7w6d

It's been 12 days since my 1st u/s.  8 of those days, I've endured anxiety-inducing spotting in an assortment of brown, pink and red.  While I know it's very common in early pg, especially IVF pg, it's also the prominent sign of m/c.

Ya know, before I became an infertility survivor, I used to get so frustrated with those that finally became pg and then spent so much time wasting away their pg worrying.  I was like, OMG, you finally got what I want so bad, why are you not enjoying it to the fullest???  My philosophy was no matter how you spend this pg, happy or in fear, it's not going to change the outcome, so why not enjoy it to the fullest?  Well I can honestly say now, it's easier said than done.  While I am thrilled beyond words, there are times where I'm plagued with the fear of knowing I'm not guaranteed a live baby at the end of this.  It just unfortunately comes with the territory of working soooo hard to achieve something that is so fragile and can end at any moment.

With each passing milestone, I'm chipping away at that nagging fear and becoming more and more excited.  It's finally starting to become real.  I still find myself in situations where Kerry will tell someone I'm pg and I'm literally like, OMG, I am, I am pg!

Today was my 2nd u/s @ 7w6d.  I'm so relieved to announce that it was a perfect u/s!  Here are the stats:

CRL:  14.9mm, measuring perfectly on track at 7w6d (up from 3mm, measuring 2 days behind)
HB:  173 BPM (up from 117 BPM, notice the 7's?)
Yolk Sac:  Present
Amniotic Fluid:  Normal
Placenta:  Diffuse (CCRM said this just means it's still hard to see and spread out)
Hemmorhage:  16x12x9mm (up from 5mm, CCRM says it's still small)
Cervix:  3cm (down a hair from 3.1cm)

Here's little Seven who increased in size by 5x and has sprouted little arm and leg buds!  It looks like our little blob is cursed with my big forehead!

I asked when we would get to hear the HB and she said not until after the 1st trimester.  Apparantly they have seen some studies that suggest that using the doppler this early can be dangerous to the fetus as the frequencies are very high.  Ok, I'll wait!

I went ahead and had my hormone levels checked today, a day early, since I was already there.

Estrogen: 1262 (>300)
Progesterone: 14.85 (>6, finally increasing!)

CCRM wants to start weaning me.  I'm to go from 4 to 3 patches tomorrow.  I'll stay on the same dose of Endometrin and Estrace.  I'm to check my levels this Fri.  They like to check levels 2 days after a decrease, which is great in case it was too early to decrease.  If I'm still doing good, they may decrease again. I'll be soooo glad when I'm done with all these meds!

My prenatal appt ended up being a short Q&A session with my ob/gyn.  They are going to hold off on all the blood work until they receive my communicables from CCRM as they don't want to unneccessarily repeat tests. 

I addressed my concern of all the spotting I've been having and she told me this is nothing to worry about, it's very common and only a worry if it turns to red flow with cramps. So I'm done worrying about the spotting! 

I addressed my concern about my leeped cervix and said I wanted to take a better safe than sorry approach with it.  She was very on board and said she would keep a close eye on it with u/s and also do fetal nectin tests which tests for preterm labor.

I asked about the H1N1 vaccine and while she recommended it, she has none and has had a very hard time getting any in stock.  She mentioned that she has already had 3 pg patients who ended up on ventilators due to H1N1.  Scary!

I asked how many people I can have in the room during delivery.  I expected 2-3, but suprisingly found out that it's as many as can fit as long as everyone stays out of the doctors way.  She said she just did a delivery where the woman had her entire church choir (20 people) in the room during delivery and they sang to her.  Wow!  So I'm very excited as I'd love nothing more than to invite my 3 moms to witness the birth of their grandchild.

At the end, she congratulated us, said she was so happy for us and knew that we must be filled with anxiety in between u/s.  She then said, how about another u/s in 1 week, would that be too long?  Ha, 1 week, are you kidding me?  I would have been good with 2 weeks, but I'll take it!  It won't be the full blown nice u/s like I've had, but instead a quick peak to make sure there's a HB on a lower quality machine.  How cool is that!

So that ends the details of my appt today.

Symptoms this week:

Frequent Urination (thanks to those that admitted to not flushing every time, we have resorted to this as well as I can't imagine our sewer bill with peeing every 10 mins.  We've gone back to the old college saying "yellow is mellow, brown goes down")

Extreme Exhaustion (thinking of auditioning for a role as a zombie for some extra cash)

Hungry all the time!!!  I can eat like a man!

Boobs... I never mention this one because my boobs became fuller, darker and ummm, more happy as soon as I started progesterone and before transfer.  So I don't really consider it a pg symptom, more a progesterone symptom.  They have never been sore.  Well... they are getting bigger!  I keep catching my nipple on the door frame when I take a sharp right out of the bathroom.  Ouch!

Pg Brain!  I managed to drop an entire pizza and a full glass of water on the floor at the same time!  Talented!  Kerry is having sympathy pg brain as he knocked his glass of water over, not once, twice!  Today I locked my keys in the car.

I've still managed to completely escape m/s!  I think some of Lucky Seven's luckiness has seeped into my system.

The other day I was craving pizza sooooo bad!  Kerry decided to let me splurge on pizza once a month.  We went to pick it up and on the way back, I found myself equally famished and having to desperately pee.  As soon as I got home, I couldn't decide which was more important, so I killed two birds with one stone.  Kerry just happened to be carrying in the camera from his car and well, I got caught!