10 wks

10 Weeks

Taken 4/22/10

I went in for my 10 week OB appt today and got to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler. It was nice and strong about 140 bpm. I'm going back in 2 weeks to hear it again and Tony will come with me then too. I haven't gained any weight as of yet and I'm eating a lot more than I was during Embry's pregnancy at this point. I find that even if I feel sick, eating will make me feel better even if I don't want to. I'm still tired, but trying to sleep when I can. My shoulders have started hurting (like they did during Embry's pregnancy) and I've been getting headaches, so I stocked up on the Tylenol.

Ultrasound

We have a heartbeat! Woohoo! It as 159 bpm and we got to see it flickering away and hear it too. Oh, it was great!

We got there a few minutes early and Embry needed her diaper changed, so I went into the bathroom to change it. Of course that is when they called us back, go figure. So we all went into the room and to begin with the ultrasound machine was zoomed out so far that I couldn't see the flickering of the heartbeat. I did a mini freak out in my head and then asked, 'is there a heartbeat?' The tech said there was and that she'd zoom in so we could see it and pointed it out on the monitor. She did some measuring and baby bean is about 1.5 cm long from crown to rump. I'm 7w5d today and the measurements put it at 8w1d, so we're right on target. Yay!

Afterward I went to MOPS and 'announced' that I am pregnant. Although some people already knew from this blog, I did manage to surprise a few people. :) I feel much more secure now that we've seen and heard the heartbeat, but I'm sure all my anxiety won't go away until after I'm holding baby bean in my arms. Then a whole new set of anxieties will set in, but that's a long time off.

I will post an ultrasound pic once I get it scanned in, but it really doesn't look much like a baby yet. More like a tadpole with some arm buds.

Goings On

I've decided that if this next kid has the same energy level as Embry, we may very well stop at 2. With me feeling perpetually nauseous (more-so than with Embry) and having to chase her around and constantly entertain her, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the rest of the first trimester. I'm 7 weeks today. That means I have about 5 weeks to go until this yuckiness subsides. Today has been much better than the past few days, so I'm very thankful for the break. I even got some loads of laundry put away...go me!

I see all these other kids that will sit on their parent's laps contently, or watch a movie, or play on their own without so much as a peep. I like to call them 'half asleep' kids. My child, is the opposite. Some say it's a sign of intelligence, I say it's a sign that I'm going to die early. :/

Embry's new wake up time is 6am. That's really all I can say about that.

We've been obsessively watching the show 'Lost' for about a month now. Started at season 1 and now we're on the last episode of season 5. When the intro comes on and the word 'Lost' glides across the screen and turns sideways, Embry turns her head sideways and smiles really big. Then when the end credits come on and the song plays, she goes 'do do do do do do' along with the tune. It's quite adorable, and a sign that we watch too much tv.

Embry used the kiddie pool that my sis Jen got her for the first time a few days ago. I did something very uncharacteristic for me and didn't take a single picture, but it was darn cute. She quickly learned how to tumble out onto the grass and back into the pool over the side. Of course, now it's back down to 55 and rainy so it will be a while before we set it up again.

I would take and post a belly pic, but oddly my clothes are already not fitting. That doesn't even make any sense though because my uterus isn't supposed to be above my pubic bone yet. Maybe it's just that I have to unbutton all my pants because my stomach hurts. Anyhow, it's not a pretty sight.

Booyah!

Dr Golden just called with my HCG results:
Sat 3/13: 602
Mon 3/15: 1476

That's more than double and I couldn't be happier! I'm going in for the 3rd tomorrow at 10am. The dr isn't in the office until Monday, so she said she expected it to be over 2000 tomorrow and would call me about it on Monday to schedule the ultrasound. She said it would be likely that we'd be able to see the heartbeat at the ultrasound, so yay! I'm not sure how far out they're scheduling ultrasounds, but it will be at the same place we went with Embry for U/S's, the perinatal assesement building at St. Joseph's.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

4 wks, 4 days

I took another test Thurs morning. Then another one fri morning, sat morning, sun morning, and this morning. Each time the line has gotten slightly darker. I am taking this a really good sign. Although I am obsessively testing, I justify it because I still have about 25 sucky tests that expired in 2009, so I figure, might as well use them now!

Thurs morning at 2:30am I got up to take a 'good' pregnancy test and then woke up Tony to help me take some pictures. Here's the one with our excited faces, I love how Tony can barely contain his excitement. Hehe. I think I was also oddly tired because as I was standing there setting up the self timer I was thinking 'isn't Tony lucky to be married to someone so crazy to make him wake up at 2:30am to take pictures of a pee stick?' and then I went to say 'step back a little' to Tony, but instead just said "CRAZY!" and then started laughing hysterically.

Also, here's a pic of the 'good' test from thurs morning.

Ok so here we go into the long and drawn out explaination of my trip on Thurs to the new OB...
I had to switch OBs because my insurance changed, so I went to the new OB Thurs (Dr Pamela Golden). They had actually rescheduled me from last week when the dr was called out on a delivery, but naturally, they didn't actually put my new appt time in the computer...so long story short, they had to 'squeeze me in' which meant waiting for a while and Embry getting super cranky cuz she was tired.

The doctor seemed really nice. She spent quite a bit of time talking to me about having lupus/pregnancy and the plan of attack. Basically, she's sending me in to get my blood drawn 3 times, 48 hours apart, which started last Sat, to track the growth of my hcg levels to make sure they're doubling every 48 hours (which would mean it's a viable pregnancy). That will really help to put my mind at ease. Then she said once the hcg level is up to 2000 (maybe a week or 2) then I'll have my first ultrasound. Then another ultrasound at 18 weeks and every 4 weeks from then on. After 36 weeks, she wants me to go in twice a week for a non-stress test. All of this is basically to make sure the baby doesn't suffer from intra-uterine growth restriction which is common with lupus patients.

Oh, another fun tidbit is that I asked her if she could tell me if my uterus is tilted (which pretty much everyone's is one way or another) and she said it was tilted forward, so that might actually be part of the reason why it was taking us so long to get pregnant.

First HCG was Sat morning, then the second was this morning. I went by the dr's office afterwards and they said she would call me tomorrow with the results and based on those she would decide if she wants me to go in for a 3rd HCG on Wed. I will post the results once I find them out. I'm feeling like this one might work out and yay, wouldn't that be awesome! :)

Here We Go Again?

Test taken on 3/10/10 at 2:43pm.

I caved. I wanted to test yesterday morning and this morning and wouldn't let myself because testing day is not until tomorrow. Then I gave into temptation after my nap and this is what I got. This would lead me to believe that it's a 'sticky bean' because these are the sucky pregnancy tests (didn't even get a positive until a week late with Embry), I tested a day early, and the line is darker than it was with last month's pregnancy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying that we get a healthy little baby this time. :)

This baby is due Nov 18, almost exactly the due date Embry had.

OH. MY. FREAKING. GOSH.

OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!

I just got my positive pregnancy test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in complete shock and I'm just so happy I can't even tell you!!! I guess for us it was meant to take a whole freaking year to get pregnant. I am so thankful for this, I've never been so happy to feel sick in my entire life! Thank you God, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm due for my period today, had sour stomach in bed, so got up to go to the bathroom at 4 am, took a pregnancy test, and set it down on the floor. I always look away for a couple seconds then pick it back up because I can't handle watching it turn negative. I just glanced down at the floor and I thought I saw a second line. Of course I figured I was imagining it as always, so I picked it up, and it was 2 lines! No doubt about it! So I quick pulled up my underwear and ran out into the bedroom turned on the light and shook Tony. I go "what does that look like to you" sticking the thing in his face, and he goes, "what's this?" then he looks at it a sec and goes "oh my gosh!" and hugs me. Then I took a million pictures!

Background is I have lupus, Tony just had SA done like 3 weeks ago that came back with 7% morphology, which is quite low. I seriously thought we were going to have to go through all the testing and procedures come June when he got insurance through work, but oh my gosh, now we don't!

Symptoms: Nothing. Not a single thing out of the ordinary. It felt like every other month where my nipples get bigger right before AF. I do remember feeling sort of a cramping feeling on my right side about 7 dpo which is also when my chart shows a temp dip, so maybe implantation? Otherwise, I was just feeling a little acid stomach this morning while I was trying to sleep (4am) and got up to go to the bathroom, took a test, and it turned positive instantly! I had discharge (like super wet underwear) 11-12 days past ovulation (which is very normal for me). Then almost no discharge 13 dpo (also normal) so I thought for sure my period was coming today. I even toldTony yesterday, "well I know I'm getting my period" and he says "stop it." So guess he was right!

What we did diff: Nothing. We do the same thing every month. Use preseed and an Instead Cup every time around O. I leave the IC in for about 12 hours though, and one day it was in for 24 hours (I know that's not healthy, but if it worked, well then who cares!?) According to my chart I O'ed later than my Clear blue Easy fertility monitor said, so if that's true, then we didn't have sex the day of ovulation, but we did the day before it.

So that's my story!