First OB Appt.

I had my first OB appt yesterday. It was really nice to go there and start that process. I met with one of the nurses and we filled out all the paperwork and questionnaires about our background and history. Had to do a urine test to check for UTI's. This process took quite a while as she had to ask all the questions and then I in-turn had to explain all of the meds that I am still on, why I am on them, and when they will be stopped--so lots of writing and checking off going on:) We also discussed that SIRM had me a day behind based on my due date, so I was really 10w5d yesterday--not 10w4d. I commented that the widget and other websites had me at the 10w5d--so I guess they were right! After that we went into the room (Tony was able to stop by on his lunch break in-between job stops) to wait for the doctor. Tony really wanted to be there to hear the heartbeat again--so I got undressed and waited. After several minutes the nurse came in and said she almost forgot to get the heartbeat! We were wondering, because I was sure that the nurse did it and not the doctor.....so she put the Doppler on my tummy and immediately found that wonderful sound:) It measured at 156bpm, which she said was perfect.

During this time, Dr B. made her way into the room. She was in her scrubs, which you usually don't see at the office and I made a comment about delivering babies--she said she had already had one that morning and was on her way back for a 2nd one! She checked my cervix and did a pelvic exam and said everything looked and felt great. I went over my meds with her and made sure she was fine with when SIRM had told me to stop some things. We discussed being on the Lovenox throughout the pregnancy. She said because of my APA issues (which is why I am on the Lovenox) that she would refer me to a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist later on in my pregnancy for some extra monitoring. I asked about delivering on Lovenox because I had heard that a lot of doctors stop you 24 hours prior and then induce. She said this would most-likely be the situation with me and that I would deliver when the specialist said I was ready! She again commented that I was "high-tech" and we laughed. She gave me a big hug on her way out and told us how excited she was that we were finally there. She also reassured us that once we got past 10 weeks, she rarely ever had anyone miscarry--so that was nice to hear again!

After that, I got dressed and had some more blood drawn. While I had already been tested for every disease known to man at SIRM--they had forgotten to put that info in my file they sent over! Plus there were a few other tests that needed to be ran. So the nurse was going to call SIRM and get my test info and then decide what else needed to be ran. They drew enough blood just in case they needed to have everything run again:) I hear you have extra blood when you are pregnant, so I guess I had some to spare!

Overall it was a really good appt. Aunt Jill and I actually got to talk insurance business when I was there, although we forgot to finish it! I talked to her today though and she just signed me up for my payments and put the papers in the mail:) The doctor asked if I wanted to come back weekly to be able to hear the heartbeat--told her only if she thought it was necessary....so I go back in 2 weeks and I will see the other doctor in the practice. Although on my way out, the nurse said I could stop by anytime I needed reassurance and I could hear the heartbeat--might take her up on that--feeling a little weird after the pelvic exam, or maybe it was the Mexican food I inhaled last night:)

Crazy Busy!

We have been so busy these last several days! It seems like we haven't really been home for any stretch of time and when we are, I've been trying to get caught up on everything else--no time for posting:) So I thought I would update on what has happened since my last post:)

Thursday-21st: Hmm, nothing much must have happened because I can't even think of one thing that happened:) Maybe this was our one night home and I tried to get caught up on the cleaning and laundry:) Oh no--I think we went to Peoria to drive a few cars--our quest to find a new one continues!

Friday-22nd: I got a manicure and pedicure on the way home--by the way, why do we even pay to have our fingernails painted? It starts chipping within 24hours every time! I told Tony to remind me to never pay for another manicure! Pedicures will continue to happen, but not the manicures! We then went to Peoria for dinner and to drive a few more cars--well actually only one because the place we went was closing. So we drove the car and then went to dinner.

Saturday-23rd: We had a graduation party for Tony's cousin and then the in-town reception for the wedding we went to in Florida. So this was a full-day of parties and hanging out. We did tell most of our friends about the pregnancy so we think now that most everyone knows. It is still a little scary--but we are moving forward and past our cautiousness:)

Sunday-24th--My birthday!!: Lets see, we skipped church due to the late night (I know, bad people:)). Tony mowed the lawn in the morning and then we headed to the high school for the actual graduation ceremony. It was warm, but the breeze and clouds helped out a lot! Tony then took me to Red Lobster for dinner--love those garlic cheese biscuits! We then went to Target to walk around and look at the baby section--something we haven't done in a very long time! It was nice to look and talk about the things that we might be purchasing in a short while:)

Monday-25th: We, well I, headed to my brother's house for our family birthday/anniversary celebration. Tony had to join us a little late......a little stomach/bathroom issue--wasn't sure he wanted to be sitting in a Park if you catch my drift:) It was nice to get together and see everyone--we laughed because we were celebrating 5 birthdays and 3 anniversaries yesterday--the babies birthday will be in the winter and be shared with 1 other birthday and anniversary:) We needed some spacing out in that aspect!! When we got home, we had to take the Pathfinder to the shop so that it could get an oil change and new fuel filter before Tony leaves on his "mancation" this weekend (I'll explain more on that later!!) Then it was home to do some much needed laundry and picking up!

I have my first OB appt tomorrow. So I will wait to post any updates on medications and our next steps until then. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Graduation!

Well we are officially graduated from SIRM! We just thought with the week of graduations, we would add one of our own:) we got to see the baby one more time. Tony took the pictures with him to scan at work. I will try to post it in the next couple of days. We have a date tonight-the chief's ball game. Can t wait to eat hot dogs and peanuts!

In my excitement of graduating, I forgot to ask when I could go off all of my other meds! I will ask on my way out, when I make sure they have Dr. B. down to send all of my records to! I also need to ask if I will continue to need these infusions anymore. My regular nurse is on vacation this week, so I can't ask her and the new nurse is not sure on all of the policies just yet.

It is all very surreal to say the least. While I am excited to be released, it is sad to leave this place and people who have been with me through this process. They were all very excited and thankful for the breakfast I brought in. They even let me have a bagel before my infusion started:) I also wrote each person a thank you card to let them know how they personally affected me during my time here. I will truly always be grateful to them for giving us the baby we have dreamed about for so long.

So onward we move. I apologize for any typos-hard to check when writing from the blackberry:) they will be fixed later though!

Clarification

I just wanted to clarify which great aunt I was calling crotchety: Her name begins with a "K" for those of you who know my family. A lot of people were making fun comments about how babies around Christmas time were not allowed, but I knew they were all joking. This great aunt did not really even give me any eye contact and her comment was not made in fun, at least not in my opinion.

On a side note, the lamp in our TV went out tonight--Tony is not very happy:) It could be up to 2 weeks before someone comes out to fix it! We now have a ghetto set-up with the old TV from downstairs set up on a coffee table in front of the big TV. Luckily that is working--bad timing with the cubs/cards series and blackhawks hockey! We keep laughing at how it looks!

I have my ultrasound tomorrow morning at 9 and then my infusion. I will post how everything went during the infusion. I've also decided to take bagels, coffee, and OJ into the office to treat the staff. I feel like we have been through so much together and they have all been so helpful through everything--just a little token of our appreciation. So look for an update sometime mid-morning tomorrow.

The Weekend

Our weekend went really well. Tony has made a list of things that we need to get done before the baby arrives, with #1 being getting the basement finished so that he has a place to move all of his Cubs and Buffalo Bills stuff:) Currently the room that houses all of that stuff is slotted to become the nursery. So we spent some time at Lowe's and Menard's on Saturday stocking up on materials that he would be needing. Uncle Chip came over on Saturday afternoon to help Tony get started on a few of the elements. It is definitely a work in progress, but there was definitely some changes being made down there:)

Today Tony spent the day in the yard mowing our swamp. He missed the one good day to mow on Thursday when he went to the game, so the grass was VERY long and still very wet from all of the rain on Friday. While he was mowing, I went to my mom's side of the family and made our announcement. I did leave out the fact that it took us 5 years and 3 rounds of IVF before it happened, but I didn't think everyone wanted to hear that side of the story:) Everyone was happy for us, although one of my crotchety great aunts made a comment about how having a Christmas Baby was no fun. I just ignored her and went about my day. I think my mom was the most excited to tell everyone:) It is still weird for me to have everyone telling me congratulations, but I'm getting used to it.

I also added a new gadget to the blog--the baby countdown. I stole the idea from one of girlfriends (Jeni Rotter--Sanders now!!) when she used it on her baby blog. You can click on the "days" portion and it will tell you different numbers until delivery. The baby will grow as time progresses, so I thought it was pretty cool.

I've also decided that I need some new shirts. I was told I looked "motherly" today--not sure how I really felt about it, but I know no harm was meant by the comment. All of my pants still fit, well for now:) There is a cool thing that I've heard about called the bella band--guess it goes over your pants when they don't button anymore--might look into getting one of those as well. Better to be prepared:)

Here's the Picture!

So I decided that I would go ahead and upload yesterdays ultrasound picture. This is what the baby looked like at 8w4d (8 weeks, 4 days). It is really the first one that you can really see anything specific. The one from 2 weeks ago just looks like a little speck in a black hole, but this one has more defined body parts. Isn't it crazy? It will be neat to see how next weeks will look because so much is happening at this point in the development.

I am doing well, coming to terms more with the fact that we may actually have a baby in 7 months! It is still very surreal to me. I am contemplating sending out an email to my friends who do not already know, either sometime tonight or in the next couple of days. I think that will make it more real. Tony has already basically told all of his friends.....just holding my news a little closer to my heart I guess. But I know, I know, I need to move past my cautious optimism and jump in with both feet:) I swear I am working towards it. Maybe the email will help to push me over the other side! That will be my challenge to myself--write and send the email:)

I did check out to see if there was any pre-natal yoga in the area. It is something that I am interested in trying during the pregnancy. I found one place, albeit on the other side of Peoria, that has a class one night a week. I just think that it would be something to help keep me calm and more in shape during the pregnancy, especially since I haven't been able to do much since beginning treatment in the middle of March! I did take the dog for a walk around the block a couple of times today, so I feel a little better about myself. I am not officially released back to full-activity, so I won't be joining the yoga class until after that.

Hope everyone had a great day. The weather was wonderful! Tony got to enjoy the day at Wrigley Field watching the Cubs win--so jealous! We go in a month though, so I don't have to wait too long:)

Breathing Easier!!

So we had our ultrasound appointment this morning. They were just a little behind, so the wait wasn't too bad. Tony has been asking me over the last few days if I have felt pregnant....I keep telling him that I keep poking my boobs to make sure that they are still sore:)

The doctor came in and got everything set up and then put the probe in. I was a little nervous at first because the view they had up didn't really show anything except a blob. Jolene mentioned that it wasn't on "OB" view, so she changed it to the different view and ....then there was the baby! It was SO cool to see! It measured right on target at 8w4d and then the heart rate should have been between 170-180 and it was 176bpm! You could see little arms and legs and it was even moving its head a little! Tony asked if we could just sit and look at it for a while:) They played around with the view a few times and then put it on a 3d type of view, which was really cool to see as well. We have 3 different pictures--Tony took one with him and I have the other 2. I will definitely try to get a couple of them uploaded to post. I have been holding back a little just until we were a little more confident....now I think we can be there:)

The doctor told me that I could go off of the Fortamet and Bromocriptine, so that is two meds down! And good timing--both needed to be refilled by this weekend:) I still have to be on all of my other meds, although I did forget to make sure about the Lovenox, so I have a call into the nurse to make sure. I could have graduated today, but then when I reminded Dr. S that I was coming in next week for my intralipid appt, she said that I could have one more ultrasound if I wanted....well I wasn't going to pass that up! So I will stay with SIRM for one more week and then most likely be released back to Dr. B. We are starting to move away from the cautious optimism:)

Funk

So, I have come to the conclusion that I have been in a funk lately. So I apologize to anyone who has had contact with me, especially today.....I know it hasn't been fun or easy lately. I am attributing it to a few things. One is that I still have this stupid sinus thing going on and it is getting really annoying! I'm so ready to be able to breathe without it being an effort! I was beginning to think that it was just an allergy thing that I was going to need to get used to, but tonight I had a little yellow drainage--so I'm not sure anymore! A second reason is that I haven't been feeling the best these last two days, which I guess is good in the overall picture, but a little draining on the mind. And thirdly, it is probably just my defense mechanism kicking in....beginning to get worried for Wednesday. It's not that there is one thing that has happened that is making me worried--still have all of the same symptoms--but just wanting to see that everything is progressing as it should be. I have gotten really used to saying that I am pregnant and excited to say it out loud at times.....just want to be able to continue saying it!

Overall our weekend was good. Tony did some landscaping on Saturday while I did the Race with my mom and Trisha. We went to breakfast and did some shopping afterwards, which is always good:) On Sunday we did a few family get-togethers. In between stops, we made a detour to another destination. We had decided that it was time to tell some very important people in our lives that we were going to have a baby. We felt that they deserved to know before we made any kind of announcement to anyone. So we stopped to tell our Grandparents--which was a very emotional stop to say the least--but we were glad that we did it. Now when we get our good news on Wednesday, we can feel open to make as many announcements as we want--well all in good time at least:) (see that was me trying to be positive again!!)

So hopefully tomorrow I can snap out of my funk! I have a meeting after work, so I am not sure that there will be time to post. I will update after our appointment on Wednesday morning.

Thanks Dad!! :)

So I would like to start this post by thanking my dad for giving me his teeth! Not only do I take great care of them (brushing at least 2xdaily and flossing every night!) but they gave me my first root canal on my 21st b-day, with another one following shortly after! Well my wonderful teeth have struck again! I called the dentist today and was able to get in for them to take a look at my tooth. I informed them that I was about 8 weeks pregnant and they were very sure to have me completely covered before taking the x-ray. The doctor didn't think it was a tooth issue, but rather a gum issue. He said that sometimes (key word being sometimes!!) in pregnancy it can make the gums swell and irritated. He also said that because my sinuses had been irritated for a while that they could be contributing to the issue as well. So he gave me some new pick things to use several times a day, but if it didn't get better to come back and see him next week. So of course, if there would be one side effect of pregnancy that I would get, it would have to do with my wonderful teeth:)

I also went to see Dr. B (my OB) this afternoon. Aunt Jill called and said that if I wanted I could come in and see her about my sinus thing. They would keep it on the "down-low" and not code anything under OB so as not to mess up any of the insurance stuff. Everyone in the office was excited for me/us. Dr. B asked all kinds of questions about the meds and infusions and told me that I was "high-tech":) I told her she would have to read up on all of my charts when she got them back! She went ahead and prescribed me a z-pack and some prescription robitussin. I'm a little nervous about the z-pack because it is related to a drug that I had a really bad reaction to when I was in college. I took my first two tonight and so far, so good.

We have a busy weekend coming up. I am doing the race for the cure on Saturday, although we will only be able to do the 1 mile (sorry, still on restrictions!!). It will get us out to breakfast earlier though:) Then of course Sunday is Mother's Day, so church in the morning and then some family festivities. I think Tony is going to do some yard work on Saturday---he is so excited he can hardly stand himself:)

Will it ever stop?

Worrying--will it ever stop? I'm not sure that it will! Things have been fine, but I guess I just keep waiting for that other shoe to drop. We ALWAYS get bad news, but so far things have been good.....will I ever be able to accept it? I'm not really sure! I feel that if I start talking about my "symptoms" or how I am feeling that I will jinx everything! You always hear that once you are pregnant, the worrying never stops--all the way through adulthood! Man, I am going to have a lot of gray hairs if that is the case:)

Otherwise things are pretty good. I still have my sinus/cough thing going on. It is getting really annoying to say the least. I hate to take medicines, but at times I have broken down. The sudafed has not seemed to help with the congestion, but I have taken the Robitussin a few times to help with the cough. Now, for the past couple of days I have had a tooth that is a little sore. It started in Florida and I thought maybe I just slept on it weird (different pillows and all), but so far it is still sore--maybe getting a little worse. I also know that I have long roots on my upper teeth, so it may be aggravated due to the long sinus issues, but I may have to break down and call the dentist tomorrow. Seriously--one more thing on my plate please!

We're Back!

So I got in big trouble today from my wonderful co-workers Cathy and Emily for not posting while we were gone--sorry ladies but I just had a million other things to do!

Overall our trip was great! The weather was wonderful--85 and sunny every day! It was so nice to get away from all the rain and yuck, but I guess we are back to it now! Will it ever get dry? Of course I got sunburned from only being down on the beach for 15 minutes after getting my hair done! The bride and I just went down to say hi to everyone who had arrived and were enjoying time in the ocean and we both got pink! It was crazy! We rented a convertible and went driving down A1A (beachfront avenue!!) on Sunday and of course got burned again! We still went to the beach later that day, but that was after stopping to buy a hat and 50 sunblock! Later we stopped to buy some aloe! I am pretty much brown now though and it never got Really uncomfortable!

The shots went well. I wasn't stopped by either sets of security about my needles, so that was a relief. We were a little delayed getting into Orlando on Thursday, so we rushed to find a "family" bathroom to do my shots in. We dropped the vial of Progesterone, but luckily it didn't break--only dented the top of the vial. So that was a relief! During the reception I did my lovenox in the bathroom and then we had a friend stand guard outside a storage closet while we did the PIO shot--it was quite comical! Only the bride and groom and one other friend (the one who stood guard) knew about the pregnancy, but we wonder if others weren't starting to wonder:)

The other news of the trip is a secret we have been keeping for quite some time now. Abby and Ryan (bride and groom) are not real religious people and they wanted Tony to play a large part in their wedding--they asked him to officiate! It took several minutes to convince him that they were being serious and that it would be legal in the state of Florida:) So he got ordained on-line and performed the ceremony! Now to those of you who may not find that enjoyable--sorry--but what is the difference of going to a justice of the peace or judge and getting married? They are not religious figures and he in no way was sac-religious about anything! Oh well, no need to explain ourselves! Tony did a great job--brought down the whole house (well beach) to tears. Might have also had to do with the bride and groom crying through the whole thing as well (although I am taking no credit away from you honey!!) There were people on the beach turning their chairs around to watch--he was very nervous but did a great job! And he looked great in his new suit!

The trip was wonderful and we were sad to come home--especially to this weather!