Good Luck to those testing this Week!

It's finally here... this week we have several friends doing their first HPT, going to get blood work at the doctors and heading to their first ultrasound! Keep us updated and BEST WISHES to each of you! 

Love Buying the Baby Stuff!

It's insane... we're not pregnant but we LOVE buying baby stuff. Mostly we really enjoy looking through the sale items at Target, shopping online at Amazon or browsing Babies R Us.  The closet is filling up but it's so nice to go in there every now and then and remind ourselves that one day... one day we will have a child. Anyone else have a baby stuff purchasing addiction?

Who's in the TWW? Who's due when? What Donor # did you use?

I believe there are at least 3-5 people in two week wait right now, with Kathy & CJ just finishing theirs to find out they are pregnant! Just want to update some of the lists with donor numbers, due dates, and TWW'ers. Best of luck to everyone!

Share your Two Week Wait Symptoms

When I experienced my first pregnancy I had some interesting two week wait symptoms after the  insemination... Mostly some insane heartburn, twinges in my stomach, lower back pain, interesting pains in top of my legs, nausea at 5DPO, bloating and between 3-5 DPO some brown spotting.  At 6 DPO I unfortunately got very upset with my girlfriend who did nothing wrong - so crazy hormones where kicking in! I charted BBT and of course it stayed elevated from 10 DPO onward.  About 14 DPO I definitely started to notice changes in breast tenderness! Please click comment and add your TWW symptoms! 

My experience having a D&C...

The night before I was a bit nervous so sleeping was rather difficult especially since you can't eat or drink after midnight. We had to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 am for the procedure at 7:30am.  After checking in I was sent to Same Day Surgery Area A where they provided me a room. I was luckily there early enough to get a room vs. the beds divided by curtains in the main room. Of course the next thing was strip down to the socks and put on the gown. I waited for about 25 minutes while Vickie was in the waiting room. When they came in and began all the questions to put in their file they called to tell the waiting room Vickie could come back. 

We went through the 50 questions, are you on any medication, do you drink, do you take illegal drugs, have you ever had.... the usual medical questionnaire.  After another 15 minutes Vickie finally joined us, apparently they forgot to tell her it was okay to come back!  The anesthesiologist nurse came in to ask similar questions, all making sure I haven't had a bad reaction to meds in the past. 

The time went quickly and pretty soon they were saying, it's time to go to pre-op. I got my good- bye kiss and Vickie was off back to the waiting room. As they wheeled me into pre-op there was a row of beds, divided by curtains, with nurses and doctors ready to pounce on each new patient wheeled in.  Quickly my anesthesiologist came over and introduced himself, both he and the nurse asked me to verify the procedure I was having done. I felt good about that but then overwhelmed by naming the procedure I was having done and started to cry.  Both were quite compassionate, offered tissue and the anest. said, once you visit with your doctor I will hurry and give you the good stuff so you don't remember anything. Sure enough after hugging my doctor, having a quick chat about how Starbucks was not open for Vickie, I remember wheeling out of the curtain area, then waking up with a nice nurse named Cindy in post-op.  (see another post, I'll share a great story about her and how she opened up about her gay son!) 

In post-op I stayed there from I think about 8:00 - 10:00 am, I was able to drink some water, gain coherence then they moved me back to Same Day Surgery for recovery before being released.  When I got to Same Day Surgery to my great surprise Vickie was there as I rolled in. I was in and out, sleeping for about the next 2 hours. I had some nausea as we went from post-op to recovery so they gave me something once I arrived. This plus the pain meds made me quite sleepy. 

Before I could be released I had to drink liquids and use the restroom. Once I was coherent about 12:00 I noticed I was leaking a little and was told that would happen the next few days.  They sent me home at 12:30 with Methergine (uterine stimulant to prevent and treat bleeding) and Hydrocodone (narcotic and acetaminophen) for pain.  After a quick stop at Walgreens for the meds (I slept in the car) we were home. We both slept the remainder of the day. The Methergine actually made me achy in my abdomen a bit. That was 4 pills every 6 hours. 

Had the surgery on Friday Jan 9. On Sat & Sun. I would feel better in spurts then would feel completely exhausted. I tried to go to work on Monday, it was difficult emotionally but a little before noon I started to bleed and cramp again. Doctor called and requested that I try to work from home and take it easy this week as I should expect to be physically and mentally tired. Evidently I'm not healing as quickly as I should and need to relax and lay down. It's weird how my energy fluctuates so quickly. I tried to get off the pain med but had to resume today when I came home at noon. Really just ready for all to be over!

Miscarriage doesn't mean you did anything Wrong!

This is what I am repeating to myself!  The doctor explained that really a miscarriage is your body's way of ending a pregnancy that was not going to be good. There are several types of miscarriage but one of the most common and the one that has occurred for us is the blighted ovum. This is when your body creates the gestational sack in your uterus and the baby begins to develop but when the chromosomes started to combine in the sperm and egg then multiple, the genetic abnormality occurs and stops or delays the development of the embryo. 

The blighted ovum seems to be the earliest to note but can take the longest to miscarry naturally because the body is still creating the pregnancy hormone and thinks everything is great. In my case I still have a level of 15,000 HCG at 9 weeks so regardless of the baby's stop in development at 5 weeks 3 days, the body is still pregnant and will still recognize this hormone and create all the pregnancy symptoms in the body until the products of conception are removed. 

Wow - I never thought I would know so much about the female anatomy! I also learned that while HCG is important to know, the ultrasound is the more definitive test for viability!