13 weeks

Gosh, how time flies when you're feeling nauseous!

It's 13 weeks today. The nausea continues and i still have a sore stomach, but when you see pictures like those we saw today at our scan....well....surely it's worth it....!

We went and had our 13 week scan which was mainly for Nuchal Translucency (looking for signs of down syndrome) as well as generally looking for all the important bits - you know, a heart, some eyes, ears, arms, legs, kidneys, stomach...all those essential items you hope the baby has! Walex is 6.8cm long and we heard his (?) little heart beat. It was quite amazing to see little it leaping about and using my uterus as a trampoline! We still don't know if Walex is a boy or girl, but it sure was awesome just to see it and know that it's alive and moving and growing and everything is looking good. We got to keep some pics as well as a DVD of it all! My ovaries are still massive and full of follicles, a result of the IVF treatment exacerbated by the pregnancy - that explains my stomach tenderness, hopefully this will go down over the next couple of months...

It was really great that Kylie could come to this one, it's so much more wonderful to share something like this. How lucky i am. Still feel sick, but happy and sick!

When i got home Kylie had been to her brother's house and brought back a pram, a baby carrier, some bottle bags, a cot and mattress. We added this to the pram we had already bought (an ebay disaster - but that's another story!), the portacot and baby monitors we'd already bought! Gosh, it sure is become a reality now!

I hate ginger

I hate the smell of ginger and I hate the taste of ginger. I find it somewhat ironic that the the smell and taste of ginger make me want to be sick and yet ginger seems to be standard natural remedy to nausea and vomitting.
I have been taking ginger and vitB6 tablets every morning in the hope that they will make my nausea go away. They haven't yet.... I have to try my best to swallow them down before i cop a whiff or a taste of it in my mouth and it makes me want to puke!
This nausea thing is unpleasant. I am so looking to forward to the wonderful 12 week mark when it's supposed to go away...well, that's the hope anyway, all the books say it should be going away by then. I'm 9 weeks tomorrow. Trying to stay positive...i read this morning (on the wonderfully informative internet of course) that having nausea means that you actually have a decreased risk of miscarriage.....well, that's good then..... :)

Nausea....blah....

This nausea thing has been getting worse. I feel sick now pretty much all day, every day. Am struggling for things to eat because the thought of eating makes me feel sick, even though actually eating seems to be ok and sometimes even makes me feel better!
Since Kylie went away i've been living on toast and vegemite, two minute noodles and steamed vegies. Thank goodness she's back tonight because we've run out of fresh bread, noodles and vegies!!

Damned if you do and damned if you don't

After over a week of feeling like crap all the time and having the most massive stomach on the Earth, i am finally coming good. After getting up to 76kg at the height of my discomfort i am now back to 74.6kg, i don't feel nauseous really and my stomach discomfort has subsided substantially and my breasts aren't as sore.

Now, i know all of that sounds good. But now i'm worried that because what if all these symptoms subsiding are because the baby has stopped developing? At least with all these symptoms in full flight you really know something is happening inside. Now, i don't know whether to be happy or just plain scared....

This waiting game is agonizing, much worse than the waiting for the pregnancy test bit that everyone says is hard.

I got a pamphlet in the mail yesterday from the IVF clinic, it was call 'A Positive Pregnancy Test. What now.' It tells you all of the things that could be found at the 6 week scan - only one of the options was a 'viable clinical pregnancy' and the rest were things that pretty much equated to no more baby. According to the statistics on the IVF clinic website if we can get to the six week scan and see a foetal heart rate then we have a 91.6% chance of going on to have a live birth. These odds are much better that what we currently are looking at.

Just to summarise the stats on their site:
- 47% of patients will have a positive pregnancy test (check)
- 26.7% of these patients will have a miscarriage
- once a foetal heart rate is seen at the 6 week scan, only 8.4% of these patients will go on to miscarry.

Though, the way i see it, everyone's chances are not necessarily equal as the patient population they are dealing with often have fertility problems, so i should have a pretty good chance, as besides some mild endometriosis, i am pretty much healthy (fertility wise!) as far as we know.

And of course, the little embryo we implanted was apparently a 'cracker' as i've said!

It's still a week until the scan......

Hello Walex!!

I am sick, i am nauseous, i am fat, i am uncomfortable, i am in pain

and

i am pregnant!!!

Hoorah!

Went and had the blood test on Thursday morning and they rang me at 11.34am! That was pretty quick. She said 'Congratulations, you are pregnant.'

'Holy cow.' i said.

HCG level was 348, which she seemed please with. I booked in a '6 week' scan for 27/7 and that was that. No more drugs to take or injections or vaginal gels! Thank goodness.

I was not well on Thursday and so poor Kylie's birthday night was a bit of a fizzer! I could only manage to lay on the couch and so she went to get take out noodles and, well, that was kind of it!

Friday the nausea kicked in good and proper and so as well as being fat and in pain i felt like i was going to chuck....all bloody day.....

I hate nausea. I hate it worse than pain i think. I had discovered though that despite feeling like you want to spew, the best thing seems to be to keep eating, all day long, which is hard with an already MASSIVE stomach!

Today has been somewhat better. I actually slept most of the night and although teetering on the verge of nausea-ville i have managed to constantly shovel food into myself and keep the hard core nausea at bay!! I also bought some dry biscuit type things to knaw on, some of those sea-sickness / morning sickness acupressure bands that you wear on your wrists, along with some natural morning sickness remedy (vit b6 and ginger) - i'm trying to cover all bases!

I told my boss yesterday.....i know it's frightfully early and i would have preferred not to have to tell him for sometime yet - but, i knew i just couldn't go to Sydney on Monday and i have been sick all week and with the prospect of sickness continuing and us having a meeting next Tuesday to talk about company strategy and my role going forward and with the fact that i already look like a whale, i figured that - hell, why not just come out and say it. He was really good actually and is keen for me to be able to continue on, both before and after the baby comes (!!) in whatever capacity and time committment we can organize. That is good. He was even talking about doing, say, two days per week in the office and one at home or something. We are going to look at replacing me with another PM (fantastic) and i can do Analysis and Design type work - which is what i would prefer anyway!

Kylie and I also told my mum. That was really cool and she was so happy.

So here i am, with a baby growing inside!!! It is freaky. I am nervous and just hope it keeps on growing and everything is ok. I can't wait to get to the 10 week mark or something. Somewhere safe. I guess it's never safe, but at least safer than here, the 4 week mark....i am worried that every little twinge in my stomach (and there are lots of them with this fat, bloated stomach with pains and cramps and stuff) there may be something wrong. Just gotta wait it out.

Beach Ball

I am a beach ball.

I have been a beach ball all weekend and i have been feeling decidedly ordinary. My stomach hurts, I've been feeling a bit sick on and off and having lots of stomach cramps. I think it is the Crinone cream. I read the packet for the potential side effects and it sounds as though i am text book. Then again, it could be Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome or Pregnancy or a nice combination of all three.

Not having that much fun i must admit.

I am hanging out for Thursday, although not that Thursday will see an end to me feeling crap, but at least it will be another step along the way to....well...somewhere!