Belly Shot - 22 Weeks

Not that exciting, but thought I would post anyways.



I'm still not wearing maternity pants, just relying on the wonderful belly band. But I see maternity pants in the near future. And, thankfully, most of my regular shirts are still fitting ok, though some are too short. I'm trying to hold off on maternity clothes for as long as possible because I think they tend to make you look bigger than you actually are. Hubby tells me to get over it!

Registry Fun!

Who needs registry consultants when you have two sisters-in-law who, combined, have 7 kids??? I had my own, personal consultants this past weekend when we ventured out to the overwhelmingly large baby stores to pick out all the great items our Baby Girl needs and must have.

I really, really tried hard to get just the basics and what Baby needs for the first 6 months. We have absolutely no storage in our house and, therefore, have no room for clutter that may or may not be needed 6 months from the time the baby is born.

We did the requisite registry at Babies R Us. But also there is a great baby store called Buy Buy Baby. There are only a few in the country and one happens to be by our house. It is owned by Bed, Bath and Beyond and it feels exactly like that store except everything is baby, baby, baby. And one of the bonuses is that they take Bed, Bath and Beyond's 20% off coupons.

It was just terrific having my sisters-in-law there to tell me what I really needed and what is the best of the best and what is a waste of money. I couldn't have done it without them.

We've also picked out our bedding...



And our crib...



Boy, it almost feels real...the baby gymnastics in my stomach is helping with that, too!

Sugar and Spice...

and everything nice, that's what Baby Hope in Virginia is made of.

Praise the Lord!

We found out today that, while I tend to fall on the wrong side of all health-related statistics, my husband does not. He is NOT a carrier of the Cystic Fibrosis gene. Praise the Lord and thanks to all of you for your prayers and well wishes. Whew! What a relief!

Cystic Fibrosis

I got the news yesterday that I am part of the only 3% of the population that is a symptomless carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene. This was a real shock to me given that it is nothing I had ever heard of or thought about.

Now my husband has to be tested (which he's doing today) and, if he is a carrier as well, our baby will have a 25% chance of having CF. This has totally freaked me out. I knew nothing about CF until I spent way too much time yesterday Googling it. It isn't good. I'm praying hard that his test comes back negative (of course, we have to wait several days for results). AHHH!

The fact that I am part of a 3% minority in that area and that I am RH-, which makes up only 15% of the population, and infertile, which is another minority population, I'm starting to have some serious worries about myself! I'd sure like to be common for once!

An uncooperative (but healthy) baby

A bit of good and a bit of disappointing news. Most importantly, the baby is healthy. We had our 18 week ultrasound today and the doctor spent over 30 minutes measuring all the different parts of the little one and nothing raised any concern - super cool to see all 4 chambers of the baby's heart! She also did a transvaginal u/s to check the cervix. While that all looked good, she did say that right now I have placenta previa, but that it usually sorts itself out. If it doesn't, a c-section is likely.

On the disappointing side, we have the most relaxed, chilling baby ever - arms folded behind its head and legs crossed - which means no good look at the nether regions. I was so looking forward to knowing whether it was pink or blue in our future. The upside is that, due to the baby's position, there were a few measurements she couldn't get, which means we get to go back in a few weeks for another check. She originally said 4 weeks but I pushed it forward because I want to do it before I register (important stuff, you know?!?)...my sisters-in-law are coming up to visit on 11/7 to help me so I was able to get the appointment for 11/6! Baby better cooperate or it's grounded!

As promised, here is a picture at 17 weeks.



And here's baby's profile from today (I didn't think the u/s pics came out that well...)

I'm So MIA!

Well, I've fallen into the trap that so many others seem to find...blog a lot during the IVF cycle; disappear into the abyss after. Sorry! So I'll try to give an update of the last 5 weeks...

I just passed 17 weeks - hooray! At 14 weeks, I switched OBs. I had so many bad experiences with my other OB, which culminated in the 12 week ultrascreen appointment that left me crying in the waiting room. There were two other pretty big issues, at least to me...

1) I was going to have to deliver in Washington, D.C. at a hospital pretty far from my house. As a Virginian through and through, it was important to me to have the baby born in Virginia. My new OB delivers at a hospital pretty close to our house.

2) The old practice had 20+ doctors. Even if I saw a different OB every time, I may never meet the lucky one that gets to bring our baby into the world. The new practice has 4 doctors, which seems much more manageable. So we had our 14 week appointment at the new OB and are very, very happy that we switched. I finally feel like a patient, not a number. At the appointment we got to hear the baby's heart thumping away - I just love that sound. The HB had gone from 161 at our last appointment to 155 so the nurse guesses boy :)

The other exciting news to report is that our big ultrasound is this coming Monday (10/19). We will actually go to the hospital for it - to the perinatal specialist - because of doing IVF, we are considered high-risk. Hopefully they have great equipment and we do get to record it, which is great to share with our moms who, unfortunately, won't be there. We are praying, most importantly, that everything is a-OK, and secondarily, that the baby shows his/her parts so we can determine whether it's sugar and spice or snips and snails...

I've been feeling terrific the whole pregnancy and actually feel guilty talking about it. No sickness at all. No tiredness. I'm still running each morning and doing pilates twice a week. I plan on scaling back the running in the near future just to be safe, not because I feel bad. Hubby took a pic of my belly at 17 weeks so I'll have to post that shortly. Not really anything to see - looks more like a beer gut than a pregnant belly. Thank goodness for the belly band, which I now wear every day.

And this is very, very belated, but wanted to post a few pics from Vegas (which seems like ages ago). Not as exciting as the baby pics I hope to post next week, but hopefully will do until then. First one is hubby and me and the second one is of all my girls! We had such a great time! Right now, we are trying to plan a weekend to Wintergreen Resort in Virginia because we got a gift certificate last year for Christmas that we need to use soon. Trying to get in as much "fun, single couple" time as we can.

Happy 12 Week Birthday, My Lovely Cashew!

Today was our ultrascreen. Yes, the one that had most unfortunately gotten canceled last week. First, I have to confess to something. I had my first pregnancy-hormone nervous breakdown today. And to make matters worse, it was in the OB waiting room!

Here's the story...a few weeks ago, I confirmed and double-confirmed with my insurance company that they covered the ultrascreen (the u/s and bloodwook). I was reassured and double-reassured that yes, it was covered, and yes, it was covered if done in my OB's office. Needless to say, I show up today and the front desk lady who refuses to smile told me, "that will be $175!" I said, "oh, no, you must be mistaken...blah, blah, blah..." That led to an immediate call to my insurance company where I was AGAIN reassured that it was covered. That didn't seem to matter to the front desk lady who refuses to smile. Tears followed. Husband consoling followed that. I don't know why I lost it. I'll blame it on the pregnancy hormones and the fact that our a/c just broke in our house and that is at least another $1,500 out of pocket. Yuck. Finally, a nice front desk lady who did smile said they would bill the insurance company and, if they didn't cover it, than I would just get a bill. A fair compromise in my mind.

So that leads to the good part. We got a good long look at the cashew at 12 weeks. The ultrasound tech took some measurements that are supposed to show the risk of having different genetic issues and all looked good. That will be coupled with the results from the blood test to give a probability of there being an issue. Not that it would matter; this is our lovely cashew come hell or high water! And gosh be darn, it is an honest-to-goodness baby! Not just a blob. It has a head. Arms. Legs. And I think he/she waved at us! It was unbelievable. Check it out for yourself below. One good looking cashew in my book. I've loved the baby all along but today I think I fell in love!

Darn labor!

No worries, I'm not going into labor! But someone else did and it really screwed up my day. Hubby and I finally decided to do the ultrascreen prenatal test, which includes bloodwork and an ultrasound. While we are not real gung-ho about genetic testing, we decided to do this because 1) our insurance covers it and 2) it gives us another ultrasound before the big one at 19 weeks (thanks, Tara, for giving me the idea to check with my insurance company).

So today was the big day. I was so excited about it and looked forward to it the whole time in Vegas (which I survived - another story, another time). Our appointment was at 8am in the city so hubby and I drove in together...we got about 20 minutes along when we got a call from the doctor's office. Apparently the sonographer went into labor - which I guess she believed was more important than my ultrasound - and therefore my appointment was cancelled. Darn!

I know, it's not as big of a deal as I'm making it to be. Just a little disappointment along the road. The appointment is rescheduled for next Tuesday. Guess I should be a pro at waiting by now! I can't wait to see the little cashew at 12 weeks!

Doctor's Appointment and VEGAS!

Two pretty unrelated things, huh? Well, right now, they are the highlights of my week!

First the doctor's appointment. Yesterday was my first real prenatal appointment. I had been in for an u/s to date the pregnancy, but this was the big one. Everything went fine. I go to a really big practice - over 20 doctors - and I had the guy whose name is first in the title of the practice. The head honcho. Though they recommend rotating among a lot of the OBs, because you never know who you'll get on D-Day, even if I go to a different OB every visit, I could still end up with a stranger on the big day.

So anyways, the OB came in and said they were going to take blood, do a pap smear and then we'd chat for a little while about pregnancy. I asked, "are you going to check for a heartbeat?" He replied, "it's probably too early, I usually don't do that until after 10 weeks." Being exactly 10 weeks, I begged and pleaded. He said he would but made me promise not to freak out if he wasn't able to find it with the Doppler. Praise the Lord he found it in about 20 seconds! Yay! I just love hearing that little pitter patter. And with no pregnancy symptoms, it is a great confirmation that indeed the little cashew is alive and kicking.

The big topic of discussion was genetic testing. I'm interested to know others' thoughts about it. I think we are going to forgo all testing because, if they were to find something wrong, we are not going to do anything to the baby. So what's the point? And I really don't want to do any invasive testing...and the OB said that, often the only way to confirm the result of a noninvasive test is through an invasive one. So why should we have the invasive one in the first place? I know I'm going round and round but this all seems like such a big decision. Thoughts? Suggestions?

On to the next topic - VEGAS! We leave this Friday for a long weekend in Vegas with 3 of my best friends from college and their husbands. I've never been and I can't wait. Of course, I'm sure the Vegas experience is quite different sans alcohol, but I'm sure I'll have a great time anyways. And we haven't told our friends the big news yet, so that will be fun, too. My biggest fear is not being able to "hang" with the rest of the group given the late hours we'll surely be enjoying. But I'll put my big girl pants on and be extra tough! We are staying at the MGM Grand, but other than that, have no definite plans. Any suggestions on best things to see, do, and eat in Sin City?

So that's about it for us. I don't have another OB appointment for a full 4 weeks - 1 month - 30 days! Yikes! That's a huge change from the last 3 months where my car can almost drive itself to the doctor's office! What to do? What to do?