Another Graduation!

Today was a big day. . . graduation! Today's graduation was better than either of my Master's. Today I graduated from the reproductive endocrinologist. That's right, I'm normal! No more IVF clinic :) I had my last scan today and little Trouble is measuring 7w6d which is still one day ahead of the IVF calendar. So, my new EDD is April 5th. Also, the perigestational bleed is smaller than it was last week! Whoo hoo to that! Tomorrow I will receive the exact measurments, but the u/s tech was as happy as can be! I'm really going to miss her!

My first OB appointment is September 7th. That's two weeks from tomorrow. The wait will be very hard as I'm addicted to weekly ultrasounds. Although, this is the cost of being "normal." But seriously, I plan to have them scan me right away to check on that bleed. I'm really hoping it's gone by September 7th.

Here is Trouble's latest photo at 7w6d. Oh, and Mr. Later Than Most totally approves of the name :)

Kohl's: More Than You Bargained For

I need new school clothes. My bloat makes me look pregnant, so I'm on a mission to hide it. Of course Mr. Later Than Most thinks it's so cute and claims it's all baby and not bloat (boy, he really needs to read a baby book!). Actually, I love that he thinks that!

So I went to Kohl's as one of my stops. I figured I'll look for more flowy type tops so no one notices my stomach after lunch. I walked around and around and figured I would drop into the maternity section when I was done as a last resort. I know I don't need maternity clothes, but I've heard about those maternity pants that have a regular waist and those would be fab. Well, I was hit by a nice clearance when I went into the maternity section. I tried a bunch of stuff on (because it was so cheap) and duh, the stuff made me look pregnant. So, I did buy one denim maternity skirt because it was only $15 bucks and a denim skirt is good for all seasons of teaching.

After finding a couple of other items in the women's section, I made my way to the checkout. My cashier was kinda like Mrs. Rogers would be. I watched her thumb through my stuff. As she came to the maternity skirt, she eyed me up and down, looked at the inside tag, pointed to it and said, "Does this mean anything?" Um, huh? What what the heck was she talking about?

Me: Yea.

Cashier: Oh, when are you due?

Me: Not for a long time. April 6th.

Cashier: Oh, I think you should just tell people April 1st. (Wow, that's weird, but thanks?)

Me: (smiling and biting tongue)

Cashier: Can I give you some advice for when the little one is born?

Holy shit. I'm like 7 weeks pregnant and this lady is already planning the birth. I wanted to tell her that I'm just trying to make it to week 8, but what the heck am I going to say with a line full of people who are now eyeing me up and down?

Me: Sure.

Cashier: When your baby is born, go get the newspaper and seal it to preserve it. Also, collect all of the coins from that year and put them in a plastic box. Then, your child will have the news baby and some coins from their birth!

WOW! Now, that was very sweet of her of course, but really? LOL My friends know that I'm not good with unsolicited advice. I don't know why, it's like a personality flaw. I mean, if it's good advice then I love it, but normally it just rubs me the wrong way. In this instance, I just thought it was really interesting. I felt guilty enough buying a maternity skirt at 7 weeks. From now on, I will take my purchases to a male cashier. Men will not give parenting advice to a woman, right? LMAO

Gotta love Kohl's.

Moving Along

Wednesdays are a huge milestone to me. They mark the beginning of a new week of pregnancy. Yesterday I hit 7 weeks! That means seven weeks ago I had my retrieval for IVF. I can't believe how fast this time has gone by. I'll be honest, I'm that girl who wakes up every morning and thinks, "Oh, 7w1d today!" That's okay, I could be doing worse things.

As for symptoms, I don't feel I have many. I know it's early, but on some forums I'm reading about girls saying how sick they are and tired at 5 weeks. Okay, I'm a little grateful that's not me! For me, I have a couple things that are different than pre pregnancy. First, I have a taste for nothing. This is pretty common this early. I can't find anything I want to eat, but my stomach will be growling and needing something. Normally, if I just find something that might sound good, it settles well. The other thing I noticed is that I get hungry sooner than normal. Yesterday I had lunch at 1pm and was literally starving by 5pm. That was really odd to me. How in the world will I have lunch at 11:25 during the school year and then not get home until 5pm? I will for sure need to do some better grocery shopping! Oh, I also have a fun case of insomnia. This actually started before the 5 week mark. I toss and turn all night long and go between the couch and the bed. Sometimes I wake up at 3am and I'm just wide awake. Now, if I didn't feel so lazy, I may actually be productive at those 3am wakings! Now, laziness may not be the right word, I just have no energy. If anyone in my family read this, they would literally think this was not my blog. I have never had an energy problem. I am constantly on the go. Right now, I kind of just look at the things I would like to do, and I wave to them from the couch. This is no way to look like Heidi Klum after the baby comes. Oh well, I have until April anyway.

I feel like if I don't talk about "the bleed," then maybe it doesn't exist. But I'll bring it up to tell you that I'm going back to my acupuncturist tomorrow. I have not gone to him since my retrieval. I started going in March for several reasons. First, acupuncture is supposed to do wonders for infertility. Now, it won't get you pregnant, but it will help. So, I started going to support the infertility, and because I was totally stressed out. I mean, I seriously hit my max on stress. My only options for the stress to were to manage it or seriously start talking to a therapist. So, I found an acupuncturist in my town and decided to start there. I spilled everything out to him and he was confident he could help. I tell you, after that first appointment, I felt like a new person. I was less anxious and I felt relaxed. So, I started going regularly. Yesterday I emailed him to tell him that my IVF worked (whoo hoo), but I kinda have the SCH issue going on (which is now called a perigestational bleed per my IVF nurse). Well, good 'ole Jim thinks acupuncture can help with this. So, tomorrow I'm off to get acupuncture again. I hope to go once or twice a week to get this bleed out of here! I'll be sure to update how it goes!

Oh, and do let me know if it sounds like my list of symptoms sounds like complaining and not updating. I promised myself to never complain about pregnancy if I ever got pregnant, and I really plan to stick to that. So, if I ever get out of line, feel free to let me know:)

Let's Talk About "Trouble"

So, I've talked about Heather before. She's my BFF from the TWW website. Yes, we've talked about finding internet friends before. If you don't have a friend in real life that you met online, then you are really missing out. I know it sounds creepy, but if women can find husbands on dating sites, why can't you find yourself some new friends on websites? All of my online friends are from TTC and pregnancy sites. I'm sure you are not surprised by that. Anyway- Heather and I decided that this little baby needed a name. Lots of people have cute names for their teeny embryos. Yes, I am aware that women normally do this with their husbands, but Mr. Later Than Most wasn't around for the texting. So, I decided that this LO was going to be named Trouble. Now, I know that sounds a little negative, but I think it's cute. . . especially after the whole bleeding crap that's been going on. It's so not the LO's fault at all, but I kinda like Trouble. Plus, Mr. Later Than Most is kinda trouble himself. ;)

Now for a real update! Today I had another u/s. This is u/s three in one week. Mind you, this is the ONE benefit of being an infertility patient. It is the only thing we get to brag about to those lucky preggers who get KU on the first try. In fact, on my message boards you'll hear girls say, "ZOMG, how am I going to wait until my 10th week for my first ultrasound?" Then, us infertility bitches come in with guns blazing, "Yeah, that must be hard. I've already had 5 ultrasounds and I'm only 7 weeks along!" ZING!!!! Again, this is all we have on them. And really, we don't do that, but it's better than their "How long did it take you get to preggo?" post that they love!

As I was saying, I went for an ultrasound today. My regular tech was there so I was excited to see her. Now, because I have an issue, I watch the tech like a hawk. If she doesn't speak within 60 seconds of moving the "magic wand" around, I'm ready to have a panic attack. Luckily, my experienced tech knows better. :) So, right away she tells me she sees the "peanut" and that the little heart is just beating away. She points the screen to me and is showing me how "great" everything looks. She obviously doesn't know what a Google whore I am, because right away I ask, "Do you see any bleeds?" She admits that she does, but she wants to focus on the baby first. Hmmmm, I know that trick. I do it at parent teacher conferences: good news first, not so good news second.

So after she tries desperately to use the 3-D machine to take a picture (omg, Trouble looked like a blob!), she points out the bleed. YEA, the bleed that was NOT there on Thursday. Damnit! She told me not to worry. It's a subchorionic bleed, which is common. Now I don't know what you consider common, but online it says like 5% of pregnancies. You know, since I'm already in that small infertility percent, I was kinda hoping I wouldn't be so "lucky" again. After my research I found that there is no explaination for SCH bleeds. It could be from implantation or not. Either way, the options are 1. it bleeds itself out 2. the body absorbs it 3. it causes some trouble. In worst case scenerio, it can cause miscarriage. Dr. Google says 1-3% miscarriage rate. So, that's where I'm at. I will go back to the RE on Monday for another scan, and I will also see my OB on that day. Scary stuff.

Right now I'm just relaxing. They told me over and over that I must take it easy. So, I'm doing just that. I'll stay on bedrest until Tuesday night. It's 72 hours for each bleed, and I had a teeny tiny bit on Saturday, so I'm counting that. Tomorrow my blood work will be in, so I'll talk to my IVF nurse and see what she says. Online I read that baby aspirin and progesterone can help rid bleeds, and I'm already on both. When you get bored, Google progesterone for my week of pregnancy. I'm off the charts at 107 at my last reading. That high of a number is normal found in the second trimester, so at least I have that going for me.

So, continue sending your thoughts and prayers. I'll take every one. For your viewing pleasure, I have two pictures of Trouble. I got smart and I put them on the light of my computer screen when taking a photo of them :) So, this is Trouble at 6w5d:

Trouble seems to be flying! It's the yolk sac:) The second u/s is the 3-D one

Another Sucky Day

Need I say more? I think you get the drift here. More spotting on Saturday night. I haven't left my bed in days. My next appointment is on Monday morning.

I think it's a really cruel joke to pull on someone who had to get pregnant through IVF. I'm just sayin. Not that it's any easier for anyone else, but life kinda sucked already. Isn't there a such thing as too much life suckage? Probably not.

**Sigh**

Laying Low

I'm still laying low. Doctors orders, I have until Sunday at noon to chill out in bed or on the couch. Thankfully, I haven't had any issues since Wednesday night. Each day that goes by, I feel a little bit better.

So, what have I done whilst stuck in bed for a little over two days? Ask and you shall receive. . .

1. Googled the crap out of what happened. I don't suggest this.

2. Watched about five episodes of Toddlers and Tiaras. Thank you to Comcast On Demand.

3. Spent way too much time on my chat forums. I mean really, I just jump from one to the next.

4. Watched more reality TV. A little Holly's World, Kardashians, Kourtney and Chloe. . . you name it, I saw it.

5. Internet gaming. LOL This is a new one. Mr. Later Than Most had volleyball last night and I really needed something to do. So I found myself a cute bingo game and won some "tokens." Then Mr. Later came home and I switch to roulette. We played (yes, we, he took over) that for a little while. I suddenly have 10,000 tokens.

6. Oh and I napped of course.

So, hopefully my classroom gets done this week. It's in shambles. Oh well, this is my 9th year teaching, I should be able to make it work. :)

**Sigh** A Scary Evening

Last night = not fun. I had my first (and hopefully last) pregnancy scare. I went to the bathroom (like I do every hour on the hour) and I had red blood and some light cramping. Not cool. Immediately the worst is coming to mind. I had about two "wipes" full and then it was gone. I freaked. Mr. Later Than Most was there to calm me and we agreed that I would call my RE in the morning.

This morning I gave them a call right away, but I got the IVF nurse's voicemail. Within an hour, I didn't have a call back. That was a little odd considering the situation and I knew that bloodwork would have to be in by 9:30am, so I called again. This time I was able to talk to the IVF nurse. I was so mad at myself because I cried on the phone with her. She reassured me that bleeding could be very normal, but since I was feeling crappy, she let me go in for a an ultrasound.

Mr. Later Than Most met me there from work. The ultrasound tech said everything looked great. The little heart was beating away, the baby measured right on track, and she saw no bleeding internally. After meeting with her, the IVF nurse came in and talked to us about our situation. She assured me that bleeding is common and it doesn't have to mean anything. She said it could be blood vessels, the suppositories I'm using, or a slew of non important things. They sent me home on 72 hours bed rest to be extra cautious.

One would think that I'd feel so much better after hearing a good report. I'm a little better, but just worried. I know there is NOTHING I can do. What will be, will be. But either way, it just plain sucks. Lucky for you, you'll be getting a lot of Later Than Most blogs while I sit in bed until Sunday.