I am in fact still here

I know, I know. I shouldn't even be allowed to have a blog if I'm never going to update it right? I haven't posted anything since before our NT scan. I am sure you are all dying to know how things are going right? (Who am I kidding, if you read here you probably already know from either Facebook or SMO).

Anyhow let's see if I can recap all the pregnancy events of the past 2 months!

Our NT scan went great, now the pictures REALLY look like a baby! Our results came back as a 1 in 2316 chance for Down's and less than a 1 in 100,000 chance of Trisomy 18 so we were thrilled.

Our appointment at the end of January also went perfect except the stinker was hiding from the doppler and gave M and I a bit of a heart attack for a minute or so since they had to grab the u/s to find the heartbeat. Turned out OK in the end though since we got an extra peek :)

The week after that I did have one day where I spotted and FREAKED OUT about it. But it turned out to be nothing more than this little one messing with me yet again. I had my Quad screen drawn and since no news is good news I assume the results came back normal. I will confirm that at our next appointment.

So we have just been staus quo for the month of January. Nausea is all gone which is great, however the appetite has kicked into gear so I am sure the weight will start coming on now! I am definitely "showing" and the last couple weeks I have started to feel some light jabs and kicks which is comfortably reassuring. The heartburn has also kicked into high gear Zantac is my new best friend.

Monday is our next appointment and the BIG u/s!! I'm very glad both M&G are coming for the appointment, it should be really exciting :) Hopefully in a few days we will know if this bean is a boy or a girl! I PROMISE I will update with the big news in a timely fashion LOL!

I am leaning towards boy, but we shall see :)

The First Trimester Disappearance

Geez, I haven't updated since before our first ultrasound!! Probably because for the first time in all my pregnancies this 1st trimester was spent SOOOOOOOOOOOO sick! I have been EXTREMELY nauseous and tired. Pretty much if it didn't HAVE to get done it didn't.... thus no blog updates.

I finally ended up getting a prescription from my doctor for Zofran. I didn't want to take meds if at all possible but it was getting so bad I was having trouble functioning at work and taking care of the kids when I was home. The Zofran helped tremendously and I find now at 12 and a half weeks I am finally starting to feel a bit more like myself and having a little more energy during the day.

So....... updates.

Our u/s on Oct 30th went great. I was really nervous since we had had the bleeding and our last "1st u/s" was not exactly good news. However I was feeling more confident since the nausea had set in 3-4 days before... M brought her sister along since G couldn't get off work and it was nice to meet some of her family. We all went in for the u/s and I could tell M was REALLY nervous. I think her sister was practically holding her up as the tech first took a look. Then the tech turned the screen and said "Here's the gestational sac, and here's.." and at that moment I could see the little flicker on the screen and I said "There's the heartbeat!" and as soon as the tech said "yes" M collapsed on top of me on the u/s table hugging me and crying. A beautiful heartrate of 123 :)It was really one of the best moments ever :) We met with the RE afterwards who said everything looked perfect and that he did not need to see me again. Just take all my meds until 12 weeks and call if there were any problems. Otherwise make my first appointment with my own OB and go home and "gestate" :) M and her sister took me out to lunch afterwards where we celebrated the picture of our little bean :)

Our first appointment with my doctor was made for 11/17. At that appointment we were 9w1d along. I felt MISERABLE the weeks waiting for the appointment so I was pretty sure things were progressing as they should :) M drove down here for the appointment which was really fun. I knew she was still nervous and was just anxious for her to see her little bean again and have the reassurance everything was going well. We had our u/s first and I was so glad my doctor took as much time as we wanted and pointed out everything imaginable! The baby had a perfect heartbeat of 166 and M even got to hear what it sounded like. I could tell it was an emotional moment for her and she was so funny because afterwards she said "Aren't you proud of me? I was very restrained in there." LOL! We met with my doctor and went over all the history stuff and talked a little about how things would be handled. I also got my H1N1 vaccine. M and I went out to lunch at Chili's afterwards and it was really great to be able to see her and talk about things now that we finally have good news to talk about after so long and so much disappointment. Our "bean" looked much more like a "baby" at this appointment :)

M&G have decided to have the nuchal fold scan done which is a 1st trimester screening for Down's. Our appointment for that is 12/16 and that will be a day trip since we have to drive all the way to Farmington for that appointment. There is nowhere in the immediate area that performs that test yet. So I am once again looking forward to seeing how much the bean has grown and spending the day with my IP's. I am especially excited that G is attending this appointment as this will be the first time I have seen him since getting pregnant. I can't wait for him to see his new son or daughter. Who knows? We may even be able to find out if it is in fact a son or a daughter at this apointment :)

So I will try and update more often now that I am feeling a little more human... not that anyone probably missed me... but there you have it. We finally did it and the expected date of arrival is June 21, 2010 :)

Relaxing a little bit!!

Today's beta has made my fears from the bleeding episode ease some ...

20,200 :)

It has continued to rise perfectly despite the bleeding so I have faith we still have at least one little bean plugging away in there....

Looking forward to Friday's ultrasound with anticipation ... I can't wait!

Things can never just be easy...

So Monday's beta was spectacular. I was flying high, feeling great, feeling confident......... then as always seems the case with me, disaster strikes. Thursday afternoon as I was standing at the counter peeling potatoes for dinner I started to get a backache and feel really crampy. It made me nervous so I decided to lie down but went to the bathroom first. I was bleeding. BRIGHT red blood, and as much as if I was on the heaviest day of my period.

Needless to say I was devastated as was M. I bled for the next 5 hours or so pretty heavily and even passed some small clots. When I called the clinic they basically said it could be a number of things. I could be losing a twin. I could have a SCH (subchorionic hematoma) which is basically a "pocket" of blood that gets trapped and can "let go" and you can have heavy bleeding without necessarily losing the pregnancy. Or of course I could be miscarrying. The RE felt it was still too early to get definitive results via u/s so a blood test was scheduled for Sat am (today).

By Friday morning the bleeding was pretty much gone. I had a few spots here and there but by the evening it was gone completely and has not returned (crossing fingers and knocking on wood).

Today's news makes me optomistic. My beta is 12,029 which is a perfect increase from the last beta. We will be doing another test Monday which if we are still increasing well will make me feel MUCH more relaxed. It will still be a week of pins and needles until the u/s but I am trying to stay optomistic.

For now just praying the bleeding stays FAR, FAR away!

OMG!

That's all I can say about yesterday's number..... remember I wanted 550 or better?? Ummm, yeah how about 2376!! I am still in shock that it jumped as much as it did. That's a doubling time of about 26 hours!! I am so happy the numbers have been so good this time around. I am confident going into the u/s on the 30th that we will see at least one healthy bean in there!!

There are quite a few girls on SMO that think there are 2 in there based on this last number. Nothing is ever a guarantee and the numbers vary so much from person to person that I think it's hard to tell. However my first 2 numbers were very much in the singleton range. Most people with twins have higher starting numbers and double quicker. BUT my number yesterday was in the twin range for this far along and it did jump HUGE in 4 days....... so I guess we will keep guessing at how many are in there until the u/s !!

Come on 30th!! 10 days and counting!!