movement!

We have movement! We have movement!!!

Someone or maybe both are dancing around there right now! Lots of little fluttering and wiggling going on in there, and got my first firm nudge yesterday while we were driving in the car that actually made me exclaim, "Whoa!" outloud. Little Ronald (Barack & Ronald aka Left & Right) has nudged me firmly twice now and seems to be quite a bit more active them Barack. Not always but occasionally I can tell distinctly which side the movement is coming from. :)

Amnio results soon. Fingers and toes are crossed.

suggestions?

and so it begins...the pressure of a name...the pressure of TWO names. Ryan's suggestions so far are Ryan, Bryan and Horrace.

we're going to need help.

Gender Question?

Here's the view from the bottom of both of our babies. :) Not quite as clear as it was in person, but still...I think you get the idea. :)

Holey Smokes. We're having TWIN BOYS!!!! :) :) :)

Happy Halloween!

(in case it's hard to tell, that's a brain eating zombie hat that Ryan is wearing - he was very pleased with it) ;)

Final Hint

Well, if the first 2 posts weren't obvious enough...this one ought to do it. :)
 

 


i know i'm biased, but CUTE right? they're not little blobs anymore!

 In case you need help orienting them...Twin A is head down hands by the face with his/her legs in the air, you can even see the little feet and bend at the knees. Twin B is sitting comfortably with HIS feet out and little hands in front of his tummy. (and yes, that's the spinal chord and some bones clearly visible on both) :) :)

Another hint?

So yes, hee hee...looks like most of you have guessed or know by now...but here was our next hint:

Sept 12

October 2

October 22

Guess what?!

:) :) :) :) do you get it? :) :)

Happy Birthday, Mom. Love you...and miss you so.

i think i can safely post without revealing one thing or another...

i really miss my mom.

pum pum pu-pum

...oh. That's my heart. ...

Waiting is hard.

Here we go...

On the way for blood draw 2.

Heart has been doing flip flops and nervous stomach. :)

Please, please, please, please...faith, faith, faith, faith.

With a heart full of hope and appreciation for your support,
stace

Note From Ryan...

Hard to believe that after what started nearly a year ago, tomorrow is a BIG day for Stace and I.  Hopefully (knock-on-wood, cross your fingers, think good thoughts, send out positive vibes,  throw salt over your left shoulder, avoid all cracks in the sidewalk) our schedule will look like this: test tomorrow (comes back positive!), another blood test in about 10 days (again, comes back positive!), and then 10 days after that an ultrasound to confirm that that the embryo(s) has implanted successfully.  So really, this (could be, knock-on-wood) the start of a very nerve-wracking three weeks!.

It's been interesting to see how we handle the stress in a situation like this, one in which- even though you try to do all the "right things" possible- is essentially out of our hands.  We're doing everything possible to squeeze every last little percentage point in our favor.  On the other hand, as a few people have told us, we try to just have Faith and believe that it will happen.  (It makes you feel a little bipolar bouncing from one extreme to the other).  Which brings me to this little point...

I (much more than Stace) really do not one to jinx this, bachi this, count my chickens before they hatch, by telling people too early that Stace is pregnant.  (I think there is a residual effect from the last time when we didn't wait and told people only to have her have a miscarriage a few days later.)  So even though we are taking the first test tomorrow (and even though Stace is a little disappointed) we're not going to be announcing the results for at least a month (maybe more?).  (Stace did ask why we couldn't tell people if the test came back negative.  But if you knew we were going to tell you "no" and then we don't say anything, isn't that the same things as announcing "yes" as well?  It sounds more logical in my head, trust me.)  That way when we do announce something (hopefully that she's pregnant, again, knock-on-woood) we'll feel confident in it.

I look at it this way: tomorrow's test measures the change in HCG levels so minute that a home EPT wouldn't test positive.   (So in my mind) it'd be like a woman who is a day late on her menstrual cycle telling everyone she's pregnant (might be a tad bit too premature =) ).  So while I'm sorry to disappoint all of Stace's readers, please don't stop reading her blog!  Oh, and if you could, please send us your good thoughts, vibes, prayers, and wishes tomorrow and over the next month or so!  We really do appreciate everyone and their support.  If the love and support of family and friends could guarantee a pregnancy, Stace and I would soon be starring in our own reality show (move over, John and Kate!).

Thanks so much everyone!

Ho hum...

(sigh) The one little taste of freedom wet my appetite but back in bed already. Thank heavens for my iPhone! Too hard to use the computer when on your back but my phone helps while away the hours. (whittle away the hours? what's that term?)

Anyway, and it's let me write my little posts. :)

Thinking good thoughts towards my belly!

love,
stace

Fresh air

I am out of the house for the first time in 10 days. :)

Blood draw #1.

Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed! Fingers crossed!!

Good vibes

I'm not going to go into detail but am back flat on my back on bedrest... And am shamelessly asking for any good vibes possible thru Saturday. Please please please.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your thoughts we really appreciate it and could really use it right now.

Crossing our fingers, toes & eyes...

with love, appreciation, and heart filled with hope,
stace

Thank Heavens

Thank Heavens for sisters. Particularly a sister like Cecily who not only cleaned, did the wash and took care of me today but then also made a super yummy healthy dinner. Rosemary chicken, Swiss chard and lentils. (thanks T-n-T for her chard recipe!)
And all with perfect timing cause guess who's fighting a cold...BOTH Rye and I. Boo. :(

Quick Update

(Written by Cecily, standing in for Stacy)

Mmmm... Red onion tea. I bet you're extremely jealous.

I had a visit from the acupuncturist today and unfortunately, she said I need to take it easy and pretty much go back to being on bed rest.  I wasn't even over exerting (or even exerting) myself.  But I need to take it easy and lay flat more, and not get excited or mad.  This means no more words with friends i-phone games and no more pac-man, no more yelling at Ryan (good thing we have walkie-talkies!), and no more unnecessary standing up.

For some reason, my voice is also hoarse. And unfortunately, I have a slight cough.  That's not good.  My acupuncturist suggested I drink the delicious red onion tea (red onion boiled in water)  to help stop me from coughing.  Delicious, right? =)

Thank goodness I have an absolutely incredible, extraordinary, phenomenal husband.  And I'm pretty happy that my sister came into town too, because she can hang out with me when Ryan goes to work.  The wonderful guy took off 3 days to help take care of me before my sister came into town.

So bed-rested I'll be until Thursday night.  Thank you for all of the positive thoughts!  I could use some entertaining ones now. =)

(Written by Cecily standing in for Stacy)

CLEAN!!!

I TOOK A SHOWER!!!!!!

Admittedly only a 3 minute shower (hee hee-refraining from making a comment about my sister here), but holey smokes I feel like a new person. :)

Have gotten permission to get up a little, but to still take it easy, so actually walked into my living room and kitchen for the first time in days!

Some serious luxuries here. :)

Plus, woo hoo!!! My sister comes in tomorrow!!! YIPPPEEE!!! :)

Thanks again for all the messages, comments, texts and e-mails...knowing you guys are out there and sending positive thoughts from all over helps incredibly. (and is getting me choked up, but that's also probably those dang hormone but shots)

love,
stace

over rated

bed rest is highly over rated.

relishing in my few moments at a 45 degree angle after lunch to say a fast hello. :)

transfer went well (the bits and pieces i remember in my drug induced state) and have now been horizontal for 49.5 hours, of which only 5 times now have i gotten up to use the bathroom.

ryan has been a dream, plumping pillows, bringing me meals, massaging my legs, being encouraging and cocking his eyebrow at me if he thinks i'm fidgeting too much. ;) (hee hee...did i mention he got us walkie talkies so i can also call him easily where ever he is in the house) ;)

only 24 more hours and i can move to the couch! hallelujah. might even be able to take a shower.

trying to be like my kids when we used to play 'log' (i was inspired one day and came up with the game)

thanks for all the continued good vibes!!! we keep talking to the little blastocysts and my uterus to stay in there!

love,
stace

here we go!

Here we go! Here we go!!! Big day is here!

I've got my drug cocktail set to go. Acupuncturist is meeting us at the hospital. Drinking lots of water tonight. Trying (though a little unsuccessfully) to load our good vibe music on Ryan's iPod to play during the transfer...

...and thinking positive welcoming thoughts for our little blastocysts!

10:30 is the time of transfer. Thank you so much to all of you who have already texted, e-mailed, called, and are sending good vibes are way.

With all of our fingers and toes crossed, and appreciation for your support,
stace

pain in the ---

Holey Schmoley.

Pain - in - The - ASS!!! (pardon my french and most of you know generally I NEVER swear)

My right but cheek has now been sore for 17 hours, after ONE shot....and this is going to continue EVERY day! And tomorrow I get TWO?!

(hope that started off everyone's day somewhat humorously)

go go go!

we're a go!!! had our last ultra-sound today before the procedure. the dr said my uterus looked 'perfect' and then when the nurse looked at the picture later she said it was 'awesome'! :) never thought i'd want a perfect or awesome looking uterus before but boy did that make us happy!

so got a new bag of drugs, injections, prescriptions...new circles drawn on my behind so Ryan remembers where to stick me and we're set to go!

transfer date is 8/1. one more blood test before then, holey smokes that amount of drugs both injected and oral, is crazy...but we're getting excited!

love,
stace

fertility fairy update

it's been a while since we talked about the fertility fairy...being a pin cushion seems to just be a normal thing these days so haven't thought much of it.

we're back into the IVF process....about a month later than we thought...(well 9 months really if you count when we first started!)...we started our drugs, and injections again about 3 weeks ago, blood tests and ultra sounds started last week...and if everything goes as planned (fingers crossed for a good uterine lining) we have our transfer date scheduled for 8/1...strict bed-rest, followed by moderate bed-rest...and then (please please please please) we'll find out around mid August whether or not we're 'chemically' pregnant...and then a week or so after that find out whether or not whether or not it's implanted fully.

we've gotten a bunch of questions on whether or not we're excited...and i'm not sure that we are quite yet. probably apprehensive is a little more accurate. you figure we've 'almost' gotten here so many times with so many hang ups, i don't think we'll quite believe we're actually 'there' until i'm lying on the table. :)

fingers (and toes!) crossed! here we go again!!! :)

love,
stace

Welcome Home

Happy Allie Coming Home Day to the Kaneohe Yangs. :)

drat

the back bathroom sink just busted open and is spouting water both above and below the sink.
 (sigh) perhaps today isn't a good day for home improvements?

poor husband

Poor Ryan dripped sweat yesterday on 2 cabinet doors, has to sand them down and paint them all over again. Then bought new paint today but from a different company (Sherwin Williams vs. Benjamin Moore) apparently a very different consistency because mixing in the same ratio with paint thinner and the using the paint gun resulted in super drippy doors...which also need to be sanded down completely now and painted all over again. :(

slow progress. couple backward steps to move forward again!

Portland.Oregon.

Gotta love the P.O.!!!

After a fun filled VERY busy fun filled 5 days with Rye's folks we dropped them off at the airport and promptly made our way down to Portland. We LOVE Oregon. It was one of our favorite getaways when we were in Seattle, and since one of the things we miss the most being in Hawaii is just DRIVING and being able to go somewhere other than around the perimeter of the island we decided to make a quick Portland getaway.

Here's what we loved:

no garbage at this burger joint, just compost and cans

our favorite lodging - Northrup Inn (note huge jar of candy on every table)

totally green recycled material Keen store

incredibly bike friendly town

covered bike parking

Pet friendly too! cute poop station

covered leash area so your dog doesn't have to wait in the rain while you market

homemade vanilla soda and chocolate malt (did i mention we bent our diet a little?)

you would never find a terrarium store in hawaii

HUGE anthropologie!!! (Stacy's heaven)

Bike shops galor (ryan's heaven)

THREE different plastic recycling bins

tax free shopping!

super original eateries

orgasmic grilled cheese sandwich (did i mention we bent our diet a little?)

Happy Belated Birthday Ryan!

So back to our Seattle Trip... hee hee...did you think I forgot?

 We were up in Seattle for Rye's birthday and since his parents had never been to a Mariner's game we thought it'd be the perfect way to spend his b-day.

gotta love it when you sit so close you could be hit! :)

Not quite as avid fans as Rye & I, we left the game in the 8th inning to spare his parents, but not before thoroughly enjoying ourselves, the ballpark food....AND getting free dirt on the way out!!! I was SO excited! (and hello, just paid $6 for the same size here in Hawaii?!) Rye and I each got a bag for Cec. Unfortunately it seriously stunk up the car, and so after the afternoon in the trunk we pushed it under our car in the hotel parking lot and BOO it was gone the next day. (we don't really think someone stole it, more likely they thought someone had forgotten it or the grounds keeper thought maybe it was theirs?)

For dinner we met the remainder of Rye's family at Tutta Bella, our favorite pizzeria in Seattle, only they've opened a new location on the east side, which ended up being only 10 minutes away from his cousins house so perfect for everyone. :) 

rye's tiramisu b-day

did i mention we bent our food restrictions a little? this is my DECAF hazelnut mocha. Oh divine.

Deja Vu?

Reminiscent of the days before we moved into our house...it's 11pm and we're still sanding, painting and cleaning. :)



Well, actually the painting stopped at 9:30 when we finally broke down and needed to eat dinner. But Ryan is now removing the last of the painters tape and just put our kitchen door back on so we could sleep securely and without bugs flying in throughout the night.

Just had to add in a picture of this, cause thought Ryan was pretty smart. Unfortunately in February we spray painted all of our hinges a coppery brown color cause we thought it would match the walls. Low and behold we bought silver doorknobs and whoops, looks a little funny on the doors to have 2 mismatched metals. We had to take them off and paint them all over again. But THIS time instead of doing one side then the other, Ryan tied a fishing line between bricks and hung the hinges so he could quickly paint both sides and let them dry without marks. :) worked well and saved time.

Last color in the kitchen went up today. Just the cabinet doors and kitchen will be done!! :) Hurray!

Little Niece

Happy First Birthday!!!

here's my little niece...another big part of the summer. not only has she been able to come here a handful of times, but i was able to go over to maui with rye's mom for quality girl time with the 2 of us, Shelly (rye's sister) and ________. :) (purposely not putting her name in with the pictures per shelly's request)

slowly warming up to hoku and enthralled with her moving tail

making nice-nice and kissing hoku :)

She just turned one and we're busy planning her birthday party. (cupcake theme) Here are the cupcake center pieces we're going to make. (hee hee....kind of amateur, but not too bad, right?) ;) We had to use buckets as the base and they'll be filled with Hawaii snacks to take home as part of the favor.

Ryan's new toy

Know what it is?

He's in love.

 (and admittedly it's pretty amazing) Don't believe me? Check out the video.

TEN seconds for one cabinet door. 

$70 well spent.

country

you know you live in the country when you go to the library and count 9 chickens between the entrance and your car.

yup. no longer an east-side townie! :)

(hee hee...the security guard saw me looking at a few and yelled, "take 'em home and cook 'em!", i yelled back, "i need to find a recipe!" to which he responded, "try teriyaki!")

i love kaneohe.

Hello Again!!

Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!! I know summer is supposed to be when I have TIME to be good about my blog, but no such thing!

Left you all hanging on Day 3 of our trip with the Miyashiros...hee hee...oops, will have to get back to that, (it was a really big library?)  but here's what my summer days have been filled with.

• Lots and lots of cooking...(my goal was a new recipe a week, but I've been doing about 3 a week!) Here are some of the pics

hee hee...can't remember what i was cooking here, but pretty with the herbs and cream right?

lavender herb salt rack of lamb for father's day

chicken salad in avocado cups

blueberry cheesecake (with strawberries) for 4th of July

crunchy pea salad (with extra extra bacon)

this isn't cooking, but my newest favorite (and maybe sort of a recipe?) fruit infused water!

• Exercising weekly with friends (hee hee...weekly is a stretch considering I haven't been to a gym in years!) And actually we go on really nice long walks at a reasonable pace...

this is the view from our last walk

• Frequent visits to school. BLAH. No pictures of that. But I still have so much to do from last year and have to start getting ready for next year which is a measly TWO weeks away! BOO!!

• Picking avocados at my Aunty's house (YUMMY & buttery)

• Trying to spend lots of time with my grandmother (who many of you know is 97 - I'm trying to get in as much Granny time as I can these days)

She would absolutely NOT approve of this picture...but had to take it because the day I met her I was wearing a white blouse, navy capris and then Aunty Nina walks in and is wearing a white blouse and dark blue pants! apparently genetics can be a very strong thing indeed...

• Packing breakfast daily for Ryan (we've suddenly discovered papayas aren't so gross after all and even quite pleasant!)

• And as always...lots and LOTS of home improvements projects. Although I'm not even sure you can call them really improvement projects since these were things we were supposed to have completed before we moved in!

Ryan painting the kitchen sink

 Absolutely thrilling and riveting summer I know. :) But actually it's really been quite enjoyable and one of the most busy yet peaceful summers I've had in a long time. :)

Toodle-oo for now. Gotta post again soon to show you Ryan's new toy!!! (no-no not a CAR, hello, we just bought a new HOUSE people. think on a much much smaller level) :)

love,
stace
(who by the way is back to being a pin cushion)

PS...Todd it's officially February 3rd. :) Maybe tomorrow will be the 4th?