Can I just say how good God is?!!! He has blessed us with far more than we deserve over the years and we are extremely thankful for this new little blessing :)
We are having a baby!!!!
I have wanted to say those words for years!!! I am 15 weeks now and due December 4th! It has been a long hard journey but it was so worth it. God's timing is so perfect and we are soooo thankful.
I'll back up and finish where I left off from my last post. We did our blood work on March 31 to see if the IVF treatments worked. My IVF nurse finally called with the results at the end of the work day and told me I was pregnant and that my HCG numbers were great!! They actually were on the higher side at 315...which made me wonder if we were having twins! She said with a pregnancy they want the HCG level to be at 75..so 315 was kind of high. She said she wanted my numbers to double 2 days later. So I went back on April 2 for more blood work and they had more than doubled to 689! So things were looking good but I was still very nervous. At that point, I was only 4 weeks along and was anxious for the ultrasound. I wanted to make sure there was a good heart beat and also wanted to see how many babies I had inside of me!!
We had our first ultrasound on April 18...Good Friday...and yes it was a very good day :) At that point I was 7 weeks, 1 day. I was so nervous when we went back to the room that I felt so shaky! It was a very fast ultrasound. Just enough to see that there was only one baby and that the heart rate was at 122!
Not the best pic but the baby is where the dotted lines are :) I have to say that we were SOO happy & thankful..but also a little disappointed & sad because we wondered about the other baby that we transferred. I know some people may think it is no big deal but it was to us because we believe it was a life. But we know we have completely put our lives and this whole process in God's hand and we just have to believe that He is still in control no matter what.
We had our 2nd ultrasound on May 5 and that is the ultrasound picture I posted at the beginning of this post. The heart rate was at 175 then and things were still looking great! I was 9 weeks, 4 days and that point and to be 100% honest-----It did not feel very real up until that point! We had tried for 5 years to get pregnant and now I finally was and I had a hard time believing it! I was so excited but also so guarded during that time. I was very nervous and tried not too get too excited because I was so scared of being disappointed just like I have been the past 5 years over and over again. BUT something happened that day during the ultrasound that changed my thinking! While we were watching the screen, the baby was moving its hand and then out of no where it did a complete flip!!!!!!! The crazy thing is that I did not feel a thing! I fell in love instantly!! This was a little life inside of me (doing flips!) that God has blessed me with. A little life that would change ours completely. We both cried that day. Tears of joy, of course :)
We have had two check ups so far with my regular OB. After my HCG levels came back good, Dr. Silber's office released me to my regular doctor. I did have to continue my progesterone shots up until 11 weeks, which was May 15. I was SOOO glad to be done with all of my shots. I counted and since we started IVF I had 101 shots!! All worth it though! I even got brave and towards the end I was giving them to myself! We are talking a B I G needle in the hip. But on the nights that Josh was working, I got tired of having to find someone to do them for me so I just did it. It was hard every time though!
At our last appointment, we got to hear the baby's heart beat out loud!!! It was the sweetest sound ever! I was 13 weeks, 1 day. My doctor said at that point when you hear it out loud, your chances of miscarriage go way down. From 1 in 6 to 1 in 50! So at that point we felt safe to tell the world... aka facebook! Ha. We had told our families and just a few close friends but had not told a lot of people. We wanted to wait until it was a little more safe. We go back in two weeks just for a check up. Then the next appointment after that will be the big one! We will get another ultrasound and find out the sex!
How I've been feeling----I have had about 3 weeks off and on that I was so nauseous. It was mainly between weeks 6-8. It was an allllll day sick feeling but I only threw up once. I actually think the day I threw up was because of the iron I am having to take for being anemic. Smells were terrible. The smell of food cooking made me SO sick. And going to the grocery store and smelling things over by the deli/bakery...ugh. I didn't cook much for a while but Josh was a good sport :) I was also so tired. But right around week 9, I started to feel GREAT. I was getting some energy back too by then. There have been a few days here and there that I still feel so tired & sick, but besides that I still feel great! Some days I wonder if I am even still pregnant...but then the next day I will feel terrible and think- oh yes, I am! I am actually really surprised. I have always thought I would have a terrible pregnancy because I have a weak stomach and things make me sick & car sick. But I have been very lucky and I am very thankful about that!
This post could go on and on because there is just so much to say! But I will stop for now.. Next post will have some belly pics because yes, there is already a bump! Yay!