A Heart Thumping Good Time

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I wanted to wait until after the first OB ultrasound just in case. Everything is going extremely well , though. The ultrasound was amazing! We got to see our little emby at 7 weeks, 3 days. There’s just one, which is perfectly fine with us. We thought there may be a chance at identical twins because my Betas were on the high end:

5 day transfer on 10/27

Beta 1: 400 on 11/6

Beta 2: 1000 on 11/8

Beta 3: 5316 on 11/12

The doctor said everything looked great. The baby is in good position in my uterus. The heartbeat was 157 bpm which was good. The ultrasound they used showed the oxygenated blood entering the baby and the de-oxygenated leaving. I go back to the clinic for another one tomorrow, and then I get handed off to my regular OB/GYN.

Speaking of my regular doctor, getting an appointment has been a nightmare. I called Thursday right after the ultrasound, and they said they needed my medical records. I had them faxed over, but the clinic apparently couldn’t fax them because it included an HIV test result (negative, of course). They didn’t tell me that, so I called back on Monday, and they hadn’t received the records so no appointment. I had to wake myself up in the middle of my sleep after midnights to call them. I was distraught. I figured out that the records were coming via mail, and I tried again today (Tuesday), waking myself up again to call before they closed. Well, now they are sitting on the desk of the person who answers the mail, but she’s gone till tomorrow. No one else can open the mail. Ugh. I have to wake my pregnant butt up AGAIN (3 days in a row!) to hopefully get an appointment scheduled. Since it’s the holiday season, I imagine the appointments are booking up like crazy. I have to have an appointment before I leave for  the holidays because my 10-13 week period starts the week before Christmas and ends the week after New Year’s. This is when a lot of the important testing to ensure the health of the baby needs to occur if we are going to have it done. I am so frustrated. I also have to get myself up super early on my last midnight to make my 12:15p appointment for the ultrasound. I’m going to be a zombie. The good news is, I have gotten some good naps in the last few days. I hope that continues.

We haven’t told anyone about the baby yet. It actually hasn’t been as hard as I thought it might be to keep it secret. We’re planning on wrapping up the ultrasound picture and giving it to our parents for Christmas. I’m excited to see the looks on their faces. Work is another story. Not too many people are going to be happy about this, especially my immediate supervisor. When one of the women I work with tripped over her cat and had to be out of work for a few weeks, the first thing he said to her was “You should kill that cat.” Lovely, huh? He has no children and is a workaholic. I think I’m going to go to his boss and let him know first. I’ll probably be accused of not keeping the chain of command, but I know his boss will be more understanding and have advice on dealing with my supervisor.

I was feeling great through Thanksgiving, which was good because I had a house full of people. I barely had any pregnancy symptoms, just the big boobs and a little extra tired. The morning sickness sank in the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It’s bearable. I just need to eat frequently to keep it at bay. I’m trying not to overdo it, so I’m tracking what I eat every day. The clinic warned me to watch my sugar and sodium, so it helps to keep track. It’s the worst at work where I don’t feel like I can eat and pee freely. I worked some day shifts when I first got the morning sickness, and they were the worst because there’s extra scrutiny of your personal activities. I don’t actually feel nauseous. It’s more like feeling hungry but having an upset stomach at the same time. Working midnights is actually much nicer. I can sleep most of the day and be lazy when I am home, and I feel more free to eat/pee when I need to at work.

So far, so good. It still doesn’t quite feel real yet. I do think I am starting to look pregnant. Luckily, it is sweater season, and I can get away with baggy tops to hide my boobs. I’ve only gained about a pound and a half since I got pregnant, but that seems to be on target for this early in the pregnancy. Once we get past the first trimester, I’m going to try to let myself get more excited.

By the way, my acupuncturist thinks we’re having a girl because the pulse in my left arm is so much stronger than in my right. We’ll see…