This Pregnancy So Far

I haven't updated in forever. We'll just blame that on lack of time and energy. The first trimester whooped my butt in terms of fatigue and most days I could barely keep my eyes open for a few hours at a time. Had a little bit of nausea (a bit more than just the gagging of my pregnancy with Charlie) and have had some pretty massive headaches.

I'm currently 15 weeks and 2 days! Time was going so slow at first (probably due to waiting for the ultrasounds and my first prenatal appointment) but now it feels like it's speeding up. Not sure how I feel about that since this could be my last pregnancy and I'm really trying to savor every moment.

We've had 2 ultrasounds so far. First one on June 24th...

Baby's Debut At 6 Weeks 5 Days. Measured 6 Weeks 3 Days HR 118

And the second one on July 8th...

Baby Measured Dead On At 8 weeks 5 Days HR 166

We won't have another one until I'm 20 weeks because the military hospital I go to operates a little wacky in my opinion. When I first went to make my appointment around 7 weeks in preparation of being released by my RE, they told me that I had to come in and do a blood test to confirm pregnancy or they can't make my first appointment. I argued that I had already had 2 betas done and 1 ultrasound (and would have another by the time I came in) so I'm sure I'm pregnant and they said no go. I asked if getting records from my RE would suffice and she said it should. Well, it didn't. On top of the fact that they won't even think of seeing you until 12 weeks (their reasoning is they can't hear the heartbeat on doppler before then so they don't make appointments until they can. Funny, I heard my baby's heartbeat on my doppler at 8 weeks 3 days...), they insisted they needed a positive blood test on record through their hospital. Ok, fine, whatever. I needed the full prenatal panel anyway. 

But now this is where I think things get annoying/odd. They absolutely needed a positive blood test for their records, but they don't need an ultrasound from their own hospital for their records.

HUH???

How on earth do they accurately date a pregnancy? Not everyone that walks through those doors knows when they ovulated or even when their last period was for that matter. Do they just guess? At first I thought that I wasn't getting one because I had already had some through my RE but they told me at my "one on one" that they just don't do them until 20 weeks. 

Boy do I feel sorry for any woman who is going to be surprised by twins halfway through their pregnancy.

And boy am I happy I was seeing an RE. Can you imagine the wreck I would have been of going half my pregnancy with no ultrasound. Don't think so!

So far the only thing I am truly impressed with concerning their care is that they are going to allow me to do a VBAC (or a TOLAC* as they call it). Don't get me wrong I'm fairly excited that there are midwives there too, but in a military hospital, it doesn't matter who you like. Who you get depends on what day of the week and what time of day you go into labor. Midwives are during the day and the doctors (all male might I add) are at night. I'm not really surprised at that though. It's how it was when I had my daughter. The doctor who delivered my baby I had only met the day before when she was telling me my water broke and I was being admitted and induced.

Oh well.

Next appointment is on September 3rd and I guess that's when we'll see if I get another odd look/question (is your bladder full) when they check the size of my uterus.

*For those that have never heard this term before, it's called Trial Of Labor After Cesarean. I had only heard of this being referred to as a VBAC but the midwife there insists that a VBAC is when you have successfully given birth naturally after a c-section. The attempt itself is called a TOLAC. Whatever.

And I leave you with this...

15 Weeks

This Is Why I've Been So Quiet

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

I can't believe our first IUI worked!

After MULTIPLE home tests, we went for the initial beta today and it came back at 113!

We have our second beta on Thursday and fingers crossed it doubles!

Well Lookie There

It appears I have ovulated on my own again. Don't really know what day exactly since I wasn't temping most of the cycle but I have narrowed it down to between CD19 and CD 23. I'm leaning more towards CD22 based on temp trends but who knows, I could be wrong. Either way, I've got the usual post-O symptoms. Tender/sore ta-tas, some nausea, some heartburn, some serious irritability etc. I tested once, but if I'm right on my recalculated O day, I was actually only on something like 7DPO so obviously it was negative. I don't plan on testing anymore this cycle though. I'm just going to wait for the inevitable start of my period.

:sigh:

I was really trying to stay optimistic and try the positive thinking and visualization thing, but it's just so hard for me. For almost 6 years combined we've been TTC and I've gotten pregnant 5 times and have just 1 child. Not to mention the years of natural failure (when I FINALLY ovulated 39679576 days into my cycle), and the months of Clomid failures, I just can't stay optimistic anymore. I wouldn't say I'm exactly pessimistic, but when the odds are clearly against you, it's hard to have that little voice that whispers "it's possible it worked" come through.

Only time will tell. My temps aren't looking too out of the ordinary so I'm already pretty sure we're going to be going to our RE appointment on the 26th but it sure would be nice if we didn't have to.

Long Overdue Update

So a friend of mine recently started blogging. I then realized I haven't blogged in quite a while. Mostly it's because we are stuck not trying for now, but we also recently moved so much of my time has been consumed by that.

So let's see. What has happened since my last post...

We moved. Thank goodness! We finally got a house on post and best of all, it's a brand new house, I mean brand.new. No one has lived in it since it was built so it was nice to come in and have to do generally deep cleaning rather than clean up previous tenant's mess deep cleaning.

We bought a new car! Well, an SUV crossover really. It's a 2013 Dodge Journey. It was a pain in the butt to get it due to the first dealership we went to trying to royally screw us over by only offering us $500 for my 2009 Cobalt sedan (among other things they tried to screw us over with) which is in perfect running condition and has general wear and tear for a 4 year old car that has traveled from Alaska to Louisiana to Buffalo (and back and forth between the 2 over 2 years) to Disney World to Oklahoma to Ft. Benning back to Oklahoma and back and forth to Buffalo a couple times. It had 80,000 miles on it. You get the picture lol. We ended up going to a different dealer who was MUCH more cooperative and instantly gave us $6500 for our trade in and a helluva better deal (no money down and still cheaper than the other guys where we were gonna put $2,000 down) We also got to save on taxes since hubby is still a resident of Alaska. Woot!

I've lost weight! At this point I'm 1.5 months-ish deep into weight loss pills. I have officially, as of today, lost 16.3 pounds. I'm hoping to squeeze out at the very least 5 more pounds. Initially my goal weight was 120 with my ultimate goal weight being 115. I only have to lose 1.7lbs to get to my original goal weight so I think that one is pretty doable. I'm fairly confident I can make it to 115 too.

And last, but certainly not least, we have an appointment set for our new RE!!! We go on April 26th for our first appointment. I've been researching her like crazy and I really like what I'm reading. She so far seems very accomplished, intelligent, and progressive. And every patient review I've read says she is very nice, will take the time to answer questions you may have (and not make you feel rushed) and more than 1 said she didn't make you feel like a statistic. I still worry about the 3 IUI limit before moving to IVF, but I really think just 1 IUI is all we will need. (I hope)

So that is what is going on with me right now. Some more waiting but at least this time we know an IUI is most certainly in our future. The money is there and waiting and so are the meds. Just gotta see if they are gonna have me do a month of birth control first (which I assume they will since I haven't had my period since 1/18).

Shit just got real.

Well Happy New Year To Me

Today we got a letter in the mail from my RE's office. I thought to myself, great, this must be a bill or something for something Tricare decided not to cover.

Well, I was wrong. It's a letter to inform me that my doctor will be retiring 1 month from today.

The letter recommends we go to Oklahoma University for treatment and so far research has shown that they will only do 3 IUIs and then your only option is IVF.

We simply cannot afford IVF. Especially since Tricare will not cover anything at all for anything that isn't timed intercourse.

So needless to say I'll be discussing my options with my doctor on the 4th to see who we can go to and how long it will take to get an appointment.

I'm feeling pretty defeated right now. Especially since I had to start birth control again last night.

And it's going to drive me nuts never knowing just how much an IUI would have cost with my doctor now.