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Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002 - 8:58 p.m. - Newest Ultrasound Update
 Today's ultrasound revealed a REAL Peep!! Meaning we could actually really SEE it. Of course it looks like a small shrimp, but the little heart was beating rapidly and steadily and once I even saw the Peep wiggle it's lower end!! It's amazing how much it grew in one week. Today they took two measurements, one came out 9.4mm (7 weeks 0 days) and the second was 10.4 mm (7weeks 1day), so we are right on track. At this point it is still so small a tiny variation with the measurements makes a difference. I'm feeling much more relaxed now. We even got to talk with the Reproductive Endocrinologist who congratulated us on our success (even if we did do it without his help), and assured us that all is looking well. I asked about why my heparin dosage keeps getting increased and ask if it was something to be concerned about, and he reassured me that it wasn't a concern at all, but just went to show that the baby and the pregnancy were developing as they should. With pregnancy, a woman's blood naturally gets "thicker" so that when the baby is born they don't bleed to death but the blood clots rapidly. Unfortunately in my case, my blood is a bit too eager to clot, so we need to keep it from clotting with the heparin. The more pregnant I get the more heparin I will need to inject. He suspects that by the time I am far into my pregnancy I'll have to do 3 injections a day at 10,000 units (currently I do 2 injections of 8,000 units), so I should expect my dosage to increase. Unfortunately, I will also most likely be on prednisone my whole pregnancy which I had been hoping against. But that's ok, I can deal with that. It's just the prednisone, especially over a long period, is really not good for you. Fortunately there are very few risks to the baby with the prednisone. I don't think it crosses the umbilical cord. The best part of today’s ultrasound, was that Michael was there with me. It was so cute to watch him watch the screen and see the baby’s heartbeat! He agrees that seeing that little heartbeat of our little Peep sure makes it more real. My RE’s ultrasound equipment didn’t allow us to see just how rapidly the heart was beating, but the nurse said that it looked good and that she would guess it was around 150 beats per minute. I guess once we move on to the OB/GYN we’ll probably be able to get an actually count. At the very least we’ll hopefully get to hear the heartbeat at around 11 or 12 weeks. That’s only a month away!!! My RE wants me to contact my OB/GYN and set up my first appointment, but I’m very happy to note that he will continue to see me each week until I move over to her. Also, I believe he will stay in contact with her in regard to my autoimmune issues. I just hope that she is as active in taking blood and measuring my coagulation as my RE is. Right now I go in every 4 days. It seems like a lot, but it makes me feel better to know I’m being closely monitored. I worry that my OB won’t be as diligent since I’ll just be another pregnant lady to her. But then I have the option of always changing Dr’s if I’m not happy. That’s the one good thing about having a PPO, I can go to any doctor, specialist or not, without a referral. Also, my RE’s office said that even after I’ve switched over to my OB that if I am concerned about the baby I can come in for an ultrasound to check the heartbeat at any time! Can you see why I don’t want to leave? . I’ve been with my RE for almost 2 years. That’s 2 years of visits multiple times each month, at some points going in practically daily for blood tests. Of course, you develop a relationship with the doctor and the staff. Not only that, but they’ve been there with us through some tough times. It’s so wonderful to be able to share this happy time with them too and see them so happy for us now. They just keep saying how much they are going to miss seeing us. One of the first visits I will be making with my newborn come September will be to that office. While we might have conceived on our own, they all played a big role in bringing him/her into this world. I will always be grateful to these people and especially my RE. It’s actually starting to become more real and a little less scary. I know I’m not out of the woods yet, but I’m no longer afraid to think about September with hope. I’m not ready to start doing up a nursery yet, but I’m ready to start checking out ideas. (grin) For a while now I’ve been receiving Pottery Barn Kids and Hanna Anderson catalogs. Today the new Hanna Anderson catalog arrived and for the first time, I actually looked at it with the intention of ordering something as soon as we know the sex of this child! Yay!! As far as sleep goes, I actually got a pretty “normal” nights sleep last night. I fell asleep around 10:30 and slept through til 8:30, with just one short awake period from about 4:00 – 4:30! Wohoo! This is progress for me. But either I’m still not getting good sleep or my pregnancy is finally effecting me, because I’m beat! I’m feeling simply exhausted. So I’m off to bed to see how long I can stay awake through ER.
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