So we found out on the evening on Tuesday December 16th that we are indeed pregnant. Hmmmm. Well, it's about 3 months early (apparently the back up method didn't go so well). First, I want to say that we are absolutely ecstatic. I don't ever want anyone, especially this chickadee, to think that we don't want him/her. It is still a little shocking and I am doing my best to wrap my head around the fact that there is a developing human life inside of me. I think at this point baby is the size of a poppy seed. In positive news it is officially an embryo now! Woo hoo, no longer a blastocyst! So let me tell you about my eventful last 2 days and then about my Africa plans (yes I am still going).
This cycle was a bit strange even to start. (I had been temping and charting for the last 3 months or so to get used to my cycles... you know, for when we were going to start trying ;) ). Anyway, at about luteal day 9 I woke up with some bad cramping and assumed, oop AF is on the way today. This happened every day for a week. At about 14 days past ovulation I started to wonder what was up as my LP had never been more than 11 days. So, what did I do? Ignored it, of course! The cramps kept happening and on day 16 I said, "Well, I need to just do this."
So I got a test in the morning and then headed out for a day of shopping and fun with my sister. When I got home I had to pee so badly (yes you needed to know). I figured, what the heck, I was gonna wait till tomorrow morning but why not now? So- pee I did. I peed on the stick and stared. And literally- literally- as soon as the liquid hit the test area the positive line showed up. I freaked out. I have had an evaporating line before that I thought was a faint positive, but never something this dark. It was like BRIGHT blue. (I will upload photos soon). So, I call Matt. He hasn't left work yet and I blurt out "I'm Pregnant." He is obviously a little shocked (as am I since this was not how I had planned on telling him!) and immediately upon saying it I start crying. Hysterically.
He comes home. The whole time he is on his way I am just staring at the test. He walks in the door and I shove it in his face! He looks, smiles, laughs, and says "Well, yup, that's a positive." We just sat in silence for 15 minutes. He laughed occasionally. I finally broke the silence by exclaiming, "I'm pregnant, like seriously, this isn't a joke." I then began to rattle off all of my worries- what about Kingdom Bound (my due date is 3 weeks after the trip) what about Africa (it's next week and there's a cholera epidemic) what about the medicine I'm on (I need to call my Dr.) when could my OB see me (I call immediately).
Matt, being a grown man with little to no baby (and especially pregnancy) experience begins to ask who we can tell and when. Umm, no one, for a while! lol. Anyway, we kind of recovered from the shock and went out to dinner. I stopped at the bookstore on the way home and got some pregnancy books and an organizer to make me feel better!
Skip to the next morning when my doctor squeezed me in. I wait for 45 minutes for a nurse to bring me in, ask when my last period was, when my trip was, how long I'd be there, and what medications I was on. She then sends me back to the waiting room (grrr). About 15 minutes later Nancy, the lady who had done all of Louisa's ultrasounds, comes out and calls my name. I immediately freak out. I am alone and they are going to do an ultra sound and I hadn't planned on this. All I want to do is cry.
Nancy brings me back and asks what brings me in. I respond with a slightly confused, "I'm pregnant." She congratulates me and asks how far along I am and looks at me like I am crazy when I say a little over 4 weeks. After a little back and forth and a conversation with the OB we all decide to do an ultrasound just to see if there's anything to see. So- I get an internal ultrasound... ugh. Not pleasant. But, as I'm laying there trying not to cry she says, "Yup, see that circle, that's the start of an embryo." Well, that's what we think it is. Of course this early on there's no way to tell for sure, so she marks it as a cyst that appears to be an embryonic sac. That makes me happy enough for now.
After this lovely experience I get to go sit in the Doctors office and wait for him. He chats with me about the trip, asks if I'm married (?), asks if we were planning the baby, what meds am I on, vaccinations, etc. The only problems seem to be 1) the anti-malarial meds 2) the cholera outbreak and 3) the lack of hospitals. After some research we find that the anti-malarials are the best ones I could be on and highly outweigh the risk of getting malaria. I promise him I have bought a purifier, won't shake hands, will use sanitizer, will boil everything, etc. Okay- cholera risk low.
The last part is the one I'm most concerned about really. The lack of medical facilities. He has scheduled me for a second ultrasound for next Wednesday, 5 days before I leave. I should be about 5w4d at that point and there's a good chance they could see (though not hear) a heartbeat. He wants to check to make sure there is proper growth for the week in between. If they do see good growth the chance of a miscarriage goes down... if they see a heartbeat the chance is even lower (like 2%). If they don't see any growth then they will have to decide what to.. But I won't think of that stuff.
For now, Matt and I are enjoying our time basking in the excitement. I will have to take a separate entry for how I told my sister and Louisa and how we went shopping yesterday to get some early essentials. Fun times.
4w4d
