Moving and Shaking

I am now 18.5 weeks along. We had our 16 week appointment a couple of weeks ago and everything was fine. They didn't do much at that appointment except listen to the heartbeat with a Doppler and the heart beat sounded great. It seems like right after my appointment, I really popped. I have had a little baby belly for a while but right around 17 weeks I really popped. I guess that was the point where I really started "showing". Some people say I still look really small for how far along I look but I feel huge. I have never had a belly before so it was kind of shocking when my belly really started to grow outwards! I am really excited to be showing though. I have always wanted a baby belly and now I have one. I will post a picture as soon as I have Josh take one. I haven't been real into taking belly pictures and posting them but I have had a couple of requests so I will put one up soon. Everyone keeps asking me how I am feeling. I definitely feel better than I did during the first trimester. I still have some small bouts of nausea and some food aversions but overall I feel pretty good. I still have a hard time eating leftovers but it's gotten better. And today was the first day that I was really sure I felt the baby! I think I have felt the baby move before but I have also had a lot of gas bubbles lately so I wasn't sure if it was the baby or if it was something else. But today I was sitting on the couch and I could defintely tell it was baby flutters. So that's really exciting too. We have an ultrasound on monday. It's our long level 2 ultrasound where they do a lot of screening tests and where we find out if our baby is a him or a her. I am pretty sure we are having a boy but we'll find out for sure on monday! We'll keep you posted!

12 Weeks!

I am about 12.5 weeks pregnant at this point. So I am officially past my first trimester! We had our 12 week appointment and ultrasound on tuesday. The baby was moving a lot when they were doing the ultrasound which is always amazing to see. For this ultrasound they wanted to measure the skinfold on the back of the neck and look for the presence of a nasal bone. It was a screening ultrasound and the doctor said everything looked great. I am measuring a couple of days ahead but that doesn't really mean anything at this stage. I am starting to feel more like my normal self as far as my nausea, tiredness and food aversions starting to subside. Although I am feeling more and more pregnant as my clothes keep getting tighter and I have started having really, really strange dreams. I told Josh I need to keep a dream journal because I think I could probably write some sci-fi scripts with some of my dreams. I have had weird dreams before but nothing like what I have been experiencing the past week. And I still have a ways to go! But everything is going well. We are in the process of moving Raegan into her new room so that we have plenty of time to transition her to her new big girl bed before the baby comes. We do have pictures from the ultrasound but we haven't scanned them yet so once we do we'll post them.

Ultrasound Pictures

Our Little Bean at 6 weeks, 3 days

I finally figured out how to add the scanned pictures! ( Josh put them on the network and I didn't know how to get to it) The picture above is from our first ultrasound in December. And below are the pictures from our ultrasound on Tuesday. It's amazing to see how much has changed in 3 weeks. At 6 weeks you can barely see the embryo but at 9 weeks you can actually see the baby's arms and face ( especially in the 3D images).

Baby at 9 weeks, 3 days

9 Week Appointment

Today I went to my regular OB/Gyn for my 9 week appointment. This was my first appointment with my regular doctor. I took Raegan along with me and she was really excited when Daddy walked into the waiting room. Josh came from work and met us there so that he could be there for the ultrasound and to watch Raegan. They took me back right away and set me up for the ultrasound. The ultrasound was really amazing this time. The baby looked so much different from just 3 weeks ago. It actually looks like a baby! We could see it moving and the doctor did a 3 D ultrasound for us and you could see it's little face with it's hands up to it. It was a really cool experience. It was neat to have Raegan there with us too. I am sure she is too young to really understand what's going on but it was neat to have her there. We pointed to the screen and asked her if she could see the baby and she said "yeah!". But then later we asked her where the baby was and she pointed to the wall of baby pictures that was hanging in the office. She must have been wondering, "why do mommy and daddy think that there is baby on that screen? they are obviously on the wall". We got to hear the heartbeat again which was beating very strong at 185 bpm. The doctor said everything looked great. We met with him after the ultrasound and we discussed when future appointments would be, what hospital I would deliver at, etc. It's all starting to feel very "real" now. So it was a really good appointment. I have my next appointment and ultrasound scheduled for Jan 26th. They printed out some pictures but Josh put them in his planner for safe keeping so I will post them sometime after he gets home from work and scans them. I still need to post the 6 week ultrasound as well.

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.