36 Week Appointment

We had our last sonogram on Monday. The baby is around 6 lbs 3 oz. Measurements were a little small (measuring just a couple of days behind the due date) which is not concerning at this stage. However the weight was in the 60th percentile. So it seems we have a small but solid baby on the way. The doctor is guessing the baby will be around 8 pounds at birth. Nothing is happening yet but I will be having weekly check-ups from this point forward. The doctor told me that neither cervix was dilated which is interesting. She thinks there is a chance that both of them may dilate even though one of them does not serve a purpose in this pregnancy. It has to do with the hormones. The baby is still in a head-down position which is the correct position for birth. He/she has changed from facing my left side to facing my right side. Generally the best position for birth is to face my back so we'll see if the baby decides to cooperate when the time comes. Not much else is going on at the moment. We still need to pack our hospital bags, order a glider, and clean up a few things but it sounds like there is sufficient time to get that all done. Still no boy name but I guess we will decide that at the hospital if we need to.

Almost 12 Weeks

I am really excited that I will have made it through the first trimester as of this Thursday. I had another doctor appointment today. No sonogram but we did listen to the heartbeat and it sounded great. The doctor appointments so far always make me feel much better. I found out that I need to be drinking a lot more water. It helps with infection now and my nurse told me to get used to it because labor will be much easier if I am really hydrated (less painful, etc.). That's enough to convince me!

I also get to stop taking one medication which is awesome. I take progesterone twice a day and it is hard to remember. Plus, it has to be refrigerated so I almost always get to bed or ready to head out the door then realize I need to take it (and it is not fun to take). I also get to stop taking Metformin in two weeks. That one is three giant pills that I have to take with my evening meal. It is a pain when we are not at home or if I am not feeling like I can keep my food down. The downside is that two weeks later I have to take a diabetes test (this medicine is due to me having low blood sugar which throws off my hormones, a side effect of PCOS).

The most interesting thing I found out at the appointment was that the doctor thinks people will be able to tell by looking at my stomach that the baby is more to the right. It won't be terribly obvious but I should expect people asking if it is always sitting on the right. It will be interesting to see if we can tell.

Is it bad that I am already sort of going through a nesting stage? I think it is more that I am such a planner. We decided to furnish our basement. I wanted to get a huge comfy couch down there for a nice place to relax when I am huge and miserable in the spring and when we are trying to get some rest next summer. So we bought a big sectional, a 46" LCD TV, and a TV stand. It will be nice for the New Year's party too... which is still on pregnant or not! We are also going to have fully-furnished guest rooms so lots of beds for guests to stay in. I have planned out where I want each piece of furniture. Now if I just had some extra cash to redo my kitchen, put drywall in my living room, and remodel the garage entryway so that my car actually fits. That is probably asking a bit too much!

The other thing I have been trying to get done is scrapbooking. I have sooo much to do but I want to get caught up before I have another person's life to document. I got a ton of pictures developed and picked up supplies this weekend so I need to get to it.

Next on the agenda is another appointment on Monday. We will be doing some prenatal testing just to see if the baby is likely to have any genetic/chromosome disorders, etc. Insurance covers it so we decided to go through with it just so we are aware of anything that may be a challenge when the baby gets here. After that I have an appointment with a perinatologist (a specialist) on November 23 just to see if there is anything else we should be doing as a result of my condition. Then I have another appointment with my doctor on December 7 to check for diabetes and do a sonogram. My doctor said that I will have around 10 sonograms throughout the pregnancy... one of the positive effects of having to get out of work to go to an appointment every couple of weeks.

Sorry this post is so long... I guess I should post more frequently!

Investigating Infertility

At my first appointment with the infertility doctor on April 20, 2009, I had a physical exam, an ultrasound, and blood tests. I had done quite a bit of research on fertility issues in the past due to my uterine abnormality so it did not surprise me when I was diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). This was diagnosed in part by the ultrasound which showed many follicles on each ovary and in part by the blood test which showed that my blood sugar was lower than normal. I has previously suspected that I might have this because I experience some of the other symptoms, one of which was an irregular menstrual cycle - I would go anywhere from 45 days to 9 months between periods. PCOS is a very common cause of infertility in women and is basically caused by a hormone imbalance. This causes the eggs to not fully develop or release from the ovaries - which creates the follicles that were shown in the ultrasound.

The next appointment I had was an MRI on April 29th. The purpose of this scan was to determine which type of mullerian anomaly I had. Depending on the type, it is sometimes necessary to have surgery in order to increase the chances for a successful pregnancy. I was diagnosed with a didelphic uterus which was great news because the pregnancy outcomes are the best and there is not a surgical procedure to correct this defect. On May 4th I had an IVP performed to look at my kidneys because many people with mullerian anomalies also have kidney abnormalities. A lot of people have extra kidneys. The IVP showed that my kidneys were normal - I have two and both are functioning.

On June 3rd I had one of the most painful procedures I have experienced. It was an HSG where they basically insert dye into the cervix which is pushed through the uterus and eventually into the fallopian tubes. This test was a check to make sure my fallopian tubes were not blocked and that an egg could pass from the ovaries to my uterus. Because of the pain I was in and the difficulty in accessing the right cervix, only the left side was tested but it showed that that tube was in fact open.

Getting Started

We had known since we were in college that having children of our own would likely be a challenge. I was diagnosed at that time with a mullerian anomaly. This means that there is a birth defect that makes my uterus abnormal. There are different variations of mullerian anomalies but mine is such that my uterus is basically divided into two small uteri. I was diagnosed during one of my annual pelvic examinations. My doctor discovered that I had an extra cervix and an ultrasound confirmed that my uterus was also abnormal. The pregnancy complications that generally result from this type of abnormality include miscarriage, preterm labor, and growth restriction.

We had decided that since we might have problems, we would not use birth control after we were married and would see what happens. We didn't want to eliminate the possibility of having children if "our time" happened to be right after we were married. At the same time, we were hoping that time would not come too soon because we wanted to enjoy a year or so of newlywed bliss. ;)

After about ten months of "seeing what happens" nothing had happened. We still didn't know if we were quite ready to have a baby but I wanted to see a doctor just to make sure that there was nothing I could do to help prevent a miscarriage in the event that I did get pregnant. After doing some research, I found that I needed to see a reproductive endocrinologist. So I called an infertility doctor in our area and set up an appointment. Generally, you would have to wait until you had tried to conceive for 12 months without success to be considered "infertile." But since I knew that I had problems they let me go ahead and schedule an appointment.