8:27 am, May 23, (exactly 11 months after our wedding day) we saw our 6 week 1 day old baby's heart beat for the first time. I have never seen such an amazing sight in my entire life. Our baby is only 4.5mm (yes, millimeters!) and already has a heartbeat that looks like a beautiful lighthouse light.
Yes, we are PREGNANT!!!!!
Yes, we were surprised too!
Yes, we were trying, but had not yet learned of my uterine septum diagnosis when this babe was made.
I ovulated from my left ovary, baby has implanted in right "horn" of uterus, beside the septum. We pray this will be a healthy spot for the baby to grow and get enough nourishment.
Our beautiful 6w1d old baby who already has a beating heart. How amazing!
Let's rewind time and start at the beginning here, to May 1. We are still waiting for my cycle to start so we can get our move on with my septum resection surgery. At this point we are at day 35. Weird. I had taken a test 3 days earlier- negative. Paul convinced me to take another test and it turned out to be a faint positive. I thought we were just seeing things. Took one the next morning, definitely positive. Wow! Tears came, but instead of tears of joy, they were tears of fear and anxiety for this itty bitty bean growing inside of me. I felt as though I was waiting for a miscarriage. These feelings lasted about 3 days. I was also having a bit of cramping on and off for about 5-6 days around this time, which only made things 1000x more scary. We had an ultrasound booked for the 16th and were sent for blood work right away by the specialist. The results of the Beta HCG workups were:
May 2- 26
May 6- 254
May 8- 560
This was our first great news. It did show that I likely ovulated a week later than would have been normal for me, so my ultrasound got pushed a week until the 23.
May 11 I ended up in the ER at 2 am with abdominal pain. I knew the baby was fine, it didn't feel like I was miscarrying, we thought it might be my appendix- it wasn't. Long story short, they took blood, did an ultrasound and couldn't find anything wrong. They saw one gestational sac with no fetal pole present but dated me at 5 weeks 1 day, too early to see a fetal pole. My Beta levels had gone up to 1786, higher than they've ever been in any of my pregnancies. This was amazing news. The pain subsided, and I was released later in the afternoon completely exhausted and with no explanation for my pain. Weird!
Early that week the morning sickness kicked in (who eveer named it morning sickness is silly, it should be called all day sickness or pregnancy sickness or something). Gross! I have never struggled to eat this much in my life. I wake up feeling fine, get hungry and start feeling sick, can't figure out anything to eat that would remotely satisfy me with out making me want to toss all my cookies, end up eating one piece of toast and then the cycle starts all over again 30 mins later since I'm hungry again. Yes, I've tried soda crackers- that really doesn't work for me. At that point I was usually feeling better by 2:30. Now, I am sick most of the day on and off until about 9:30pm. Preparing food is very hard for me. The smells and look of it makes me very nauseous, even looking through grocery flyers is making me green these days. Oh and I'm beyond bloated. It seems it took me three pregnancies to realize what I thought was a super early, super cute baby bump was just a gas filled, but still beautiful to me bump. I'm really thankful I am able to rest most days and that this is a positive sign of a healthy pregnancy. One last note on this topic, I've only been wanting to eat junk food. Of course, right? I was one of those people who before I got pregnant swore I would eat only the healthiest of foods for my growing baby but I suppose this baby is like it's momma wanting nothing but junk. So the night before my second ultrasound I was hungry at 10 pm. I got this really great idea that I would try to eat that spinach salad I had optimistically bought a few days earlier hoping to improve my baby's IQ. Not. A. Good. Idea. It wasn't so bad when I was eating it. I even had a second bowl. Again I say- not a good idea. I was tossing and turning all night, looked like I was 4 months pregnant with how bloated I was. Ugh. I just wanted to throw up. Lets just say I didn't have any of the typical pregnancy constipation problems that morning. Gross. So for all those mommas-to-be out there who feel the need to eat some spinach to get some extra folic acid, DON'T DO IT!!!
My first mother's day!
Emotionally, getting past those milestone dates of our previous miscarriages has been difficult. The worst part is that our dates keep changing so we've had to go through all these emotions multiple times. The only negative thing about our second ultrasound was that he dated my to 6W 1D when I was 6W 6D according to my first ultrasound and just past my first miscarriage date of 6W 5D. Lots of prayers have seemed to help me through these difficult days and of course seeing that sweet baby's heart beating has taken much of my anxiety away.
There are no words to describe how excited we are. We have another ultrasound on June 6 and can't wait to see how my our little baby has grown. Thanks to everyone who has supported us up until this point in our journey and to all of you who will be by our side through this pregnancy again.
Picture taken at 10.5 weeks.
P.S. So sorry for the crazy long post!
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This post was written on the 25th of May! An update will be coming soon!
