How Far Along: 6 weeks. We're getting close to halfway {or thereabouts} through this first trimester!
By the end of this week your baby will have tripled in size! His heart is now beating with a regular rhythm. It's still too faint to be picked up by your doctor's stethoscope, but if you have an ultrasound at some point over the next few weeks it will probably be visible as a tiny, pulsing dot in the middle of his mini body. Fun fact: From now until birth, your child's heart will beat about 150 times a minute -- twice the average adult rate. Also this week, your baby's brain hemispheres are forming -- and brain waves can now be recorded.
Symptoms: I'm tired, all the time. Some cramping started up in the past few days, strong enough to scare me a little, but so far all seems okay. Things are a little 'interesting' in a digestive sense, but no vomiting, only teeny amounts of queasiness, usually around midday or if I haven't eaten. My boobs still feel exactly the same.
Cravings: Flavoured milk, mostly the strawberry kind. I've had two strawberry milkshakes in the last week, and I've just purchased a tub of strawberry nesquik to tide me over at home.
Gender: Are we allowed to guess this early on? Who knows! Jason is being really cute, already wanting to know when the earliest time is for us to find out if it's a boy or a girl. Patience, grasshopper.
Movement: Way too early yet!
Maternity Clothes: I thought my clothes were still fitting fine, until I tried a top on the other day and I could not squish my boobs into it. Maybe they're growing, even though they're not hurting? But everything else is normal.
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Before I blog anything, let me say something up front: NOT COMPLAINING. Just tired and feeling lousy.
These past few days have kicked my arse, literally. I'm coming down with the second of two colds... in a month. My throat is on fire, my head and my back have been throbbing constantly, and Panadol just isn't cutting it. I'm tired, I feel like crap, and I'm pretty sure that 99% of it is flu related, not baby related, which is kind of depressing.
The food stuff though, that's most definitely baby related. I went to dinner with a friend of mine a few days ago, and she saw me morph from a twitchy, miserable, nauseated mess into a cheerful, relaxed happy crazy-lady in a matter of minutes, just by scoffing a strawberry milkshake & getting some food in my belly.
I'm thinking of taking tomorrow {Monday} off work, going to a medical centre, and having them check me over, just to make sure this is just a cold & not something else that might need antibiotics. Plus, I just need a rest. Collapsing on classroom floors of exhaustion during a 25-minute lunchbreak is not how I want to spend my days.
On the bright side, I'm 6 weeks tomorrow. It seems much more 'official' than 3 or 4 or 5 weeks pregnant, you know? There are so many things that could still happen, but I'm starting to feel more positive that this just might be happening for us. I am so ridiculously happy, despite the sickness. So happy. FULL OF HAPPY. I'm bursting.
Also, this picture... I know. I KNOW. Couldn't help myself. I really wanted to see it hit 3+ weeks. I'm done now. :)
The biggest change between last week (4 weeks+) and this week (5 weeks+) is that I'm having some more vices with foods. I'm not particularly hungry a lot, until I am. As in, I really am. I need food asap. It's bizarre. I've struggled to make good food choices, but I'm trying - I'm drinking a ton of water and I'm eating fruit, since vegetables are making my stomach turn a little bit. The tiredness is kicking my butt. Can you tell by the messy hair and droopy eyes?
It feels like we've been in the 'ridiculously early pregnant phase' forever - in reality, it's only been a few short weeks. Each time I hit a new week, I feel relieved. Period? Nope. Cramping? Yep. Okay! Let's celebrate the small stuff.
Today was a little scary. Scary, but exhilerating at the same time.
First, I {stupidly} peed on my leftover Clearblue Digital, hoping to see a '2-3 weeks' reading. It still came up as '1-2 weeks', which led to another freak out that my hormones must be dropping, something's wrong, yada yada yada. After being told to calm the eff down by my husband, mother AND clinic, I relaxed. It's ok.
I checked the mail when I got home from work, and found a referral letter from my IVF clinic waiting for me. They've booked me in for my first ultrasound, at 7 weeks. It's in 18 days. 18 days! This is going to be the longest TWW ever. I'm so ridiculously excited to see a blob on a screen. Do you usually hear a heartbeat at 7 weeks?
Then, on the advice of some online friends, I started researching into OB's. Here in Sydney, my GP is my regular gynocologist - I don't have an OB-GYN. Apparently it can be quite hard to book into the 'good' OB's when you're a new patient, so I rang around a few places, researched a few hospitals, and looked into positive reviews on doctors. Once I'd decided on one, I rang on the spot - and the lovely receptionist told me that I'd just scraped in; I'd likely be his last new admission for April 2013. Can you believe it? She scheduled me in for my first OB visit at 10 weeks along.
It's happening so fast, but I'm ok that way. I like having plans in place, it makes me feel so much more organised. As for what's next, well, I have to visit the IVF clinic on Tuesday to pick up my progesterone, and then it's just twice-daily pessaries until that first ultrasound appointment. Squee! (About the ultrasound... not the pessaries.)
I still can't believe this is actually happening to us. The mind boggles. How did we get here?
The betas are back!
14 dpo hCG level - 25 (eeep!)
17 dpo hCG level - 238 (I'm breathing a tad bit easier now.)
| Total hCG Difference: | 213 mlU/ml (852%) |
| hCG Doubling Every: | 0 days 19.38 hours (19.38 Hours) |
| 2-Day Increase: | 139 mlU/ml (456%) (normal) |
Sure, it may not be on the higher scale for this time frame, but it's pregnant. I'm pregnant! Huzzah! I've got an appointment with my IVF centre on Tuesday morning (when I hit 5 weeks) to pick up another batch of progesterone. At $5/pessary, this is going to cost us a small fortune - but I'll do anything to help make this baby stick around.
And since I'm being all positive and what-not... I'm going to channel all of my hopes into this working.
I still can't believe we're actually here. Each day that passes {without a period in sight} is a relief. I said to Jase the other day that I was still waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes and tell me that I'm being punked.
If I wasn't seeing positives on pregnancy tests, I'd be pretty clueless about the fact that I'm currently knocked up.
This morning I had a mild panic attack when my pregnancy tests (yes, I'm still peeing on sticks) looked fainter than yesterday. I took another digital too, and I freaked out because it still says 1-2 weeks pregnant. (It said that on Sunday.. shouldn't it be further?) Thankfully, my lovely Twitter friends talked me off the ledge a little bit, and the IVF clinic has agreed to do a beta test tomorrow at 17dpo. My fingers are crossed for the results. I hope they're ok.
The only thing that's been really different for me is the extreme tiredness. I blamed a lot of that on feeling poorly from the cold I've been nursing this past week - but I've been in bed by 8.30am for the last few days. I'd get to 2pm and be counting the minutes down until I could finish work, get home, and lie down. It's been so, so exhausting.
I've had a little stomach tenderness, odd cramping and some pains. No nausea or puking, but a few other, er, tummy upsets. I also find that if I don't eat as soon as I get hungry, I start feeling pretty gross. That's new for me.
I haven't got sore boobs, though. I keep mashing them every few hours to see if they hurt, but they feel totally fine. Is it weird that I want them to get a little sore now and again, just so I feel like things are actually happening?
It's strange being so naive about all of this. I've never once gotten past seeing negative pee sticks & for all of the crazy TTC research I've done over the years, I'm a total newbie at being pregnant. And also a bit of a stress head.
*Be warned: this blog post contains pee sticks a-plenty.
This past week has been crazy. The TWW went by like any other - but it was a lot more bearable this time around, since it was a 5-day transfer. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out until August 15th, but I was trying to wait until at least 10dpo before testing. This was the first indication I had that something might have been going on.
I kept peeing, of course. I wanted to see that line get darker and darker. This was 13dpo, getting darker...
... and darker again at 14dpo. Huzzah! This whole pee stick thing is awesome, but kind of addictive. I'm hooked.
I had blood drawn for a beta yesterday afternoon, but won't know my numbers for a few days yet. I'm praying it's exactly where it should be, this early on. This morning's sticks still looked pretty dark though, thank goodness.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is when I was supposed to hold out until before peeing on a stick. I have to call the clinic and let them know the result, and then wait to see what they say next. It's all very new to us!
If any of our real life friends or family members are reading this, I'd ask that you please keep this information quiet for now. We've got a long way to go, and we're not quite ready to share our news with the whole world yet - the online world is enough for us right now! We appreciate your good wishes & hope you'll respect our tiny little secret. Thanks!
(I normally wouldn't be announcing a pregnancy this early, but I've always been open on the blog about how we've been struggling - and it would be really silly to lie/just avoid the topic for the next three months. That being said, it's early days yet - so fingers and toes are crossed that this all works out for the best. More details to come!)
If any of our real life friends or family members are reading this, I'd ask that you please keep this information quiet for now. We've got a long way to go, and we're not quite ready to share our news with the whole world yet - the online world is enough for us right now! We appreciate your good wishes & hope you'll respect our tiny little secret. Thanks!
Everything feels different this time around. I think the relief from hearing the good news on transfer day has stayed with me, because I'm feeling ... dare I say it.. chipper? What? Me? WHO AM I? I don't know this person.
I quite literally had to hold the tears in (happy ones) as the doctor transferred our blasty, and that was that. Just like last time, I waddled my way back to the car, knees together, praying it wouldn't fall out.
I know it's silly to read into things, but this cycle feels so much different to the first one. We actually have options this time, and we're doing ok. Not only that, everyone around me appears to be pregnant right now - we walked right into a group of pregnant women doing a hospital tour just before the transfer, and even our nurse at the centre was pregnant. I wonder if it's a sign? :)
Bring on the TWW!
After my first IVF retrieval, I remember feeling that awkward pressure/pain in my nether regions, which lasted a few days after the procedure. By Day 3, when my one surviving embryo was transferred, the pains had vanished, and I was just left with the overwhelmingly attractive bloat that stayed with me until my cycle was over.
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