36 weeks

Well here I am... 3 weeks out from baby boy coming! Can't believe it. This pregnancy has gone pretty quickly. It was lovely not having to be seen by the high risk dr this time and kind of being a "normal" patient. Maren is super excited to be a big sister. She turned 2 in October and she definitely knows how she is going to help! Im feeling nervous for all the change that is about to happen, but excited our little fam is able to grow. This really may be it for us, no more fertility meds, doctors or appointments for us. So weird that is has been our lives for the past 4 years. Super grateful for modern medicine and for Jesus blessing us with 2 kiddos!

It's a....

We are soo excited to announce we are having a little boy join our family! His name will be Baker Stephen. After our fathers. We feel incredibly blessed to have another miracle, healthy growing baby. Had a a great 20week checkup the other day! And this time we aren't having to see a "high risk" specialist which again we are thankful for! This pregnancy is going so fast. Especially with the Holidays quickly approaching!

#2 cont...

In case we aren't friends on fb....

I got to make this sweet announcement a few days ago! We transferred our last little embryo around Father's Day and it worked! I was completely shocked it worked and could not be more grateful and thankful! I was super nervous and really doubted that it would work since it didn't the 1st time with one. But God is good and we are soo excited to welcome another little baby to our fam! I'm 14ish weeks and excited to find out if it's a boy or girl!

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Michelle

#2

Soo I know its's been awhile and I have written this post in my head a TON I just haven't sat down long enough to write it all out. We have entered in the stage of ... "soo when is baby #2 coming?".... blah, blah, blah. You know the usual- which is totally fine for most people to be asked that. BUT when you have been through infertility and get your miracle baby, that does not mean it just goes away. I know people think sometimes it does, and for some it may be easier the next time around but for most it doesn't just disappear. The 2nd time around is different. For there is less pressure, but lets be honest, if you are wanting and praying for a baby that you are unsure can ever happen again b/c it took years and lots drugs, it can be tough to swallow to want to put yourself through that again.
We have 1 last shot for baby #2. We have 1 frozen baby left. We will not do ivf again- 1, its too expensive. 2- we don't feel like we should. 3- 1 & 2 should be good enough :)
 Anyways... I DO really want a sibling for Maren however; I do NOT want to enter in the "dark times" again. They were really tough, I was not in a good, healthy or happy place. We have been so incredibly thankful for our sweet gift and we begged God for her and for that we are forever grateful to God for her life. I always said I would be okay with one child and I will! I know God will get me there if that is His will. I just haven't been ready to face this fortunate "fear" so I've been putting it off to stay in my happy place.

So that is my update for now! I will definitely start updating more as we start thinking about baby #2 and our 2nd journey!

20 months

Well Maren is 20 months old. We celebrated Fathers Day, have enjoyed going to the pool, enjoyed Meg-Meg coming for a few visits. (She graduated from u of a and is now in PT school in KC. We are learning to do life w/o her here in Fay). 

Maren also decided to climb/bail out of her crib several time. So now her crib has been converted to the toddler bed. She did awesome w/ the transition and is doing great! We have been so proud of her

My new adventure

Hellooo friends! I know it has been awhile but a big reason I have slowed down on blogging is because I started this new "thing" called Plexus. I saw a friend post about it a little while back on facebook. I was so desperately trying to lose weight from the awful fertility drugs and then the pregnancy weight. I had tried some products called advocare for a couple of months and lost around 6lbs but then it came right back. The more I saw this friend post, the more I was intrigued. So I decided to try it for a month. After that I was hooked! I lost 8lbs in 6 weeks and then just kept losing from then on out. I'm now currently down 25lbs and have seriously never felt better. It has been life changing. I'll save all of that for another post, but my husband is taking it too and is down 14lbs and has been able to go gluten free and now has no more headaches. He used to have them daily and now doesn't!! AHHMAZING. It has been a game changer for us for lots of health reasons but also for financial reasons. I was worried I needed to go back to work b/c we were draining our savings each month so I was determined to make something work. I felt like this was doable for me since I was having so much success with the products and truly believed in them. So all of that to say it is now my job and I'm loving it! It has been a blast and super easy. I also love that I am able to contribute financially again for our fam. It came at such a great time for me and could not be more thankful for it. I also can't believe I'm just now blogging about it b/c I could literally talk about it for dayzzz!

Anyways if anyone is interested in sheddin some lbs or making some $$! Check out my website: www.plexusslim.com/mlyount or  Email me at mlyountspinkdrink@gmail{dot}com it could be the best decision ever you ever make {at least i'm not dramatic}!

I could go on and on bit will save it for another day! Hope you all are doing awesome.



this pic absolutely makes me want to cringe! Like want to crawl in a BIG hole!!!

www.plexusslim.com/mlyount

18 and 19 months

Welp. It has been awhile once again....

We have had a busy 2 months. We went to the beach. My sis graduated. Went to a wedding in Dallas. Maren is growing like a weed. She finished a full year at mothers day out, which she looved. 

Maren loves her colors, shapes, singing, elmo, noodles, being outside, starting to string 3-4 words together. She is very chatty and I love it!

She is also tons of fun and a ball of energy. Marc and I often like to reflect on the greatness of God and allowing us the privilege of being her parents when we didn't even know if we would ever have a child. My heart is always hurting for those that are still waiting. I think that is one of the main reasons I haven't kept this blog going. I just felt like it would be pics of my kid all the time (which is what it is) and I just remember that bothering me soo bad when I struggled to get pregnant so I felt like a hypocrite or something. Once you go through infertility you never forget even if you have a child. It really never stops b/c then you are wondering if you can have another and so on... so know I'm still that girl that struggled to get pregnant and also know I hurt with you. I also feel that Maren is a perfect picture of Hope and that miracles can happen. So don't ever give up hope or on God!

Sorry- that has just been weighing on me recently especially as we are re-entering this world while wanting, waiting and praying for #2!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Weekend!
Much love to all those who have served our country and made sacrifices.

16 and 17 months

Well here we are in the middle of March. February flew by as usual with all of the weather and sickness, but we are happy the weather is finally warming up!

Our days are filled with fun w/ this little one who seems to be growing extremely too quickly. She is full of life, spunky, and super fun. We have such a blast with her

Here are a few pics from the past couple of months.

What we are loving these days:

-BUBBLES- outside or in the bath, we beg for bubbles all day long

-Golf balls and ping pong balls. Rarely do we go anywhere w/o one of those. Weird I know.

-"THIS"- We call our lovie, "this." That was a mom fail on my part- everytime I ask her if she wanted her lovie, I would say, "Do you want this"? So that stuck and now we don't go anywhere w/o it. I love it and never want that to change.

-Food- she can put down a ton of food, her main love is NOODLES, which she asks for every meal and in between. haha. We also love blueberries, bananas, ribs, cheese, grapes, green beans and sometimes turkey and chicken

-She loves being outside

-Some words she can say are - dog, mama, dada, bubbles, bath, balls, baby, beck, meg-meg pop-pop, pappy, papa, nana, bruiser, please, thank you, slide, snack, noodles, this, NO, Amen 

-Some favorite songs are: itsy bitsy spider, abc's, jesus loves me, patty cake

-Some favorite books: brown bear, where is baby's pumpkin/easter eggs, Madeline, 5 little monkeys

-She loves dancing, jumping, twirling, clapping

-She has all of her teeth now except for the 2yrs molars. 

-Her hair is growing rapidly and I'm obsessed with it!

-She loves going to school

-She loves plying w// older kids

-She also LOVES her Meg-meg!!!

So there is the latest w/ miss Maren! Soaking each day up and loving it!

Gorgeous Pics

Our sweet friend, Maura just happens to be one of our neighbors and really good friends! She married one of our friends from college, and we have loved getting to know her over the past couple of years. She has blessed us tremendously with some amazing pics of our family that we will treasure forever. I will never be able to thank her enough! Thanks sweet friend, we our forever thankful to you!
She also wrote a sweet blog for us and you can see more pics there:
http://www.eugenegrace.com/item/140-the-yount-happenings

You can check out her other site here for more awesomeness!
http://www.mauradawnphotography.com/

15 months

Our sweet girl is already 15 months! I miss doing those monthly pics with the stickers. But here is a quick little update so we can remember!

She is seriously such a blast right now.

Some things she loves:

-blueberries

-bananas

-cheese

-stomping and dancing

-clapping.

-saying "uh-oh", da-da, ball, baby, bye-bye, pop-pop and tons of other gibberish.

-pushing her baby stroller

-playing outside

-praise baby and elmo

-babies and her lovie

-books- Brown Bear

-sleeps w/ a big girl pillow now in her crib

-all of her grandparents

-me of course and meg meg (she may or may not think she has 2 moms...that's currently un-clear :))

-she has fantastic hair

-loves brushing her teeth

-is currently getting in her 4 incisors (canine teeth)

-loves other kids, especially older ones

-loves her schools 

-does not love being held ever since she began walking in october... miss independent for sure

we've had a few too many snow days here....

cutest pony tail i ever did see!

I think she weighs around 21-22lbs and wear size 4 diapers. She also sleeps from 9-8:30 most nights and naps 2-3hrs once a day!

Christmas 2013

Well I have a goal of getting back to this crazy world of blogging... I had no idea of how much I've missed it and want to keep doing it for Maren's sake. Plus my memory isn't getting any better! I'm going to attempt to doing this once a week again.

Christmas 2013 was one for the books. We were gone for over a week and got to see several family members and friends. Maren absolutely had a blast and did great with all of the traveling. She was even excited on Christmas morning to see all of her "santa" presents.

She definitely racked up on all the presents this year... of course.

We continue to thank Jesus everyday for the gift that she has been in our life. She is so much fun, and makes our life brighter.

Here's to 2014!

12 months

I'm still playing catch up!

Here is her 12 month post... not bad she won't even be 13 months for 4 more days! This may be a record. haha.

So her 12 month was from September 8th-October 8th 2013

9/10- She started standing on her own and loved it

9/12- took a few steps on her own

-Learned she is terrified of balloons or any other inflatable for that matter, therefore there were none at her party!

-Loves baby dolls, books, blocks, balls, and cars

-she's hilarious and can be such a ham sometimes

-she may or may not be developing a strong will....

-can make a doggy sound, monkey sound and sign all-done

-can play itsy bitsy spider, patty cake, high-five, wo pig and touchdown

-made the complete switch to whole milk! woohoo for no more formula!

-still loves her bottles though, even asks for them!

-went to several pumpkin patches and enjoyed them a ton. side note: she calls pumpkins: bubbas. She knows exactly whatI mean when i say go get you pumpkin then she shows me a says, bubba? :)

-10/7- began cutting 4 back molars. that was fun.

-started fully walking 1 week after her birthday!

-weighs 18lbs. 5oz 28in long

photo credit: www.mauradawnphotography.com

We have way too much fun with this kiddo! We like to tell people we special ordered her, which we kind of did. I got really emotional cleaning out all her of her little summer clothes the other day as its getting chilly here in Northwest Arkansas. Marc and I are overwhelmed with how the Lord has blessed us with her. It literally brings tears to our eyes most days when we think about our little miracle.
I can't believe she's one!

11 Months

Better late than never... {even though she's closer to 13 months now...oops}

 

I deserve the worst mom ever award!  But I'm about to attempt to play catch up... pomise.

 

 

Maren at 11 months...August 8th-September 8th

 

-sleeps from 8:30-7:30

-can say: bye, bye, baby, ball, pop-pop, da-da, ba-ba (for bottle)

-can wave and imitate us

-pulls up and cruises all around the house and furniture

-started mothers day out on 9/9/13 and loves it!

-takes 4 bottles a day and eats 2-3 meals

-super animated

-weights 18.2lbs

-can hold her bottle on her own

-has 8 teeth

 

She is so much fun and such a happy girl!

10 months

I do in fact realize this is a month late, but my blog press app decided to stop working and I've had a virus on my computer... needles to say the technology has really put a damper in this area of my life.

But our little punkin is just a blast. In her 10th month, 

-she can say bah-bah, pah-pah, bye-bye, and maybe a few other words (of course no mama or da-da.)

-has 8 teeth

-can cruise around the furniture w/o falling

-is the fastest crawler i've ever seen

-shes obsessed w/ me and has major separation anxiety

-loves to feed herself (graham cracker, bananas, peaches, cheerios, green beans, turkey, cheese)

-can drink out of a straw, loves her sippy cup w/ apple juice

-loves dancing and bouncing to music

-loves books

-she also has developed a love for praise baby dvd's. she will not watch anything else

-she weighs 18lbs and wears 9-12 month clothes. however, her feet are the size of 0-3 month old :)

We honestly can't get enough of her. She is tons of fun and seriously such a good baby.

9 months

3 months left people... til she turns one! AGHH make this slow down pease!
We have been traveling quite a bit and now we are finally home for awhile...
since my last post this is what little bit has been up to!

-She has grown lots of hair and teeth (she has 6 now)
-She is in size 3 diapers
-She wears 6-12 month clothing
-She pulls up on everything
-She is officially crawling!!! I thought we were going to skip this b/c she started pulling up first.
-She is finally napping in her crib instea of her swing! Yay, huge accomplishment
-She loves to eat puffs, bananas, and mostly all baby food.
-She has 4-5 bottles a day
-Sleeps about 10hrs a night w/ no waking up
-Her favorite toy is anything she can pull up on and lids
-She does not take a paci and still has no lovie :( I want her to have something but she truly hasn't become attached to anything but me.
-She still loves her car seat and will usually take at least 1 nap a day in it while running errands. She is still a great traveler
-She loves most people, especially men
-She grunts when she likes/wants something :)
-She is finally making some sounds: bah bah, pa pa (still no da da or ma ma) which we work on everyday
-She is so.much.fun I can hardly handle it.


this happens as soon as she wakes up or doesn't want to go to sleep....

nightly walks are the best!

Standing is her favorite!





Do any of you moms have advice of how to get them on a good nap schedule and how I can get her to go down w/o a bottle... I started that only to transition her out of the swing but know i need to stop soon!