Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice

Well, we had our level II ultrasound done today. Everything looks great, baby measuring slightly ahead of schedule and everything looked fine. It even looked like the baby was flipping us off at one point! I didn't think I wanted to know the baby's gender but once we got in there the suspense got the best of me. We are having a little girl! I'm in shock because I was quite certain I was having a boy. I guess I don't know anything. A girl will be nice though, expensive, but nice.

It's Been A While

Yes, it certainly has been a while. I'm still pregnant and everything is going fine. I'm blaming my absence on first trimester fatigue. That first trimester really wiped me out. I felt fine as far as morning sickness goes. Hardly any at all. Only if I needed to eat and it went away right after I ate. The fatigue though is what I really struggled with. It wasn't just being sleepy either. Sometimes just walking up the stairs exhausted me. So I spent a lot of time sleeping and lounging around. Now that I'm in my second trimester I have no excuse. I've actually been feeling great the last couple of weeks. I have a day now and then when I'm tired but nothing like I was.

Everything is going great with the pregnancy. My first trimester screen gave me a low risk factor for both Down's syndrome and Trisomy 18. My Quad screen done a couple of weeks ago was negative for neural tube defects and chromosomal abnormalities. Of course these are just screening tests and the only way to know for sure is with an amniocentesis which we are not going to do. I don't want to take the risk of miscarriage. If the results of the screening tests weren't good I'd probably do it and that would just be to prepare myself in the event that we would have a disabled child.

We have taken to calling the baby "Rocco". We probably won't be finding out the sex, so it's possible Rocco is actually a Rockette but I think it's better than refering to the baby as "it". Little Rocco is starting to cause flutters in my belly. I only feel it on occasion when I'm laying down and quiet. It's only been a handful of times in the last week.

I'm almost half way there now and I'm hoping the next half goes just as well!

Fears and Heartbeats

I've been a little scarce since I announced my pregnancy. Having a lot of fears. One of the joys of having recurrent miscarriages. You never actually get to enjoy a pregnancy. I worry about every little twinge or cramp, I worry on days when I feel good (how messed up is that?). Going to the bathroom can cause some anxiety for fear of finding blood on the toilet paper. I worry when my boobs don't hurt, I worry when I'm not tired, I worry that I don't feel sick.

We had our ultrasound yesterday (at 6 weeks 2 days). Baby is measuring right on target. We saw his/her beautiful little heart fluttering away with a heart rate of 118 which is just right. That has put my mind at ease a little. Of course our last miscarriage we saw a heart beat at 6.5 weeks so I know we're not out of the woods yet. Of course we also saw a moderate sized subchorionic bleed too then which is not the case this time. Also the baby was measuring about 4 days behind then too, this time we're right on target. So I'm going to try to relax now and stop worrying so much. Note I said "try".

It's a Triple!!!

Ok, I got my results from my second beta. First beta on Wednesday was 23, second beta on Friday was 70. So it not only doubled in 48 hours, it tripled! My progesterone is great at 30.3 so things are progressing fine so far. I hope it continues. I have another level drawn tomorrow so I'll be crossing my fingers.

Beta #1

Beta #1 is back. At 10 DPO it's 23, right where it should be. Yesterday I went for another one. I have to wait all week-end to get the results though so I'm sure it will be a long week-end. This is the important one. Hcg levels should double every 48-72 hours. So we want to see a level of at least 46. I'm feeling positive about it. I'm starting to feel a little pregnant. Around 11am everyday I can hardly keep my eyes open, when I need to eat I feel slightly nauseous, and my boobs are starting to get a little fuller and sore. Now I have to play the waiting game again until Monday.

WOW! Just WOW!

Well, the waiting is over. Today I got a BFP. Yep, a positive home pregnany test. If fact, I got 5 of them. I am pregnant. We ARE the couple that got pregnant naturally the cycle before starting IVF. Those people really do exist.

I know that with my age and my history of pregnancy loss, I have a 50% chance of miscarrying again. I will worry about that tomorrow. Today I am pregnant. Wow.

Waiting

Well, it sure seems like I'm doing a lot of waiting in my life. Last week I was waiting for ovulation, now I'm waiting for a period or waiting to POAS, plus I'm waiting to hear if I have a job or not. I'm not a patient person. I don't like waiting. I want answers NOW!

The hospital that I work at that announced they were closing may now sell to another facility instead. I would think that would mean that I would still have a job since us legal drug pushers aren't real easy to come by. I would hope that they wouldn't mess around with my benefits too much because 5 weeks of vacation along with 700 hours of sick time is a nice thing to have. Back to the topic of being sold, I (along with every other employee at that hospital) feel like I'm in limbo. I don't want to waste my time going on interviews if I don't have to. If I do go on interviews, I don't know what start date to give them (evil SSM won't pay me my severance pay if I take another job before they close and lock the doors). Wait wait wait. I guess in the mean time it wouldn't hurt to update my resume.

I ovulated on Sunday so I am now 4 DPO (days post ovulation in fertility lingo). Too early to know anything. Still holding out hope that we're the couple that gets pregnant with a healthy baby the cycle before they were to start IVF. You hear about those kinds of people, but do they really exist? It's always "my cousin's friend's, sister has a friend who's aunt's sister-in-law's best friend, was supposed to start IVF but got pregnant on her own." Anyway, we'll see how my temps look and maybe I'll start to POAS (pee on a stick) next week sometime. Which means waiting. I have to wait for AF (aunt flo) anyway, so I guess I could always pass the time by peeing on things. Kind of like my dog. Or a drunk man.

Now I'm waiting for the White Sox game to come on. Waiting sucks.