little buddy

so this is about a week after the fact, but here's a pic of my latest ultrasound. little krispie has now graduated to having buds. it's amazing how fast it's growing, and how fast it'll continue to grow. not only did i hear the baby's heart beating i could see it. it's little heart just fluttering away in it's tiny little chest.

i had my first ob appointment last thursday and was surprised that instead of seeing my normal nurse practitioner i'll be seeing a doctor. apparently my pregnancy is still considered high risk (at least to this group) because it happened through IVF. my RE reassured me that as long as i was carrying one baby it should be considered a normal pregnancy. i guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

at my appointment i was told i have to wait another 8-10 weeks before i get another ultrasound. it's so weird to have already gotten two in the last two weeks to having to wait what seems like a lifetime for another one. the girls at aaron's work told him about a clinic in town that'll do ultrasounds for free. i'm almost tempted to go every friday to check on the baby's progress. ok, maybe every other week. ;)

another thing i learned at my appointment. even though the baby measured a couple of days early at the first ultrasound they stick with my original calculated due date. unless it fluctuates by more than a week they keep the same date. which makes sense since at the second ultrasound the baby measured two days older. so my official due date is december 25. yes, baby westphal is officially a christmas baby! yep, he/she is gonna be one of those poor kids that gets birthday presents wrapped in christmas paper.

as far as symptoms go my major problem is being EXTREMELY tired all the time. this baby is sucking the life force out of me, literally. i'm told that once the second trimester starts that'll dissipate. fingers crossed it does, i hate feeling like a huge slug. another problem i'm having is being hungry but nothing looks or tastes good. i think it's my body subconsciously avoiding morning sickness. it's just really odd that i have to force myself to eat. according to my ob it's normal and is considered a form of morning sickness. so i guess by definition i am having some slight morning sickness but no vomiting or extreme nausea. thank goodness.

the computer went on the fritz last week and has been getting repaired the last two days. i love apple. luckily i purchased the apple care program with this computer. why would you not with a huge purchase like this. i called monday morning and they physically sent someone here to boone yesterday to fix it. it had a defective fan that was making all this noise and the guy replaced it and went ahead and replaced the motherboard while he was at it. i can't believe how quiet it is now. amazing.

so this means updates should be coming more regularly. we've got a busy month ahead of us. aaron's dad and grandmother will be here next week. then the caraways will be heading our way and we'll all be heading for the beach in a few weeks. the summeys will officially be residents of boone in a few weeks. and aaron and i will be heading back to illinois to celebrate the 4th. we fly in on the 1st and will be there til the 7th. yes, busy, busy, busy!

baby on board

just one baby on board. as much as i would have loved to have two, my body is thankful it's only one. so here's a pic of our little rice crispy. (the nickname is a reference to it's size) we were also able to hear it's heartbeat on tuesday. it was 151 bpm. it's insane to think something so small even has a heartbeat.

the baby measured at 7 weeks and 3 days. which was two days before my ivf calculated due date of december 24. baby westphal is due december 22, my dad's birthday. so looks like we're going to have a christmas baby!

everything looked good and i was released to my ob/gyn. no more treks to hickory or charlotte for medical care. i had to laugh, my RE gave me a little pregnancy care package that included a onesie that said, "made in charlotte" and technically it's true.

as far as symptoms go. i've been lucky and haven't had any morning sickness. just very burpy or vurpy and mild heartburn. some minor cramping and just tired all the time. one of the main reasons blog posts are short and far between. hopefully that will change in the upcoming weeks. we'll be documenting this pregnancy and with that will come the obligatory belly shots. right now there isn't much to see.

yes, it's gonna be very interesting to see what happens to my tattoo. maybe that's the real thing we'll be following. lol!

slightly addicted

well i did great and didn't do a HPT (home pregnancy test) before my blood test. a big part of that was the fear of it being negative. but once i knew it would be positive i've pretty much gone to town. here are 3 of 5 tests i've taken the last few weeks. i think the main reason i continue to do them is to reassure myself that things are still going good. i don't think the paranoia will go away til after the ultrasound. what am i saying, it'll probably not go away til i'm holding a healthy baby or two in my arms. 1 week and 1 day to go.

i've done 7 weeks of injections, 4 of those weeks doing intramuscular injections. it's getting harder and harder to tolerate them. or i should say my tush is tired of them. hopefully, after the ultrasound i'll only have 2 more weeks. i am so looking forward to that day.

too early to tell

since many you have been following the progress of our IVF procedure and know that we should have some answers by now. i thought i'd enlighten you. friday we got our BFP (big fat positive) with a beta hcg of 84.5. (for the first beta they want the number to be above 50, so we made the cut.) i went back on monday for another blood draw and the number had increased to 311. (they like to see the number double over a 48-72 hour period, so all was still good.) yesterday was my last beta and my number jumped to 1232. so we are officially preggers! finally. it's still early and we have yet to do an ultrasound to see if it's viable. but i thought i'd inform my friends and family that actually read this the news. i don't think we'll be making the official announcement til after the ultrasound which is scheduled for may 12. and yes, it'll be 2.5 weeks before we'll actually know how many "took." i know that's the next question everyone has. your guess is as good as mine.

PUPO with three

so i had my transfer monday afternoon. the embryologist called as i was pulling out of my driveway. i thought they were going to tell me they're pushing the transfer back to wednesday. (i was told that it could be a 3, 5 or 6 day transfer but plan on 3) instead she told me that my RE wants to put back 4 embryos. 1 (8 cell) 1 (7 cell) and 2 (6 cell). this totally caught me off guard. we had already discussed we'd transfer 2 and that had been my mindset all along. being in stupor, i said okay. what?!?

since we didn't know what day the transfer was gonna be on, awes really couldn't take off work. luckily, jerome was able to take me down again. he even set up a little bed for me in the back of his suv with an air mattress, pillows and blankets. too sweet.

awes called while we were on our way to check if the ET was going to be that day. i told him yes and that they want to transfer 4. he started to freak and kept repeating 2, we only want 2. i told him i'd talk to my RE once i got there to find out the details and then decide. since we had a failed cycle last time my RE thought it'd be better to put back 4. so i decided to split the difference and put back 3. so i'm officially PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise) with triplets! crazy! i still can't get over it. this time the embryos weren't as far along as they were last time. hopefully being in their "natural" environment, they'll thrive better. fingers crossed. let's hope i at least make it to the blood test next friday without mother nature (AF) rearing her ugly head again.

documented

yes, this was taken yesterday. shortly after my ER. i appear to be to be in a hazy fog. a happy, druggy fog. to my surprise 15 eggs were retrieved. a few more than last time. got the report this morning. 15 retrieved, 12 were mature eggs, and out of those 12, 10 fertilized. so far so good. right now i'm scheduled to do a three day transfer. which will be monday at noon. there is a chance, if the embryos are doing awesome, we'll be do a 5 or 6 day transfer. i have to call monday morning to find out. fingers, toes, and anything that can be crossed is crossed. a big thanks to everyone for all your support. love you guys!!

baby mama drama

without the baby, mama but plenty of the drama. i triggered last night for an 8:30a ER on friday.

i went in for a scheduled u/s and b/w yesterday morning. i go to a satellite clinic in hickory, about an hour away. on my way back home, awes calls me and tells me my charlotte clinic called his office looking for me. weird, they have my cell phone so i have no clue why they would call his office. anyways, i call and leave a voicemail with my nurse asking if they meant to call me at his office and that they can reach on my cell or home number. meanwhile, i had planned to accompany greyson and her in-laws at looking at a couple of houses she and brett are interested in purchasing. we were doing a quick tour of our house when i heard my cell phone ringing upstairs. i missed the call but didn't think it was that big a deal. just them telling me my blood values and how much medicine i'd be taking that evening.

the nurse leaves a message telling me i need to call the office and tell the receptionist it's urgent that i speak to my nurse. she also tells me that i need to come into their office in charlotte that same day. huh? it's already 3pm and by the time i get there it's gonna be around 5:30p, at the earliest so i start to get a little concerned.

i call back immediately and my nurse puts my RE on and he explains my e2 levels and follicle count/sizes aren't corresponding and he needs to see me in person to do another u/s. with the numbers he's seeing we might have to convert to an IUI and there's a possibility we might be bumped from the shared risk program if we do convert. so i started to really FREAK OUT.

luckily awes was able to leave work early and we headed down to charlotte by 3:30. we got there about 5:30p, did an U/S and luckily my follicles were bigger than the satellite clinic reported. still a smaller number then he'd like to see but at least we get to do the ER. phew! they wanted me to trigger at 8:30p and where's my trigger shot? at home in my fridge, 2 hours away. so we had to scramble to get another shot before we left town and at 8:30, i gave myself the trigger in the car. yeah, and both dogs were also with us.

awes: "should i pull over for you to do that?"
me: "nah, the dogs are pretty comfortable and if we pull over they'll be crawling all over me. just keep driving."

i went back to hickory this morning for more b/w and tomorrow we head to charlotte again for the ER at 8:30 a.m. this time we're doing a 3 day transfer so ET is on monday. man, when things start to roll, they really start to roll! crazy!!

little stitches

in conjunction with my new camera lens, i also got two new craft books. i can spend hours perusing the craft section at the bookstore. which we ending up doing sunday. yep, i keep feeding my minds eye. sooner or later i'll actually put it to use.

the first book i got: amy butler's little stitches. it's got a bunch of cute patterns i can't wait to try out. i absolutely love her fabric and thought this would be a great way to put some of my fabric stash to use. although looking at most of the projects it looks like i'll be purchasing more of said fabric. (one of the main reasons i adore her fabric is that she puts together collections. so you have a wide variety of fabrics to choose from that coordinate and have the same color palette.)

the other book i got was free-style handmade bags and skirts. this book has got a lot of cute, simple bags and skirts and also comes with a few patterns. i know i got a book a few months ago that is somewhat similar. but you can never have too many books with great ideas. at least in my opinion. so the craft book library grows.

with all the meds and the constant driving back and forth to the doctor, i haven't had any desire to do anything let alone sew. i'm on day 12 of the stimulating drugs and i'm so ready to get the show started. by the looks of my appointment this morning, the retrieval is probably going to be saturday. i have another appointment tomorrow and will definitely find out the date then. (there is a slight possibility it could be friday.) i thought for sure this cycle would be faster than the last since my meds were doubled. for some reason i've been a little bit slower responding. who knows why. i'll update tomorrow when i know more.

it's bottomless

my stomach has become a bottomless pit. ugh. i think the meds are messing with my system this time around. this phrase actually left my mouth the other day: "i should have ordered a 12" sub." me, the person who's always satisfied with a kids meal, ate a whole 10 nugget meal on our way back from san francisco. me, who's not a big fan of sweets, has eaten two boxes of oreo cakesters in the last week. omg! you'd think with all this eating i'd be pregnant already. tomorrow i start my stimulating meds. i'm guessing my ER to be next weekend or early the following week. i can't believe it's approaching so fast.

reality check

upon returning home from our san francisco trip life has really hurled one curve ball after another at us. one of the biggest was the loss of my future nephew on wednesday.

last tuesday irina, my sister-in-law, went into the hospital with some heavy spotting, she was about 2.5/3 cm dialated. basically she was in premature labor. luckily they were able to stop the progression and ordered her on strict bed rest for 10 weeks. she was supposed to return home from costa rica on wednesday but that trip was quickly revised with her returning in may.

this tuesday, brian headed down to costa rica to give her a little moral support. he called me on wednesday afternoon and told me that irina's water broke and she lost the baby. she was about 19 weeks which is way too early for the baby to survive. brian said that irina had prayed he would be there if this should happen and he was.

they believe that irina has a weak cervix and the weight of the baby may have caused it to open prematurely. hopefully a cervical cerclage will prevent this from happening in the future. although this has been quite a devastating blow for them, both brian and irina are anxious to get started again. they are very strong-willed people and this doesn't surprise me. sending much love and prayers their way.

while i was in san francisco i did have a scare myself. i felt a huge lump in one of my breasts. aaron was pretty sure it was a cyst but wanted me to get it checked out when we returned. so yesterday i went in for an ultrasound and it indeed was a cyst. it looked like two separate cysts, both measuring about 2 cm each. the doctor suggested we drain it right then and there. turns out it was one huge cyst. so technically i had a 4 cm cyst that practically popped up overnight. they are pretty sure it might be from all the hormones i've been taking for my IVF cycles. some people are prone to getting cysts and i just happen to be one of those people. so i have to keep monitoring myself, hopefully this was a one time occurrence.

luckily this has not interfered with our current IVF cycle. i received all my meds on wednesday and started lupron injections that night. i thought i'd be a pro since we've done this all before. but i did get a little adrenaline rush when i gave myself that first shot. it'll take some getting used to again. so we are officially underway.

come on ride the train

it's the choo-choo! IVF #2 is officially underway. the rough schedule i just got: start birth control today, start lupron on the 11th, blood work and ultrasound on the 20th, start stims the 21st, retrieval the 1st of april, transfer 3-5 days later.

doctor say what

yesterday we headed down to charlotte to meet with my RE for our follow-up visit. he pretty much told us what i expected. all my numbers were great throughout the process. well up until retrieval that is. he had expected to see more eggs retrieved, which i did too. he also said the quality of the embryos weren't as good as he had expected either. he said they fertilized great and were initially growing fine but if they slow down or stop growing after day 3 it usually means it's a male factor issue. so for my next cycle we're going to do pretty much the same thing we did last time but bump up the dosage of the stimulating meds. he is also adding another drug called ganirelix which prevents eggs from being released prematurely. not sure if that was the case with my last cycle but it would explain why the numbers were so low. he also suggested aaron start taking an antioxidant supplement called ConceptionXR. as for dates, we've decided to wait one more cycle and start the process in late february which means the ER (egg retrieval) and ET (egg transfer) will be in late march/early april. we have a trip planned for early march where the tickets and hotel are already paid for, so if we would have started with this next cycle it would have definitely fallen into that time frame. so that's the western medicine update.

as far as acupuncture goes. i had my diagnostic meeting last tuesday. the first 1.5 hours we spent talking about anything and everything that could be interfering with our ability to conceive. sleep, digestion, kidney function, stress. he was very detailed and thorough with his questions, which i find most other doctors are not. the first thing he suggested: we fix my sleep habits. so that's what we're concentrating on now. not sure if the needle session concentrated on that or the infertility aspect. i ended up with a needle in each hand, five in the stomach and three in each foot. did i feel any different after the session? no, not at all. do i feel any different today? no. i asked my RE what he thought about acupuncture and infertility yesterday and he pretty much told me the only thing it'll probably help with is stress relief. i'm pretty much thinking the same thing. if it helps with anything else, great. but i'm not expecting much. i have another appointment tomorrow and i set up one for aaron for next tuesday. i already know that the appointment will be aaron's first and last.

aaron: "how did your appointment go?"
sue: "good. (blah, blah, blah) then he asked me to stick out my tongue and told me my liver wasn't functioning properly cause it was pale along the sides."
aaron: "WHAT!?!"

and that was pretty much his reaction to everything i told him. i thought maybe i wasn't explaining it right (i'm the poor layman), cause it kinda made sense to me when the acupuncturist was explaining it. i just have a feeling that east isn't gonna meet west as far as aaron's concerned. we'll have to see. ;)

east meets west

"Used as a complementary form of therapy for women undergoing other fertility treatments, acupuncture has been proven to be especially beneficial. Some believe that acupuncture works by helping women stay more relaxed through stressful fertility treatments. In particular, studies have shown that acupuncture definitely increases the rate of pregnancy in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF)."

yesterday i scheduled my first acupuncture appointment. we had decided if the first cycle didn't work we'd try a little alternative medicine in conjunction with our IVF treatment. does it actually work? who knows. but it definitely won't hurt to try.

my follow-up appointment with my RE (reproductive endocrinologist) is scheduled for january 13th to discuss this last cycle and what our next course of action will be. as of right now, we're taking at least one month off to let my body recuperate from the last treatment. if all goes according to plan we'll start again in february with a retrieval and transfer in mid-march. although i just looked at our calendar and our trip to san francisco might interfere with that date. we'll have to see if my RE changes my protocol. i guess i really can't say the when til we talk to him.

i'm feeling better but i think i'll pass on going down to asheville tonight. thought i could talk about it, but when i texted the answer to the "baby?" question yesterday i got a knot in my stomach and my eyes started to instantly swell. it's not that i don't want to talk about it, it's that i can't. at least not now. i just want to thank everyone for all their thoughts and prayers, we appreciate all your love and support.

walkin to dfeet

Aaron's mother, Donna, passed away from ALS in 2000. Her strength, courage and faith throughout her illness served as an inspiration to all who knew her. We are participating in this event to honor Donna and hopefully to help raise awareness of this debilitating disease.

If you'd like to donate, walk or learn more about ALS click here.