The Dirt is in the DETAILS

13 weeks and counting...

We have had the best week sharing our news about baby M2 with the world! We are totally overwhelmed by all the congratulations and well wishes.  I haven't responded personally to many of the remarks because I knew it was IMPOSSIBLE to thank each of you enough for the prayers that have been sent up on our behalf.  So, from the Manesses to the world...

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We have never felt so loved before!  And believe me, when I say it was the hardest secret for any of us to keep...it truly was!  After all the support we received from family, friends, and complete strangers when we lost baby Cam we felt like we owed it to everybody to keep you updated on the progress of our family.  I like to say that my life is an "open book".  "What you see is what you get."  Unfortunately, we needed to keep baby M2 a secret until we were in the clear of losing "him" like we did baby Cam...which brings us to now...and opening our lives back up for all to know and hopefully take something from.

So, I said last week I would write more details about baby M2 later.  I guess now is as good of time as any. 

First of all I need to give a BIG shout out to Mrs. Krissy Pinckard for leading us to Dr. Keith Gentry in Montgomery.  When we were given the run-around in Dothan about baby Cam we called our dear friend Krissy and she found us a doctor who would see us immediately to give us a clear diagnosis about baby Cam's progress.  Even after the heartbreak, we continued to see Dr. Gentry because we fell in love with him.

So, a little over a year went by from November 2010 until when we were finally ready to give baby making another shot around January 2012.  Dr. Gentry wanted us to try a couple rounds of Clomid before we dove in to the heavier fertility meds again...Here's a side note...I was always very frustrated that our previous fertility specialist had never tried us on Clomid.  She always said there was no need and that it would cause me to have really large cysts...Anyway, Dr. Gentry gave us three prescriptions to take over a three month period.  The first month we (I use the word "we" instead of "I" because believe me....Allen may not have had to literally take the meds but he had to endure the wrath of the side effects! :) Another reason I think I am married to the greatest man in the WHOLE world!) were to take 50 mg of Clomid.  If that was unsuccessful, the next month we would take 100 mg, and the following month 150 mg (which is a pretty high dosage)...back to the side note for a sec...I didn't have a SINGLE cyst the entire time we were on Clomid...imagine that...Anyway, we made it up to the third month and the dosage of 150 mg after having no success with the 50 and 100.  That put us taking the 150 dosage the second week of March.  We were scheduled for Spring Break the 4th week in March.  (In the beginning of this journey I kept up with my cycle EVERY month and could tell you at any given point what "day" I was on.  After 7 x 12 months...that's 84 cycles...give or take a few...I stopped counting somewhere along the way.)  So, I hadn't yet figured out that we would be on Spring Break during our window of ovulation.  We hadn't made a single plan for Spring Break until the weekend before.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we were working on getting the pool in summer condition.  Out of the blue I told A..."We have GOT to go the the beach.  I don't care if we can't buy groceries for a month...but I cannot sit here for a week in this beach weather and do NOTHING."  So, I found us a cheap hotel in Ft. Walton Beach and we set off the next Sunday for 3 nights of fun...just me and my beau.  Somewhere between those two weekends we put 2 and 2 together and realized we would be "beaching it up" during the exact 3 days of peak ovulation.  Man, I couldn't have planned it better myself!  And if you know me, you know I'm a pretty good planner. :)  So, we hit Spring Break 2012 with 2 goals:  RELAX & MAKE A BABY!

We did our best at BOTH tasks.  We spent the first day out in the sun...too much...and the second two days under an umbrella...but all three were spent with our toes in the sand...just like I like it!  I even got to read a really good book in those 3 days.  "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"...kind of strange but really good.  At night we were out on the town.  We ate at a new restaurant called Bottom Feeders (I had the best shrimp pasta dish.) and finished off our trip with a date to our FAVORITE restaurant Dewey Destin.  All in all it was a short but WONDERFUL get-away.

Fast forward to Wednesday, April 11th.  Once I had figured out our ovulation dates I couldn't help but calculate my Day 1 of the next cycle.  When April 11th rolled around with no sign of a monthly visitor I headed straight to Wal-Mart after school for a pregnancy test.  Straight from WM to highway 27, and straight to our bathroom for the test.  Keep in mind I have taken 100s of these things and always managed to fail them...However, this day was different.  Different from all the F's in the past, but also different from the positive test with baby Cam.  Directly after I took the test with baby Cam I went about my chores preparing for a shower.  This time I stared at that little white stick praying as hard as possible for 2 pink lines.  I know its kind of gross but I watched the yellow creep across the window for what seemed like 5 minutes.  And then...out of nowhere...there it was.  That 2nd pink line that I had prayed so hard for, for SOOOOO many years.  I had to bring the test closer to my eyes to make sure I wasn't imagining things.  (Here's a funny note-everything has been so perfect this time I keep thinking that it may all be a dream or that I am living in a fantasy world.  I have to remind myself, or get Allen to remind me, that he too has SEEN and HEARD our sweet miracle and that if I was "making this up" ...which I think I am sometimes...surely he would snap me back to reality.  I never considered myself a "dreamer" but this has got me wondering...)

On to the task of telling my "baby daddy" the news.  Allen was at basketball practice but I could NOT hold it in!  I loaded our 2 fury babies up and headed for CHS.  I parked across the street and nearly broke my neck trying to hold back the excitement as I strolled in to practice as if I didn't have a care in the world.  I told Allen I needed to talk to him outside.  Surprisingly he followed without hesitation.  Usually when I interrupt practice I get the "evil eye".  I didn't want to share the news with him right outside the gym so I made him follow me all the way across the street and around to the front of the car.  I didn't say anything...instead pulled out that little white stick that held 2 pink lines.  He got the sweetest grin on his face.  "Can you believe it?", I said.  We simply hugged outside, across the street from Carroll High School.  There was no shouting from excitement this time...just a quiet, beautiful moment filled with joy, fear, and anticipation for our second journey in to parenthood.  For those brief minutes, we were the only ones on the block...or in the world for that matter.  Was this really happening?  Was God blessing us again?  We couldn't believe it and didn't know how we would face the next few weeks that last time turned in to pure hell.  What we did know was that we had been through the fire before and come out stronger.  Stronger individuals but more importantly a stronger couple.  Together, with God's help, we were ARE going to bring this baby in to this world!  Together we can do ANYTHING!

Just call us the "Dream Team".  :)  That's us.