29!

Happy birthday to me! Only a few more hours to go until vacation begins. 11 days of sweet freedom to rest, relax, eat great food, catch up on reading, pamper myself with spa treatments and, last but not least, enjoy some time with my fabulous hubby! Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:40. Flying makes me a little nervous, so I'm going to stay up late tonight that way I'll be exhausted and pass out on the plane. I haven't flown without a sedative in years, so this long flight to Hawaii should be an interesting one. Goodbye for now, I'll be back with highlights from our trip in a few weeks.

It's my birthday week!

That's right I said week! I actually toned it down a bit this year, usually I celebrate the whole month of June. I turn the big 29 on Thursday, the last year of my 20s.
We had a great weekend. Friday we went to birthday party for my Amiga Leslie; it was fun to catch up with everyone. Saturday I spent most of the day lounging and in the evening we went to another friends birthday bbq. Lots of June birthdays. Sunday was the best day of all, we went to Houston to see Tom Waits. What an amazing show!! It is worth the exhaustion I'm feeling today. He is such a great performer, such a character. He had a full band with him and his son was on drums. It was a once in a lifetime experience and a wonderful way to start off my birthday celebration. I really don't have too much planned for the rest of the week. Thursday, Chris and I are gonna have a low key birthday dinner for moi and then get ready for our Hawaii vay-kay. We leave Friday!!! I'm sure we'll do some more Yaz celebrating once we get to the island. I'm going to treat myself to a nice facial, mani and pedi at the hotel spa. I don't know how I'm gonna make it through these next few days at work with my vacation fever starting. Friday can't come fast enough!
Just a quick prego update before I go. Feeling really good these days, still really tired, sleeping is my favorite thing to do. My gas has been OOC lately, I'm a little worried about the passengers on the plane, cause sometimes it just slips out. My boobs are getting bigger by the day, which is nice cause I have always had mosquito bites for breasts. The only problem is that the left one seems to be growing a little faster than the right one. Hopefully, they will even out soon.

Graduation

I have officially graduated from my reproductive specialists office!! Yesterday I had my first appointment with my regular OBGYN. It was a little weird going into an office full of children and pregnant ladies. That doesn't happen at the specialist, chilluns are not allowed. My mom went with me because Chris was in NOLA for work. I was glad that she was there; it would have been to overwhelming for me to go alone. My appointment was at 3; the nurse called me back around 3:30 and I finally saw the doc at 4:30. He had to go deliver a baby during my appointment time. I was patient and thought about how I might be on the other side of that one day and would want him to take his time with me. We went over a lot of the same stuff I already knew. He gave me a bunch of information to look over about their practice, the hospital, and testing. We discussed nutrition and weight gain. He reassured me that my trip to Hawaii next week was fine (Dr. V did too). Then I got to ask my questions. Turns out I can eat hot dogs, pepperoni and soft serve ice cream. I'm also allowed to dye my hair. Woohooo! No more roots for me. Dr. N was great and I'm happy with my decision to use him for my pregnancy. I have to admit, that being at my specialist for so long I got spoiled. How many women get to see there baby every week from 6-9 weeks?? Not many, and now I won't be able to see that bean for another 3 weeks. Going back at 12 weeks for early testing and an ultrasound.
I'm feeling good about my pregnancy these days. The bean is thriving, the bruise is getting smaller, I feel great physically. It's hard going from infertility to being pregnant, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of this. Taking it one day at a time.
8 Days till Vaykay!!! Whoot Whoot!

melting

It's so effing hot here. Triple digits all weekend. The heat is unbearable, as soon as I step outside I start sweating. I don't like sweating, especially when I'm trying to look cute in my new fat girl dress. Clothing isn't fitting like it used too, so I've started wearing dresses that look like big sacks. That way nobody can see my shape and I feel nice a comfortable. I couldn't imagine wearing anything else in this heat.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. Spent some time by the pool on Saturday with my dear friend Tea, her precious twin daughters and my lovely friend Katie. It was nice to catch up. We got to see the twins indulge in their first ever cheese puffs. They sure loved those. Cheese all over their pretty faces. It was really cute. Saturday night Chris and I went and saw "The Happening", it should have been called "The Crappening"! I was really disappointed, but I won't give anything away here in case any of you want to go see it. Sunday was spent chillaxing and napping. I couldn't bring myself to leave the air conditioning.
Countdown to Hawaii has begun, we leave 10 days!! I'm looking forward to some beautiful beach relaxing and some much needed quality time with my hubby.

Bean

Our appointment with Dr. V yesterday was good. The bean is about 1/2" long, and it's heart rate is up to 155bpm. Dr. said the bean is right where it should be and things couldn't be better with it. Unfortunately, the bruise is still there, but the good news is that it has shrunk! Dr. V said we just have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks. We go back in for another check next Monday. In the mean time I'm taking some herbs (that taste awful) from my acupuncturist that I really think are helping make this bruise disappear. I go back for another needle session on Saturday. Between the my great Dr. and my fabulous acupuncturist I feel confident that things are going to turn out OK. Nothing but positive thoughts for our lil CYA!

Subchronic Hemorrhage

That's the technical name for the bruise that's in my uterus. It started on Sunday when I got out of the shower. I was drying off and all of a sudden, GUSH, blood all over the towel. I remained calm and yelled for Chris to get the car keys because we needed to go to the hospital. It's amazing how well I can hold it together in emergency situations, at least on the way to the ER I was strong, no emotions just focus. We got there and checked in, then I lost it. I was having tunnel vision and every ones voices sounded so loud, I was having an anxiety attack and I needed my own room. Right about that time the nurse called me back. Tons of questions. All of which I answered at least twice. I had to tell her I was an IVF patient at least 3 times. Finally, after all the interrogation she wheels me off to my own room. The Dr. comes in and I answer the same questions and ask him to please page my Dr. He tells me the protocol we need to follow and that he'll page Dr. V. So, in comes the nurse. IV in my arm, 6 tubes of blood drawn. My nurse was amazing, so kind and comforting, she made me feel so much better. Next came the catheter; they had to fill my bladder for the ultrasound so we could see my uterus better. By this point I'm bleeding heavily and sobbing uncontrollably. First they look to make sure the baby isn't in one of my tubes, luckily, they were clear. Next comes the dildo cam. He takes his time scanning each ovary measuring and looking for who the hell knows what. I'm becoming impatient and want to look for the baby. He finally moves on to the uterus and there my lil bean is. 6.7mm long with a heart rate 104. I couldn't believe we had a heartbeat!!! It was amazing. After all that bleeding our lil bean was still going strong. They finish up with my ultrasound and I'm wheeled back to my room to wait for the news. That's when the Dr. comes in and tells me about the subchronic hemorrhage and that it's 50/50 at this point. He says that sometimes these things resolve themselves and that there is nothing I can do but rest and hope for the best. We are discharged and I'm told to call my regular Dr. in the morning.

Yesterday morning I woke up and called Dr. V. He told us to come in for another ultra sound. I bring in all my lab work, my HCG was 18,000 which is great! We start the ultrasound and there is the lil bean again. This time the heart rate has gone up to 113. Dr. V said I do have a bruise in my uterus and that it was what caused the blood. He said that most of the time these things resolve themselves, but it could take a while and that we should be optimistic. He said the baby was measuring a little small, but that could be from late implantation and we'll check again in a week. In the meantime I have to rest, no exercise at all and lots of fluids cause dehydration can cause the bruise to get worse. He reassures us again that he has seen this bruise many times, that I'm not the only one with this problem and a lot of the time it goes away.

I'm home now for the second day. My bleeding pretty much stopped yesterday morning and I'm just passing old brown blood now. I feel good, haven't had any cramping. We are optimistic, I really do believe that we are going to be OK. We have been through so much already, what's another hurdle. I can handle it. I'm going to rest up until Thursday and go back to work on Friday. I truly believe that staying positive is so important, so that's what I'm focusing on. Our lil bean is gonna be just fine!