Anyway, I am pregnant. We found out on Monday and have been waiting to tell everyone in person before posting here. We went out to a romantic dinner at Olazzo Monday night to celebrate and called lots of people. So many people screaming with excitement into the phone. We've only told our closest friends and only people who we know will be excited for us. So this means K's mom but not mine.
We thought I was pregnant based on my symptoms, but didn't want to get our hopes up. Here is a list of my symptoms before I knew I was pregnant:
1. Implantation cramp on day 7 that lasted overnight
2. My vagina smelled differently (TMI)
3. Crying over really minor things - like on day 14 I wanted to go to breakfast before church but we ran out of time, and this made me cry
4. Some queasiness
Since finding out on Monday, I've had some additional symptoms:
5. Extreme tiredness - this weekend I went to bed every night at 8:30, slept until 8:30 in the morning, and took multiple rest breaks.
6. Tender, veiny breasts with darkening nipples.
7. Very hungry
I've gone in ever other day for a blood test for the beta/hcg and progesterone levels. Here they are for whoever's interested:
Day 15: Progesterone 10.6, Beta 417
Day 17: Progesterone 8.9, Beta 1,616
Day 19: Progesterone 10.5, Beta 3,076
My progesterone is low and even dropped a little, so I'm taking supplement vaginally. The pharmacist asked if I needed information on how to take it - um, no, I think vaginally describes it pretty well.
My beta numbers are off the charts, and from what I read, this could mean three things:
- Down syndrome
- Molar pregnancy
- Multiple pregnancy
Based on this list, we're really hoping for multiples. My aunt had twins, so it's definitely a possibility. K is actually really excited by the idea of twins since it means we never have to do this horrible trying-to-conceive thing ever again.
Here's a chart of the range HcG levels for just one baby, and the red line is my data
Our friend J sent us a book called A Child is Born as soon as she found out. It's an amazing book with pictures of the fetus developing and detailed descriptions of the baby as it develops. In my fragile state, this book makes me cry. Right now our baby looks like a grouper. She is also reading the book My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy and said she would give it to me once she's done with it. But I said I don't want to read it if it's going to make me cry because I do enough of that on my own these days. So she's screening it for me.I'm off my claritin, which has been really hard. Along with all of the pregnancy symptoms, I've got crazy allergies to deal with. At least it gives me something to tell people at work about why I'm so sick. On Wed my boss asked if I was feeling okay because I was sneezing and sniffling, and I told him that I stopped taking my allergy medicine. He said "Why would you do that?" and I said "Just to try it" and he looked at me quizzically and said "Well, good luck".
In some cases it's been hard not telling people, but by far the hardest was yesterday. At a picnic for my department at work, I was holding a coworker friend's 10 month old baby and talking to my boss's wife. She thought the baby was mine and when I said it wasn't, she said, "Well, you should get one. That one looks like it belongs on your lap." I told her we were trying and she was so excited, and said she definitely wanted to be kept up-to-date. It would have been so easy to tell her the truth, but there were lots of coworkers around and she's my boss's wife, and so we stuck with the lie. But I'll definitely tell her as soon as I can.
Now we need an OB/GYN. Since my beta levels are so high, the RE doesn't need to monitor me anymore. Next week she will do an ultra sound and then release me to an OB/GYN. But we don't know who yet. Oh, it seems so daunting... I need a nap!
