It's a ... (15w6d)

It's official, we're having a little boy!!!  We've joined team blue!  See for yourself... we've got 2 legs straight up in the air with definite boy bits in between.  The tech said she was very confident that this is a boy.

So now for the details...

We arrived and the u/s tech told us she was just checking my cervix.  I said; we're not going to look at the baby???  She said; not really.  I just kept asking; can we take a short look???  After asking a few times and her seeing the disappointment in my face, she caught on and said; don't worry, we'll see if we can figure out the gender for you.  Kerry jokingly said; if you want to go home tonight, you'll look between the legs!

They were testing out a brand new u/s machine and I gladly volunteered to be their guinea pig.  So I ended up getting lots of time viewing detailed views of the heart and brain.  They said everything looked perfect.  They then tried out the 3d/4d transducer (after forewarning me that baby would look scary at this stage).  Baby didn't cooperate too well and kept his face hidden.  Here's a few more u/s pics from today:

Face / Heart

Profile

Head / Arm / Hand

Foot

Head / Hand / Crossed Legs

(3d/4d) Wow, look at that spine!  I think he inherited Kerry's 10 extra vertebrae!

Here's the u/s stats:

HB: 153 bpm

Fetal Movement: present

Amniotic Fluid: normal, 9.6cm

Placenta: posterior

They checked my cervix and said it was nice and closed and at 3.3cm.  Not the 4cm I had hoped for, but my ob/gyn said that was completely normal and to not worry.  They checked my weight and according to their scale, I haven't gained any weight in several weeks.  My scale begs to differ.

Here's the latest belly shot:

I bought a few books.  Baby bargains has come highly recommended and will help me figure out what I need to buy for Seven.  Baby 411 is everything I need to know about taking care of a baby for the first year.  The Birth Book will teach me everything about labor and delivery and things like how to avoid a c-section when not medically needed.  Hopefully I'll be well prepared by time baby arrives.

I want to send a thank you out to Mags for the surprise gift in the mail!  You were right, it's a boy! Thank you!!!!

Symptoms:

None really, I feel completely normal.  If it wasn't for my growing belly, I wouldn't even know I was pg.  I did have one very constipated bowel movement episode.  I think I lost.  I was in so much pain and was thinking I may need intervention.  At one point, I panicked thinking it was the baby coming out because of the extreme pressure, but all was good in that region.  After a long labored delivery, I about passed out.  Kerry said I gave true meaning to the phrase "ripped a new one".  I now have a fiber drink every morning and night which has helped significantly.

Next step:

An anomaly scan in 3 weeks.  They will check my cervix again then.

Happy New Year!!! (15w2d)

A year ago I wrote:

As the new year arrived, I found myself reflecting over the last year, the good, the bad and the in between. I made a few new year resolutions, some the same I made last year and the year before, you know the ones you never manage to follow through with. This will be our 4th January we’ve said “this will be the year of our miracle baby”. I’ve tried so hard to follow through with this one, but once again, I failed.

I finally fulfilled my 4 year running New Year's resolution!!! It may have taken me awhile, but I persevered. I'm feeling very blessed in 2010 and look forward to what this year will bring forth.

Speaking of being blessed, I ran into the following post on Kerry's blog:

The gift of life!

Well, I hope you all had a great Christmas. I thought it very fitting to take this opportunity on Christmas night to tell you about the best gift that I received this year. It was to wake up on Christmas morning and see my beautiful wife 14 weeks and 2 days pregnant. After 4 years of a fertility journey that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, we found out on October 19th that she was finally pregnant. Week after week we’ve had ultrasounds and confirmations that everything is going great. So we thank God this Christmas for the little answer to prayer that is growing in her womb. I encourage you to never give up on the things that you are believing for. We should find out on January 5th if it’s a boy or girl. The suspicions from previous ultrasound clues are leaning towards a boy. As you might imagine, we will be thrilled with either. I’ll keep you posted. Have a great weekend and be safe this Holiday season.

I know I may be partial, but in my eyes, I am blessed with the best hubby ever!

You may remember from my last post that Kerry bought me some "boy short" maternity underwear because he was concerned that my current undies were getting too tight on baby. Here's the maternity undies after washing and drying them. They now look like "toddler short" underwear. I held them up to Kerry and said, you think these will be less restrictive??  He looked at me puzzled and said, are those the ones I bought you???

I received a surprise gift in the mail.  It was a mom-to-be Christmas ornament.  I love that the pg angel is holding a bucket of ice cream and a jar of pickles!  Thank you Jean, Betty, Sheree, Rachel and Lyndsay!!!

For New Year's Eve we went to dinner with a few friends.

As soon as I took my coat off at the restaurant, the friend next to me, who last saw me 3 weeks ago, looked at my belly and exclaimed; girl, are you sure you don't have twins in there??  I just laughed.  I'm quite shocked myself at how fast my belly is growing.  I think baby is going to have daddy's height!

We then returned home for a quiet evening alone. We watched the countdown on tv and then crashed.  Happy New Year everyone!  May you all have a very blessed and prosperous 2010.

Christmas (14w2d)

Merry Christmas everyone!

I missed posting my 14 week update, so I'll start with that.  This week I am officially in the 2nd trimester and have entered the 4th month.  Where is all the time going??

I see why they say the 2nd trimester is the best. All my energy has returned, I feel good and I'm starting to show, but not uncomfortably yet. This is definitely a fun and exciting time. Though I still have little worries here and there, I believe I'm past the joy-stealing anxiety of the 1st trimester that something was going to take this away from me.  Reality has kicked in for us that I really am pg.  It definitely helps that I'm now visually pg and can hear the HB anytime we'd like.

I bought my first maternity top the other day.  While all my tops still fit, most of them are not long enough to cover the fact that I can no longer zip/button any of my pants.  I've gotten some serious mileage out of my BellaBand and BellyBelt already!

Not looking so big from the front:

But take a quarter turn and holy cow!!!  Yeah, I'm growing fast and I just know I'm going to be huge!

Symptoms:

Sharp cervical pinches, the kind that make you jump and say ouch!  This one is freaking me out just a tad as I fear my cervix is giving out.

Very mild heartburn starting to kick in.

Occasional mild pain in my ovary area.  I believe this is the start of round ligament pain.  I really have no idea what round ligament pain feels like, but all my pg books say that this starts this week.

Up next:

11 days till my next u/s where hopefully we'll find out if we're having a little boy or girl!  We cannot wait to find out!!!  We're anxious to start thinking of a name, picking out nursery themes/colors and finally get to buy pink or blue.  You think we're having a boy or girl?  Stop by the "Guess the Gender" poll and cast your vote.

Christmas Eve:

Today we spent Christmas with my mom and step-dad.  We enjoyed dinner, a movie and opened a few gifts.  It was a great time.  The best part was all the gifts for little Seven!  Seven received 6 little outfits and a teether.  I can't stop looking at the outfits, they're so tiny and cute. I just smile and thank God that these little outfits are for my baby.  I keep having to pinch myself that these are not shower gifts for someone else.

A few family photos:

 

Looking preggo yet?  Not so much, still looking more like a beer gut.

My aunt sent my folks a pair of really warm and comfy wearable blankets.  The guys put them on and we about lost it as they looked like a couple of monks.  Check them out!

Christmas Day:

Today we spent Christmas with Kerry's family.  We enjoyed lunch, exchanging gifts and playing cards.

Kerry is so proud of my "beer gut".

Christmas Evening:

This evening Kerry and I exchanged our gifts, though nothing could top the gift we already received.

I was so excited to be handed a gift bag from "Pickles & Ice Cream Maternity".  My hubby got me maternity underwear!  He's been concerned that the elastic from my regular undies are getting a little too tight on my growing belly.  So over-protective already!  He also got me 2 maternity tops from Motherhood Maternity.  Needless to say, I'm quite giddy!

Kerry got a little something from Seven.  It says "I Love Daddy".

That's all for now.  Lots of love from Tall Dude and Short Chick!

13 Weeks

I'm 13 weeks today and depending on which book you read, I'm either entering or about to enter the 2nd trimester!  Little Seven is about the size of a peach now.  It's been a week of ups and downs and a few firsts.

12w3d
Started spotting pink
Experiencing sharp pinches in upper uterus
Friends are noticing a belly bump

12w4d
More pink spotting and sharp pinches

A lady at church that has followed our journey for quite some time saw my belly and made her way through the crowd. She put her hands on my belly, looked up at me teary eyed and said, I'm so happy for you.  I then ran to Kerry all giddy and said, honey, people are starting to rub my belly!!! 

Later I attended a baby shower (so happy for you Tarryn!!!). It was so nice to be able to enjoy the shower without having to force the tears back.  A few people noticed my growing belly and one gal couldn't stop rubbing it. 

Throughout my trial with infertility, that is the one thing that choked me up more than anything, and that was seeing these beautiful bellies surrounded by people wanting to rub the belly.  Now I'm finally getting to experience this.  I'm no longer a sad outsider looking in. I know a lot of pg women are freaked out by people rubbing their belly bumps, but I'm loving every minute of it. This pg is finally shifting from surreal to real.

12w5d
More pink spotting and sharp pinches

My local nurse called to tell me that my NT blood work came back normal, yeah!  This just basically means that my risk of having a baby with chromosomal abnormalities is very low.  This doesn't surprise me as we did transfer a genetically normal embryo, but there is a 10% error rate.

I told the nurse that I've been spotting for 3 days and was a little nervous about it since I hadn't had my hormone levels checked since I was completely weaned.  Spotting can be a sign of low progesterone.  All she said was "240".  I said, 240 what?  She said, be here at 2:40.  I said, for what?  She said, an u/s.  Wow, I wasn't expecting that. I was just looking for a little reassurance, but I wasn't going to turn down a chance at another u/s.

They always check my urine, blood pressure and weight at every appt.  The nurse that weighed me commented that I haven't gained any weight.  I said that was ok because I gained it all in the beginning when I went through my "hungry man" phase.  My appetite has thankfully returned to normal.

We had the u/s and little Seven was moving all over the place nonstop.  S/He has really grown in a short amount of time.  My cervix was closed and appeared normal. We didn't take any videos because we felt that this needed to be a quick check.  I did ask for a souvenir photo though. 

Here's Seven.  It's definitely not the best pic, but just happy to have one.

I then had my hormone levels checked just to make sure there are no issues there.  This is my first check since completely weaning off all meds a week ago.

Estrogen: (2074, up from 1555)

Progesterone: (23.64, down from 48.19)

My progesterone level concerned me, so I emailed my IVF nurse.  This is her reply:

"Your estrogen will continue to rise during pregnancy, however the progesterone levels are pulsatile (meaning is has daily highs and lows), as long as it remains above 20 there is no concern. The drop could have caused the spotting, but it could also have been caused by other factors (cervical irritation, low-lying placenta, over exertion). As long as you are not having bright red bleeding and/or cramping there is not a need to worry."

I feel much better now, but I did have to chuckle at the "over exertion".  Yeah, not so much an issue!

12w6d
Today we got to hear our baby's HB for the first time.  My friend loaned us her fetal doppler a week ago (thanks Mags!!!) but we haven't been able to find the HB until today. It takes awhile to find it and it's easy to lose as the baby moves around quite a bit.  The bpm ranged from 152-162. It was music to our ears and I could have listened to it all night.

13w
I seem to be past the exhaustion phase, sooooo happy about this.

My belly seems to be growing.  I'm in the "beer gut" phase. I figured I'd start showing early since I'm only 5'1, very short waisted and the fact that my mom showed very early.  My mom said she was as big as an elephant with me and I was only 5 lbs 11 oz. 

I warned Kerry that I may get huge.  He said he didn't care if I got as big as a house as long as I incubate his baby. We'll see what he thinks if I get as wide as I am tall, lol.

12 Weeks

I cannot even believe I'm 12 weeks along already!  I received a couple comments that I've been slacking with the belly pics, so here you go:

My mom called me today to tell me that my aunt saw a wee-wee on the first u/s pic in my previous post. I was insistent that it was impossible to see a wee-wee this early and that it was either part of the umbilical cord or leg.

This of course got my curiosity up and I started researching early gender detection.  I ran into this link.

If you look at the "9 week old embryo - 11 weeks Pregnant", you can see that both genders have a "nub".  The boy's will become a penis and the girl's a clitoris.

If you then look at the 12 week "Angle of the dangle", you can see that a boy has a 30~ degree from the spine while the girl's is parallel to the spine.

This link contains early boy nub u/s photos that were later confirmed as boy.  Many of these look a lot like Seven.

This link contains early girl nub u/s photos that were later confirmed as girl.  These really don't look like Seven.

So after viewing all this, I'd have to say that it sure does look like Seven has a nub.  I held up a piece of paper to the spine and then another to the nub and it was a near perfect 30 degree angle.

I then posted this u/s pic on the website listed in the link above and asked for opinions.  Everyone predicted boy, not a single one said girl.

OMG, could we really be having a BOY???