Hysteroscopy and Polpectomy Update

It’s done!! We got there at 8:30am and we were taken back relatively quickly. Everything went smoothly!

While I was still in recovery, the doctor went and talked to Chris and showed him pics from the scope. There were definitely polyps there. Prior to surgery they came in with a cartoon drawing of my uterus and showed where they thought 1-2 polyps were. Well, they got in there and there were 8-10 all clustered together! So they removed them all and everything is cleaned out and ready for baby#2!

Definitely in some pain. Trying to distract myself and take it easy! Just wanted to drop in and share how it went! All is well and I am home cuddling with little man! 

Maybe Baby 2.0??

I know I have been quiet for the past, oh, I don’t know…year or so! That’s what happens when you finally get your bouncing little miracle! They take all your time!! So worth it, but man, oh, man some days I don’t even get my morning cup of coffee!

So what is this post about? Baby#2! Well, our steps towards getting Baby#2 on board! 

Back in February we did another egg retrieval cycle when Caleb was only 5 months old and we were in the middle of renovating our main floor ourselves. Smart. I know. Anyways, we ended up with 2 snowbabies! We have been patiently waiting until Caleb turned a year old before going back to our RE and discussing transfer.

A few days after Caleb’s birthday we headed to our RE and brought Caleb. He was wearing his The Little Embryo That Could tee and everyone loved it. The receptionist took a picture and sent an email out to the whole staff! We decided to do the same protocol as before, the Letrozole prep for FET. (If you haven’t heard of this, please research it. I found it to be so much better on my body and everyone I have spoken with that has done this approach has had a successful pregnancy!)

I did need to have another Saline Infused Sonogram done to check out my uterus. Luckily this time was a lot less painful than last time! Since our RE is at a teaching hospital, there was the nurse, our RE, a Fellow and a medical student present for the procedure. At one point, they all got quiet and they heads were tilted to the side. They saw something in there that they aren’t sure what it is. Could be scar tissue from my C section, could be a polyp, could just be “junk” as they so eloquently put it. 

That brings us to today! This morning I am going to have a hysteroscopy and polpectomy. They are going to put me under full anesthesia, go in with a scope and remove what isn’t supposed to be in there. Basically make a nice, fresh home for Baby#2. 

With the amount of surgeries I have had in my life, being put to sleep is routine to me. Only this time it’s different. This time I have a son. This time I have a tiny person who will spend his life without his mama if for whatever reason I don’t wake up. I know this is my anxiety getting the best of me and everything with go smoothly and in no time I will be home, curled on the couch with a heating pad and a cup of tea, watching The Real Housewives with my little mama’s boy in my arms. 

Oh! Head over to the Beat Infertility podcast! That link is to our story which is being featured on the podcast TODAY Oct 23rd!! 

I will leave you with some super cute pics of our little man!

Inspired By Bug

In 10 days, my beautiful miracle baby will turn 1 year old! I cannot believe how fast time has flown! He has turned into a kind-hearted sweet little boy whose favorite word is Mama. There is so much I want to write about him as his birthday approaches but that is not what this post is for. 

About three weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to take a leap of faith and start a business that has a good positive message and will hopefully allow me to stay at home with Caleb and his (hopefully) future siblings. So I did a thing…

I created an Etsy shop called Inspired by Bug. Bug is is our nickname for Caleb. I wanted to create clothing and merchandise with a positive message that would support and encourage others, specifically those within the Infertility community. Currently our shop is supporting NICU Awareness Month and donating 20% of our proceeds from our IVF/Infertility section to help support the doctor’s and nurses that care for these tiny miracles.

I am adding new listings everyday and have many things planned for the Infertility Line. One of them being Baby Dust. I purchased a Baby Dust ornament the Christmas before we transferred Caleb and I prayed that that would be the last ornament we put on our Christmas tree without a child. God answered my prayer. I want to provide to others that same hope and encouragement that that small ornament brought to me. 

Currently most of the items are seasonal, inspirational or NICU related however I have two beautiful designs in the shop specific to IVF and Infertility:

The support I have received from the blogging community is beyond words. I looked at my stats prior to starting this post and my blog has been visited over 100,000 times! That is insane! I am beyond thrilled that our story is reaching so many people and that we can provide a ray of hope (and a little humor) along this tiresome an often lonely journey. 

Please take a moment to check out our little shop. Follow us on Instagram @inspiredbybug and join our Facebook group Inspired By Bug VIP to check out deals and giveaways! 

I will not leave you hanging for so long this time! I will be back shortly to talk ALL things Caleb as well as our plans for a sibling! 

Also, our story will be featured on the Beat Infertility podcast on Oct 23rd. The podcast is available on iTunes (and I assume on Android related apps…I don’t know…what can I say? I’m a Mac!)

This is my friend, who has also struggled with Infertility, holding our soon-to-be one year old Caleb! Her shirt says “She Believed She Could and So She Did” and his shirt says “The Little Embryo That Could”

Hello, Second Trimester!

It’s hard to believe that we are finally in the second trimester!! The last 14 weeks have felt so long, but have also seemed to fly by! I am happy to report that I am feeling A LOT better! I no longer have morning sickness and have gotten a HUGE energy boost. Right now my biggest complaints are itchy ankles, restless legs and back pain. We did the Panorama test during our 11th week and are happy to report Baby came back as low risk in all categories for chromosomal abnormalities! Yes, we do know if Baby is a boy or girl and we even have a name! We have shared this with our family and friends, however stay tuned for the big announcement! 

  
I had some difficulties in my first trimester with the Crinone. We had to stop it around 9 weeks due to extreme cervical inflammation and irritation. When we went to our first OB appointment during Week 11, the doctor noticed a spot on my cervix that concerned her. She even brought in another doctor to look at it. We are awaiting the results of my Pap and go back for our next appointment in a week. We are hoping that the spot is simply residual inflammation from the Crinone, because when I say my cervix was inflamed I mean it! It was sticking out. For real. If the spot is still there and the same size next week there is the potential I will need a cervical biopsy (again!). I was assured this won’t affect the pregnancy, however it will cause me to bleed A LOT due to increased blood flow down there. I have been putting this in the back of my mind because my first cervical biopsy was a very traumatic experience and if we need to do one, it will be safer for the baby and I if I am sedated. 

This weekend we were able to get some housework done. We planted a tree out front and painted the nursery. A friend of mine will be coming this week to paint a mural for us. We are doing a Lion King theme. My mother-in-law bought us the chair for the nursery, my parents bought the crib and we bought a chifferrobe this weekend. All these pieces should be in town for pickup sometime this week. I am taking advantage of feeling good while I can! Who knows when I will start feeling tired again. 

This is the crib we chose from Babies at Us:

  
Zoey is doing well after her amputation. She is far more active than I thought she would be. She goes back on Friday to have her staples taken out. She is walking and running and even doing stairs. Sometimes she wants to do more than we would like so we have to keep an eye on her. It was a great decision to amputate her leg. She is back to her normal self. Her personality is back and we can tell she is in far less pain. 

   
 
I am finally starting to show a little so I think I will be doing weekly bumpdates going forward. We also bought a Fetal Doppler and I have been able to listen is Baby’s heartbeat a few times. I found it fairly quickly and was pleased with myself! I think that is all the news for now! 

Few Weeks of Pregnancy and Ultrasound #1

So I know I have been a bad blogger and I haven’t posted in a few weeks, but honestly, today is the first day that I have felt somewhat human enough to sit down and write! 

Since my last post we had our first ultrasound. We had it moved up from 2/17 (my birthday!) to 2/12 because of my anxiety. There is ONE little bean in there, snuggled up nice and warm, with a heart rate of 125. At the scan I was 6 weeks and 5 days. I have a video of the whole appointment and I will upload that to YouTube sometime in the near future. 

  
Aside from being so tired and sick, I have been going back and forth about posting how I have been feeling because quite honestly, I feel like shit! I feel bad about writing how I am feeling because I am complaining. I am human and before I was pregnant I would judge pregnant women who would go on and on about how awful they feel. I would think to myself, “You should be so glad you are so sick! I would give anything to be feeling like you do! When I am pregnant, I won’t complain because I know how blessed I am and I will cherish every second of morning sickness!” Yeah…about that…I am now one of those women.

So far this pregnancy has not been easy. My morning sickness started as night sickness and actually started at 3 weeks 5 days…before our first positive HPT. Each day it has gotten slowly worse and has also started earlier. It has now become all day, all consuming and I can’t keep anything down. In the past 3 weeks I have lost 10lbs simply because I can’t eat or keep anything down. I tried all the home remedies: ginger ale, ginger tea, peppermint sticks, Preggie Pops, bland diet. You name it, I tried it. Nothing worked. At around 5 weeks my doctor had me start on Vitamin B6 and Unisom which are the medications in Diclegis (just saves me some bucks). That worked slightly for a little bit but the Unisom made me a zombie. I spent 18 hours on my birthday in bed just because I was so tired I could hardly move. 

  
Due to my weight loss and inability to even keep water down, I am now on 4mg of Zofran every 8 hours. I know there is some controversy surrounding this medication, but both my doctor and I feel that the benefits outweigh the risks in my situation. It can cause more damage for me and the baby to become dehydrated and malnourished. I started the Zofran on Friday and it had been a lifesaver! I still have nausea but it is much more manageable and I haven’t thrown up once. I am able to eat small meals and have even noticed I have an appetite! Hopefully the morning sickness will subside when we hit the second trimester in a few weeks!

Aside from morning sickness, I have a whole host of other symptoms. My boobs are very sore, as are my nipples. They are even sometimes itchy or give me sharp electric zings which is a very weird sensation. I am very tired. I get winded walking from my office to my car in the parking lot. I have had more intense dreams. There has been cramping on and off and occasionally some extra added pain on my right side. I am assuming this is stretching. I have had very minimal spotting. When I have, I can always contribute it to the Crinone because it’s always the morning after I bumped my cervix while inserting it. I now have the nose of a bloodhound. I smell everything and most of the time that is not a good thing. I also have had a metallic taste in my mouth on and off, nowadays it is almost consistently present. 

  
All pregnancy related symptoms aside, we have absolute crazy weather where I live and in the span of two weeks we went from having a tornado watch and being 60 degrees to having a snow storm and schools were closed, then back up to 70 degrees over the weekend and we are supposed to get snow tomorrow night!! Needless to say my allergies and sinuses are going crazy. I have had a bad cough for a few days and actually lost my voice yesterday. Over the weekend I had the hint of a small fever and it got up to 99.9, so we have been watching it diligently. 

We are currently 8 weeks and 2 days with a due date of October 2nd. We go for our second ultrasound on Thursday 2/25. We may have one more ultrasound after that before graduating from our RE’s office but I am not sure. I get to stop the Crinone once we reach 10 weeks, which will be 3/6 and that can’t come soon enough! I can’t wait to be done with it! And last but not least, we have our first OB appointment scheduled on 3/15!

FET#1 Update – Beta#3 Results

We had our third and final beta this morning and just got the results…9,685!!!

  
Our ultrasound was originally schedule on my birthday, 2/17. But after talking to the doctor about the anxiety I have been experiencing it has been moved up to 2/12. We will be 6 weeks and 6 days hen so hopefully we will hear a heartbeat (or two)! With those numbers, what do we think? One? Or two?