I’m 12 Weeks 5 Days pregnant today! It’s so hard to believe! I’m only 2 days away from closing out my 13th week and starting the second trimester! I think. I’m not the only one who seems to be confused about this. Does the second trimester begin at 13 weeks or 14 weeks? I think it begins at 13 weeks, I.e., 13 weeks 1 day. I think the confusion stems from the fact that in most of the literature, the 14th week begins at 13 Weeks 1 Day so when some resources say 14 weeks, I think they actually mean the 14th week, not at exactly 14 weeks. Does this make sense? All my pregnancy books indicate that the second trimester begins on Sunday at the start of my 14th week (13 Weeks 1 Day). Baby Center says 14 Weeks, but it’s not clear if they mean at the start of the 14th week or the end. Ah! It’s all so confusing! So I’ve decided to just pick one and I’m choosing to go with 13 Weeks. So Saturday will mark the end of the first trimester and Sunday will mark the beginning of the second. Is that cheating? Thoughts?…Continue reading 12 Weeks 5 Days
MaterniT21/NIPT Results are In!
This morning I was lying in bed scrolling through my email on my phone and procrastinating getting up and starting my day when the best email ever popped into my inbox. It was from the genetic counselor. I immediately burst into tears without even reading it yet because I knew it was good news. She told us she would email the results if it was good news and only call if something came back that we needed to discuss. Seeing that email in my inbox brought on a flood of happy emotions. I finally got control over my emotions and logged onto my Kaiser account and read the message: Subject heading: Good news on your test results (fresh tears of joy) I just wanted to let you know that the results of your non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) through Verinata are NORMAL. The test results are negative with the following interpretation: Results are consistent with the normal number of chromosomes 21, 18, 13 (more tears) and… sex chromosomes (XY). Results suggest that the baby is most likely a boy. A Boy! (full on bawling again 🙂 Happy tears!) Thank you, thank you God! Gotta love that “most likely” comment thrown in…Continue reading MaterniT21/NIPT Results are In!
NT Scan
Today we had our Nuchal Translucency scan and all looked really good! The NT measurement was 1.1mm and anything under 3mm is considered low risk for Downs, so yay! So far so good 🙂 Baby is still measuring right on track at 11 weeks 4 days today and we saw baby’s perfect little hand waving at us. We could see all the fingers! It was amazing! Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo to post today because baby was moving up a storm and all the pics the tech took came out really blurry. I had to pee so bad, so eventually we gave up and just took the best one, which was also really blurry. I’m regretting not having my hubby take some video because baby looked amazing, the pics just didn’t come out clear. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to wait until my next OB appointment. Dr. S does an ultrasound at every appointment so we’ll get more pics in a few weeks 🙂 Other big news for today is baby is finally big enough to use the doppler so we now know the heart rate. It’s 161 bpm! I think there’s an old wives tale that says…Continue reading NT Scan
Just a Quick Update
I’ve been meaning to write an update about my other 2 appointments last week for the past few days, but work has been crazy and I’ve been sooo tired! I’m 10 weeks 3 days pregnant today and the nausea and fatigue is still going strong. I’ve been going to bed really early every night and can’t seem to get enough rest right now. Praying this is all a really good sign! Last week we had 3 appointments. There was our last appointment with our RE, Dr. K, on Wednesday which went well and I posted about in my previous post 9 Weeks 5 Days and All is Good! Baby was measuring perfectly and moving his or her little arms around. It was amazing. This is the furthest we have gotten in pregnancy since I was pregnant with my son in 2009 and we all know how that one ended. So needless to say, this was a huge milestone! We left Dr. K with a big hug, and said good bye to her with a promise to keep her updated. This brought us to Thursday. We were finally done seeing Dr. K and ready to start seeing our regular OB, Dr. S.…Continue reading Just a Quick Update
9 Weeks 5 Days and All is Good!
Our final appointment with Dr. K and scan today went really well! Our little bean looks amazing! He or she is still measuring a few days ahead of schedule at 9 Weeks, 5 Days today, and was moving his or her little arms all over the place. It was the most amazing sight ever! I had worked myself up into such a nervous mess before my appointment today, and the clinic, which is usually always right on schedule, was a half hour behind. I realize this is really not that long of a wait, but it was torture today! By the time the doctor walked into our room, I thought I would burst from anxiety, so when our little bean came up on the screen and Dr. K, said everything looked great, I completely lost it and bawled my eyes out. I can’t believe we’ve made it this far! I’m so relieved! Thank you God! Thank you, thank you! We still have a long way to go and if we get far enough along, I’ll have the re-occurrence of HELLP Syndrome to worry about too, but the progress we’ve made so far is huge! I’m still so nervous, but have…Continue reading 9 Weeks 5 Days and All is Good!
Holy Appointments!
Today, I met with the main nurse at Dr. S’ office (my regular OB) to get myself officially in the Kaiser Permanente system as pregnant and schedule my first OB appointment. They’re real sticklers for protocol at Kaiser. Even though, I’m 8 1/2 weeks pregnant and I’ve had 2 betas and 2 ultrasounds and Dr. K is also a doctor within the Kaiser system, she’s an RE not a regular OB so I had to go through the Kaiser prenatal intake process in order to schedule my first appointment with Dr. S. The intake process consisted of filling out a long prenatal history questionnaire, which led to a long conversation with the nurse, where I had to explain my history of HELLP Syndrome and the death of my son with my first pregnancy, then my subsequent 3 miscarriages, then IVF and PGD with FET that failed, followed by a chemical pregnancy the very next cycle, and after all of that, pregnant again 2 cycles later naturally with #6. To give the nurse credit, she tried to be delicate about it, but said, “let me get this clear, this is your 6th pregnancy and you have no living children?” All I…Continue reading Holy Appointments!
Jelly Bean is 7 Weeks 4 Days!
We had our second scan today and Jelly Bean is still doing great! He or she is still measuring a couple days ahead of schedule at 7 weeks 4 days and the little heart was beating away good and strong. Oh, and the mystery second sphere from last weeks’ scan was not visible at all today, so I’m now satisfied with the mirror image explanation from last week and we only have one sac and one baby which is just fine! With my history of HELLP Syndrome, it’s very dangerous for me to carry multiples so I’m actually very relieved. Dr K said everything looks really great. She even asked us if we wanted to move onto our regular OB from this point on. This was a natural pregnancy so I know some of the staff at Dr. K’s office are probably wondering what I’m doing there since she’s an RE and is really hard to book time with, but she was the first specialist I saw for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and I just feel like I still need a little extra hand holding right now, so we decided to go back to Dr. K for one more scan in…Continue reading Jelly Bean is 7 Weeks 4 Days!
Jelly Bean Lives!
We had our first ultrasound today and so far our little Jelly Bean is good! More than good! He or she is measuring a few days ahead of schedule at 6 Weeks 5 days and my due date has been moved up from January 6 to January 3rd! We didn’t measure the heartbeat today because Dr. K said they’ve stopped putting the Doppler on the heartbeat this early. She didn’t go into a lot of detail as to why, but I’m rolling with it. I was a little disappointed, but we could all see that the little heart was beating good and strong and Dr. K said it looked like it’s well over a 100 which is where we want it to be at this stage. So for now we’ll have to settle for just seeing the heartbeat. Which was AMAZING! I know we have a long way to go, but for today, everything is perfect. Yay! Thank you, God! Now, you might be noticing that there’s another sphere in the image that looks a lot like another sac. We all took a double take when the image first came up on screen. This is a natural pregnancy so that…Continue reading Jelly Bean Lives!
First Ultrasound Is Tomorrow!
Our first ultrasound is tomorrow! I can’t believe we’re finally here, and now that we are, I’m feeling so anxious again! All in all, I’m still feeling really awful which is encouraging, but I think it as more to do with this crazy heat wave we’ve had in combination with being pregnant, than pregnancy symptoms alone. It was 97 ° F today and our air conditioning is still not working! Okay, so here’s where I need to rant for a bit… I had a guy here to troubleshoot and repair my system last week and he identified that our freon tank was rempty. I was furious because we had someone out here last fall and they identified that we needed a new coil. We replaced the coil in November and he ran a test and told us everything was perfect. So imagine my frustration when I turn on my AC last week for the first time since then and it didn’t work! And even more frustrating, the new repair man told me my tank was empty! He refilled the tank, and said all was good, or so I thought. But then I go to turn on my AC again yesterday,…Continue reading First Ultrasound Is Tomorrow!
Facing Mother's Day With Empty Arms
Mother’s Day is a beautiful day to celebrate our mothers and all they do for us. I know I will be thinking about my own mother on Sunday and remembering all she has done for me over the years of my life. It goes beyond just the years she raised me. The support and love my mom has given me in these recent years that have been some of the most difficult years of my life, has shown me how a mother’s love and care never ends. She has prayed with me, celebrated with me and grieved with me. I feel so blessed to have this amazing woman as my mother and I wanted to begin this post by saying a special thank you to her. Thank you Mom for being all that you are. I love you more than I can ever express in words. However, this day is more than a just a day to celebrate my Mom. For me, it’s also about my own journey into motherhood. It’s a day to remember my son and each of my babies in Heaven. The memories are beautiful, but also incredibly painful. It’s a reminder of what could have been.…Continue reading Facing Mother's Day With Empty Arms