7 weeks 1 day

I know I know, it seems like I'm going backwards in the pregnancy. Let me back up a bit....

We had the ultrasound on Monday. It was great! We saw a baby-like shape, and a heartbeat!! It was sooo exciting! We've never gotten to this point, so it was neat for both of us. I was measuring 6 weeks, 5 days on Monday, which puts my official due date at November 18th! So I have to move everything back and I'll get to be 8 weeks pregnant twice! lol. The crappy part is I won't see or hear anything for 5 more weeks until I'm in my 12th week. That's a long time. I made all of my initial appointments, 3 in 5 weeks. I have the nurse next week, the midwife the week after, and the OB two weeks after that! Hopefully, I'll be able to just go to once every 4 weeks once these are done. We got pictures, which we've shown my parents, brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. I sent a copy of the pictures to Jake's mom, who should get them probably today. I will post them once we can find a way to scan them in, since our scanner doesn't work.

For symptoms this week, I'm just extremely tired early, getting up in the middle of the night to pee and not being able to fall back to sleep stinks! My vision seems to be getting a bit worse too, at least when I'm driving and at night. My mom's got better when she was pregnant, but knowing my luck mine will get worse. I think I will start taking belly pics next week, just can't seem to motivate myself to get in front of a camera! I have also found this little survey that I think I will do every week.


How far along? 7 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: About 2&1/2 pounds, but I'm working on keeping it there
Maternity clothes? Just the bella band with my jeans
Stretch marks? None from this pregnancy
Sleep: Awful! Wake up to pee, can't fall back to sleeo forever!
Best moment this week: The ultrasound, seeing a baby and a heartbeat
Movement: None
Food cravings: None, just that when I get hungry, I have to eat ASAP or I get nauseous
Gender: No idea
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
What I miss: Sleeping through the night, no acne, beer, subway whenever I want
What I am looking forward to: Starting to tell more people
Weekly Wisdom: Sleep when you can, and always carry snacks!
Milestones: Seeing the baby and heartbeat during the ultrasound

Big Ultrasound today....

and I am scared. SCARED! We have never been this pregnant before, and frankly, I've never gone this long during a pregnancy without someone sticking me with a needle or checking in there for some reason. Now, normally, the results of these weren't good news, but at least it was NEWS. I have had 10 days of nothing! Not hearing from a doctor, nurse, or phlebotomist and it is a little eerie. Our appointment is at 4:15, which seemed like a good idea because we wouldn't miss much work and I was being practical. WHY didn't I schedule it for first available???

The only thing helping me keep my head on straight is all of the symptoms. The nausea when I don't eat something every hour and a half, the bloated feeling that does not go away, the indigestion, the TERRIBLE skin (yes, it has actually gotten worse), and the lower back pain by late afternoon. I am convinced these are there to assure me that the little bean is hanging in there, growing strong. I of course, however, have my moments (many) where I think we are doomed. What if they don't find a baby in the sac today? What if the baby stopped growing after the last ultrasound? Alas, I have 3 and 1/2 hours of torture left before the Appointment.

I know I write this into the abyss right now, because very few people know we are pregnant. I haven't made this blog public to anyone until we decide it's safe. So for those who read this in the future and didn't know me all that well... bet you didn't think I was this neurotic did you? :)

7 weeks

Today I am 7 weeks pregnant... much further along than I ever have been. Last week was a very long week. We had our nephew the whole week, then went to visit Jake's family for the weekend. On Thursday, I went for what I hoped would be the last of my bloodwork. The nurse had said anything over 3000, and they would schedule an ultrasound. I got a call in the afternoon that my betas was well into the 4000's and could I come to the office in a couple hours for the ultrasound!!! We were excited. We went in, nephew and all, and saw the sac on the screen. That was pretty much it, since it is so early. She said iw as measuring around 5 weeks, but that it was too early to tel. She said everything looked liked she would expect it to based on my levels. The pregnancy is in the uterus, and is not tubular (sp?). I have another scheduled for next Monday. During that one, they should be able to date it and we should see the heartbeat.

Let's see, symptoms so far... the weird ones. My lower back starts hurting by mid afternoon, which I looked up and apparetnly that's normal during early pregnancy. Don't worry, they said, it usually goes away after 20 weeks.... 20 weeks ?!?! CRAAAAAAP! Oh yeah, and my skin is retroing back to the teenage years; I have acne that actually I didn't even have this bad when I was a teenager.

Tonight, I am going to try to motivate myself enough to go to the gym and walk/eliptical for 45 minutes. I will NOT gain too much weight!

6 weeks, 1 day!

Yesterday I went for my third beta level. I go in the mornings so I can get the results by the afternoon. My sister-in-law, her husband and our nephew were due to arrive in the afternoon as well, so I hoping the MD would call before they arrived. We still aren't telling anyone yet. Well, the office called and my levels were over 1700!! SOOOOO exciting! I have never had a level come back that high. In fact you could probably add up all of past beta levels and they may not even equal 1700. I am so relieved. The nurse said she wants me to come back for another stick Thursday morning so they can get the results back quickly, and if it's over 3000 (which it better be!), they will schedule an ultrasound!!

I have my nephew for the week this week, and it's pretty funny that technically he'll know about the baby and come to the ultrasound if we get it on Friday and no other family knows! Luckily he's 18 months old and can't tell them! Hehehe. It will be funny once we do tell them that Everett has known for weeks!

I have had some spotting, very light, for the past 3-4 days. I am hoping it will go away soon. I am enjoying being pregnant, and will deal with anything else that comes our way.

One last thing: I took Everett to the mall today, because I realized I needed a birthday gift for my brother's fiancee, and I stopped into Motherhood Maternity! That was pretty exciting. I bought a couple tummy sleeves because everyone says the bloat only gets worse, and I want to wear my pre-pregnancy clothes as long as possible.

Good news given badly...

The short version is I got my HCG levels back from the doctor's office yesterday and they more than tripled!! 165!!! YEAHHHH!!!!

Now the long version.....
So I answer the phone after seeing it was the MD's office, and I hear "This is Dr. So-and-So....." and I groaned out loud. It is never a good thing when the doctor calls. I tell her this, because she is silent after my groaning, and she said that she wasn't calling with bad news, just calling because something is weird. So she proceeds to start talking about how the rise was great, but that she is worried about a tubal pregnancy because I never stopped bleeding from my miscarriage.... WHATTTTT??? I had no idea what she was talking about. I told her that yes, I had stopped bleeding for 2 weeks, hen had a normal period 5 weeks ago, then hadn't had any bleeding since. It seems that she had read my chart wrong and thought I was just seen by another MD in the office on Monday instead of the actual last time I was seen, which was 6 weeks ago. So she looked at my chart and numbers with fresh eyes and said "This looks like it could very well be a normal pregnancy." WOOHOO!!!!! Music to my vulnerable ears. She wants me to come back on Monday for more bloodwork, and if those levels come back between 600-900, we will get an ultrasound on Friday or Monday!! This is so exciting, as we've never gotten as far as an ultrasound. i think Jake will get much more excited once he's able to see the baby on a screen. I'm watching his nephew for the week next week (more on that later), so he'll probably come to the appointment with us if we get it on Friday. The best part is, he is 18 months, so he'll know but won't be able to tell anyone!! :)

5 weeks!

So I am officially pregnant again! Today I'm 5 weeks, at least according to my calculations. I am definitely fertile myrtle. I don't have a problem getting pregnant, it's STAYING pregnant that's my problem. On Sunday, since AF hadn't shown up, and I had an extra PT kicking around, I decided to just POAS. and it came back positive! A little faint, but definitely there. I showed it to Jake, who just can't get excited yet. We got so excited with the last pregnancy and told our families quickly (it was Christmas Day after all), only to have to untell everyone two weeks later. We've agreed to not tell anyone for a while so we don't have to live through that again. Jake did not want we to go for the HCG levels because he didn't want to have to be freaking out for the two days in between, but I just had to. I went yesterday morning so I could get same day results, and my level was 49. Not great considering how far along I think I am, but I think I "O" later than normal, so it might still be OK. I'm not having any bleeding, and by this time in both of the last pregnancies, i was experencing bleeding and problems. I am just going to keep telling myself that today I am pregnant and stay postive. Tomorrow I will have another blood test and see if my levels have doubled. Until then, I'll keep telling myself everything is fine.