Party of Five!

Sorry for the cheesy title, what can I say, I was a tween in the 90's and I couldn't resist.

I am more sorry for using the word tween.

We have a big announcement that will come as a surprise to no one!

Baby #3 will be joining our family in July. My official due date is July 28th but with two c-sections under my belt there is a good chance that I will again be walking into my own surgery, on a date of my choosing, a week or so before the 28th.

As of today I am 10w5d. I will post a picture of my absurdly huge baby bump on Monday when I am officially 11 weeks. I know you are on the edge of your seat for that one! At our appointment on Tuesday baby was measuring exactly on track and had a strong HB of 164.

I am feeling okay. As I told a friend a few days ago, "every three days or so I spend the entire day feeling like road kill, but other than that I can't complain." On the road kill days I usually have a headache and the smell or even thought of food is enough to send me running to the bathroom. With Lily I was never "throw up sick", not even once. With Ben I was sick only once...I threw up my fish oil vitamin and can say with 110% certainty there is nothing in the world worse than that taste. This time I have lost count of the number of times I have tossed my cookies. Only once have I promised God that I will be a better person if he would just make it stop. It is a little sad how a person really can get "used" to barfing and then carrying on with the day as if nothing happened. Maybe it isn't sad at all, maybe it is empowering...I am becoming a superhuman! Look Ma, I can make lunch, juggle two toddlers, let the dog out, puke, change a diaper, fill milk cups and fold two loads of laundry all without skipping a beat! Hooah!

I am positive it could be worse, most days I feel pretty darn good. Of course as I write this I am using everything I have mentally to will myself not to throw up, but this blog would be nothing without the irony.

So for those of you who are interested in the nitty gritty:

It is no secret that Matt and I have been trying to get pregnant since I miscarried in July. Per doctors orders we were on the bench for August. I did not get pregnant in September, had a chemical pregnancy in October and was shocked to see two pink lines in November. For those of you keeping track I got pregnant 3 times in five months...I'll give you a second to let that sink in. It was a physically and mentally exhausting few months and my deepest sympathy goes out to those of you who may have, or currently are, struggling with your fertility.

I got my first faint positive test of this pregnancy on Sunday 11/17 at 11dpo (days past ovulation). I tested on Monday and was fairly convinced that the line was a teensy bit darker than it had been the day before. On Tuesday morning I totally panicked because the line was lighter than it had been on Sunday. I spent the entire day on the ledge, convinced that I was having another chemical pregnancy. Until, that is, I tested again in the afternoon and the line was pretty convincing. On Wednesday morning at 14dpo I got the most beautifully dark line I have ever seen on a First Response brand test. At the risk of exposing my complete and total neurosis I will post the pictures of all 16 pregnancy tests I took over the course of 7 days. I secretly, well not so secretly now, love analyzing the tests so I figure other women must do it too?!?
I apologize that the photo quality isn't the greatest.

There are a few things that I would actually like to point out in case they are helpful to other women. One, the cheapie tests I took with FMU are all lighter than the tests I took in the afternoon. In fact most of my morning tests are lighter than the previous afternoon's test. As you can imagine this caused me a lot of mental anguish each morning, as if I need more to be crazy about. It really wasn't until 15dpo that my tests were as dark in the morning as they had been the previous afternoon. Second, I took an extra cheapie test on 11/20 (the middle one) with SMU and the line is noticeably darker even though the tests were taken within an hour of so of each other. All of the AM and PM tests were taken at the same time each day, I was sure to drink roughly the same amount of water in between tests, and all tests are from the same batch...I mean come on, I am a scientist after all!

I was so beyond thrilled to find out that I was expecting in 2009 and then again in 2011, but this is the most excited I have ever been about the pregnancy test itself. I jumped around with Matt and the kids in the kitchen on the morning of the 20th. It was especially hilarious because kids will join in on any celebration even if they have no clue what is going on, this was no exception! What an amazing feeling to know that all of the heartbreak was behind me and the waiting was over; we would be blessed with a third baby!! I called my OB and had a beta drawn that morning (238). I had a second beta draw on Friday at 16dpo and was really hoping for anything over 430. The results didn't post on Friday until almost 4:30pm (3ish is normal) and I was literally dying from the anticipation. In the kitty litter aisle at the Hannaford in my hometown I found out that my betas had more than doubled to 480!! All of this was taking place as we packed the very last of the boxes at the house and prepared for the big move. The moving story is content for another day but I will say that I would not recommend finding out you are pregnant the day before your moving truck shows up if you can avoid it. It was...a tiny bit stressful. It became downright exhausting when the nurse called on Monday (11/25) afternoon to schedule a third beta and I was exactly halfway between the OB's office in Massachusetts and my kiddos in Maine. I couldn't bring myself to turn around so I instead woke up on Tuesday morning and did the "down and back" to MA for the fourth time in five days. Like I said, the moving story is a real gem! My third beta at 20dpo was 3078. Amazing.

Since Thanksgiving was only a few days away we knew that I was not going to be able to hide this pregnancy for long. I mean what is Thanksgiving without a glass of wine in each hand? We decided to tell our families and a few close friends but up until now have not made a formal announcement. I like to tell as many people as I can in person before word gets out on the internet but I know we didn't get to a few friends who hopefully won't hold it against us!

For now I am keeping what's left of my sanity by checking on the baby with my doppler, otherwise known as the best 50 dollars I ever spent, every few days. I actually found the baby VERY early at exactly 8 weeks which has taken a lot of the worry out of the equation. After having a missed miscarriage at almost 11 weeks I am not sure that I could ever eliminate the worry, but hearing that tiny galloping sound every few days is 90% good for my heart and 10% good for my mental stability. Those percentages may have been skewed ever so slightly.

Here we go, closing in on the end of my first trimester, of what will likely be my last pregnancy. Right now that thought, "last pregnancy" seems too final so I will not be emphasizing it again any time soon! Prayers for a healthy baby are always appreciated. I promise in return to document the heck out of this crazy ride.

Spoiler alert: Never before seen pictures of the kids coming at you tomorrow! :)