Pregnancy Part 1

Today I am pregnant. This is the mantra that has helped me get from the 6-week ultrasound to the 8-week ultrasound. I know I have been pregnant because I have had "morning sickness" for a couple of weeks now. I fully abandoned my IVF diet cleanse and started carb loading. Recent meals that settled well in my stomach include: mac and cheese and pizza margherita.

July 3rd - 11dp5dt - E2: 1,014 pg/mL - P4: 31.4 ng/mL
July 5th - 13dp5dt - E2: 912 pg/mL - P4: 28.6 ng/mL
July 12th - 20dp5dt - E2: 1,110 pg/mL - P4: 29.4 ng/mL
July 19th - 34dp5dt - E2: 1,364 pg/mL - P4: 35.8 ng/mL
Aug 2nd - 47dp5dt - E2: 1,946 pg/mL - P4: 33.4 ng/mL

The fetal heart rate is 173 beats per minute, which is on track for the age of the embryo. In four days, we will be able to call this a fetus.

The news that we will be able to stop progesterone in oil (PIO) shots was surprising and very good to hear. The dose of estradiol shots was cut in half, so I will only have to endure 0.1 mL every third day. Continuing progesterone suppositories and estradiol oral tablets is not so bad.

Dear husband admitted that all the pseudoscience stuff we did prior to embryo transfer was part of the complex cocktail of good vibes that helped establish this pregnancy. The Sacred Woman, my prayer altar, the plants in my bedroom, the vegetable garden on our patio, all the dog walks, the acupuncture, the meditations on Ferticalm, our teamwork, the fresh cut flowers in the house, all of it helped me establish a calm and safe feeling, which may have helped the pregnancy establish itself.

I was worried about abandoning my "super healthy" and "garden of eden" diet. Shortly after embryo transfer I started gaining weight. I read that obese women should try to keep a constant weight or even lose weight in the first trimester, so this concerned me. But after tracking a bit longer, it seems like I gained a few pounds (probably in the breast tissue area) and then stabilized. I am still using MyFitnessPal to log food and weight, but I'm going easier on myself about what I am eating since my appetite is very delicate these days. 

I feel "good" between about 10am and 2pm and outside of those hours I feel very much like I have a bad hangover. The symptoms are headache and nausea with a little dizziness. I feel my boobs starting to hurt less, but the skin on my face is looking terrible! I have red blotches and dry patches and big blemishes, I've never had worse skin.

One big milestone that we did, which is partly why I changed the blog post title from "fertility" to "pregnancy" is we went to the Destination Maternity store at the Westfield Topanga Mall. I was like a crazy kid that didn't want to go to sleep, I made my husband walk ALL over the mall with me before going in to that store. When I finally got the courage to go in there, I just walked around gawking at the clothes and undergarments. I started looking at the sizes and they were S, M, L and a few XL. I was like whoa!

Luckily, dear husband started chatting up the saleslady. She took a look at my body and got out her measuring tape and got me fitted with a 38DDD nursing bra with underwire. She picked out two pairs of maternity pants in size L: one dark denim jegging and one pair of tight black slacks. They do have "petite" sizes so I don't have a lot of fabric bunching at the ankle. They fit weird, but she said that is how they are supposed to look. I also got a support garment that can support my "bump" after it pops, which has a pocket for an ice pack built into the garment. It is for when I'm teaching lab and running around. I have a feeling I will need some extra support under my lab coat!

I am feeling a bit nervous about my first appointment with my new obstetrician (OB). It will be on Monday. So far, they have given me the wrong fax number and claimed that they don't have my records when my fertility doctor sent them over 9 days ago. But I will continue to keep the faith that we will find support when we seek it. I don't have a list of questions for her, and I guess most of my questions involve costs of things and timing of things and who will deliver the baby and where the baby will be delivered (due to our health insurance) and what tests we can skip because we are IVF patients.

I downloaded three pregnancy apps (1) Ovia (2) Hello Belly and (3) Sprout. I like Ovia because it seems like it tracks symptoms well. I like Hello Belly because it has these checklists week-by-week that help me feel prepared and help me discuss things with my husband so that he can also feel prepared. If I'm not mistaken, Hello Belly prompted me to purchase a $20 lifetime subscription to unlock the content after a free download. The other two were free.