Nina had told Michelle it said 95 which would have been in the low average range.  But it kinda looked like there was a faint number 1or 7 to the right of the five so we all took bets on whether it was 95 or 950 something. (As you can probably guess...when Nina mailed the actual report it w indeed 951).  And for anyone who doesn't know what the heck I'm talking about HcG is the hormone they measure to determine pregnancy...and really high numbers can, but are not always, suggestive of multiples.  When we got home we had repeat HcG tests run and the number kept skyrocketing, fast than expected, so the doc at University Health Services told Michelle to prepare for twins...

FINALLY...a positive test!

A zillion ultrasounds, two surgeries, twenty plus inseminations, two rounds of in vitro fertilization, and dozens of negative pregnancy tests later, Michelle and I finally got the good news we've been waiting for!  On March 7th, we found out Michelle was pregnant!!  After the first round of IVF didn't work we planned to go back to Mexico for a frozen embryo transfer in late January or early February.  But we had some trouble getting the medications in the tiemframe we needed them so had to push it back to late February.  Of course, by then it was almost spring break time so tickets to Mexico were a lot more expensive, so after lots of hemming and hawing, we decided Michelle would go by herself for a quick two day trip Feb 24-26th.  Our plan was to transfer two embryos on the 25th.  BUT apparently we didn't clearly communicate that and when Michelle got to the clinic on Monday (by herself with no international calling plan) they had thawed all three of our remaining embryos.  So, poor Michelle, had to make the decision about whether to go ahead with all three or just  do two, knowing that the 3rd likely wouldn't survive another freeze-thaw cycle.  She told me all of this when she got home...prefacing it with "I had to make a decision, and if you think it was the wrong one, please don't tell me because it was hard!"  Of course, I told her she made the right decision and I would have done the same thing.  Plus, we'd been 0/2 the first time so why not increase our chances.

As usual, the two week wait (between transfer & test date) was tortuous, but at least we were in Hawaii for most of it and able to just relax and enjoy the sunshine and being with my family.  We knew the first day we could test was Thursday the 6th but we weren't sure if we wanted to do the test in Hawaii with my whole family there.  We, of course, were worried it would be negative and would just ruin the rest of our vacation.  But, really, it's sooooooo hard to wait so we decided to go ahead and test.  Michelle told me on the plane ride to Hawaii that she was feeling positive, couldn't explain why, but just felt like she was pregnant.  Then on Weds, the day before the blood test, she had a little bleeding and cramping and was sure that was it and it would be a negative test. =(  But we did the test anyway, stopping in Hilo en route to the Green Sand Beach.  We were told we might not get the results til the next day, but waited on pins and needles as 5pm got closer anyway.  But no call came.  Oh, I forgot to mention that my parents' friend Nina, a nurse midwife, was able to order the test for us so we were waiting for a call from her.

Friday was a "work day" where we all helped dad with yardwork. That was a good way to keep our minds off waiting.  Michelle was hauling bamboo and I was working with Matt and Claude on making brush piles of cut mango when Kate came to get Michelle because her phone was ringing.  Michelle later told me that Nina probably thought she wasn't excited at all because Michelle knew Kate was listening and she wanted to tell me before anyone else knew!  So she just said "uh huh, ok, thanks" when Nina told her she was pregnant! =)  Then she came out to tell me and I couldn't believe it! But again, we wanted to just keep it to ourselves for a bit so there wasn't a big jumping up and down celebration. =)  We both just went back to yardwork, but of course we couldn't stop thinking about it!  I'll fill you in on how we told people in the next post...

And so it begins...

If you've found this blog, you already know the big news that after two and a half years of trying to start a family, we are going to have an instant family this fall when our triplets arrive!!!  I've been thinking about starting this blog for over a month now, and have written a bunch of posts in my head, but never actually sat down and started this.  Michelle and I bought a journal to write about this experience, but we haven't been great at that either! And sometimes I think "there is no way I will ever keep this up to date, especially once the babies come!" but, well, it doesn't hurt to try and it might end up being a really efficient way to keep our friends and family "in the loop."  So we'll see how it goes.

As of today, Michelle is closing in on the 12 week mark and this news will go a little more public soon.  I'll probably rewind the clock a bit in some future posts to talk about the experience thus far and get some of those journal entries in electronic form, but that can wait.  At this point I think we are moving out of the initial shock and starting to come to grips with the reality of the situation.  Of course we still have moments of "I can't believe this is happening" and being scared to death, and I'm sure those will continue throughout this pregnancy, but there is also a lot more practical planning going on and more feelings of excitement.  We have appreciated all the positive responses and support from our family and friends thus far and know that we will continue to rely on all of you throughout this journey.  Happy reading!