30 Weeks

30 weeks, big 3-0! Time feels like it's both creeping by and speeding by at the same time. Luckily (or not) I've found something to keep myself preoccupied. The blood sugars I've been testing since I failed my glucose tests have been all over the place. Yes I officially have gestational diabetes. Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated than regular type 2 diabetes. The placenta creates hormones that make the cells in your body less efficient at using the insulin you release to allow for more glucose for baby's needs. Just like our bodies will store fat at a moment's notice in preparation for starvation and not knowing when the next meal will be, the placenta doesn't realize that I will keep nourishing the little one!

So now many of my fasting numbers have been high, and foods that I eat on a regular basis have shown different numbers at different times. One of the meals I eat can range from 120 up to 170, and it's really frustrating. You can do everything right and still fail, how fun is that?!? I'll be bringing my log in to my next doctor's appointment at which time they'll determine if I need to go on medication or not. It would be either pill form or insulin.

We got a sneak peek of our little girl last week

She looks so peaceful! But she's also still breech! Footling breech to be exact, which is why I always feel like she's tap dancing on my private parts! I think we're still going to do the 32 week 3D scan out in town as well for some more pictures. I was kind of on the fence about it since I did get these for free at my MFM appointment. We'll see.

Update: Maternal Fetal Medicine appointment

As of today, I am 18 weeks and 4 days! I had my appointment with the MFM specialist this week. They did ultrasound measurements, verified the sex (still a girl!), and took a look at the subchorionic hemorrhage. Thankfully, everything came out normal and my bleed has mostly reabsorbed! My ovaries are still pretty large, so I still have some physical limitations but I can deal with that. The doctor told me that my bleeding episodes were "very impressive" and so she wants to see me two more times, one around 30 weeks and another around 36 weeks just to make sure my baby girl is growing and within normal weight ranges.

The ultrasound tech also mentioned that she's sitting breech right now, and I wonder if that's why I haven't been feeling as much movement as I did the week before. I can't wait until she starts kicking harder and my husband can feel. (Yeah I know, I'll regret saying that later but I just waited so long for this!)

See, still a girl! :)

I'm really excited that everything is going well, and the holidays are finally here! I'm getting ready to stuff my face full of some yummy Thanksgiving food.

Update from 3D (sort of) Ultrasound - And Team Announcement!

So we went in for our 4D ultrasound at 14 weeks to find out the gender early. The owner said that 14 weeks would be fine for it, and if for whatever reason she was unable to see it we could come back for free in the next 2 weeks after. That was a win-win situation in my eyes, either find out the sex of our baby or get a free bonus ultrasound!

It was supposed to be a gender reveal plus a 4D (3D video = 4D ultrasound) BUT this little stubborn one inside of me decided not to uncross those legs for almost the whole time. So it really ended up being a 2D with 3D/4D sneak peek. But that's OK, because we were finally able to find out the gender!

On the top 2D ultrasound you can see a good picture of my current bleed (subchorionic hemorrhage). It's the black void between the sac and the uterus lining. The baby is almost staring right at it. I finally did get to see where the placenta was too, and it's on the opposite side of the bleed. BUT, what team are we you ask?
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TEAM PINK! I was totally not expecting that at all. For some reason I kept thinking boy. But, I wasn't holding out for either, I'm just happy to be this far. Though I must say the thought of having a girl and being sucked into the girly-girl world with frilly dresses and tea parties is sort of stressful. I've always been a tomboy.

So now I'm just waiting to get my specialist appointment. There wasn't an available appointment until the 25th of November. Sort of ridiculous but I still have my rental doppler. I check every other day or so just to be reassured by the heart beat. It was worked out well for me so far. I love it. Keeps me sane.

More bleeding

Well, Friday afternoon at work (of course right at the weekend mark) I had two medium clots and started gushing bright red blood again. Just like the last time, only this one had a couple clots in the beginning. I had to wait a few hours before I could go home and check out the doppler. Thankfully, baby's heart rate was fine around 160, but I was still bleeding like a light period all weekend.

I already had a formal ultrasound set up for Tuesday for the first bleed episode that I had, so I waited until then. This time it was an ultrasound tech, so they can't tell you much. I do know that both of my ovaries are still huge.

My next doctor appointment isn't for nearly another 2 weeks. I'll actually have a 4D ultrasound before then.

My how the time flies!

Based on dates, I am now 12 weeks exactly. Lots of scans, scares, and a little bit (haha) of stress along the way. Around 9-10 weeks I woke up in the early morning to go pee, but my pee didn't feel quite like pee. I looked down in the toilet and saw bright red blood. I forget if my heart stopped first or I started moaning. I put on a pad, and about an hour later I stood up and felt another large gush. No doubt more red blood. I had thought that the worst had come, I was miscarrying and I would have to begin this tortuous process all over again.

I ended up going to the ER where baby was happily floating away in my belly, heartbeat strong and steady. The ER doc said he saw a subchorionic hemorrhage. He didn't say the size or much of anything else, but I got an acute OB appointment for the next day. That OB doc couldn't even see the SCH anymore (probably because I gushed it out a couple more times after leaving the ER). He just told me to take it easy, no lifting, pelvic rest and all that other good stuff. Which meant even longer period of time without any exercise. Recovery after birth is going to be painful, I can feel it.

Anyhow... fast forward to now (12 weeks) and everything's still going well. I have about 5 or 6 ultrasound pics I'll upload later so you can see the progression. The most recent one actually looks like a mini baby now, and not an alien!

Next goal: Gender prediction! I can't wait, and I have no idea how people can do the whole team yellow thing. That is NOT the kind of surprise I want at birth.

3 DPO - Or 3 days post ovulation & IUI!

Three days down, 11 more to go! I don't think I'm going to make it to the 14 day mark. I'm usually starting my testing around DPO 7 or 8. I know most likely it's early and there's high risk for evaporation lines on the cheap internet tests (ICs) but I can't help it! Plus I think I enjoy seeing the progression of lines.

I still have two of my collections from past miscarriages (one chemical pregnancy, where you get positive pregnancy tests but the miscarriage happens very early on). I'm not sure why I kept them all this time, but it just dawned on me that maybe other people might benefit from seeing them. Since the sticks are already dry, it's hard to see the beginning of a line on the early dates, but I only started collecting the sticks that I thought I saw a line when I squinted. That seems to be around DPO 9 for me!

The set of blue sticks was my 8 week miscarriage. It was devastating, because I went in early to confirm and we were able to see the heartbeat a little over 6 weeks. Sadly, I started spotting and bleeding and there was no more heartbeat on the next ultrasound  at 8-9 weeks.

This is the first time I am sharing this picture, I keep it in my desk drawer to remind me that this infertility is temporary. It's very personal and I decided I wanted to share what I could on this blog in hopes that maybe I could help at least one person out in their quest. It might be interesting to look back on everything later.