Catching up

I have GOT to get better at this blogging thing.  So much to catch up on!  Case and I went to Lake Tahoe with our friends Isaac and Allie a few weeks ago and had such a relaxing trip.  Until our return flight that Monday was cancelled.  We got rebooked but we had to spend the entire day at the airport and didn't arrive back in Texas until 1am.

Lake and Mountains

Dinner by the lake

Such a pretty city

My Happy Place

View outside our room

Wasting time in the airport

The following weekend, Case went to Houston with his parents to play in a charity golf tournament so I had the weekend free to do whatever and I had the best time hanging out with Miss Macartney and her momma!  First, when I showed up to Reagan's house, we were wearing the exact same shirt.  Needless to say, she changed.  Then we went to Mac's gymnastics class followed by The Thinkery!  That place is so neat!

Well, this isnt going to work

Paying attention to instructions

Balance Beam

Playing with the light pegs at The Thinkery

The next day was Kathleen's baby shower!  They are not finding out the sex of the baby, so the theme of the baby shower was "What will it bee?"  Such a great time and cannot wait to meet Baby Loyd!

Opening Gifts

What will it bee? (Get it?)

Parfait Bar

Mimosa Bar

We have also been busy doing a few small home improvement projects around the house.  Case has been busting his butt clearing our land and it looks AMAZING!  As for me, I painted our powder bath.  Let's just say that I thought I would be good at painting and I completely sucked!  Oh well, it's done.

Progress Pic

Its done!  Dont look too close at the edges....

Hard workin' man

A boy and his chainsaw.....

Case and I also had our first appointment with a fertility doctor earlier this month.  We both really liked the doctor and have been spending most of the month finishing up all the testing she wanted us to go through.  So many tests!  I had blood work, Case had blood work, a semen analysis, an HSG, a genetic saliva test and an ultrasound.  Based on the results we have gotten back so far, most everything looks good.  My vitamin D was a little low, so I have started taking supplements for that.  We are still waiting on the test results from the HSG and the saliva screening, but hope to get those back this week.  We have an appointment on the 28th of this month to discuss all the test results and our future treatment options.  I decided to take this month off from Clomid, to give my body a break from the hormones.

Saliva Test

Life Lately & Fertility Update

Well, here we are a month into the new year and I am only working on the 2nd blog post of the year.  FAIL on that New Year Goal.  Since the holidays, Casey and I haven't been too busy.  Case got a new chainsaw and has been working on clearing out some of the cedar trees on our property.  Speaking of cedar trees, our allergies have been horrible.  The trees around this area are pollinating right now and everyone is miserable.

A few weeks ago, Reagan and I took Macartney to my parent's house to see their baby sheep.  She liked them at first, however, when the sheep started "bah-ing", she got scared.  Haha!  I cant say I blame her!  It yelled right in her face!

Excited to go see the sheep

I dont know about this thing

Hold me, mom

This lamb laid like this forever

Group pic!!

We have also been spending lots of time visiting with Jonathan and Natalie and cuddling Miss Bellamy!  She is the sweetest baby!

Sweet baby girl

Uncle Casey and Bellamy

Last weekend we went to Midland to celebrate Bobby and Lynnie's 40th wedding anniversary.  We all went out to dinner at Cancun Grill.

Happy 40th Anniversary!!

Jordan and Josh

Sarah and Stan

Me and Case

It was also Harper's 1st birthday!  I cannot believe that little nugget is already ONE!  She had a great party but hated her hands being dirty from the cake icing.  It was good to catch up with Lon and Jessica as well.  Sure wish we lived closer to them!

Birthday girl!

This looks yummy!

Nope, dont like it!  Someone clean my hands!

This most beautiful and delicious cake ever!

FERTILITY  UPDATE
It appears last time I updated regarding our path to being parents, I was waiting on the surgery.  I ended up having the surgery on December 3rd to remove my endometrial polyps.  My doctor thought there were 2 polyps, however, when she got in there, there was 3.  She got all of them removed and the procedure went well.

At the beginning of my next cycle, I started on 50mg of Clomid.  I took it on days 3-7 of my cycle and went in on Day 21 for a blood test.  At my 21 day blood test, my progesterone level was at a 11.4.  My doctor stated she wanted it at a 12 or above, so if I wasn't pregnant this cycle, she was going to increase my dosage.  Turns out, I wasn't pregnant.

The following cycle (our current cycle) she increased my Clomid to 100mg.  Once again I took it on days 3-7.  My 21 day blood test this month revealed that my progesterone was at a 19.3.  A definite sign that I ovulated.  GREAT NEWS!  Now we are in our two week wait.  And it has been torturous.  I really need to learn patience.  Here is to hoping that we get a positive this month!!

Casey and I decided that if we are not successful this month, we will seek out a fertility doctor to proceed with treatment.  We are 14 months into this journey, and feel that is the best step for us at this point.  

2016 Goals

Let's face it.  I have never been much of a New Year's Resolution type of gal.  I always thought it was overzealous to choose one (or multiple) things you were going to stick to for an ENTIRE year.  A year is a long time!  So this year, I decided it would be advantageous to choose GOALS for the new year rather than RESOLUTIONS.  Here they are:

• If we are in town on the weekend, go to Church
• There is no reason we should not be doing this.  We travel quite a bit, but had gotten out of the habit of going to Church on weekends we are in town.  I feel as though it starts off the week on a positive note and makes me feel closer to God when I am in church each week
• Volunteer more
• I don't feel that I have a job that fulfills me personally.  With that being said, I want to volunteer more this year so that I feel as if I am doing something to help people.  I would ultimately like to do volunteer work with children and need to sit down and find a good organization.
• Read 2 books per month
• One thing I realized over the holidays is that I spend way too much time in front of the TV and on my phone.  I have always loved reading, and decided I should spend more time doing so.  
• Blog more/take more pictures
• I started this blog as a way for our families to keep up with our pregnancy earlier this year.  Clearly that plan didn't work out as planned but I realized I actually really enjoy blogging.  Most of the time when I sit down to write a blog, I realize I have no pictures to upload.  Therefore, I also want to take more pictures this year.  And I suck on figuring out the quickest way to get the pictures from my phone to the blog, so I will work on that as well. 
• GET PREGNANT
• This goal is pretty obvious but after over a year of trying, this is one of our ultimate dreams for 2016.  We look forward to the day when God blesses us with a sweet miracle of our own.  
• Maintain an 80/20 healthy eating lifestyle
• We started the new year out doing Whole30 and while we are only 5 days in, I already feel much better.  This will be our second round of Whole30, and it is so difficult and rewarding at the same time.  After this round, we plan on eating healthy 80% of the time and allowing ourselves treats 20% of the time.  
• Workout in the mornings before work
• So far, I have failed MISERABLY at this goal.  I'm talking it hasn't happened once! Ha!  And I have no excuse.  I need to get better at getting my lazy butt out of bed in the mornings.  I feel more energized throughout the day and have my evenings to do whatever I please.  Also, it prevents me going through the denial and dread all day while waiting for my workout to roll around.  

So there they are--2016 goals.  Some of them are ambitious, and some of them I should have already been doing.  Here is to a year of getting healthy, having a baby, and sharing our lives on the blog.  HAPPY 2016!!

Infertility Woes

I cannot believe its been almost two months since I have posted.  It definitely doesn't seem like it has been that long.  I came back to the blog today to read about our pregnancy back in March.  Today was Baby Satterfield's due date.  What a rough day!  I definitely wasn't expecting to be as emotional as I am.  After reading the post about when we found out we were pregnant, to the weekly updates and seeing how excited we were, it all just kind of hit.  HARD.  This is a week that initial happiness would have become a reality for us.  And instead of welcoming a new life, we are currently struggling with infertility and trying to get pregnant again.

Casey and I started trying to get pregnant again back in June.  We took one month off, right before we went to Napa, because let's be honest......who wants to be pregnant while in wine country?  When my cycle returned after my miscarriage it came back with a vengeance.  The first couple of months I just chalked it up to be my body's way of balancing out my hormones as to why I was so miserable when Aunt Flo came around.  But then I decided since I wasn't having any luck getting pregnant, I should go get checked out.  They did an ultrasound and found what they thought to be a cyst on my uterus.  My doctor wanted me to come back in for a Saline Ultrasound.  This is where they inject your uterus with saline where they can get a better look inside.  At this time, I also started tracking my ovulation at home again.  The ultrasound was extremely painful.  And being the wuss I am, I almost passed out.  They found out that rather than a cyst, I have two polyps inside my uterus which is causing the heavy periods.  The risk that runs for pregnancy, is if a fertilized egg tries to implant on one of the polyps, it will not happen and instead will end in another miscarriage.  That being said, my polyps are VERY small.  The doctor said the chances of that happening are rare, however, it is a possibility.  We talked options on what to do with the polyps.  I could have surgery to remove them, or I could leave them.  I told her I wanted to talk about the options with Casey before making a decision.

The month leading up to the saline ultrasound, I didn't ovulate.  I brought this up to my doctor and asked her if the polyps could have anything to do with that and she said no.  They are completely separate issues.  She stated she wanted to do a full cycle evaluation on me to see how my hormones look at different parts of my cycle.  I had blood work done at day 5 of my cycle to test for FSH and Estrogen.  All looked good.  I went back in for an ultrasound on day 12 to look at my ovaries to see if they looked like they were getting ready to ovulate.  The left ovary was big and had a few follicles ready to go.  She told me that I should ovulate in the next couple of days.  On day 21, I had to go back to have another blood draw done to test my progesterone levels.  By this time, I still had not gotten a positive on my at-home ovulation test.  My test results came back yesterday that my progesterone was lower than they want it (it was also too low on my first pregnancy and I had to take progesterone supplements).  She suggested that I get on Clomid to help me ovulate and get my progesterone levels up.

Casey and I decided that before we start down the fertility drug path, I will have the surgery to make sure that my uterus is in tip top shape.  I am currently waiting on the doctors office to call me back to schedule the surgery.  If all goes according to plan, I will have the surgery in December and start the Clomid in January.

So that's where we currently are.  I know this sounds cliche to say, but I never dreamed I would have a problem getting pregnant.  Most women don't.  It has been a year now since I officially got off the pill.  These past few months have really been a struggle.  From the negative ovulation tests every day, to the (what seems like) hundreds of recent pregnancy announcements on Facebook lately.  I am definitely trying to be better about relaxing and praying about it every single night.  Knowing that you and God have two different timelines is something I have had to come to terms with.  And learn a whole new level of patience.  And I know, one day, we will have a beautiful baby to hold in our arms to call our own.

Napa and San Fran Vacation

It's been a while since I last updated, but we just got back from one of the best vacations.  Our friends, Lon and Jessica invited us to go to Napa and San Francisco for Jess' 30th birthday.  Of course, we accepted and were so excited!!  We flew to Midland on Monday night and flew out to California on Tuesday morning.  And this was our ride!!  Jessica's dad let us take his jet!  My first time flying private and definitely something I will never forget.

When we got to California, we drove into downtown Napa to grab lunch.  We ate at a really cool little restaurant and then walked around and shopped for a little while.  Then we went and checked into our hotel and then decided to head over to Yountville for dinner.  What a neat little town.  We had the best time!

Drinking bubbles in Yountville

The boys HATED our selfie stick

Wednesday was our first day of wine tastings.  We hired a driver to take us to the different wineries on Wednesday and Thursday.  She definitely made things interesting!  For starters, we had a Lincoln MKX for our rental car and it had a push button gear shift.  We were not even to our first winery and she was trying to turn around and hit the "Park" button and then the "Drive" button really fast and the car got stuck in between gears.  STUCK!  We tried everything we knew for about 30 minutes and were on the phone with the dealerships and the rental car company.  They told us it would be about 3 hours before they could get a new car out to us. Ummmmm, what?  Finally, somehow, the car just shifted back into park and was ready to roll again.  Whew!  We had wine to taste!

Our first stop was Cliff Lede.  They had a really good white that we ended up taking home and Case and I are not huge white wine fans.  Our second stop was Mumm.  They serve sparkling wines.  If I found out only one thing on this trip, it would be that I am a big fan of the bubbles.  Mumm had a sparkling pinot noir and it was AMAZING.  However, just our luck, they don't sell it in bottles.  We did get a great bottle of regular sparkling wine to bring home.

Breathtaking views

Next we stopped at "special place" our driver made reservations at.  It was VERY different from any other winery we visited but we had so much fun.  We went into a private tasting room that had gold couches, a stuffed cheetah, and Lady Gaga playing on a big screen.  Jessica even got to saber a bottle of champagne!  We had our tasting, and then went on a walk through the main winery.  This place was super eclectic and an absolute blast.  It definitely wasn't the boy's favorite, but us girls were in heaven!

Boxing Gloves and Wine

Me and the Cheetah

A girl and her saber

Done like a professional

My handsome hubby on the gold couch

Red Room

Us with the mannequins

Our final stop of the day was at Del Dotto.  This is a winery where all the barrels are stored in a cave.  On the tour, the guide walks around and uncorks different barrels and lets you taste the wines out of the barrels.  A very neat experience (from what I remember).  The wine had definitely started to effect me!  Haha!

In the Caves (I was not supposed to be taking pics)

Sampling out of the barrels

That night we went to dinner at an Italian food restaurant that I cannot remember the name of and called it an early night since we had a full day of tasting the following day.

Thursday morning we woke up and went down to breakfast.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Napa and had a great breakfast each morning.  On this particular morning, I was trying to toast my croissant, and stuck it in the "conveyor belt toaster" and it caught on fire.  I am talking flames shooting out of the toaster, on fire.  I was frantically trying to pull it out with the tongs, and finally got it out.  There was smoke everywhere.  So embarrassing!

Our first stop of the day was Domaine Carneros.  This is also a sparkling wine place.  And this place was beautiful.  It looked exactly like a chateau up on a hill.  We sat outside and sipped bubbles and enjoyed the amazing weather.  Jessica and I found one of our favorite bottles of bubbles here.

Love this man

Next, we went to Donum, which was one of Lon's recommendations.  He has had this wine before and really enjoyed it.  We also loved it.  This is a pinot noir winery, so we tasted several variations of that particular wine.  Our tasting was in the private little barn that looks like Chip and Joanna from Fixer Upper had been there and decorated.  This was a great experience.

Tasting in the barn

Pics by our zodiac creatures

We only made it to two wineries this day but it was a great laid back day with some amazing wine.  That afternoon, we went to the Napa Market and walked around, ate oysters (my first time), and enjoyed the scenery.  We had concert tickets to Donavon Frankenreiter that night so we went ahead and headed over to get a good seat for the concert and grab dinner.  D.F. was a musician that the boys really enjoyed.  He was a little bluesy and a little country?  I don't really know how to describe him.

Donavon Frankenreiter

Friday morning it was Jessica's actual Dirty 30!!  We woke up and drove to San Francisco.  We got to drive over the Golden Gate bridge and drive down Lombard Street.  We went and checked into our hotel and then headed out to see the city.

Driving across the Golden Gate

Driving down Lombard St

We went to a bar called Lefty O'douls and had a few beers and then decided where to head to dinner that night.  We scoured yelp and finally found an italian food place to try out.  And wow, it ended up being amazing.  It was a very small little restaurant and the owner was so accommodating to us.  He made sure to make the meal extremely special.  And the food was AMAZING!!!  After dinner, he told us he had a surprise for us and took us upstairs through his house onto his rooftop.  You could see the whole city from up there and the views were awesome.  After plenty of picture taking, we headed back down for dessert!  They brought out a platter of dessert!  We walked back to the hotel bar and had one more drink before heading to bed.

Before Dinner

Birthday Girl

Rooftop View

Gorgeous church we passed on the way back to our hotel

On Saturday morning we woke up and found a place that served brunch and had college football on.  We were in the area of Pacific Heights and it was such a cute little area.  After we got back to the hotel, we asked the bell hop what area would be a good place to go and check out and he pointed us to the Marina District.  A great part of the city with all sorts of little shops and bars.  We found a bar that had more football games on and that had Miller Lite.  We could not find Miller Lite anywhere in the city!  We watched several more hours of football and then ended with dinner at a local sushi restaurant.

"Watching" football with our selfie stick

We woke up early Sunday morning to head home.  I cannot begin to describe how thankful we are to have such amazing friends.  We had the absolute time of our lives and cannot wait for the next trip!  Happy 30th Jess!

Our loot we brought home

P.S. The puppies were so happy to be home!  They normally don't ever interact and they are laying together!  Even if Murphy is giving Ruby the "side eye"

P.S.S. We close on our house next Wednesday!!!  I will make sure to do a house post once we move in!