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Archive for June, 2007

Parasites are growing… and Zofran is my Friend

Posted in pregnancy symptoms abound, triplets? on June 24, 2007| 10 Comments »

For weeks people have been asking me if I'm feeling the babies moving around and my answer, for the most part, has been "I think so." I mean, I knew what I was feeling was them moving, but it was pretty non-specific (except for baby A PUNCHING ME in my cervix, but that was completely different). But then on Thursday, I was driving and suddenly I was having these feelings like I was having odd little muscle twitches in my abdomen, but from the inside. But they kept happening and suddenly I was like, "What the hell is that!??" Definitely not my most maternal moment. It's pretty much been non-stop since then, which would be fine except that I've been unbelievably nauseated the last few days.

Friday I couldn't keep ANY food or water down, and every time one of these little monsters kicked me, it made me want to throw up (a couple times it did actually MAKE me throw up). So I can't say I've got the most pleasant of associations with baby kicks right now. I'd like to say it's a beautiful moment for me, but really, it's kind of weird and disgusting. Probably mostly because of the puking association. Still, I have to say that it is unbelievably cool that all three of them are kicking and that I can distinguish the three based on position. Babies A and B are the most active (or maybe their position is just most conducive to me feeling them?). It still startles me every time they do it, which is pretty much all the time. I hope I get used to it eventually! At least I know that they're thriving in there!

I'm still only keeping small amounts of food or liquid down, but at least I don't feel like I'm in danger of dehydration anymore. I'm popping Zofran like it's candy and it's helping somewhat, but not quite enough. Hopefully this too will pass. I think it is partly the result of the antibiotic I'm taking for the UTI (which doesn't seem to be getting any better, by the way), so hopefully this is temporary.

In other news, my wondermous husband got me a watercooler for my neverending thirst. One of the cats is currently investigating this scary new piece of machinery. Heh. Now if only it had goldfish in it. (Just kidding… then I couldn't drink the water!)

Update: KarenO: your mom is quite correct that the first movements feel EXACTLY
like butterflies in your stomach. That's what I'd been feeling for weeks. It was a rather non-specific feeling that almost felt like anxiety more than anything. But now there are actually distinctive kicks (maybe they're actually punches, who knows?) that are very specific and definitely not the same sort of feeling. Definitely the "I think so" stage of "do you feel the babies moving" was a sort of fluttery-butterflies-in-your-tummy kind of feeling. It's very hard to explain. That went on for a while and I definitely knew it was fetal movement, but wouldn't really have committed to "Yes! I can feel them!" Now I definitely know exactly which one is doing what and it was a very sudden transition. It's a little disconcerting, actually. I'll admit that it's neat and fascinating in its own way. It's just that the rest of me feels so gross right now that it's hard to get past the "ew-factor". I'm a total in-grate. It would be better if I weren't puking, I'm sure!

Read Full Post »

Miscellaneous

Posted in blogarama, FAQ, fertility shmertility, google-rama, social issues on June 21, 2007| 25 Comments »

DC Get-Together
I think I posted that I was going to get together with some DC-area bloggers. I almost chickened out, but I decided to be a grown-up and just walk up to a group of random women who looked like they might just be a bunch of infertility bloggers. Thank heavens I picked the right group! There were nine of us there, and we really had a terrific time. I felt a little bit awkward at first, being the token pregnant-lady there, and it’s not like I can even hide it at this point. I mean, I’m fat in the first place, but at this point, I definitely am visibly pregnant and I can’t just pass it off as too many pints of Ben and Jerry’s. Anyway, no one seemed too bothered by it. My husband had suggested I wear a nametag that said, “Hello My Name Is Myrtle” but I declined. 😉

At any rate, it was a fabulous group of women and I’m thrilled to pieces that I got over my ridiculous self long enough to take a deep breath and walk up to a group of strangers, because it was truly the most enjoyable evening I’ve had in quite some time. Even if I did have to get up to pee four times (and seriously, we could NOT have been seated further away from the bathroom!). Good thing I’d insisted on sitting on the end. What a fabulous group of women we were, though! I think we may have scared the waiter a little bit, but that’s okay. It just means he earned his gratuity, right? It was a touching and hilarious night. Lindsay was so sweet and perfect, and such a doll for organizing the group in the first place. I hope we do this again soon! (though I don’t know if I’ll be able to make the next one… it totally depends on whether I do get stuck on real bedrest… we’ll see) Maybe next time we can have pedicures and mojitos (virgin for me – oh the irony!) at my place. 🙂

Some Questions Answered

Are you going to find out the sexes? Most emphatically, no. I have no intention of finding out what flavor these babies are. I figure I should get to do at least ONE thing the old fashioned way! Plus, our lives will be upside down no matter what, I seriously doubt it’s going to matter whether they’re boys or girls, and it’s likely that we’ll have a mix regardless of how they’re distributed. My husband, I think, would really like to find out. But, well, I kind of have veto power when it comes to the dildo-cam. Plus, his logic with finding out with a singleton was that it would be easier to plan. I don’t think the logic holds with triplets. I don’t think you can really plan for triplets, you just have to pray a lot! 🙂

When are you due? Heck if I know. I don’t even know how to answer that question. I’m due November 6, technically. Except, that’s never going to happen. I will deliver no later than September 26, which is exactly 34 weeks (also erev sukkot). I hope to at LEAST make it to September 12, which is 32 weeks, which I don’t think will be a problem. My perinatologist gets almost all their triplet patients to 34 weeks, with very, very few exceptions.

When does bed rest start? Heck if I know. I was originally told that it would unequivocally start this week. However, that appears to be more flexible than I was originally led to believe. Apparently because I’m doing so well, I get to lead the decision on when bed rest begins. I believe most of why I’m doing so well is that with only a couple of exceptions, if I’m not at work, I’m at home on bed rest. The DC Get Together was one such exception. But I’ve otherwise gone straight home and curled up in a recliner or my bed and not moved until I have to (usually to pee! Gah!). I intend to remain relatively strict about this, because I do enjoy the flexibility to occasionally break my self-imposed rules. I would not be so cavalier about breaking doctor-mandated bed rest. So for the moment, I’m not on bed rest officially and won’t be until I feel it’s necessary or until the doctors get uncomfortable. And that’s all I know.

Some Sad Googling

heavy bleeding contraction-like cramps: I’m going to assume whoever wrote this query is pregnant. Even if you’re not pregnant, the best advice I can give you is to contact your doctor. It could be nothing serious. I hope it’s nothing serious. But your doctor should know what’s going on.

iui cycle failed: I’m so sorry. I’ve been there, and it’s no fun. The best thing for me after a failed cycle was knowing what would be happening next. A new IUI cycle? An IVF cycle? Same Protocol? Change in Protocol? I liked to know all of that ahead of time, before it failed, not because I wanted to be pessimistic, but because it helped me take a failed cycle and psychologically turn it into a new beginning.

cyst in ovaries while pregnant: I haven’t had this problem, and I know it’s not uncommon. But there are so many ways this could be read. It depends on how big the cysts are, how many, what kind of cysts they are, etc. The good news is that you wouldn’t know that you had cysts if your doctor didn’t know, so I don’t have to worry that you aren’t under a doctor’s care. I hope you are able to find out what your options/needs are from your doctor. If you aren’t comfortable with your doctor’s advice, please seek a second or third opinion.

triplet pregnancy blogs: This, of course, isn’t one of the sad ones. You got me. I’ve definitely got a triplet pregnancy blog.

ovaries and kidneys picture with uti: I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. Anyone got any help on this one?

my ovaries hurts is that a sign that i might be pregnacy: More likely your ovaries being sensitive is a sign that you ovulated. The surest sign that you’re pregnant is the presence of hCG in your blood and urine by about 14 days post ovulation. So wait a week or two and POAS.

ovary uncomfortable: That certainly sounds unpleasant, though I often wonder how women know that it is specifically their ovary that feels uncomfortable.

severe pain in my ovaries: Any time someone suggests “severe” pain to me, I suggest contacting your physician. Anything that far outside the range of normal should be reported to your doctor.

cramps near ovaries during early pregnancy is it normal? Yes.

menstrual cramps worse after iui: This is also normal. I didn’t have cramping after all of my IUIs, but I did after a few of them, and it’s very normal. Introducing anything into the uterine environment can cause it to contract, which will cause that cramping feeling. Now if what you meant was after a failed IUI the cramps associated with the subsequent period are worse than normal… well, that’s normal too… especially if you were on progesterone supplements. It’s really unfair.

Something that Shocked Me (in a good way)
I forgot to mention that at my perinatology appointment last week, I’d made a crack at Dr. G about being bitter that they weren’t going to let me push these babies out the old fashioned way. I gave my usual shpiel about how I figure the babies are going to be so tiny that they’ll just come right out, no problem!

His response astounded me. Instead of their usual bit about “fetal distress”, “maternal hemmorhage”, “healthy outcome” and all that rational, logical stuff, he said, “well, it’s just that to do a vaginal triplet delivery everything has to line up perfectly and the odds are really low that it will, especially since you don’t have a lot of room for them to move around in there, but I’ve done it. Both Dr. P and I have done vaginal triplet deliveries.” Really? I mean, REALLY? Here I was just giving my usual joke figuring on the usual rational, logical answer, and I’m hearing that it STILL DOES HAPPEN?

“Look,” he said, “when the time gets closer, if everything is lining up perfectly, which it probably won’t, and you still want to talk about it, we can absolutely do that, but you have to understand how low the odds are of it happening that way, and you have to understand that we reserve the right at all times to tell you that we’re not going to do it.” I totally get that. But I mean… really? It could happen? Even just that 0.0000000001% chance? Really? Sure, but don’t count on it. Especially if the previa doesn’t completely resolve itself (it’s moved significantly, but it’s still in the way a bit).

Still, something about the c-section not being completely written in stone makes me feel a zillion times better. I have the absolute dumbest reason for not wanting a c-section. I want nothing to do with an epidural. Now, if I did a vaginal delivery, I’d still have to have an epidural in place, though I wouldn’t have to have drugs running through it. But my fear of the epidural is two-fold: First, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want a needle in or near my spinal column ever. Second, I don’t want to not be able to feel the lower half of my body. This terrifies me. I had a TIA when I was 23, and it was terrifying not to be able to move or feel my left side. I never want to purposely experience that again. So while I wouldn’t get out of having the needle in/near my spinal column, I COULD get out of having to be numb in my lower half. I mean, it’s NEVER going to happen. There is no possibility that I’m not having a c-section. But there’s something comforting about being able to pretend for a few weeks that I have options.

Update: Carol mentioned that she’d been wondering why a c-section seemed to be the default for triplet deliveries on TV… e.g. is it because it’s easier for the doctors or because vaginal triplet deliveries aren’t possible? The answer is that in MOST cases, vaginal deliveries aren’t safe for mother OR babies. Certainly it IS easier for the doctors (and less liability), but there’s mostly the fact that very few triplet pregnancies really are conducive to safe vaginal deliveries. I’m very certain that I will not be allowed to have a vaginal delivery, but I still find it oddly comforting that my doctors are willing to consider the conversation if by some miracle everything really did line up perfectly and the stars were perfectly aligned and the moons were in all the right houses and I sacrified the right color goat…

Advice Sought re: Childbirth Class
Here’s the thing. I feel like if I were a responsible parent-to-be, I would take a parenting/childbirth class. Except that they are largely geared toward women having singleton, vaginal deliveries, which, we all know, I am not. So there are multiples classes available, except not so much. The closest class to me that’s a multiples class is in Baltimore and it’s only offered on Saturdays, which doesn’t so much work for me. (My rabbi doesn’t seem to want to give me one of those “Get out of being Jewish for a Day” cards… drat!) Okay, so to heck with those options.

I COULD take a caesarean class. EXCEPT, honestly, those are basically about what to expect from the procedure, the anesthesia, and recovery. Oh, and you get to watch a video of a c-section. Now, I’ve seen LOTS of videos of c-sections. I have had surgery before. I am not freaked out or anxious about the c-section per se. My irrational fears of the epidural aside, I have no anxiety about this in the least. I know what is going to happen, I understand my role (“lay there and do what we say”), I know what recovery from abdominal surgery is like, and I know it will suck a lot more than recovery from having my gall bladder removed laproscopically. So what’s the point? Even the nurse at the perinatologist’s office said if I wasn’t feeling anxiety about the c-section, I probably wouldn’t get much out of any such class.

So aside from getting my infant-CPR renewed, which I’d rather do closer to the delivery anyway, what should I do? Should I just accept that you don’t have to take some ridiculous class in order to be a responsible parent-to-be?

My husband also wanted to take a “Daddy Boot Camp” type class but every area hospital that has a Dads 101/Daddy Boot Camp/whatever you want to call it class offers it only on Saturdays, which, again, doesn’t work for us. So now he’s looking for some sort of book, but from what I can tell, all the dad-centric books are awful, so I think he’ll just have to wing it, unless you all have any suggestions.

Read Full Post »

Miscellaneous

Posted in blogarama, FAQ, fertility shmertility, google-rama, social issues on June 21, 2007| 10 Comments »

DC Get-Together
I think I posted that I was going to get together with some DC-area bloggers. I almost chickened out, but I decided to be a grown-up and just walk up to a group of random women who looked like they might just be a bunch of infertility bloggers. Thank heavens I picked the right group! There were nine of us there, and we really had a terrific time. I felt a little bit awkward at first, being the token pregnant-lady there, and it's not like I can even hide it at this point. I mean, I'm fat in the first place, but at this point, I definitely am visibly pregnant and I can't just pass it off as too many pints of Ben and Jerry's. Anyway, no one seemed too bothered by it. My husband had suggested I wear a nametag that said, "Hello My Name Is Myrtle" but I declined. 😉

At any rate, it was a fabulous group of women and I'm thrilled to pieces that I got over my ridiculous self long enough to take a deep breath and walk up to a group of strangers, because it was truly the most enjoyable evening I've had in quite some time. Even if I did have to get up to pee four times (and seriously, we could NOT have been seated further away from the bathroom!). Good thing I'd insisted on sitting on the end. What a fabulous group of women we were, though! I think we may have scared the waiter a little bit, but that's okay. It just means he earned his gratuity, right? It was a touching and hilarious night. Lindsay was so sweet and perfect, and such a doll for organizing the group in the first place. I hope we do this again soon! (though I don't know if I'll be able to make the next one… it totally depends on whether I do get stuck on real bedrest… we'll see) Maybe next time we can have pedicures and mojitos (virgin for me – oh the irony!) at my place. 🙂

Some Questions Answered

Are you going to find out the sexes? Most emphatically, no. I have no intention of finding out what flavor these babies are. I figure I should get to do at least ONE thing the old fashioned way! Plus, our lives will be upside down no matter what, I seriously doubt it's going to matter whether they're boys or girls, and it's likely that we'll have a mix regardless of how they're distributed. My husband, I think, would really like to find out. But, well, I kind of have veto power when it comes to the dildo-cam. Plus, his logic with finding out with a singleton was that it would be easier to plan. I don't think the logic holds with triplets. I don't think you can really plan for triplets, you just have to pray a lot! 🙂

When are you due? Heck if I know. I don't even know how to answer that question. I'm due November 6, technically. Except, that's never going to happen. I will deliver no later than September 26, which is exactly 34 weeks (also erev sukkot). I hope to at LEAST make it to September 12, which is 32 weeks, which I don't think will be a problem. My perinatologist gets almost all their triplet patients to 34 weeks, with very, very few exceptions.

When does bed rest start? Heck if I know. I was originally told that it would unequivocally start this week. However, that appears to be more flexible than I was originally led to believe. Apparently because I'm doing so well, I get to lead the decision on when bed rest begins. I believe most of why I'm doing so well is that with only a couple of exceptions, if I'm not at work, I'm at home on bed rest. The DC Get Together was one such exception. But I've otherwise gone straight home and curled up in a recliner or my bed and not moved until I have to (usually to pee! Gah!). I intend to remain relatively strict about this, because I do enjoy the flexibility to occasionally break my self-imposed rules. I would not be so cavalier about breaking doctor-mandated bed rest. So for the moment, I'm not on bed rest officially and won't be until I feel it's necessary or until the doctors get uncomfortable. And that's all I know.

Some Sad Googling

heavy bleeding contraction-like cramps: I'm going to assume whoever wrote this query is pregnant. Even if you're not pregnant, the best advice I can give you is to contact your doctor. It could be nothing serious. I hope it's nothing serious. But your doctor should know what's going on.

iui cycle failed: I'm so sorry. I've been there, and it's no fun. The best thing for me after a failed cycle was knowing what would be happening next. A new IUI cycle? An IVF cycle? Same Protocol? Change in Protocol? I liked to know all of that ahead of time, before it failed, not because I wanted to be pessimistic, but because it helped me take a failed cycle and psychologically turn it into a new beginning.

cyst in ovaries while pregnant: I haven't had this problem, and I know it's not uncommon. But there are so many ways this could be read. It depends on how big the cysts are, how many, what kind of cysts they are, etc. The good news is that you wouldn't know that you had cysts if your doctor didn't know, so I don't have to worry that you aren't under a doctor's care. I hope you are able to find out what your options/needs are from your doctor. If you aren't comfortable with your doctor's advice, please seek a second or third opinion.

triplet pregnancy blogs: This, of course, isn't one of the sad ones. You got me. I've definitely got a triplet pregnancy blog.

ovaries and kidneys picture with uti: I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. Anyone got any help on this one?

my ovaries hurts is that a sign that i might be pregnacy: More likely your ovaries being sensitive is a sign that you ovulated. The surest sign that you're pregnant is the presence of hCG in your blood and urine by about 14 days post ovulation. So wait a week or two and POAS.

ovary uncomfortable: That certainly sounds unpleasant, though I often wonder how women know that it is specifically their ovary that feels uncomfortable.

severe pain in my ovaries: Any time someone suggests "severe" pain to me, I suggest contacting your physician. Anything that far outside the range of normal should be reported to your doctor.

cramps near ovaries during early pregnancy is it normal? Yes.

menstrual cramps worse after iui: This is also normal. I didn't have cramping after all of my IUIs, but I did after a few of them, and it's very normal. Introducing anything into the uterine environment can cause it to contract, which will cause that cramping feeling. Now if what you meant was after a failed IUI the cramps associated with the subsequent period are worse than normal… well, that's normal too… especially if you were on progesterone supplements. It's really unfair.

Something that Shocked Me (in a good way)
I forgot to mention that at my perinatology appointment last week, I'd made a crack at Dr. G about being bitter that they weren't going to let me push these babies out the old fashioned way. I gave my usual shpiel about how I figure the babies are going to be so tiny that they'll just come right out, no problem!

His response astounded me. Instead of their usual bit about "fetal distress", "maternal hemmorhage", "healthy outcome" and all that rational, logical stuff, he said, "well, it's just that to do a vaginal triplet delivery everything has to line up perfectly and the odds are really low that it will, especially since you don't have a lot of room for them to move around in there, but I've done it. Both Dr. P and I have done vaginal triplet deliveries." Really? I mean, REALLY? Here I was just giving my usual joke figuring on the usual rational, logical answer, and I'm hearing that it STILL DOES HAPPEN?

"Look," he said, "when the time gets closer, if everything is lining up perfectly, which it probably won't, and you still want to talk about it, we can absolutely do that, but you have to understand how low the odds are of it happening that way, and you have to understand that we reserve the right at all times to tell you that we're not going to do it." I totally get that. But I mean… really? It could happen? Even just that 0.0000000001% chance? Really? Sure, but don't count on it. Especially if the previa doesn't completely resolve itself (it's moved significantly, but it's still in the way a bit).

Still, something about the c-section not being completely written in stone makes me feel a zillion times better. I have the absolute dumbest reason for not wanting a c-section. I want nothing to do with an epidural. Now, if I did a vaginal delivery, I'd still have to have an epidural in place, though I wouldn't have to have drugs running through it. But my fear of the epidural is two-fold: First, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want a needle in or near my spinal column ever. Second, I don't want to not be able to feel the lower half of my body. This terrifies me. I had a TIA when I was 23, and it was terrifying not to be able to move or feel my left side. I never want to purposely experience that again. So while I wouldn't get out of having the needle in/near my spinal column, I COULD get out of having to be numb in my lower half. I mean, it's NEVER going to happen. There is no possibility that I'm not having a c-section. But there's something comforting about being able to pretend for a few weeks that I have options.

Update: Carol mentioned that she'd been wondering why a c-section seemed to be the default for triplet deliveries on TV… e.g. is it because it's easier for the doctors or because vaginal triplet deliveries aren't possible? The answer is that in MOST cases, vaginal deliveries aren't safe for mother OR babies. Certainly it IS easier for the doctors (and less liability), but there's mostly the fact that very few triplet pregnancies really are conducive to safe vaginal deliveries. I'm very certain that I will not be allowed to have a vaginal delivery, but I still find it oddly comforting that my doctors are willing to consider the conversation if by some miracle everything really did line up perfectly and the stars were perfectly aligned and the moons were in all the right houses and I sacrified the right color goat…

Advice Sought re: Childbirth Class
Here's the thing. I feel like if I were a responsible parent-to-be, I would take a parenting/childbirth class. Except that they are largely geared toward women having singleton, vaginal deliveries, which, we all know, I am not. So there are multiples classes available, except not so much. The closest class to me that's a multiples class is in Baltimore and it's only offered on Saturdays, which doesn't so much work for me. (My rabbi doesn't seem to want to give me one of those "Get out of being Jewish for a Day" cards… drat!) Okay, so to heck with those options.

I COULD take a caesarean class. EXCEPT, honestly, those are basically about what to expect from the procedure, the anesthesia, and recovery. Oh, and you get to watch a video of a c-section. Now, I've seen LOTS of videos of c-sections. I have had surgery before. I am not freaked out or anxious about the c-section per se. My irrational fears of the epidural aside, I have no anxiety about this in the least. I know what is going to happen, I understand my role ("lay there and do what we say"), I know what recovery from abdominal surgery is like, and I know it will suck a lot more than recovery from having my gall bladder removed laproscopically. So what's the point? Even the nurse at the perinatologist's office said if I wasn't feeling anxiety about the c-section, I probably wouldn't get much out of any such class.

So aside from getting my infant-CPR renewed, which I'd rather do closer to the delivery anyway, what should I do? Should I just accept that you don't have to take some ridiculous class in order to be a responsible parent-to-be?

My husband also wanted to take a "Daddy Boot Camp" type class but every area hospital that has a Dads 101/Daddy Boot Camp/whatever you want to call it class offers it only on Saturdays, which, again, doesn't work for us. So now he's looking for some sort of book, but from what I can tell, all the dad-centric books are awful, so I think he'll just have to wing it, unless you all have any suggestions.

Read Full Post »

Miscellaneous

Posted in blogarama, FAQ, fertility shmertility, google-rama, social issues on June 21, 2007| 24 Comments »

DC Get-Together
I think I posted that I was going to get together with some DC-area bloggers. I almost chickened out, but I decided to be a grown-up and just walk up to a group of random women who looked like they might just be a bunch of infertility bloggers. Thank heavens I picked the right group! There were nine of us there, and we really had a terrific time. I felt a little bit awkward at first, being the token pregnant-lady there, and it's not like I can even hide it at this point. I mean, I'm fat in the first place, but at this point, I definitely am visibly pregnant and I can't just pass it off as too many pints of Ben and Jerry's. Anyway, no one seemed too bothered by it. My husband had suggested I wear a nametag that said, "Hello My Name Is Myrtle" but I declined. 😉

At any rate, it was a fabulous group of women and I'm thrilled to pieces that I got over my ridiculous self long enough to take a deep breath and walk up to a group of strangers, because it was truly the most enjoyable evening I've had in quite some time. Even if I did have to get up to pee four times (and seriously, we could NOT have been seated further away from the bathroom!). Good thing I'd insisted on sitting on the end. What a fabulous group of women we were, though! I think we may have scared the waiter a little bit, but that's okay. It just means he earned his gratuity, right? It was a touching and hilarious night. Lindsay was so sweet and perfect, and such a doll for organizing the group in the first place. I hope we do this again soon! (though I don't know if I'll be able to make the next one… it totally depends on whether I do get stuck on real bedrest… we'll see) Maybe next time we can have pedicures and mojitos (virgin for me – oh the irony!) at my place. 🙂

Some Questions Answered

Are you going to find out the sexes? Most emphatically, no. I have no intention of finding out what flavor these babies are. I figure I should get to do at least ONE thing the old fashioned way! Plus, our lives will be upside down no matter what, I seriously doubt it's going to matter whether they're boys or girls, and it's likely that we'll have a mix regardless of how they're distributed. My husband, I think, would really like to find out. But, well, I kind of have veto power when it comes to the dildo-cam. Plus, his logic with finding out with a singleton was that it would be easier to plan. I don't think the logic holds with triplets. I don't think you can really plan for triplets, you just have to pray a lot! 🙂

When are you due? Heck if I know. I don't even know how to answer that question. I'm due November 6, technically. Except, that's never going to happen. I will deliver no later than September 26, which is exactly 34 weeks (also erev sukkot). I hope to at LEAST make it to September 12, which is 32 weeks, which I don't think will be a problem. My perinatologist gets almost all their triplet patients to 34 weeks, with very, very few exceptions.

When does bed rest start? Heck if I know. I was originally told that it would unequivocally start this week. However, that appears to be more flexible than I was originally led to believe. Apparently because I'm doing so well, I get to lead the decision on when bed rest begins. I believe most of why I'm doing so well is that with only a couple of exceptions, if I'm not at work, I'm at home on bed rest. The DC Get Together was one such exception. But I've otherwise gone straight home and curled up in a recliner or my bed and not moved until I have to (usually to pee! Gah!). I intend to remain relatively strict about this, because I do enjoy the flexibility to occasionally break my self-imposed rules. I would not be so cavalier about breaking doctor-mandated bed rest. So for the moment, I'm not on bed rest officially and won't be until I feel it's necessary or until the doctors get uncomfortable. And that's all I know.

Some Sad Googling

heavy bleeding contraction-like cramps: I'm going to assume whoever wrote this query is pregnant. Even if you're not pregnant, the best advice I can give you is to contact your doctor. It could be nothing serious. I hope it's nothing serious. But your doctor should know what's going on.

iui cycle failed: I'm so sorry. I've been there, and it's no fun. The best thing for me after a failed cycle was knowing what would be happening next. A new IUI cycle? An IVF cycle? Same Protocol? Change in Protocol? I liked to know all of that ahead of time, before it failed, not because I wanted to be pessimistic, but because it helped me take a failed cycle and psychologically turn it into a new beginning.

cyst in ovaries while pregnant: I haven't had this problem, and I know it's not uncommon. But there are so many ways this could be read. It depends on how big the cysts are, how many, what kind of cysts they are, etc. The good news is that you wouldn't know that you had cysts if your doctor didn't know, so I don't have to worry that you aren't under a doctor's care. I hope you are able to find out what your options/needs are from your doctor. If you aren't comfortable with your doctor's advice, please seek a second or third opinion.

triplet pregnancy blogs: This, of course, isn't one of the sad ones. You got me. I've definitely got a triplet pregnancy blog.

ovaries and kidneys picture with uti: I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. Anyone got any help on this one?

my ovaries hurts is that a sign that i might be pregnacy: More likely your ovaries being sensitive is a sign that you ovulated. The surest sign that you're pregnant is the presence of hCG in your blood and urine by about 14 days post ovulation. So wait a week or two and POAS.

ovary uncomfortable: That certainly sounds unpleasant, though I often wonder how women know that it is specifically their ovary that feels uncomfortable.

severe pain in my ovaries: Any time someone suggests "severe" pain to me, I suggest contacting your physician. Anything that far outside the range of normal should be reported to your doctor.

cramps near ovaries during early pregnancy is it normal? Yes.

menstrual cramps worse after iui: This is also normal. I didn't have cramping after all of my IUIs, but I did after a few of them, and it's very normal. Introducing anything into the uterine environment can cause it to contract, which will cause that cramping feeling. Now if what you meant was after a failed IUI the cramps associated with the subsequent period are worse than normal… well, that's normal too… especially if you were on progesterone supplements. It's really unfair.

Something that Shocked Me (in a good way)
I forgot to mention that at my perinatology appointment last week, I'd made a crack at Dr. G about being bitter that they weren't going to let me push these babies out the old fashioned way. I gave my usual shpiel about how I figure the babies are going to be so tiny that they'll just come right out, no problem!

His response astounded me. Instead of their usual bit about "fetal distress", "maternal hemmorhage", "healthy outcome" and all that rational, logical stuff, he said, "well, it's just that to do a vaginal triplet delivery everything has to line up perfectly and the odds are really low that it will, especially since you don't have a lot of room for them to move around in there, but I've done it. Both Dr. P and I have done vaginal triplet deliveries." Really? I mean, REALLY? Here I was just giving my usual joke figuring on the usual rational, logical answer, and I'm hearing that it STILL DOES HAPPEN?

"Look," he said, "when the time gets closer, if everything is lining up perfectly, which it probably won't, and you still want to talk about it, we can absolutely do that, but you have to understand how low the odds are of it happening that way, and you have to understand that we reserve the right at all times to tell you that we're not going to do it." I totally get that. But I mean… really? It could happen? Even just that 0.0000000001% chance? Really? Sure, but don't count on it. Especially if the previa doesn't completely resolve itself (it's moved significantly, but it's still in the way a bit).

Still, something about the c-section not being completely written in stone makes me feel a zillion times better. I have the absolute dumbest reason for not wanting a c-section. I want nothing to do with an epidural. Now, if I did a vaginal delivery, I'd still have to have an epidural in place, though I wouldn't have to have drugs running through it. But my fear of the epidural is two-fold: First, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want a needle in or near my spinal column ever. Second, I don't want to not be able to feel the lower half of my body. This terrifies me. I had a TIA when I was 23, and it was terrifying not to be able to move or feel my left side. I never want to purposely experience that again. So while I wouldn't get out of having the needle in/near my spinal column, I COULD get out of having to be numb in my lower half. I mean, it's NEVER going to happen. There is no possibility that I'm not having a c-section. But there's something comforting about being able to pretend for a few weeks that I have options.

Update: Carol mentioned that she'd been wondering why a c-section seemed to be the default for triplet deliveries on TV… e.g. is it because it's easier for the doctors or because vaginal triplet deliveries aren't possible? The answer is that in MOST cases, vaginal deliveries aren't safe for mother OR babies. Certainly it IS easier for the doctors (and less liability), but there's mostly the fact that very few triplet pregnancies really are conducive to safe vaginal deliveries. I'm very certain that I will not be allowed to have a vaginal delivery, but I still find it oddly comforting that my doctors are willing to consider the conversation if by some miracle everything really did line up perfectly and the stars were perfectly aligned and the moons were in all the right houses and I sacrified the right color goat…

Advice Sought re: Childbirth Class
Here's the thing. I feel like if I were a responsible parent-to-be, I would take a parenting/childbirth class. Except that they are largely geared toward women having singleton, vaginal deliveries, which, we all know, I am not. So there are multiples classes available, except not so much. The closest class to me that's a multiples class is in Baltimore and it's only offered on Saturdays, which doesn't so much work for me. (My rabbi doesn't seem to want to give me one of those "Get out of being Jewish for a Day" cards… drat!) Okay, so to heck with those options.

I COULD take a caesarean class. EXCEPT, honestly, those are basically about what to expect from the procedure, the anesthesia, and recovery. Oh, and you get to watch a video of a c-section. Now, I've seen LOTS of videos of c-sections. I have had surgery before. I am not freaked out or anxious about the c-section per se. My irrational fears of the epidural aside, I have no anxiety about this in the least. I know what is going to happen, I understand my role ("lay there and do what we say"), I know what recovery from abdominal surgery is like, and I know it will suck a lot more than recovery from having my gall bladder removed laproscopically. So what's the point? Even the nurse at the perinatologist's office said if I wasn't feeling anxiety about the c-section, I probably wouldn't get much out of any such class.

So aside from getting my infant-CPR renewed, which I'd rather do closer to the delivery anyway, what should I do? Should I just accept that you don't have to take some ridiculous class in order to be a responsible parent-to-be?

My husband also wanted to take a "Daddy Boot Camp" type class but every area hospital that has a Dads 101/Daddy Boot Camp/whatever you want to call it class offers it only on Saturdays, which, again, doesn't work for us. So now he's looking for some sort of book, but from what I can tell, all the dad-centric books are awful, so I think he'll just have to wing it, unless you all have any suggestions.

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One more Google Hit Before Bed (Updated at the Bottom)

Posted in fertility shmertility, google-rama, migraines on June 20, 2007| 13 Comments »

I’m exhausted, having been kept out way past my bedtime tonight, but I noticed a keyword search in my statcounter I didn’t want to ignore…

heart surgery for treatment of migaines: For those of you who are relatively new to my blog, you probaby have no idea why this would have popped up my blog in a google search. But whoever did this keyword search should know that yes, there ARE currently three concurrent studies going on that involve heart surgery for the treatment of migraines. It seems that a large percentage of migraine sufferers have a “patent foramen ovale” which is a condition in which a small valve which normally closes at or near birth didn’t close, so you’ve essentially got a small hole in your heart. This is generally not considered a huge deal and most people who have one never know it, but it is beginning to be associated with early stroke and with migraines. A recent couple of studies involving closing the PFO for stroke patients showed a surprising number of patients who had the lucky side effect of total or significant resolution of migraine symptoms after having the PFO closed. Thus, some new studies have been started and are currently in progress and recruiting patients.

I almost participated in one such study but was disqualified because I get too many migraines. Truth be told, I didn’t try all that hard to qualify. There was a qualifying month in which I had to keep an electronic headache diary that I transmitted to the clinic every night. If during that month I had been extremely cautious about every single migraine trigger I have, and if I’d worked harder to sleep more and work less, I probably could have stayed under 14 migraines in that qualifying period, though it would have been challenging since I was just weeks post-miscarriage and in a very busy period at work. But I also knew that qualifying for and participating in the study would have meant taking a year off of the whole fertility treatment thing and I just wasn’t sure I was willing to make that sacrifice, even if the payoff was the possibility of a life without migraines. Even the debilitating, life-altering migraines I get on a regular basis. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, so obviously, my sub-conscious made the decision for me.

If you want to read more specifics about my experience with trying to decide what to do about the study, look at my posts from November 4-15, 2006. If you want to talk in greater detail about the studies themselves or what I know about them, please feel free to email me directly.

Edited to Add: I was just re-reading my posts about the migraine study and my decision-making process. I waffled a lot about whether to participate. It was a really hard process for me, because the bottom line was that if I’d qualified and decided to participate, that would have meant going on birth control for a year, which was a huge thing for me, shockingly enough. This post in particular, highlighted the conflict of emotion I was feeling through the process, but one line stood out above all:

And yet… I would gladly suffer migraines forever in exchange for a baby.

It’s still true, you know. As much as I complain about the migraines… as insufferable as they are… I worked so hard, cried so many tears, suffered so much (and yet, not nearly as much as many of my fellow stirrup queens)… these babies are what I wanted. They are what I want. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Not even a life free of migraines. I’ll take the heartburn and the sciatica and the nausea and the round ligament pain and the oxygen deprivation and the sleep deprivation and the anxiety and the contractions and the baby punching my cervix and yes, even the migraines. I’ll take it all with a smile on my face when I can, because I want these babies so badly I can taste it. I love them already and I’m already terrified that I’m failing them as a parent by even thinking about the negative parts about this whole pregnancy thing.

The one thing that my children… all our children… will always know is that they were, above everything else… wanted. And THAT is what makes all this infertility bullshit worth it.

Read Full Post »

One more Google Hit Before Bed (Updated at the Bottom)

Posted in fertility shmertility, google-rama, migraines on June 20, 2007| 5 Comments »

I'm exhausted, having been kept out way past my bedtime tonight, but I noticed a keyword search in my statcounter I didn't want to ignore…

heart surgery for treatment of migaines: For those of you who are relatively new to my blog, you probaby have no idea why this would have popped up my blog in a google search. But whoever did this keyword search should know that yes, there ARE currently three concurrent studies going on that involve heart surgery for the treatment of migraines. It seems that a large percentage of migraine sufferers have a "patent foramen ovale" which is a condition in which a small valve which normally closes at or near birth didn't close, so you've essentially got a small hole in your heart. This is generally not considered a huge deal and most people who have one never know it, but it is beginning to be associated with early stroke and with migraines. A recent couple of studies involving closing the PFO for stroke patients showed a surprising number of patients who had the lucky side effect of total or significant resolution of migraine symptoms after having the PFO closed. Thus, some new studies have been started and are currently in progress and recruiting patients.

I almost participated in one such study but was disqualified because I get too many migraines. Truth be told, I didn't try all that hard to qualify. There was a qualifying month in which I had to keep an electronic headache diary that I transmitted to the clinic every night. If during that month I had been extremely cautious about every single migraine trigger I have, and if I'd worked harder to sleep more and work less, I probably could have stayed under 14 migraines in that qualifying period, though it would have been challenging since I was just weeks post-miscarriage and in a very busy period at work. But I also knew that qualifying for and participating in the study would have meant taking a year off of the whole fertility treatment thing and I just wasn't sure I was willing to make that sacrifice, even if the payoff was the possibility of a life without migraines. Even the debilitating, life-altering migraines I get on a regular basis. It wasn't an easy decision to make, so obviously, my sub-conscious made the decision for me.

If you want to read more specifics about my experience with trying to decide what to do about the study, look at my posts from November 4-15, 2006. If you want to talk in greater detail about the studies themselves or what I know about them, please feel free to email me directly.

Edited to Add: I was just re-reading my posts about the migraine study and my decision-making process. I waffled a lot about whether to participate. It was a really hard process for me, because the bottom line was that if I'd qualified and decided to participate, that would have meant going on birth control for a year, which was a huge thing for me, shockingly enough. This post in particular, highlighted the conflict of emotion I was feeling through the process, but one line stood out above all:

And yet… I would gladly suffer migraines forever in exchange for a baby.

It's still true, you know. As much as I complain about the migraines… as insufferable as they are… I worked so hard, cried so many tears, suffered so much (and yet, not nearly as much as many of my fellow stirrup queens)… these babies are what I wanted. They are what I want. I wouldn't trade them for anything. Not even a life free of migraines. I'll take the heartburn and the sciatica and the nausea and the round ligament pain and the oxygen deprivation and the sleep deprivation and the anxiety and the contractions and the baby punching my cervix and yes, even the migraines. I'll take it all with a smile on my face when I can, because I want these babies so badly I can taste it. I love them already and I'm already terrified that I'm failing them as a parent by even thinking about the negative parts about this whole pregnancy thing.

The one thing that my children… all our children… will always know is that they were, above everything else… wanted. And THAT is what makes all this infertility bullshit worth it.

Read Full Post »

One more Google Hit Before Bed (Updated at the Bottom)

Posted in fertility shmertility, google-rama, migraines on June 20, 2007| 12 Comments »

I'm exhausted, having been kept out way past my bedtime tonight, but I noticed a keyword search in my statcounter I didn't want to ignore…

heart surgery for treatment of migaines: For those of you who are relatively new to my blog, you probaby have no idea why this would have popped up my blog in a google search. But whoever did this keyword search should know that yes, there ARE currently three concurrent studies going on that involve heart surgery for the treatment of migraines. It seems that a large percentage of migraine sufferers have a "patent foramen ovale" which is a condition in which a small valve which normally closes at or near birth didn't close, so you've essentially got a small hole in your heart. This is generally not considered a huge deal and most people who have one never know it, but it is beginning to be associated with early stroke and with migraines. A recent couple of studies involving closing the PFO for stroke patients showed a surprising number of patients who had the lucky side effect of total or significant resolution of migraine symptoms after having the PFO closed. Thus, some new studies have been started and are currently in progress and recruiting patients.

I almost participated in one such study but was disqualified because I get too many migraines. Truth be told, I didn't try all that hard to qualify. There was a qualifying month in which I had to keep an electronic headache diary that I transmitted to the clinic every night. If during that month I had been extremely cautious about every single migraine trigger I have, and if I'd worked harder to sleep more and work less, I probably could have stayed under 14 migraines in that qualifying period, though it would have been challenging since I was just weeks post-miscarriage and in a very busy period at work. But I also knew that qualifying for and participating in the study would have meant taking a year off of the whole fertility treatment thing and I just wasn't sure I was willing to make that sacrifice, even if the payoff was the possibility of a life without migraines. Even the debilitating, life-altering migraines I get on a regular basis. It wasn't an easy decision to make, so obviously, my sub-conscious made the decision for me.

If you want to read more specifics about my experience with trying to decide what to do about the study, look at my posts from November 4-15, 2006. If you want to talk in greater detail about the studies themselves or what I know about them, please feel free to email me directly.

Edited to Add: I was just re-reading my posts about the migraine study and my decision-making process. I waffled a lot about whether to participate. It was a really hard process for me, because the bottom line was that if I'd qualified and decided to participate, that would have meant going on birth control for a year, which was a huge thing for me, shockingly enough. This post in particular, highlighted the conflict of emotion I was feeling through the process, but one line stood out above all:

And yet… I would gladly suffer migraines forever in exchange for a baby.

It's still true, you know. As much as I complain about the migraines… as insufferable as they are… I worked so hard, cried so many tears, suffered so much (and yet, not nearly as much as many of my fellow stirrup queens)… these babies are what I wanted. They are what I want. I wouldn't trade them for anything. Not even a life free of migraines. I'll take the heartburn and the sciatica and the nausea and the round ligament pain and the oxygen deprivation and the sleep deprivation and the anxiety and the contractions and the baby punching my cervix and yes, even the migraines. I'll take it all with a smile on my face when I can, because I want these babies so badly I can taste it. I love them already and I'm already terrified that I'm failing them as a parent by even thinking about the negative parts about this whole pregnancy thing.

The one thing that my children… all our children… will always know is that they were, above everything else… wanted. And THAT is what makes all this infertility bullshit worth it.

Read Full Post »

19 weeks, 6 days

Posted in migraines, pregnancy symptoms abound, triplets? on June 19, 2007| 19 Comments »

In a lot of ways, this pregnancy has been a whirlwind, and in a lot of ways, time has stood still, refusing to move forward. I am very, very definitely pregnant, as every passerby seems determined to remind me, but it still doesn’t feel even a little bit real, even as Baby A, the little brat, keeps punching me in my cervix. If you didn’t know, that really, really, really hurts when they do that.

Pre-Natal Appointment
My ultrasound last week was also my first “prenatal” appointment with the perinatologist, which is to say, it’s official. I’m OB-less. My records have all transferred over, my OB knows I won’t be back until my post-partum checkup, I have only one set of doctors, and I am breathing a tremendous sigh of relief. I love my OB. I’m sad to leave his office and the comfort and safety net that I feel there, but I’m happy to have the comfort and safety net of having only one set of extraordinarily competent doctors to coordinate with. I’m very confident in the care I’ll be receivig there, and that’s what matters. S0 in addition to everything else, I got to meet with a nurse to fill out all the OB paperwork and background stuff… medications I’m taking, GYN history, surgical history, allergies, etc. Somehow I failed to mention that I’d had a D&C in October… whoops. But I did clear that up today. She was very nice and she gave me her card with her direct number and told me she doesn’t mind if I call with dumb questions because she’s always happy to tell me it’s nothing to worry about… those are the easy calls.

White Coat Syndrome
I never really thought I get nervous in doctor’s offices, but my blood pressure had started to worry me a bit as it’s been consistently on the high side at my OB’s office. While it was slightly lower at the perinatology office, it was still elevated. I have a history of low blood pressure, so I found this pretty shocking. So, we bought a sphygmomanometer for the house. My husband has very high blood pressure and needed one anyway, and he’s got large arms and mine aren’t tiny either, so part of my theory is that they were using the wrong sized cuff at the doctor’s office. I was quite correct. My resting blood pressure at home is consistently fine, averaging about 110/65. My pulse, on the other hand, is through the roof no matter where I am, and no matter what I do to try to calm it down. I assume this is a normal side effect of pregnancy, what with the significantly increased blood volume and all, but I keep forgetting to ask my nurse about it and my google-fu is failing to completely soothe me (though a re-check with Dr. Google does seem to suggest an increase in pulse may be normal, I can’t seem to find a RANGE of normal).

Ultrasound: Fetal Anatomy
The ultrasound also went well. My cervix is miraculously holding steady. The placenta previa is moving out of the way, though it’s still not completely resolved. Baby A is right on top of my cervix, spending his or her spare time punching the living daylights out of my cervix. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but it HURTS LIKE THE DICKENS when he/she does that! They did the fetal anatomy on Baby A and Baby C (Dr. M did Baby B the previous week). I did not love the sonographer. She was pushy and was irritated that I was doing it “so early” (fetal anatomy is usually done around 20 weeks… I was 19 weeks, 1 day). She also was pissed off that the doctor had already done Baby B and only wanted Baby A done this week. The doctor had specifically NOT wanted me laying on my back for an hour and a half of torture for no good reason, when they could easily spread the appointments out. The sonographer said, “no, that’s stupid. It’s better to do them all at once and the moms never mind because they get to see their babies.” Except, hello? I kind of minded! I was in pain. I had a pounding migraine. I was having contractions. My hips were killing me. My legs kept falling asleep. And she kept pushing down so hard I wanted to jump off the table!

That being said, she did an excellent job and showed me everything very clearly and answered all my questions and made sure I always knew exactly what she was measuring and why. Even if she DID keep referring to them as “my babies” (meaning hers, not mine, which is so not okay), she did do a great job. And she managed to not take a peak at any tell-tale signs of the babies’ sexes, which is also good. So I can’t entirely fault her. And besides, it might have just been pregnancy hormones, right? I continue to be astounded at the level of detail that can be seen with just a few concentrated soundwaves. Seriously, all my babies have kidneys and bladders and four chambers of their hearts and cerebellums and stomachs and how weird is that? They could tell that none have a cleft palate. They could see the blood flow through the heart. It’s all just so unbelievably weird.

Movement and Pregnancy Symptoms
I do feel the babies moving, or at least Baby A. I think I might also feel Baby B, but Baby C doesn’t move much, being all squished up in the corner. Baby a does so make his/her presence known though. Beyond that, I’ve got all the normal pregnancy symptoms. I’m still popping Zofran like candy so that I can keep food down. Except now I have a new nemesis to keeping food down: heartburn, and boy is it rotten! So now I’m also popping Tums and Zantac like they’re candy. Yum! Oh and that mysterious thing called “round ligament pain”?? I always read about that in pregnancy books and thought, “yeah, right. Like I’ll ever be able to distinguish that from all the other aches and pains I’ve got!” I admit it, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Holy mother of um, frodo, this is very, very distinctive, unmistakeable pain! Oh, and I found out today that, shock of shocks, I have a UTI. So a week of antibiotics for me.

Uneventful is GOOD
Mostly, however, I’m having a pretty uneventful pregnancy, for which I am very grateful. I am still able to work, much to my shock. I am pretty restricted in other activity and my doctor’s deal with me is that if I want to work that means that when I’m home I’m in bed or in the recliner doing nothing, which is torture, but better than being on full bedrest, as I’m sure Suzanne can attest to! I still haven’t gained an ounce (I’m down somewhere between 15-17 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight), but my doctor isn’t worried. My wedding/engagement rings are loose when I’d figured that they’d be too tight to wear by now. As uncomfortable as I am, the babies are all growing exactly the way they’re supposed to, they all have “textbook-perfect” anatomy scans, and I’m not in pre-term labor. What more could a girl ask for?

Some of your comments
1. Rachel Inbar noted that I haven’t said much about my foster son, J, lately. I don’t talk about him too much here, except in the abstract, because this blog is really about infertility and now pregnancy after infertility, but also because it is a public blog and I don’t really want his mother tracking this blog down. But generically speaking, he’ll be four in September and we’ll have had him three years in October. He continues to astound us both with his ability to absorb the world around him and his ability to express love and compassion for the people in his life. He’s very excited to be a soon-to-be-big-brother, and tells everyone who will listen “I’m going to be a big brother! My Eema* has free** babies in her belly!”

*”Eema” means mother in Hebrew. Other ways to transliterate the word include Ima, Ema, and um, probably some other ways. I personally prefer Ima, but I’ve found that with a non-Jewish audience, Eema is the most intuitive way, even if my Jewish readers look at it and think it looks odd.

**Free meaning three, of course.

2. I’ve gotten several new comments from two distinct categories of bloggers: bloggers who have just found out they are expecting triplets (all of whom are taking the news more gracefully than I did at first!), and bloggers who have their own triplets. This is exciting for me, as it seems that I now belong to TWO distinct blogging communities now… infertility bloggers and parents of triplets/multiples bloggers. I suppose this means I ought to split up my blog roll so that poor, unsuspecting infertility bloggers don’t stumble upon something they didn’t mean to. I’m a bit too busy at the moment to take care of that detail, but I’m TRYING to make a notation next to the blogger’s name if it’s a triplet/multiple blog. I hope that helps.

3. Suzanne asked where I get my google stats from. I answered her directly so I could get credit for Mel’s Commentathon, but the rest of you may be interested as well. I use http://www.statcounter.com/ (there’s also an icon in my sidebar that will take you there) because it’s free and contains all the stats I want (primarily the keyword analysis). I got over 500 individual hits yesterday which astounds me. Seriously, I’m not that interesting, people!

4. I’m going to the DC-Metro area Get Together for Infertility Bloggers that’s been arranged by LJ. Some of you may have seen some comments in my last post about this. Mel talked me into it, even though I’m an unbelievably shy person in real life with serious social anxiety about meeting up with a bunch of people I’ve never met. One-on-one? No problem. Eight at once? Good heavens, I wish valium weren’t contraindicated in pregnancy. Mostly, I hope that no one is bothered by the pregnant chick at the table. I mean, I know I’m pregnant after infertility, so I’m not like a total leper or anything, but still. I could understand my presence making people uncomfortable. There’s also the bit about the fact that I keep kosher, so I will be casually sipping a drink (nonalcoholic, bummer), which doesn’t bother me a bit, but often makes others uncomfortable, but that’s a whole different matter, which is just going to have to be someone else’s problem and not mine. At any rate, despite all the anxiety, I’m really looking forward to it! You know, if I don’t chicken out.

5. A couple people have asked me recently about my migraine status. I thought I was down to about 4 migraines a week, but when I looked back at my spreadsheet (yes, I really am that kind of anal… maybe THAT’S why I get migraines…) I’m actually at 5 per week on average. That being said, it’s still an improvement over 6-7 per week. And about 2-3 per week are responding to Tylenol with Codeine, which is also an improvement. The Codeine doesn’t resolve the migraine completely, but it takes the pain level down to a manageable level some of the time now, which is a huge, huge, huge improvement. I’m still definitely looking forward to the day when I’m not pregnant and I can up my Topamax dosage. Or maybe they’ll let me do it sooner. That would be nice, even if it’s unlikely. It’s sad to say it, but 4-5 per week really IS a vast improvement, and it’s good enough for me at the moment.

Um, there was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to write about, but it’s all escaping me right now, and besides, this is long enough. Besides, I need to go looking for some Tums. Because they are like candy to me now. Only less satisfying.

Read Full Post »

19 weeks, 6 days

Posted in migraines, pregnancy symptoms abound, triplets? on June 19, 2007| 6 Comments »

In a lot of ways, this pregnancy has been a whirlwind, and in a lot of ways, time has stood still, refusing to move forward. I am very, very definitely pregnant, as every passerby seems determined to remind me, but it still doesn't feel even a little bit real, even as Baby A, the little brat, keeps punching me in my cervix. If you didn't know, that really, really, really hurts when they do that.

Pre-Natal Appointment
My ultrasound last week was also my first "prenatal" appointment with the perinatologist, which is to say, it's official. I'm OB-less. My records have all transferred over, my OB knows I won't be back until my post-partum checkup, I have only one set of doctors, and I am breathing a tremendous sigh of relief. I love my OB. I'm sad to leave his office and the comfort and safety net that I feel there, but I'm happy to have the comfort and safety net of having only one set of extraordinarily competent doctors to coordinate with. I'm very confident in the care I'll be receivig there, and that's what matters. S0 in addition to everything else, I got to meet with a nurse to fill out all the OB paperwork and background stuff… medications I'm taking, GYN history, surgical history, allergies, etc. Somehow I failed to mention that I'd had a D&C in October… whoops. But I did clear that up today. She was very nice and she gave me her card with her direct number and told me she doesn't mind if I call with dumb questions because she's always happy to tell me it's nothing to worry about… those are the easy calls.

White Coat Syndrome
I never really thought I get nervous in doctor's offices, but my blood pressure had started to worry me a bit as it's been consistently on the high side at my OB's office. While it was slightly lower at the perinatology office, it was still elevated. I have a history of low blood pressure, so I found this pretty shocking. So, we bought a sphygmomanometer for the house. My husband has very high blood pressure and needed one anyway, and he's got large arms and mine aren't tiny either, so part of my theory is that they were using the wrong sized cuff at the doctor's office. I was quite correct. My resting blood pressure at home is consistently fine, averaging about 110/65. My pulse, on the other hand, is through the roof no matter where I am, and no matter what I do to try to calm it down. I assume this is a normal side effect of pregnancy, what with the significantly increased blood volume and all, but I keep forgetting to ask my nurse about it and my google-fu is failing to completely soothe me (though a re-check with Dr. Google does seem to suggest an increase in pulse may be normal, I can't seem to find a RANGE of normal).

Ultrasound: Fetal Anatomy
The ultrasound also went well. My cervix is miraculously holding steady. The placenta previa is moving out of the way, though it's still not completely resolved. Baby A is right on top of my cervix, spending his or her spare time punching the living daylights out of my cervix. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but it HURTS LIKE THE DICKENS when he/she does that! They did the fetal anatomy on Baby A and Baby C (Dr. M did Baby B the previous week). I did not love the sonographer. She was pushy and was irritated that I was doing it "so early" (fetal anatomy is usually done around 20 weeks… I was 19 weeks, 1 day). She also was pissed off that the doctor had already done Baby B and only wanted Baby A done this week. The doctor had specifically NOT wanted me laying on my back for an hour and a half of torture for no good reason, when they could easily spread the appointments out. The sonographer said, "no, that's stupid. It's better to do them all at once and the moms never mind because they get to see their babies." Except, hello? I kind of minded! I was in pain. I had a pounding migraine. I was having contractions. My hips were killing me. My legs kept falling asleep. And she kept pushing down so hard I wanted to jump off the table!

That being said, she did an excellent job and showed me everything very clearly and answered all my questions and made sure I always knew exactly what she was measuring and why. Even if she DID keep referring to them as "my babies" (meaning hers, not mine, which is so not okay), she did do a great job. And she managed to not take a peak at any tell-tale signs of the babies' sexes, which is also good. So I can't entirely fault her. And besides, it might have just been pregnancy hormones, right? I continue to be astounded at the level of detail that can be seen with just a few concentrated soundwaves. Seriously, all my babies have kidneys and bladders and four chambers of their hearts and cerebellums and stomachs and how weird is that? They could tell that none have a cleft palate. They could see the blood flow through the heart. It's all just so unbelievably weird.

Movement and Pregnancy Symptoms
I do feel the babies moving, or at least Baby A. I think I might also feel Baby B, but Baby C doesn't move much, being all squished up in the corner. Baby a does so make his/her presence known though. Beyond that, I've got all the normal pregnancy symptoms. I'm still popping Zofran like candy so that I can keep food down. Except now I have a new nemesis to keeping food down: heartburn, and boy is it rotten! So now I'm also popping Tums and Zantac like they're candy. Yum! Oh and that mysterious thing called "round ligament pain"?? I always read about that in pregnancy books and thought, "yeah, right. Like I'll ever be able to distinguish that from all the other aches and pains I've got!" I admit it, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Holy mother of um, frodo, this is very, very distinctive, unmistakeable pain! Oh, and I found out today that, shock of shocks, I have a UTI. So a week of antibiotics for me.

Uneventful is GOOD
Mostly, however, I'm having a pretty uneventful pregnancy, for which I am very grateful. I am still able to work, much to my shock. I am pretty restricted in other activity and my doctor's deal with me is that if I want to work that means that when I'm home I'm in bed or in the recliner doing nothing, which is torture, but better than being on full bedrest, as I'm sure Suzanne can attest to! I still haven't gained an ounce (I'm down somewhere between 15-17 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight), but my doctor isn't worried. My wedding/engagement rings are loose when I'd figured that they'd be too tight to wear by now. As uncomfortable as I am, the babies are all growing exactly the way they're supposed to, they all have "textbook-perfect" anatomy scans, and I'm not in pre-term labor. What more could a girl ask for?

Some of your comments
1. Rachel Inbar noted that I haven't said much about my foster son, J, lately. I don't talk about him too much here, except in the abstract, because this blog is really about infertility and now pregnancy after infertility, but also because it is a public blog and I don't really want his mother tracking this blog down. But generically speaking, he'll be four in September and we'll have had him three years in October. He continues to astound us both with his ability to absorb the world around him and his ability to express love and compassion for the people in his life. He's very excited to be a soon-to-be-big-brother, and tells everyone who will listen "I'm going to be a big brother! My Eema* has free** babies in her belly!"

*"Eema" means mother in Hebrew. Other ways to transliterate the word include Ima, Ema, and um, probably some other ways. I personally prefer Ima, but I've found that with a non-Jewish audience, Eema is the most intuitive way, even if my Jewish readers look at it and think it looks odd.

**Free meaning three, of course.

2. I've gotten several new comments from two distinct categories of bloggers: bloggers who have just found out they are expecting triplets (all of whom are taking the news more gracefully than I did at first!), and bloggers who have their own triplets. This is exciting for me, as it seems that I now belong to TWO distinct blogging communities now… infertility bloggers and parents of triplets/multiples bloggers. I suppose this means I ought to split up my blog roll so that poor, unsuspecting infertility bloggers don't stumble upon something they didn't mean to. I'm a bit too busy at the moment to take care of that detail, but I'm TRYING to make a notation next to the blogger's name if it's a triplet/multiple blog. I hope that helps.

3. Suzanne asked where I get my google stats from. I answered her directly so I could get credit for Mel's Commentathon, but the rest of you may be interested as well. I use http://www.statcounter.com/ (there's also an icon in my sidebar that will take you there) because it's free and contains all the stats I want (primarily the keyword analysis). I got over 500 individual hits yesterday which astounds me. Seriously, I'm not that interesting, people!

4. I'm going to the DC-Metro area Get Together for Infertility Bloggers that's been arranged by LJ. Some of you may have seen some comments in my last post about this. Mel talked me into it, even though I'm an unbelievably shy person in real life with serious social anxiety about meeting up with a bunch of people I've never met. One-on-one? No problem. Eight at once? Good heavens, I wish valium weren't contraindicated in pregnancy. Mostly, I hope that no one is bothered by the pregnant chick at the table. I mean, I know I'm pregnant after infertility, so I'm not like a total leper or anything, but still. I could understand my presence making people uncomfortable. There's also the bit about the fact that I keep kosher, so I will be casually sipping a drink (nonalcoholic, bummer), which doesn't bother me a bit, but often makes others uncomfortable, but that's a whole different matter, which is just going to have to be someone else's problem and not mine. At any rate, despite all the anxiety, I'm really looking forward to it! You know, if I don't chicken out.

5. A couple people have asked me recently about my migraine status. I thought I was down to about 4 migraines a week, but when I looked back at my spreadsheet (yes, I really am that kind of anal… maybe THAT'S why I get migraines…) I'm actually at 5 per week on average. That being said, it's still an improvement over 6-7 per week. And about 2-3 per week are responding to Tylenol with Codeine, which is also an improvement. The Codeine doesn't resolve the migraine completely, but it takes the pain level down to a manageable level some of the time now, which is a huge, huge, huge improvement. I'm still definitely looking forward to the day when I'm not pregnant and I can up my Topamax dosage. Or maybe they'll let me do it sooner. That would be nice, even if it's unlikely. It's sad to say it, but 4-5 per week really IS a vast improvement, and it's good enough for me at the moment.

Um, there was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to write about, but it's all escaping me right now, and besides, this is long enough. Besides, I need to go looking for some Tums. Because they are like candy to me now. Only less satisfying.

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19 weeks, 6 days

Posted in migraines, pregnancy symptoms abound, triplets? on June 19, 2007| 18 Comments »

In a lot of ways, this pregnancy has been a whirlwind, and in a lot of ways, time has stood still, refusing to move forward. I am very, very definitely pregnant, as every passerby seems determined to remind me, but it still doesn't feel even a little bit real, even as Baby A, the little brat, keeps punching me in my cervix. If you didn't know, that really, really, really hurts when they do that.

Pre-Natal Appointment
My ultrasound last week was also my first "prenatal" appointment with the perinatologist, which is to say, it's official. I'm OB-less. My records have all transferred over, my OB knows I won't be back until my post-partum checkup, I have only one set of doctors, and I am breathing a tremendous sigh of relief. I love my OB. I'm sad to leave his office and the comfort and safety net that I feel there, but I'm happy to have the comfort and safety net of having only one set of extraordinarily competent doctors to coordinate with. I'm very confident in the care I'll be receivig there, and that's what matters. S0 in addition to everything else, I got to meet with a nurse to fill out all the OB paperwork and background stuff… medications I'm taking, GYN history, surgical history, allergies, etc. Somehow I failed to mention that I'd had a D&C in October… whoops. But I did clear that up today. She was very nice and she gave me her card with her direct number and told me she doesn't mind if I call with dumb questions because she's always happy to tell me it's nothing to worry about… those are the easy calls.

White Coat Syndrome
I never really thought I get nervous in doctor's offices, but my blood pressure had started to worry me a bit as it's been consistently on the high side at my OB's office. While it was slightly lower at the perinatology office, it was still elevated. I have a history of low blood pressure, so I found this pretty shocking. So, we bought a sphygmomanometer for the house. My husband has very high blood pressure and needed one anyway, and he's got large arms and mine aren't tiny either, so part of my theory is that they were using the wrong sized cuff at the doctor's office. I was quite correct. My resting blood pressure at home is consistently fine, averaging about 110/65. My pulse, on the other hand, is through the roof no matter where I am, and no matter what I do to try to calm it down. I assume this is a normal side effect of pregnancy, what with the significantly increased blood volume and all, but I keep forgetting to ask my nurse about it and my google-fu is failing to completely soothe me (though a re-check with Dr. Google does seem to suggest an increase in pulse may be normal, I can't seem to find a RANGE of normal).

Ultrasound: Fetal Anatomy
The ultrasound also went well. My cervix is miraculously holding steady. The placenta previa is moving out of the way, though it's still not completely resolved. Baby A is right on top of my cervix, spending his or her spare time punching the living daylights out of my cervix. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but it HURTS LIKE THE DICKENS when he/she does that! They did the fetal anatomy on Baby A and Baby C (Dr. M did Baby B the previous week). I did not love the sonographer. She was pushy and was irritated that I was doing it "so early" (fetal anatomy is usually done around 20 weeks… I was 19 weeks, 1 day). She also was pissed off that the doctor had already done Baby B and only wanted Baby A done this week. The doctor had specifically NOT wanted me laying on my back for an hour and a half of torture for no good reason, when they could easily spread the appointments out. The sonographer said, "no, that's stupid. It's better to do them all at once and the moms never mind because they get to see their babies." Except, hello? I kind of minded! I was in pain. I had a pounding migraine. I was having contractions. My hips were killing me. My legs kept falling asleep. And she kept pushing down so hard I wanted to jump off the table!

That being said, she did an excellent job and showed me everything very clearly and answered all my questions and made sure I always knew exactly what she was measuring and why. Even if she DID keep referring to them as "my babies" (meaning hers, not mine, which is so not okay), she did do a great job. And she managed to not take a peak at any tell-tale signs of the babies' sexes, which is also good. So I can't entirely fault her. And besides, it might have just been pregnancy hormones, right? I continue to be astounded at the level of detail that can be seen with just a few concentrated soundwaves. Seriously, all my babies have kidneys and bladders and four chambers of their hearts and cerebellums and stomachs and how weird is that? They could tell that none have a cleft palate. They could see the blood flow through the heart. It's all just so unbelievably weird.

Movement and Pregnancy Symptoms
I do feel the babies moving, or at least Baby A. I think I might also feel Baby B, but Baby C doesn't move much, being all squished up in the corner. Baby a does so make his/her presence known though. Beyond that, I've got all the normal pregnancy symptoms. I'm still popping Zofran like candy so that I can keep food down. Except now I have a new nemesis to keeping food down: heartburn, and boy is it rotten! So now I'm also popping Tums and Zantac like they're candy. Yum! Oh and that mysterious thing called "round ligament pain"?? I always read about that in pregnancy books and thought, "yeah, right. Like I'll ever be able to distinguish that from all the other aches and pains I've got!" I admit it, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Holy mother of um, frodo, this is very, very distinctive, unmistakeable pain! Oh, and I found out today that, shock of shocks, I have a UTI. So a week of antibiotics for me.

Uneventful is GOOD
Mostly, however, I'm having a pretty uneventful pregnancy, for which I am very grateful. I am still able to work, much to my shock. I am pretty restricted in other activity and my doctor's deal with me is that if I want to work that means that when I'm home I'm in bed or in the recliner doing nothing, which is torture, but better than being on full bedrest, as I'm sure Suzanne can attest to! I still haven't gained an ounce (I'm down somewhere between 15-17 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight), but my doctor isn't worried. My wedding/engagement rings are loose when I'd figured that they'd be too tight to wear by now. As uncomfortable as I am, the babies are all growing exactly the way they're supposed to, they all have "textbook-perfect" anatomy scans, and I'm not in pre-term labor. What more could a girl ask for?

Some of your comments
1. Rachel Inbar noted that I haven't said much about my foster son, J, lately. I don't talk about him too much here, except in the abstract, because this blog is really about infertility and now pregnancy after infertility, but also because it is a public blog and I don't really want his mother tracking this blog down. But generically speaking, he'll be four in September and we'll have had him three years in October. He continues to astound us both with his ability to absorb the world around him and his ability to express love and compassion for the people in his life. He's very excited to be a soon-to-be-big-brother, and tells everyone who will listen "I'm going to be a big brother! My Eema* has free** babies in her belly!"

*"Eema" means mother in Hebrew. Other ways to transliterate the word include Ima, Ema, and um, probably some other ways. I personally prefer Ima, but I've found that with a non-Jewish audience, Eema is the most intuitive way, even if my Jewish readers look at it and think it looks odd.

**Free meaning three, of course.

2. I've gotten several new comments from two distinct categories of bloggers: bloggers who have just found out they are expecting triplets (all of whom are taking the news more gracefully than I did at first!), and bloggers who have their own triplets. This is exciting for me, as it seems that I now belong to TWO distinct blogging communities now… infertility bloggers and parents of triplets/multiples bloggers. I suppose this means I ought to split up my blog roll so that poor, unsuspecting infertility bloggers don't stumble upon something they didn't mean to. I'm a bit too busy at the moment to take care of that detail, but I'm TRYING to make a notation next to the blogger's name if it's a triplet/multiple blog. I hope that helps.

3. Suzanne asked where I get my google stats from. I answered her directly so I could get credit for Mel's Commentathon, but the rest of you may be interested as well. I use http://www.statcounter.com/ (there's also an icon in my sidebar that will take you there) because it's free and contains all the stats I want (primarily the keyword analysis). I got over 500 individual hits yesterday which astounds me. Seriously, I'm not that interesting, people!

4. I'm going to the DC-Metro area Get Together for Infertility Bloggers that's been arranged by LJ. Some of you may have seen some comments in my last post about this. Mel talked me into it, even though I'm an unbelievably shy person in real life with serious social anxiety about meeting up with a bunch of people I've never met. One-on-one? No problem. Eight at once? Good heavens, I wish valium weren't contraindicated in pregnancy. Mostly, I hope that no one is bothered by the pregnant chick at the table. I mean, I know I'm pregnant after infertility, so I'm not like a total leper or anything, but still. I could understand my presence making people uncomfortable. There's also the bit about the fact that I keep kosher, so I will be casually sipping a drink (nonalcoholic, bummer), which doesn't bother me a bit, but often makes others uncomfortable, but that's a whole different matter, which is just going to have to be someone else's problem and not mine. At any rate, despite all the anxiety, I'm really looking forward to it! You know, if I don't chicken out.

5. A couple people have asked me recently about my migraine status. I thought I was down to about 4 migraines a week, but when I looked back at my spreadsheet (yes, I really am that kind of anal… maybe THAT'S why I get migraines…) I'm actually at 5 per week on average. That being said, it's still an improvement over 6-7 per week. And about 2-3 per week are responding to Tylenol with Codeine, which is also an improvement. The Codeine doesn't resolve the migraine completely, but it takes the pain level down to a manageable level some of the time now, which is a huge, huge, huge improvement. I'm still definitely looking forward to the day when I'm not pregnant and I can up my Topamax dosage. Or maybe they'll let me do it sooner. That would be nice, even if it's unlikely. It's sad to say it, but 4-5 per week really IS a vast improvement, and it's good enough for me at the moment.

Um, there was a bunch of other stuff I wanted to write about, but it's all escaping me right now, and besides, this is long enough. Besides, I need to go looking for some Tums. Because they are like candy to me now. Only less satisfying.

Read Full Post »

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