Week 11 - Thanksgiving

I've been offline the last few days due to staying with my parents for a Thanksgiving break.  Glad to be back home!  I spent 3 full days with my sweet 8 month old niece who lives in Savannah, GA and my 2 sisters and mom.   It was fun getting a preview of my future life.  I got to change a poopy diaper this morning.  Good times.   I really hate that my sister and neice live 9 hours away, though Savannah is a great place to visit.

I am still not visibly pregnant, but I did get to try out the fetal doppler that I ordered when I got home this afternoon.  It was a little difficult to get a accurate reading of the baby's heartbeat, but we detected it at about 130-140 bpm.   I don't want to get obsessed with it, so I think a once a week reading will be enough.   It just gives me a little peace of mind to know that he/she is still swimming around in there.

Last night, we went to see Twilight- Breaking Dawn.  Probably not the best movie for me.  Bella has a pretty freaky pregnancy!

On Thanksgiving, my dad's side of the family celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday.  My grandmother has dementia, though she still has the same personality.  She has no short term memory and she has gotten very frail.  She was appropriate in her reaction to her great - granddaughter, but she kept asking whose baby it was.   My 90 year old grandmother and my neice are similar in that they both need round the clock caregiving, help getting dressed, getting fed, and dressed.   Though it is a little sad to see my once vibrant grandmother, now frail and dependent, I suppose it is the cycle of life.

During the Thanksgiving meal prayer, my father added that he was particularly thankful for me and my husband being pregnant.  All my aunts, uncles and cousins were very excited for us.  My aunts knew that we had been out to Colorado.   It was fun to finally share the good news, though I am still not quite out of my first trimester.

As of today, I am off all supplementaly hormone therapy!  No suppository tonight.  No estrogen patches.  I feel like I am riding a bike with no hands!  I'll check my levels on Monday.

Hope that all of you had a restful and joyful Thanksgiving break with family and friends.   Thanks to all of you for your support, humor and thoughtfulness over the last year.   It has definitely made going through IVF alot easier.

10 weeks

I can't believe I into the double digits now!  We had an ultrasound and OB appt this morning.  I think my husband was more nervous than me about the ultrasound.  The tech started off with an abdominal view, but it was too fuzzy, so I got the vag u/s which was ok with me, because it provides a much clearer image.  We actually saw him/her moving around.  We could just barely make out legs and arms.  It's still so small, but everything is measuring on schedule.  Big sigh of relief. . .
We scheduled an appt with a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Memphis for our NT scan on Dec. 1st.   I'll be happy to check that one off the list and am looking forward to getting a better view.
Not too much to report. Down to 1 progesterone suppository and 1 E2 patch.  Should know how my numbers look this afternoon.
I still had a little bit of spotting at the beginning of the week, but it was so scanty, I didn't worry too much.  
I am so relieved that the ultrasound went well today - part of me still waiting for the other shoe to drop.   

Weaning

I just got the call from my nurse with about my prog and estrogen levels; they were 31.5 and 691.4 respectively.   I'll stay on 2 prometrium and 2 patches through Monday and then wean to down to 1 each on Tues!  We'll check my levels again on Thursday and then if all looks good they will wean me off everything! Kind of scary, but it will be so nice not to have adhesive residue all over my belly and wearing the panty liners 24-7.  Not to mention all the trips to the lab and the follow up this entails.

My energy level has been good today.  My cousin is getting married in a month, so I am trying to get all my dresses and shoes lined up.   I wish I could get my hair highlighted, but probably want to avoid that until I'm at least in my second trimester.   Don't really have much in the way of a bump yet, just look bloated.

Tonight, I am so excited for FlyGirl to deliver her twinks!  http://ivflygirl.blogspot.com/

26 is dead!

Wahooo! Mississippi has voted down the Personhood Amendment!  I am so proud!  Hopefully it will not come back again.

I started spotting again tonight.  This is so annoying and somewhat distressing.  It is kind of rust colored (not fresh) and pretty light, but it still worries me.

I was filling in a baby journal that my sweet sister sent me from Amazon as a gift and thinking to myself is it too early to start filling in this book.  And then I went to the bathroom and saw the spotting.  When am I going to be able to just relax?

Election Day Nov 8th

I voted No on Amendment 26 this morning and I hope the majority of Mississippi will too.  Our stupid governor voted for it, after he had concerns about it.  Coward.

A lawyer named Brad Prewitt is one the directors of Personhood Mississippi and he had both of his children by IVF.  When interviewed about this and what he thinks about denying this opportunity for other infertile Mississippians, he replied, "Life's not fair."  Can you believe that???

In other news,  I just saw on yahoo that Michelle Dugger is pregnant again with her 20th child at age 45.  WTF?  She delivered her last child at 25 weeks due to preeclampsia.  Does she really think it is a good idea to have another baby after that?   I don't understand this at all.  Do you think she did IVF to get pregnant? How does a woman with 19 kids have time to do fertlity treatments?  The couple on TLC I really want to get pregnant is the Little Couple.  

I had another bout of spotting that started last Friday. It was a lot lighter and darker in color, so I didn't immediately freak out, but still a little disconcerting.  We had just been cleared to resume sex that morning, but have decided maybe we should just avoid sex in the first trimester.  My nurse said that it is probably old blood that is just moving its way out by gravity.  I did have a little subchorionic hemorrhage that showed up on my 6.5 week u/s and not on the 8 week one, so I bet that is what it could be.  

The nausea has come on stronger these days, but more in the afternoon and evenings.  And constipation.   One bad migraine.  Par for the course, I suppose.  

Tomorrow, I will go down to 2 prometrium/day and 2 estrogen patches and will get my levels checked on Friday.  My progesterone was 17 last week (down from 25 the previous week) and my estrogen was in the 500's.  Hopefully, my body is starting to produce its on hormones.  

8 weeks!

Finally, today I am 8 weeks.  We had our second ultrasound today and it was abdominal (no dildo cam) and the baby is measuring on track and the heartbeat (which we heard!) was 149 bpm.  The baby looked much fuzzier on this abdominal ultrasound, but the heartbeat was so clear and strong!  I can't believe such a little peanut can make such a loud noise.  It was truly amazing and I am so relieved that s/he is still going strong.

Yesterday, I had a good day, not feeling so nauseous and tired.  I actually took a long walk which is the first bit of real exercise I have had in a couple of months.  Today, I'm tired because we had to get up early and get my labs done in Tupelo before the u/s.  Hopefully, they will fax results to CCRM this time!  I am still on 3 prometrium suppositories and 3 vivelle E2 patches.  I will be happy to do away with the midday progesterone suppository.

My next appt is 2 weeks from today.  I can't wait to start showing, which probably won't be until at least 12 weeks.  I don't think it will feel real until I get a little bump.

In other news, things are really getting heated up around here over Initiative 26 (Personhood Initiative).  Our governor, Haley Barbour, said he had some concerns over "ambiguous" language in the bill, but says he is undecided on which way he will vote.  At least he is not backing it 100%.  I'll keep everyone posted on what happens next week with this.