36 weeks!

yet again i've let several months go by without updating. and yet again there is big news to report! we have had a long and healthy pregnancy* and the baby is due in less than a month! i didn't mention in my last post (the one where i shared the fact that we got pregnant!!) that it was due to IVF. working with UIC fertility docs, we tried 3 medicated cycles with ol' donor 7836, our first choice, but they didn't work and he ran out. when we were finally approved for IVF months later, we chose a new donor and had success with our first try on both (the donor and IVF). such an amazing time!!! we had some bleeding so stayed with the fertility team for a few months but then moved to swedish covenant midwives by thanksgiving. pregnancy was NOT difficult at all until only recently. i never had morning sickness (SO crazy!) or really any other symptoms, except headaches that mostly went away when i stopped taking the progesterone shots around 13 weeks. in the last month or so my main symptom has been ridiculously swollen feet and hands. this honestly doesn't affect me THAT much other than looking just ridiculous (and once making me cry when i looked down at them!) so yet again, i don't want to complain. the rest of our lives have moved forward swimmingly. i left work in january to start my internship(s) for my final semester of school. i finished classes this past week and only have one paper left to write, which i'm pretty confident i can do before giving birth! then i'll actually be done with grad school before having a baby! this timing worked out so bizarrely and wonderfully. then we have enough savings to stay in this apartment and this city for about 4 or 5 more months, staring at our baby in awe. in the meantime both DW and i are looking for work here or elsewhere, but it's nice to be able to throw our net wide and actually look for work that will make us happy. our second shower was this past weekend and it was a total love fest. the baby is so set, we felt so supported and celebrated, and people came all the way from miami and dc! now we just have to see how to a) get this baby out of me and b) raise a child. no biggie, right? *i do want to memorialize here that we started with implanting 2 embryos. our beta numbers were pretty high and it was suspected that we had implanted two, but we only saw one sac on the ultrasounds at first. at around 6 weeks or so i started bleeding, and at the frequent ultrasounds to follow that issue, we saw the second sac, though it was shaped differently and not as big. it eventually disappeared about a month later. so we had two little ones for over two months in there. we're so thankful that they both graced us with their presence and will never forget that second perfect 8-cell blast. love you.