Pregnancy Updates From the First Trimester

You didn't get to see this before, but here are the beginnings of our pregnancy highlights that we couldn't quite share yet! Sorry if this is boring to some of you, but for us it will help us remember this whole experience!

March 1st-After 21 months of trying, two early miscarriages, loads of pills and shots,and much perseverance we go in for our 4th IUI cycle. I'm ovulating for what feels like the billionth time we've tried.

March 12th-I go to Bismarck for the weekend to visit family while Dan stays home with the animals! I haven't been there for a 8 whole months and I figure either way I'll be having an amazing time pregnant or not.

March 13th-I take a test expecting it to be negative since I don't feel much except forgetful. To my surprise it's positive!!! Thank you God! I call Dan and have to tell him over the phone. This is our third pregnancy, and we are very hopeful, yet nervous that this time we will have a baby in our arms at the end of it.

March 15th-My first blood test comes back at 451! That's REALLY high for how many days pregnant I am. We take this as a good sign and I relax for maybe 12 hours! Ha! The Dr. tells me to come in again in a week to check my levels again. I call back the next day and say I can't wait that long so they schedule me for a Friday in case I get bad news I don't have to be at school.

March 19th- My second blood test should be coming in around 1,800 at this point, yet it is 2,851!!! Again this is a fantastic number! The nurse says it could be one baby, but it could be two, but usually high numbers mean a healthy and strong pregnancy so I am happy with that. We relax for a day and a half before I start worrying all over again, even though I have many persistent pregnancy symptoms at this point. If I could do a blood test everyday I would! My first u/s is scheduled for April 8th when I will be 7 weeks 1 days along. The next two and a half weeks were agonizing. See March 29th

March 29th-I was having such a hard time waiting that I called my nurse and asked if I could have another blood test to see how my numbers are doing. My Dr. said no, but he said we should move up my u/s! Whew..we'll have a peak at our baby on Easter Monday when I will be 6 weeks and 5 days. Julie, our friend, and a Dr. in our congregation came over and took away all of my pregnancy tests since (yes this is embarassing) I was overanalzying them every four days and it was causing too much stress. I was so incredibly thankful for her as she counseled me sitting together in our bathroom. I guess I'm not the only woman that freaks out after losing two babies alredy. To calm my nerves she let me run over to the lab that night and get one more blood test. I was a wreck waiting for those results. I did my calculations and I was hoping for a 40 or 50 thousand number. I needed to stop doubting because my number came back at 79,717!!! I don't have to say it again, but I will. This again is a very high number for how many days pregnant I am! This helped me to relax tremendously and I started to indeed believe that I was pregnant. Dan, on the other hand has believed this all along. I admire his trust and strength when mine was weak:)

March 31st-I am officially 6 weeks pregnant and this is the farthest I've ever made it by two weeks! Our baby is the size of a sweet pea and his/her heart is more than likely beating by now. I thought I was over imagining it, but nope, morning sickness has definitely sunk in. It doesn't get bad unless I have an empty stomach and to my surprise it mostly happens in the morning and comes on quickly. My co-worker who eats gluten free as well shared with me some gluten free crackers that taste and feel just like saltines....lifesavers!

April 5th-The day finally arrived and we were both so thankful that our appointment was right away in the morning. I had my favorite u/s technician as she is so personal. I told her I was going to throw up from nervousness. Right away we could see the baby and he/she appeared to be a good size(10mm) measuring a day ahead. To our relief the baby had a heartbeat and it was strong (151 beats per minute)! So hard to hold back tears. It was amazing and we feel beyong blessed and happy. My next appointment isn't until April 22nd....so we buckled in for another couple of weeks!

April 7th- Officially 7 weeks! Baby D is as big as a blueberry! I had a pretty easy week until the weekend hit. Sunday morning I woke up at my Mom and Ron's house in Jamestown feeling pretty sick. Morning sickness had started to kick it up a notch. I feel sick even IF my stomach is full. I never knew quite what m/s would feel like, but yes it feels like you could throw up at any minute for literally almost every minute of everyday. I don't know HOW I made it home (4 hour drive) that day, but I did. One thing that helped was starting back on wheat and eating some saltines! Only threw up once this week....I hope that continues. Brushing my teeth is quite comical....if you are listening:)

April 12th-I had been eating saltine crackers for two full days with no problems. My phone had died so I drove to Willmar to our cell phone dealer. On the way home I had a "wheat allergy" attack like no others I've had in the past. This one lasted a full 30 minutes and didn't let up. I was in so much pain I almost pulled over. I guess saltines are out. On to rice cakes and shame on me for thinking I could do wheat...how many times do I need to learn!

April 14th- Officially 8 weeks! Baby is as big as a raspberry! I am amazed that we've made it this far. I feel decently confident since my m/s is so intense. Eating a dry piece of toast before getting out of bed(yes I toast it the night before) seems to help get my morning going alright. It peaks around the lunch hour and ever so slowly subsides throughout the afternoon and night. Dan says he's never heard a preggo lady beltch the way I do. I apologize, but it feels good!

April 21st- Officially 9 weeks. Our baby is approximately 1 inch long and weighs a penny. My morning sickness has let up just a bit, which makes everyday life a little more manageable. I am in awe at God's gift to us. I have to pinch myself that this is real. My hormones are kicking in because I cried today picking out a mother's day and birthday card for my mom. I cry at the commercials where the animals talk. I cry over many things and it's quite funny since I'm normally not a huge crier, just a normal crier:) We had an appointment this week, but we didn't get an update on how baby is doing. I gave about 7 vials of blood, urine, and a glucose test. They will be monitoring my sugar levels closely since I am insulin resistance. The test came back normal so that is good.

April 25th-I threw up my entire breakfast 15 minutes before church! I wasn't even feeling sick beforehand, just a normal teeth brushing! I realized afterwards that I felt fine, so I still went to church!

April 28th-We are now 10 weeks pregnant! Julie, our friend, was on call this night so after class for me, and church for Dan we drove the half block over to the hospital to have her listen for our babies heartbeat. She found it almost right away and it was nice and fast, around the 170's! What a relief! It's been almost a month with no verification if things are going well. She'll let us listen one more time a couple of days before Mother's Day when we'll be telling some more of our family.

May 5th-11 weeks!!! Still burping, still gagging, and dry heaving at the very mention of certain foods (which shall remain nameless)and smells. We are seriously just having so much fun laughing at this symptom of mine. The worst is when my little first graders pass gas....why is teacher in the corner gagging??? At home I gag, and then we laugh, I gag again and repeat. It doesn't hurt and I don't throw up so we just enjoy it as a good sign! I had a surprise peek at the heartbeat today. I had to go into the dr. to give a quick blood sample and the nurse took a quick listen to the heartbeat. We heard it for a split second, but then she couldn't find it forever, so she called the dr. in and he found it in 5 seconds. 162beats per minute....music to my ears. Julie let us listen again too later in the week and we have the heartbeat taped! We are so blessed!

May 9th-Happy Mother's Day! The best part of today was listening to the heartbeat at home. Julie purchased an at-home doppler that she'll use at her clinic and is letting us try it out! Wow....I'm so happy we are pregnant. Mother's Day this year was my due date time frame from our last pregnancy so it made this day much less sad. We told some more of our family today, but will wait to tell everyone else for about another 2 weeks.

May 12th-12 weeks and first OB appt. We had an u/s today and Dan and I got to see Baby D moving around, kicking, wiping his/her face. It was amazing. Baby is looking great, measuring a whole week ahead at 13 weeks. The tech said that is also a good sign. Better to have a baby measuring ahead than behind, even though a little bit behind would be ok too:) He/she is 3 and a 1/2 inches long from the top of his/her head to bottom of its butt. It was an amazing fifteen or twenty minutes to just watch our little one moving around. I also had another appt. and everything is checking out and looking good so far. It feels so surreal, especially since I am starting to feel a bit better, not really showing and to think there is a baby growing and moving inside of me. It's really hard to get your head around the thought. God is so good, we are so thankful for this blessing that he has given to us!