7w+3 - no need for progesterone support

So I like that Dr even less now.  I have to admit to having been a bit freaked out after yesterday when he said that I might need to go on progesterone support.  Obviously my mind immediately went to worrying that I wouldn't be able to maintain this pregnancy and what if it became a problem before my RE got back to me, etc etc.  This may have also had something to do with my bad mood yesterday.  I also woke up the morning with a horrible feeling that something was wrong, something had changed and it was wrong.  I'm still feeling a bit weird about that now.  I'm hoping it was all just how my feelings from yesterday manifested themselves and not something more sinister.  I guess that sort of thing really freaks me out now because right around the time that our baby girl's heart must have stopped beating, I had the most vivid dream that I was looking at her and I saw her heart just stop.  At the time I didn't bother to say anything because I thought it was just a dream and didn't really think more about it until we found out that her heart had stopped.  Anyway, I'm hoping that awful feeling this morning was nothing.  I can't do anything except cross my fingers.

But onto the good news.  My RE (bare in mind, he's the best in the country) just emailed me back and simply said that the cyst is the corpus luteum and it's totally normal.  WTF?!  What on earth was the other Dr doing freaking me out like that yesterday?!  I am definitely not going back to see him again.  But for now, I can relax, all is fine and my body is doing just what it's meant to do, there's nothing wrong. (And I've just had a big, hormonal, relieved cry.)

So tomorrow I should get my report and then I can just look forward to my next scan, and keep my fingers crossed that that horrible feeling was only to do with not enjoying yesterday.

7w+2 - scan no.2

Well I really didn't like this Dr that I went to see today.  When I went in, he shook my hand, but while he was talking over me head to his secretary and calling her weird.  Then there was no privacy for taking my trousers and undies off, nor was I given anything to cover up with.  Now I know they've seen it all a million times before but this is the first time I've been anywhere where they don't allow you any modesty.  Then his printer was broken so I won't get my report until Monday and he also wouldn't let me take my photos with me.  Oh and to top it off, although there were only 2 other people in front of me when I arrived, I was kept waiting almost 2 hours until I was seen.  I was so wound up by it all and all hormonal that I didn't really get to enjoy my scan and I've wanted to have a good cry because of it all day.  I'm so glad that the student Dr I saw last time gave me another recommendation for a Dr to see.

So anyway, all of that to one side, all is well with baby.  S/he (I've got this niggle in the back of my head that it's a boy) is measuring 7w+3 and there was a heartbeat of 145bpm.  So all good.  But the Dr. did have a look at my ovarian cyst and suggested that I ask my RE about going onto progesterone support.  I think it's got something to do with the cyst having the potential to block my natural progesterone production, which is obviously essential to maintaining the pregnancy.  So I've emailed my RE and we'll see what he says.  But for now, all is good.

So here's the latest pic of our baby bear:

6w+1 - morning sickness

It's more like queasiness but for the first time it's been on & off all day. I'm not enjoying it but if we end up with a beautiful baby at the end of this, then I'm loving every minute of it!

And today I was briefly treated to this unusual rainbow that appeared through the morning mist. I'm taking it as a good omen for our rainbow baby.

6 weeks - Introducing our baby bear

This morning just before I got in the shower, I sent a text to this doctor that my RE had recommended asking if he'd be able to do my scan today, tomorrow or Saturday. When I got out of the shower I checked my phone to see if there had been a reply. He'd called, so I called him back. He said he was just about to leave town to head back to the city but if I could get to the local clinic NOW he'd be able to see me. Of course I said yes & then proceeded to throw on my clothes, grab my bag & run out the door. By the time I got there my hands were shaking!

It turns out that he's a fairly recently qualified doctor doing his internship with my RE! He happens to live in the same town as me & my RE knew that he'd be in town visiting family. Poor guy kinda had to do that scan or his mentor wouldn't have been very impressed with this work ethic if my RE's is anything to go by!

Anyway, he was lovely & made me feel totally at ease. And there I saw it, our little baby bear measuring in at exactly 6 weeks and I could see its little heart beating away at 109 bpm. That's better than last time were baby was measuring 6w+3 and had a heart rate of 100 bpm, so I'm happy. This doctor said it's fine because it's wee heart has only just started beating and it should start to speed up soon. He said when it's around 60 or 70 bpm at this stage that they're not happy.

We had a giggle too because due to the date of my last period, technically I should be 5w+4. But because I was charting, I knew I ovulated early & I told him I thought I should be exactly 6 weeks. He gave a sort of knowing smile like, yeah okay. And when he went to measure he said, so this should come up as 5w+4 and it came out at exactly 6 weeks. Of course I had to laugh and say, ha ha! see!

So here s/he is... introducing our tiny little baby bear.

5w+6 - symptoms

Today orange juice is not my friend.  No, I'm not having much morning sickness by any means, but a couple of sips of orange juice this evening and my stomach is not happy.  I feel really yuck now.

Speaking of symptoms, the day before yesterday (5w+4) I had a busy day and had such an achey uterus in the evening.  I also had terrible bloat; I had what I thought was bad bloat with my last pregnancy but I looked bigger than I did at 10 weeks!  It helped so much when I went to bed and lay on my side.  I guess it took some of the pressure off or something.  The next morning I only had to walk around a little and I could start to feel the achey uterus coming back so I took it really easy.  That of course had me worrying about ectopic but it's been fine today (I did take it really easy today) and I'm assuming with an ectopic it starts getting worse and worse.  That's what I'm hoping anyway.

Oh, and my RE in the city gave me the number of another ob/gyn in town so I'm going to give him a call tomorrow to see if I can get an earlier scan.  If I can that'll be great, though I'll still go to my one on the 29th as it'll give me a chance to try out both Drs, and then I can pick the one I prefer.

5w+2 - first scan booked

My lovely godfather has got me an appointment for the 29th, which by my calculations should have me at 7w+2.  My RE has also given me the number for someone so I'll try that person for my 9 week scan, and then I'll make a decision who to stay with based on who I feel more comfortable with.

I'm so nervous!  So scared that there's not going to be anything there or that there will be but there will be no heartbeat.  I'd just like that appointment to be over with already so I can know.  Oh to have a crystal ball and be able to see into the future to know if this is going to be a happy ending so I can relax.  So instead, I'm just going to try and ignore it for now.

5w+1 - decision made

Hubby and I have talked about it and we've decided that going local will be much better unless we absolutely need to see my RE in the city.  I'm very happy with that decision.  I'd also forgotten that my Godfather, who delivered me, is a retired, but local ob/gyn.  So I've asked my lovely mummy to give him a call to find out who's the best person to go and see locally.  Yay!

Symptom wise, I'm feeling pretty normal today, just had a couple of mini cramps and that's it.  For now I've got to assume that everything's okay and just be grateful for the lack of symptoms.  Makes me nervous though...

5 weeks & a decision to make

My RE finally got back to me tonight to say that my HCG numbers were much better and could I go for a scan either here or in the city (with him) on the 20th or 21st (which would make me around the 6w mark).

Now my decision is which to do.  I'd like to stick with my RE/ OBGYN because he knows our history and I also know that he is very good at what he does.  However thanks to flights and taxis, it'll cost about £122/$198 more each time I go for a scan.  But I love the idea of going locally and being able to hop in the car, go to my scan, and then just come home again, all in a couple of hours at the most, rather than it taking the whole day if I go to the city.  And then thinking further ahead, am I really going to move to the city for the last part of my pregnancy just so my current Dr can do the delivery?  But then again, if hubby and I decided on an elective c-section that might be more feasible.  Also what if something were to go wrong, I know at his clinic in the city, they've got the latest equipment both for mum and baby, locally I'm not so sure (but that's not to say that they don't, I just don't know).  I think I've got some homework to do on that front.

But for the mean time, I just need to make a decision on where to go for my 6w scan... ??????

Oh and symptom wise, I'm not feeling much, only a couple of twinges today and boobs are a little swollen, but craving salt like a crazy woman.  However, unlike my last pregnancy where I did pretty much zero exercise, I have been doing something everyday this time.  Yesterday I was on the exercise bike for 20 minutes and today I did a pregnancy yoga workout I found on YouTube.

4w+5 - 2nd bHCG results are back

I've been stalking the clinic's online results thingy like a crazy woman and my results are just in.  In those few seconds between the link appearing and me reading the result, I think I was close to having a heart attack! haha  And my results was 427.7 and according to www.betabase.info for 18dpo (what I was yesterday) I am now bang on where I should be for a singleton pregnancy.  Obviously I was straight on the phone to my lovely hubby who sounded very happy!  I am so happy too and soooo relieved.  Deep down I think I knew the result was going to be fine, but there was just that little niggling worry.  But that's gone now, so I can just enjoy until it's time for the first scan where I'll obviously get all nervous and worried again.  Phew!

Oh and I've emailed my RE my results so we'll see what he comes back with.

4w+4

I can't believe I've already started bloating at night. It started the night before last and also last night I started feeling a bit queasy.  I still feel like it this morning, and a bit light headed but I also feel quite coldy so I'm wondering if I'm coming down with a bug.  I've also got a fairly persistent on/off cramp in the lower left side of my abdomen & I briefly got that metallic taste in my mouth.  So today I'm feeling pretty bleh, but I'm hoping that it's all meaning that I'm well and truly pregnant, in which case I'm loving the bleh! haha.  This afternoon I'm off for my second HCG test and by tomorrow I'll have a much better idea of how things are going.  I have to admit that I'm really nervous.  I really don't want it to all be over before it's really even begun.  Fingers crossed!

4w+1 & blood test results are back

Today is when af was due to show up and she didn't - yay!!!  And I've been stalking the clinic's online results section and mine are up, a whole 3 days before they told me they would be.

My beta HCG is 67.2 and the range they have for 4 weeks is 50 - 500.
Estradiol is 132.21, they don't have a range on there for pregnancy so no idea if that's okay or not.
Progesterone is 16.89 and the range for the 1st trimester is 11.22 - 90.

So, so far so good.  I've emailed my RE with the results and we'll see what he comes back with.

As for pregnancy symptoms, apart from slightly fuller boobs and the occasional hot flush, nothing.


Update: My RE replied to say I need to go back for another HCG test and that I'm positive but on the low side. Thankfully in that sense I know not to stress too much as it's not so much to do with the level but rather the doubling time.  So I'm going to go back on Monday for another test and we shall see.  Fingers crossed!

We're pregnant - my first ever natural bfp!!!

I'm so glad that I followed my gut instinct and didn't start on the bcps for IVF #2 when the coordinator told me to!!!  Hubby and I followed the Sperm meets Egg Plan, although we did miss the day before I ovulated.  I was super relaxed about ttc this cycle as well because I honestly thought it wouldn't work so happily had a drink probably every night, though only one or two.

I did start to get sleepy really early over the past week and a bit but I thought it was more down to me also waking up really early.  Then I started spotting at 8dpo which is really early for me but I thought that was me out, except that it stopped at 9dpo.  Then when we had sex on 11dpo there was one wipe of blood (again I thought that was me out) but then nothing.  Then hubby made a comment about my boobs being big, I thought it was the bra I was wearing.  And then the night before he went back to work, we were having a discussion about something and I burst out crying for no reason.  So with each of these things I wasn't symptom spotting but at the same time things were starting to make me curious and also I was daring to get a little hopeful.  So there we are sitting in a restaurant at the airport waiting for hubby's flight yesterday with a fair bit of time to kill and I just blurted out that maybe we should take a pregnancy test just as something to do as it would kill 5 minutes.  Hubby agreed so I popped next door to the restaurant which was a pharmacy and got myself a ClearBlue test.  And there in the public toilets of the airport, I saw that blue cross appear within about 30 seconds.  So I went back to the restaurant with a silly grin on my face and plopped the test stick in front of hubby and said, looks like we're pregnant.  And then we spent the rest of the time pretty much in stunned shock that we beat the odds and actually got a natural bfp.

And so it all begins again.  We agreed that we are not going to sit around worrying about things going wrong because if they're going to happen, they are going to happen and there's probably going to be nothing that we can do about it, so we're just going to enjoy this pregnancy for all it's worth!  Though don't get me wrong, I know that each scan I'm going to be terrified of seeing that still screen again and that little heartbeat is going to be the first thing I look for before I start to breathe again.  But I've got a good feeling about this one and so far my gut feelings have been pretty good so I'm just going to go with it.

I also emailed my RE right away to let him know and also to ask him what I needed to do now.  So he emailed back saying I needed to get blood tests for HCG obviously, as well as progesterone and estradiol.  I'm just back from getting those done though they said that they results wouldn't be in until Monday at 6pm!  I'm hoping that the results will be up online well before that though.  And I think I'll stick with my RE and all the travelling that it'll involve until the end of the first trimester as I like him, I trust him, and I know he'll do everything he can to look after me and make sure this pregnancy is a success.

So there we go, I'm still in shock and probably won't start to accept it until the HCG results are back, and again it won't really feel real until that first scan, which I hope will be sooner rather than later.

Well that was unexpected!

I'll post more tomorrow when it's sunk in a bit more. Hubby and I are in shock!!! And obviously very happy!