OB visit part 2

I had OB visit part 2 yesterday.  I just visited with my actual doctor and she answered all of my remaining questions and we talked about 1st trimester screening which we'll get done on May 3rd (technically I'll be out of the 1st trimester by then but the screen can be done anytime b/n 11 & 14 weeks).  It just involves a detailed ultrasound and blood test to check for the likelihood of defects with the fetus.  She also did a pap and exam on me to check cervix and size of uterus.  Cervix was closed and uterus size was on track.  We discussed my spotting that I had on Sunday (it picked up after my ultrasound on Monday too) and she didn't see anything to be worried about.  There wasn't anything actively bleeding.  But still she recommended that I stay on pelvic rest (no sex or sticking other foreign items - other than ultrasound probes - up there, lol) until the spotting ceases.  So she did do a pap - not sure why since my last test was in July and she did not mention anything about the likelihood of more bleeding or anything.  So I finished up with the nurse, got my next appointments scheduled (another u/s on the 10th, OB visit on the 24th) and I was on my way. 

Well, a couple hours later I go to the bathroom and what do I see?  Bright RED blood!!  UGGGHHHH!!  Naturally, I freaked out!  The common sense part of me totally shut off and I was convinced it was over.  I kept trying to tell myself though that it was too much of a coincidence that I got this bleeding just hours after a pap where they SCRAPE your cervix for pete's sake!  I just couldn't listen to reason though.  When you are pregnant and you see bright red blood coming from your vagina, you think the worst.  Bright red blood is associated with a period - so you see it and the memories of failed cycles, negative pregnancy tests month after month come flooding back and you think - "nooooo not again!!".  So my poor hubby got my wrath.  I was so pissed and scared!  He calmly asks me what the doctor did exactly at my visit - I told him.  And he says that perhaps I should call the after-hours line to talk to someone because that's what they told us that I should do during situations like this.  In a stubborn, all-knowing, huff I said "fine I'll call, but they will just tell me to go to the ER!"  So I call and get the answering service.  I left a message for the doctor on call and was told that they would call me back as soon as possible.  Meanwhile I get on google.  Similar to Sunday, I was relieved to find tons of experiences from women who had the same bleeding right after a pap while pregnant.  Still wanted to get the story from my actual doctor though and not a bunch of strangers.  Of course I saw posts that talked about how women thought that a pap caused them to miscarry too.  I didn't read those!!  Besides - the notion doesn't even make sense.  They are scraping the outside of the cervix - they don't open it up and scrape inside the uterus!  Anyway, finally 2 hours later, a tired doctor calls (not my OB, but one in her practice).  She apologizes for taking so long to call, says there was an emergency operation or something.  I tell her what I'm experiencing and she says right away "Totally normal, honey.  Cervix is very sensitive, is filled with blood, pregnant women have more blood volume as well.  I tell all my pregnant patients to expect bleeding after a pap."  Ugh, thank God!!  She says that I can come in for a quick u/s in a couple days if things don't die down or if I feel like something is not right but I should expect to spot for at least a couple days.  So I'm pretty annoyed that my OB didn't tell me the same thing while she was doing the pap.  Especially after telling her how freaked out I was about the spotting!  Oh well.  Nothing I can do really but switch doctors but this doesn't really seem like a situation that warrants that.  I really like her otherwise, she has a very calm aura about her which is what I think I need. 

So I've been spotting brown all day today.  That's what I was told to expect.  There is no more red to be seen so I'll take it!  Hopefully it will go away in a couple days and I can stop wearing these pantiliners.

2nd ultrasound - 8w2d

We had our 2nd ultrasound this morning.  All is looking great!  Baby is measuring right on track (a day ahead in fact), the heartbeat is up to 171 bpm, and the tech said the baby was moving it's little arms and legs around (we couldn't see this though)!  The tech could not find the source of my spotting yesterday and said that since it was not in the uterus, it must have been from my cervix.  So that is good as well.  With me being at 8+ weeks and seeing a healthy heartbeat, the risk of miscarriage is now down to 2%!  Whoopeeee!!!

Then we got to talk to the OB nurse.  She took down my info, stats, etc and got medical history info from both me and hubby.  Then she gave us a buttload of informational printouts, half of which were ads for Babies R Us, day care providers, exercise classes, and mommy playgroups.  The other half was informative about what to eat, habits/food to avoid, etc (I CAN eat hotdogs as long as they are cooked - yay!!  Canned light tuna only once per week though - boo!).  She said that I can call the office at any time - weekday or weekend, day or night - if I have a burning question or problem (ie: my spotting yesterday).  They want to know about EVERYTHING and if there is a question about anything, they will do a quick ultrasound to make sure all is good with the baby.  So that is nice to know.  We went over classes that we should take once I get to the 3rd trimester and preregistering for the hospital admission so I don't have to give birth in a hallway or something.  LOL!  But it was all pretty basic but exciting too! 

Then I had to do lab work.  They had to take 10 vials of my blood.  Ugh!  And of course the nurse couldn't find an adequate vein.  So that was fun:/  I don't recall what it was all for - testing me for blood type, Rh, rubella, etc. plus I had them test me for toxoplasmosis (the bacteria that makes cat feces dangerous to pregnant women) to see if I am immune.  If I'm not immune, no big deal - hubby can continue changing the litterbox. 

Anyway I go back to discuss results and get examined by my OB doc on Wednesday.  Next ultrasound is not until 20 weeks!  Unless I have an issue and they want to check on things.  I think a lot of women go to outside ultrasound clincs to get a 3D scan at around 15 weeks and that can tell them the sex of the baby.  So maybe we'll do that.  Also there is a nuchal translucency test, which involves a detailed ultrasound and bloodwork that can be done at 12-13 weeks or so that tests for markers of down syndrome and other abnormalities.  So we'll probably do that as well since it's less invasive than an amnio.

Here's a pic of the baby today - it actually looks like a bean now!

Some spotting

Wow what a waste of a weekend!  Yesterday I was exhausted.  Woke up at 8am, ate breakfast, and then went right back to bed until noon!  I don't remember the last time I did that.  When I finally got up I was still very groggy and just laid around all day watching basketball despite my best intentions to clean the house. 

Today I was going to make up for yesterday but that didn't happen either.  While at church this morning, I almost had to leave because I felt like I was going to puke.  I made it thru though and felt a lot better once I was outside again.  Since I felt okay, hubby and I went right from there to the grocery store to do our weekly shopping.  Felt fine still but got home and went to the bathroom and there was a bunch of brown spotting in my underwear!  And no, I did not have a #2 accident - hubby had to ask that of course!  I had a minor version of this 1.5 weeks ago after our first ultrasound.  There was a tiny bit of brown discharge or blood in my undies but it went away pretty quick.  I called my clinic and the nurse said that over 50% of their patients have spotting in the first trimester.  She also said that I have a "friable" cervix - I guess it's just another way for saying that it is sensitive - and the ultrasound probe may have bumped it slightly causing the cervix to get irritated and bleed a bit.  I also had a ton of bleeding right after my transfer so it could be old blood from that too.  I wonder if that procedure made my cervix "friable" or if it was "friable" before that and that was why I bled so badly?  Anyway, she said if it gets red and I start having severe cramping to call again and I may need to go to the ER to get checked out.  None of that ever happened of course and I just continued as if it never happened... until I saw brown spotting again this morning.  There was a lot of it this time too - it was unmistakable; 1.5 weeks ago I really had to kind of squint to see it.  So that freaked me out, I started feeling mild cramping, and so I decided to just relax for the day again instead of being on my feet cleaning.  Since it is Sunday, I can not call my clinic and even if I could, I know I would get the same response as before.  I have my first OB appointment tomorrow anyway so they can check me and the baby out then and make sure everything is still okay.  Until then, I just have to sit tight and think positively. 

I have not had any more spotting show up on the pantiliner that I put on after first seeing the spotting this morning - it's just there sometimes when I wipe.  Granted I have been off my feet all day but I did get up for an hour or so to get dinner ready in the crockpot and there was no spotting after that either.  My cramping is very faint now and it's no different than what I've been feeling throughout this pregnancy.  So I know that I should not be worried - but it is still unnerving!  Of course since I was sitting on the couch all day, I was passing the time by looking up stuff on google.  Lucky for me, I did not find too many negative stories among women who had similar symptoms to me at 8 weeks.  So we'll see what happens tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that everything is a-okay.

In other more exciting news, I went out Friday and got a BeBand and some other basics.  Some more underwear with no defined waistband, a couple larger t-shirts, cardigans that I don't need to button up, and some cute scarves to hide my blossoming bosoms and draw attention away from my waistline.  So hopefully that will make me feel better at work and will tide me over until I can wear my flowy summer tops!

7w5d update

I’m sitting at work trying to kill time before I can go home. Working has been much easier since we’ve gotten over the ultrasound hump. I’m not finding myself sneaking peaks at my phone every 5 minutes to look up stuff on google or obsess with other crazed formerly infertile moms-to-be. I am thanking God that I don’t seem to be one of those women who can’t keep anything down in early pregnancy – I definitely get it in waves though where I think “UGHHHhhh” and I have to sit down. But mostly I’m struggling with staying awake all day and feeling darn uncomfortable! As I sit here at my desk, I have my pants completely unbuttoned and my belly is still begging for more room! Of course it’s not the baby yet as he/she is still the size of a blueberry (1/2”). I have gained 1 ½ lbs since getting our positive pregnancy test. That is probably from my extra eating (can’t seem to eat enough these days and it seems to make the nausea better – I’ll take it, just means the baby can get more num nums!) But really I think I’m so uncomfortable because I am just so bloated! I can button my pants fine when I first put them on in the morning. But as the day goes on, my belly gets bigger and bigger until finally I can’t take it anymore! Tomorrow I’m going to go to Target to get a BeBand so I can keep my pants unbuttoned all the time and it’ll just look like I have a tank under my clothes. But even then, it’ll be tricky to hide with what I typically wear in the winter. Oh how I wish it would get warm out so I can break out all the flowy summery tops I have in my closet! I can totally get away with having my pants unbuttoned if I wear those kinds of shirts! Also need to get new undies while I’m at Target. Mine are too constricting in the tummy area now and a lot of them are pinching somewhere in my groin which is odd. Don’t know what that’s all about. I assume my thighs are getting wider a bit but they’re not so wide that they don’t fit in to my undies! Maybe there’s a vein or nerve around there that is getting bigger or something. I am reading that pregnant women have an increased blood volume – even early on. I forget how much of an increase, but that’s what causes all the extra peeing – the kidneys have to work more. I’m interested to know what my blood pressure is now. Usually it has always been very low so maybe now with more blood it will be around average. Unless my veins are getting bigger which maybe is why my undies are no longer comfortable. Who knows. REALLY hope I don’t end up with varicose (very gross) veins on my legs though! Hearing that’s quite common unfortunately and the remedy is to wear these ridiculous compression stockings! Won’t that be great during Indian Summer in September! LOL! Anyway, for now I need to have my hubby start taking belly pics of me so we can look back and see the progression. But I don’t want to do it now because I look like I’m pregnant already!! Even so, we’ll still do it – but we need to do it early in the morning before I start to puff out. I keep on forgetting though! As soon as we start taking them, we’ll do it weekly and I’ll post them on here!

Not much is going on otherwise though. I still have to take my nightly progesterone shots. The dosages are going down gradually. Last week they had me decrease the dose to 1.3cc down from 1.8cc. But this week they only had me decrease down to 1.2cc. Ugh, not a big decrease at all! The bigger the decrease the faster I can be off that awful stuff! I have a good feeling that progesterone may be the culprit behind all this insane bloating. The shots are really starting to hurt too. I think it’s because I have gotten so many of them that now we are hitting old injection sites that haven’t healed up all the way or something.

The next big thing on the agenda is our first OB appointment next Monday! That will be fun and we’ll get to see the baby again. Don’t know if we’ll hear the heartbeat as I don’t know what kind of equipment they have. But it'll be exciting to at least see the baby! I’m sort of anxious and worried – but nowhere near to the level that I was for our first ultrasound! I’m hoping we see good growth and a good rise in the heart rate. We’ll see! I know the odds are in our favor now and we just have to assume that everything is on track. But I have a TON of questions ready for the nurse and doc, that’s for sure! Hope they’re ready for it!

Ultrasound pictures

Here are the pics from yesterday's ultrasound.  It's really hard to see but the yolk sac is the white circle and the CRL (crown to rump) measurement is shown.

This pic is basically the same as above, but it shows the heart rate sound wave!

One beautiful heartbeat!

We had our first ultrasound appointment today.  The appointment was so early, it was still dark out with no hint of dawn yet.  I did this on purpose - knew I wouldn't be able to sleep last night and wanted to get in as early as possible to keep my anxiety down!  All went according to plan - I was still really nervous though and felt like I was going to puke from the time I woke up to when the ultrasound tech and doctor came in to the room.

I did my ultrasound locally even though my clinic is in Chicago.  It was the same deal as when I was doing the daily monitoring during the stim phase of my cycle.  They do the ultrasound, take screen shots, measure some things, and send the report to my doctor in Chicago for him to look at, then he calls later in the day to review the findings and give instructions.  Anyway, so I think I wrote the other day that I was nervous that the ultrasound tech was going to hide the results from us.  LOL!  Sometimes they do do that though.  But not today.  An actual doctor accompanied the tech today which was so nice to get an actual doctor's opinion right off the bat!  We did a transvaginal ultrasound which is usual for this early in a pregnancy and they found the yolk sac right away.  Then after a couple seconds the doctor said "oh and there's the heartbeat!"  Huge rushing waves of relief washed over us as we saw what he was pointing to on the monitor.  The tech flipped a switch and suddenly we heard "GUHshhGUHshhGUHshh"!  It was the heartbeat!  Hubby and I lost it then and both started crying - it was just so beautiful!  After the fact we realized that we should have used one of our phones to record it - but oh well.  We both were not thinking about anything else at the time.  The baby is measuring right on track at 5.4mm (the size of a lentil) and the heart rate is a healthy 124bpm!

I found this chart on the web that shows the progression of the fetal heartbeat:

Age	Normal Fetal Heart Rate
5 Weeks (Beginning)	80-85 bpm
5 Weeks	starts at 80 and ends at 103 bpm
6 Weeks	starts at 103 and ends at 126 bpm
7 Weeks	starts at 126 and ends at 149 bpm
8 Weeks	starts at 149 and ends at 172 bpm
9 Weeks	155-195 bpm (average 175 bpm)
12 Weeks	120-180 bpm (average 150 bpm)

So I'm right on track for 6w3d!  The baby's heart rate will start out slow when it first starts beating, will get faster as the weeks progress and then will start to slow down after week 9-10.  Also our chances of miscarriage just decreased to 5-10% by hearing a healthy heartbeat! 

I can now say that I am "clinically pregnant"!!

90 hours & radiation exposure

Not much has been going on for the last couple days. Just trying to avoid dwelling on everything that can possibly go wrong. The first ultrasound is Tuesday morning now instead of Wednesday – so just 90 hours away instead of 114 hours! My clinic wants me to go in for bloodwork next Tuesday just to test my progesterone levels and so I asked if I could move my ultrasound appointment so it would be on the same day and I wouldn’t have to make two trips to the clinic. They said that would be fine. A day earlier shouldn’t matter. They wanted me to do the first ultrasound between 6.5 and 7.5 weeks. Wednesday I’ll be 6w4d and Tuesday will be 6w3d so I’m a hair shy of 6.5 weeks on Tuesday. Hoping that we still see something. Also hoping we get a nice ultrasound tech who will let us look at the monitor and tell us what she’s seeing. When I was getting monitored for my follicle sizes, some of them would shield the screen so I couldn’t see anything but then others were very open about it – tilted the screen toward me and reviewed their findings with me. Really don’t want to wait all day to hear the results from my clinic!!

Funny thing happened today. I come in to the office this morning and there was a huge “CAUTION RADIATION” sign in the kitchenette. I emailed our HR person and asked her if that meant that we should stay away from the kitchen area. She forwarded my email (including my name, etc) to the Construction Manager and the Assistant Const. Manager (who I guess authorized a nuclear gauge to be stored in a closet in the kitchen – it is used on construction projects I guess) and asked them “is it was okay for a pregnant woman to be around the kitchen with the nuke gauge in the closet or should we move the gauge?”…!! I never told her I was pregnant (she did know I was doing IVF though) and wanted to wait until I at least had a couple good ultrasounds under my belt before I told her and my boss. I wasn’t going to tell the rest of the office until I was in the 2nd trimester. LOL! Oh well. Hopefully the construction people will keep their mouth shut and I’ll have to tell our HR person that I want to keep it quiet until I’m out of the woods! I don’t know how she immediately jumped to that conclusion without even asking me though! I mean I would still have been bothered by radiation in the kitchen if I wasn’t pregnant. In the meantime I guess I just have to hold my breath when I’m in the area or something! Good thing my desk is a good distance away from there.

Backdoor way to view betabase.info

For past day I've been trying to get on to betabase.info to check my hCG numbers to see where they fall but each time I get a "no site found" message.  So I don't know what happened to the site - if it's just temporary, or if it'll be down for a more extended period of time.  I did a quick google search.  Apparently the site is down a lot. Ha ha!  Among the many search results, I found a post on a random forum that explained how to get on betabase.info even though the site is down.  Here is an excerpt of the post:

"....I happened to remember a website called the Internet Wayback Machine. You basically type in a web address and then choose what date/year you want to see it to see how the website has progressed over the years. I put in the website for Betabase - pushed search - held my breath - and low and behold there was Betabase right in front of my face! Now, granted the most recent date they had was for 2008 but I don't care. I'll take whatever they have.

Then I wondered if any of the links would be active...again I held my breath and clicked on the "singleton" chart and "multiples" chart and after a minute it finally retrieved the beta charts! Halleleujah!"
 

Here is the site the poster was talking about http://classic-web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.betabase.info  The site will show you a range of dates to pick from.  The latest date on this site is Nov 24, 2012 - good enough!  I guess it's a snapshot of what was on the site on that date.  Anyway, it worked like a charm!  The doubling calculator doesn't work but at least you can see the data.  The average hCG level for 24 dpo is 3411 - so I am nearly double that!  The scary thing is that I'm right at the average for twin pregnancies of 6804!  Yikes!  Well, these are just averages though.  When you click on '24 dpo' to see more detail, most of the levels fall in a range higher than mine - and when you click on the detailed view for single pregnancies, I'm right within range.  So hopefully that's the case!  Twinkies would be exciting but terrifying.  I don't think my petite body would be able to handle it and I'd be worried about the health risks to me and the babies.  So fingers crossed that we see a heartbeat next week and that it is just one heartbeat!

3rd beta!

The clinic just called and my 3rd beta is 6836 (doubling time of 47 hours)!  They said that was excellent.  WHOOHOO!!  Also, my progesterone is over 40 which could mean that I can be done with the butt shots soon!!  Now I can wait for my ultrasound with less anxiety.

Not much else to report... oh - and hubby got himself a fat bonus and raise today too!  Generally a great day here:))

What are these twinges??

Last night right before bed I started feeling sharp twinges on the lower right side of my uterus. I instantly thought “Oh no, is this what a tubal pregnancy feels like??” That would be terrible to have the embryo implant in the tube instead of the uterus! Then not only would they have to remove my tube, but they would have to end the pregnancy as well. So I just tried to ignore it. The twinges were not constant and came and went. They weren’t painful really – more like ovulation pain. It seemed to get better with my warm hand on top of my uterus. So I still had the twinges this morning and there was more of a constant dull cramping all on the right side. I called my clinic and spoke to a nurse. She cheerily assured me this type of pain is all totally normal and that it is probably due to the stretching of the ligaments that hold my uterus in place. I told her I was paranoid about an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy and she said that what I was describing doesn’t sound consistent with a tubal - they are accompanied with blinding pain. She said that ectopics are rare even with ivf but they do happen and went on to say that there is no way to know if it is an ectopic at this point since I’m not very far along yet. It will be hard to find the embryo on ultrasound. A part of me was hoping that she would tell me that I could go in for an ultrasound tomorrow while I was there for bloodwork – but I would be too early I guess. If I’m still worried on Friday she said I could call and get an order for an ultrasound over the weekend since at that point I will be 6 weeks and the embryo will be bigger. She said that typically with ectopics, the beta levels are either way too high or too low & don’t double normally. They will have a better idea tomorrow when they get my 3rd beta but she said that so far my betas have been right in line with a normal pregnancy. So we’ll see I guess! Then this afternoon the twinges started up on my left side too. So I guess the nurse is right that its nothing to be worried about.

I am getting so tired of thinking up different ways to google "chemical pregnancy statistics" though! But something of some value that I learned in my hopeless googling is that doctors typically refer to chemical pregnancies as such very early on. A HPT may have detected hCG but then either hCG levels didn’t show up on a blood test or they didn’t double adequately. The type of miscarriage that happens between the beta blood tests and the ultrasound to find the heartbeat (where the pregnancy can then be called a “clinical pregnancy”) is commonly called a “blighted ovum”. So I guess what I am worried of now is not a chemical pregnancy anymore but a blighted ovum. Both are caused by the same thing – either issues with the uterus and hormones supporting the uterine lining or chromosomal abnormalities with the embryo – and both are very common, but the blighted ovum happens a bit less than the chemical pregnancy does. The blighted ovum is just further along than a chemical pregnancy I guess. I am really tired of worrying about it though! I want to be looking up baby names, baby clothes, furniture, maternity wear and browsing the Babies R Us website but I am afraid to get too ahead of myself! It has been so painful getting here and I don’t want to cause myself any more unnecessary pain by starting to make plans for this little one to come in to our lives if it’s still not meant to be. Just another week and 2 days before we will know something!

After we hear the heartbeat though I am strongly considering buying an at home fetal Doppler machine! When I first heard of women doing that I thought they were nuts! But now I definitely understand the value of that kind of reassurance. Plus these machines are really cheap at about $50! Some have features where you can actually record the heartbeat and save it as an mp3 file. Then it can be saved on a computer and used in a digital scrapbook or sent to relatives, etc. How cool is that?! I really hope we get to that point!

Crazy dreams and hangovers

I had the worst dream last night.  I was out with my hubby and some friends at a party and I ended up getting wasted drunk!!!  AND I was smoking!  In the dream I knew I was pregnant but it didn't seem to occur to me that that sort of behavior would not be a good idea.  It was one of those dreams that was so vivid that I woke up actually thinking that I did those things.  Ugh!  I was pretty upset and I spent a good 5 minutes laying there in bed before I realized that it was all a dream.  Phew!  The weird thing was that I felt like I had done those things last night.  My mouth and throat was very dry like I had been smoking and I felt like I had a hangover - a mild case of the "spins", empty pit-stomach feeling, and headache.  I have read that some women describe morning sickness as feeling like a hangover - it's just interesting that it got incorporated into a dream that I had.  It's like my brain was looking for a reason why I was feeling sicky and decided to implant that dream in my head where I was out partying like I was in college again.  LOL!  Good news is that I did not ingest any toxic substances last night or during the last couple months for that matter.  So we're still in the game, assuming our sesame seed is still growing away!

I'm feeling pretty good for the most part.  I have been feeling pretty yucko right after waking up in the morning.  Showers and getting ready for work are starting to be challenging but I feel better once I get something in my stomach.  Usually I don't eat anything until I have my morning smoothie on the way to work so I may start eating crackers right when I wake up to get something in my stomach.  I've been very tired.  Friday I left work early because I was falling asleep at my desk (LOL!) and yesterday I took 2 naps!  I feel guilty for napping so much.  It makes me feel lazy but hubby says that it's okay to sleep if I'm tired - my body is telling me to slow down.  So I guess I'll comply.  I just can't leave work early all the time to go take a nap!  Other complaints/observations: vivid dreams (there have been others in addition to my party girl dream last night), lots of trips to the bathroom (especially at night), my boobs and nipples are sore and veiny (gross!), still have the feeling like I did a bunch of reverse crunches the day before, some uterine cramping occasionally, and I get light-headed more often if too much time passes between meals or snacks.  Other than that, I'm pretty good!  I have bloodwork on Tuesday for a progesterone level check and a 3rd beta.  Then a week from Wednesday is the first ultrasound!  Ugh!  Time is going by so slowly!  At least we will lose an hour next weekend when the clocks "spring forward" - one less hour to wait:))