A Memorable Birthday (27w2d)

A quick check of Petit today at the OB's office revealed that all is well.

My weight is down 4.5 lbs, for a total loss of 1.5 lbs over the course of the pregnancy so far. That's superb! My TSH bloodwork came back at 1.3 which is perfect! My fasting glucose came back at 4.7 , and normal fasting is between 3.6 and 6.0, so that's great.

The numbness in my upper thighs is normal and although it may get worse over the next few months, it ought to improve or disappear after Petit arrives.

The baby is active and kicking frequently and the OB is pleased with how things are progressing so far. And my next appointment is on June 11.

Honestly, this is the best way to celebrate my birthday. I'm blessed beyond belief and I could not be more thrilled to finally, at the ripe old age of 39, be expecting our first child. It's my best birthday ever. I am grateful for everything I have and the glimmer of hope that we are experiencing right now.

To my husband: thank you for everything you give to me and for being my rock. I am honoured to be your wife, and I am so happy to be looking forward to welcoming our child into our lives. And yes, the roses are beautiful. I love you.

GIVEAWAY!

In honour of my 39th birthday tomorrow, I'm giving something to you!

I have one full vial, unopened, of PIO. If you are in the process of an IVF, or you know someone who is and you're looking to save some money, I'll quite happily contribute! I'd rather see someone use than have it go to waste. It's not doing me a damn bit of good sitting in the corner of my bedroom, now is it?!

So if you want in, leave a comment here and ensure that I can reach you via e-mail. I'll put all the names in a hat and have hubby draw one for the win!

Photos of Recent Events

Some recent photos to keep you updated...

First up, the Baby Steps Walk from yesterday. This is Kerry, one of the u/s techs who I caught up with yesterday for the first time in more than two years. She changed clinics to work at the Ottawa Fertility Centre and she was so genuinely happy to see me and hubby and learn of our good news. Oh yeah, I did make the signs for my shirt. See below.

Another blogging friend of mine, neeroc. She now has a beautiful little girl courtesy of ART and is contemplating adding to their family. She told me her husband was always sceptical about us bloggers and whether we exist in real life. Yesterday, he found out that I -do- exist! And as I told him, I can vouch for a few more of us as well!

And Dr. Leader, a leading RE in Ottawa and member of the Ontario Expert Panel on Infertility. He told us yesterday that the expert panel will be making its recommendations to the Ontario government early next month and it will be recommending that financial assistance and medical insurance be available for those who must pursue ART in order to build families.



Next up, my family. Excuse the blurriness, but this is my mom, me, my sister and my dad in West Virginia, celebrating my BIL's graduation from Nursing School. I thought it was a half decent picture, despite the fuzzy view.



And my BIL and sister, celebrating!



And a pic of me and MH, one of our friends from VA. MH promised he would 'rub my belly' when he got the chance. He surprised me by doing just that one evening when hubby and I treated their kids to Chuck E. Cheese. (Hey, we had to see what all the hullaballoo was about; we're Canadian and we don't have Chuck E. Cheese north of the 49th parallel!)



Next up, a pic of one of my cats, Shadow. I've mentioned that my two kitties have been rather, oh, shall we say CLOSE to me since I've gotten pregnant? Yeah, well, here's an example. Shadow is so close in this picture, that every time I breathed, his fur went up my nose! I was just too tired to care or move him at that point. So hubby took the pic.



And a photo of hubby and me together. Just cause I thought it was a good one. This was taken in WV at my BIL's party.



To all my American friends:

Have a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend. And in particular, I'm sending good vibes and sticky dust to Mo and Will as they hope Mo's beta rises!

A Dilemma

As I mentioned a few posts back, tomorrow is the Ottawa Fertility Centre's BABY STEPS walk for infertility awareness. I would love to attend!

I called the general inquiry number and spoke to Dr. Vause about the walk. She indicated that the walk itself is about 3.5 km long (less than 1 hour at a regular pace). They'll start at the Fertility Centre, go south on Prince of Wales to Hog's Back, east on Hog's Back to Riverside, north on Riverside to Heron, and west on Heron back over to Prince of Wales and the Fertility Centre. A lovely little jaunt on a sunny day! I'm looking forward to it.

However, there's a small fly in the ointment. While my doctor hasn't told me to restrict activities, there are two minor issues that may hold me back:

1. I'm VISIBLY pregnant. How will those infertiles who are attending view me? Will I only serve to remind them of their own heartache right now? Could I possibly make a poster or something to pin on my belly that says "PG thru IVF"? Or maybe "6 years TTC, 27 IUIs, 12 weeks of PIO, 1 vasectomy reversal, 1 IVF = Baby on Board... Priceless"? What do you think?

2. For the past month or so, when I stand or walk for any length of time, I have tingling and then severe numbness in my outer thighs. It's weird to be walking around and suddenly not feel my own hand touching my thigh! It's likely due to increased pressure and fluids which is quite normal during pregnancy and expected to go away after Petit arrives. But do I want to risk it happening tomorrow during the walk? And then again... if I can shop for the baby for an hour, what's to stop me from participating in the walk for an hour?! Nothing really. So I should probably go and deal with the numbness afterwards.

What do you all think? Would you go? And why or why not? Looking for your advice and thoughts!

Less Than 15 Weeks Left

Annnnnddddd... we're back!

After a very hectic few weeks and some much needed vacation time, hubby and I are back at home and back to our routine. Well, mostly. More about that in a moment.

My folks arrived near the end of April and spent a full week with us here in the Capital before all four of us piled in our van and headed south of the 49th parallel. We drove to West Virginia, with a stop overnight near Buffalo, NY. We headed that way because I wanted to get some shopping done in Watertown and then in Waterloo (at the outlet shops). Despite a little rain, we had no problem and made it to Ripley, WV in good time.

We found my sister's new house with no trouble and we hit the ground running. Over the course of our week in WV, we went to my BIL's graduation from Marshall University (ever see the movie We Are Marshall? Great film. Highly recommended.), we attended a party organized by my sister and my BIL's sister to celebrate. And we made sure to attend yet another local gathering of graduates in his hometown. Talk about busy! We went to dinner and brunch with my BIL's family, whom we all adore. We took one full day when all six of us went to my sis's old house to clean it up for the next tenant. We spent one full day shopping (mostly for Petit on my part). And Mom made sure to buy me some new maternity clothing to hold me over the summer; that was my birthday gift from her. All in all, a crazy, busy week. But it was so much fun to see everyone.

As a note, while we were there, my sister used a glucometer to check my blood sugar levels. I don't yet have my fasting results from the bloodwork I had done right before I left on this vacation, but to reassure my brain, and my sister, I didn't mind having the tests done. Keeping in mind that the numbers are American (Canadian numbers differ vastly as the method of measuring differs), I am pretty sure we're safe. My fasting sugars were at 80 and two hours post-prandial, I was at 96. My sister is the diabetes coordinator for the state of West Virginia and she said she wanted to see my numbers at less than 100. She seemed happy with the results. As am I.

On Thursday the 14th, hubby and I said our goodbyes to the entire gang and headed out to drive from Ripley, WV over to Woodbridge VA, just south of Washington, D.C. I have to say, the drive was harrowing! The Applachian Mountains are really something to behold, but holy heaven, the twists and turns, the hills and valleys, the plethora of dizzying drops and steep inclines had me sucking in my breath on more than one occasion. Yikes!

Over in VA, we were met by our friends and we stayed with them for three nights. It was good to see them again. We needed a little downtime and I was thrilled to have time to go for a pedicure with KH and her six-year old daughter. It was her daughter's first pedicure and she was tickled pink with the results! So cute! I got a ton of shopping done for Petit. I picked up the exact swing that I was looking for which was sheer luck. You see, what I wanted was the Ocean Wonders swing. However, it's now discontinued by Fisher Price in favour of the Precious Planet line of products, much to my dismay. However, we found one just by chance that had been returned (unopened) and was on the clearance rack at the local store in Woodbridge. I saved over $70 on that one item alone! We picked up a travel-sized play yard too, and I got some sheets and bedding, a cute mobile, and a few more odds and ends that we were looking for. I even managed to find the baby gate that we wanted with the small cutout door for my cats down in the States! We can't seem to find or get it up here, so I was happy that Petsmart had it when we went there. I really lucked out on some items, that's for sure. Mind you, we still have some things to get (lotions, cloth diapers, the monitor, etc.) but we're checking things off the list.

I'm down to under 100 days to go in this pregnancy and that alone still stuns me. Double digits! Jeez. I never thought I'd make it this far. It doesn't seem fair though. We took 6+ years to GET pregnant, and we only have a mere 9 months to enjoy it?! Talk about a cruel joke that Mother Nature plays on us infertiles. I say that we ought to revel in being pregnant for just as long as it took to get us pregnant! Not the discomfort or complications or things like that. But the glow. The round belly that everyone wants to touch. The prospect of unbridled joy. We all deserve to enjoy it to the absolute fullest, don't we?

During our time away, Petit has become much more active. Frequently Petit will be wide awake around 11 p.m., again around 3 or 4 a.m., and then again around 6 or 7 a.m. And kicking up a storm each time! There was one night that the baby kept me up for over three hours as I tossed and turned trying to settle him/her down enough to rest again. It just wasn't gonna happen. I probably got 4.5 hours of sleep that night; a harbinger of things to come I suspect. One night, I was lying in bed at my sister's house, about 3 in the morning as Petit had woken me, and I put my hands on my tummy. I felt the ripples, over and over. The weird, yet incredible, sensation of feeling the baby beneath my palms. I smiled. I get to enjoy these simple moments for such a short time; it's only a very small window of time that I have the opportunity to connect with Petit on my own, before he/she arrives in the world. It's so fleeting. Like I said, never long enough.

Hubby has been feeling Petit move as well. Just the night before last, he was lying in bed, arm around me (as he frequently does) and while I slept, Petit kicked him. And last night, Petit made a spectacular show of skills as Hubby's fingers felt every move. For more than an hour, the two of us lay in the dark and giggled and grinned, smiling as Petit reacted to Hubby's voice and the occasional poke. I am humbled by the experience; I wish nothing more than to remember exactly what this feels like. I wish nothing more than to let all of us experience these moments. We deserve it. We ALL deserve to experience this.

Now that we're home, I'm back at work and Hubby is, unfortunately, looking for work. His contract expired while we were away and financial cutbacks have seen to it that contractors are no longer requested by the organization he worked for. I expect it won't be long before he finds something, however, given his field (he's an IT support specialist), it may be harder at the moment than it has been in a long time. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Wish us luck.

Next Thursday is my 39th birthday and on that day, I believe my office has organized a shower for me. As well, I will have my last monthly OB appointment on that same day; after that I move to appointments every two weeks. I cannot believe I'm about to hit my third trimester. And I continue to hope and dream about bringing this baby home safely at the end of August.

Feeling it

At 23 weeks 4 days (Saturday, May 2), hubby felt Petit kick for the first time.

I cried. He kissed me.

We are truly, madly, desperately in love with this baby and I pray every day that we get to bring him/her home in August.

Chugging Right Along...

At yesterday's OB appointment, here's the dish:

Petit's heartrate = 146
Measurements = 23 weeks 2 days (we calculate 23 weeks 3 days)
My BP = 135/85 (normal for me)
My weight = -1lb (so a total gain of 3 lbs so far)

And everything with Petit looks great. See for yourself.