For those of you who are unaware, I started my own clinic in November 2010. I have been working 6-7 days per week fairly consistently since then at either my place or one of several other places to fill in the difference in income and keep up my mortgage. About April when stress levels were high, my husband and I decided to go to the coast for a weekend. I also decided that it would be a good time to finish with birth control pills. I had not had a real issue with them prior to my Oliver pregnancy but have found since then that I am more moody, stress affects me more and I have a decreased libido. NOT FUN!!!
We weighed the pros and cons. I actually fear having to do IVF again. Our embryos do not like petrie dishes. We do not need multiples and those eggs are getting older and older with each passing day making the chance of genetic defect higher and higher. It's a lot of time and money and stress over many many months! But a good try at natural conception is free and fun so what the hay!
End of April done with pills - I cannot even remember the exact date. I figured that it would take a few months to get back into the swing of things. Oliver was almost 2 so worst case scenario is that we got pregnant right away but even that was not a horrible thought. About two weeks after I stopped the pills, however, I had some buyer's remorse. The business is going well but I am still having to work a lot and I wasn't sure that this would be a good time to get pregnant. Again, I reminded myself how long it took to get pregnant with Oliver and figured that we had a long road ahead of us anyway.
I have been running since January and my running partner talked me into doing the Run Like a Mother 5K for Mother's Day. I have to admit I felt the best I have in a long time at the beginning of May. I had lost about 10 pounds from January, had energy and set a personal records at the run! Apart from my silly foot which would not let me train too many days a week, I felt really good.
We went to Grants Pass for my nephews' birthdays in mid May. My brother-in-law's sister who graduated high school with me told me about a dream she had where I was pregnant again. How did she even know we were trying? I actually had taken a pregnancy test a couple of days prior due to tender boobs but it was negative.
Hubby was enjoying his new off-hormones-and-now-much-more-frisky wife. "Stress relief" sessions hit an all time high. Life continued to be good. There was a day or two I remember having signs of ovulation. I even asked Tom to take measures to maybe avoid pregnancy but lost in the heat of the moment, we neglected to do anything. And I honestly didn't think much about it.
End of May now and training for a sprint triathalon with my sister. I had been increasing my swimming but right around Memorial Day had a bad swimming session. Felt like I was sucking in chlorine air. I called my sis and she was swimming much faster and easier. I figured I would continue and get better. Starting to tire more easily with running as well but I have a patient running partner.
Then June 2, 2011. Did a routine physical on a woman who had an IUD. Could not see her IUD strings. We were both worried about where they were. She had a negative pregnancy test but we sent her for ultrasound to make sure it was still there and the strings were just out of sight. I thought about the tender boobs, lack of energy when exercising and the latest sharp pains in the right lower abdomen when I stood up too fast (I had that with Oliver's pregnancy as well) and said well maybe it is time to check.
Sneaking into the bathroom at my office with a pregnancy test stuffed in my bra was pretty silly and I figured that it would be negative like all the other times I thought there may be a chance and it was negative. But um this time two little pink lines appeared on the test. Really? Really? At this high stress, not really trying, no hormones, literally 1st month off birth control pills, my previously infertile self was pregnant. I felt like calling up Blue Cross and telling them their denial of coverage for insurance due to infertility could now safely be put to rest.
Completely distracted for the rest of the afternoon - sorry patients! - I tried to focus on the tasks at hand until I could get home. I sneaked another test an hour or so later. Still positive - well DUH!
When I got home I told hubby. He was pretty surprised and happy but said the nicest thing about this was there was no pressure on a successful pregnancy. We had a beautiful little boy so if this was ectopic or ended in a misscarriage or had three eyes it would be horrible and sad but NOT like it was before when we were trying for the first.
I called my OB friend Laura and she scheduled for me to come in the next day and start having hormone levels checked. She figured it was early and so the first level would be close to the lowest needed to show positive on a pregnancy test (around 35). It came back at 463! Due to my history of ectopics, we checked again in 96 hours - it should have been roughly 4 times that - or 1882 but was instead around 2600. Checking again in 48 hours should have doubled to 5200 and it was 6300. "I wonder what the possible reasons for that could be?" she laughed as she told me.
So apart from twins and just normal variation between singleton pregnancies, the other possible causes are ovarian ectopic and hormone producing cancer. Too much knowledge is not a good thing in this case and I spent the next week googling all of those plus how to fit three carseats in a Ford Escape Hybrid.
Only a few people knew at this point, need to know basis only! I have learned that telling lots of people early although fun is not always a good idea. I would wait until there was a heartbeat and we knew that the pregnancy was in the uterus first. No point getting a whole bunch of people excited about something that wasn't going to work out. Mostly it was people who tried to feed me alcohol for my birthday who found out as they wondered why I wouldn't be having my favorite cocktail on my special day.
Ultrasound on Tom's birthday - June 14th. One beautiful gestational sac with yolk sac and small little embryo aged 5 weeks 5 days so just before the heart movement is visible on ultrasound. No twins. No horrible cancer. Just one little nugget. Wow! But still no heartbeat and that is a big deal to me. So we scheduled our next ultrasound and waited. And spent the next two weeks completely surrounded by our family and unable to tell them :)
June 28th, still one beautiful gestational sac, smaller yolk sac and bigger nugget with a heart beat of 158! Due date February 10, 2012 (Math wise it is a great due date! 2 + 10 = 12 - yes I am a nerd!)
Crazy! Now I get to eliminate my prejudice against "those people" who accidentally get pregnant or get pregnant the first month they try. It will be a good lesson and a good way to experience all sides of this strange experience called mommyhood.
Now the planning really begins. I have had a great pregnancy so far. Fatigue is my nemesis and I have to eat like a cow - small constant - to avoid nausea. I will have to work harder longer than I had hoped to make sure we can take a maternity leave. Thank goodness I got the short term disability in place and have an awesome PA who can see patients in my stead!
So here begins the second pregnancy!
I will update every so often as developments occur.
Tom is already training Oliver to say "Help daddy with baby!" and Oliver says he wants a "brosister" so hopefully we don't have a hermaphrodite ;)
Life is a constant challenge to keep up with that is for sure!
