Surgery & Baby Update

Little baby Violette is doing awesome. Got to see some practice breathing and baby is confirmed head down! Measuring great, has adorable hiccups about once a day. I am 35 weeks now. Tuesday will be 36.

I had pain that I thought was hemorrhoids, and it started getting worse about a week ago. Now the rest of this will be pretty TMI, so if that kind of thing bothers you, you should stop reading now.

*TMI* 

I had an anal abscess. They think it was a hemorrhoid that got infected. It was pretty large, bigger than a golf ball, and it was internal- but you could feel it from my butt cheek. About 3 days ago it got to the point where I could barely sit down. I asked Kyle to take a look for me (that's love, right?) and when he pushed on the bump puss came out of my anus. We decided that it would obviously be a good idea to go get it checked out since that isn't supposed to happen. Went to the walk in clinic, and they called a surgeon to consult. It was off to the ER.

Got to the ER and they took a look and said I needed IV antibiotics and to be admitted. Went in to the hospital around noon, and had surgery at 7pm that night. They had to go in and put in a drainage tube and flush out the bacteria. Doctor said that it was staph, but they didn't say MRSA (pretty sure I would still be in the hospital if it was MRSA).

I go in next week to have the tube removed. I'm on oral antibiotics and pain medication right now.

27 week update

Things are going great so far! Baby is measuring perfect, and I am super excited. Today I am 27 weeks 6 days. I can't believe how fast things are going. Pregnancy still seems to be helping keep my PCOS symptoms at bay (other than hair growth), which rocks.

We will be cloth diapering and co-sleeping. I will also breastfeed. These are the choices that work best for us.

I am a little worried about breastfeeding influencing my fertility once we want to try again; I know that I need to give my body time to recover from child birth, but the thought of it taking another 3 years once we start trying freaks me out. I know, I know, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but PCOS makes things suck. I have no idea when to expect my menses post-partum with PCOS, or if I'll start ovulating again on my own or will need help. I guess we'll just play things by ear.

Now for some pictures!

21 Weeks

22 Weeks 

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 Weeks

26 Weeks

27 Weeks

Some of our fluff stash:

Some cloth wipes I made

19 Week Update

It's been a while! I don't think I even posted my 12 week scan!

Everything is going good. Baby looks great, and is measuring exactly at 19w3d. We are still set on not finding out gender until birth. Baby is 10 oz! Getting so big.

Here's my 19 week belly picture:

13 week scan:

13w2d NT scan:

If you're my FB friend there are a couple more on there.

Baby did not want to cooperate, so we had about 30 minutes of scanning for the 13w NT scan.

Baby also just wanted to play today. Such a wiggle worm!

19 week scan (we are not finding out gender):

What seemed to work... What I was doing the cycle we got our BFP.

If you don't want to read a little TMI, I would skip this post. ;)


CD 1: 1/5
1st + HPT: 2/4
1st beta 2/11, 742
2nd Beta 2/14, 2025
1st Ultrasound 2/21

I had implantation bleeding and cramping. Told my RE that we would be good to go CD1 wise while we were sitting in her office on the 31st because of my cramping (thought AF was going to start). This next cycle was going to be a medicated and monitored IUI with Femara and trigger shot. My cramping started on the 28th. I also had some light spotting. Never enough for a pad, only when I was wiping.



Supplements I was taking:

This multi-vite (was a packet, had 4/5 different pills in it). It was the Safeway Care Women's Daily Pack if that link stops working for some reason.

It contained:

Calcium 600 mg

Iron Free Multivitamin (with folate)

Evening Primrose Oil 500 mg

Cranberry 475 mg

Vitamin C 500 mg with Rose Hips



We also used Instead Softcups after intercourse. I tried using OPK's but they did not want to give me a good line, regardless of the brand I used.

I did also have a HSG this cycle.

8w2d Ultrasound Pics

These were taken on 7 March 2013. It looks like the hematoma resolved itself, which is awesome news. Heartbeat was 197.

Heard the heartbeat the other day at my midwife appointment. It was in the 160's (I was 11 weeks + a few days).

I am going to Cascade Midwives & Birth Center for my prenatal care. 

I have to say, I am so happy with SRM. They are AMAZING and did everything they could do reassure us. I recommend them completely. 

I am now 12 weeks (well, depending on what you go by I am either 11w6d, 12w, or 12w and a few days). We announced on facebook today, which is why you will see post dated blog posts. You're not crazy, they weren't there before. They just popped up today. It's been killing me not to share!

Thank you, body.

It even confuses the FF software! What the hell is this:

SO AWESOME. Yay for random fertile days that aren't really fertile days, but they think it's a fertile day because if I was normal then it would be a fertile day, but I'm not so HA!

HPT Experiment

Someone on a message board I go on said that once your hcg gets high it helps to dilute with water.

I give you, HPT PEE EXPERIMENT:

Top test is 100% Urine, followed by:
75% urine, 25% water,
50% urine, 50% water, and
25% urine, 75% water:

After 5 minutes:

I think 50/50 wins it, what do you think?

6 weeks, heart beat 101 <3

6 weeks 5 days, heart beat 138

I have had some bleeding. If you look to the left of the baby's sack, you can see my hematoma.

Worry Wart

I'm scared of going to work or doing anything too strenuous. I am exhausted. I don't want to do anything that could hurt the baby. I know I'm being irrational (at least partly), but I don't care. I wish I could wrap myself in bubble wrap and lay in bed for the next 8 months.

Kyle is so excited. It's really lovely. I told my mom:

And we are telling my dad tonight. He invited us up for dinner.

I am terrified of something going wrong.

So...

I am going crazy right now. I know I posted something today (5 February) about my RE stuff, but we aren't going to do an IUI, because

I AM GROWING A PERSON.

I'm feeling so tired/run down. I hurt. I am having uteran cramping like nobodies business. It's more disconcerting than painful. I know it's normal, but bleh.

Super happy. Work has been going well I think. Standing for long periods of time is super challenging though.

I wish my OPK's hadn't gone all wonky. I wish I knew exactly what my O date was. :/ I'm guessing it was around the 21st. I was having twinges in both ovaries.

Progression Pics

I had my first beta yesterday. The number was nice and high, 742. I go back tomorrow for my 2nd beta. I am super excited about it. I hope it doubled well, but from my tests it looks like it will.

I forgot to update!

Silly me! So the doctors appointment went really well. Most of the results were normal, except I had a couple of hormone things that were low (like testosterone).

Egg quality is good, egg reserve is good (she said really good considering I have PCOS and lots of follies).

She went over the HSG results, and apparently she saw some dye moving through the right tube, so it might not be blocked after all! The plan we made was to wait for CD 1 and then start Femara on CD 3, at a higher dose since we are dealing with insurance limitations.

I have an appointment on the 21st to go over this next cycle and see how things are going, as well as do a TV ultrasound to check for eggies from the Femara, and if they're ready do a trigger and IUI next day.

Blocked Right Tube

Today was my HSG, and it went pretty smoothly. I do have a blocked right tube, but my left tube looks good. She said that I have a beautiful uterus (Hehe). If you want to see a picture of it click here.

I got some OPKs today and will start testing with the "good ones" (in other words, the ones not from the dollar store) tomorrow afternoon. I tested today at 4 with one from the dollar store and this is what it looked like:

We still have the follow up appointment on the 31st to go over all of the testing and Kyle's SA. 

That is all the updates that I have for now!

HSG scheduled

They told me to call on CD1 and schedule an HSG (Hysterosalpingogram), so I did. It's all set for the 14th, but they didn't have any openings in Seattle so I have to go to the Kirkland office. We shall see how that goes, hopefully everyone there is just as wonderful as they are in Seattle.

Initial RE Appointment. Went well!

Today was our initial appointment with our RE at Seattle Reproductive Medicine. I am SO GLAD I chose her. I did a bit of research and she seemed like the best bet for me and my situation. We are also lucky to have super awesome insurance and it covers the diagnostics and 3 cycles of whatever we try.

She did the usual medical history. Quite through of course. After that we discussed what we wanted to do, how I could lose weight (I guess I am a "perfect candidate for weight loss surgery"), some classes and stuff I could take to help, all that jazz.

Did a transvaginal ultrasound to check out my ovaries and uterus. Like I suspected, my lining is pretty thick because I don't have regular cycles. Uterus is good, ovaries confirmed PCOS. She counted 18 follicles on one side and 25 on the other, with no sign of recent activity on the right side.

They drew a lot of blood (which I expected) and once she gets a couple results back she's probably going to give me some Provera to bring on a period so we can do the HSG to make sure my tubes aren't blocked.

DH provided a semen sample for SA. Hopefully we are good there.

Well that is all I can think of right now. I have a follow-up appointment on the 31st.

*update* Nurse called and said that my progesterone levels indicate that I O'd. Yay!