11 Weeks

Well....we are now sliding into the last little part of the first trimester....hallelujah!!!!!

We had our first appointment with the OB this week. I thought it was going to be uneventful since the first appointment was just with a NP....but it ended up being about an hour and a half long appointment. We went over all my 6 pages of medical history (which I thought was strange since I've been with Kaiser since 2004, so they already have all this info...but whatever,) then she did a full female exam which I also thought was strange since I just had one in April...but again...whatever. Then, we had an ultrasound! I wasn't mentally prepared for this....so I was really hot and sweaty and nauseous through the first part of the appointment after finding out when I got there that they were going to do an ultrasound. I know that sounds weird....I should be excited to see them....and I was, but at the same time I was so nervous to find out how they were doing. Immediately after starting the ultrasound I could see that both babies were doing really well! They had doubled in size since my last ultrasound which had only be a little over a week earlier. Amazing! They were moving around, waving their arms and legs, hearts beating away!! She took measurements and they were both measuring about 2 days ahead! Yay! I was so so so so relieved!! Here is the pic from the ultrasound:

I am very proud of these two little miracles! We are doing an "early screen" (NT scan) in about a week and a half...this is an optional screen but we decided to go ahead and do it because we found out that otherwise we wouldn't have another ultrasound until October! This first screen will check for any abnormalities in the babies (downs, trisomy 18.)

After that...we have another appointment with the OB at about 15.5 weeks in September but this won't be an ultrasound...they will just listen for fetal heart tones. Then, I'll have my "formal" scan with the perinatologist between 18-20 weeks, which will be in October! I can't imagine waiting until October to see these little beauties again! Hopefully, they will cooperate and we can find out the sexes then too! I can't wait to start planning the nursery!

On other news....the nausea and vomiting are still there but I think getting better. I am still very nauseous in the mornings and evenings, during that time I am doing everything I can not to vomit. I haven't vomited in a few days now which makes me very happy. Last Thursday and Friday I actually had some reprieve from the nausea and I thought this meant that I was on the other side, so I didn't take my unisom on Friday night...well, bad idea...I paid for it all day on Saturday with lots of nausea and vomiting. So, I started up my one unisom again and it is still helping...I am mostly nauseous for a few hours in the morning and then in the evening and like I said...I haven't vomited since Monday night. I am still not able to eat "real" meals.....I am still constantly hungry but "real" food upsets my stomach, so I still have to eat bland food and only a few bites at a time. I am frustrated with that because I SO miss real food and I'm sick of bread, pretzels, crackers, oatmeal, bland soup and cereal. I've been craving pizza and fat deli sandwiches!

Sleep still continues to be difficult. I'm still having a hard time falling asleep on my side...and unfortunately, when I do fall asleep I am waking up mostly on my stomach. I guess old habits are really really hard to break! I am waking up a lot to use the bathroom, because I'm hungry, because I am hot or cold, because I'm on my stomach, etc. I feel like I am only sleeping about an hour at a time so I know I am not getting a lot of "good" sleep. I am trying to nap during the day, but that doesn't always work out. I am really ready for fall when the weather is cooler....much better sleeping weather!

I am completely off of the estrogen patch now and am down to one endometrin suppository. I am also weaning off of the prednisone and will be off of it completely on Monday. So, basically I am down to one endometrin and the one estrogen tablet. Which makes me happy! By this time next week I should be off of everything! Going off of the progesterone support completely does make me a bit nervous, but I guess I just need to have faith that everything is happening correctly in my uterus and that those placentas have taken over nicely!

On unrelated news....our 3 year old mastiff started limping on his hind leg on Sunday night...it didn't get better so I had to take him into the vet yesterday. Well, we found out that he needs to have a $4000 knee surgery! He busted his meniscus somehow...grrrrrrr! So, he is scheduled for surgery next week. He'll have to stay completely off of his leg for 6 weeks, then limited movement for another 6 weeks!! Mind you...this is a very active young mastiff...this is going to be horrible! On top of that....they had to put him under anesthesia yesterday to take the x-ray and the last time he went under....he acted very strange afterword...wouldn't eat, wouldn't go to the bathroom outside, just sat and whined, then peed on the floor in the middle of the night. So, yesterday when we picked him up we asked the vet if this was going to be the case again and she said "oh, I've never heard of that before, he'll be perfectly fine!" Well, she was wrong....last night he wouldn't eat anything (not even so that we could give him pain pills,) and we made him go outside twice and he wouldn't pee...he would just walk out and then lay down on the ground. So, what'ya know....the next thing I knew he had peed on his bed!! Matt and I were beside ourselves! So, we ended up having to kennel him over night because we were worried about him going potty on the floor. He seems to be doing better today, but we aren't supposed to let him use the stairs (we have a 2 story house and he sleeps upstairs, so this is a pain) or let him outside by himself...just on a leash to go potty. What a pain in the ass!!! Matt is trying to be calm, cool and collected about this whole thing because he knows the last thing I need is stress over this dog...but we are both frustrated....this is very bad timing!

Well, thanks if you made it to the end of my post! I guess I had a lot to say today!!