Babies Make...Four!

So we're not quite there yet in the literal sense of the term, but our little family is about to double in size! Ben and I have been a two-some for a good while now, and these two lives that we've gotten to know via kicks, wiggles, and ultrasounds feel so much a part of our family already. 

Nine weeks from today we'll be welcoming Little Lady and Big Bubba into the world, if not sooner.  How time flies!  It's been quite the journey to get to this point- a lot of ups and downs all along the way.  I thought I'd get a good recap in before we start into the All Things Haley "Family Blog"... can't forget where we came from (and how unbelievably blessed we truly are)!



So, it was a cold Thanksgiving night in 1981 in Ohio... ok, maybe not going that far back.  But it's amazing to think that only 4 years ago, Ben was just Ben...and I was just Amy.  There was no "Bamy"...no Mr. and Mrs. Ben and Amy Haley... But when we met back in early May of 08, we didn't waste much time.  Ben had already met my (extended) family by Memorial Day (and showed us his true skills at Wii Bowling...eh hem),  had already attended a visit to my gynecological surgeon in Palo Alto, CA by June, and had already met his future nephew in the first hours of his life in July (apparently Brian and Nicole already "knew"- love it).

By April of 2009, we had been through a laparoscopic surgery for me, a chemically induced menopause, a leave from my work due to aggressive endometriosis growth (you should be noticing- this blog won't have any lack of sometimes awkward details...be prepared), new roles at Van.guard for both Ben and I, a diagnosis of Cushing's Disease along with a pituitary tumor, test upon test- and a whole lot of stress, a trip out to IN to visit Ben's family for the holidays, a trip to California for New Years with the Wagners, Valentine's Day in Las Vegas, visits from Ben's family to AZ- and San Diego, and our own countless drives down to the beach in SD and our favorite restaurant "World Famous", all during our less than one year together. 

CA trip June 08

Heading to the beach after visiting with my surgeon, June 08

 This video is...well...a great insight into the minds of Bamy.  Sort of.  Enough said.

All kinds of D-backs games!

This was our first photo together...taken by the talented Kate in May 08!

Sea World!

Checking out the Flamingos at Sea World with Brian, Nicole and the kiddos.

At our favorite restaurant "World Famous" in SD

One of our many trips to San Diego in that first year

Joe's Crab Shack of course!

Go Suns!

Pretty standard Bamy photo...

Ben and Tayla beginning to find their special bond- back at my old house in Chandler

Trip to Vegas for Valentine's Day 09

Oh watch out for those slots, they'll get you!

Cirque de Soleil- Vegas

Outside of our hotel in Vegas- the Encore

Kate and I, early 2009

I mean, look how cute Everett is!

Napa with the Wagner family - early 09 (I thought he was going to propose...)

More D-Backs games! :)

April 17, 2009- the day before my 26th birthday, we headed back to Cali for my birthday trip to Disneyland.  This was my big Christmas present- a planned trip to the happiest place on earth for my birthday and I couldn't wait! We checked in at The Hotel Menage, walked over to the park for a half day at California Adventures, got soaked on the Grizzly Rapids ride, walked back to the hotel to change, headed out for dinner at Downtown Disney which ended up being a burrito on the sidewalk, and went back to the hotel pool for front row seats to watch Ben's first Disneyland fireworks show! We snuggled up together on one pool lounge chair, because mine happened to break, and snapped our last picture as "boyfriend and girlfriend".

Then, after a perfectly spectacular fireworks show, we went up to the room to, I thought, get ready to jump in the hot tub.  To my surprise, Ben had other plans.  I came out of the bathroom and Ben had an early birthday present wrapped for me on the bed.  I sat and opened it, and cried as I flipped through the homemade photo album- "Our Fairytale" - that Ben had created for me.  Then he handed me a scroll and told me to read it out loud.  He had written a story, our fairytale, (the beginning of which he had started early in our relationship) that ended in a beautiful phrase: "And then out of nowhere, and to the princess's complete surprise..." at which point Ben pulled out a black velvet pillow with a tiara on it...and a ring in the middle.  He got on one knee and asked me to marry him.  I, of course, cried yet again and said yes...and Ben's got the proof on camera! He had recorded the whole thing!

We spent the next two days living it up at Disneyland, taking all kinds of pictures of us and of course, the ring!

We decided that 6 months would be just about as long as we (I) could handle before actually gettin' hitched- so we set the date for the wedding exactly 6 months later- October 17, 2009!  The most beautiful day of my life.

I have this picture on my desk at work, love it!  My brother and my soon-to-be husband getting ready!

My mom's side of the family!

My dad's side of the family!

Flower girl and ring bearer- they stole the show! Sooo cute!

First dance- "Everything" by Lifehouse

Father Daughter dance...not a dry eye in the house.

Mother Son dance

No shortage of great dancing at that party!

We had plenty of planning to do to make it there; plenty of work to get done, and plenty of stress to accrue. Thank God for all of the help from my family (and my maid of honor- Jess) to get everything ready.  Did I mention we decided to try and buy a house in the meantime?  Moved into our wonderful home in North Phoenix about 2 weeks before the big day! Yikes!

First time we saw our house while it was on the market. 

It was pretty severly overgrown... :)

Ben and I spent two weeks honeymooning in Cancun and Disneyworld. We ate way too much, drank just enough, and had the time of our lives!

Had to throw it in there- doing push-ups with lizards.

I mean, c'mon, we had to do it!

Heading to Victoria and Albert's at the Grand Floridian- our hotel.  Best. Meal. Ever.

Fireworks boat cruise!

So, we were man and wife and settling into our fabulous home with our fabulously stable jobs at Van.guard (we're incredibly lucky to have the kind of stability we have at work...especially with everything that's happened since 2008, in every sense).  There was that one aching question of "family".  Before we even said our vows, Ben and I took a trip to the reproductive endocrinologist- not a typical 'fiance' situation, I'd say.  I had known for some time that family planning wasn't going to be the smoothest of situations, nor the easiest.  And Ben and I talked about it early in our relationship- we both wanted kids, and we'd do whatever it took to get there.  Our first trip to the RE was a scary one.  He laid it all out there: "IVF is your only hope".  We decided that with this prognosis, we'd find a second opinion when the time was right, but we wanted to take at least a little while to be just the two of us before starting down the very daunting IVF rollercoaster.

For six months Ben and I enjoyed married life to its fullest.  We traveled, relaxed, decorated our home, and continued to learn eachother.  Then in April of 2010, we decided to try for that second opinion and see what came of it.  We went to see Dr. Zoneraich in Scottsdale.  He was referred to us by a friend from Van.guard who had done IVF with him a couple of years earlier to great success.  He looked over my history, did a couple of tests on both Ben and I, and shared the same news we already knew- IVF was our only hope.  So we set the date for June/July and counted down the days. 

IVF isn't the easiest of methods to achieving "mommy and daddy" status- but we truly believe that everything happens for a reason.  Our first round of IVF resulted in a cautiously optimistic pregnancy, but unfortunately ended with an ectopic scare and eventually a D&C for our miscarriage.  We had transferred two embryos, our only two surviving embryos from the cycle, and one (our "Petri") had made it, but wasn't quite strong enough. We never got to see a heartbeat.

Ben and I decided to take a few months off after the incredibly difficult ending to our first IVF cycle.  We went on vacation again, tried not to think too much about the what-if's or the whys and just spent time together healing.  By January of 2011, we were ready to meet with the doctor again and look into our "round 2". 

We started all of the medication in February, and had a very different outcome for our second go at IVF! Not only did we have two beautiful embryos to transfer by the end of the cycle, we also had eight additional embryos that had made it to "freeze"!  We were again cautiously optimistic...but we both had a great feeling about our chances for success.  And we weren't to be disappointed.  On March 16, 2011, the day before St. Patrick's day (we just realized that), we went in for our beta HCG pregnancy test.  I had taken a test early that morning, but we kept it a secret until I got the call from our doctor- we were PREGNANT! And not just a little pregnant, we were really, really pregnant.  We had the highest beta numbers of anyone in the clinic for that cycle and everything was looking great.  As the days and weeks passed, our optimism grew.  The tests continued to come back very positive and finally on March 29th, 2011, we got to see BOTH of our babies on ultrasound for the first time.  Our two embryos had turned into a beautiful twin pregnancy.

Two perfect embryos before transfer

Two perfect growing babies! 5 weeks and 5 days along.

We couldn't have been more thrilled.  This was everything we'd wished and prayed for!  The next few months weren't easy.  I ended up with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, an affliction that less than 2% of pregnancies end up with.  I was incredibly sick, on bed rest, and on IV fluids for weeks to help maintain my hydration and nutrients.  By about 15 weeks, things started to turn around...and we hit another huge milestone- it was time to find out the sexes of the babies!

Twin A

Twin B

On June 1st, we went to our big gender reveal anatomy scan and found out that not only are we lucky and blessed enough to have TWINS on the way...we're having a Girl AND a Boy!!!  Ben gave me a high five during the ultrasound and said "We did it!".  He then proceeded to tell me that we can now have a girls day out and a boys day out.  I love my husband.

It's been such an incredible blessing to watch these two lives grow.  They are healthy and strong, both ahead of the curve in size-and my body is now handling the pregnancy incredibly well! No signs of pre-term labor and my morning sickness took a hiatus around 17 weeks.  I'm starting to feel the effects of being in the third trimester with twins now, and working full-time may be coming to an end soon (at least until the babies are about 3 months old), but I'm loving watching my belly grow and feeling their super strong kicks!

16 weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

23 weeks

23 weeks

Look at how cute Ben is with a stroller (of course, this is only a single stroller...the double is GINORMOUS)

I think this was around 22 weeks

At our babiesmoon at the Biltmore at 25 weeks

Laying out in public with a 25 week twin belly- in a bikini!!! Yikes.

At the Biltmore- all-inclusive meal #5...sooo full! I can't bend over too much, the belly gets in the way now :)

My mom, Nicole, and Jess got together to throw me the absolute best baby shower I have ever seen on August 6th!  We were 24 weeks, I was feeling great, and the belly was coming out in full force.  The day couldn't have gone better- it was perfection all around.

First reactions to the amazing decorations!

I cried when I saw that Nicole had put pictures of the babies up around the house!

Michelle and Keith came in from CA for the shower!

Lolly, Barb, and Jess

Barb, mama, and Jill

Lacey on the far left flew in from Chicago for the shower!  Some of the ladies from work, Lila, Kendra, Allie and Monique are behind me.

Tami, Auntie Kim, Emily and Laura are working hard to make scrapbook pages (such a good idea)! The scrapbook turned out so awesome. Can't wait to fill it with pictures.

Julie was a genious with her scrapbooking skills!

Nana's getting at it!

Kate did SUCH a good job helping with all of the presents. Everyone loved her- she's so cute.

After celebrating with all of the ladies, my parents threw us a co-ed wine party!  Delicious spread, I'm sure delicious wine, and great company! Plus, we got a little belly photo session out of it, too.

24 weeks



All in all, it's been such an amazing ride!  We've got nine weeks left (approximately...) before we get to meet our little "luckies" face to face.  I pray every day that they continue to grow strong and healthy- and we can't wait to meet them!

We'll keep everyone updated, and of course, make sure to get lots of great pics of our little lady and our little man once they make their arrival. Keep us in your prayers and come back often to check out the latest with the Haleys- ready or not, here we come!