We're Pregnant!!!

Hello Everyone!

Well i think my title says it all! Ha ha! I was going to be vague about it at first but then i thought, why not shout it from the rooftops!

Our scan was so wonderful, whilst Phil was a bit nervous for some reason i wasn't? Strange... We arrived at the clinic and went to sit in the waiting room. It was quite funny really, we were sitting there, relaxed, reading magazines and drinking tea! You wouldn't think we were about to see if we were pregnant or not!

We were called into the room and i got undressed and got myself sorted (it was an internal scan, i guess as it is still early days a normal ultrasound is not good enough?) on the chair and we got started. It must be so hard for the nurse when the scan results in bad news, i for one would not like to be in her shoes.

I think she quickly flashed through my uterus/ womb to try and see the embryo before we did so she could prepare herself, but we saw it! In all its glory! Then satisfied with her check she showed us our lovely little baby. Just 1 in there thankfully! Baby Dave (our embryo's nickname) was beautiful, and what was even more lovely was watching his little heart beating away. That is all we wanted to see, that our little one was in the right place and that he was alive.

Then she went through all the other parts of the scan, including checking the speed of his heartbeat, which was 133 beats per minute, and then she printed us off a picture of Dave:

So there is our lovely little baby, who was on the day of the scan 7 weeks and 1 day old and was almost 1cm in size! Also what is really lovely is that our due date is 11/12/13! What a fantastic date! Maybe Dave will be born at 9:10 and weigh 7lb8oz? Wouldn't that be easy to remember?

I don't think it has sunk in yet, although my symptoms are doing their best to inform me of his presence! I am constantly nauseous, and have actually vomited a fair few times too! My stomach has grown already, although i think that it is just bloating! My breasts are huge too so after the scan we went to Mothercare and bought some new bras. Still i am looking on the bright side of things and i am glad that i have symptoms, it gives me confidence in this pregnancy.

I was then told that i am still to continue with the Crinone Gel (grrr) for another month and also that i needed to contact my doctor from now on as we were finished with Bourn Hall (which is so sad...), so naturally i called my doctor straight away and have an appointment with a nurse on Wednesday (1st May)!

As the days pass by we are both getting more and more excited about our little Baby Dave, Phil is looking after the both of us really well, cleaning my bucket out for me and helping me relax. He is really excited about being a daddy. My sister in law said to me 'i am going to be an auntie!' and i replied 'i am going to be a mummy!' Wow... i have never said that before, and to be able to say that was just wonderful to me...

Phil tells me that i need to stop blaming Dave for everything, 'baby Dave wants another biscuit, not me!' and 'baby Dave keep's farting!'. Ha ha! I love that we are more relaxed about it all now and that we can start to enjoy our pregnancy.

Exciting things are coming for us, let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Take Care All x

Not Long Now!

Hello Everyone!

We now have less than 48 hours until we have our early scan to see if our first attempt at IVF has miraculously worked and we are feeling very excited (but still a bit cautious of course) about it!. This past week has thankfully gone relatively quickly, which we are really grateful for.

My symptoms are getting progressively worse, especially the tiredness and sickness/ nausea. I can deal with the tiredness because quite frankly i like sleeping! Ha ha! The nausea and sickness is beyond ridiculous now though. I am unable to do anything as i am constantly reaching for my orange bucket. Even then it isn't a huge amount of sick but it sure does feel like it will be at the time!

The nausea is waking me up in the night, at least twice a night for the past couple of nights, Meaning that i have to sit up in bed, cuddling my bucket, slowly eating a ginger biscuit. Poor Phil wakes up too and feels bad as there is nothing he can do, bless him. I guess all i can do is wait for this phase to pass, i only hope it will be sooner rather than later!

I am really enjoying reading the 'what to expect when you are expecting' book. It really is an excellent read and i would recommend it to everyone! It is giving me lots of brilliant tips, as are my family and friends!

Tonight is going to be interesting! I will be going to go for a nap shortly because at 10:20pm tonight a taxi will arrive to take me to the BBC radio station in Chelmsford as i am going to be talking live (with other pregnant ladies too) on the BBC Radio 5 Live 11pm show 'Bump Club'. They are going to be talking about IVF tonight and i am really looking forward to doing it. I am also a bit nervous about saying something silly, but i am sure i will be ok. I will probably fall asleep in the taxi on the way home though! I just hope i don't have a long period of nausea throughout the show. That would be horrible... i must remember to take my ginger biscuits!

So now it is really just a case of getting through tomorrow and then travelling up to Bourn Hall on Thursday to hopefully have our long awaited dreams come true.

I really do hope they do...

Take Care All x

Count down to Scan Day!

Hello Everyone!

So it has been a fair few days since my last post and quite a lot has happened. I have wanted to write a new post for over a week now but to be honest i have been absolutely knackered! Sometimes i have had to have a nap in the afternoon and most nights i am in bed by 9pm. This might sound normal to some people but i don't usually fall asleep until after midnight!

My second test date was on Monday (15th) and as i expected it came back positive (the numbers are days past transfer):

I have done quite an amount of testing this past week, including a Clearblue one and all of them have come back positive, the most recent ones turning very positive (the test line has been stronger than the control line) the minute my wee (TMI, he he) hits them!

What was really nice was the Clearblue test showing me this:

It was so lovely to see those words 'Pregnant', and the 3+ weeks showed me that my HCG levels are rising, which the increasingly strong lines have been proving too. I couldn't stop looking at it! Luckily the result disappears after about 24 hours so i could carry on with the rest of my life! Ha ha.

So after my positive on Monday i called to clinic to let them know and they confirmed that my scan will be on the 25th April (next Thursday) at 2:15pm! It is very exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time! We are counting down the days that thankfully so far are going quite quickly. Just over a week to go until the time where we will see if our first attempt has worked. We will be so lucky if it has! As long as there is at least 1 little baby growing in there we will be incredibly happy, if there are 2 then that is great too!

My symptoms continue to increase in severity and i am not complaining (well... maybe a little bit). I am glad that i am feeling this way because it must mean that someone is in there, making me feel this way, creating all of the changes inside me.

The worst still is the tiredness, especially when i am at work... but a close contender is a lovely change to an old symptom... nausea. So now not only do i feel sick pretty much the whole day i have for the past few days actually been sick (only a little bit though), and because i am a bit different to most people, my 'morning sickness' only occurs in the evening. Usually whilst i am eating dinner, how lovely.

Amongst other things my breasts are showing me a lot of changes too, my areolas are definitely different, they seem to be darker and also slightly bigger. I also am still growing lots and lots of huge veins across my breasts and my nipples are still tingling at times.

So now it is another wait until our scan next week, we are still remaining cautious but we can't help but get a little bit more excited as the time goes on. We did buy a copy of 'what to expect when you are expecting' and i have been reading a little each day, which has been lovely. It is nice to know that the things that i am feeling are all normal.

I just hope that we can continue to be lucky and are blessed with a perfect, happy and healthy son or daughter in around 7-8 months time...

Take Care All x

Official Test Date (OTD)

Hello Everyone,

First of all a little apology, i noticed that yesterday i had over 80 views on my blog, all of those probably looking to find out the result of my OTD test. I am sorry but i was at work yesterday and last night i was falling asleep at 8pm!

So the result is... BFP!!!

We can't believe it! We are so happy, it is truly a miracle! People keep saying that the lines are really dark but of course i am still worried. I know that a BFP doesn't always mean a baby, so we are still excited but cautious...

I called the clinic to let them know of the outcome and they said that i am to do another test next Monday (the 15th) and if that is also positive they will arrange a scan for me. They said the scan is usually done around day 35-40 after ovulation, today is day 19 so i would estimate that the scan will be in the last week of April.

I am still having lots of lovely symptoms. I say lovely because i would rather have them than not have them. The one that is most noticeable is the constant tiredness, i am literally falling asleep most nights at 8pm-9pm! It is ridiculous, especially as i am a night owl and usually don't even feel tired after midnight!

I have no new symptoms to record, just a few changes... my nipples have become more sensitive and i swear my boobs are sprouting new veins daily! I also had a lot of cramping a few days ago (i am hoping it is the embryo getting nice and snuggled!).

Phil and i are slowly getting used to the idea that we are pregnant. Of course we are still aware of the problems that could arise, but i am keeping my lucky pants and bracelet nearby and we are keeping a positive mind for a positive outcome. There are times when we are really excited, i have caught Phil looking at my tummy a few times and it is hard to get Embie Dave out of our minds. We just really want this to be our chance to be a family.

It is nice to imagine the progression of my pregnancy, significant dates, like the 20 week scan, embie's due date etc... it is nice to look at prams and cribs, baby clothes and car seats. It is what keeps us going and helps us to remain positive, we deserve this little bit of luck.

We can only keep our fingers crossed that we continue to get BFP's and that when the scan date does come around there will be a tiny little fetus (or 2 of them!) all snuggled up and growing nicely in my womb.

The waiting game continues...

Take Care All x

12dp2dt

Hello Everyone!

As you know we are in the 2 week wait (although technically it is 16 days long... yes... too long!) and i am doing ok, i think...

It is a bit strange really, and i find myself  1 minute thinking 'this is going really well, nice and smoothly, no problems' and then the next minute i am going mad, 'it's not worked, AF (period) is coming, no baby for us'... nightmare.

Whilst i know that 'symptoms' can be fabricated by your mind, they can be a result of both AF and pregnancy, plus they can also be due to the Crinone gel that i am using daily (for progesterone support) i am still going to keep a note of them, you know... just encase...

So this week has seen the arrival of many symptoms, some old (that i have had in previous months) and some new which i will go into detail about below.

Old Symptoms:

Fatigue: although never as bad as this, i have been almost falling asleep as early as 8:30pm! I am a night owl usually, and often don't fall asleep until past midnight so this is a really noticeable difference.

Nausea and Vomiting: in the past i have had feelings of nausea but this is much more constant. Plus i have had a few episodes of random vomiting, not enough to require my head down a toilet but enough to notice that it isn't normal.

Breasts changes: i usually have very painful boobs for the week before AF arrives, so much so that it feels like i want to just cut them off! I have had mild pain but nothing like what i usually have. They do seem bigger than usual and my areola's do seem to be slightly darker, but this could be related to AF also.

Cramping: a few days before AF is due i usually get a few cramps throughout the day, these are very dull and can last for quite a while. The cramps i have been having are very different to that though, these feel sharper, and are only on one side. I think that they could possibly be due to constipation too though.

New Symptoms:

Dizziness: almost every time i stand up i have to be slow about it as i can get very dizzy, very quickly!

Smell: i don't know if i am just more aware of things or if i really can smell things easier. For the last week i have been not only smelling perfume/ deodorant etc on people but also B.O is very obvious to me, which makes me feel quite sick. It was quite shocking really! Everything just seems to be stronger smelling.

Headaches: i have pretty much had a headache for the whole of this week and it is not letting up.

Mood: i haven't had my usual happy 1 minute, angry the next mood swings. This time though i am crying a lot, and i mean a lot! I cried at a radio advert, TV programs (someone made a really nice dish on Masterchef and i cried my eye's out for her!), things i have read that i wouldn't usually cry at. Sometimes i just start to cry and i have no idea why!

Constipation: i have been really constipated this week, but that could be a result of the progesterone.

There have been a few more 'symptoms' i am sure but i can't really remember them all. Should of written them down... oh well! Of course even with these symptoms we are still sticking to our 'positive but cautious' outlook.

We now have 4 more days until out OTD (official test date) and they are not passing quick enough! I am trying to keep myself busy, seeing family and friends, sleeping (ha ha!) and this weekend my friend Robyn and i are going to a craft show at the Excel in London, we can't wait!!!

So until Monday... fingers crossed!

Take Care All x