7w3d - Yea for my blog friends! Yea for my blog friends!

Yes, I meant to repeat that title. I have TWO (count 'em TWO) blog friends who are also pregnant and due near me, Alli & Heather. Well, both of them found out today that they are each having TWO babies!! Yep, both of them are incubating twins! How awesome is that??

Some of you might be thinking that I might feel left out of this perfect trifecta, but you know what? You'd be wrong. I have no desire for twins and am happy beyond words for both of them (both of them) and even happier that I'll get to experience their twin pregnancies from a slight distance.

What a great Monday update! And we're having snow - even out here in the valley. Fun stuff.

6w5d - We Have a Heartbeat!

First ultrasound was today. I was so scared heading into it that it was going to be either a blighted ovum or twins. I wasn't sure which was the better option of those. I'm so very happy to report that there is only one baby and it's tucked in nice and high in the uterus with a heartbeat of 128bpm. I was measuring about 2 days ahead too. Doesn't really mean much to measure a couple of days ahead given the margin of error with the machine, but it's always better to measure ahead than behind. We go back in two weeks for a 2nd ultrasound and if all is well, I get officially released to the OB - well, midwives.

Hubby and I both let out a big sigh at the same time and then laughed and looked at each other. "We're going to have another baby. Hehe." We know we're not completely out of the woods yet, but with a normal heart rhythm, our odds for miscarriage drop to like 3-5% depending on who you ask. I sure hope this is the beginning of only positive things for this pregnancy.

NSWO was so cute the other day. We were at a friend's house who has 5 mo old twin girls from her 2nd round of Clo*mid. I was holding one of the girls and NSWO walks over and says, "Ahhhh, she's so cute." Then he turns to my friend and says, "My mommy's going to have another baby." Now, realize we hadn't told him anything officially, but he obviously picked up on it. My friend asks him, "Are you going to be a big brother?" His response, "Well, not THIS week." Gotta love kid logic.

UPDATE - we do have ultrasound pics, but the scanner is buried in the garage. I'll try to post a pic ASAP.

6w2d - Now this is different.

Well, the nausea is officially here. Not too bad, hoping it doesn't get too much worse in the coming weeks. I didn't have any with Not-So-Wee-One (save for a more sensitive gag reflex while brushing teeth) so this is all new to me. It's been building up slowly over the last few days and most of the time it's just a mild anxious/nervous stomach. I made an Italian meatloaf a couple days ago and it was soooo yummy. I tried to eat some leftovers the next day and could only get 3 bites in. Then today, Hubby heats up the last of the leftovers and I literally couldn't handle the smell and made him take it up into the office upstairs to eat it. Then I had to turn on the exhaust fan to clear out the smell. It hasn't affected my appetite yet though, I'm constantly starving! Just have to figure out what to eat that won't make me feel ill. Mac-n-cheese hit the spot today. Thanks to NSWO for suggesting it.

I'm pretty scared for the ultrasound on Wednesday. I'm trying to remain hopeful, but part of me is also preparing for the possible worst. I have no reason to think that there is anything wrong with this pregnancy, but I didn't last time either and that's what bugs me the most. I'm trying to hold onto the fact that the nausea is new and hopefully that means good things for the pregnancy, but still...Can't I just go to sleep and wake up on Wednesday at the clinic? Is that asking too much?

I probably wouldn't sleep well anyway. The past couple of nights, the insomnia is back too. I wake up to roll over or something and my silly brain gets latched onto something and won't let me go back to sleep. Last night it was the guest room. We live in a 4 bedroom house and right now the allotment is; our room, NSWO's room, guest room, and office. If this baby is another boy, we'll put him in NSWO's room, move NSWO to the current guest room and need to combine the office & guest room into the current office. (If this baby is a girl, she gets the current guest room and NSWO will stay in his room. Less re-painting to do that way.) The problem is, the office isn't that big to accommodate a queen size guest bed, desk and the TV that Hubby wants to put in there when he gets a new on for the family room. (Don't ask. :rolling eyes:) We have thought about doing a Murphy Bed in that room so that the majority of floor space could be used for play space since we don't have guests all that often, but when we do, they need a real bed. My brain went around in circles last night off and on for about 2.5 hrs trying to figure out a solution to this problem. Why? I have no earthly clue. When I got up this morning, the 'problem' didn't even bother me much, so why did I obsess about it last night? To rob me of valuable sleep I guess. I'm still no closer to a solution. Man, I hope my brain doesn't do that again tonight, I could really use some better sleep.

6w0d - Good things happen in threes too!

You know how people say that bad news comes in 3s? Well, it turns out that good news does too. Congratulations to Alli who also got her BFP this week. That makes three of us in the Seattle area who are all due within a week of each other. How cool is that?

Ladies, this is going to be quite a ride, so glad to be able be on the ride with you.

5w0d - Pinch me.

This still doesn't seem real. I am officially 5weeks pregnant today and aside from a few mild symptoms, I feel exactly the same. I've had some pretty intense hot flashes which started even before I knew I was pregnant. At swim class, the pool area is heated for the comfort of the swimmers, but when you're pregnant with extra progesterone flowing thru the veins, it's not comfortable to be in there for long. By the time we left I looked like I'd applied my blush with a mop, my cheeks were sooo pink. I'm still getting occasional pinching & pulling cramps and my breasts get pretty tender every once in a while. And my pants are already starting to not fit right. This happened with NSWO too, pretty much the day the test was positive, I was bloated enough to not fit into my jeans. I'm actually very glad to have these symptoms though because it helps me feel more at ease and hopeful that this pregnancy is going to stick around.

But overall, I feel so normal and not pregnant. I may be changing my tune in a couple of weeks when morning sickness typically sets in. I never got it with NSWO, so I'm hopeful to be able to avoid it again, but if that's what it takes to get a healthy baby, I'll take it I guess.

I also wanted to send out a HUGE congratulations to Heather who found out this week that her IVF was successful and from the look of her betas, I'd say VERY successful. Way to go girlfriend!

4w4d - 5 things you may not know about me.

I've been tagged by Heather to write a post including 5 things you may not know about me, so here goes:

1. I played the cello for over 10 years. I started in 5th grade when the cello was bigger than me. I had to take that thing on the school bus twice a week. It is NOT easy to get a full-sized cello onto a school bus, trust me. I played thru part of college (scholarship helped pay tuition) until my major got too busy to allow time for it.

2. My major at university was Musical Theatre. Yep, I did it all, singing, acting, and dancing. I decided to stop doing it professionally after a stint doing dinner theater (ACK!) in Boca Raton. That was enough to make me not need to do that for a living any more.

3. I'm tall. See, all of you are out there over the internet and you have no idea about stuff like that. It seems like such an obvious thing about a person, but not necessarily. So, yeah, I'm 6 feet tall. I could have been shorter - my mom is only 5'2". I could have been taller though - my dad is 6'6". I was average-sized until Jr High when I grew 6 inches in the course of 8-9 months. That hurt like a mother-fucker!

4. I don't LOVE chocolate. I enjoy a nice Milky Way every now and then, but it's more for the caramel than the chocolate. I still have a lot of Halloween candy in my garage and not much of an interest in eating it. Now, the Chewy Sweet-tarts and Hot Tamales I had before Halloween? Let's just say none of them made it into a trick-or-treater's bag!

5. Before college, I was trying to decide between Theater and Medicine for a career. Somehow I got it in my head that I could always play a doctor on TV and that would be enough. Looking back, I should have chosen medicine. I swear I know more than most of the nurses at the IVF clinic (well, not all of them, a few are pretty darn cool). Maybe once this baby is old enough I'll go back to school to be a nurse or nurse-midwife. That would be cool, except for the crappy hours, but oh well, can't have it all.

Ok, so now I get to tag some folks:
Heather (a different one)
Alli (just cause she's so darn cute)
Beth (if her stomach will let her)
S (I don't think I've ever seen her post her name, hmm....)
Gabby (I think she could use a silly thing to post about)

Enjoy ladies.

4w3d - 2nd beta results - still looking good

My beta today went up to 592 which puts the doubling time at 57 hours. Well within the range of normal.

First ultrasound is November 22. I'll be nearly 7 weeks by then so we should be able to see a nice strong heartbeat (oh please, oh please, oh please!).

4w1d - 1st beta is good

With NSWO, my 15dpo beta was 407. Today, this bean's 15dpo beta is 331. My progesterone is >20 so I don't need to supplement either -whew! I go in for a repeat on Monday.

4w1d - Did I have any clue? No, not really.

As for any symptoms or indication that I might be KU - my chart has been crazy good this cycle. Temps in the 99's lately and they've just gone up and up. That was my strongest hint, but I've had charts where my temps stayed up until 15dpo (today) the day AF is due and then they plummet, so I was trying not to count on anything. I've had a lot of little pinching cramps too, but kept vacilating between thinking it was early pg ones or more cysts popping up. I had convinced myself that the test was going to be white, and that I'd have cysts again and not get to do IVF either.

Night before last (13dpo) I was so tired and felt feverish all day long. I wanted to crawl into bed right after NSWO at 8pm, but Hubby convinced me to stay awake for Grey's Anatomy. Then at about 2am I woke up and had to pee (sometimes happens, not really a sign) but then I could NOT get back to sleep for hours!! This made me suspect too since it happened in March and probably in 02 with NSWO. That seems to be a trend for now cause I was up from 2-4 this morning again.

I actually had a dream about getting morning sickness last night. Let's hope it's not prophetic. I was able to get thru pg with NSWO with no real m/s and I'd love a repeat of that.

Well, NSWO and I have a birthday party to get to and I have to swing by the clinic this morning for my beta. I'll post my results when I get them. Wish me luck.

4w0d - No way!

I don't exactly know what to say, so I'll just let a picture be worth a thousand words.


Today is 14dpo. I was/am supposed to start AF tomorrow and do cd2 baseline stuff on Sunday. Instead, I'm going in tomorrow morning for a beta. Who'da thunk it?

ETA - This is my horoscope for today. Thought it was neat.

Try to come to a place of serenity today, dear Cancer, in which you free yourself from desire and jealousy. It is important that you take time to recognize the incredible growth that can spring forth from this position of calm and pure satisfaction. Rid yourself of excess baggage that you cling to as some sort of support or means of comfort. The less you carry, the more you free up your arms to create.