A Different Kind of Graduation

I'm officially like everyone else now. Well, those who know me would argue that that's never possible, but I mean that I am no longer under the care of a fertility clinic to have this baby. I am like any other pregnant woman. No more hormones, needles, patches and weekly blood tests. Which were getting really annoying by the way. Every week, sometimes twice, I would go to the hospital to have blood drawn to check estrogen and progesterone levels so Colorado can adjust my doses accordingly. I have had to do this for the past 4 months. They had to be same day results, faxed to Colorado. How many times do you think my nurse in Colorado would email me the next day and say 'I never received your results yesterday'. More than half the time. Chasing those results down got really old, especially when I heard "we can't talk to patients" from the labs. Well, my doc has no time for incompetent people in the labs and I felt like informing them of that. But that's over now. My nurse called this week to tell me that my care is officially being transferred to my OBGYN at home. When she happily told me I've 'graduated' from CCRM, I burst into tears. It was as if a war had ended with me the victor....I cried over the tremendous amount of work this was. The least of which were the meds and the needles....that was the easy part. The hard part was working with this health care system to accommodate what Colorado was doing and needed.

A friend had asked me why I was on hormones during the pregnancy in the first place. If you are interested in the scientific answer, read on. If not, skip this paragraph. In a regular cycle of a non IFV woman, once the egg is released, the follicle that released the egg is called the 'corpus luteum' and will play an essential role should there be a pregnancy. If the egg gets fertilized and embeds in the uteral linnig, the blastocysts (5 day old embryo) sends off the pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin or HcG hormone) to the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum then, in response to the HcG, begins to produce enough estrogen and progesterone so that the body does not begin a period, hense retaining the uteral lining and the baby. This is why you get a period if there is no pregnancy...because your hormones plummet. Women undergoing IVF do not have a corpus luteum to govern hormones, because they did not ovulate. They did not ovulate because our entire hormonal system is shut down (with the birth control pill and other suppression hormones) prior to transfer of the embryo, in efforts to manually adjust the cycle and hormones in order to accommodate the timing and precision of the transfer. So if a pregnancy takes place, we have to take external estrogen and progesterone to maintain the pregnancy. But not for the entire duration of the pregnancy, and the reason for that is, that the placenta takes over the hormone production from the corpus luteum at about week 13. So in our case, we slowly get weaned off towards week 13-15 and as long as they see that our levels are what they should be without the meds....we're free. As I am now!

I am beginning to collect books faster than I can read them...almost an obsession. I actually have 13 books now, between my iPad and actual paper, on pregnancy, nutrition, the first year, baby gadgets and necessities, labor, nursing, and a friend even bought one for Stef. I have a book in every room of the house just in case the mood strikes me to read a few pages. I hope to have them all read....right now it's a little slow in the reading department and busy in the buying department.

AND we have settled on a stroller. STOKKE it is. Now just to know the gender so we can pick a color. 29 more sleeps til we find out. The suspense is killing me. The 'feelings' and premonitions on gender by others is almost 50/50. My friend just pointed out that it's probably a girl because female embryos are stronger....and this is the only one that survived between day 3 and day 5. My feelings? Not tellin. I'm giving this blog to my kid one day in the form of a book. I am going on record to say that as much as I have a strong feeling about the gender, I would be just as happy to be wrong.

As far as the pregnancy goes....My belly still looks like I just ate way too much, and it's getting on my nerves. It's coming in very very slowly. I did get my heart rate Doppler from e-bay finally and we can hear the baby's heart beat any time we want. That is truly cool, although I am disappointed with the gadget itself. They have thousands of them and I carelessly bought one without the LED that displays the heart beat. I thought that was a given. Nope. I tried to return it. Right. Manufacturer is somewhere in China, not returning my emails. Good luck. On another note....I am falling apart a bit in the lower half of my body. My hip has bursitis from the expansion of the pelvis and sitting down means trying to get comfortable with a hot poker in my side. As for my feet, standing, even in comfortable shoes, is painful. My feet have always had a high arch and are large for my body. Size 9 at 5'4.5". They were size 8 not that long ago. So the ligaments have definitely changed. Not complaining at all. This journey takes the whining out of pregnancy. Just noting some of the interesting changes I did not anticipate. And...the first trimester has made a come back. I am sleeping more than I ever did and have not hit that second trimester 'jolt' yet.

My birds are still flying around what will be the nursery, and the little treasures are moving in two weeks. My dad is flying here and driving me in my vehicle with all cages, toys and of course the birds back to Edmonton. Where I will help my mom settlem them in, and have a chance to give them a proper good bye. I'm spending a week there and looking forward to going shopping for maternity clothes, baby furniture and our Stokke stroller. No Stokke here in little town on the prairie. I'm happy for his help and company. It's a 7-8 hour drive and with my hip the way it is, I'm glad to have someone else drive, at least there. When I come back, this pregnancy will take off for me. As much as I will miss the birds, I am beginning to accept it and looking forward to having the extra time every day dedicated to the things I can't do right now, as it would compromise time from their care and clean up. Boy....I sound like I run a farm. I can't wait to look into hypnobirthing, prenatal swimming and yoga, and help Stef start on the nursery and the whole house really. We will be doing a full overhaul on the house...painting, declutering all the storage and changing the decor in the upstairs living room and my office as well. We have just under 6 months to do it....I am 15 weeks today.

First Belly Picture

By popular demand, here is a picture on our way to Stef's cousin's wedding at week 13.

And just a little update...coming up to week 14 now. Down to 1/2 cc of PIO and was hoping to hear today that I can stop. I am having a harder time twisting around to give myself the shot so I'm ready to quit. I am a full 10 lbs over my transfer weight and 20 lbs over my usual weight of 125lbs. Now that the restaurant eating and Thanksgiving is behind us, I am looking forward to watching my belly grow....not my butt. I can still sleep on my stomach, and when I look down at myself, I don't see a baby bump just yet....more like having eaten too much...but in the mirror and in pictures I see what everyone else does and what people are being pretty obvious about now. "Are you expecting?"

First Trimester.....Reflections

What I learned during the first trimester of pregnancy (July 8 th to Sept 30):

Morning sickness and vomiting is an urban legend. Food went in only one direction. Down.
I felt one of two ways all the time. Tired or hungry. I ate just enough to be tired and then slept just long enough to get hungry.
There was no point in reading pregnancy books. Was asleep before the third sentence. Except 'Girlfriend's guide to pregnancy'. The laughing out loud kept me up.
Hubby has way more patience than I knew. The other way you can feel all the time is bitchy or weepy. But he always held my hand.
Boobs double in size....hubby also liked holding something else :)
Cottage cheese is not part of my diet, but it's sure a part of my ass.
So much for not showing in the first trimester. That is also an urben legend. 6 extra lbs on a frame that always had a belly, I was showing at 8 weeks.
Was in maternity clothes before the pregnancy stick dried. And here, they are either hideous or expensive. Online shopping to the rescue.
Don't bother to explain what a genetically normal embryo/baby is and what it means to the probability of miscarriage. Mankind is not ready. Millennia ingrained notions will prevail.
Don't sneeze or cough laying or standing straight. Not at 40. The tendonds around the uterus spasm and it hurts like a damn. Must be bent over or curled in a ball to sneeze or cough.
And...even though I'm thrilled and greatfull to be pregnant, the preparations in the next few months and having to give up my birds (thankfully to my parents) is overwhelming at times.

Second trimester goals: yoga, swimming, Birthbilss Hypnobirthing classes, change Will and life insurance, book a Baptism, get a registry, get the nursery ready, de-clutter the house and.....find out the sex of the baby. Can't wait!!