Quick Takes

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We have been living with Ted's co-workers for an entire week now. And we haven't killed each other. They haven't even gotten on my nerves! I don't know if they would say the same thing-but they are very, very gracious and acting like they don't mind us being here at all. They've given up their son's bedroom, his bathroom, their guest bedroom, and their laptop for me to write this post. They've made us dinner almost every single night.

We've got good friends.

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We move to the unoccupied apartment of another friend tomorrow. I think I'm going to be kind of lonely.

I am such an extrovert.

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We had an ultrasound today! (Thursday, yes I'm breaking the rules and posting this early.) I had one just six days ago and couldn't even tell which end was up. But today (7w5d) I could see our sweet baby's head and little arm buds. Amazing.

Why did I have to a second ultrasound so soon? To rule out twins! Ahhhhh. There was only ONE happy healthy little baby on the screen today. But for the last six days we've been wondering if there were two in there due to a fuzzy ultrasound and an extra little "something/someone". Ted was ecstatic. I was worried sick. Twins would be awesome-if I didn't have to be the one to birth and nurse them and try to get some ounce of sleep. Yeah, yeah-I'll take whatever God's give me. But I'm glad that for now He's just giving me one.

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Ever since my friend Colleen did her Kickstarter, I've been looking at all the other cool projects on there. I obviously can't afford to donate to every one that strikes my fancy-but sometimes certain projects really stand out. Here's another one from Florida. And I don't really have to donate-I just have to buy honey. Raw, pure, delicious honey. I buy honey all the time anyway-I may as well help this sweet couple out when I do it!

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And although I don't get anything for donating to this amazing family (unless I win the Mac Book....) I'm really, really hoping they meet their goal and are able to bring their sweet son home from Hong Kong. He has Down's Syndrome and I'm just a sucker for those cuties. So precious. God's gifts.

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While I'm plugging worthy causes, do you know of anyone who is pregnant and considering adoption? This beautiful family is looking to adopt and feels called to spread the word through the blogosphere. Their little E (what an incredible adoption story!) needs a sibling! Contact Lori if you know of a birthmother whom she can bless.

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A cute story about my cute girl.

Today I went to get her out of her carseat and she turned her head away from me and closed her eyes. When I unbuckled her she made her entire body dead weight and pretended not to notice me. Then she just giggled and giggled, all while keeping her eyes closed and head turned. She thought she was just so clever. :)

I fall more in love with her every day.

One Beautiful Little Heartbeat!

What an amazing, beautiful, incredible gift from God! Our little baby, only 6 weeks-5 days old, has a strong little heartbeat and we got to hear it!!

Our ultrasound girl knew how nervous we were (she was the same one that did some of our fertility ultrasounds) and promised us she would tell us the second she saw the heartbeat! She skipped the abdominal and went straight for the transvag (thank God!) so we didn't have to have even one second of worrying. I started praying a Hail Mary as soon as she began but only got to the words "full of grace" before I heard the words I will never forget: "I see it and there's a heartbeat." It took me a long time to see it, but I was so comforted by those words that I didn't care. Ted and I both got to see and hear the little thing. It was so wonderful. I could have listened to it all day.

Here are some pictures of our precious little miracle.

This one is showing the heartbeat. 122 beats per minute. Some estimates I read said it should be between 90-110. Our doctor said 110-160. Either way-it's just fine!

This one shows the baby and the yolk sac. The arrow is pointing to the baby. The yolk sac is the circle in the upper left. We could just barely see a little fluttering. It looked more like the ultrasound girl had an unsteady hand and was just moving the probe.

The two lines are the baby's height and width. If you draw a circle around the cross-that's our baby! He's measuring 6 weeks-3 days, two days behind schedule. That's still within range so we're right on track!

I couldn't pass up an opportunity to take my first picture with the baby!

Here's a video of the heartbeat! Turn your speakers up loud to hear it and click the bottom right corner to make it full-screen. At the very end of the video you can hear me say "awesome". That word didn't even begin to describe how "awesome" the whole experience was!

We met our new doctor, Dr. B, for the first time. He's really young, just a year out of school. VERY nice and easy to talk to. The appointment probably lasted a half hour, which impressed me. He made a joke about having heard about me before. I guess I have a reputation for being.....assertive. Yes, we'll go with assertive. I just smiled and said, "yep-you're the lucky one that gets to work with me!" Ha!  He let me ask as many questions as I wanted and didn't rush us at all. He said he's delivered about 80% of his patients' babies (the others were an on-call doctor) and that his C-section rate is only about 10-12%. He doesn't do episiotomies and has not yet had to use forceps or a vacuum.

He wasn't concerned about my racing heartbeat, as long as it doesn't get more frequent or start lasting a long time. He was somewhat concerned with my difficulty breathing. I have a history of strange, undiagnosed breathing issues and have had very bad respiration recoveries every time I've been under anesthesia. He suggested an appointment with a pulmonologist and I happily agreed. All in all, I'm really happy with him.

I had to chuckle when he said, "everything looks great, but you may want to hold off on telling everyone until about 12 weeks, then you'll really be in the clear."  It doesn't get more 'everyone' than a blog and facebook! There's just no way I could keep this miracle a secret!

Thank you, Lord, for our baby's heartbeat. Keep it pumpin'!

Ultrasound Update

We spent almost every day last week doing ultrasounds to watch my follicles. We were planning on doing an HCG trigger when the dominant follicle got to 2.0 cm but this never happened. Here are the results of the u/s, to the best of my memory. I'm feeling pretty down about this. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas-you know I'll always take them!

Keep in mind that my doctor hasn't seen any of my images yet, only the u/s girl saw them. He was on a beach in Florida and called everyday for an update. God bless him.

CD 12: Left ovary has three "somethings". My u/s girl and doctor think they're cysts. One is measuring at 1.6, one at 2.0, and one at 2.5 (ish). There's a follicle on the right measuring .8.

CD 14: All three "somethings" on the left have grown to 1.7, 2.5, and 3.5. I have some pretty heavy ovulation pain this evening that lasts for 5-6 hours. It's not much different than every other month, just way stronger. The follicle on the right only grew to .9.

CD 15: All three "somethings" are completely gone. They ruptured on their own! With no HCG. My u/s girl suspects that maybe they were follicles all along and not really cysts and that I actually produced three eggs. I don't believe her, until she calls me and tells me that the doctor thought the same thing. Then I talk to Ann (the Nest Builder) and she has the exact same reaction. I get super excited, hope that at least one of them will find their way through my tube, and tell God that I'd even take triplets! There is another little "something" on the left that looks like a follicle that either sprang up over night or was hidden before. It measures at 1.0. The follicle on the right is shrinking and we stop watching it.

CD 16: The 1.0 follicle on the left is shrinking, so it definitely wasn't the dominant one. I also have a brand new cyst on the left (definitely a cyst because it was filled with debris) that went from non-existent to 3.5 over night. Nothing else has changed. My doctor tells the u/s girl to tell me that he thinks I need to up my dosage of Clomid to 75mg since I'm still not producing a 2.0 follicle. WHAT IN THE WORLD? I thought yesterday I had three follicles! Now I have two cysts and an under-developed follicle. I have no idea what changed his mind. He's going to look at my charts and P+7 b/w when he gets back. He says we might have to check on the cyst before I do any more Clomid. grrrrr.

CD 17: Peak Day.

So I'm really at a loss. What started out as bad news, turned into great news, and then back into bad news. I have very little hope for this cycle and wonder if I'll ever be able to actually produce a stinking follicle.

Side note: during the one day span that I thought I had produced three follicles, I actually said the words "I don't want to get my hopes up" Hello?? Have I even read my own blog? Some lessons are harder to learn than others I guess.