Post 81: Week 20

Week 20

-Baby is the Size of: an avocado

-Weight Gain: 4 pounds - I officially have a baby bump, and no longer look chubby - however, it depends on what I'm wearing, and I can still hide my pregnancy if I want to. There's a photo below of me at 18 versus 19 weeks - it's a huge change! 

-Stretch Marks: only on my chest

-Sleep: Like a log! Summer camp is draining the life out of me. I'm asleep each day by 7PM.

-Movement: Finally feeling movement! It's not consistent, but definitely noticeable when it happens. 

-Favorite or Funny Moment: Camper walked by me and said, "Hey...you're pregnant! Hmm."

-Sickness: still sick every 2-3 nights, seems to be getting worse instead of better

-Feeling: Exhausted, but I think it's just from camp and summer heat

-Symptoms: grumpy, over heat quickly, dehydration, nausea, car sickness 

-Cravings: Breakfast foods, lemon chicken, steak

-Aversions: spicy foods (sigh)

-Purchases: rockaroo swing, dresser, diapers

-Photos or Videos: Had our anatomy scan this week, and confirmed that we're officially having a girl! The ultrasound tech said everything looks great, and Julie looks healthy. She refused to stretch out, so they couldn't get a measurement for her length, but she weighed approximately 12 ounces, and had a great time chewing on her toes. Here's our gender announcement photo from Facebook, and a few other photos from this week!

Post 80: Week 16

Week 16

-Baby is the Size of: an avocado

-Weight Gain: 

-Stretch Marks: none yet! 

-Sleep: Slept in bed all week, which is a huge improvement over sleeping on the couch last week! 

-Movement: no movements yet :-(

-Favorite or Funny Moment: Throwing up so hard that I peed on myself a little. Oops! 

-Sickness: still sick every 2-3 nights 

-Feeling: Like I'm starting to get my energy back, but I could still use a daily nap!

-Symptoms: congestion, peeing a lot, cats are stuck to my side like white on rice, starving all day, sick all night 

-Cravings: Raisin Bran Cereal with Cranberries - I've seriously eaten an entire box in 4 days, steak, ice water in a styrofoam cup from Food City! 

-Aversions: body odor, raw chicken

-Purchases: two packs of swaddles and a boba wrap from a yard sale!

-Photos or Videos: finally got our doppler out and running, and found Julie's heartbeat this morning! It's so reassuring that things are going well when I hear her little heart chugging along. 

Post 79: Team Pink!

We had our first appointment of our second trimester today! Cleatus had a strong heartbeat, and David said things look good, and to come back in five weeks for another check up. Since we were already in Beckley, we decided to visit Love at First Sight Sonography, an independent ultrasound practice. Since we didn't have an ultrasound with David today, and don't have one until the anatomy scan between 20-22 weeks, we decided to do a private ultrasound to check on Cleatus and learn the gender. Though they can't say with 100% positivity, they were certain that we're having a girl! Cleatus is officially Julia Rose, and we are thrilled! She measured exactly with our IVF dates, and the ultrasound tech said she looks extremely healthy. Throughout the ultrasound she kept waving, talking, and playing with her mouth. It was adorable! We had a great heart rate of 160, and she looked perfect! We'll go back for another private ultrasound at our next appointment on July to double check that it's still a girl, but the tech said he'd be extremely shocked if he was wrong, and with over 20 years experience, I trust his word. It was so wonderful to see a healthy, growing, wiggling baby girl, and I can't wait until November when I get to hold her in my arms. Let the countdown begin! 

Post 78: Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since my last post, but it's been a crazy few weeks! After a rocky start, our pregnancy was deemed viable and healthy! I went to my first ultrasound with my parents, to see if the pregnancy was ectopic. My dad stayed in the car, and my mom went into the office with me. We waited for what felt like forever, before it was finally my turn. I walked into the room, terrified of what they’d find. Though I’d held onto hope, part of me was expecting for them to find the pregnancy was ectopic, and receive a shot of hormones to terminate the pregnancy. Instead, they found a strong, healthy heartbeat, in the uterus, where it was supposed to be! Cleatus the Fetus measured exactly on target at multiple appointments, and on April 15th, we were released from Wake Forest, and I got to stop my daily shots! 

I've been extremely sick, and even with medication (diclegis) I still throw up around 2-3 times a day. However, I've never been so happy to be sick. I haven't had many cravings since stopping the progesterone shots, but I do really enjoy pickles, cereal, green apples, and Gouda cheese. Taco Bell makes me sick, and Italian and Mexican food give me horrible indigestion. I'm napping every day, and fall asleep around 8PM every night. I love the fact that I'm finally pregnant, but I'm completely over being sick, and I'm hopeful that I'll start to feel better soon! 

Post 77: numb

I'm back to playing the waiting game, and this is probably the most excruciating wait of my life. We had our second beta test today, and the results were not what we had hoped for. Our original HCG on Monday was 112, so with a healthy pregnancy, it should have doubled by today, and been at least 224. Unfortunately, our HCG was only 166. It's only doubling at half the speed it should be. According to our doctors, there's two scenarios for what's to come. The first is that my numbers will continue to rise and we had a set of twins, and are losing one of them while the other is still hanging on. The second is that my numbers will begin to go down, and I will have lost the entire pregnancy. We test again on Friday, and are praying that the numbers continue to rise. 

Post 76: beta day!

Today was the first time I've ever been excited for bloodwork! I had my first beta, and it's official! We're pregnant! YAY!! We woke up (Monday, March 16th) early, I got my progesterone shot, and we were at the hospital a little before 8AM. Registration took forever! When we arrived at the hospital, we were given a buzzer and told to wait in the waiting room until they called our number. Our wonderful hospital only had one person working at registration, and it took 45 minutes to get registered. I'd never seen such slow service. There were only three people in line in front of me. It was ridiculous! Once we were finally registered, we headed to the lab. About 20 minutes later they had drawn my blood, and we were on our way out the door for breakfast. It takes an hour to get the results, so Shaun and I headed to the mall to set up the studio, dropped off my car at the shop to get fixed since someone hit me in the Verizon parking lot last week, then we headed back to get the results.

I knew that the result should have been positive, but I was still completely terrified as we waited at the window for medical records to give us the piece of paper than could forever change our lives. Shaun and I held hands the entire time, and finally she gave me the results. I saw the number immediately! My HCG was 112! Our doctor wanted any number over 50, so we were off to an awesome start! We started walking down the hallway of the hospital, still holding hands, and Shaun asked if I was going to let him see the results. I handed him the paper, and in the middle of the hospital, he started cheering, and kept repeating, "It's not zero! It's not zero!" It was the sweetest response I could have asked for! 

We go back on Wednesday for more bloodwork to make sure that my numbers are doubling correctly, so, from now until then I am cautiously exited about being pregnant! Ahhh! I never thought I'd get to use that word to describe myself! I'm pregnant! 

Post 75: freaking out

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! OH MY GOSH!!!!! After 34 cycles, something happened yesterday that I was NOT expecting!! I went to work at the YMCA, and when I got home, I decided to take a pregnancy test. There was no reason to take one - I really was just double checking that I was going to be disappointed at my blood draw on Monday. However, that's not what happened! I peed on the cheap, Amazon special pregnancy test at 2PM. I sat on the toilet and stared at it for about 30 seconds and when nothing popped up, I put it down, and wiped. Unfortunately, I had pink spotting when I wiped, so I was sure that the test was negative. To my surprise, around the 90 second mark, I thought I started to see something. I stared down the test, and was in shock as I began seeing a second line! I could NOT believe what I was seeing! I've never seen a second line on a test, and I was sure that it was probably just a fluke. 

Once I was absolutely sure that the test really was positive, and my eyes weren't just playing tricks on me, I called Shaun. He had told me not to test, but to wait for my bloodwork on Monday. So when I called him, I started with, "So, I just went to the bathroom, and I'm spotting." His response was, "Ok, it's probably just the drugs, maybe you should call Roxy." I then followed up with, "but I took a pregnancy test, and I swear there's a second line." I believe he was in shock. He was with a customer, so he again said, "Call Roxy." 

I knew that calling Roxy on a weekend wouldn't be practical, so I sent her an email. I confessed that I took a test even though IVF patients are supposed to refrain due to false readings, and asked her about tr spotting. About ab hour later, she responded and said that it sounds like implantation bleeding, and not to worry. Well, I believe she was right. I took a test four hours later, and it was positive again!!! I was in complete disbelief. And, again, when I wiped, I had spotting. This time, it was definitely red blood though. So, I sent David a text message informing him of my positive test and the spotting. He reassured me that it was normal, even when I told him it had gotten worse, and the blood was darker. Having David confirm that the darker spotting was still normal definitely made me relax. 

I decided to test again right before bed. I made Shaun watch since he'd missed the first two tests. He was definitely shocked that a second line was there, but said that it was so faint he wasn't sure if it counted. I don't see a faint line - I see a definite line - but, boys will be boys. I also know that he doesn't want me to be too excited since it's still really early, and a lot could go wrong. 

I had Shaun pick up digital pregnancy tests on his way home from work yesterday for me to take this morning. He said that if I got a "pregnant" on the test, then he would be happy with me. Otherwise, we needed to wait until Monday to celebrate. Well, I took both the digital test and a cheap test, and again the results were in our favor! My cheap test line is continuing to get darker, and the digital test officially says "pregnant." I am over the moon, in shock, and am so excited for my bloodwork tomorrow!