I've been holding off on updating about my pregnancy since it's remained abnormal and frustrating. Over the last couple of weeks, my beta hcg number has been steadily rising, albeit in an extremely slow, non-viable manner. We have been very concerned that this is an ectopic pregnancy, which could cause me to need emergency surgery and lose a tube, or even be life threatening if not treated in time.
This morning I had an ultrasound to look for the pregnancy location and see if I have any blood in my abdomen. The good news is that everything looks normal and there don't appear to be any pools of blood. The bad news is that we're still not sure where the pregnancy is located. We saw an extremely tiny dark circle in my uterus that might be a sac, but it could also be a pseudosac or other anomaly that can present with ectopics. Dr. A said that right now he's not concerned about the possibility of an impending rupture at least.
The plan now is to wait another week. Next friday we will check my beta levels as well as run a full blood panel including organ function. If my hcg is still rising and I'm otherwise healthy, then they will administer methotrexate to terminate. Hopefully I'll be over the worst of it by the holidays and we start another IUI in January.
I don't look silly at all!
In Eli news, he is now 16 months and is doing great as usual. We are sad to say that we will be moving him to a new daycare in the new year. While we love our current provider, Bethy, she is located by our old house. So, our commute to work is now 40 - 45 minutes instead of the 10 - 12 it would be if we could drop Eli off somewhere closer to the new house. Fortunately we were able to find Shirley's daycare, which seems wonderful and is located in our new neighborhood. Eli will be the youngest of 12 children at the daycare, but there are lots of toys, a nice big backyard with play equipment, and lots of books. Shirley runs it as a preschool and the day is fairly structured for the older children. Eli will be able to partake in the activities as much or as little as he wants. The biggest transition will be napping. Currently he still sometimes takes a morning nap. At the new daycare they only take one afternoon nap. We think he will adapt pretty quickly to this though as he skips his morning nap most of the time lately.
We took him to a salon for his first haircut last weekend. I was sad to say goodbye to his beautiful curls, but Chad felt like he was looking too feminine. He certainly looks like a little boy now!
Eli
had his 15 month checkup today. He's still just a little guy, but has
stayed on his normal growth curve so our pedi isn't concerned. She was
impressed with how vocal he is and his ability to say two syllable words and was surprised at his lack of stranger anxiety (he ran
right over to her and said, "up!"). He got 3 shots (MMR, Varicella,
& Flu) which made him pretty upset until I pointed out the cool
snoopy band aids and then he was quite fascinated by them.
All in all, it was a good checkup and he is healthy and thriving. =)
Stats:
Age: 15 months, 8 days
Weight:
21 lbs 2 oz (8%)
Height: 31.5" (59%)
Head: 45.7cm (13%)
Words: 12+
Favorite words: Up! Cracker! Car! Meh! (Eli-speak for "I'm hungry and I see something I really want!!")
We have been in our new house for 6 days now. The full box mountains in every room are slowly growing smaller while the scary empty box everest grows at an alarming rate. The kitties are really enjoying scaling it, however...
So far only Eli's room is completely unpacked (trying to locate diapers, socks, his favorite snuggly, etc in the mess while manhandling the up-monster was an exercise in frustration). The kitchen and family room are almost unpacked and will be done in the next day or two.
Overall we are making a lot of progress and are on track for being ready to host Thanksgiving. =)
Day 1: Is there a kitchen in here?
Day 5: Why yes, we do have a kitchen!
Day 5: Kitties taking a rest before attempting to scale the mountain...
On a sadder note, as we suspected, we have received confirmation that this pregnancy is not viable. I asked for another blood test on Friday since I continued to feel off, and that confirmed that my beta hcg numbers had dropped to 69. I had a second blood draw this morning to make sure that my numbers continue to drop so I can hopefully avoid having to undergo a D&C. Emotionally, I'm actually okay with this result. I've felt pretty strongly from the start that something was wrong with this pregnancy, so I'm actually relieved to have it end sooner rather than later. We will do one more IUI with Follistim injections as soon as my doctor clears us (probably in December or January).
So my beta level rose unexpectedly from 83 on Monday to 258 today. That is a doubling time of 29.3 hours, which indicates either a very strong pregnancy or (gulp) multiples. A doubling time of 48 hours is considered average. The bleeding seems to have mostly stopped today as well. I have an ultrasound scheduled for November 21st to see if this really is viable... I'm staying guarded about it as there is still probably a 50/50 (or more) chance of miscarriage. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
...And here's a photo of Eli in his adorable baby bat costume at my office halloween event yesterday. =)
I can't believe it's already the end of October. Eli is almost 15 months old and in teething hell, we sold our house, went to Taiwan, bought a new house, and are moving in a week! To say life has been hectic is an understatement. Through all of this, we've been somehow managing to get through another IUI cycle.
So, I'm officially pregnant. My beta this morning was 83. However the bad news is that I've been bleeding since Saturday. My RE's office are staying optimistic about it, but I know that the most likely scenario is that I'm miscarrying. We will know for sure on Wednesday after a followup beta hcg test. I'm okay with whatever the result is. It's good to know that I can still get pregnant. If this one fails, we will do one more IUI (probably in December) and be a lot more aggressive with the meds to give it one last solid try.
Anyway, in better news, Eli is doing great. He's walking and climbing and getting into everything. He's talking a lot too -- I think he's up to 10 or 11 words at least. His favorites right now are, "no," "up," "more, and "car!" He can't pronounce "r" sounds yet, so he sounds like he's from Boston. =)
Look at all those teeth!
My favorite boys. =)
He's been teething like mad -- working on 6 at once, including 4 molars! We had a few pretty rough nights last week and my mom had a difficult time with him the week Chad and I were in Taiwan. Fortunately now that all of the molars have broken through he has been much better.
Eli is walking! Over the last week he has really been practicing a lot, and he's starting to get much steadier. I suspect he'll be running before we know it...
In other news, we had a very successful open house yesterday. Over 80 people came to see our home and we received 3 offers, with more coming today. The top offer is currently at our asking price, so we are thrilled!
I've been thinking about what to say at this milestone for awhile now. Unfortunately, I've been really having trouble coming up with something that isn't trite or overly melodramatic. Eli is one. Wow.
We thought about doing a birthday party for him, but ultimately decided we'd rather wait to put on a big production until a time when he can actually stay awake through it and remember it. Instead, we celebrated with family. First, Chad's parents came down for a visit. We had a fun trip to the beach and Grandma Jacque baked Eli a surprisingly good low sugar cake. We topped it with whipped cream and cherries (which of course he preferred over the cake).
Then the next day we drove the 7 hours to my aunt Shelley's family cabin in the high sierras at Huntington Lake, CA. I've been fortunate to go there every few years since I was a young child and it's a very special place to me. It was great getting to share it with Eli!
He had a great time with my family and especially enjoyed played in the sand at the lake's edge. He crawled in the icy cold water a bit, too. Brr!
We spent some time on the dock warming up after swimming, and tried floating in the paddleboat for a few minutes (Cairo had to try it out, too).
On his actual birthday (Sunday, August 5th), we gave him the rest of
Grandma Jacque's yummy cake. He tried a bit more of the cake that time, but
still mostly ate the whipped cream and cherries.
On the development front, Eli is doing great. He's crawling really fast now and can stand up without holding onto anything. He's taken a few steps on his own, but still lacks the confidence to really start walking. I don't think it will be very long though.
He likes to laugh, especially at silly Grandma Kerry!
I <3 my little man more than I can ever express.
We are all going through a lot of changes right now. We decided to put our house on the market to take advantage of the rising home prices (and hopefully not take too much of a loss). We have been decluttering, fixing stuff, and painting like mad to get the house ready by the end of the month. The target date for getting it listed is Saturday, 8/25! Yikes!
On the TTC (Trying To Conceive) front, our first IUI was unsuccessful. I'm having surgery on Monday to remove a couple of pesky uterine polyps before we try again.
12 month stats:
Weight: 19lbs 11 ounces (8th %)
Height: 29.8 inches (47th %)
Head Circumference: 45.1 CM (15th %)
Teeth: 6
Words: Dada, uh oh, all done, mama (which really means "give me my milk NOW")
As usual, life has been too busy for me to update as frequently as I'd like. Here's a brief recap of the past few months:
- Eli finally started crawling (around 10 months). He has a silly way of doing it -- he uses his left knee and right foot. He can actually move pretty fast that way, surprisingly. Also it makes transition to sitting or standing easy. - At 11 months, Eli started really enjoying walking while holding onto someone's hands for support. He's currently able to walk with only 1 hand being held and can stand unassisted for a few seconds. I'd guess he's probably just a week or two away from being able to walk on his own!
- We had a really nice visit with my mom and dad in June.
- We had a really nice visit with Chad's parents, siblings, and our friends in Seattle. Eli did (mostly) great on the flights there and back. After nearly getting bumped from the return flight, we learned that we should always bring 24 hours worth of baby supplies on board with us...
- I finally finished crunching at work (yay!).
- Chad has started crunching at work (boo).
- We are probably going to put our house on the market next month-ish and hopefully upgrade to something bigger. Keeping a home in show-ready condition with a toddler, 3 cats, and 1 dog will be interesting...
And to explain the title of this post, we are back on the TTC (Trying-To-Conceive) roller coaster. Are we crazy to go through this again? Quite possibly! Are we looking forward to pregnancy and the first 3 months of newborn hell? No, not at all. But we would really like Eli to have a sibling who's close in age.
I met with our Reproductive Endocrinologist, Dr. Abdallah (now at American Reproductive Centers), on Monday. We are going to take the conservative route this time and have opted for IUIs (intra-uterine insemination) instead of IVF. The reasons for this are twofold: 1. My insurance actually covers IUIs, so our out of pocket costs will be minimal. We can't afford another IVF AND purchase a new house (after selling our current at a loss). 2. We're not convinced that we actually need to do IVF in order to conceive. I did get pregnant 5 times before the IVF (including 2x from IUIs). Assuming that my primary problem is my blood clotting issue, IUI should work if I start the blood thinner injections right away.
I started Clomid (an inexpensive fertility medication that will likely have a very minimal effect on me, but will hopefully regulate my follicle development a bit) last night. On Monday I'll have an ultrasound to see what my ovaries are up to. Assuming everything is going well, the IUI will probably be around July 26th.
Eli is 9 months old and growing up so quickly! I think he's really starting to look more like a toddler and less like a little baby. Developmentally he's doing great with everything except for gross motor skills -- he's still not really interested in crawling. I guess in some ways this is a blessing since it gives us more time to finish baby proofing the house... He only started sitting really well around 7.5 months, so it's not surprising that he's not ready to crawl yet.
Ooh, sand is so cool...
He's very talkative these days and can make quite a few different sounds. His favorites are "dada," "guh," "nyanya," and "ayaya." We're not sure how much context there is yet though. His favorite silly sound is clucking with his tongue.
He usually loves mealtimes and will eat just about anything. I make most of his food and freeze it. So far he has tried the following foods:
Mmm, cheerios!
Apples
Avacado
Pears
Peaches
Prunes
Mango
Pineapple
Papaya
Watermelon
Sweet Potato
Yams
Carrots
Broccoli
Peas
Zucchini
Summer squash
Butternut squash
Red Bell Pepper
Eggplant & Tahini*
Green Beans
Potato
Black Beans
Red Lentils
Chicken
Organic cheerios
Multigrain hot cereal
Rice
Pesto Pasta
(*He may or may not be allergic to the eggplant with tahini as he developed hives after eating it for the 4th time. We will try it again once we have some Benadryl on hand)
I <3 bathtime
He's getting pretty good at eating chunkier foods and can pick up cheerios and feed them to himself (and Cairo) with ease. He has 4 teeth (two on the bottom and two on the top) and is a drooling machine. Thankfully the excessive reflux he has had since birth has finally eased up. He still spits up sometimes, but it's significantly less. He puts everything in his mouth and bites/chews on anything he can... including mommy's shoulder (ow)!
His favorite time of day is bathtime. He loooooves the water and it's the only place where he's really motivated to move around. I usually take a bath with him so he can really enjoy the water and practice rolling, standing, walking, etc. He gets VERY excited about the faucet and handles and loves to hang onto the side of the tub while sucking on the faucet handle.
Just hangin' out
Overall, we are doing really well and enjoying every minute we get to spend with our sweet little boy. So long as he is well rested, Eli is happy, easygoing, and full of smiles.
We had a great first mother's day this past weekend. Chad bought me a fancy Blendtech blender since I'm constantly cursing out our old blenders while making baby food (seriously, this shouldn't be so hard!). It was pretty amazing to get to celebrate a holiday that had been such a sad reminder of my fertility challenges the past few years. I'm so thankful for my precious baby and for having so many supportive family & friends. =)
9 Month Stats
Age: 9 months, 10 days
Weight: 18 lbs (11th %)
Height: 28.8 inches (64%)
Head Circ: 43.8 cm (11th %)
Teeth: 4
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