met our OB :) more scan pictures

we went for our 1st OB appt. yesterday and all went well. she was SO nice. we liked her and her practice. dakota had our doc giggling and asking for more details when after all the medical questions were out of the way, dakota asked for the doc’s birth date (doc’s kids birth dates, other doc in the practice’s birth date) and then proceeded to tell our doc about herself and her relationship with kiddos and the other doc etc. doc was charmed, and curious… and thought dakota was right on and kept asking for more… it was one of the more full of laughter exams ever.

we were able to see another picture of the little fish – who don’t look like fish anymore… wow – starting to look like actual babies!

we have to go for genetic counseling and 1st trimester scan next week – i guess they use stronger machines than the doc’s office has? seems we have had so many scans already. it will be our first interaction with the hospital we are going to birth at. it is a catholic hospital, and even though our doc has assured us that her many gay couples have been treated very well there, we have some trepidations… we’ll see how it goes.

i remain under 24/7 nausea barrage. i want to crawl under a rock for the next several weeks, until – rumor has it – the symptoms are supposed to subside. my brain has turned to mush… i keep forgetting what day it is, missing major appts, etc… going almost nowhere, seeing almost no one (with the exception of the babypants girls and their little fella who stopped by for dinner the other night.) they look SO good and seem SO happy. yay!

at our doctor’s suggestion we bought the mayo clinic’s guide to a health pregnancy. best book i have seen so far on pregnancy. very informative, not touchy feely in any way (though i like that in some things), and of course heterocentric…. but very informative and clear to read. a great resource once you are ready to (cautiously) retire the ”how the hell am i ever gonna &^*&^ conceive” books – of which i have a million!

nauseous and miserable, but ok otherwise :)

hello all…

i have been told several times (today alone) that it has been 3 weeks since i last posted, and my blog friends are starting to worry. sorry to make you all worry, we are all doing fine… thanks for the love!

here are some photos of our latest scans… both little fish are doing well, strong heartbeats and we even saw them swimming around.

i have not written because i have been feeling SO sick and miserable. i spent 12 days visiting my parents in So Cal. i remained on their couch about 90% of the time, so nauseous i wanted to cry. i have tried ginger, small meals, sea bands, guided imagery, three kinds of prescription medications and yet the urge to cry from frustration, and hurl remains. strangely, i have only thrown up once (well three times in quick succession), but the 24/7 nausea alone has been crippling. oh, i forgot to mention that i have the runs at least every other day. i have not been working since i was laid off may 1st, and i have ceased looking for work because i don’t think i could make it through a work day at this point. i am used to working through stomach distress and regular migraines… i have even performed on stage, on a revolving stage none the less, with a room spinning migraine. i am generally not a wuss, but these little fish have me by the short hairs.

i am so grateful to be pregnant, and with twins! if we make it all the way through this we will have 2 children… more than i was EVER thinking would come to pass given the last year and a half… i have some joy, and i have some fears – but they are minuscule in comparison to my current quease induced misery. i feel bad even saying that to anyone, including you my blog friends… so i have not written

i have my first OB appt next week. i am looking forward to meeting the docs and getting the low down on what to expect with twin birth – and the rest of this pregnancy. home birth and water birth are both out – not that i was EVER going to be able to convince dakota to go either of those routes… and i realize a lot of other possible birth plans i would have wanted to explore will be out… but, i say bring on the info and we will happily make NEW plans.

till next week…

amazing! (2nd scan photo included)

the picture below is very blurry cause i took it with my phone, but it shows two growing fishies and HEARTBEATS (well, this photo shows babyB’s heartbeat below, but you know what i mean) – oh wow! we were amazed, stunned and delighted that we got to hear and see each of their little hearts going so soon. yesterday was 6w5d

picture from our first scan on tuesday…

holy moly… there’s two of ‘em1

… um, 2

well, we had the ultrasound today and i was so worried that my severe nausea was just left over hormones and that the pregnancy was gone…

…so not the case!

i am still pregnant, in fact, there are 2 going strong in there!

the crazy thing is that ALL 3 implanted – just so you know, based on several factors including age, the research showed that the probability of that happening was less than 0. so we have broken many records there. it looks like the three of them talked amongst themselves and one bowed out early. it is sad for us that one of our embryos didn’t make it, but i am happy that it seems my body is taking care of this on it’s own. it would have been unsafe for me and for the little ones to carry all three.

we continue to hope for stickiness for the two remaining rock stars

wow! holy moly!!

was nervous about my progesterone… but it’s doing ok

on friday my hcg was 446 (good number) and my progesterone was 6 (not such a good number). the extra progesterone seems to be making a difference

my progesterone is up to 9.26 and my hcg is up to 1572 – yay!!!

we go in for a an ultrasound next tuesday (5/19)

i know there are more hurdles to overcome before we can really feel confident that the pregnancy will stick, but getting over beta1 and beta2 is quite a relief.

446

i was gonna post our beta number earlier, but i had to take a nap SO bad i crawled straight in to bed. i have NEVER had to take a nap more desperately in my life, i fell asleep in the car on the way home from doing errands after our doctor appointment.

our beta number is 446… very good, and according to my doc does not ”necessarily” mean multiples my progesterone is a little lower that she wanted, so i am adding a second progesterone supplement, i will now use it at night in addition to the mornings, but she said things look good.

i go back on monday for a second beta and then if things still look good, we have an ultrasound on may 19th.

wow…

we did it!

go little rock star embryo, go!

as of 5:30 this morning… we are now P (we can drop the ”until proven otherwise”). we are heading in to the doc to get blood work done and numbers and all that… will let you know more when we know more…

pupo

so, i have been told/reminded by halfdozen that i am now pupo (pregnant until proven otherwise) so i am going to try and go with that

the transfer went very smoothly. other than having to trade down to a smaller speculum… turns out if it hurts like hell when they are ratcheting that thing wide open, there is a *small* size they can use instead, and presto, no pain! the embryos were in before i knew it!

we put in 3 top-o-the-line little ones and froze the rest… now the wait begins we will test on Friday 5/8… and till then, i am pupo.

i am now in my last week at my job… the hunt for new employment begins in earnest monday. i have a few leads that i have been working, but hopefully more will emerge soon. i am ready to be leaving, so that’s good.

dakota is just starting to feel *herself* today, 6 days after her retrieval. for those of you who have been through retrieval, how long till your lower abdomen and nether regions felt ok? she has been walking slow and a bit gingerly for days. i felt like total crap, but mostly due to the over stimulation problems, so i had horrible bloating and nausea etc… not so much pain/discomfort. love to hear how you all have done. our RE seemed to think that a day or two was all a person would need to be tip-top. though she is lovely and understanding and wrote dakota notes to get out of work, she didn’t seem to expect that it would be an issue.

oh, and i have to say that the embryologist said that her embryos rivaled those of 20-something-year-olds that he had seen… and that they were as good as donor embryos usually are and you know that they only use whippersnappers for donors (except with directed donors like us) so we were feeling pretty good about that! and then they told us that with all our combination of elements, the % of getting pregnant is still at about 9%, so we are trying to *ignore* that part and go with her rock star embryos cause 9% just seems soooooo small…. ok, back to focusing on ROCK STAR embryos!

thanks for all your well wishes and good vibes, i felt them!

still going strong!

our fabulous 11 embryos are still going strong! 8 are rating top of the line and the other three are chugging along in good shape too.

monday at 11:30 it is