A Great Sound

It has been a really busy last several days. My 30th birthday was on friday and we had something planned to celebrate each day since friday. It has been fun but I am tired especially considering I missed my nap yesterday and today. But today I got a great belated birthday present. I got to hear a our baby's heartbeat. We had our 6 week ultrasound this afternoon. It was supposed to be tomorrow but at the last minute I had to change locations so it ended up being a day earlier. They only saw one embyro on the ultrasound. This was a little bit of a surprise to us because everything seemed to be pointing to twins ( my doctor said he was even bettting on twins) but today they only saw one. It was a little sad to find that out because we wanted both of those embies to join our family but we know it's all in God's plan. For one thing it might be hard for my body to carry twins considering my history of back/spinal problems. So we rejoice that one of our embies is now in heaven and the other one is growing strong in my womb. It was really neat to have an ultrasound and actually see something on it ( through this process I have had countless monitoring ultrasounds and they are not nearly as fun!). We got to hear the heartbeat which was such a wonderful sound. It measured at 120 bpm. And they estimated the gestational age to be 6 weeks 3 days which is one day older than previously estimated so we are right on target for an early August baby. I know we still have a long way to go in this pregnancy but seeing the embie today and hearing the heartbeat was such a relief. We are looking forward to our next "viewing" in another couple of weeks. Thanks again for all of the prayers! I will post a picture of the ultrasound once I get it scanned but sorry folks I need to go to bed now!

1826

I got my results back from my hcg taken yesterday morning and it was 1826 which means my hcg almost quadrupled in 48 hrs and they like it to at least double. So everything continues to look good. My nurse was happy with the results and she gave me some instructions for going forward. First of all my due date is Aug 7th. I am going for my first ultrasound ( 6 week) on Dec 15th and then I am supposed to go for another one at 9 weeks. These 2 ultrasounds will be at the fertility clinic that I used for the preliminary ultrasounds before the transfer and then after that I will be able to start going to my regular doctor. Dr Keenan at the NEDC will be monitoring my labs and they will be the ones to determine when to decrease and stop my Estrace and Progesterone shots. I have a phone appointment with Dr Keenan next thursday as well. So everything is progressing well so far and we just pray that everything continues that way!

480

I am a little slow on updating our blog probably because I am really tired which is most likely due to the fact of what my nurse told me when she called yesterday that I am " very pregnant". I went for my beta hcg yesterday and I wasn't expecting to hear back until today but around 5 pm yesterday my nurse called to tell me that the results came in and my hcg was 480 which in her words was considered " very pregnant". They like it to be between 50-100 at that point ( 11 days post transfer) so 480 was really good. I know we are not out of the woods yet but we were so thankful for that news. I go for labwork again tomorrow to make sure that my numbers are doubling or at least going up. So we are praying that each test continues to come back with positive results. And I have certainly got what I wanted when I said I wanted to feel what it's like to be pregnant. I already having cravings, nausea at times and ravenous hunger at other times, tiredness(extremely tired), and some hot flashes. So I am definitely feeling pregnant. I don't think I have ever been so happy to have nausea before! Josh said he knew I was pregnant when over the weekend I was craving a coke and when I say craving I mean I was desperate for one and if you know me you know I never drink soda. And then the other day before my test when I told him that I was so hungry when I was out in the morning that I thought I was going to eat my arm so I stopped at McDonalds which I also NEVER do. So I am trying to eat healthy for the most part but some of my cravings have been not so healthy but that was when he knew. So we are really excited and hopeful. Thanks for everyones prayers, cards, messages and encouragement ( and excitement for those of you who got to find out our news in person!). Please continue to pray for every step of this journey that we are on.