Kristie's Bump Watch - 6/10/2010

This is me on 6/10/2010 when I was 13 weeks. This marks the true end to the first trimester and makes me feel better that Nugget is going to be okay. At this point, there is only a 2% chance of miscarriage. My nausea has subsided, so I no longer have to take Zofran, and all of my food aversions have gone away. However, I am now experiencing some heartburn, so eating sometimes upsets my stomach. My exhaustion is also starting to subside a little bit, so I don't have to take naps every day (like I was doing for a couple of weeks), but I still get tired pretty quickly and definitely need to go to bed early. And my intense hunger still shows up every so often.

On 6/9, my waist was 35", so I have gained about 3" so far.

On 6/17, I went to my second OB appointment. At this appointment, they checked the heartbeat with a monitor instead of doing an ultrasound. The doctor was able to find Nugget's heartbeat pretty quickly and it was really strong, which he said was really great! So now I feel SO much better about Nugget being healthy and strong. I was 141 lbs at the doctor and my waist was 35.25", so I only gained 1 lb since the last doctor appointment 4 weeks ago, even though I gained 1.5".

Fourth ultrasound - 5/19/2010

On 5/19/2010, I had my first OB appointment and they did another ultrasound. Nugget was looking really good again, which was a relief. At this point, I was 9.5 weeks, so I was still nervous about miscarriage.

Today ended up being my most emotional day so far. I cried on and off all day for no reason. It was awful. Thankfully, it didn't last and I've only had a few other emotional days ever since. Even Paul has said that I haven't turned into crazy pregnant lady :)

On 5/20, my waist was 33.75", so I actually lost .25" since the last time I measured about 2 weeks ago, but I was 140 lbs at the doctor's appointment! Hopefully the doctor's scale and my scale aren't quite in sync because that's 9 lbs in a month!

Third Ultrasound - 5/11/2010

On 5/11/2010, I had my third ultrasound. All of these ultrasounds have been with my fertility doctor and not my OB. Typically I wouldn't be having this third ultrasound with my fertility doctor, but because we lost The Kernel last week, they said I could come in again to check on Nugget, which was really nice. My fertility clinic is so awesome. Nugget's heartbeat and size were looking great again, so we were really excited about that (Paul has been to all the ultrasounds).

Above is the ultrasound picture of Nugget. She looks like a real person in this picture! So cool! We are still referring to her as a her right now, but still really have no idea if it's a boy or girl.

As of 5/10, my waist was 34". I stopped weighing myself because I found out that my scale uses electrical impulses to measure body fat and water, so I can't use it anymore. But so far I have gained 2 inches.

Paul took a picture of me at 8 weeks on 5/6. Just a little bump so far.

Second ultrasound - 5/3/2010

On 5/3/2010, we had our second ultrasound and found out the The Kernel didn't make it :( It was really sad and hard to take, but we know that it was obviously for the best. And after thinking about it for a while, we decided that we are happy to only have one now because we will be able to focus on him/her and figure out the parenting thing before having a second one. And we understand the older/younger sibling dynamic but not the twin dynamic, so we'll be able to handle non-twin issues better. And now my body can completely focus on Nugget, whose heartbeat is really strong and looking good! As long as I have one healthy baby, I feel blessed and happy.

To the right is my second ultrasound picture showing Nugget. Still not much to look at, but much bigger than before!

The past week, my morning sickness was getting worse and crackers just didn't seem to be cutting it anymore, so I started taking Zofran and it's awesome! Although I still have food aversions and some smells bother me, but I'm no longer nauseous. I've also gotten the pregnancy acne, which is awesome :) I'm also getting pretty tired and hungry. I seem to have almost every pregnancy symptom the books list, but I like having the symptoms because it reminds me that Nugget is doing well.

As of 4/30, I weighed 134.4 and my waist was 33.5". Wow, quite a jump. Stupid fatty :) But the bump is hard, so I'm pretty sure it's my uterus growing and not my fat reserves (at least I tell myself that - lol).

First ultrasound - 4/26/2010

On 4/26/2010, we had our first ultrasound and found out the both blastocysts implanted! They both had heartbeats, but one was weaker than the other. I was a little nervous about that one but the doctor said that at this point (6.5 weeks) sometimes there isn't a heartbeat yet. The one with the strong heartbeat is the girl, who we call Nugget, and the other one is the boy, who we call The Kernel (or Colonel, we never determined the spelling :)). We were very excited to be having twins because we figured then we would be done in one shot and not have to go through this again.

On 4/23, I started getting morning sickness, and at our ultrasound appointment, my doctor said I could use Zofran to get rid of it if it gets really bad. Let me tell you, it did end up getting worse and Zofran was my savior. For any girl reading this who is planning on getting pregnant in the future, make sure you get Zofran if you have morning sickness! It is a life saver!

To the right is our first ultrasound picture. You can see both sacs and a small little dot in each, which are the babies. Not much to look at yet, but so cool!

At the beginning of the pregnancy, I had about a 32" waist and was around 131 lbs. By 4/26, I had gained about 1/2" and no weight.

Blastocyst transfer - 3/31/2010

On 3/31/2010, I had 2 Blastocysts (which are 5 day old fertilized embryos) transferred into my uterus. We were hoping that both took because we figured twins would be fun and we would get 2 for 1 :) The transfer was really easy but it was a little emotional too. It has been such a long process up to this point trying naturally for so long and then the meds didn't work the first IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization) cycle, so the doctors had to double the dosage this cycle, which made me a little crazy :) So there was such a build-up to the transfer and now I just sit and wait to see if it works.

If anyone ever has to go through the fertility process and want some advice or just to talk, I would love to talk to you about it because if there's anything I can say to help you get through it, that will be a bonus for me. This has been a tough process and it's only the beginning of the journey...

To the right are pictures of the 2 blastocysts that were transferred. It's amazing what scientists can do. Don't worry, I won't be showing this picture to my kid and telling him/her that he/she was conceived in a petri dish :)