St. Thomas it is!

Well after researching so many options we made reservations from Dec 29-Jan 5 in St. Thomas (USVI). We will also visit St. Croix and St. John during that trip. It seems the airfare is less if we add on a couple of days so we might make it a 10 day trip and come back on Jan 7. Paul's bday is Jan 3; this will be his first bday spent off the continental USA (although still within the USA technically). Yesterday I spent all my time researching cruises, and I had it narrowed down to three choices. I was leaning towards a Royal Caribbean cruise that left from Puerto Rico, but when Paul heard about the dress code for RCI cruises he was not interested in that! The idea of getting dressed up for dinner doesn't appeal to him at all! He's definitely a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. The Norwegian cruise would have been better for him as you can get away with khaki type pants and a collared knit shirt for all dinners on their "freestyle" cruises, but by last night their cheaper rooms were all booked up. Plus yesterday I almost threw up at the smell of Paul's pizza as he ate dinner. So I thought a cruise at the end of the 1st trimester might not be a good idea if my morning sickness is still here. And we can't wait later to go on a cruise as then school starts back up for both of us. So this morning I did more research into non-cruise options and narrowed it down to Puerto Rico (a different resort than the one that had been available the last week or so) or St. Thomas and we chose St. Thomas. Now the fun begins of planning the details of the trip! We paid $139 for seven nights at the resort this morning, and then at the end of our stay we'll have to pay a $126 "energy surcharge" to the resort. But I still say $265 for 7 nights isn't bad. The airfare is a lot more to St. Thomas than Puerto Rico (twice as much). That was a big "plus" in favor of going to PR, but we didn't go on any vacation in 2007 so we can afford to pay a little more for airfare for our 2008 vacation.

I have been going to bed between 8-8:30 lately. Two nights ago I slept 10 hours! I didn't sleep as soundly last night so I will try to stay up later tonight. I am definitely lacking in energy even with all this sleep! As far as eating goes, I lost 4 lbs from week 4 to week 5 but since then have maintained my weight which is my goal at this point (not to gain or lose weight). I am learning what I should avoid. Chocolate is a definite no no as it leads to heartburn right away. And really I am learning to avoid sweets altogether which is hard for me! Yesterday I was doing pretty well in terms of nausea and heartburn until after I ate dinner I had a handful of marshmallows (left over from making sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving) and immediately the nausea hit and didn't go away for awhile. I threw the rest of the bag away to remove the temptation! Totally not worth it! I have started eating 2 yogurts a day instead of my usual 1 to increase my protein intake since I rarely eat meat. My second dairy product each day used to be ice cream, but I've only had ice cream twice in the last 3 weeks. Of course yogurt is healthier than ice cream!

Today is the second day of no shots since Sept 27. Tomorrow I'll have one shot of estrogen. My butt is appreciating the reprieve and the nausea is reassuring me that baby is doing okay even though I'm only on suppositories now. Of course I keep praying for this little one many times a day, and I am sooo appreciative of all the other people who have also told me they're praying for this little one. This little child just has NO idea how many people are out there interceding on his/her behalf many times a day. Wow. It's hard to express my gratitude appropriately.

No shots today!

I started the daily injections for this FET on September 28 so that means I had at least one shot a day for two months (total of 103 shots). It felt so weird not to have an injection this morning, LOL! I would appreciate prayer about the progesterone level though. I need to trust the RE knows what he is doing, but I admit I would be less nervous if I was still on the PIO injections. The suppositories contain the same amount of progesterone (50mg); so I guess I shouldn't be nervous. Just means I am praying for baby even more today!!!

Now that we are not going to pay for another ivf/fet, we are planning on going on a vacation in early January!!! The first 5 years we were married, we went on 1-2 vacations a year (all happened to be outside of the USA). We didn't go on any this year due to the cost of IVF and adoption. Of course a vacation costs FAR, FAR less than a round of IVF, but it's just that was one thing we had to cut out to be able to afford it. So, it's very exciting to start to make plans for a vacation as we are in withdrawal as our last one was in the summer of 2006 to Aruba. Even Paul had been saying the last few months that we need to get back to the beach. :-)

Today's ultrasound!

The dark circle near the top left side of the photo is the gestational sac (filled with amniotic fluid). The little X's are marking the two ends of the baby (crown to rump as they say!). It was such a precious sight to watch that little heart beat away!!! The yolk sac was seen below the embryo on the screen, but is too small to be seen in this photo.

What a beautiful sight!!!

We saw our little baby's beating heart!!! What a precious sight it was!!! Our baby from crown to rump measured today at 4.9mm which dates the baby at 6w1d which is perfectly fine (as this method of dating is usually within 1 week accurate). Dr. Awad said I am 6w2d today which perplexes me as I think I'm 6w4d. He said my EDD is 7/22 and the u/s said it is 7/21 and the calculators online tell me it's 7/18. Well baby is going to come when baby wants to come. I figure I'll discuss it with the OB once I am referred to one, but a day or two in either direction doesn't really mean much. I asked him what the heart rate was and he just said it was good. I know that certain #'s are better than others so I was hoping he'd tell me it's 115 or whatever, but I asked him a couple of times and he never gave me a #. He printed out 5 pics. He said 3 were for us and one for each set of grandparents. :-) Everyone was SO happy for us. What a miracle!!! I am still in awe that our one little frozen embryo is still alive and growing. YAHOOO!

He said I need to continue the EV injections (which are twice a week), but starting this evening I can switch to progesterone suppositories instead of PIO injections. I asked him if these are just as good for the baby and he said yes. He said he was trying to give my backside a break which of course I appreciate, but I said if it would be better for baby if I continue the injections I would gladly do so. He said the suppositories will be just as good (twice a day). I am not sure how long I will continue the EV or the suppositories, but I will definitely be on them for at least 2 more weeks as that's when my next u/s will be. So shot #104 won't occur until Friday. After the u/s I went to the pharmacy and got the suppositories and only 20 more needles. I probably don't even really need 20 more. I figured I probably needed 10 more. The RX was for 100 more, and I told the pharmacist please don't give me 100 more! So she suggested 20 more. I will post a picture on the site later of the glorious little heartbeat but it doesn't show up as well on a picture than it did on the screen in motion. Dr. A encouraged Paul to also come to the next appointment as he said we will be amazed at how much the baby will grow in these two weeks. So thanks for your prayers!! They are being answered!! I am still in shock that after ttc over 5 years I am finally pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling icky

Well I have really tried to "chill out" the last couple of days. Saturday I was on the couch most of the day, and Sunday I was on the couch except for when I was at church in the morning and at choir rehearsal in the evening. Choir practice was a challenge. First of all there are VERY bright lights that shine down into the loft. I had a turtleneck & sweater on. I quickly left and shed the turtleneck, but at our dress rehearsal on Saturday I plan to wear a t-shirt as I was still dying. I sat through all the rehearsal except for when playing the flute. I still get cramps if I stand too much. Saturday night I went to bed at 8pm and slept for almost 10 hours, and I stayed in bed for almost 11 hours. Last night I just got 8 hours of sleep. The nausea seems to come and go. Some days I barely have any at all, some days just for part of the day, and some days are rough. Today (so far anyhow) is one of those bad days when I have heartburn, nausea, and a fever. I think it's not just morning sickness. I think I'm fighting a bug of some sort which isn't shocking since my sister's kids were rather sick last week with fevers and respiratory bugs. I just took 2 Tylenol and I hope it helps. I have a meeting at 3:30pm in which I am secretary (take notes on a laptop), and then I teach at 5pm. I have a feeling I might be letting that class out a little early as right now I just want to be in bed or at least curled up with a blanket on the couch. Well maybe I'll perk up before then. I feel like I've eaten enough crackers today to last a lifetime, LOL.

The happiest thought right now is that in less than 20 hours we will be seeing our little one (or little ones if the 3 who voted for twins are correct) on the ultrasound!!! I have had probably at least 75 ultrasounds in the last 5 years, and this should be the happiest one! I am stopping to see a friend on the way home from the ultrasound and also need to stop at the bank & Post Office so you'll have to wait a little bit for my results to be posted tomorrow. I promise though to post them as soon as I get home! ;-)

Shots #98-99

Today I will have shots #98-99 (just counting the ones for this FET). By the time I see the RE on Tuesday morning I'll have had 103 shots (the 104th will be that evening). He will give us instructions that day as far as how long the shots will continue and when I might be able to switch to suppositories. Normally when you ovulate the follicle after it releases the egg becomes the corpus luteum (hence luteal phase) which produces progesterone until either your body figures out you are not pregnant OR until the placenta is developed if you are pg. Also, the follicles produce estrogen while they are growing. With the fresh cycle in August, I didn't need t be on EV shots because my estrogen was very high (almost too high) because I had 30+ follicles growing. However I did need to be on progesterone because the follicles didn't go through the usual ovulation process as the eggs were retrieved by a needle. This time there weren't ANY follicles involved as my ovaries were put into a "menopause." So that's why I need both the EV and PIO injections because there isn't a corpus luteum involved to produce progesterone. So I need supplementation of some sort until the placenta is well developed (around the end of the 1st trimester).

Did you know that our baby's little heart began beating on November 17? Today is day #9 of cardiac contractions for our little one (or little ones if the twin theory is accurate). And on Wednesday (4 days ago) the limb buds began forming. Well the milestone I am looking forward to is seeing the little heartbeat or heartbeats!! Only two more days til that happy moment!!!!

It certainly shot up!

Paul & I can view our medical records online. One feature is you can see graphs (line or bar) of information like your weight, b/p, etc. Well I did a graph this morning of the last 10 times my hCG levels were measured. The first five are during the m/c in July 2005 and then the next two are from a failed inj/iui and the fresh ivf this summer. The last three are from this FET. :-) The number sure spiked up from Beta #2 to #3!! Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone!

Need to eat more!

Well I started weighing myself, and I lost 3-4 pounds over the course of one week. So I need to eat more! That shouldn't be hard this week as we're having Thanksgiving dinner with Paul's family at noon tomorrow and then at my house on Friday with my family. Tonight we're going to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Jenna's birthday. She turns 5 tomorrow! I also have to say the exhaustion has really hit me. I took a couple hour nap this afternoon and still feel like I have no energy. In just two days I'll be 6 weeks pg. YAHOOOO! I can't wait til we see the u/s - less than 6 days now!!!

Baby still doing well!!!

The nurse called about 1pm as we were driving to MD with the very happy news that my hCG is now 4,592! WAHOOOOOOO! That is a doubling time of only 40.73 hours!!!! WOW! Usually the rate of doubling slows down, but it actually sped up! PTL!!!!! The ultrasound has been scheduled for 8am on Tuesday!!! I can't wait to see our little baby's heartbeat!!!! What a very happy Thanksgiving!!!!

hCG level info

I truly wish I was having an u/s today where you get an instant result rather than b/w. The other women on the ivf db only had two Betas and then the next week had an u/s. Well anyhow as I was searching for more hCG info I found a chart (I deleted some lines). First I find it interesting that at 14dpo it says the average is 48 in light of in 2005 they told me 100iu was what they look for at 14dpo. Anyhow my first Beta this time was at 17dpo and my repeat was 19dpo and my hCG was above the average in both cases. The chart only went to 24DPO and today I am 25DPO. However based on what they say for 24DPO it seems I want my hCG to be over 3,000? Well if it's even around 2,600 I think it will be fine.

*At 14 DPO, the average HCG level is 48 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 17-119 mIU/ml.
* At 17 DPO, the average HCG level is 132 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 17-429 mIU/ml.
* At 19 DPO, the average HCG level is 303 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 111-514 mIU/ml.
* At 24 DPO, the average HCG level is 2637 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 540-10,000 mIU/ml.

I didn't have much nausea at all yesterday just HUNGER. I did not bring enough food to work for lunch and dinner. Thankfully a friend of mine (a janitor) gave me some more food before my 5pm class as after I ate my oatmeal my stomach was literally still growling. I didn't have any cramping during the day until that 5pm class. By the time I got home the pain had increased more than on Sunday, but if I stayed in a seated position I was fine. I hope and pray this is just my uterus growing. I feel fine so far this morning except for being annoyed that I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep because yep my stomach was growling. I had even eaten some fruit before I went to bed to try to tide me over, and normally I don't eat anything that late at night. I feel tempted to ask for an u/s today, but if I had one then I couldn't make my 9:45 mtg in Harrisburg. I need to leave at 7am for my b/w and come right back home (RT plus the b/w will take about 1 hour) and then Paul and I will get in the car and drive to my mtg. He'll do some studying while I'm in the mtg and then at lunch time I'm going to leave the mtg early so we can drive to MD so I can see my sister, bil, and the KIDS!!!! I'll post my hCG results from their house this afternoon. Hoping and praying for HAPPY news to report.