Rainbow, 9 weeks ultrasound

Luckily there is a Perinatal Center a couple of minutes away from my house. It's a lot faster to get to, and there are a lot less people waiting, then at the Perinatal Center at the hospital, so it works out well. (I still have to go to the hospital for MFM appointments though.) The only downside is that there isn't a doctor on-site there, but they have doctors watching the pictures because they all go to the main Perinatal center where there's a doctor on duty all the time.

I really liked the ultrasound tech today. She had actually read my chart so she didn't ask me "is this your first pregnancy?" and "why are you here?" and crap like that. But she also didn't pretend like it never happened, she told me she was sorry we lost our daughter and was asking me what the HELLP pain felt like. I really appreciated it. This center only has 2 techs, and since I'm going back every 4 weeks and then more often later, I'll definitely be seeing her again.

The tech was excited to consider this the "first baby picture" even though it's hardly the first, so I didn't tell her otherwise. The baby was measuring exactly on track, and one day ahead on measurements! Joe and I call this the "shrimp" stage, because the baby looks rather similar to a shrimp.

This is the best "baby-like" picture of the bunch, I think:

And a very shrimp-looking picture:

And one more:

The baby's heart rate was 153 beats per minute.

Rainbow, 7 weeks, first high risk appointment

Today was our first appointment with the high risk doctor (who I will usually try to refer to as the MFM- maternal fetal specialist). Honestly, I went in with the expectation of learning that the baby had died. Surprisingly, my blood pressure was pretty good, especially considering the nurse said, "Oh, so you have a little girl at home?" while taking my blood pressure. (This is the second or third time this has happened, I'm almost used to it, I guess.) I said flatly, "No, she died," while Joe glared daggers at the woman. And I let him, especially considering that this was the same nurse who we went over my entire medical history and pregnancy with Olivia with last year, at our pre-conception consult. Not that I expected her to remember us a year later, but apparently my chart needs a big red "baby died" flag or sticker, for every doctor and dentist I see.

Anyway, the doctor checked out the baby with the roll in ultrasound machine, and we saw the baby/embryo alive and well, heart beating rapidly as it's supposed to be, and she measured the growth and now we are only 3 days behind, so that was a little more reassuring. (The doctor is not worried at all about the growth. Since I was seeing a fertility doctor, we are sure of my due date so they won't change that even if the baby measures behind throughout the pregnancy.) Here's the pictures:

  

And they taught me how to do the lovenox shots, which will be 2 times a day, and I have to inject them in my stomach. (Which really really burns.) They took about 7 vials of blood, for all of the regular prenatal labs, plus baselines of my liver enzymes and platelets so they know what we are starting at for pregnancy, and a baseline 24 hour urine.

So far, everything looks okay.

Rainbow, 6 weeks + 3 days, we have a heartbeat!

Today was our first ultrasound at the Perinatal Center. The point of having an ultrasound this early was to confirm there was still a viable pregnancy and heartbeat, so that I could start lovenox injections soon after.

This is what we saw:

 

The embryo's heart rate (not looking much like a "baby" just yet) measured  in at 118 beats per minute, which they promised was good. However, the baby was measuring 4 days behind, so I immediately panicked and started expecting everything to go wrong, again, while Joe thought I was nuts.

Rainbow baby- 5 weeks

There's not much to see this early, but here it is:

which started as this at around 2 am on September 10, 2010...

My early HCG numbers were a little high, pretty early, with a very fast doubling rate, so my doctors were pretty worried about multiples initially. We were pretty relieved to see just one gestational sac.

Joe was still sleeping when I took the pregnancy test and found out. I told him the news by giving him a onesie that says, "I love my daddy". We are both very excited, and very worried!