First Trimester "Bump Date"

It's been quite a while since I have done a blog post... I'm hoping to get on my game again and update this story of ours regularly!

I'm FINALLY out of my first trimester and on to the second! I'm not going to lie, the last 12 or so weeks have been very challenging for me. With working full time and not having many options in time off, or reducing that, I spend most of my nights on the couch in my PJ's by 4 pm! By the time I get home from school, I am physically and mentally exhausted. Its not like anything in my daily routine has change since the beginning of this journey up until now, but my body is saying everything has changed.  Some days even at school, during lunch I would hurry and eat my food and then lock the door and turn out the lights for a quick power nap. And honestly, those 20 minute rest periods that I got on the nasty floor of a High School classroom saved me for that day. Every time I would take a nap, I would always worry that a student or another faculty member would walk by my room, look in, and think I had passed out on the floor. LOL! oh the things we do as pregnant women. I'm finally starting to get more energy now though, and it feels great! It's been an interesting experience, getting your energy back. Since about week 5 or so, I have been going to bed between 8:30 & 9 PM. This has become our routine at home, and I think Tyk has really enjoyed the extra sleep as well. This past week or so though, I haven't felt the need to be in bed so early. Like I said, I can finally feel myself gaining back more energy.

We've been to two ultrasounds since my last post! Both went really well, and our babies are growing just as they should be. It was so funny... Our first appointment with our regular OB, Dr. Seale, was a great experience, but a bitter sweet one as well. I can't remember if I have written about us graduating from the fertility clinic or not yet, so I've decided to include it again. Our last appointment there was at 9 weeks. This appointment was with Dr. G and she confirmed once again that we had TWO little loves growing in my belly. She said they both looked great, were appropriate size, and went over some medications that I was taking and told me when I could stop them. I wasn't too vocal about the medications I was taking after the transfer, so I guess I will share those now. At the start of my IVF cycle I was told to take a low dose aspirin everyday to help thin my blood just a bit and keep it flowing to all parts of my body properly. Dr. G instructed me at that last ultrasound that I could stop taking this when I was 12 weeks. Another medication I took from the day of our transfer was progesterone supplements to aid the embryos and give them extra nutrients. I had to take this 3 times a day until I was 10 weeks. The problem is, this medication was not a pill that I swallowed. It was actually a suppository that had to be injected into my lady hole ( sorry... I don't know how else to explain) and then throughout the day, just remember what goes must come out... So for the first 10 weeks of my pregnancy I had a messy medication helping my babies to grow! Those two were the only medications I had to remain taking for the length of my first trimester besides normal prenatals. Going back to my appointment, once you have hit 9 weeks gestation, the fertility clinic releases you to a regular OB and you are officially "GRADUATED" from the clinic. Its a pretty neat experience, but like I said above, bittersweet. I had been working with these nurses and Dr. G so often that it was a little scary to leave. We have put all of our trust and faith into the staff and it ended up working. But we are now at another great place with an amazing doctor and nurse to take care of me and my babies. Before we left the fertility clinic, the staff had us sign the tree of life. So they have this huge metal tree that is a gold color that hangs on the wall in the clinic with signatures on it. When you graduate from the clinic, or when you get to leave the clinic pregnant, you get to sign the tree of life! It was such an wonderful, overwhelming experience! I was filled with such joy to be able to sign Tyker and my name on the tree, and so soon after starting with the clinic. That is something that not every patient may get the opportunity to do at the clinic, so we are so grateful and blessed that we got that chance. Dr. G watched as we signed and then handed me a big stack of paperwork of all of my records to take to my OB. She told us congratulations on our babies and said that she was so happy for us to start this journey. At this point, I just wanted to give her the biggest huge and thank her for all that she had done for us. But I didn't. We just shook hands and left.

We then had our first appointment with Dr. Seale. This guy is such a character at times, and can really make light of a situation. Especially when you are in stirrups, spread eagle, LOL! He confirmed once again that we had two babies and that both of them had a healthy fluttering heart. He then started talking about the old wives tall according to heartbeats per minute. Both of our babies heartbeats were fast this day so Dr. Seale had said "according to the old wives tall, I would have to say you have a 50% chance that this baby is a girl." He then moved to baby #2 and said " and with this baby I would say you also have a 50% chance that this one is a girl according to the heartbeat." This made us all laugh. I like when doctors can show some personality and humor in their work.

The next appointment we had was our 12 week appointment, and for the first time ever, I actually got to have the ultrasound thing on my belly rather than laying spread eagle. I know it may be silly, but this was WAY exciting to me. We have gone through this journey a long time, but we had never been so far in that we got to have a belly ultrasound. It was so fun to see the babies this time, because it had been a whole 4 weeks. I know this is normal timing for regular pregnancies, but up until that point I had had appointments just about weekly. So having to wait 4 weeks in between now is a killer.  The babies were still growing strong and according to schedule. One baby is a day ahead of the other, so not too much bigger. If I remember correctly, one babies heartbeat is high, and the other is lower. So if that old wives tall is right (lets pray it is) we will be having a boy and a girl. Wouldn't that be amazing!!!! I mean I will be so so happy with whatever these two miracles are, but if it was up to me one of each would be nice.

Well the wait is not much longer for our gender guessing game. We go in next Thursday Dec. 15th to find out!!! This is going to be the longest week and a half ever. Watch, when I go in, the cord will be in the way, or the babies will be acting modest ... just our luck. Just kidding, we are going to have positive attitudes! So one more week to go.

There have been so many little experience that I want to put into this blog for my own memories, So i've decided to share a couple of them now.
Some things I want to remember about this first trimester:

I get headaches more than any other symptom right now, and I've had them pretty much from the beginning. And for the most part, as a pregnant women, you can take nothing medication wise to make you feel better. And when you are aloud to take something, you being the cautious mother that you are, won't take it anyway, so you suffer through it. One day early on, Tyker was saying that he had a headache and that he had had it all day long. I asked if he had taken anything to help it and his response was no. I asked him why not and told him I would get it for him. He had the sweetest response... He said "Well you can't take anything to make you feel better when you're sick, so I'm not going to either." Tyk has been so sensitive to me being sick or tired and I just am so grateful to have him by my side through this experience.

Another experience we had was right after the transfer. I had to go to work the next day and I really needed to wash my hair. Ladies, I'm sure you can relate to this. Those days when its already a day past wash day and you have to stretch it one more day. We just make it work! That was this day, and I was not about to wash my hair. So I told Tyk this and he started singing a song he made up right then. Well for the most part this song has stuck, and I hear it quite ofter, even when its not relevant. He sang "stinky at school, stinky at school. Wifey is going to be stinky at school." This made me laugh so hard, and these are the little things that make our relationship ours.

My last experience to share for now is when I felt the babies for the first time. I haven't felt this again, so who knows if this was even them at all. On Nov. 25, I was sitting on the couch watching Teen Mom the Original OG (I love the OG's) when I felt this little scratching feeling in my belly. Many women have tried to explain to me how it feels. Some have said that it feels like having gas, some say its like a butterfly flutter feeling. All I can say is that if what I felt was the babies, I can't wait to feel it again! I sat there after I felt the movement and then yelled for Tyker to come here. He came to the couch and I told him I thought I just felt the babies. He said "Oh My GOODNESS you did!!" and then he sat there and tickled my belly for the next couple of minutes. I tried to push on my belly to see if I could get the feeling to come back, but like I said it hasn't. It's going to be funny when I do actually feel them moving and what I felt before was just gas.. HA! We will see. I will still say this is the first time I felt my babies move.

I'm glad to have the first trimester over but I can feel my belly growing big and growing fast! My hips are sore already, and some days I can feel my ankles and knees swelling already. But you know what... Its all okay because I've got to little miracles growing in my belly! I am so grateful for this experience of pregnancy, and I can't wait to see all that is awaiting me throughout this journey! I'll keep ya posted on all of the fun details.

Thanks for reading!


Love,
Shandee

8 weeks

9 weeks

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11 weeks

9 week ultrasound

12 weeks

13 weeks

about 14 weeks

14 weeks