We Have a Heartbeat!

We are officially expecting a baby on 7/19/13!  We had our first ultrasound today at almost 7 (6w6d) weeks along:

In the picture the baby is on the left and the yolk sac (where nutrients are coming from right now) is on the right with the yolk stalk connecting the two. We think it more looks like the baby is holding a party balloon though ;-)  Her/his heartbeat is at 132 bpm (video on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdhA28lpSss) which is great, they just want it above 120 at this point. Everything looks great, measuring right on track.  

The nurse did caution us that if there are genetic issues that between now and our next ultrasound at 9 weeks is when it would abort.  But the good news is that chance of miscarriage have now gone down to 5%

Thanks for all the good thoughts, they've obviously been working!

Animal Sanctuary

Saturday we went with some friends to an animal sanctuary that rescues large carnivores.  I had no idea that they are the 3rd largest illegal trade in the US (behind drugs and weapons).  This place is a non profit that takes in animals from circuses  zoos and private owners.  Many of the animals have been kept in small cages their whole lives and when they arrive they don't even have the motor coordination or muscle development to walk around a large enclosure.  They rehabilitate them in smaller areas and then move them to 2-3 acre enclosures where they can roam free.  The animals are amazing!!!  Most of our pictures are of lions and tigers but they also had smaller cats (lynx, bobcats, etc.) and bears.  K loved it even though it was only 40 degrees with a cold wind *BRRR*

Here is a tiger in the smaller pens.

K on the elveated walkway around the large pens - apparently the animals are less stressed with humans in the airspace rather than on ground level.

How cute are these lions?!

So excited!

Big male taking a nap

That's one big scratching post!

Don't you just want to scratch her/his tummy?

Two enclsures had packs of wolves.  They fed them while we were there and afterwards they just sprawled out on the ground and napped.  It was very fitting for Thanksgiving Day weekend =)

Two young males cuddled up in the rehab area.

Our stroller brigade

If you're interested in checking it out or adopting an animal their website is http://www.wildanimalsanctuary.org/.

In other news my first u/s is Thursday...time is crawling by this week!!!

Unbelievably Thankful!

It brings tears to my eyes to think about how lucky I am.  Yesterday M and I were busy getting our home ready for 10 family members to come join us for dinner.  Each family brought 3-4 things to contribute to dinner and we had a huge spread of wonderful food and enjoyed about 6 hours of visiting.  Even thought it was exhausting it epitomizes how lucky we are.  We have great family that we enjoy spending time with (for the most part - haha) that lives close to us, we have a nice house that everyone can gather at, good jobs, a great little girl and a little candy corn on the way.  We both have good friends (including many of you!) who give us lots of support when things are good...or bad.  It doesn't get any better.  I hope you and your families had beautiful day together!

Meds, GI Bug and Thanksgiving

My nurse switched up my meds late last week since my stupid insurance won't cover my estrogen patches.  So I went from 2 patches every other day to 1 and from 1 estrogen pill a day to 2.  She said I could take them at the same time or split them up so I decided to take them both before bed to limit the chance I'd forget to take one during the day.  By Sunday I was so sick I could barely function until about 2pm.  I kept on the plan that night and was rewarded by waking up to use the bathroom at midnight, 1am and 5am.  I also had horrible stomach cramps and all over body sweats while going to the bathroom.  Nice.  Not sure if it's totally the meds or if I had a GI bug come to the party too.  Needless to say I emailed my nurse yesterday asking for a new plan.  She told me to try to take the estrogen pills 12 hrs apart and on a full stomach.  So that's today's plan...wish me luck.  Maybe tomorrows blood work will show a high enough estrogen level they will let me go to 1 pill per day and 1 patch every other day *fingers crossed* And oh yeah, we're hosting 13 for Thanksgiving.  That's all the whining I have for today...carry on =)

Beta #3 - Another WOW

Beta 3 came in at 1941. That's a doubling time of 33.88 hours.  The average beta for a singleton at 20 DPO is 865 and twins is 1691. I'm a little nervous but obviously thrilled. We only put one in so I'd be SHOCKED if it's more than a singleton. The nurse did say that usually if it's twins she sees the E2 and P4 go up more than mine are now (E2=378 and P4=12.22). We are overjoyed but also cautious.  We know that loss rates before seeing a heartbeat are pretty high and after seeing a heartbeat they drop to 5%.  Our u/s is scheduled for 11/29. Let another TWW begin =)

K's Last Week

M downloaded pictures last night so I wanted to share some of the cutest ones =)  Our little girl is going to be 2.5 in two short weeks.  Wow, where does the time go?

She is so proud of her new Hello Kitty converse type shoes.  I found them at Marshal's for $9 =)  So she is the proud new owner of this white pair and also a pink pair.

We seriously spend HOURS each day playing with all her "friends".  We put them to sleep, we rock them, we change their diapers and we talk to their grandparents on the phone.  Hopefully this translates into being a care taking big sister!

Last weekend we went swimming at my parents (they have an endless pool).  Her 2T swim suit is about to be outgrown.  I can't get her to smile like this looking at the camera right now...so wish I could!

We didn't get enough snow to make a non-leafy snowman but M and K built this nice little one last weekend when we got 3 inches or so.  I swear she will hang out in the snow for as long as we let her...and yes, we did have gloves on her and she took them off.

I gave her bangs this weekend.  We can't bring ourselves to snip off the curls in back yet and the bangs totally accentuate the mullet...but whatever =)

Beta 2...WOW!

Beta 2 is 445! Doubling time is 32.93 hrs from the 1st beta last Thursday. We only put 1 in. Chances of it being twins is super small. Right? Right?  So, so happy!!!  And nervous and anxious.  Next beta is Thursday.  

Looks like we need to come up with a nickname for this bean.  Transfer was on Halloween...any suggestions?

More POAS Stories

Yesterday I might have been a little worried.  It seemed like the 2nd line might have gotten just a touch lighter than Friday.  Here they are:

Then today I ran out of the tests in the top series so I decided to pull out a digital as well as taking a test in the bottom series.  Luckily the 2nd line is much darker today and the digital came up within a minute *whew*  

Beta test tomorrow.  All hCG from the shots is surely gone at this point.  Hope we have a nice strong number.  Any one care to venture a beta guess?

Beta #1

Our first beta wasn't scheduled until Monday but I had blood pulled for P4 and E2 checks today and I asked if a beta could be added since my HPTs were getting darker...and they said yes.  It came in at 59.04.  The average beta for 13DPO is 62 so I'd be thrilled with my beta today if I knew my system was clear of the hCG from booster shots.  But I likely still have some in there from the shots...so we'll see what Monday brings and until then I will for sure be POAS each morning.  For now I'm optimistic =)

POAS Adventures

Ok friends, I think this a true BFP *crosses fingers* Last cycle on 8dp5dt (today) the 2nd line was down to a squinter and this cycle it's getting darker :D My beta isn't until Monday *sigh*  Please, please stick little baby!!!  I know there are many, many hurdles to cross but for today I'm really happy and excited =)

Pumpkin Patch #2 & Halloween

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch.  It was cold (about 35 degrees) so we bundled up, showed up right as they opened and had a great time.  Here are lots of pics:

First stop - the petting zoo.  K is busy petting a cute little black goat.  They also had a mini camel, donkey, llama, sheep, HUGE bunny, ducks and chickens.

Checking out the "baby pumpkins".  She liked these a lot more than the bigger ones.

Who can resist these little cut outs? Not us!

She rode this little car ride all by herself, which is much braver than she has been in the past.  She said she had a good time but kept this serious face the whole time.

She loved these little pig cars that were just sitting on the ground.  Much cheaper than the rides =)

Halloween was the day of our FET transfer but we got to go to K's school on our way to the doctors since I knew I wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating with her that night (couch rest).  It was really nice to be able to celebrate part of the day with her =)

At school they did a little trick-or-treat thing where they went around to the other rooms and got treats.  Some of them were candy and others were small toys.  K is the tiger in the middle.  Check out that gnome costume on one of her friends *LOL*

M took her to 3 houses that night.  Here she is at her grandparents - she loaded up on Snickers there and got more treats at other houses too.  She is now convinced that she gets candy after dinner every night.  We will soon run out of candy...we'll let you know how that goes!

I know you are saying "WTF am I looking at here".  We are playing with a little ghost that had a suction cup and spring.  You push it down until the sunction cup grabs and when it pulls up the ghost flies into the air.  It goes almost all the way to the ceiling from our dining room table and she loves it =)  Because of her pure joy I'm posting this pic but request you ignore the crazy look on my face.

I will be starting my POAS journey tomorrow morning but since all tests until about Thursday will be false positives due to the hcg shot I will wait to post until then.  Oscillating between feeling like it totally worked and totally didn't.  Par for the course.  The TWW sucks.