8 weeks 3 days

Ultrasound from 7 weeks!

Yep, it's already been awhile and I'm falling behind on my job here. It's really hard to start blogging when you haven't done it before!

Anyway, yep, I am 8 weeks 3 days today. I have less than a week until my next ultrasound. Where did I leave off? Who knows, I'll retell the story. At my 6 week 0 day ultrasound, they didn't see a heartbeat so my doc totally freaked me out saying that my pregnancy could "go either way". So then I had one continuous heart attack for a week until my next ultrasound. At that ultrasound, the tech spent a lot of time looking. She was great - after about 10 seconds of looking, she stopped, put her hand on my arm and said, "Kelly, before I go any further, I want you to know that I see a baby and a heartbeat". I melted into tears and the u/s tech got me some tissues. Of course, then I was elated and I started telling her my whole story. She was great. When she did the internal ultrasound, we saw a 2nd sac!!! There was no heartbeat in there, though. The doc later told me that he didn't think the twin would make it and that I may experience some spotting, etc. as I lose the twin. Well, so far, nothing (knock on wood) but we'll have to see in a week what happened with that baby. I am praying and praying that they both make it. So, that day was a day of GREAT joy and some sadness, too, worrying about the twin. I swear, people were right - you NEVER stop worrying in a pregnancy.

So that's where I am at. I am still looking for a job while dealing with morning sickness and a lot of weakness. But, I did manage to find a way to make a little cash - I am an expeditor for Cha Cha - you know, the service where you text them a question and they give you an answer. So far, it's a great gig and easy to do.

So, I am trying to rest and at least be a good housewife. I try to cook as often as possible so that Baker can have something to eat when he gets home. Also, it's so much cheaper than going out, but if you know me at all, I'd go out every meal :) Yesterday, I made homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. They are SOOO good. And I made Baked Ziti for dinner - go me! I love making that because it's easy, we love it, and it makes LOTS of leftovers. Plus it's cheapo to make. See? So today I don't have to make anything - leftovers night! YAY. Then tomorrow is Friday and I sometimes get away with going out on Friday nights for dinner :)

Hello, Blogger!

So I decided to start a pregnancy blog. It seems like it would be easier for me to do than keep a paper journal, and I really want to keep a record of my pregnancy. So, here goes!

Baker and I got married on July 19, 2003. We lived in Houston for 2 years and worked, and then we decided to move to the Cay.man Is.lands so that Baker could attend medical school. While we were there, we decided to start trying for a baby. That didn't go so well and I ended up having multiple miscarriages. I knew that things were going wrong so I actually saw a doc down there and started Clomid. Clomid wasn't working and I was frustrated, so I sought another opinion and he diagnosed me with PCOS. Well, that ended up being totally incorrect. Clearly, I needed out of that country if I was going to get the correct care. But, leaving Cayman meant leaving stability behind - we moved to Miami, Washington DC, and Chicago all within the next year or so.

Finally, when I discovered that we were going to be in Massachusetts for awhile, I made an appointment with an RE there. So, in August 2007, I started treatment. First, IUIs. I was to do 3 and if they didn't work, then we'd move on to IVF. From September to February, I did 5 IUIs, 2 of which were cancelled. Obviously, they didn't work. So, I started the IVF process. The first time looked really great, but at egg retrieval, they only got 5 eggs. Luckily, though, 4 of those fertilized and grew to great embryos. In fact, they even pushed me to a day 5 transfer. I was a little wary since we didn't have that many embryos but I was really happy because day 5 transfers are a good thing, right? So on a Friday morning, I prepared for my embryo transfer. Right before we left, I got the phone call that I will never forget - all 4 embryos had arrested. There would be no transfer. I was devastated. I don't ever remember being so upset and that may be the darkest day of my life so far. I picked Baker up at the hospital and we just went and cried together. Luckily, we agreed on a very rash decision - get the HELL out of Massachusetts. So, with the help of my wonderful in-laws, we flew to San Antonio and spent the weekend there. Again, a rash decision, but a good one. It helped a lot.

We decided to jump right in to another IVF cycle. I talked to the doc and he promised that things would be different this time. We used a different medication. But this time, I didn't respond at all. They retrieved 4 eggs and NONE FERTILIZED. I was so numb at that point that I expected it. So, that was the end of Massachusetts. The next day, we packed up and left and went back to San Antonio for Baker to study for Step II. We went on the MOST AMAZING vacation - a transatlantic cruise. So, I went from some of the darkest times in my entire life to some of the best. It was the perfect thing for us to get our minds off of everything we had been through. We met a great couple on the trip and we ended up just playing all the time. It was wonderful.

So, back to San Antonio. We found out ON THE CRUISE that Baker's stupid school wasn't going to let him take a board semester to study for Step II so he would have to do rotations. He set up a rotation in Chicago thanks to his resourcefulness AND the big heart of a doc up in Chicago. In the meantime, Baker got an interview at a med school he had applied to transfer to! So, it was a crazy summer for us. On top of all of this, I had started to see a doc in San Antonio and we were starting another IVF cycle!!! To keep the story short, Baker got in to the school, and we got our lives together and moved to NE Ohio. The day we arrived up here, I found out I was pregnant :) Whew, what a story, huh???