Peace People!

As promised, here is my ultrasound photo. I think it is so funny that they are directly across from each other. The negative space behind them sort of makes a peace sign, too. Too cool!

We have dubbed the babies "Lucy and Ethel" so we don't have to call them A and B. We realize that these are both girls' names, but I like the way it sounds so that is what we are going to call them.

My husband took my first belly shot last night. I still have quite the bloat from all of the IVF stuff (or maybe it's all that food?), so I don't know if it is from the meds or the babies exactly. Surely something that is only 7-9mm couldn't make me that big, right? Even if it is times two? It should be interesting to see how I grow as I get further along. Wow. That sounds so strange as I write it. All this is still a little surreal...

Twice As Nice!

WooHoo! We're having twins! Those two fluttering heartbeats are the most beautiful thing I have seen in a really long time. Both heartbeats are strong and look healthy. The funny thing is that the sacs are across from each other with one on each side of my uterus, and they are like a little mirror image of each other. It was like they planned it that way! I'll post the picture tomorrow. The RE said they measured just where they should and all looked good in there.

I had secretly hoped for twins (well, maybe not so secretly), but I didn't really think it would happen. I am in complete and total shock! And I am totally in love...

TTC History

TTC History:

• 12/29/10 - Consult with RE. Plan for laparoscopy and hysteroscopy as soon as possible. Now in the big wait until that is finished. (You can check out the whole conversation here.)


• 1/26/10 - Fucking universe. BFN.


• 12/27/09 - FET #2 begins. Started del.estrogen and waiting for transfer on 1/14/10. The universe better behave this time.
  


• 11/24/09 - Sit out cycle because estrogen was too high to begin del.estrogen. Had three monitoring appointments to try to "chase the numbers down" but ultimately we decided to cancel the cycle.


• 10/13/00 - FET #1 take 2. Transferred two beautiful blasts. Negative. WTF?


• 9/20/09 - Begin FET #1. FET cancelled on 9/28 because I ovulated while on del.estrogen. Lucky me.


• 8/9/09 - Second ultrasound shows no heartbeat at 7w2d. Take misoprostol to force miscarry. Had the week from hell. Finally miscarried 8/14/09.


• 8/6/09 - No heartbeat. 30% chance of viability. Recheck on 8/9/09. Not feeling good about this. :-(
• Sh.awn has another shunt revision. Spotting begins. No cramping. Told not to worry, spotting is normal...


• 7/17/09 BFP!


• 7/8/09 - Transferred 2 grade A blasts


• 7/3/09 - Retrieved 11 eggs! 100% Fertilization. Whoot!


• 06/09 - Start stims for IVF #4


• Feb.-Mar. 09 - Plan to revisit the RE. Sigh.


• 1/09 - Sh.awn needs a revision to his hernia surgery. Back to the hospital for him.


• 08/08 - Began actively trying for #3. Of course, we haven't been on birth control at all since the boys were born.

• 3/08 - 5/08 - Sh.awn has a series of 8 surgeries and 1 major infection over an 8 week period. "The very dark days" is what this time is referred to around here. 3/28/08 - My father passed away as a result of a car accident.

• 2/3/08 - Ja.son comes home after 100 days in the NICU. Finally together after the longest weeks of our lives.

• 1/25/08 - Sh.awn comes home after 90 days in the NICU. Ja.son in NICU receiving antibiotics for infection (found the day he was supposed to have been discharged).

• 11/07 - My cruel body decides it doesn't want to allow me to pump for the babies, and for added shits and giggles, let's give her a period again. After all, it has been exactly 4 weeks since she gave birth. She must be ready. Ha!

• 10/27/07 - Sh.awn and Ja.son are born at 28 weeks 3 days gestation.

• 10/07 - Twin A (Ja.son) ruptured at 26 weeks. Placed on antibiotics.

• 8/07 - Placed on bed rest at 20 weeks due to shortened cervix (1.2 cm). Seems those contractions may not have been BH after all.


• 7/07 - Had amnios done. Two healthy babies! Both boys. Cervix measured 4.0+cm. Started having what was deemed BH contractions (never confirmed by ultrasound)

• 5/07 - Repeat blood work shows that Protein S levels are low normal. Remain on blood thinners anyway.

• 5/07 - It's twins! EDD is 1/16/08.

• 4/07 - IVF #3. 10 eggs retrieved. 8 fertilize. Transfer 6 (yes, I know. Crazy.) BFP!!!!

• 3/07 - Blood work shows compound MTHFR and Protein S deficiency. Will need to be on blood thinners during pregnancy, starting at positive test.

• 3/07 - MC #2 at 5.5 weeks.

• 2/07 - IVF #2. 8 eggs retrieved. 6 fertilize. Transfer 4. BFP!!!!

• 1/07 - MC at 5.5 weeks.

• 12/06 - IVF #1. 6 eggs retrieved. All fertilize!!! Transfer 2 and have 1 frosty. BFP!!!

• 11/06 - Cysts. Sit out cycle.

• 10/06 - Injectible IUI. 5 follies. Lining even better. BFN

• 9/06 - 2 cysts. Sit month out.

• 8/06 - Injectible IUI. 4 follies. Lining good. BFN

• 7/06 - Clomid IUI. Thin lining. 3 follies. BFN

• 7/06 - Went to RE. Had day 3 blood work done. FSH is 13. WTF?

• 4/06 - Repeat sperm analysis showed infection cleared. Sperm count is so-so.

• 2/06 - Sperm analysis shows a high white blood cell count. Went on antibiotics.

• 12/05 - New OB. Went for HSG and blood work. All seemed fine.

• 10/05 - Went to OB. Told to "relax" (yes, by a doctor-beotch) and give it a few more months.

• 11/04 - Finally talked husband into giving this ttc stuff a shot. Stopped BCPs. Thought for sure we'd get pregnant right away. HA!

• 08/02 - We got married!

• 06/89 - Started dating my husband. We had just finished our junior year in high school.

2 More Days and Other Thoughts

Two more days until the ultrasound. I am getting anxious. I have a kind of nervous energy that doesn't entirely go away no matter how much I try to distract myself. It leaves me to do a lot of thinking...and that isn't always a good thing!

I've never been a big eater. I'll eat when I am hungry, but I have never really thought about food as anything more than something I need to eat to survive. Lately, though, I can't get enough of it. I can be eating and still be hungry thinking about my next meal. It's crazy. Today I have had 2 bananas, 1 avocado (it was there so I thought why not?), 4 carrots, 2 BLT sandwiches, an instant breakfast in a glass of whole milk (whole milk is the way to go now), a half a loaf of banana nut bread--well probably closer to a full loaf now, 2 containers of yogurt, and dh is off getting me a western bacon cheeseburger and fries. I feel like I am always eating! So not like me.

I think there is a conspiracy here at my house. Not only does my husband continue to snore most nights, but my cat has taken it up too. That is pretty darn sad, isn't it? I can't get away from it! Now, admittedly, good ole dh snores quite a bit louder than the cat, but still.

Dh has been occupied lately with a bee problem we have discovered. It looks like we have a hive in our chimney. Call the exterminator, I suggest. No, we'll just smoke them out, he replies. Well, five fires and three days later, I found yet another bee in the house. He still won't admit defeat, but I do have him close to calling someone. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. Who knows?

I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow. I haven't quite gotten over my cold and my head feels best when it's on a pillow. Plus, I try not to eat in front of the kids, so it is going to be interesting trying to get all the food in while the kids are there. The good news is that I have only 18 more days until the end of school. Woohoo! I can't wait for summer!

4 Days To Go

Four days left until the big ultrasound. I can't wait until I get to see that heartbeat. I pray all is well in here and we'll have a heartbeat or two to see. I am still petrified that something could go wrong and I'll miscarry again.

I have had a horrible head cold/sinus infection this week. It started with a headache and rapidly moved to congestion and sore throat. I was afraid to take anything, so I didn't...just suffered through it and slept a lot. I can finally swallow without pain today. You don't think I hurt the little one(s) because I was sick do you? (It's just another thing to worry about now.)

Eight Things That I Am

I've been thinking about what I could write here about myself. I found this post really hard for some reason. I read on another blog (I can't remember whose) that someone had combined the I Am and the 8 Things About Me posts, so I am going to try to do both at the same time. Here it goes...

1) I Am picky and eat only one food at a time. It drives my husband crazy, but I will eat all of something on my plate before I move to the next item. I have done it ever since I was a little girl. Every now and then I catch dh doing it, too, now. HEE HEE...

2) I Am happy with the same thing for lunch every day.

3) I Am a HUGE I Love Lucy fan. My husband will turn it to the show and let me see the screen for a couple of seconds. He'll quiz me on which show it was, and I am usually right. I think I identify with her relationship with Ricky (she's white and he's Hispanic).

4) I Am very interested in meteorology. In fact, if I wasn't a teacher I would love to be a weather person. It might even be something I pursue after I retire. Who knows? People turn to me when they want to know what the weather will be at any given time.

5) I Am the first of all my friends to learn to drive (including dh). It wasn't that I was the oldest, it was just that I was the most motivated one at that point. Plus, my mom told me she wasn't going to take me anyplace anymore so I had to learn. I taught them all how to drive a stick shift in my red little Mazda while we were in high school.

6) I Am one of the few Californians who doesn't like the beach. I live less than five minutes away, and I can count how often I have been there over the last ten years on one hand! (It's too cold!)

7) I Am a jacket hoarder. Some people buy lots of shoes or accessories. Me, I buy jackets. Funny thing is that I rarely wear them once I get them. I tend to stick to a few favorites and leave the others in my closet.

8) I Am very afraid of spiders. My brothers used to torture me with them when I was a kid. My brain understands that they can't hurt me and that I am bigger than they are. I still can't be anywhere near one without freaking. Brothers are so fun sometimes.

Plugging Along

The sleep thing is not getting any better, but I have found that if I can stay up just a little later at night, I can sleep in until it starts to get light out in the morning. That makes me feel better. It just seems wrong to be that awake when it's dark outside. 6:00am has been my rising hour for the past two days. I'll wake up several times before that, but now I am able to go back to sleep after a little while (and a quick pee). While it isn't ideal, I can handle that time.

A new problem I have recently discovered is my husband's snoring. OMG that man can wake the dead. I guess I haven't really noticed it before, but now it is all I can think about while lying there next to him. It has created some tension on my end, and I must admit that I have some not very nice thoughts while listening to him. This morning I even contemplated how long it would take for a pillow over his head to shut him up! (Hormones, right?)

You might wonder why I don't just tell him to stop his snoring. Tried. Impossible. I will shove him over (I am beyond the nice pat on the shoulder to get him to stop) and he will stop snoring. I then try to fall back asleep as soon as possible so I don't hear him when he starts up again. He always beats me. Before too long, I am back to the pillow fantasies! Today I invested in some breathe right strips for his nose. Hope that helps some.

I am having a few symptoms now:

- sore bbs every now and then

- feel a little "yucky" after dinner and for the rest of the night. I don't feel any sickness in the mornings or during the day, and I haven't thrown-up.

- having strange pains in my groin and abdomen. I don't know how to explain them, because they don't really hurt and they're not really cramps. Maybe it is like an ache. From what I've read, it is too early for round ligament pains, so I have no idea what they are. They last for a few minutes and then stop.

- hunger is VERY intense. When I am hungry, I must eat right that minute. I get kind of light headed if I don't eat fast enough.

- sleep problems

- I fluctuate between constipation or diarrhea. Presently, I am back to the constipation.

- and I have a sore butt. While I realize this isn't a symptom, it is directly related to me being pregnant, so I have it here.

Only 8 more days until the big ultrasound! I can't wait...

P.S. Thanks to TOPCAT for tagging me. I really appreciate it! It was a pleasant surprise, and gave me lots to do while I tried to keep myself busy in the mornings!