5th IUI – Positive Pregnancy Test /1st Trimester 7/26/13-9/30/13

This I know is old stuff but I really would like to share my story, for posterity sake if nothing else.

June 28^th Day 1 - Started medication for 5th IUI

July 1^st Day 3 - Dr. Foulk Ultrasound

July 8^th Day 10 - Dr. Foulk Ultrasound

July 10^th Day 12 - Dr. Foulk/Chiropractic Ultrasound

July 15^th Day 18 - IUI procedure

Since our last post about our Fertility we had skipped a month and to make sure that the follicles were on the right side. I did all the meds again with all the ultrasounds. As before, had the IUI with the follicle on the right side. 
 After two weeks of painful waiting we finally had our test back, and it was POSITIVE!  My HCG level was 31 but the doctors office told me congrats, it IS positive, but we need you to do follow up blood work in 48 hours. The nurse finished the phone call with, "This pregnancy is looking really good we just need to make sure your numbers are going up." We got the answer that it was OFFICIALLY positive on July 26^th 2013. 

There are 2 lines there if you look very closely.

 I thought I was pregnant because I was feeling sick more now and I couldn't really eat all the foods that I loved, particularly a bagel and cream cheese. I could only take a few bits. I thought it was weird that I didn’t like what I was eating now.

July 26^th, was Ledger’s 2^nd birthday party, so we drove up to Salt Lake to see everyone.   

It was really hard to not tell anyone what we just found out a few hours before this. 

July 29^th.  

Monday morning we did more blood work and my HCG level was 177 the number had more than tripled from Friday's levels. That was a really good sign the pregnancy was viable, at least so far. We were really excited and decided to share the news, with our parents anyway.

July 31^st.

We did another blood test at work because we all wanted to see if my numbers were still going up. HCG level was 500, 1-2 wk gestation. All of this was so surreal and exciting.

Aug. 2^nd. Cordery Family Reunion. 

This was the first reunion for our family, at least in a long time. It was lots of fun seeing my cousins and their kids. I had started feeling really nauseated now, and was expecting more morning sickness, but for me it was always at night and/or the middle of the day. I also started to feel really tired often.  

Aug. 6^th 5 weeks 4 days 

 

Aug. 13th 1st (ultrasound)

On a Tuesday when I was getting ready for work, I started later on Tuesdays, I got ready to leave and right before I left I noticed that I started to have spotting. I started to panic a little. I text one of the nurses at work and asked if one of the Ultrasound texts were in so we could do a quick ultrasound to see if things were okay. Once I got to work we did an ultrasound, things looked good and we couldn't see a bleed anywhere.  To my relief we were also able to hear a good heartbeat. I was able to breath again for now, knowing that things were still okay. 

Aug. 14^th (after work bleeding.) 

Wednesday after work I got home and went to the bathroom and noticed that there was blood in the toilet and now I was bleeding more than spotting. It was bright red and from my experience working in a OB office I would hear all the horror stories of women losing their babies, so now I was in a panic because I was just hoping that I was not miscarrying because it has taken so long to get where we were. I told Wesley and he talked to his mom and we called the doctors and they told me to rest and put my feet up and drink lots of water and if I start having heavy bleeding go to the ER but it was already heavy bleeding like a period. I called two doctors because I hadn’t been cleared from the Fertility Center yet so I called their on call doctor and they told me to just rest and to wait it out. I call my doctors I work with / my doctors office and I got the on-call doctor, he told me to rest and drink lots of water and to take tomorrow off. Then tomorrow to go and have an ultrasound to see what is going on. I was still freaking out inside and trying not to let people know that I terrified of losing the baby. I called and told my mom and told her to pray for us. We also texted our siblings and asked them all to pray for us. We wanted to find a fun way to share the news with them, but in need of prayers we decided to announce it and ask for their support.  We were going out of our minds trying not to worry, which seemed to add extra worry anyways.  It was a stressful time. That night I did a lot of praying and hoping that things would be okay.

Aug. 15^th- Aug. 18th (2nd ultrasound good heart beat still bleeding. Bed Rest).

Thursday I took the day off and found someone to work for me. My manger was so nice and understanding. Thursday afternoon Wesley and I drove up to Provo to see what was going on to make sure things were okay. We did the ultrasound and found a good heartbeat, now they could see a sub chorionic bleed close to my cervix. Now we knew why I was bleeding and knew that baby was still okay.At this point I was still so nervous and scared but at least we knew baby was okay. On top of the bleeding I had a really bad cold which only added to the stress and nausea. I had to start taking my nausea medication regularly, before I was just taking it here and there. I took the rest of the week off to just stay in bed and rest to see if the bleeding would stop.  Now I was 6 weeks along and on bed rest, taking it really easy.  That weekend was really hard being sick and  unable to take anything for my cold not to mention worrying about the baby. I said a lot of prayers and tried to stay positive.   

Aug 19th (7 weeks) (1st Dr Foulk appointment 3rd ultrasound, good heart beat, still see the bleed.)

We went to our first Doctor's appointment since finding out we were pregnant. I was really nervous again/still going into the appointment after bleeding all weekend, and still bleeding. The Ultrasound Tech did the ultrasound and let us knows that things looked really well. Then the doctor came in and asked if we were excited, and we definitely were but I think he could tell that we were more nervous and had trouble expressing our excitement at this point. But we were excited, excited to see the heart beat again and to see that the bleeding would stop soon. 

Aug. 30th (9 week) 2nd Dr Foulk appointment. Graduation from Dr Foulks. (Ultrasound)

This was our second appointment with Dr Foulk before we were switch to our OB/GYN. Everything looked really good. Still had a little bit of brown spotting so I still needed to take it easy. One thing that I remember about this visit was when they gave us the Ultrasound photo and a card, they said "We are having Graduation for you to day." It was really cool that is how they tell their patients that they don’t have to see them again. Dr. Foulk said that he wanted a birth announcement so he can see how cute our baby is. (SPOILER:  He is incredibly cute!!)

Aug. 31st (Footsteps for Fertility walk) 

We had signed up for the Fertility Walk before we found out we were pregnant and we still could use the prize if we won because we would only have to use it within a year of winning. I talked with Wesley to see if we still wanted to put our names in or put someone else's name in. We had other people sign up with us,  every person who signed up under our name gave us a ticket in the drawing. We decided to help others who were still having trouble getting pregnant and gave our tickets to a friend that was also doing the walk. I wasn’t able to walk the 5k but Wesley pushed me in a wheel chair. My mom and Laura came and walked it with us.  Trent and Amanda ran the 5k, and I was so grateful for their support and love. We let Trent and Amanda that I was pregnant and so grateful they joined us. Thank you all for the support. 

Sept. 4th (1st Dr Harward appointment)
 

We had our first Doctors appointment with Dr. Harward. We were more excited at this appointment, and everything looked really well. 

It is hard to be putting my weight on here but I want to remember it all so please don't judge me. I would do it all over again.

Moms Blood Pressure: 108/64

Moms Weight: 175 lb

Baby Heart Beat: 160

MEDs: Allergy Relief, Provida (prenatal vitamin), Dolcolace (Colace) 2 a day, Baby Aspirin, and Progesterone, Ondansetron.

Notes: I had been not drinking any caffeine because they told me not to drink it while doing the fertility treatments. I was having a lot of head aches so Dr Harward told me to try drinking some caffeine to see if it would help with the head aches before he gave me medication for the head aches. I was taking zphoine and he was giving me blur vision and giving me head aches. I stopped Zphoine and not taking phogine for the morning sickness but only take it at night if I needed it. I was feeling really tired and warn out at this point I would come home from work and just rest and take it easy. 

Sept. 5th (MFM study)
 

We signed up for a First time mom study with Utah Valley Hospital. We had to go and see them 3 times during the pregnancy. These appointments would take about an hour for each. They drew blood, take cultures, and asked a lot of questions, then at the end of the appointment they do an ultrasound. These pictures were really cool and better because they were using a bigger machine. 

Sept. 20th 12 weeks (photo shoot)

This is how we announced that were we were pregnant. We waited until Oct 3^rd to put them on Facebook, after we had told all the family. Also, I had sent out a birthday card to a friend telling her first, so she didn't find out on Facebook. She loved it! LOVE YOU SHAWNA. 

And a SPECIAL thank you to Tiffany Hanson for doing the photography for us!

Sept 25th (ultrasound)

We did an ultrasound for the fun of it at work. 

 

Sept. 30th (Dr Harward 13 weeks 3 days)

Moms Blood Pressure: 104/66

Moms Weight: 176 lb

Baby Heart Beat: 160

MEDs: Calcium 750mg, Folic Acid w/ DHA, Allergy Relief, Provida (prenatal vitamin), Dolcolace (Colace) 2 a day, Baby Aspirin, and Prevacid 1 in the morning.

Notes: Stopped Progesterone at 12 weeks. Started Prevacid for the acid reflects and Calcuim for the leg cramps. At this point I was not having much morning sickness as long as I took my Prevacid.