Still beating strong & measuring right on!!!

Good afternoon! Bob and I went for our ultrasound and consultation with our RE this morning and are so happy to report that our little miracle’s heart is still beating strong and our baby’s measurements were right on track for our confirmed estimated due date (EDD) of June 28, 2008!!!

The heart rate was 153 bpm, the crown to rump length (CRL) was 18.4mm and the yolk sac was 3.2mm. Our little baby is almost 2 cm long! 🙂 As you can see from both the picture to the left and the measurements, our embryo has grown and developed a lot in the past two weeks! The measurments put our embryo at 8 weeks 2 days, which is exactly what I should be/I am today! S/he looked a lot more like a little baby to us on the ultrasound and we could see it’s little heart beating clealry on the monitor! Even though we knew the blinking light was it’s heart, the motion looked almost to me like our baby was clapping it’s hands! 😉 The tech told us that she could see movement and that she could tell that our baby was wiggling around during the ultrasound! Also when she was trying to “take it’s picture” for us, she said it was curled up in a ball and wasn’t “cooperating,” so it must be a boy! 😉 We don’t think we will find out our baby’s gender before it was born, as we didn’t with Sean and enjoyed the surprise. However it is fun to guess about what we will be having?! 🙂

After the ultrasound, we met with our RE, for what turned out to be the last time during this pregnancy! That’s right, today we graduated!!! 🙂 Our RE was very pleased to see how everything was going with our little embryo and has released us to our OB/GYN! He did go over what will happen in the weeks to come with my medications, which was helpful. He told us that I could take off my estrace patches when I got home today (which I did) and that I am done with those! YAY! I am especially happy about that, as I think I have mentioned before, that over the past few weeks I have developed a slight allergic reaction to them and have been getting very itchy rashes under and around the areas where I wear them. I will continue on the estridiol vaginal pills (twice daily) for 4 more days and then be done! I will be on the Progesterone In Oil (PIO) injections for 7 more days, but only 0.5cc, instead of the 1cc I have been on for the past 6 weeks and then I will be done with that! Bob is as happy about that, as I am, since he has been administering the injections! And I will remain on the progesterone suppositories and Baby Aspirin for 3 more weeks! So by 11 weeks 2 days, I should be completely weaned of all of my medications!!! 🙂

As far as other restrictions… this probably TMI, but we can have intercourse again! I can return to aerobics, if I want, but I have to make sure I can always carry on a conversation while I am exercising, so my heart rate is not getting too high. I do hope to get back to this soon, but lately have been feeling so sick and tired, I am not sure if I am ready, but I also know it might actually help me to feel better?! So I plan to try a class or two in the near future at the place where I teach group fitness classes (though I don’t plan to actually teach any classes during this pregnancy) and I may even enroll in a local prenatal yoga class. As far as lifting, he said no more than 20 pounds, which is more than I had been allowed after the ET (I had been told no more than 5 pounds). So that will allow me to be able to be a little more useful around the house, as I had Bob carrying laundry baskets up and down the stairs for me and other things like that! 😉

Our RE told us to please send a picture to add to their wall of success stories and bring the baby by so they all could meet him or her when the time comes! He gave me a big hug and congratulated us again when we were leaving/saying goodbye! We thanked him again for everything and his staff! I plan to send personal thank you notes at some point to him and each of his staff, as over the past 10 months they have been a huge part of my life and I am so grateful for everything they did to help us make it to this point!

When I got home I called our OB/GYN to share our news and schedule our first appointment there! My 1st appointment will be next Monday, November 26 at 10:30 a.m.! I was happily surprised that they scheduled it for so soon! Bob actually had already taken that day off work to get some things done around our house, so he will either come with me or stay home, so he can be available to pick up Sean after school, since I will likely still be at the appointment when Sean gets out of school that day.

Bob and I are so unbelievably happy that things continue to go well with our pregnancy! With each passing day it becomes more real to us and we believe a little more that there will be a positive outcome and we will get to meet our baby! We still plan to wait awhile longer before we tell Sean and make our news more “public” and “official” to those in our life who don’t know yet. We would like to hold out in telling Sean until around 12 weeks (which I will be on December 15), but we might decide to tell him sooner. We plan to try to wait at least until 10 weeks (December 1). Thank you sooooooo much for your continued support, positive thoughts, sticky vibes and prayers! 🙂 We are so grateful to know that so many of our family and friends are behind us as we go forward cautiously, but very optimistic, with this pregnancy! 🙂

Bob took my 8 week belly shots this morning, so I will post those soon! Going forward, I will try to post at least once a week to update you on our pregnancy and life. I may blog more as I feel like it and/or events warrant. In case I don’t check in before then, I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! I certainly feel very thankful to have all of you my life! 🙂