16 week ultrasound

So we had our 16 week ultrasound today and baby is growing perfectly and looking great.  It was quite the epic ultrasound (2 hours of just imaging).  As the baby gets bigger there is more and more that they can measure (femur, finger bones, parts of brain, ventricles of heart, bladder, stomach, etc.)  It is such a relief, as usual, to see the baby is growing perfectly!  It is also crazy that just the femur is 2 cm, when at 7 weeks the whole baby was 1 cm.  It is sure growing!

My health, after an amazing meteoric climb up, is starting to taper a bit.  Tomorrow I will be down to 30 mg of prednisone (I had been as high as 60 mg).  However, it is a little concerning that I am getting a little worse already.  My doctor wants me to hold at 30 if this trend continues, so we’ll see.  She is fairly concerned that the 3^rd trimester is going to bring another really bad flare and doesn’t want us to fall behind before it starts.  So far though, the takeaway is that it is encouraging I have responded well to the prednisone.  The only thing to do now is to do an early glucose tolerance test to make sure that I don’t have gestational diabetes (prednisone makes this more likely), which will be in 2 weeks.  Hopefully I don’t, but if I do, we’d rather know and be controlling it!

Tonight we are cutting the baby cake to find out the gender (we took a sealed envelope to the baker yesterday after the appointment).  Although I don’t have a strong opinion either way, I am super excited to find out.  People keep asking me if I have an impression.  I have to say, although I have no idea why, I’m leaning towards girl (or at least most of my dreams last night had the inside of the cake being pink).  I guess I have a 50/50 chance, so we’ll see in less than 12 hours.  For those of you out-of-towners, if we get too tired tonight, we’ll call people tomorrow with the news. 

15 weeks

Yay, well things are turning around and I have to say I am actually starting to think about the pregnancy more and enjoying that is it is on my mind.  I swear I think about the pregnancy at least every 5 minutes, and it is a fun thought.  Although I can’t feel the baby yet, I am aware that it is there (feeling a little rounder in the tummy) and it does feel like a little companion throughout the day.  I am finding myself thinking to or even sometimes talking to my baby and telling it how loved it is!  I am surprised how much love I already feel for a small bulge in my tummy.

We are so pleased that taking the prednisone has helped so much.  Of course there is a bit of fear in the back of both of our minds as to whether I will be able to continue tapering off of it, but for now I am down from 60 mg to 40 mg and have continued to improve.  I went from barely being able to take enough steps to get food/water, etc to walking 4000 steps yesterday and being out of my normal chair setup for almost the whole day (only about a 30 min break where I sat down in my setup).  So far I am feeling good that we are over the worst of it and if not smooth from here out, we know what it takes to get there.

Although I enjoy feeling well, of course the best part is that if my disease is better, than the outcome of the pregnancy is likely to be better, so we know that this improvement is good for everyone.  On a more selfish level, I love getting out of the house and seeing friends/family and it means so much to me to be able to do this from time to time.  I also was able to work 6.5+ hours each day last week, and feel like I was doing more quality work and this fills me with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. 

Well now that we are less than 6 months away from parenthood we are starting to think more about prepping the house for this big change.  We, like most people who move into a big house with more space than furniture, never got rid of much and it is time to purge things that we don’t use or don’t meet our needs.  We had our wonderful friends Chris and Mo and Jared and Becky come over as well as my Dad for some serious heavy lifting to get computers/monitors/tvs and big desks/furniture out of the house.  After the 2 carloads to the dump and 3 to Goodwill/Salvation Army we now have a pretty empty office to work with and a lot more open storage space in the garage.  We were so grateful for the help and I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders to have taken the first step towards getting the house ready.  We have a lot left to do, but if we do a little every week or two, I know we’ll be ready in no time.

In that same vein, I am feeling a little more nesty.  Of course, feeling better means I can also act more on these feelings, but I find myself waking up in the morning with my mind buzzing about thinking of all the things we need to do or look into.  I don’t feel a sense of stress about getting ready (at least not yet), but I feel an excitement and energy that makes me more interested in scanning the web for the right file cabinet than reading my book or watching tv. 

Lastly I have been reading the pregnancy/birth book that our hospital provides everyone.  It is actually a pretty impressive resource and I have learned a lot already.  Although I have so much more to learn, it is fun to start covering all the bases.  Again, the feeling of moving forward a little now makes me feel more prepared for the baby to come in 6 months.

We will probably find out the sex on the 24^th, but we may wait and find out in a dyed cake the following Sunday (pink inside means girl, etc.).  Obviously we’ll keep you all posted as soon as we know.  We can’t wait to know the gender of our little one and then start the fun process of naming it!  Although for those of you wanting to buy little pink dresses or blue  getups, we will prefer to have mostly gender neutral clothing and toys (although there will be plenty of time for that shopping later, and soon I will start working on a registry for the necessities).

12 weeks ultrasound

We just had our 12 week ultrasound and appointment and everything is looking great.  The baby is measuring perfectly (12 weeks 3 days, when we are actually 12 weeks 2.5ish days).  It is about 2 inches long and about the size of a small lime!  This is also the appointment where they do the screening for major birth defects and downs.  The first part of the tests were all negative and the second part comes back in about a week.

Although it has been a pretty rough 5 weeks, the last 4 days has shown some small improvements to give us some hope.  My stomach is certainly consistently better (although still not completely normal or problem free).  My arthritis, after no improvement at 1 week of 30 mg, seems to be improving slightly at 60 mg over the past 4 days.  Enjoyment of this improvement has been dampened by my jaw getting even worse with a dislocation on Sunday.  I’m feeling generally stronger and when I get up to help in the kitchen, I don’t feel  dead tired for 10 minutes instead of 3, which is nice.  I still have to be really careful because any sort of increased motion can set off a flare for days, so I have to protect my joints and be smart about repetition.  Of course Charles is still the most amazing partner taking care of most chores and just being fun and supportive throughout!

The doctor is still pretty concerned about how active my arthritis/stomach problems are and wanting to keep our treatment on the aggressive side to get this under control.  This means I will stay on the 60 mg of prednisone for another 2 days and then start tapering 5 mg every 5 days, but only if things are improving.  We both agree that my slight improvement is promising but that it doesn’t seem like we have one the battle so we need to make sure we don’t reduce the prednisone too quick and end up behind the 8 ball again. 

Overall, I’m feeling more positive about the improvement, although continuing to adjust my expectations that this pregnancy will likely be hard throughout (*something my Dr echoes and wants us to be prepared for).  I feel my current health is getting closer to the point that would be endurable with a decent quality of life for the next 6 months.  I am looking forward to feeling the baby and seeing the baby more in me, although the last few weeks I have noticed more of a baby bump developing despite being about 2 lbs down from my starting weight (see pic).

Lastly, I am really sad I won’t be seeing all of Charles’ family next week.  You know how much I love seeing and spending time with all of you and although we both were very excited to come, it just wasn’t in the cards.  Here’s hoping it can happen in the next month or two!

11 weeks

Well, it has been a rough 4 weeks now, but we have some hope for better because I started prednisone on Friday (on day 3 now) and will be on it for at least 26 days (and then hopefully can stop).  I am starting at 30 mg now and after tomorrow will drop 2.5 mg every 2 days.  If things start getting worse again by the end I can slow it down, but the goal is to not stay on it any longer than I need to.  It should help my arthritis for sure and should also clear up the GI problems I have been having (although they have been improving a little over the last 2 weeks).

I am feeling a little stronger, and am no longer losing weight (and have gained back 4 of the 7 pounds I lost).  I am already noticing that I am a little thicker in the stomach (although not noticeable to others).  My pants certainly fit a little oddly.

I am able to work a little more (from about 10 hours a week to 20-25 the last two weeks).  This included 4 dr appts too, so it means more of my hours at home are productive. 

9 week checkup

As most of you know, it has been a pretty rough last two weeks.  At first my problems were mostly with my GI tract (nausea, cramping, loss of appetite, and diarrhea), but now my arthritis has flared to the point that I can barely walk around the house to use the bathroom, get food, etc. 

Because of the bumpy last weeks, the OB wanted me to come in to check my vitals and check out the baby.  The good news is that the baby is measuring perfectly (exactly 9 weeks and 1 day, as it should) and the heart rate of 175 is great.  See the below picture where our little baby is 2 cm long and I think looks like a cute house mouse.  It was such a relief to hear that all the struggles I have had are not negatively affecting the baby.  My vitals also look good and I got commended on my hydration (despite my weight loss).

We need to continue to try to figure out what is wrong with my stomach and we have ruled out bacterial/parasite/viruses as of today.  The next step is a gastroenterology appointment on Thursday morning.  We want to find out what non B/P/V causes could cause these symptoms.  The concern of my OB and PCP (primary care provider) is that I have some type of inflammatory bowel disease.  These are autoimmune gastro-intestinal diseases and include Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.  Since I already have 1 auto-immune disease, I am more likely to have another.  What we need to figure out from the gastroenterologist is whether there are other things it could be and what treatments would even be worth pursuing during pregnancy.  My Enbrel should already help Crohn’s, but prednisone would help all.

I have been taking a lot of time off work and will continue doing that as necessary.  My priority is keeping me and the baby healthy.  I have about 19 weeks of paid leave available before I have to take leave without pay.  Either way, my job is not at risk, and we are financially stable even without my salary.  However, given my health, we are not going to the do the remodel before the baby, which gives us a little extra cash in case of emergency.

Charles is picking up the brunt of everything around the home turning in to a superman going to the store (many times a week), cooking, cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, and working full time and coming to all my doctor appointments.  Honestly our house is cleaner than usual and it is such a relief to not worry about anything.  I am so lucky to have him.  We have a lot of people around who can help but so far Charles has done it mostly on his own so far. 

Thanks for all the love and support as we go through this not-so-ideal first trimester.

5/22/2012 – 7 week ultrasound

Well we just go to meet our baby for the first time.  He/she is about 1 cm long and their heartbeat is about 145 bpm (watching it beat on the monitor was pretty surreal).  It is measuring perfectly for the age and apparently my uterus looks “perfect” in terms of its development.  In the picture, you can see the baby (the ultrasound tech was kind enough to label it), and below is the yolk sack.  All the light colored stuff around the edge of the uterus is happy pre-placenta stuff.  They can tell just from the ultrasound that my uterus is reacting well to the hormones and is ready to make this baby thing happen.  The doctor declared that we now have a very slim chance of miscarriage (like a few percent, down from 20-25%).

This appointment consisted of the ultrasound and measurements.  Next we met with one of the nurses for a while and she went over an extensive history and gave us a bunch of info on birth, classes, and even a nice book to read.  Then the doctor, Caroline Kline, came in.  She is just as awesome as I remember, and I was immediately SOOOO glad we chose our OB so well and even MORE glad that she agreed to take us on as a private patient.  Apparently most patients in the clinic are just consults and few get full-time care.  They treat their “private patients” extra specially and unlike most practices, unless my doctor is out of town or doing something they can’t get out of, they will be at my birth.  Dr. Kline answered all of our questions and talked about how good everything is going said we will be getting ultrasounds every month until later (and then they will be more frequent).  Then we did an exam and they took half a pint of blood (seriously like 13 vials), and I was done. 

My next ultrasound is at 12 weeks and I will be doing the usual stuff plus they do some of the genetic screening (not the invasive ones) at this point to identify downs and other issues.  Following that is 16 weeks when we can find out the gender of the baby. 

It is really exciting to see the baby and see that all of the morning sickness and fatigue has been for a good cause!  I am already flooding with maternal love for this little growing baby. 

6 weeks

2 weeks have gone by since I found out I was pregnant.  I wish I could say the weeks were easy but because of a bad cold, the beginnings of morning sickness, some increased arthritis and now throwing out my back, it has been a little too eventful for my taste.  However, I am super elated with being pregnant and honestly the more weird symptoms I get, including now some discomfort around my uterus, just makes me actually feel pregnant, something I was missing before.  It’s is starting to sink in that we are actually pregnant, but at the same time, so is a little more anxiety.
 

I don’t know if it is all hormones, but I am definitely more forgetful and less smart than usual.  I forget whether I have done something, I’ll mix up what I am doing or just not be able to think through something that would have been easy before.  It is sort of funny, but as someone who prides myself on being intelligent and in control, it is also pretty frustrating. 

It’s Amazing How Quickly Things Change

I am really shocked with the little strange sensations and feelings already at this point.  Having dealt with stomach problems and pain for a while, they are not super painful or uncomfy, but they are odd and a constant reminder of this pregnancy miracle.  I am finding it hard to think about anything else except the pregnancy.  I don’t think my arthritis is really any better but I do feel like I have more energy and can do a little bit more because my mind feels the need to making progress towards having our house ready for a baby (of course being careful to not overdo it).

I am feeling like the whole world should know I am pregnant (of course I am not following through with it). I think am realizing why….my body gets a lot of crap for all the bad things it does.  However, I DID IT, I at least got pregnant!  I work!  My body hasn’t impressed me a lot in the last 10 years, but this little miracle is really cool!

Finally We’re Pregnant – We can’t wait to meet our little poppy seed!

We found on May 1, 2012 that we were pregnant!  Based on my last two cycles at 26 days, I was expecting to get my period on April 30^th, but it didn’t come.  When I took my temperature on Tuesday (May 1) it was up to 99.2 (usual is 97.8 before ovulation and 98.6 after ovulation).  Form the “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” book we used, I knew that a temperature rising likely meant pregnancy.  The increased temperature, combined with 1 day late on my period led us to take a pregnancy test.  Lo and behold it was POSITIVE!  We calculated (and the Dr. confirmed) a due date of January 9, 2013.

I think neither Charles nor I knew exactly how to respond.  It doesn’t seem real!  Plus the fact that we have a 25% chance of miscarriage makes your brain not want to celebrate a done deal quite yet.  Charles’ reaction was to walk into the future baby room (which is cluttered with stuff) and just stare.  It cracked me up.  I agree that knowing that if this pregnancy lasts, the due date in Jan 9^th, makes me really feel like we need to get the remodel done and get everything organized an ready.
I am already feeling some early pregnancy symptoms: very tender/painful breasts, fatigue, and perhaps some morning sickness, but hard to tell.  I also have a terrible cold, which is putting a bit of a damper on the excitement this week. 

So being me, I immediately got the internet to read a little about baby development.  I disallowed myself from any baby reading until we were pregnant, so now I got to look.  According to sites, at 4 weeks our baby is a poppy seed and it is currently growing to the size of a sesame seed.  It is crazy to hear that at this point it is already developing a nervous system, circulatory system, and digestive system!  I can’t wait to learn more as this baby grows. 

We have an appt on May 22^nd with the doctor to hear the heartbeat for the first time.  I think it will feel much more real once we hear that.  Plus, although there is a decent chance of miscarriage in the first trimester, it goes down somewhat after you hear the heartbeat (although I know of 2 miscarriages after this point with my friends).  Either way, whether it is this pregnancy, or another, I know we have all the right equipment and I am confident Charles and I will be able to be parents soon!

Catch Up

I stopped posting on the blog for a bit when we hadn't yet told people we were pregnant, but now that it is all official, I am going to officially post the few "email updates" that I had written for family along the way.  Sorry to clog everyone's inbox, but I want to have all these posts in the same place for later.  I'll also post a new post at the end, so skip to that if you don't want a recap.