11 weeks

Thanksgiving.  I am up at 1 am writing this because my stomach is still too full.  I am thankful for this in spite of the discomfort because I know many people are going hungry.  Having worked on farms, I know how hard it is to produce food for humanity and I am astounded at the abundance on our table today.  After saying my silent prayers for farm laborers, I completely stuffed my face. One piece of advice: Brine the bird.  Best. Turkey. Ever. 

What else are we thankful for this year? Hmmm....let me see...

1) The first dude who thought IVF might actually work. 

2) The first dude who listened to that guy.

3) My gynecologist who didn't mince words when I told him how long we had been trying to conceive on our own.

4) That I "only" had a fallopian tube problem.

5) That we could afford IVF.

6) That my clinic was awesome.

7) That the docs and nurses were so competent.  

8) That it worked the first time.

9) That I am plain-old pregnant.

10) That I am almost through the first trimester and am relatively symptom-free.

11) That my parents first comment upon seeing me today was, "you've got boobs, I know that makes you happy".  

The boobs showed up 2-3 days ago.  I bought 2 Medela "night nursing" bras that are perfect.  

I feel good. Yes, it's true.  I cannot believe that I never vomited. I have minor heart burn here and there and occasional insomnia and a very strange bowel pattern that you don't want to hear about, but that's it.  I've been afraid to say it, but for the past week or so, I feel sort of normal.  No more motion sickness even. 

Ah yes! I bought a small doppler.  I can usually find one heartbeat right away, but the other is elusive and makes me think his/her amniotic sack is placed mostly behind the other.  They swim around. Toward the doppler, then away.  The thought of this...is...hard to categorize.  I can definitely feel them on occasion.  I'm sure it will get more weird.  Our nuchal translucency scan is on Tuesday.  I'm so excited to see these two again. 

My parents are more excited than we are.  They want to know what kind of crib, stroller, car seat, clothing etc... that we want.  I pretended not to know yet, for politeness sake.  I don't want them breaking the bank, plus, I couldn't bear it if we began purchasing and something went wrong.  I'm not sure when we should set up though...probably at 28 weeks or so, just in case they come early...which won't happen because I say so. 

My father-in-law has issued a belly size challenge.  I think I will win.  I'm only 17 inches away.

Weeeee!

10 Weeks

I went for my first official OB visit today, which was with a nurse.  It involved a bunch of boring paperwork and a pee test and a blood draw.  I tried to whine my way into a quickie doppler evaluation, but it didn't work.  After posting this, I'm going to buy a doppler.  

There were a few really awkward moments during my appointment.  The IVF part of the clinic is highly coordinated and I felt that everyone always knew everything about me without me having to explain repeatedly.  I sort of expected something similar for the OB half of the office especially considering that they have my actual IVF file available, a rarity in this situation.  I will not judge my upcoming OB experience based solely on today's visit, but I was not impressed.  

First, the nurse put today's weight as my "pre-pregnancy weight".  I said, I actually know my pre-pregnancy weight (138 pounds), and it's also in my IVF chart.  She said that "because today's visit is the first documented OB visit, I have to write that this weight (148 pounds) is your pre-pregnancy weight, because we have no prior documentation". What? Does this make sense?  I'm 10 weeks pregnant through your IVF program, and you have my DOCUMENTED weight right in front of you in my IVF chart.  Okaaaay.

Then the nurse insisted that I had to have a repeat STD panel, which I had about 4 months ago as part of the IVF process.  She couldn't find those results in my IVF file, because she didn't look thoroughly enough and said that I had to have it done because she couldn't find the results right then.  She works in an OB/IVF clinic, and told me repeatedly that she has done so for years...so why doesn't she know that I had to have had these tests done pretty recently to even initiate IVF? Same with the PAP smear, which I just nodded about today, but plan to refuse when the time comes.  

The icing on the cake was that my mad scientist Turkish RE accidentally wrote down that my embryo transfer was on 9/22, not 9/27.  Who cares, right? There are other supporting documents...right?  But she wouldn't believe that he could have written the wrong day, and wouldn't believe me, and wouldn't look in the chart, saying she could only "look in the computer some other time".  So on every form, she put my due date and weeks a little off saying she'd "fix it later if it was wrong". If? GRRRRRR.  Insanely though,  she kept saying I was only 9 weeks, and at that point, instead of pointing out sternly that if my embryo transfer was almost a week before I said it was, then I would be a week more pregnant, not a week less, I just went within, avoiding eye contact for the rest of the visit.  She had my chart right in front of her, and I almost took it out of her hands.  My conclusion is that she is 1 card short, if you get my meaning.  

I know that this is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, and it will all be fixed, but I was underwhelmed by the 'I can't trust the patient' attitude after the can-do IVF crew.  I just decided to stop resisting the way the appointment was going and call the clinic in the morning to talk to my IVF nurse so that she can help me correct the dates and ensure I'm seeing who I'm supposed to see at the correct times.

All of that BS evaported though when I found out a phenomenal thing during my meeting with the biller's office today.  They told me that we only have to pay one 25 dollar co-pay to have these babies.  Including hospital costs, even if it's a c-section.  I asked them to repeat themselves about 3 times, and I still plan to call tomorrow to ask if this is really, really, really true.  They kept saying, "just make sure you pay the $25 when you see the OB or they won't schedule your follow up appointments" as if it was too much.  M-kay.  I practically wept.  I was like, "$25? Come on, how about 5G?". Such is the financial mindset of the self-pay IVFer.  I completely forgot that I actually do have health insurance.  

9 weeks, Back in Business

Our household has been incommunicado for 2 weeks.  I could ramble on and on about why, but I won't.  Okay, just a little... Last year we dropped our landline.  A successful, effective, money saving endeavor overall.  We were happy with our completely wireless existence until...Ver.izon took over All.tel and then got into a local fight with Spr.int about who got to use who's towers and we were very suddenly left out in the cold.  No phones.  No internet.  Panic ensued.  Feeling far too vulnerable, we have now returned to a land line.  We went with another company for our wireless needs.  We are back in business as of today.  The Spr.int guy actually said these words to me, "can't you just wait 2 or 3 more weeks while we fix this problem?"  BWAHAHAHAHA.  BYE-BYE! 

Here are my exciting updates:

1) We graduated from the IVF clinic to the high risk OB clinic, luckily it's in the same building.

2) I had my last progesterone shot last night.  My skin is lumpy and itchy.  Not attractive. 

3) I sleep and eat and that's it.  I love milkshakes.  Not smoothies. Milkshakes. 

4) I have indigestion but no nausea. 

5) I am now referring to the babies as "they" or "the visitors" or "the vees".  As in, "they want chocolate chip pancakes", or, "the visitors want a pickle". 

Our first OB appointment, which is actually a nurse visit, is coming up this week.  Then we meet the actual OB Thanksgiving week or so.  

YAY for everything!!! YAY!!

Vanilla Shakes with Breakfast.

Cymande is home (post-call) and I am at work. I've been given the task of writing a brief hello and to apologize for her lack of posting. We are without internet access at the moment due to an evil verizon plan to destroy alltel, but that is a story for a different time and place. Cymande and I would like to report that the twins are demanding spaghetti at all hours of the night and I was witness to Cymande consuming a vanilla shake at 7am after breakfast. The nausea seems better. The belly is noticeably larger. Things are good. More later.