10 weeks

How far along? 10 weeks 2 days
Total weight gain: If I consider my base weight what I weighed the day of my BFP instead of my pre-cycle weight then I still haven't gained any weight.
Maternity clothes: Wore my first skirt on Saturday and gradually getting everything else washed
Sleep: Getting better but still trying to teach myself to sleep on my side (I'm a stomach sleeper)
Best moment this week: energy is starting to return
Movement: not yet
Food cravings: I wish i had a craving so that there was something I enjoyed eating but so far haven't found anything I like
Gender: don't know...but my body is changing VERY differently than it did with my boy so girl?? or hormones??
Labor Signs: Nope
Belly button: no change
What I miss: coke zero
What I am looking forward to: hearing the heartbeat soon
Milestones: Placenta is starting to take over and we are done with PIO shots

A week to remember

This week marked the due date of "Fred," our little embryo from IVF #1 who we lost to an ectopic. I have wondered for the last several months how I would feel as this day approached. I expected it to be hard. i expected to focus on what I had lost...but instead I found myself focusing on what I had. I will always wonder about what could have been, was it a boy or a girl? Would he/she have looked like Jr. But at the same time, if I was holding that baby in my arms today, I wouldn't have the baby growing inside me right now. This baby is the one I will feel kick inside of me. This baby is the one that is supposed to come home with us. This baby is the one that I am supposed to hold in my arms. This is the baby I will watch grow up.

The 3 week wait

Yup..the dreaded 3ww...until my next appointment. I had my first OB appointment on Thursday. Everything went great and we saw the baby and the heartbeat again. Our doctor has a little US machine in the exam room that he uses for each appointment during the first trimester and only charges you for the big nice ultrasond if there is a problem. The downside of this is the machine isn't great so it is hard to see a good picture but I've found that I'm so used to ultrasounds now that I can see them much better than I could when I was pregnant with Jr. The rest of the appointment was pretty uneventful...since this is my second pregnancy with them they already have all the family information, know I don't have any crazy bad habits, etc. So we just updated information, took blood and got my initial weight.
But the bad news is now that I am officially an OB patient means I am on a normal schedule...appointment every 4 weeks instead of every week :(. The good news for me was that 4 weeks from my appointment was Thanksgiving so I was able to move it up to the Monday of that week so I only have to wait 3 and a half weeks for that appointment.
There was a little "incident" on the way home but I'll save that for its own post!

Baby Steps

So I'm making baby steps towards acceptance that this might actually be the real thing.
You may remember that after my ectopic, I was lucky enough to lose several pounds. As soon as I got off the hormones and got some energy the weight just melted off. As a result, I was down to an 8 and almost a 6. During my cancelled FET and subsequent surgery, I gained a few of the pounds back and ended up firmly in the 8s.
I was still in my 8s throughout the Lupron and estrogen but within a week after my transfer, I was so bloated, I had no choice but to go back to the 10s which is where I still am today. I don't need maternity clothes yet but I know I won't see those 8s for awhile. So tonight, I packed them all up. While I was at it, I packed up the 10 capris and shorts. Afterall, I'm going to need some room in the closet and dresser.
So it's a baby step...if I make a couple of these everyday, soon I will reach acceptance and can begin to get excited.

Graduated!!

Do you hear pomp and circumstance playing in the background??

So today was my last RE appointment. I was supposed to have my ultrasound and bloodwork this morning but Monday night I ended up having some bleeding. It wasn't much but was on my underwear and was definitely red. Becuase of the spotting they had me come in Tuesday morning for the ultrasound and get my progesterone checked again (last week it was only 10.5). The good news is the ultrasound went great. I was still measuring right on track and the hb had gone up to 145 bpm. My progesterone was the highest it's been at 16.5! The bad news is that they have no cause for the bleeding so they said just to take it easy and call if it happened again.

So this morning's appointment just consisted of hugs and congratulations. They made me promise to send pictures and bring the baby in to meet everyone. I got my medicine weaning instructions and was told that as long as I don't have any more bleeding I can lift all restrictions (lifting, sex, etc.) at 9 weeks.

I think the appointment was really good for me. I've had such a hard time accepting that this could actually happen that having my doctor, nurses, and even the receptionist congratulating me and sending me off was really a confidence booster for me. I'm hoping this is the confidence I need to tell a few more people. Thus far, have told a few close friends who have been through this with me step by step but we haven't told our parents or siblings.

So this is a huge step...crazy to think that I am just a few days away from being 8 weeks pregnant! Next step...my first ob appointment is a week from Thursday.

Can she make us look worse??

I was scanning the headlines today when I saw one that said, "Nadya Suleman Still has 29 Frozen Embryos"
WHATTT??? I thought the whole reason she put so many in was becuase she was using up all her frozen embryos. Nope, not the case. She apparently didn't plan on some of these details coming out but that is what is happening since her doctor is having to go in front of the medical board. I guess she has never used her frozen embryos and does a fresh cycle each time.
Now I am not going to go into a moral argument here. While I personally believe in using up our embryos before doing another cycle, it is her decision BUT the more she is in the news, the more people think we are ALL like her.
In all my reading of fertility blogs, I'm not sure I have ever read of anyone having over 20 frozen embryos...most of us who are lucky enough to have frozen embryos probably have less than 5. And we don't have 14 children. Unfprtuantely though, Nadya Suleman is the current face of IVF and it is making us all look very very bad.


Sorry I just needed to vent...
Oh and don't even get me started on the transfer of 12 embryos...

We have a heartbeat!!

Today's ultrasound went well. Heartbeat was measuring at 118 bpm and everything looked good.
The baby is measuring at 6w 3 days which I of course freaked out about since last week the measurement was 5 w 5 days but the ultrasound tech assured me that it was fine and 1) I was still ahead of where they say I should be 6 w 2 d and 2) last week they measured the sac and this week the baby so the measurements were based on two different things.
They took my progesterone again since I had dipped a little low last week but since I didn't go in until noon they won't have those results until tomorrow.
So I go in for one more ultrasound and my exit appt. next Wednesday. They told me to go ahead and make an appointment with my OB for the week after that. Since my OB does ultrasounds on the first visit that means I will get to see this little baby the next two weeks to make sure everything is still going ok.
Can't believe we have made it this far...