1st ultrasound

Today was our first ultrasound.  It showed that I am 5.5 weeks pregnant and only one baby was detected.  Much to my surprise, they could see a heartbeat.  HOW EXCITING!!!!  I did not expect that!  The heart was beating at 76 bpm and the baby is 1.9mm.  

We thought for sure we had twins, but I'm not at all disappointed and I thought I would be.  I see us being able to give this baby more attention.   We will also probably be less exhausted.  I haven't seen Robert this excited and happy in a long time.  The doctor told me it would be best not to do Ashiatsu massages yet.  He said it would be best to at least wait until after the next u/s.  I can hardly wait!  Positive thoughts and healing energy!

24 day embryo

This is a picture of a 24 day embryo, taken by Lennart Nilsson.  The red part is the heart.  

2nd Hcg test

My second Hcg test was on Monday, February 11th.  I also had to stop by the office to show the doctor my injection site on my hip.  As it turns out, an infection (cellulitis) started to set in.  I was using progesterone in ethyl oleate, which the doctor said was thinner and spreads out instead of staying localized when using the progesterone in peanut oil.  He told me to stop the injections and start using Crinone.  So, THAT I'm glad of!  He also commented on how high my Hcg number was on my first test.  He mentioned something about one of the embryos possibly splitting.  YIKES!  

On the way home I got the call about my test results.  My number more than doubled!!!  I can't remember the exact number because I was so excited, but it was over 600!!!  Again, the idea of triplets flashed through my head!  TRIPLE YIKES!

I go back on Tuesday February 19th for my first ultrasound to see if the embryos are where they are suppose to be and to see how many are in there.  

11 days post FET

This morning we went to N.O. to do my blood work.  The results:  hcg 281.  I go back on Monday to do another test to see if the numbers are increasing appropriately. 

Yay!  We are so excited!

I finally got the picture scanned of the embryos.  The first one was taken right after they were thawed at 5:00 pm. The second is at 6:45 the next morning.

I've been feeling great, other than being tired.  I certainly feel something going on in there, pings, pangs, cramps and such.  I imagine the embryos look like those old-timey double sided clothes pins right about now.

After I talk to the doctor monday, I may go back to work at Hammond Developmental Center, but I'm definately not going to be doing any Ashiatsu massages for a little while longer.

Thanks everyone for all the positive thoughts and energy y'all have been sending my way.

New Orleans on my mind ...

Growing up in New Orleans was the best. I didn't know that until I left. It's been six years since I lived there. All I lost when hurricane Katrina hit was a '77 Chevy Caprice that I hadn't driven in years and a few things that I left in the closet of my parents' house. I think I had some old prom and Mardi Gras dresses, pictures and text books from college just to name a few. Every time I see or read about what happened to N.O. I feel the pain like it was yesterday. What's weird about this emotion is that I don't feel the pain for myself, despite the fact I spent thirty plus years of my life there, I hurt for the city, the people that are New Orleans.

Everytime I see a documentary on Hurricane Katrina, I watch it and I cry. It's not a bawling cry, it never was, just a lump in my throat and a few tears.  WEIRD! Then I watch it again (because cable channels always show the same show over and over and over again). I don't know why I get sucked into these shows. I just love New Orleans I guess. Maybe I watch this stuff repeatedly in an effort to desensitize myself to the reality of it. My old neighborhood is still a disaster, only a handful or so families have returned and they are the ones carrying the neighborhood. They keep the lawns cut and watch out for people that don't belong there. Yeah, it's the people that define the city and they are the ones I hurt for. One day, who knows when, the city will not look so scarred up, but we will never forget the scars we hide inside.

Friends!

I am so blessed! I have some really great friends. They have offered to run my errands, bring me anything I want and visit me to keep me company.

One friend in particular has been a huge influence in helping me get to this state of calm, spiritually and emotionally, that I so desperately needed. That friend is Eugenia. She says that things don't happen by accident, but that the universe guides people and experiences our way as we need them (or something like that LOL). The universe, God, Jesus Christ are all one in the same in my book.

I received a holistic practices newsletter one day by email and in it was a FREE 30-day Butterfly Experiment. This was right after the hospital stay and I figured, why not try it out? Well, I found that I didn't have time to do this because I was still dealing with other health problems. I saved the daily emails in a special folder in my mailbox with the intention of definitely doing it when I had more energy. One day Eugenia offered to help me sort some things out with my Mac, she being the Mac expert. She saw one of the emails about using the law of attraction to manifest butterflies and asked me about it. I kind of breezed over the whole idea because after all it does sound a little "hokey". THEN she tells me that that is something she had spent years learning about and recently had started putting into practice. She said that if I wanted help with understanding it, she had tons of resources to lend to me. I started looking into it. I watched The Secret and thought to myself, "this sounds hokey, but why would it not work, after all anything is possible, especially through God, right?". I bet Jesus used the law of attraction and manifestation!

So, I made a copy of a baby in-utero and put it on my desktop and I imagine everyday, everytime I see it that that is what my baby is going to look like. Since I plan on having twins, I just multiply this image in my head. ;)

I don't know what kind of shape I would be in without this new tool I've learned. So, this post is for Eugenia. Thanks for being such a great friend, for teaching and not preaching and for helping me to grow.

Visualizing Implantation

It's a beautiful day here in Hammond, Louisiana. The sun is out and the thermometer reads 68 degrees outside. I can't remember the last time we had parade weather like this. It's unfortunate that I need to take it easy and not go to the parades, but I'm more than happy to do it. The embryos should be implanting right about now, or may have already implanted, I think.

They were frozen on day 6, so I guess that means they were transferred on day 7 or 8. That makes today day 11 or 12. I feel normal, not overly tired or anything. Heck, all I've done since Tuesday is lay in bed or on the sofa. I've been very happy and positive and haven't worried, but the teeniest tiny bit. That is a big change from the past experiences I've had when we went through ovulation induction and IUI's. I go Saturday for my beta. I'm visualizing numbers in the high hundreds.

Robert brought a king cake home today ... I wonder if I'm going to get the baby? Better yet, I AM going to get that baby even if I have to eat the whole thing by myself!