Guilt, Guilty, Guilted.

It is has been a long time since I last blogged. Somehow, it seemed like this blog was a way for me to deal with all the stress of trying to conceive. So, once the pregnancy was confirmed by three tiny beating hearts I was pretty much done. Our twin daughters are racing towards their [...]

5 Weeks

Later today I’ll post a belly picture. We’re planning to do them every Tuesday when we switch weeks. Of course I’m a little nervous. At any rate, we are 5 weeks, and 1 week until our ultrasound. Things have been going pretty good. My cramps are subsiding a little bit. I’m still waking up 3-4 times a night and I think that morning sickness may be creeping in. Yesterday afternoon I had an acid feeling in the back of my throat.

Our baby today looks something like:

5 Weeks

At 5 weeks our baby’s heart will begin to beat later in the week which means that blood will begin to circulate through our baby as the organs are forming. Our baby’s brain, cardiovascular & reproductive systems are also forming.

I’m finding that the days are starting to go by a little faster but next Tuesday cannot come fast enough. We’re very anxious to get a look inside to see what’s going on. To some degree this doesn’t feel real. Many girls will go in for repeated betas to see how it is doubling, while I’ve only had one. So, I haven’t had  chance to see how fast it’s doubling but we had good strong numbers to begin with.

Also, I invested in a Tummy Sleeve from Motherhood Maternity. I don’t really need it quite yet but some of my pants are a little tight thanks to bloat.

We received our first baby gift from my sister in law. She sent us a awesome baby book & a week by week calendar for our pregnancy. It’s so exciting!

4 Weeks

I’m a little late here and next week we’ll start the tummy pictures (thanks to a brand new camera from our in-laws!)

I’m 4 weeks & 3 days pregnant. Our baby looks something like this:

At 4 weeks our embryo is busy creating the placenta and umbilical cord. The embryo is about 1/25 of an inch in size and is comprised of three different layers. The first layer is the endoderm which will become our baby’s intestines, liver and lungs. The next layer is the mesoderm which will become many of the internal organs such as the heart, muscles, bones, kidneys, and our baby’s sex organs. Lastly, the last layer is the ectoderm which will become the hair, skin, eyes & nervous system. For more information check out this site.

An update on us. My progesterone level was retested yesterday after dropping my dose in half and is now 124. So, they’ve stop the shots. Which I am a little nervous about. They are almost a security blanket of sorts but it is apparent at this time my body is starting to produce progesterone on its own.

All babies are miracles, but some really are.

That’s what the nurse at my reproductive endocrinologist said to me yesterday. It’s beautiful. If we were talking in statistics this IUI would not have resulted in a pregnancy, yet it did. Which is the most amazing miracle I could have ever hoped for.

I tested early, perhaps too early. But at 12dpiui a bright second line popped up and it wasn’t even taken in the early morning. The next day I again tested and the line popped right up. So, I went in for a beta test, which measures the amount of HCG in your blood. I was 3 weeks, 6 days and my beta was 442. To put that in perspective here’s what a typical HCG chart looks like:

Guideline to hCG levels during pregnancy:

hCG levels in weeks from LMP (gestational age)* :

• 3 weeks LMP: 5 – 50 mIU/ml
• 4 weeks LMP: 5 – 426 mIU/ml
• 5 weeks LMP: 18 – 7,340 mIU/ml
• 6 weeks LMP: 1,080 – 56,500 mIU/ml
• 7 – 8 weeks LMP: 7, 650 – 229,000 mIU/ml
• 9 – 12 weeks LMP: 25,700 – 288,000 mIU/ml
• 13 – 16 weeks LMP: 13,300 – 254,000 mIU/ml
• 17 – 24 weeks LMP: 4,060 – 165,400 mIU/ml
• 25 – 40 weeks LMP: 3,640 – 117,000 mIU/ml
• Non-pregnant females: <5.0 mIU/ml

As you can clearly see we are even outside the scope of what one would expect for 4 weeks pregnant. Our doctor is already talking multiples, that we should prepare ourselves. I told the nurse yesterday I am prepared and just grateful to be pregnant. Of course we won’t know anything until September 30th, for our 6 week ultrasound.

Additionally they measured my progesterone level and it came up as 102. Which is fantastic. They want to see it about 40. I’ve dropped my PIO dose in half and I am going in for a test today to check that level again.

Lastly, I found out that I have a slightly elevated thyroid and they’ve given me something to get that under control.

Yesterday we told our families. We sent our moms bouquets of flowers with a note that said:

Expected Arrival : May 27th, 2009          Love, Baby

Our due date is coincidentally my grandparents wedding anniversary.

A little bit of Germany in the USA

My husband and I travelled to Germany for our honeymoon. While we were there we fell in love with the Teutonia strollers. In fact we went so far as to try to buy it and ship it home but the clerk didn’t understand English. Needless to say we spent countless hours searching for a way to import one. Up until July of this year they were not available in the USA. In July Graco purchased the Teutonia brand and brought it over to the US in the form of a customizable stroller. We went to the one store in Minnesota which sells them to check them out. While they are definitely very nice, they aren’t the ones we fell in love with in Germany. It may seem silly but my husband and I will probably buy one in Spain if we can find the “original” there baby or no baby.

The German Version

I tried to find a picture of the US one that I could post in here but it’s just not possible to capture one. If you are interested they can be found on the US website.

Spain

My husband, my grandfather and I are all planning a trip to Spain in November of this year. Apparently it is 63 days from now. This year went by too fast. We’ve been rather neglectful in planning this trip. We will be in Spain for roughly 2 weeks. The first week of the trip will be spent in the Andalusian region of Spain. This region is famous for Malaga (the birthplace of Picasso), Cordoba (Alcazar de los Reyes Christianos–headquarters of the Inquisition), Ronda (the home of bull-fighting), Jerez de la Frontera (cradle of flamenco, Carthusian horses, and jerez–otherwise known as Sherry) and is a brief jaunt to Morocco, Africa.

Photo of the Mezquita and Puente Romano in Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain, two structures famous for their historic architecture

The second leg of our trip brings us to Madrid. The capital city of Spain. While in Madrid we will be visiting El Rastro Europe’s largest flea market, the Prado Museum (over 3,000 masterpieces), Moncloa Tower (the best aerial view of the City), Palacio Real-the official royal residence, and finally we will be doing the Tapas Crawl through the Villa y Corte the oldest part of town.

Typical picture of Ribera de Curtidores, main street of el Rastro de Madrid. January 2005. C/O Wikipedia.

When planning our trip to Germany last year we had very high hopes of travelling to both Austria & Switzerland. Unfortunately, we underestimated the travel time required to make those trips feasible. That being said we’re going to try to be realistic in this trip and just relax. Especially since we’re bringing Grandpa with. 63 days and counting…

IUI #5 Complete

Not sure what the counts were exactly. Actually, I didn’t even ask. Anyways, I’m back on the lovely PIO shots tomorrow. Of course I had the choice of doing the suppositories or the shots but as much as I complain I do not actually mind them. I trust that they work and it’s sort of something my husband can do with me during the cycle. My test date is two weeks from tomorrow. My RE told me to have positive thoughts about this cycle. I’m going to do my best to stay as positive as I can.

IUI #5 is Tuesday

I got the call this afternoon from my reproductive endocrinologist (RE) that my E2 level is at 1911. This is a safe level for us to trigger at. I’m excited because of all my cycles this seems the most controlled yet and productive. One of the reasons I love my RE is because he sees me every visit, opens his office up on a Sunday if his patients need him and is the person who called to tell me that I can trigger tonight. We are so very fortunate to have such an amazing doctor.

5 Beautiful Eggs

And impatiently waiting for the call. The call to trigger that is. We need to trigger (induce ovulation) at a safe number and I have a history of an E2 level that skyrockets overnight. We went in for our ultrasound scan. There were lots of follicles growing and if this were an IVF cycle we’d be getting more than 5 eggs. This is ideal for us. We are battling male factor infertility and therefore the more targets we have the better our odds. Of course our RE mentioned the multiples talk and did say it was our choice but that given our track record and how many cycles we’ve already done this was a good deal for us.

For the last few posts I’ve talked quite a bit about follicles, eggs, ultrasounds and E2 level. I should explain what they are.

E2 = Estradiol level. Ideally it should be at 200-600 per follicle to indicate a mature egg. Of course this like everything else it can vary and smaller follicles do contribute to the number. More information.

Follicles & Eggs = A follicle is the basic unit of female reproductive biology and is composed of a roughly spherical aggregations of cells found in the ovary. They usually contain one oocyte (ovum or egg). A follicle is considered mature when it reaches 18mm and in a non-medicated cycle a woman typically will only have one mature follicle. The follicle will become the corpus luteum during the luteal phase (post ovulation). The corpus luteum is a temporary endocrine structure in mammals, involved in production of progesterone, which is needed to maintain pregnancy. Progesterone is often supplemented in medicated cycles in the form of suppositories or the shots I explained in an earlier post.

Ultrasounds = These are given trans vaginally to measure the uterine lining & number of follicles present.

This is a stimulated ovary. The black spots are follicles. The pink dots are used to measure.

So, we wait. And hopefully our doctor will call in the next couple of hours to let us know that it is safe to trigger. If we do trigger our IUI will be Tuesday morning.

Another Update

I just returned from an ultrasound to check on follicle growth. I have two 14′s, two 13′s and two 12′s. He says he only measures the leaders. My doctor also did a blood draw but I won’t have those results for a few hours. I am going in one day this weekend for an ultrasound and another blood draw. And the IUI will be Tuesday or Wednesday.