5 Weeks Pregnant, or, I'm Just Gonna Nap Right Here

Since our last post I have traveled to Cincinnati, Kentucky and New York (twice in one week) and in somewhere in there I've been stuck with a needle not once, but twice.  Go hard or go home right?  At least I got to be in the same room as Idina Menzel this weekend <swoon>... but back to the blog about our baby.  The Monday following our good news, and then again today, the doctor had me come in to check my HcG levels (the pregnancy hormone your body produces when a fertilized egg attaches to your uterus #science). Let me break it down for ya'.




Week 4 (3/8-3/14)- The baby was as big as a poppy seed (Meg referred to it as Poppy).

Week 5 (3/15-3/21)- The baby is as big as an apple seed (I nicknamed it Lil' Mac... like a Macintosh apple #nerdalert).

On Monday I went into the doctor's office first thing in the morning, had blood drawn and ran home to finish packing. Then I grabbed a cab and headed to Logan airport to fly out for a business trip all week.  Said trip was planned before we got the good news.  Cause, honestly, the last thing I wanted to be doing was sitting on a crowded (and delayed) Delta flight with a 1oz bag of complimentary nuts.  The office called me right before I boarded the plane to inform me that my HcG levels had been 81 on Friday and they were up to 191 on Monday! That's definitely within the "normal" range. Awesome news.

I spent most of last week in Cincinnati for business meetings and had to tell my boss and accompanying co-worker that I was pregnant for multiple reasons.

1. Business trips are code for little bit o' meetins, then lot o' bit o' drinkin', on the company dime.  And I couldn't.







2.You're going to constantly be rubbing your chest. (sorry, boss)  When they say that your boobs are gonna hurt, they mean it.  Scientifically speaking, your jugs are preparing to become milkin' machines.  They also begin increasing in size sometimes as fast as a cup size in the first week/2 weeks.(you're welcome, boss).


3. You're gonna be exhausted. I never take naps.  Ever.  Meg has even stated that she has never seen me sleep when it's light outside.  I am now falling asleep everywhere.  I slept on a plane with a "frequent leg crossing shifter" behind me that kicked my chair like they were trying to try out for the World Cup.

When you're trying to make it to a
bathroom with a full bladder.

4. Bathrooms.  You must always know where one is.  Because you're going to have to go all the time.  You will wake up at 12:59am (aka last night) and fear you won't make it. There's a lot happening in that nether region and it is starting to take over the neighborhood putting pressure on your bladder, so that's fun.

5. Emotions.  You haz them.  Not to mention hot flashes.  I was in NYC during 15 degree weather and someone said I look like I got a sunburn in a matter of 10 seconds.  I'll enjoy it now before it gets so hot I try not to move from the wall A/C unit unless food or peeing is involved.

Today I went in for more blood work and my levels increased to 2,341!  Woohoo!  Next is an ultrasound on March 31st to see how Lil' Mac is doing.  If all looks good our reproductive clinic will discharge us to our OB/GYN!  Stay tuned.

I Never Knew Paranoia Until I Was 4 weeks Pregnant

Hey team.  So now that the glitter has settled on the floor... oh, I'm sorry... you haven't heard?

Meg's aunt knitted
this baby hat in a day y'all

First of all, thank you for all of your congratulations and well wishes! We're really touched. We know that pregnancies typically aren't announced until after 12+ weeks (the risk of loss reduces after the 1st trimester), but when we decided to start this blog we knew we would need to make this announcement early.  It's something we really gave a lot of thought to before even starting this blog. As we've said before, 50% of this blog is to keep friends and family up-to-date on our process, 50% to educate and 15% to peddle my humor.   I'm also bad at math.  Anyway, we feel like we're all in this together now! That being said, we are optimistically holding our breath until each update from our RE and soon our OBGYN.

So, with that said, let's go back to last week.  Tuesday was 10 DPIUI and that morning I caved and took a First Response Early Results pregnancy test. I looked at the test mentally telling myself, "You're not out of the game yet if it's negative... it's still early."  I picked it up and I saw the slightest line.  I ran around trying to look at it in different light and took 800 pictures altering it with different photo filters. #crazypants, but there was something there. Meg was already on her way to work, so I texted a picture to her and then it hit me... I took a 250mg HCG trigger shot 10 days previous.  What if this positive is really just reading the remainder of the HCG in my system.  Thus began a Google frenzy of epic proportions.  Even though the internet pretty solidly confirmed that all of the HCG from the shot was out of my system, I got so little sleep.  Can't drink and can't pop <sleeping> pills.  The things you do for love.

The next morning I got up and tested again- this time the line was little darker... it should get lighter if it was only the trigger shot leaving my system right?  Another day of obsessive Googling- trigger shot Hcg leaves your system with a half life of about 24 hours.  So technically it should have been out of my system after 7 days post trigger shot and we were at 13.  We had 2 more days to wait for blood work and you know what that means?  Yeah I gotta buy more pregnancy tests.  Don't worry Dad, I found coupons online.  Thursday I woke up at 1am and HAD to go to the bathroom.  I actually had to go a lot more lately and I didn't want to think that it was a good sign.  That same day I started to break out like I was back in middle school again- minus the track suit and mimicking my eye make-up after Barbra Streisand circa "Funny Girl".  Since I did get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I felt my FMU (firs morning's urine) wasn't "potent" enough and that may have caused the line that showed up to not be *much darker* than the day before.  HcG should double every 48 hours.  Friday we had a blood test, but you know I had to test at home before heading to the doctor (thanks for not thinking I'm crazy Meg or, at least, not saying it out loud). Friday morning we got solid two dark lines on one test and a positive digital test, too! 5 Excruciating hours later, the doctor confirmed that the blood test results were also positive.

So.  Our families are ELATED, but they're in the same cautiously optimistic boat we're in. So

prayers/good thoughts/theme related showtune mix tapes are welcome as we get through the next few crucial weeks. This morning I went back to the RE for follow-up blood tests to make sure my HCG levels are doubling as they should. More on that later.

Right now: I could sleep at any and every moment of the day.

I have so much make-up on my face covering my pregnancy related acne that it's become the consistency of spackle.

 And I want to eat all the time.

Our family surprised us with
our first baby gifts (that sonograph is somebody else's baby. 
Creepy, but also sweet.)

This TWW Update Brought to You By Ellen & the 2014 Oscars

Hey team.  So we left off at our latest attempt in OBM (Operation Baby Makin') by way of ovulation monitoring including several ultrasounds to measure follicles and blood work to measure LH (Luteinizing Hormone) and Progesterone.  We got the thumbs up on Thursday the 20th that I had a baller follicle and my Be-uterine lining was also stellar.  Then Meg shot me in the stomach... with a needle of HCG to help induce ovulation within 36 hours and on Saturday the 22nd we inseminated!

The past two weeks have been as rough as any TWW we've experienced.  I spent the first 7 days telling myself every second that I need to remember that I took a shot that injected me with a pregnancy hormone and that "those feelings" aren't real.  And then obsessively Google how long it takes to get that mess out of your system so you can cave to the early testing we inevitably cave to.  I chose to think as positively as possible this cycle.  We did EVERYTHING we could possibly do other than IVF to make this cycle as optimal as possible so I chose to think that we ARE going to be pregnant.  Well, that is until one day during the cycle- maybe

hormones, maybe I was hangry- when the thought weaseled into my mind, "You might not be- again." And then a negative pregnancy test image popped into my head.  That was my version of saying "that Scottish play" in a theater.  It took me days to come out of that funk.  But, again, I'm forcing myself to think positively.  Reminding myself we did everything possible to make this happen and, also, that timing things just right to make a baby is harder than that Flappy Bird game.

I have also been communicating more with friends who are going through this/have been through this- thanks ladies, you're all gems.  I can't stress this enough- if you are choosing to go through this venture it is beyond necessary to have proper support.  Because you can't have booze.  Don't get me wrong, Meg is my rock.  But sometimes you need to discuss irrational feelings with another person who has been through this Rock n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith-like journey.  Or when you need to talk about bodily functions that would only chip away at the incredibly sexy image of myself I have

Potential Baby Name?

meticulously crafted in Meg's mind <sarcasm>.  And sometimes you let your crazy emotions join forces with your positive vibes and start talking about things that you would normally say fall into the "jinx bucket" of conversations, like potential baby names.  But with your Soul Cysters (I can take no credit for that one- thanks internet) it's totally kosher.  But really.  Find your outlets.

So now we wait until Friday morning for blood work.  So pray to whatever deity you believe in that we get good news.

First comes love...

(post by Meg, gifs by Kate)

Meg & Kate,
sitting in a tree,
K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
First comes love,
then comes marriage,
then comes a hormone
in a syringe (carriage).

Wait, that's not how it usually goes. Well folks, that's real life these days in our treehouse.

For those of you who know me (hi, this is Meg), you probably can't imagine my putting a needle into Kate's stomach. You probably can't even imagine my thinking about doing such a thing. (Shout out to Victoria- Remember the time I stapled my finger in the band hallway and literally could not even look at it? Yeah.) I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to it, but when your wife needs you to plunge hormones into her stomach, you do it.

Let me back up a little. As Kate has previously mentioned, after two unsuccessful IUIs and one wonky ovulation predictor kit experience, we decided to step it up a notch with ovulation monitoring and a "trigger shot".



Kate has gone in to the doctor's office twice in the past week for blood work and an ultrasound to see

how her uterine lining and follicles are looking. Both times things seemed to be progressing nicely, so this morning they told her that we should administer the trigger shot tonight between 9-10pm. Good thing we didn't have theater tickets because this would have been super awkward to do in the ladies room at the Opera House. I digress...

A couple of days ago we ordered the trigger shot, which by the way is not cheap, and found out that it ships

in a refrigerated container ($30 extra, kids) and must be put immediately into the refrigerator upon delivery. Well they delivered it on Tuesday afternoon in the middle of a blizzard so it was kept nice and chilly on our stoop. Then it lived in our fridge amongst the Britta and diet tonic water. That's normal, right?

What it feels like at the beginning of TTC
And then after a couple IUIs.

Last night the time had finally come to unwrap the contents and figure out how the heck to do this. Lucky for Kate, I've been binge watching early episodes of Grey's Anatomy this week. SCALPEL! STAT! Oh...no scalpel required? Uhh, well, ok, I think it would be more exciting with a scalpel. It turned out to be not nearly as dramatic as I had expected. Kate hardly even knew I was doing anything, and I didn't pass out! #winning (that's for you, Dad)

Anyway, now we hope the trigger shot does what it's supposed to- triggers an ovary to release an egg.

We're scheduled for an insemination on Saturday at 9:30am, so say a little prayer, think a little good thought, send a little chocolate...  We'll be getting our champagne on tonight for Kate's last hurrah (hopefully!).

Stay tuned for scenes from the two week wait.

Goin' For the Gold, or, HcG Trigger Shots in My Rear

Well team, this cycle is starting a lot better than the past two have.  I am now becoming a firm believer in the "White Pants" theory.  Only women will understand this... For all the rest of you, here's some

education: as a female, you could guarantee a visit from your Aunt Flo by doing any of the following: planning a beach vacation, going on a date, or wearing white pants. We got our BFN on Friday the 31st and then I was still almost a week late.  Last time I went over a month without a new cycle, whichever they attributed to a cyst formed by the Clomid, and the day they told me to call if nothing had started, I called.... then bam.  She hit. This cycle I was running late again. And to my shock, to the same level of every member of the press who first saw their rooms in Sochi ( #olympics), it arrived.

For this next cycle we decided that we wanted to be a little more aggressive.  We will continue on 50mg of Clomid (starting tonight) which I had called in to a CVS while I'm visiting family in Virginia-side note: when I went to pick up the prescription at a CVS in rural Virginia I had "Di," the lesbian of all lesbians for a checkout woman. I wanted to have a secret signal that said, "My sista!", but this was the south and there's a good chance that she's actually straight. The line between butch lesbian and short haired badass southern chick is paper thin. 

We are also going to do fertility monitoring starting on day 12 of my cycle. I will go in every 2 days for an ultrasound where they will monitor the growth of my ovarian follicles.  And now I'm gonna drop a little education bomb. Typically, when a woman ovulates without fertility mess, a single follicle will raise up off the ovary.  The follicle should grow 18-24mm before it will rupture and pop out an egg.  With my having PCOS, I'm never guaranteed ovulation and last cycle the Clomid messed with the OPK test results and I question if I ovulated at all.  That experience had me more stressed out than a stage manager from "Spider-Man: The Musical".  They will also be taking

blood every other day to check estrogen levels- if my arm looks like I'm a character from "Rent" start singing 'Seasons of Love' to me and that will be our "secret handshake".

Ultrasound evaluation of follicles is even more important when fertility drugs are administered, since it

What I imagine a follicle looks like

allows the physician to determine the number and ripeness of follicles so that ovulation can be further stimulated and triggered in a safe fashion.

Also, the ultrasound can determine the thickness of the endometrial lining. The lining of the uterus must achieve a certain minimum thickness in order for there to be a good expectation that implantation will take place.

Doesn't even apply- I just love this.

Legit copied that from an old encyclopedia from my parents house.  Thanks 1998. Half of this blog's purpose is to educate. The other half is to entertain through witty remarks and painstakingly selected gifs.

After the doc identifies that that a follicle is ready I'll inject a trigger shot.  The shot contains hCG which is the chemical that triggers an egg to release. My doctor has ordered the shot which the medicine and needles will be delivered to us at our house and we will have to inject on our own.  Don't worry kids... That sucker is gonna be a blog post all on its own.

And we have to deal with what we pay out of pocket and what is covered by insurance.

We have to time things just right so we get the sperm in at the right time as frozen, thawed sperm only live 24-72 hours.  Then timing the egg release just right so they are not too premature or too old- we need them to be "Mama Bear Just Right".

That fairy tale fertility analogy just blew my mind.