Had another blood test today - hCG has gone up to 63357... but who is counting?
WE HAVE A HEARTBEAT!
A lovely, steady, 132 bpm average, and Little Bruiser measuring right on track, 6 weeks 5 days (plus minus 2 days). Yaaaaaaaaaay!!
The ultrasound itself was pretty tense though, that sonographer doesn't give anything away! She took her time measuring everything first, with the monitor turned away from us, and her face betraying absolutely no emotion. I was a bit anxious and I'm pretty sure Kylie was about to have a heart attack, when she finally turned the monitor toward us and started showing us all the mysteries of my inner workings, starting with my bowel, bladder, ovaries and so on. What the?? I'm not interested in what ovary I ovulated from on my last cycle, thanks!! Get on with it!!
Anyway, in the end she got to the bit where she showed us that everything is exactly as it should be, and we both got a bit teary - especially Kylie :)
We have a viable pregnancy!! You are doing very well, Little Bruiser, just keep at it!!
Little Bruiser is growing!
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Why do things ALWAYS happen when Damien is away??
And, on a related note, why do kids always get sick on the weekends?
So here goes, timeline of disaster, so far:
Wednesday, Damien is scheduled to leave to Israel for a week and a half. I wake up that morning a bit itchy all over, complain about having been bitten by mosquitoes yet again while my husband is being ignored by the little blood-suckers. By noon, I have red blotchy spots covering the backs of my legs and my arms, and I am being driven to insanity while trying not to scratch too obviously when teaching class. Hives, big time. Of course, as I am pregnant I cannot take the regular pills I do. Fortunately, the pharmacists advises me late that afternoon that there IS an antihistamine I can take while pregnant, which has the mild side effect of causing drowsiness. I take one, and serve cereal and milk for dinner. Can't possibly go through the complexity of the process that would lead to production of an actual hot meal. Thank goodness, the pill works - on all counts. Now, to add to the usual exhaustion I deal with from the Little Bruiser, I have a medication-induced drowsiness to deal with. Swell.
Thursday, I wake up with less hives, more tiredness. Have I slept at all?
Friday, as above. Suffer through gymnastics and ratty kids. I have amazing friends - Beth invited us for dinner, so I don't have to face that myself. Kylie calls in the evening saying she won't be coming on Saturday, but on Monday. A little dent in my plan - have a committee meeting to go to Saturday at 4pm, and will now have to take the kids with me, but that's okay. Worked it out, Sophie will have the portable DVD player, Ben will play Angry Birds on my phone. All good, right? Wrong.
Saturday, feel better, don't have to take the pills anymore and deal with the regular sort of drowsiness only. Suffer through ratty kids at swimming. Ratty kid, actually. Ben is chirpy and cheerful since morning and does great at swimming, while Sophie is so terrible that the instructor actually has to sit her out. In the end I grab her before the lesson is finished - she is learning nothing and disrupting the class for the other kids. Ben continues for another twenty minutes to be lovely and cheerful, whereupon he turns upset and grey in what seems to be thirty seconds. In quick progression, he turns white, and then green, starts complaining of stomachache and headache, and starts feeling hot to the touch. By the time we get home half and hour later, he is sporting a 39 degree fever. And, of course, it is Saturday. Thinking about it, I don't recall a single occasion where my kids got sick on a weekday. It is ALWAYS weekends, when it is just a little harder to get an appointment at the doctors. We're in luck, though. I get an appointment at the hospital after hours service at 3.40pm, and take very drowsy and unhappy Ben there, while Beth (bless her kind heart) is looking after Sophie. (Well, there, at least, goes my potential problem with kids at the meeting, hey?) The doctor checks EVERYTHING, and finds nothing, except for the bloody fever. I am worried about appendicitis, but am assured that's not it. Glad for that! Doctor says probably early into a bacterial infection (as viral infections, it would appear, rarely result in such high fevers... never knew that), prescribes antibiotics. Pick up Sophie, apparently she has been an angel - of course she turns into a nightmare as soon as we get into the car. Ben hardly eats, Sophie whinges constantly about Ben hanging off me, and wants to hang off me as well. Thankfully, they both asleep pretty soon after I climb into bed with them - Ben first, Sophie second. Ben still has a fever. Have to wake him up for another dose of antibiotics, plus more Panadol soon.
My feet started itching like crazy about an hour ago. Hope it is mosquitoes, this time.
It's going to be a great night.
So here goes, timeline of disaster, so far:
Wednesday, Damien is scheduled to leave to Israel for a week and a half. I wake up that morning a bit itchy all over, complain about having been bitten by mosquitoes yet again while my husband is being ignored by the little blood-suckers. By noon, I have red blotchy spots covering the backs of my legs and my arms, and I am being driven to insanity while trying not to scratch too obviously when teaching class. Hives, big time. Of course, as I am pregnant I cannot take the regular pills I do. Fortunately, the pharmacists advises me late that afternoon that there IS an antihistamine I can take while pregnant, which has the mild side effect of causing drowsiness. I take one, and serve cereal and milk for dinner. Can't possibly go through the complexity of the process that would lead to production of an actual hot meal. Thank goodness, the pill works - on all counts. Now, to add to the usual exhaustion I deal with from the Little Bruiser, I have a medication-induced drowsiness to deal with. Swell.
Thursday, I wake up with less hives, more tiredness. Have I slept at all?
Friday, as above. Suffer through gymnastics and ratty kids. I have amazing friends - Beth invited us for dinner, so I don't have to face that myself. Kylie calls in the evening saying she won't be coming on Saturday, but on Monday. A little dent in my plan - have a committee meeting to go to Saturday at 4pm, and will now have to take the kids with me, but that's okay. Worked it out, Sophie will have the portable DVD player, Ben will play Angry Birds on my phone. All good, right? Wrong.
Saturday, feel better, don't have to take the pills anymore and deal with the regular sort of drowsiness only. Suffer through ratty kids at swimming. Ratty kid, actually. Ben is chirpy and cheerful since morning and does great at swimming, while Sophie is so terrible that the instructor actually has to sit her out. In the end I grab her before the lesson is finished - she is learning nothing and disrupting the class for the other kids. Ben continues for another twenty minutes to be lovely and cheerful, whereupon he turns upset and grey in what seems to be thirty seconds. In quick progression, he turns white, and then green, starts complaining of stomachache and headache, and starts feeling hot to the touch. By the time we get home half and hour later, he is sporting a 39 degree fever. And, of course, it is Saturday. Thinking about it, I don't recall a single occasion where my kids got sick on a weekday. It is ALWAYS weekends, when it is just a little harder to get an appointment at the doctors. We're in luck, though. I get an appointment at the hospital after hours service at 3.40pm, and take very drowsy and unhappy Ben there, while Beth (bless her kind heart) is looking after Sophie. (Well, there, at least, goes my potential problem with kids at the meeting, hey?) The doctor checks EVERYTHING, and finds nothing, except for the bloody fever. I am worried about appendicitis, but am assured that's not it. Glad for that! Doctor says probably early into a bacterial infection (as viral infections, it would appear, rarely result in such high fevers... never knew that), prescribes antibiotics. Pick up Sophie, apparently she has been an angel - of course she turns into a nightmare as soon as we get into the car. Ben hardly eats, Sophie whinges constantly about Ben hanging off me, and wants to hang off me as well. Thankfully, they both asleep pretty soon after I climb into bed with them - Ben first, Sophie second. Ben still has a fever. Have to wake him up for another dose of antibiotics, plus more Panadol soon.
My feet started itching like crazy about an hour ago. Hope it is mosquitoes, this time.
It's going to be a great night.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Still going nicely...
Actually, even better than expected! hCG today, at 25 dpo, is 11547. That means that it's doubling nicely and then some, and everything's gooooood. Progesterone is back up a bit, in mid-nineties - I finished the antibiotics on Sunday night, so I guess it's going to start climbing this week - unfortunately I have to continue with the pessaries until the next scheduled test, which is Thursday week. Oh well. More excitingly, next Thursday is also our first ultrasound!!
I'm feeling alright at this point, not much sickness at all (personally I have a theory that having had hCG in my blood for quite a few months after the last pregnancy has made my body so used to it that it more or less ignores it in this respect :).
I'm very, very, veeeery tired though. Exhausted. Wiped out, completely, all day. I wake up in the morning and feel like I haven't slept. I'm also slightly dizzy most of the time, but I guess that goes back to the being tired thing. But it's all for a good cause, so I don't really mind. Much. Yet. :D
One week and two days until our first peek at the Bruiser - can't wait!
I'm feeling alright at this point, not much sickness at all (personally I have a theory that having had hCG in my blood for quite a few months after the last pregnancy has made my body so used to it that it more or less ignores it in this respect :).
I'm very, very, veeeery tired though. Exhausted. Wiped out, completely, all day. I wake up in the morning and feel like I haven't slept. I'm also slightly dizzy most of the time, but I guess that goes back to the being tired thing. But it's all for a good cause, so I don't really mind. Much. Yet. :D
One week and two days until our first peek at the Bruiser - can't wait!
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
18 dpo
Still steaming ahead, with hCG today hitting 788 - yaaay!
I was a little worried about this one, actually, as I think it was at 18 dpo with our first pregnancy that we had the first indication that something might be not quite right. I looked at my post from the day, and just for comparison, the beta was 287 then. So good news!
One thing that made my pressure rise higher for a minute is that my progesterone level dropped rather dramatically, from 161 four days ago to only 71 today (on two pessaries). While this is still a very good level to sustain the pregnancy, I wondered for a while if something was wrong. Until I realised that I am on antibiotics now - it turns out that antibiotics affect some enzymes in the liver that in turn affect the rate at which estrogen and progesterone are processed in the body. In other words, anbiotics = faster rate of decomposition of progesterone = lower progesterone levels. Let me tell you - PHEW!
Next test Tuesday week.
I was a little worried about this one, actually, as I think it was at 18 dpo with our first pregnancy that we had the first indication that something might be not quite right. I looked at my post from the day, and just for comparison, the beta was 287 then. So good news!
One thing that made my pressure rise higher for a minute is that my progesterone level dropped rather dramatically, from 161 four days ago to only 71 today (on two pessaries). While this is still a very good level to sustain the pregnancy, I wondered for a while if something was wrong. Until I realised that I am on antibiotics now - it turns out that antibiotics affect some enzymes in the liver that in turn affect the rate at which estrogen and progesterone are processed in the body. In other words, anbiotics = faster rate of decomposition of progesterone = lower progesterone levels. Let me tell you - PHEW!
Next test Tuesday week.
Friday, 4 November 2011
3rd beta
Still looking good. hCG today 160, progesterone 161.
Quick calculation reveals that while the doubling time has slowed down a bit, it is still on the fast side of normal - mine doubling in about 36 hours, normal range for early pregnancy (below hCG 1200) is between 31 and 72 hours. All good!
Next test Tuesday.
Quick calculation reveals that while the doubling time has slowed down a bit, it is still on the fast side of normal - mine doubling in about 36 hours, normal range for early pregnancy (below hCG 1200) is between 31 and 72 hours. All good!
Next test Tuesday.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Great news!!!
Test results today: hCG 63 (!!!!!), progesterone 113.
That means that in the 48 hours, when they would like to see it double, it... sextupled :) Is that a word??
Ecstatic!!
Of course, it's early days, and we've been here before, but who cares?? Ecstatic anyway!
Next test Friday.
That means that in the 48 hours, when they would like to see it double, it... sextupled :) Is that a word??
Ecstatic!!
Of course, it's early days, and we've been here before, but who cares?? Ecstatic anyway!
Next test Friday.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Good news!
Well, of course I couldn't resist.
I did a test yesterday in the morning before going to have the blood test done, and nothing came up. Well, nothing of consequence anyway - a shadow of a line appeared eventually, but it could only be seen when doing some serious squinting, and only after the stipulated ten minutes cut-off. Now that I know that the hCG was only about 10, it is quite obvious that it was not pregnancy related.
But today I woke up feeling a bit nauseous (wonderfully so :), and thought I'd do a repeat. And lo and behold, the second line came up straight away, and there is absolutely no doubt that it is actually there. See for yourself!
From this, I deduce two things :)
1. We definitely appear to be pregnant!
2. The hCG must have doubled already, as the test only measures levels above 25!
Either way, good news!!!
Yaaay for embie Raftery!
I did a test yesterday in the morning before going to have the blood test done, and nothing came up. Well, nothing of consequence anyway - a shadow of a line appeared eventually, but it could only be seen when doing some serious squinting, and only after the stipulated ten minutes cut-off. Now that I know that the hCG was only about 10, it is quite obvious that it was not pregnancy related.
But today I woke up feeling a bit nauseous (wonderfully so :), and thought I'd do a repeat. And lo and behold, the second line came up straight away, and there is absolutely no doubt that it is actually there. See for yourself!
From this, I deduce two things :)
1. We definitely appear to be pregnant!
2. The hCG must have doubled already, as the test only measures levels above 25!
Either way, good news!!!
Yaaay for embie Raftery!
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