Going to Tampa!

Well, I don't have anything terribly exciting to say. I'm still happy, still pregnant, still not puking... So that's all good!

We've had a fairly busy week. We've been watching Barney and Annie, Dad & JM's puppies, this week and that makes for a busy house! I can actually walk those two since they're little and don't pull on the leash, and Tom's walking our three monster-dogs. But with 5 dogs in the house, well I'm sure you can imagine!

Tom and I are both taking Friday off to do laundry, go get the CPAP machine and then hopefully drop off Dad and JM's little angels and head to Tampa on Friday night. Otherwise we'll take off for Tampa on Saturday morning. We're staying with Gayle, Thad, our god-son Colin, and Gayle's parents until Sunday morning when we'll go over and visit Tom's mom for the day. Then we rush back up to Micanopy and start a whole new week! If I can just keep this busy maybe August 9th will hurry up and get here!

I talked with my wonderful mother this evening and she's been so good to keep this a secret! Only our immediate families and nearby friends know I'm pregnant at this point. I'm waiting until I have an ultrasound image to email the rest of the family. Boy are they ever going to be surprised! :)

Well, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, I'll try to make sure to update here every few days so you keep coming back for news!

Breathing is good...

It looks like I'm finally getting my CPAP machine this Friday! For those who don't know, this is a machine that blows air up your nose all night so you don't stop breathing. I have sleep apnea, and this is really the best way to treat it.

Now that I'm pregnant (I love writing that word! Pregnant, pregnant, pregnant!) I really need to make sure I'm getting enough oxygen to me and the baby, so I'm very excited. Of course I'll sound like Darth Vader all night, but maybe Tom'll have some weird Star Wars dreams or something. :)

No more Temping!

OK, I've finally done it! I've officially stopped taking my temperature every morning. I was driving myself nuts over every fluctuation, and I found out that when you're pregnant your temp is going to naturally fluctuate. So I've put the thermometer away. I still have that one pregnancy test I haven't used yet, so I might just have to try that out this week. Just to have something to look at. :)

J.M. and I had a lovely birthday party today, one day after hers and three days before mine. We had Sonny's BBQ and a watermelon for dessert instead of cake. It was so good! And I really appreciated that they went with something so healthy for me! :) They could have gotten a cake for everyone else, but they didn't, and I think that was wonderfully nice of them!

Tom and I gave J.M. the new Harry Potter book. She loved it! I've only just finished my copy this morning and I can't wait till she and Tom finish it so we can talk about it! It was so good! And I'm not giving out any hints. You are just going to have to read the book!

Dad and J.M. gave me a gift card from Lane Bryant. I'll have to go shopping! I'll make sure to get some things that will stretch with me for a little while. Jessie and I had gone to her maternity store (where she works) and tried on a bunch of stuff. Pants seemed to work ok, but shirts there, even the 3X's were either too tight in the bust or in the arms. And we still don't know what to do about bras. So maybe I'll get pants at Motherhood Maternity and shirts at Lane Bryant. We'll see.

Maryellen came too, and she gave me an adorable photo frame that opens and has room for more photos inside. I can't wait to fill it with baby pictures! Maybe we'll have to get some maternity shots in there soon! And then she also gave us a special frame that has room for a bigger photo on top and then room for a smaller photo for each month of baby's first year. That will look so cute in either my office or our new house.

Speaking of new house, Tom and I are working out what in the world we're going to do to get into a new place. Ideally we'd build on the property, but I really don't think that can happen fast enough. Probably the next best thing is going to be selling the property and buying either a house or buying a lot and a mobile home for it. We'll just have to see. I'm sure it will all work out for the best!

New Baby Ticker

Well, today went fine. Cramps seem to come less frequently, although some of them are real doozies! I found a neat ticker today. It counts down your pregnancy while giving some little info about what the baby looks like and is doing in there. I'll have to see if it shows up here.

Think I'll go ahead and take another HPT this weekend. I just love seeing those lines turn color!

And the second beta results are IN!

The numbers are back and they're great!! It had to double, well it more than doubled! New Beta is 234!! My last fertility appointment is set for August 9th. The doctor wants to take a peek with ultrasound. I think he's just as curious as I am! We'll have our first OB appointment when I'm at 10-12 weeks. I also found out they start counting the 40 weeks of pregnancy with your first day of the cycle you got pregnant. So my official counting begins on June 17, 2005. So even though my baby is only 2 weeks old, I am one month pregnant. Cool!

Don't worry about the cramping

Another bloodtest today. Should know tomorrow! I also called the doctor about the cramping. They said it is normal for some women to have cramping throughout the first trimester. She said to only worry if there was bleeding involved. So I'm not going to worry anymore. We'll see what the numbers are tomorrow and go from there. She also said that we won't get to see Dr. Marichal till about 8-10 weeks or when the beta is around 1500. Tomorrow I'll ask if they're counting weeks since cycle day 1 (June 17th) or from ovulation (July 6th). It's a big difference!

First Beta Results are IN!

I've got the beta results. Anything over 5 is pregnant. Mine was an 87! Blood was drawn at 12 days past ovulation, so probably about 11 days pregnant I'm thinking. Anyone want to bet on twins? :)

Still having cramping, not sure but it might be worse. Going to call the doctor tomorrow about it. Also getting more blood drawn tomorrow. We'll get those results on Thursday.

Fertility Background

For those of you visiting for the first time, here's a little background. Tom and I have been trying to have a baby since I went off the pill May 1994. We were married in September of that year, and had planned to get a headstart. I was only 20 when we began and turned 21 right before our wedding. In November of that same year, I went to my gyn to figure out why I wasn't getting pregnant. I'd also gained 60 pounds since May! He said "Don't worry about it, you're young." He was a quack, and his exam was very uncomfortable. I found out later that other women complained about him too, but aw well. Well, a long time and a lot of negative pregnancy tests later, we learned I had PCOS. At least I had a name for it!

My ovaries were clear when I was first diagnosed in 1996. But that doctor's only plan was two cycles of clomid. When that only produced a progesterone level of 0-2 he said my only other options were either surgery or going on the pill. I left that visit in tears. I knew I wasn't ready for surgery, plus I didn't have cystic ovaries anyway. I didn't want to go on the pill since I'd convinced myself that it was the pill that screwed me up, and it seemed to be a step in the wrong direction. So we just kept trying, and being disapointed over and over.

Years later we decided to give another doctor a chance. Dr. Marichal is wonderful, and did an ultrasound that same visit. This was in July 2002. I had just finished Graduate School and was about to start working, while Tom was going back to school. The U/S showed that both my ovaries were now completely encrusted with cysts. There wasn't a bare patch anywhere. We were quite upset. Next step was an HSG to see if my tubes were clear. This turned up that my left fallopian tube is completely blocked off. More disappointment! Within two days of this, before we could meet with Marichal again, we found out Tom's work had cut off his health insurance unexpectedly. Someone in HR had gotten a bit ahead of themselves since he still had a month to go before he was leaving. So we canceled our follow-up appointment and figured we'd start again when I began teaching elementary school in the fall.

Well, by the time my insurance kicked in, I had pretty much decided there was NO WAY I could teach and have kids. After work I didn't even want to see anyone under 4 feet tall. We put my fertility on the back burner.

After two years of teaching I was completely burned out. I started a new job the third year, August 2004 working at the UF Libraries. I loved it! I finally felt good about going to work!

In January 2005, my ovaries began to cause me pain. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. I called my doctor and he sent me for an ultrasound. That showed what we already knew, both ovaries were completely swollen up with cysts, all the way around. My doctor's office referred me back to Marichal. I couldn't get an appointment until April 6th. It was a long two months.

When we saw Dr. Marichal again, he remembered us. He also knew a lot more it seemed about PCOS. He brought me a brochure, and said something I'd never heard before. The cysts were just egg follicles that had matured, but never released. They harden into cysts, but they will REABSORB!

I was so surprised! I'd never heard of that! He also said he'd put me on Metformin and that if we wanted he was sure he could get us pregnant. So then he left the room so we could talk about it. We decided to go for it. I was 31 and Tom had just turned 37. It was now or never.

Well, by May 31st, after just 1&1/2 months of being on Met and Yasmin (a birth control pill) I went in for another U/S. And believe it or not, my left ovary was COMPLETELY clear! My right was nearly clear! I didn't think it worked so fast!

We jumped right into a cycle of 100mg Clomid on June 17th. I actually ovulated on July 6th for the first time ever, although my progesterone level was a very low 6.9 at 6 days past ovulation. (Should have been 10 without Clomid, or 15 with Clomid.)

Dr. Marichal said to check for pregnancy on Monday, July 18th and if pregnant we'd use progesterone gel, if I started a new cycle though, we'd up the Clomid to 150mg and include Progesterone therapy starting at 3 days past ovulation.

I'm so excited about being a momma! Tom is thrilled and very involved in everything. He had his sperm analysis done again and everything is fine there, so we might be able to pull this off!

Wish us luck!

Just getting started

I thought it was about time to try out this blogging thing. We'll see where it goes from here.