Our embryo has become a fetus!

Today I am 10 weeks 4 days and as of this week our “overachieving embryo” has become a fetus! Another big milestone in this pregnancy for our family and most importantly our baby! 🙂

I haven’t been posting as often as it is a busy time for us with the holiday season and I continue not to feel very well (though I still see that as a good sign and welcome the nausea and fatigue). I have continued to have some very light peachish-pinkish-brownish spotting/discharge off and on, but have come to accept, at least most of the time, that nothing is wrong and that for some women it is a normal experience of pregnancy (as it appears to be for me this time around). It still freaks me out sometimes, but since it has been going on for over 3 weeks now and never lasts long, I feel fairly at peace with it and do still believe that our baby is doing alright.

My 1st trimester screening (which will include an ultrasound and blood work) or “NT Scan” as I have discovered a lot people refer to it, is scheduled for one week from today (Wednesday, December 12) at 1:00 p.m. at which point I will be 11 weeks and 4 days! NT is short for nuchal translucency, which is the amount of fluid accumulation behind the neck of our baby. The u/s tech will measure the NT as part of the screening. I found out that the referral went through and confirmed with our insurance company that the test is indeed covered. I am really excited to have another ultrasound and hopefully have confirmation that our fetus is continuing to grow and develop on track! If all goes well we are thinking we will probably tell Sean sometime soon after that, as I will be 12 weeks on Saturday, December 15 and we think it would be okay for him to find out around that time.

As of this coming Sunday evening (at which point I will be 11 weeks and 1 day) I will be done with all of my Frozen Embryo Transfer support medications!!! I am still currently doing progesterone suppositories in the morning and evening and will use the last one on Sunday night! I am really looking forward to not having to do those as part of my daily routine! Interestingly, though we have been done with the Progesterone in Oil (PIO) injections for 1 1/2 weeks now, I still have some lingering discomfort in the muscle areas where we did them. I guess that would make sense since I had shots in the same general areas of both sides of my rear end for over 7 weeks, those areas may take some time to completely heal.

I will remain on Baby Aspirin for at least another week (through 12 weeks), however I intend to touch base with my OB/GYN’s office this week or next to confirm that they want me to stop it then, as when they had me taking it with our 4th pregnancy (that turned out to be ectopic), my understanding was that they intended for me to be on it until sometime in my 3rd trimester. I did touch base with my RE’s office about it and they confirmed, even in light of my previous losses, that their recommendation was to stop between 11 – 12 weeks. So I will be curious what my OB/GYN says, as I have read that there are pros and cons to both protocols. I am just so paranoid about doing or not doing something that could in anyway endanger this pregnancy/our child.

We got our first big snowfall of the season overnight here in Chicago! Sean was sooooooo excited to see everything covered in white when he woke up this morning! 🙂 He continues to be really into Christmastime, the preparations involved, playing with his Nativity set, wanting to hear the Christmas story over and over again (while he acts it out with is figurines), listening to and singing Christmas carols, watching Christmas themed specials on TV (such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas & A Charlie Brown Christmas), wearing his Santa hat, checking out all of the ornaments on the tree, as well as thinking and talking a lot about Santa! Sean is excited for our annual visit, this coming Saturday morning, to a local church that holds a pancake breakfast at which Santa will be at. He is gearing up to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what he would like for Christmas! 🙂 One of my uncles (my dad’s brother) also calls children every year pretending to be Santa and so we have arranged for him to call Sean in character, as he did last year, in a few weeks, which should be fun! My uncle puts in a lot of time planning for his calls and sends us parents a survey ahead of time for us to fill out with information about our child(ren) so he can sound like he knows a lot about our sons or daughters when he calls — too fun!

The other day Sean said to me, after clearly thinking about it for some time, “Mommy, I think we should leave the lights on (in our living room on Christmas Eve), so Santa will be able to see the tree!”

Last night Bob and I saw the movie “The Queen,” on cable TV, based on how the British Monarchy and Primer Minister Tony Blair handled Princess Diana’s death in 1997. It was very interesting! I had wanted to see it for awhile and I am glad we got the chance to watch it.

I feel like there is probably more to share about since my last post, but nothing is coming to mind. So I will check in again later, at the latest after my ultrasound next Wednesday. Which by the way, I think my mom is going to come with me, while my dad watches Sean (Bob will be at work), which will be fun for her to see! And on the outside chance something were to be wrong with the baby or s/he had stopped growing, I will have someone with me for support, which will be nice. Bob would certainly be there if I wanted/needed him to be, but I am okay with him not coming this time. I know he is very busy at work and has already gotten to see the baby twice through ultrasounds and I imagine we will get some pictures again this time.

Thank you for your continued support, positive thoughts, sticky vibes and prayers! I hope that you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season!