So, first you might be wondering why we've chosen to refer to our growing fetus as 'goonie'.... well to explain that, I kind of have to tell you a little story.
A long long time ago ( I think it was at least 7 years - cause I was still in Chiropractic school) I was having lunch with a friend from school, and the song 'Sweetest Taboo' by Sade came on. I laughed and said Ryan was my sweetest Baboo ( like Sally called Linus on the Peanuts ). When I came home, I told Ryan he was my sweetest baboo, and he thought I said "sweetest BABOON"... so I started calling him Boon. That morphed into many things, boon dog, boonie mc booner of the boons farm mc booners, b-dog, and so many others I can't even remember. For the longest time he had been calling me 'Sweet pea'.. (yes, i can hear the groans from many of you, but quiet down, this is OUR love story, not yours)... that morphed into Pea-dog, pea-ness (as in highness, nothing dirty!), PJ, and eventually, poonie, and poonie-J.
When it came time to name the growing mass of cells in my belly, being the dorks that we are, we had to choose somehting that rhymed... so goon, goonie, goon-dog it is.

For those that don't know, the making of this little goon has been a long long time coming. We started trying to add to our collection of furry babies (the two cats - Mik and Oscar) a couple of years ago... month after month, nothing ever happened, and we finally decided to make sure all was well down under. So we saw a Naturopath, who ordered some preliminary tests, where everything looked fine, and we decided to just keep working on it. 6 months later, after many tears, and long conversations, we decide to consult an RE (reproductive endocrinologist - ie: the big guns) He looks at us, says 'well theres nothing wrong with you! - that's the good news and the bad news!' ... so we began on our journey of infertilty treatment. After several IUIs (insemination) with me on Clomid (ie: a drug that makes you CRAZY) we did some further tests, and found that our problem was Male factor, Ryan was creating antibodies to his own sperm, they were more than plentiful, and perfectly healthy, they just had a little trouble cracking into the ol eggs. Our only true hope was IVF (invitro fertilization)... but we decided to do a few more IUIs while we got everything (ie:money/tests) ready for the the really big guns.
Mid august, it all began, first with birthcontrol pills (yeah, those will make anyone a little crazy) and ovarian suppressants (1 shot a day in my belly) then when i was sufficiently oppressed, i mean, suppressed, adding in two more shot in the belly to start stimulating my ovaries to make a crap load of eggs. All of this was a barrel of laughs, really, it was great fun. No, actually, it was a little scarry, and not fun at all, but you know, you do what you have to do, right? Right.
Finally, Mid september, 14 eggs were retrieved from my bloated, sore and aching ovaries, and manually fertilized by the fabulous Embrylogists at our awesome clinic. I won't tell you how horribly painful that proceedure was (afterward, I was completely out for it).. but I'll just let you imagine - and again, you do what you have to do. Five days later, we had 8 fabulous, wonderful blastocysts hanging out in a petrie dish. Two of them were transfered back to me, and six were put in the deep freeze, our own little embryo savings account.
A mere 10 days after that we were given the wonderful news that not only was I finally pregnant, but that the blood test results made everything look really good. Now we waited (you see this infertility game has lots of waiting) for the first ultrasound to see how many of these little blastocysts had decided to take up residence in my uterus. At 6 weeks, (end of september) we went for our first US, and found out that we had one lovely perfect little blob living firmly attached to my uterus. We got to see, and HEAR the rudimentary heart beating. That moment, that one perfect moment, made every shot, every vaginal ultrasound (yes there were a LOT of them) every painful proceedure worth it. There is nothing like that Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh to make you feel like it was all worth it. I'd show you a picture of the ultrasound,but honestly, it's just a blob, nothing to see.
So, now here we are, 9 weeks 2 days pregnant. Morning sickness sucks, but it's better than infertility, hands down. I have to eat all the time, and a lot of the time nothing sounds good. There is a little throwing up, and a lot of gagging. I have cleavage, for the first time ever! ;) Our next ultrasound is coming up, and I'll probably post a picture of that, as there should be something to see. I can't wait to see what the little goon is up to in there. Some days I think he/she is building a fort, with all the action I feel, lots of pinching. pulling, hammer and nails, I think i even heard a miter saw going off down there the other day, yes, our little goon is very industrious!
At this point, here is what he/she looks like (this pix is taken from the internet, not from me!

And this is what i look like so far... notmuch happening, but it's definitely different to me. It's not uterus, it's merely my guts being pushed up by my uterus, I call it my 'poop pooch'... yes, I'm so so so funny!

This one is same, but with my shirt up, cause it shows just a wee bit more.

And this last one is from the front, so we can document the growing Om on my belly, which I had done when we first started trying to concieve... I love the symbolism of the Om, and wanted it over my growing babe. Om Sweet Om. :)



So.. there is the story thus far. Stay tuned for whatever comes next!