Friday, August 29, 2014

Friday Faves


Woohoo it’s Friday and it’s a long weekend!  Here’s your weekly dose of shirtless men…
A little Thor action for you this morning

Favorite Moment:
I had a great doctor’s appointment earlier this week along with another acupuncture appointment.  We are right on track for our transfer next Thursday!  Can’t believe that we’re almost there.  They said that my lining looked great.  I finished up with my Lupron injections today & I start PIO injections tomorrow (the oil shots that have to be given in the upper outer quarter of my butt) which I’m not looking forward to.  Things are continuing to progress with the house as well.  Our builder should be done by next week with his part, we should be seeing the doors and windows put in next week which I cannot wait for!  Joe got our corner tub & the knee-wall for our kitchen island framed up this week.  So exciting!

Also, just wanted to share my feature on the TTC Sisters website from Wednesday.  I love this community and the way that we can all come together to support each other.  It’s a beautiful thing!

Favorite Pin:
love me a tight pair of destroyed skinnies

Favorite Quote:

Favorite Recipe:
Wednesday I made chicken and spinach stuffed shells, & made this recipe for skinny alfredo sauce.  I also used Greek Cream Cheese instead of regular cream cheese to reduce the amount of fat in the recipe.  This stuff has 4 times the protein and half the fat of the regular stuff!  You'll also reduce the fat by using the olive oil in the sauce rather than butter & it's just as good!  

Favorite Online Purchase:
Ok, I know, I’m supposed to start changing my spending habits, but when I see fringe, I fall, hard.  Thanks to Amanda's awesome loving lately post she shared this adorable Steve Madden Bmocha bag & I just had to have it.  I thought the price at $68 was great until I Googled “Steve Madden coupons” and found a 15% off!  Got it for $57 bucks!  I ended up getting in grey, my go-to color for purses and boots.  I think I’m now set for my fall & winter bags since I got this one from Just Fab a week or so ago. 
Favorite Funnies:

#truth

Love these two!

haha! if only! ;-)



This is my "it's a 3-day weekend & I'm pumped!" dance



Tuesday, August 26, 2014

TTC Sisters Blogger Challenge: The Power of Sisterhood


How have your TTC Sisters helped you along your infertility journey?

If you've been following along for a while now, then you know that when I started this blog I had no idea that I would eventually end up blogging about infertility. If you’re new to Baby Ridley Bump, then welcome! When I started this blog, the intention was to blog about the journey to get pregnant & eventually be raising my child. Now here we are 2.5 years later & the gears of this blog have switched to advocacy and infertility awareness and the journey that we are on to beat infertility and get pregnant!

Over the course of these last few years between blogging and Instagram especially, I've made lots of new friends, found tons of inspiring blogs and forums, and have gotten loads of prayers and support from all corners of social media, but the most valuable of all of those things has been the relationships that I've made with my TTC sisters. Only they can truly understand this disease and the effect that it has on our lives. I have an unbreakable bond forever with women that I've never met face to face, but they've been some of my biggest supporters, and I've been theirs, and it’s a truly amazing thing that I am so so thankful for.

When you’re new to the world of infertility, you have very little understanding of the amount of support that is needed, you also have very little understanding of the amount of support that is out there. It seems as though I almost stumbled up on it in a way, searching a hashtag on Instagram or finding a blogger in a similar situation. Remember, we are 1 in 8! There are millions of us out there and we are all willing to support each other and the community in any way that we can. We will laugh, we will cry, and we will stand together in battle with our sisters and it’s a truly beautiful thing.

I have been completely overwhelmed by the love and support that I've experienced throughout this journey. I do have some very special TTC sisters that I hold near and dear to my heart, first of all, my best friend in the world of TTC, my rock, my go-to girl, Beth. She reached out to me through blogging last October (almost a year now girlfriend!!) and we have become great friends through our mutual struggle to get pregnant. She has been such a wealth of advice for me through our IVF cycles since she is pregnant with a baby girl via IVF and due next month! We have yet to meet face to face, but it’s definitely something that I look forward to doing. From that first package of her left over vitamins to flowers, cards, text messages, emails, & more, we have become so close. I think about this friendship and how it wouldn't be so if we weren’t going through what we are. Beth I love you and owe you so much for reaching out to me and being such a wonderful friend!

The TTC community is more than can even be imagined.  Between those of us who blog, those who have created other infertility outlets such as the TTC Sisters website, those like Chelsea that work their butts off to arrange the TTC Exchanges, we all work to make this community one of the biggest & most treasured pieces of the puzzle.  It's an important piece of the puzzle that's not quite like any other, since no one can understand your situation quite like a TTC sister. Your husband or wife or partner cannot quite grasp it, your best friends, they will listen and support, but unless you've experienced it, then you cannot truly understand it and I urge anyone reading this who is not yet part of the community to please reach out. You will be so happy that you did.

Here are a few of my favorite bloggers who I’ve connected with in the TTC community:
Caroline @ In Due Time
and many many more...

Another really great resource is Instagram. If you are looking to expand your support group it's a great place to start!  Search hashtags like infertility, TTC, IVF, IUI, ICSI, TTCSisters, infertilitysisters, & more. Be sure to follow our gracious hosts, @TTCSISTERS on Instagram & here for additional support, giveaways, forums, fertility diet information, blogger challenges, shopping, and much much more!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Weekend Recap! Baby Johanna is here!


On Friday night we were on our way to dinner with our builder & his wife celebrating our first draw on the house.  We got a message that my niece was going to be making an early appearance!  Jodie was hospitalized and earlier in the day had scheduled her C-section for Thursday with her regular doctor.  The on-call doctor had other plans and we welcomed baby Johanna Grace into the world on Friday night weighing 5lbs 15oz.  She is the tiniest little peanut and is just adorable!  Unfortunately she is having some rapid breathing so she will have to stay in the NICU for a week, but we are happy that she is healthy and her and mom are both doing great!

Joe and I woke up early on Saturday and hopped on the bike to make the 3 hour trek over to Indy.  We are so happy that they are so much closer now.  They used to live in Minot North Dakota, a 15 hour drive!  Such a blessing that we can get to them now in just a few short hours!  Jodie said that she wanted me at the C-section originally, but I was not able to get there in time for her to have the procedure so we left bright and early Saturday morning.  We visited Johanna in the NICU for a few hours then we went back to Jodie and Jon's house to see their other 2 kids and have dinner.  Joe's parents are staying in Indiana and helping around the house for a few days.  We went back to the hospital after dinner & Johanna had been released back to Jodie's room so we got to visit with them for a few hours.  We found out the next morning that she had been moved back to the NICU because her breathing increased and she was not eating. Prayers are welcome!



I am one proud aunt! These kids mean as much to me as my own kids will mean to me.  I'm so proud of Jonathan and Jocelyn too for being such good big siblings.  Jonathan told me on the way to the hospital that he wanted to hold her the entire time and that she was beautiful and cute.  He's such a gentle soul.  He's 8 years old and he's so in love with his new little sister.  Big sister Jocelyn is excited, but not quite comfortable holding her yet.  She's ready for little sister to come home so she can help mom take care of her. 


As we welcomed a new life this weekend, we also said goodbye to a very dear family friend who has been battling cancer for 15 years.  It started with prostate cancer years ago and he has been fighting ever since.  I never thought that he would lose the battle, I always thought that he would just continue to push through it.  Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago the cancer had spread to his liver and his insides were just too badly damaged from previous radiation to proceed with any additional treatment.  We found out Saturday morning on our way to Indy that he had passed.  Jimmy was like a father to me and bailed me out of a few situations back in my day.  He was a big teddy bear who would give you the shirt off his back.  He was a great, happy go-lucky guy & we will truly miss him every single day.  There is no one in the world quite like him and we were lucky to know him and have him in our lives.


Sunday was a day of catching up on all the things that we didn't do Saturday like laundry and grocery shopping.  We went to Home Depot and got to take a peak at our front door that came in.  It's so beautiful and I can't wait for them to install it.  Things are continuing to progress quickly and I couldn't be happier!

Tuesday is my last day of Lupron injections.  I have a doctor's appointment that day as well to check that everything is looking good.  I have been upped to 4 Vivelle patches every other day rather than 2 so everyone watch out!  Hormones are raging now!  We are planning on taking one more bike trip next weekend before our transfer on Thursday September 4th.  Hopefully that will be my last bike ride for at least 9 months!  Feeling really good about this next cycle! 


Friday, August 22, 2014

Friday Faves

Happy Friday everyone!  I think that last week’s Ryan taking his shirt off gif was just what everyone needs on a Friday morning to get us through that last day of work so without further ado…


Favorite Moment:
I’m going to start sounding like a broken record if I haven’t already… house progress, duh!  It’s coming along so quickly still I just can’t believe it.  I can’t tell you how surreal it is to have the plans that my husband hand drew 3 years ago finally come to life. 



Favorite Recipe:
I've shared this post before for homemade cream of chicken and this is one of the recipes I use it in on the reg.  This is the easiest ever chicken pot pie recipe I've ever come across and I have to share.  Ps. it’s great for a cool fall day or a really cold winter day.  Warms ya right up!

1 refrigerated pie crust
1 can mixed veggies
2 batches of homemade cream of chicken (or canned if you like all those ingredients you can’t pronounce)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cooked & shredded—Ps. If you have a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, throw your chicken breasts in while still hot and let her rip, it’ll shred the chicken like a charm.

For the Pie:
Follow the directions of your pie crust for cooking temperature & preparation.  Mix the double batch of cream of chicken, chicken breast, and mixed veggies in a bowl.  Add the mixture to the pie crust & bake according to the directions of your pie crust.  And BOOM, you’re done.  So easy! So delish!  And if you’re really feeling like Betty Crocker, you can make your own pie crust if you’ve got that kind of time!

Favorite Snack:
You'll jump right off the healthy bandwagon with these babies.

Favorite Pin:
of course the pin leads nowhere, doesn't this just look perfect?

Favorite Quote: 

Favorite Thing I’m looking forward to:
Our FET is less than 2 weeks away now & I’m really excited & ready for this to finally work!  I haven’t been as stringent with my diet as last time as I’m still drinking caffeine, but other than that I’ve been watching what I eat, exercising regularly, and doing acupuncture.  I’ve been trying not to think too much about that “what if” as in “what if it doesn’t work again” it’s really hard not to though.  All I’m going to say is that if it doesn’t then I imagine maybe a break from all the hormones and doctors and a few months of the good ole’ trying naturally at least maybe until next year.  Let’s face it, next year IS NOT that far away now!  But, I’m feeling really good about this cycle, maybe even better than our first cycle.  Now that I know the quality of our frosties (all A+) and the possibility of assisted hatching, I’m hopeful that this will work this time.  Not having to take as much medication & the relief of some of the initial stress from the house has really helped a lot over the last few weeks, hopefully these are all good signs!


Ok, this was too long of a post…

Favorite Funnies:
seriously, in my rental car, this IS my struggle!

who's with me on this?

best looking salad ever!

I can't even find Joe, let alone ELENA!

#peopleingeneral

ummm.... that's like a legit skill right there

TGIF!


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

#GuiltyTotalSocial

Helene in Between

Linking up again with the lovely Helene and Sarah for another installment of Total Social!  This month's theme is guilty pleasures, which we all have!  Here are a few of mine...


1.  The Real Housewives of Orange County/Beverly Hills
Guilty as charged.  I watch this show (only these two though) religiously and have since the OC's first season.  Joe hates when I watch it because it's full of "drama and dumb girls" so he says.  It's the only show on our DVR that we don't watch together.  I watch it after work or when he's not around!


 2.  Double Stuf Oreos
I cannot resist a Double Stuf Oreo.  I could definitely eat an entire package, but I try to limit myself to one (or maybe two) a day if I have them in the house.  If I'm eating an Oreo I don't want lime flavored, vanilla, or original, it has to be a DOUBLE stuf!



3.  Social Media
I'm sure that this is probably a guilty pleasure of most people.  I am probably a little bit too obsessed with Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Etsy, Bloglovin, Blogger, etc. I know that my husband would say that I am.  Sometimes I just love to see how many followers I have on Bloglovin or how many likes that my #ALSIceBucketChallenge video got on Instagram & Facebook.





4.  Fountain Soda
I try my damndest to drink the recommended 64oz. of water a day.  I stay away from soda as much as I possibly can during the week, but when our weekly Saturday morning routine rolls around and my mom and I are out for lunch I almost always have a fountain Coke or Cherry Coke.  I'd much rather hold out for a fountain soda all week as a treat to myself than drink it out of a can any day!


5.  80's Horror Flicks
I don't necessarily think that these are "guilty" pleasures, but some might.  I'm a sucker for any movie made by John Carpenter, or any cheesy 80's horror flick like Friday the 13th, Prom Night, Sleepaway Camp,  Hellraiser, and Poltergeist .  They're fun to watch, and I've watched them hundreds of times. My dad had me watching Freddy Krueger movies at the age of 3!






Monday, August 18, 2014

Weekend Recap


Anyone else think that the weekends just go by entirely too fast and are entirely too short?  Summer is dwindling away and I've seen lots of people already mentioning pumpkin spice latte's and hooded sweatshirts.  I can't believe that Labor Day weekend is in 2 weekends!  Fall is right around the corner!


This weekend was a good one.  Friday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment for an ultrasound.  Everything went perfectly and we are still on track for transfer on September 4th.  We found out that all six of our embryos are A+ grade which is awesome.  One of those six embies just happens to be a hair farther along in development than the others so that's the frosty that we will transfer.  We are also consenting to assisted hatching (AH) if the embryologist thinks its necessary.  Assisted hatching is when they make a microscopic incision in the embryo to help it hatch.  Sometimes the freezing process can harden the shell making it harder to hatch out of.  If it can't hatch then there is no room for it to grow.  I'm kind of hoping that they decide to make the incision if that will help our frosty along in any way.  Sunday I started Doxycycline and Vivelle estrogen patches, two every other day, then bumped up to 4 patches every other day on Saturday.  Still at 10cc of Lupron as well.  I also had my second acupuncture appointment Friday afternoon that went great.


Saturday I helped my friend Jessica with a Stock the Bar couples shower that she was throwing for another friend of ours.  It was so much fun and everything turned out so cute!  Some of my handy work can be seen below.  We got the idea for the banners (and everything else!) from Pinterest.  We raffled off a wine rack and let the couple keep the proceeds.  We did craft beer and wine tastings which included Joe's home brew and his homemade wine.  There was tons of foods and lots of good laughs!  Such a fun party!








On Sunday we took a ride out to the house to meet with Joe's boss to finalize some of the plans that we have for next week.  We will finally be able to back fill now that the foundation has been rubberized and insulated. Things are moving along nicely and I'm so glad to see progress every day.  I'm hoping they will be able to start shingles this week, our doors are all in at Home Depot so we should be able to have our beautiful front door, our 12' sliding door, and all other exterior doors installed as well.  I'm happy to see so much happening so fast, but I know as soon as our builder is done in the next couple weeks and the work is turned over to Joe, things will start to slow down again.  He does work a full time job and they'll be coming  up on their busy season as soon as the farmers start harvesting their crops.  I don't expect to have as many updates on a daily basis, but it will be rewarding for Joe to be able to say that he did so much of the work on our home.  





Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  




 
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