Seeking long hours

Yesterday afternoon was quite a mess.  There was a switch problem on the commuter rail so when I arrived at the main station to catch my usual 5:25pm train home, the place was in utter chaos.  Trains that were supposed to have left 50 minutes ago were delayed and there were so many people in the station you could barely move.  The terminal was hot (it was a 90 degree day yesterday in Chicago) and too many people for my liking were bumping into my belly.  I managed to get on my train after using some of my some of my high school basketball box-out moves, but the train kept stopping and starting once we left the station.  Not sure why, but the severe thunderstorms were probably not helping.  It didn't help that the a/c didn't seem to be working and there were tons of people packed into the train.  A great combo.

Halfway through the train ride I realized that I was supposed to pick up Buster from doggie daycare and that I wouldn't make it before closing.  I got in touch with CP who was at a happy hour at the time and told him that he needed to do the pickup.  He made it just in time and I finally got home at 6:30.

I tell this story because after an email from a friend in Denver who is pregnant and looking into daycare options, I realized that we may need to look into these things soon as well.  So I made an Excel spreadsheet of all of our options here in our town, both facility places and in-home places that I could find on the internet.  Some places I think will be ruled out simply on hours alone.  Sure I work from home two days a week and those days will be easy in terms of pickup and dropoff, but the three days that I leave the house between 7-7:30am and don't get home until 6pm?  If there are train problems or other issues, well, it is going to be difficult. Not to mention we have to pick a place that works with MY schedule because who knows when CP is going to be in town to help out.

And then yesterday CP was in a meeting with some of his higher-ups and was told that his group is being moved to a different facility- 30 minutes north of his current building.  Once that change occurs this fall, when he is in town his commute jumps from 25 minutes to almost an hour- while I am going an hour the opposite way into the city.  CP is understandably pissed as when he took this job last year he was not told that this could be an option.  His boss knows that he is not happy either, so hopefully CP can work it so that he works from home one or two days a week.  Ugh.

Just another reason we need to find a daycare with long hours.  Blergh.

Severe weather

Today started out not so great as we had a horrendous severe weather system come through Chicago starting early this morning.  I woke up at 4am to lightning flashing so frequently (literally every second or two), I thought that there was a white emergency light from a vehicle somewhere on our street.

The thunder and lightning were completely freaking the dogs out and I couldn't really sleep anyway, so I went downstairs to try to calm the dogs with my presence.  Fuzzy Britches is still stuck in the sunroom all the time because it is the only room in the house fully carpeted and the only room we trust her in (if she slips on the hardwood floor she could tear her new ACL).  She already got out from the barrier made out of chairs once and tore across the hardwood floor trying to find us; might as well not have it happen again.

I put on some soothing music, lay down on the couch, and hoped the dogs would settle down.  Two hours later, I didn't really get to sleep at all and I was dreading my work day.  At least I would be working from home. CP and I checked downstairs to see if we had major water- we had seepage from three different places but nothing earth-shattering.  The garden beds out back were flooded which is probably not going to help everything grow. Ehhh, could have been worse.

I have a coworker that gives her dog some drugs (vet-approved and prescribed) to calm her down during a storm and I'm thinking that Fuzzy Britches might benefit from that.  Does anyone else out there do that?  We make sure never to comfort her during the storm, but as she ages, I'm worried she is going to hurt herself as she runs around in a panic.

The rest of the day has been trying to stay out of the way of the window installers. Yes, today is the day that we get all new windows throughout the house!  Bye bye 1937 drafty windows!  Only a quarter of them actually opened so I am super excited about windows that actually WORK.  I promise before and after pictures.  :-)

We also received good news from our siding installers- instead of coming in late July they are thinking they will be able to start the week of July 8th!  I can't wait!  Our house is going to look completely different after that makeover!!  Not to mention finally having working gutters is going to really help when we get these large rain storms.

No travel

While I hate the term "babymoon" CP and I threw around the idea of heading somewhere fun for one last time before the baby arrives.  From all of CP's traveling around the globe for work in the past year, he already has two free tickets to anywhere in the world except for Australia/New Zealand.  So we researched and thought about taking a long weekend somewhere fun.  That meant a flight shorter than 6 hours to cut down on travel time.

Our first thought was Ecuador to a place we contemplated going to earlier this year, but couldn't get off the wait list. But maybe we could look into going in July or August?  Then our hopes were dashed by finding many articles online about NOT traveling to places with malaria while pregnant.  My doctor agreed that taking malaria medicine while pregnant is not advisable, but in addition, the medicine is not 100% effective and to get malaria while pregnant could be no bueno.

So, Ecuador was out.  That also meant basically all of Central America as well.  Boooo.

So then we started thinking about closer places, such as Santa Fe, New Mexico or the Canadian Rockies.  But then my doctor also dashed our hopes for those trips as well.  While it is safe to travel to a high altitude location while pregnant, it would take me longer to acclimate (48-72 hours) and by the time I was finally not huffing and puffing as much, the trip would be over.  Double boooo.  We decided that it wouldn't be worth it.  Not traveling into the altitude also meant having to send our regrets for a friend's wedding in Telluride, CO for Fourth of July weekend.

From there our discussion turned to whether we should even take one last trip as a couple.  Around that time we signed a contract to get all new windows throughout the house (installation is this week- YES!!).  We also met with a number of siding companies and signed a contract to get all new siding and gutters to replace the awful, old, dented, faded aluminum siding on our house (anticipated start date- late July/early August).  With the prospect of spending a whole LOT of money this summer on the house, well, maybe a trip was not in the cards.  Adding to this discussion is the fact that CP gets no paternity leave.  He has to save up his vacation time and even then, will probably not be able to take the full two weeks all at once.  Grrrrrr.

This discussion made me very sad.  While I realize that this is the smart, responsible thing to do, I don't get away from the house and all of the responsibilities very often.  While work travel is not always fun, CP has been to a bunch of new and different countries recently and I'm jealous.  

I suggested getting away for our anniversary in the beginning of October.  A place within driving distance (I will be 7 months pregnant at the time), using my parents as dog sitters, and just spending two nights together away from the house.  No time taken off and a relatively inexpensive weekend.  We'll see if it ends up happening....

Almost Wordless Friday- Outdoor edition

Not a lot of words today, just pictures!  Enjoy your weekend!

First a quick check on what is currently flowering and/or growing.

Alliums!!  Don't they look like something out of Dr. Seuss book?
Please ignore the awful, old, and very sad siding.  We are getting new siding installed in August and I can't wait (although our bank account may argue otherwise).

Our first daylily of the season!

I had hoped that the Veronica plants would be a bit bigger this year, but they will grow in subsequent years.

The raised lettuce bed is going NUTS.  CP has already picked some of the arugula and as you can see, we need to eat a bunch of salads this coming week and maybe look into thinning the bed out a bit.

Unlike in CT, we decided that we didn't have enough time to finish off the yard with garden beds so we hired someone to do it for us.

BEFORE.  See the line in the grass?  The front part was existing grass, the next part is the sod that was put down this past fall.  In the back, lots of weeds.

AFTER.  Now there are two lines- the darkest grass is more sod to add to the lawn size.  Instead of weeds, now it's mulch back there.

BEFORE.  This is the front part of the back yard right after the patio stops.

AFTER.  It gets tons of sun throughout the day so in went a garden bed.  Currently planted: hot peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, and yellow squash.

BEFORE.  Lots of weeds in the back of our yard.

AFTER.  Two new garden beds with fencing because of RABBITS!  Currently planted: kale, spinach, swiss chard, yellow wax beans,  bok choy, mizuna, and carrots.  Amazingly enough we planted the seeds last Saturday and we already have sprouts for everything but carrots!

A few weeks ago, CP and I decided to clean out the garage.  We have a nice big two-car garage that almost a year after moving into the house, looked similar to this:

YIKES.

New shelves, stuff hanging on the walls, etc.  Yay!

Thank you seller for putting peg board up all over the walls of the garage- it made our job much easier!

Difference of opinion

My doctor appointment today went well.  Baby's heartbeat sounds good and the results of my genetic screening show that I have the same risk as a 20 year old for both Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13/18.  :-)

I did tell my doctor that I wasn't happy that I had to wait an extra week to find out the results of my bloodwork from the genetic screening.  I'm sure that even fertile women want to know their test results as soon as possible, not just us infertiles.  The ultrasound went great three weeks ago but the genetic counselor still said while it doesn't happen very often, sometimes the bloodwork shows a different story.  Probably not a good idea to keep a pregnant woman hanging.  She totally understood and said that it was due to a vacation.  My spina bifida bloodtest results will hopefully be back tomorrow, but my doctor doesn't seem worried because the tech didn't find anything on the genetic screening ultrasound.

Anyway, now that everything is looking good, CP is more than ready to announce on Facebook and my parents are also bursting with the news.  I'll be honest, I kind of like that a select number of people are in on the "secret" and FOR ONCE in my life, I don't feel the need to shout out the news of the pregnancy.

The problem is, CP does not want to have ANYTHING on the FB announcement that clues anyone into the fact that we used IVF to get pregnant.  I have argued with him that it might upset other infertile friends and that at least if we say something slight (because I don't necessarily need high school people who I don't talk to knowing all of my business), that others in our situation will get it and not feel so sad/bad when they see the announcement.  I think that CP wants to make this a "normal" pregnancy as much as possible and wants to put the fact that we had to go the IVF route behind him.

This is pretty frustrating for me, but marriage is a partnership.  I'm sure we will figure it out.

The other good news of the day- my MIL's kidney removal surgery went well.  :-)

Under the knife

Today my mother-in-law goes under the knife and doctors will remove one of her kidneys as they think that she has cancer.  She had an MRI on her back because of some pain that she was having....and doctors found some troubling results.  Because it is most likely cancer and it doesn't make sense to open her up twice (once to take tissue to biopsy and another for the surgery), she will just have the kidney removed.  The hospital stay will be two days and then a two week recovery at home.

She seems to be a good mood and ready to get the show on the road.  Thankfully the doctors think that they caught the cancer really early so she won't need chemotherapy or radiation!  Amazing.  Especially because once I heard that it was possibly kidney cancer, I became worried because that is what my dad's father died of 25 years ago.

CP seems to also be taking it well and not getting too worried about it.  I'm not sure that I would be the same way, even with such a good prognosis from the doctors.

Please think good surgery thoughts for my MIL today.

"Resolved" RESOLVE meeting

Tonight I have my second "resolved" RESOLVE meeting.  I am lucky enough in my town to have two different RESOLVE groups.  One is for people in the process of going through treatment and I went to that one through the March meeting.  The second group is for those that are currently pregnant and/or have had a kid after infertility.

At the March Group #1 meeting, another woman and I seemed to be on the exact same cycle.  I'm pretty sure our retrievals and our transfers were the same days!  It was the first IVF for both of us and amazingly it worked for both of us.  Crazy!  Of course I was (and still am) jealous when I heard that she retrieved 26 eggs and has something like 14 frozen right now, but I keep telling myself that my hormones are simply not going to allow for those kind of numbers.

May was the first Group #2 meeting that I could make, so I showed up, barely 12 weeks pregnant, not knowing what to expect.  Unfortunately the woman that was in Group #1 with me was not able to make it, so here I was, surrounded by women with kids (not with them of course).  I was the only pregnant person there.  Even though I was the only one without a kid, I was still nervous that I would be judged based on the fact that it only took one IVF try to get pregnant.  Turns out the woman next to me also only took one try which made me feel better.

Everyone was really nice and supportive of my pregnancy, even the woman that recently had a failed frozen transfer to try to have a second child.  I heard CRAZY follicle counts from two different women due to the IVF drugs.  One woman had 40 FOLLICLES; another woman had 90.  90!  Of course their cycles were cancelled but holy crap!  I can only imagine how uncomfortable she was even early on in the cycle.

Unfortunately the woman that cycled with me won't be able to make it tonight, but the woman that ran Group #1 (who has a child) will be there tonight and I'm looking forward to seeing her.  Of course, I do know that she is hoping to have a second child, so hopefully my pregnant presence doesn't upset her.....

Randoms

Wishing and hoping this week goes by quickly.  My next doctor's appointment is Thursday and I just want to see/hear the baby already!  It's been three weeks and although my body has definitely grown in the belly area, I still need some reassurance.  In the meantime, I hope the week flies by because I am so busy at work and am looking forward to the weekend- time with CP, the dogs, and my parents at their house in Michigan!

*Friday was CP's 37th birthday.  Wow I am married to an old man!  (Just kidding....I'll be 35 in December so I'm not too far behind him!)  He doesn't make a big deal out of his birthday, but I thought it would be funny to give him some joke gifts before his big present (a bike).  He is the complete opposite of me who calls my birthday my "Pretty Princess Day" simply to annoy him.  :-)

I stumbled across this shirt a few months ago and luckily remembered to pin it to a secret "gift" board on Pinterest.  He loves bacon and he is a chemical engineer.  A PERFECT shirt for him.

Found here  

He was a little confused when he opened up the package for this item because he didn't see the Sriracha bottle on the right side, but he loves that damn hot sauce!

Found here

*This weekend I bought my first pair of maternity pants and WHAT THE HELL WAS I WAITING FOR??  They are the most comfortable things in the entire world!  I went to both Motherhood Maternity and Pea in the Pod and laughed at the prices at Pea.  $99 for a pair of pants that I will only wear until late November?  I don't spend that much on non-maternity pants!  I have also tried Old Navy, but my local store doesn't have much of a selection.  I know that I can try online, but I like to try things on before I buy them.

*Tomorrow I am officially four months pregnant!  Wow.  It's like it's actually real or something.

*Fuzzy Britches had her ACL surgery 4.5 weeks ago and she is finally starting to look and act more like herself.  Her nickname is currently "Hobbles" but is putting more weight on her leg when she walks.  She has a follow up appointment next week and I hope that the vet tells us that she is doing well.

I was NOT paid NOR asked to review either product in this post.  I just thought they were funny and wanted to share them with my readers.  

Boy or girl?

To continue my post from Tuesday....but first two responses to two comments (I don't have your email addresses!):

Rain before Rainbow- YES!  I am not a girly-girly in any way, shape or form.  Nor do I like pink or lots of frilly things.  So hopefully not finding out the sex keeps people from buying that stuff for the baby.  :-)

Cristy- My decision has certainly been helped by two bloggers recently finding out that the sex that the doctor told them through blood tests or ultrasounds has suddenly changed!  Suddenly that almost certainty that one had once they found out the sex is not so almost certain anymore....

On to the post for the day....

While I was spending time with friends in DC two weeks ago, the friends asked whether we cared about the sex of the baby....as in, do we have a preference.  CP and I hadn't talked about this yet, so I thought about it and decided that I am scared sh*tless of either sex.  Seriously.

I didn't grow up with a brother, but I know that in general, boys are more physical as little kids.   As boys grow up they tend to do more dangerous and thrill-seeking activities.  I mean, how many times do you watch Tosh.O and see a girl trying to skateboard off a roof?  Most of those videos are of boys doing stupid things- especially when they are teenagers.

As a mother I am going to be totally freaked out about any dangerous activities a boy will want to do, because I obviously want to keep them safe from broken bones and big scars.  (Without being a helicopter parent.)  I used to think that I would want any son that I had to play football, but after playing it myself after college (I really must tell you guys about my women's professional football experience) and hearing so much about the brain injuries these days in the NFL, I will likely be steering him towards another sport (if he is athletic).

Puberty is a mess with both sexes, but I sure as hell hope that CP is willing to help out a potential son navigate what happens when they get a boner in class because I would have no idea what to say!  Then with boys you have to worry about making sure that they treat women well.  That they aren't getting girls pregnant or assaulting them.  That they aren't bullying other kids in school, etc.

In terms of girls, I am not a frilly, heavy makeup wearing, fashionista so I have no idea how I would handle a daughter that is a girly-girl.  Growing up I was a huge tomboy so if a daughter doesn't turn out to be athletic like me, I might have some difficulty.  Little girls may be a bit easier to deal with for the first few years, but man, being a girl in middle school/junior high sucked.  Despite being the youngest in my class, I was one of the first girls to grow boobs in my grade which I hid as much as possible with sweatshirts.  Any daughter of mine will surely have big boobs and get their period early.  

Like a lot of women, I don't have the best body image.  I know that I have a strong body and I love that I am tall, but the weight issue is another thing.  I played so many sports when I was young that I never had an issue with my weight and my mom was very good about feeding us healthy stuff and not giving us weird body complexes.  My mom is also in great shape- even at her ripe old age of 62.  (Seriously, I would kill for her arms.)  I worry about passing on weird eating habits and complexes to a daughter.

And then the teenage years. How do you keep your young daughter from being sexualized too early (especially with what kids are wearing these days!)?  Girls are a struggle because you have to make sure they aren't sleeping around, that they don't get pregnant too early, etc.

I KNOW that a lot of this will be decided on how CP and I are as parents.  So maybe it is just my fears on whether I will be a good parent or not coming out.  If my terror of both sexes continues, at least I won't be disappointed with whatever comes out later this year!

What do you think- does one sex scare you more?  

Surprise

As soon as people find out that I am pregnant, the first thing they ask is whether we are going to find out the sex of the baby.  A few years ago I would have said a resounding "YES!"  CP's answer would have been the complete opposite.  He is completely opposed to finding out the sex and can't wait for the surprise.

 

Now after finally being pregnant after a few years of infertility, I don't have as much of an urge to find out.  No part of this journey to get pregnant hasn't been scripted for us.  Between the Lupron, the constant dildo ultrasounds and bloodwork,  the daily shots, the exact timing of the trigger shot, the exact timing of the retrieval, the transfer, and even the scheduling of the beta test, NOTHING has been a surprise.  We didn't get to have sex in hopes that we would get pregnant that month.  I didn't even get to take a pregnancy test before my beta (that, I blame on CP).

 

So you know what?  I no longer care to find out the sex of the baby.  If CP wants this to be THE SURPRISE part of the pregnancy, well then I'm on board.  Sure we have some friends that want to send us baby clothes but only have kids of one sex so they will have to hold off sending stuff until the baby is born, but they will have to deal.  Or in the beginning our kid will wear clothes from the other sex- who cares?  Would I like to know because then it would be a bit easier to paint the nursery?  Of course....but that's why people invented neutral colors.  One of my reasons for finding out beforehand is so that I can figure out how I would like to parent and read books about parenting that sex.  But as CP pointed out, as an infant, you aren't going to do anything differently whether it is a boy or girl for a while so we will have plenty of time to figure that out.

 

It's funny how so many people are itching to still figure out what sex the baby is, even though we are telling people that we are waiting.  I have a law school friend that is two months farther along with her pregnancy and as soon as we emailed out the good news, she told me all of the wives' tales and wanted to know the results of the tests.  (If you are curious, so far half the tests shows that I am having a boy, half the tests show that I am having a girl.  Maybe because the reproductive organs are still forming at this point?)

 

So in a few weeks when we head in for the long 20 week ultrasound, we will be asking the ultrasound tech to not give us any hints or tell us the sex.  We'll just have to hold out until late November to find out.  :-)

Slowly spreading the news

CP and I have taken a little-by-little approach in telling family and friends about the pregnancy.  My parents got the phone call about the pregnancy right after we found out the beta test was positive.  With CP's parents we waited until we were a bit farther along and had a few ultrasounds under our belt since they knew nothing about the IVF treatment.  A couple times we have had to tell people prior to making it out of the first trimester because of the circumstances- such as during a happy hour with two of CP's coworkers who have also become friends.  But for the most part, we have been trying to hang on to the secret as long as possible.  And surprisingly enough, it is not me that wants to be open and tell the world, it is CP!

 

After our genetic ultrasound two weeks ago went well, we decided to tell all of my friends that I saw while I was in DC. Then last week we emailed friends from law school, friends from CT, and friends from college.  But doing that was harder for me than I thought.  My heartbeat quickened after emailing out the news because what if something went wrong at this point?  Maybe we should have waited until I had another ultrasound....  But it was too late.

 

Yesterday we had our block over to our house for a party.  CP and a neighbor smoked some meats and we had a nice gathering on our patio.  Some of the neighbors even got a tour of the house (and were pleasantly surprised at all of the work that we have done in less than a year).  CP and I had decided that it might be time to tell the neighbors about the pregnancy as well.  It turns out that a neighbor I haven't seen around lately is pregnant as well and is a month ahead of me (with her second).  So as soon as I said we have news too, out came the jokes about "what is in the water on our street?"  I laughed and joked around about it as well, all the time thinking, oh neighbors, there is nothing in the water that could have helped me!!  Another neighbor commented on my pregnancy that "oh, as soon as you move to suburbia..."  I decided not to let him know that we lived in suburbia in CT as well and that didn't seem to help.  It was nice to have everyone so excited for us though.  

 

I can't seem to out myself on Facebook yet.  I have a sorority sister that is having twins that posted her ultrasound recently- from the size and shape of the babies they looked to be about 9 weeks.  I just thought to myself....wow that is EARLY (and especially with twins).  With Facebook I definitely want to wait until the next doctor's appointment (next week) when I will be just over 16 weeks.  CP doesn't understand why we are waiting this long, but I need to make sure everything is okay.  Hopefully by the end of next week I may feel comfortable telling the world about this pregnancy.... 

Ultrasound pictures- 1st trimester

WARNING.  This post is of ultrasound pictures through the first trimester.

It's pretty amazing just how fast a baby grows in the first trimester.  I know that the growth will continue throughout the pregnancy, but to go from a group of cells, to a blob and by the end of the first trimester to actually look like a baby?  Incredible.

I know that ultrasound pictures are not everyone's cup of tea so I made this a separate post.  I had a few extra ultrasounds because of the SCH, so you can truly see the progression.

5 day blastocyst on the day of the transfer

5 weeks 6 days.  I have no idea how the ultrasound tech was able to decipher what was going on here.

6 weeks 6 days.  The plus signs are measuring the crown to rump length.

8 weeks 3 days.  Here you can see the SCH.  It's the funny "L" shaped dark spot to the left and below the baby. This was the "beluga whale" phase.

9 weeks, 2 days.  This was the "Teddy Graham" phase with the SCH still present.

11 weeks, 1 day.  Longer arms and legs.

Finally, 12 weeks, 6 days.  No arms in this shot, but the baby looks like s/he is chilling in a hammock with one leg crossed over the other!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Spring garden edition

Over the course of two days Memorial Day weekend, CP and I were VERY BUSY planting all over our property.  I was exhausted and sore by the end and hope that we don't have to do much more this year!!

Check out our new raised garden beds.  We planted herbs in this one and lettuce in a second one.  Weeding is so much easier on the back because they are so tall (and remarkably easy to put together!).  Both of the beds are sitting on our patio in the back of the house.

When the landscapers pulled out the huge shrubs along the side of the driveway, they created a bed.  We had to fill it with something so we found flowers called "Blue Hawaii" at the local nursery.  They are annuals so they will die off come fall but hopefully the bed fills it a bit more throughout the summer.

This is the closeup of the Blue Hawaii plant.

We needed a plant that never lost its leaves throughout the year to try to hide the ugly water meter at the front of our house.  Euonymus to the rescue!  We bought the biggest plant possible and hopefully it grows quickly!

On the side of the house we have another Euonymus plant.  In addition, the cages are hard to see but on the left we planted snap peas and farther back on the right we planted green pole beans.  Both crops are loving the colder Chicago weather right now and shooting up the cages!

We needed some color to line our patio in the back so we bought 48 small salvia plants.  

On the side of the house was to be our daylily garden bed.  Well, most of the roots came up but spots looked a little bare, so we added some more perennials- including lavender.  (I LOVE LAVENDER).  See the big bush on the right?  That is a random peony plant that shot up this year that must have been around but choked out by all of the ground cover that used to be in this area.  It's about to bloom pink flowers and I can't wait!  They don't like to be moved, but I will probably move it to a better spot for next year.

This is the "before" when we were putting landscape fabric down to choke out weeds.

Here is the after with mulch making the beds look nice.  Can't wait for all of the flowers!

We pulled up some of our sod to put our tomato garden in.  The red things you see are called tomato halos (we found them on Gardeners Supply.  They supposedly help keep out insects/bugs/worms while keeping the roots moist.  Hopefully they work!

Finally in the front we planted zinnias to add some color after the tulips died and we are waiting for other things to bloom.  Next year I will probably plant the bulbs and save some money instead.

Random events

*As a large breasted woman, I was hoping that the pregnancy boobs would skip me by.  I mean, I was already starting at a 36DDD.  Well, I waited until the very end of the first trimester to finally go shopping for new bras- I definitely should have gone earlier because the older woman helping me was aghast when she saw the red marks on my shoulders and rib cage.  Whoops!  But who was I to tell her that I wanted to make sure that this baby was sticking around before buying a new bra?

Needless to say, I now have porn tits (as Esperanza likes to call them) because they are a way too big size G.  Yes, G.  I fear that once my milk comes in I will be visiting a specialty nursing bra store as I might need a fitted sheet to rein these puppies in.  Hold me.

*A few weeks ago I was visiting with our next door neighbor and she began to tell me about a dream she had, but then stopped and told me that she would have to tell the rest of it to me later.  It was quite odd.  We kept talking and after a round-about discussion, she finally confessed that in the dream I was pregnant.  She has had this dream three other times previously and every other time the person was pregnant.  She even wrote the dream down in a journal so she could point to it if she was right.  Well, I didn't keep her guessing for long and spilled the beans.  She obviously doesn't know how long it took us to get to this point, but she is excited for us and will be giving us baby stuff.  :-)

*While I was in DC last week I saw pregnant bellies EVERYWHERE.  I'm sure some of the bellies I may not have noticed a few months ago because a jacket could hide the belly, but there they were.  And there I was, jealous of their bellies.  I know, it doesn't make much sense does it?  I'll have a belly soon enough.  I can't explain it...but I was still jealous.

*The first night in DC I spent with my best friend, a good friend from college and his pregnant fiance.  The pregnant fiance assumed that I was fertile as well and made some weird remarks about IVF only being for people that want to find out the sex of their baby.....clearly I didn't tell her how we conceived.  Ugh.

*The third night in DC I met up with law school friends.  The wife, A, knew about the IVF cycle, but when I saw her husband in Chicago for one night about a month ago, I decided not to say anything about the pregnancy because of the SCH.  Well A has been trying to get the goods on me for a while, including asking our mutual friend how I'm doing.  The mutual friend has been good and kept her mouth shut, but when A and I were making plans, she asked whether I had any dietary restrictions if she decided to cook.  Although I do have dietary restrictions, I really wanted to tell her about the pregnancy in person so I said that I didn't have any.  :-)  Waiting was totally worth it- they are super excited that we are pregnant.  

*CP has been trying to tell his sister about the pregnancy for a few weeks.  He would email her to see what was going on with her and her family and she would spend the entire email talking about herself and the trips that she has taken, etc. (she is living in Belgium for 3 years).  She didn't once ask him how we were doing, so he never offered up the information.  It almost became a game.  (And I thought my sister was self-absorbed!) Finally he devised a plan where he would tell his niece and nephew and then tell them not to tell his sister/their mom (knowing that they would).  Last weekend he called them up to carry out his plan and what do you know, his sister asks what is up with us.  Plan ruined, but his sister and the kids are super excited about the pregnancy as well.

I promise a pregnancy-free post tomorrow!

First trimester recap

Now that I am officially out of the first trimester (WOO HOO!), I decided to do a recap of the few months.  

Start: The day of my transfer, March 16th when I was officially pregnant until proven otherwise. 

Throughout my 10 day wait until the beta test, I did my best to not freak out (only two days out of the 10).  I had absolutely NO symptoms.  No twinging in my uterus to signal implantation, no implantation bleeding, etc.  Let me repeat.  I HAD NO SYMPTOMS.  I just want to make sure that everyone reads that because I was freaking out that I didn't have any symptoms, so please know that you can be pregnant and not have any symptoms!!!

On March 26th when I got the call from my clinic about my beta results, I went into complete shock because I was FINALLY pregnant after three years!!  

Right around my beta test I started to get lots of cramping that felt l like period cramps.  It made me very scared even though my beta doubled.  In addition to the period-like cramping, I started to have to pee all the time and get constipated.  The cramping stuck around for about two weeks and then disappeared.  The need to pee all of the time has continued throughout the first trimester.

Only three days after my beta, I threw up for the first time during the pregnancy.  I am a LUCKY, LUCKY lady in that I only threw up once more time and sailed through the first trimester without morning sickness.  :-)

At 5 weeks, 5 days I went in for my first ultrasound and thankfully the ultrasound tech found everything!  Heartbeat, gestational sac, yolk soc, and the fetal pole.  

A week later at 6 weeks, 5 days I was still feeling good and everything still looked good at my second ultrasound.  

My next ultrasound was not until 8 weeks, 2 days and although most everything looked good, the ultrasound tech did find a large subchorionic hemmorhage (SCH).  l  I wasn't put on full bed rest, but the nurse at my clinic terrified me enough to sit on my butt for the next couple of weeks.  I was SO LUCKY to not have ANY bleeding from the SCH.

My first OB appointment happened at 9 weeks, 1 day.    The SCH was unchanged, but everything else looked great.

Around this time I was able to phase out the Crinone and boy was I happy to do so!!

At 11 weeks I had another ultrasound to see how the SCH was doing.  It finally looked smaller and this was the first ultrasound where I didn't have to drop my pants!

Around this time I started to get some round ligament pain- especially when I sneezed or coughed.  It is most often felt in the second trimester, but I guess I started to feel it a bit early.  So far it hasn't been too bad and it goes away pretty quickly.

At 12 weeks, 1 day the SCH was almost fully resolved and all of my time on the couch felt like it was finally making a difference.    My OB wasn't able to find the heartbeat using the hand-held doppler, which made me question getting one for at-home use (I have since decided not to get one.  If the professional has a problem finding the heartbeat, what makes me think that I can?).  

My final ultrasound of the first trimester was at 12 weeks, 6 days. The SCH was gone and the baby looked great.  The baby passed the ultrasound part of the genetic screening with flying colors....I'm still waiting to hear about the results from the blood test portion.

My diet during the first trimester was interesting.  I had cravings for carbs, pineapple, and Panera Bread's Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.  I have always loved PB's soup, but whenever I had a craving for it and it wasn't on the menu that day I got very angry.  Seeing as how I didn't have any morning sickness, I probably could have eaten a little better, but even with the lack of exercising and all of the carb-eating, I didn't gain any weight during the first trimester.

As a brief recap:

-no pregnancy symptoms before the beta

-stomach cramping for the first two weeks after beta

-the need to pee constantly

-bigger boobs

-VERY tender boobs

-only two instances of throwing up 

-not quite bed rest because of the SCH

-heartburn/reflux (but that is fairly normal for me)

Onwards and upwards to the second trimester!

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, the HOLY POOP phrase with the smiley face went up on our kitchen chalkboard.  Every Wednesday I have been changing the number to reflect how many weeks I am.  This chalkboard was originally supposed to be for other things.....  :-)