Monday, April 23rd

Today was my 7 week appointment. I had an ultrasound and meeting with the nurse practitioner.  My hubby was not able to come so my mom was nice enough to meet me. I was nervous as the nurse inserted the tool and waited for them to tilt the ultrasound screen my way and tell me everything was ok. They did, she said “here is baby number 1” and “here is the second one”. My mom and I started cheering we were very excited. I recorded the whole thing on my phone. The ultrasound revealed that I am having twins and I couldn’t be more excited!

Here are the heartbeats for each baby

Bedrest and the Waiting Game

So bed rest went very well. I had someone come over and keep me busy each day. My mom, my best friend, my sister in law…everyone was willing to help. I was also overwhelmed by all the happy wishes on facebook and the meals that people made for us to eat while I was on bed rest. We are truly blessed to have wonderful people in our lives.  As my bedrest came to an end, I was ready to go back to work and get my mind onto something else. I had two days of work until my first HCG blood test, I got through it no problem. Saturday 3/31 was here before we knew it. The nurse called the day before to make sure I knew that this bloodtest would be the test that would tell us if we were pregnant. The second test on 4/3 is to make sure you are still pregnant and reassure couples that they checked twice before determining they aren’t pregnant. I was so nervous as I walked in to the blood test on that Saturday morning. They took about five minutes to take my blood and said they would be calling us. I lost it on the ride home and my husband just told me “it is what it is, if it didn’t work, we will try again.”  I just sat there looking out the window thinking how I wished I had symptoms or something that would make me feel better about this. We stopped and ate breakfast and then went to get groceries at walmart. On the way home, we decided to stop at a nursery to look around and get some ideas for our garden.  We had been walking around for about 20 minutes when I all of a sudden felt some cramping on my lower left side. Scared and nervous I told the hubby it was time to go home and rest. I worried the entire 5 minute ride home and pretty much ran out of the car and into the house when we got home. I went straight to the bathroom where I found some spotting….more like bleeding if you ask me but they call it spotting. Luckily my husband had stayed outside and had started cutting the grass so I shared this moment of sheer panic with no one but myself. I picked up the phone and called Conceptions, explained what was going on to the weekend answering service and tried to breathe as I waited for the on call nurse to pick up the other end of the line. She picked up and asked me what was going on. I explained the symptoms I was having and she said that it was just implantation cramping and bleeding perfectly normal. Then she started to go into my results from my test when…..my phone dropped the call. I immediately yelled “are you f_cking kidding me” and redialed the number, talked to the weekend service operator again and waiting for the nurse to pick up the line again.  I was already feeling better though about what she was going to say. If I was having implantation cramping and bleeding then I must be pregnant right?  Well, she got back on the phone and explained that my numbers were really high and that I was definitely pregnant. She congratulated me and asked that I maintain bed rest the remained of that weekend since I had cramping and bleeding and reminded me that I needed to get another blood test that next Tuesday.  I got off the phone and just laid there on the couch for a minute. I was pregnant!!!! It had finally happened. I got up from the couch and walked to the back door, opened the door and flagged down my hubby and had him take his headphones off. I told him I had just gotten off the phone with the nurse and that we were pregnant. He just smiled and said that is good, are you excited? I said yes but that I was still in shock and that I was put on bed rest again. I walked back into the house to call my mom and he went back to cutting the grass….not the magical moment I had pictured in my head…..but then again none of those moments you picture are even close to what you build them up to be. Prom, getting engaged it was all very different then I imagined them to be my entire life…thanks I believe in part to Lifetime movies.  I went back inside and called my mom who was very excited, then I called my mother in law who was also very excited. The rest of the afternoon I sat outside on the swing talking to family members. It was a very nice day and I just couldn’t believe I was pregnant!!!  I made it through work on Monday and went out to dinner with the hubby and his parents. I got up on Tuesday excited about my second blood test and the rest of my appointments that day. I was also going to get to spend some time with my grandmother who was visiting for Easter that day as well.  I drove to get my blood taken and then between my two appointments went and hung out with my mom and grandmother at my parent’s house. We were all smiles as we talked about me being pregnant. They went with me to my second appointment and then we went to Olive Garden for lunch. We were sitting at lunch when my IVF nurse called to tell me the results from my blood test. My numbers were high again. They like to see the numbers double between the first and second blood draw and mine had quadrupled!!! I asked what that meant and she said it was a good sign of multiples but that she didn’t want to say for sure until the ultrasound at 7 weeks. I hung up the phone and smiled at my mom. We came to the conclusion at lunch that day that I was going to have more than one baby. I went to Target after lunch and left early when I started cramping again. It stayed with me until the next Week , week 4, and then was replaced with morning sickness for the start of week 5. Right on schedule, week 5 started on a Sunday and the morning sickness showed its ugly face the very next Monday. Having felt nothing before that day, I was at work and not prepared at all. I scrambled for any cracker I could find and got a ginger ale to sip on. Although I had hoped I would have a pregnancy without morning sickness, I was relieved to get it. The first trimester you have no idea what is going on inside your belly with the baby/babies because you can’t feel them moving or hear their heartbeats. The morning sickness is a good sign that everything is ok.  I was sick to my stomach all throughout the day at first, no matter what I ate or how I ate it, I felt sick.  If it weren’t for fried chicken fingers and club sandwiches, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it through the first two weeks of morning sickness. The nights have been the worst which sucks because after work all I want to do is relax and watch tv and then go to bed.  There have only been a few nights I had to get up and eat because I felt sick and I think that is because we had an early dinner on those nights. I have learned how to manage the nausea for the most part. It is week 7 now and the sickness is getting more manageable but the tireness is getting worse. After lunch every day I have been fighting to keep my eyes open. As I sit here typing now, I am very strongly considering laying my head on my desk for a minute.  Besides the morning sickness, I can’t complain. I have already started wearing some maternity clothes. The medications I started taking before the transfer had made me bloat a bit and now that I have a little baby bump on top of the bloat, regular pants for this girl are out of the question.  Nothing makes me grumpier then having a button on my pants digging into my belly….no thank you. 

Friday, March 23rd, Transfer Day!

Friday, March 23^rd

Today was transfer day! The embryos made it through the week and we had the transfer this morning.  There are so many things going through my head at this point and I am left to sit on the couch and work through all of them for the next five days of bedrest.  I didn’t know what to expect for the day of transfer. I had spoken to my acupuncturist and they had set everything up with Conceptions. I was to check in and get my bracelet, go back and receive an acupuncture treatment while drinking my 32oz of water which I did. My husband met me there so I rode with my mother and mother in law.  When we got there my acupuncturist came and got me and talked with the moms a bit.  I didn’t fall asleep during the acupuncture because I had to keep drinking water but I felt relaxed. About 45 minutes before the transfer, I was given a valium to relax me and that made me very sleepy. I laid my head down and sat up when I heard the door to my room open and there was my hubby. The embryologist walked in right about the same time with a file folder. She handed us a picture of the embryos we would be using for the transfer and explained that they were both very close to hatching which meant implantation would be happening within the next 2-3 days. She left the file with us along with our copy of the photos. I asked my hubby to take the photo out to both of our moms because I knew they were dying to text it out to everyone….I was right.  About five minutes after my husband got back, the transfer nurse walked in and handed scrubs to my husband and I and said she would be back in ten minutes for the transfer. We giggled as he put on the scrubs with the awesome hat and I put on my hospital gown. After we were dressed for battle, we just sat there and waited for the nurse to come back, didn’t really say much. We knew we were ready and it was almost  time. I tried not to get emotional as I smiled at my hubby. Three years of sadness was about to disappear forever and that was a bit overwhelming to me. I kept it together long enough to allow the nurse to be back. I took a deep breath as she lead us out of the patient room and into the transfer room next door. We walked in and saw our embryos on a flat screen on the wall. There was a room attached to the transfer room which was the embryology lab. The embryologist was sitting at a microscope looking the embryos over one last time. I was helped onto the transfer chair and squeezed my cheeks as I felt how full my bladder really was. All I could think was please don’t pee on anyone!!! The doctor and nurse walked in and asked how we were feeling. We watched as the embryologist sucked up the embryos into the transfer tube and carried it over to the doctor. I cringed a bit as the doctor hit a button on the chair and my private parts were inverted into the air pretty much in his face…..a little mortifying even though I knew it was going to happen. He put in the tube and directed us to watch the ultrasound screen as the embryos were released into my uterus. It was over in five minutes. The tube was handed back to the embryologist who then checked to make sure they had both made it out of the transfer tube. The doctor shook my hand and said “get pregnant” and left the room. The nurse told us that the embryologist would take care of us and she would see us outside the transfer room and that I was to lay still for 10 more minutes before going to relieve my very full bladder.  Then the embryologist came out and answered a few of our questions and by the time we were done talking I only had about 3 minutes left. She asked if we would be ok for a few minutes while she went and grabbed something and we said yes. As soon as she closed the door, my stomach let out a huge growl and I felt a sharp pain in my side. I knew this feeling….my stomach was upset and I knew I had to get up and get to a bathroom pronto!!! I looked at my husband and he asked what was wrong and I said “I have to go to the bathroom right now or bad things are going to happen”. He ran and got the nurse who helped me off the chair and to the bathroom across the hall. I barely made it….but I made it. I was immediately wondering if the stomach issue had in any way affected the success of my transfer….but what was I to do…when you gotta go….you gotta go. I walked out of the bathroom and back into my patient room where my husband helped me get my sweats back on. Then he went out in the waiting room with our moms while I received my second acupuncture treatment. This time, I slept the entire time and had to be woken up to go home.  I was really groggy as I walked down the hallway and out through the front doors. I slept most of the way home while my husband listened to sports radio. Our moms drove together in the car behind us, it was done….now it was time to wait and see if it worked.

Here is the picture of them embryos a few minutes before transfer

Picture of the transfer, you can see the tube with the embryos in my uterus