RH sensitized?! WTH!

 Uggh im feeling a little overwhelmed. I went for my bloodwork today for gtt (glucose 


tolerance test), thyroid and my Rhogam (i'm rh negative). When i went to pick up my 


finished Rhogam shot(its synthesized from your own blood) they said i came back positive 


for antibodies. They wanted to run further testing to determine if I was definitely making 


the anti-d antibodies that would be harmful to baby girl.  Of course I am....uggh. In other 


words I'm Rh sensitive which means my blood cells are attacking the baby. 

The lab called my ob to let them know what is going on.  Since I recieved the Rhogam shot 


while pregnant with Brayden and after he was born it's practically unheard of for this to 


happen. Especially considering I tested negative in the beginning of this pregnancy.  How am 


i not surprised. :/ 




So this afternoon they were running a titer to see how sensitive i actually am. I am praying 


at this point its minimal and something manageable and not a moderate or severe case. I 


have been telling Jason for the last week that Bella's movement hasn't been as much as 


normal, not i'm wondering if this is why. RH sensitivity  can have varying effects on the baby 


depending on what my titer levels look like.  The main concern is that it causes anemia and 


jaundice from the mothers red blood cells destroying the babies.  I won't even go in to the 


more severe cases. 




So for now we just wait, I have my follow up OB appointment tomorrow anyway to make 


sure I haven't had any additional cervical changes from my L&D trip last week( i was 75% 


effaced). I'm still having irregular cramping/contractions so I'm praying that I've at least 


stayed the same. Needless to say I'm feeling stressed.  I hate not having any control over the 


situation and the idea of my body attacking the baby just kills me. But I guess we will see 


how things go in the morning. Praying for good news.  






Some links about RH sensitivity:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/tc/rh-sensitization-during-pregnancy-topic-overview


http://www.babycenter.com/0_blood-test-for-rh-status-and-antibody-screen_1480.bc


http://www.marchofdimes.com/baby/birthdefects_rh.html

28 weeks!! The 3rd Trimester and pre-term contractions

Whew what a week! It has definitely been stressful to say Baby girls thinks its funny to play games and really stress mommy out.  I've been having irregular contractions since before my last ob appointment (aside from the usual Braxton Hicks). At that point they were only like 1-3 a day and random if they did happen.  They've had me being cautious about my activity and trying to take it easy when i'm done if I need to be doing things. Over the weekend we got a lot of stuff done around the house and it ended up being a little too much. So I parked my butt and made sure I was drinking a LOT of water. I was feeling a little better, nothing more than the usual cervical pressure and random few cramping/contractions. Monday was another story. I woke up feeling REALLY crampy, like those awful menstrual cramps that are not fun, which was just like early labor for me with Brayden. Needless to say I did a whole lot of NOTHING the entire day, even laid down and napped when Bray did and drank over a gallon of water. Things didn't really get too much better. although I had the dull ache feeling all day I only had like 12 contractions total from morning till  I went to bed. Not the best thing since I hadn't even hit 28 weeks yet.  *sigh* That night was not very good so I decided I HAD to call the ob in the morning. 


Fortunately I got a hold of my favorite nurse Shannon. The ob had told me before that if I was feeling any changes in pressure of contractions to call but I wanted to know at what point I should really be concerned. As expected they wanted me to head to labor and delivery to be put on the monitors. So Jason came home early from work and we dropped Bray off at my parents (HUGE thank you to them again) and headed down to Cooper hospital. It must of been labor and triage day b/c there was actually a line for triage and we had to wait like 45 minutes to even be taken back. But on the positive side since they were busy and there so overflow they put us in a regular labor room instead of triage to be monitored and it was MUCH more comfortable for me, Jason has a nice chair to sit in and there was a tv while we waited. 


The monitor was showing mild contractions but fortunately they weren't super strong and or following a specific pattern like I had been feeling.  They did do a cervical check and my cervix was feeling about 1cm/75% effaced. uggh. NOT what i wanted to hear. A week prior i was 25% so that's definitely a big jump. On the positive side I was not dilated.. thank god! While they did the exam they also did a few swabs including the FFN (fetal fibronectin test) to determine if I would be going in to labor soon. I swear it took what felt like FOREVER for it to come back. Thankfully it was NEGATIVE!  A small victory but great news.  They decided that I needed to have another cervical check before I was sent home just to make sure there were no changes while we were there. A different dr actually did the check and said i was still measuring the same as when I arrived, so that was a relief. Since my contrax were so random and not very strong they didn't feel that it was appropriate to keep me and start any meds at that point. I was given orders to follow up with the ob in one week unless they got really strong.

The sexyness that is a hospital gown lol 

Since then my body's been all over the place. Sometimes I feel okay, sometimes the pressure is intense. But i know her position affects that a lot. Fortunately she is still laying transverse which is the best possible scenario at this point.  One night this week the cramping was so painful it woke me up a few times that night. I do follow up with the ob on Tuesday, I'm just praying we can get through the weekend with out having to head back to l&d (especially with this super moon we are having lol) I'm anxious and a little nervous about my appt on Tuesday. I'm afraid there have been more changes. I have been being really careful about not doing as much as possible and relaxing and have been drinking at least a gallon of water each day. I am concerned they're going to put me on full blown bed rest but we will have to do whats best for Bella. The dr said that bed rest isn't scientifically proven to make a difference and that they order it (or any form of it ) just to play it safe, and that drinking water can help deter things. Keeping everything crossed for Tuesday!!! My goal at this point is to get to 35/36 weeks and avoid as much NICU time as possible. Maybe all this worrying will be for nothing in the end, and I will be more than happy with that but for now every week that I don't have cervical changes is a milestone! 


******************************************************************************

How far along? 28 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 16

Sleep: tossing and turning, hot flashes and having to pee a lot 

How big is baby? about the size of a  rutabaga ~ 14.8 inches and 2.5lbs

Best moment this week: making it to the 3rd trimester!

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! 

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, tail bone pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: granola bars and strawberry banana smoothies

Food aversions: none this week, i managed to stomach some chicken for a change

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 75% effaced

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: doing every day things with out getting winded easy

What I am looking forward to:  not really "looking forward" to it but i'm anxiously waiting my ob appt on tues, praying for no additional changes. 

20 weeks! Half way there!!

How far along? 20 weeks! 1/2 way to meeting my little peanut!
Total weight gain/loss: lost 10 gained 5- packed on some lbs this week lol
Sleep: not sleeping well as all, my leg pain started this week and i'm tossing and turning
How big is baby? the size of a cantaloupe about 6.5" from head to butt and 10.6 oz
Best moment this week: the crazy amount of moving and kicking baby has been doing! this kid is ACTIVE!
Movement: much stronger and more consistant! Jason "kinda" felt baby kick from the outside!
Symptoms: exhausted, i also have a throat/sinus thing still going on, leg pain,
Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea
Food cravings: spicy, carbs, lemonade
Food aversions: meat
Gender: we will hopefully find out in 4 days!!
Labor Signs: none
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: sleeping soundly
What I am looking forward to: anatomy scan on tuesday (4 days)!! hoping baby isn't shy this time and we can find out the sex!
Milestones: we're at the half way point! hopefully baby doesn't follow suit like his/her brother and comes late!

14 weeks and OB appt!

Happy 14 weeks baby!  

I had my monthly OB appt today.  Baby's HB was 169 and nice and healthy.  So far I still haven't gained any weight since loosing 10lbs but they're not worried. I didn't gain with Bray till I hit 20 weeks.  I had my first pap smear since my LEEP procedure in July to remove cancerous cells. So I'm praying everything comes back great with that. I finished weening off the Metformin (for my insulin resistance) at 12 weeks so they wrote my script for an early fasting 1hr GTT (glucose test).  We did the same thing when I was pregnant with Brayden, just to make sure I'm not headed toward gestational diabetes or anything.  Keeping everything crossed I pass.  The also set me up with order for my thryroid test to see if my meds need to be adjusted and some other basic bloodwork.  She did another cervical check and she thinks the length of my cervix looks fine compared to what the other dr thought so they will keep monitoring it to make sure I have no changes. 

I was thrilled to find out that the baby's placental placement is posterior. Meaning in the back of my uterus parallel to my spine.  With Brayden I had Marginal Previa, where the placenta was partially covering my cervix so we had to be monitored to make sure it moved up as the uterus grew so I didn't have any bleeding issues before or at delivery. So glad it's one less thing to worry about!  Now I'm just counting down till our next ultrasound on Valentines Day. I will be 16weeks 4 day so there hopefully will be no issue with a definite determination of the babys sex! All signs are pointing to girl but i guess we will see!! 

How far along? 14 weeks 

Total weight gain/loss: 10lb loss, no gain

Sleep: sleeping terrible, having a hard time falling asleep and tossing and turning

How big is baby? the size of a lemon, average weight is 1.5oz and 3.1 inches long

Best moment this week:  hearing the baby's HB since my doppler is broken

Movement: feeling random bubble and fluttering

Symptoms: exhausted

Symptoms I DON'T have:  nausea

Food cravings: simple foods, carbs

Food aversions: meats

Gender: will find out on Valentines day! looks like it may be a girl?! 

Labor Signs: none

Belly Button in or out? in 

What I am looking forward to: seeing the baby on Valentines day

Milestones: finished weening off all IVF meds!! GOOD BYE progesterone shots, you are NOT missed! lol 

It's official we are PREGNANT!!!

For those who didn't see, we made the official announcement this week that we are pregnant with Baby #2! We couldn't me happier and are so excited for Brayden to be a big brother! Since FB is limiting as far as details I figured I would share how we got this far! I am due July 27, 2012!!

For those who read the blog i'm you know that we decided to go through another round of IVF to try for baby number two.  Since we had 15 embryo's still on ice we were lucky enough to be able to do a FET(frozen embryo transfer) instead of going through the whole process again.  We decided to thaw 6 of our embryos and select the best two to transfer.  We ended up with  4 "good" grade, and two fragmented embies.   Even after transferring two embies we still have 11 on ice.  On November 7th we had our ET(embryo transfer) and transferred two 3 days old embryos. My lining, estrogen and progesterone levels were all perfect so now it was just a waiting game!

Being the impatient person I am I knew i was going to have a hard time holding out on taking a pregnancy test. When we got pregnant with Brayden I got my BFP( positive home pregnancy test) 9 days after our transfer.  I really did try and make myself wait till the 9 days but I knew there was no way I was going to make it.  I ended up testing 7 days after our ET,  at 3:30 in the morning(yes i'm nuts) just to get it out of my system. I knew that the best chance of catching a BFP would mean I needed to use FMU(first morning urine), b/c its more concentrated and to my surprise I got a POSITIVE! Of course I cried! I was so excited I popped online to message my cysters then I ran upstairs to wake up Jason and tell him.  Yeah kinda did that backwards but I needed a minute to process that it was actually real!!

Being the POAS (pee on a stick) addict that I am i had to keep testing every day to see the line getting longer. I think battling with infertility has also made me kinda crazy and I need to see the second line on the test to help remind me that it IS real.

I called my RE (IVF dr) on Wednesday to tell them that I had been getting positive pregnancy tests since Monday. I was hoping they would let me come in earlier than my scheduled Saturday Beta(pregnancy bloodwork). I didn't think they would give much but they did let me come in on that Friday!  Waiting for the bloodwork to come back is the worst!! Fortunately we get same day results at my dr's office but even those few hours seem like forever.  The results were in I was offically pregnant! my Beta was 90 but they were concerned that despite the daily progesterone shots and cream inserts that I my p4(progesterone levels) were only at 23.5. Where as a few days after my transfer they checked them and it was 160.  So they added a 3rd form of progesterone, Prometrium, which are oral pills.  Of course I didn't mind taking more meds if it meant it helped the baby but I have to be honest progesterone makes me so bitchy and adding a 3rd one....whew! Poor Jason is all I have to say! lol I have NEVER had a problem with my progesterone levels so I was really concerned.  Two days later they did another beta and my number was 301! they are looking for the number to double with in a 48 hour period and mine was way ahead of that. Fortunately my p4 levels had jumped back up to 90, so we were really relieved!

My RE does 5 betas total over a streched out time frame.  Once your numbers hit 1000 they allow you to schedule your 1st u/s(ultrasound).  We had our first u/s on November 28th since my numbers had doubled so rapidly. At that point they confirmed we had ONE bun in the oven.  We had a few more u/s before being released to the ob at 8 weeks.!

November 28 ~ 4 weeks 5 days

December 6 ~ 6weeks 4 days 

December 16~ 8 weeks 

I had my 1st OB appt on the 22nd of December. The dr was extremely thorough about things. We had to make a "to do" list for this pregnancy. First off since Brayden was such a giant baby (9lb 9oz, 22 1/2") and we had NO idea since I only gained 26lbs they want to make sure to do a growth scan aronud 32/33 weeks to see the size of this baby.  If this baby looks like he/she is going to be big as well they will probably induce me at 39 weeks.  We definitely don't want a repeat of the "horror" story of tearing/labor that I had with Bray. The dr also wants to monitor my IR(insulin resistance) a few weeks after I stop my Metformin to make sure I don't have elevated glucose levels early in the pregnancy. So they'll prob have me go for an early GTT (glucose tolerance test) in the next week or two. I'll find out at my monthly appt on Tuesday. We did this when I was pregnant with Brayden so it's no biggie.  The other "concerning" thing the dr is monitoring is my cervix. After I had the cancerous cells removed in the LEEP procedure in July it shortened my cervix one centimeter. So the dr started doing cervical checks at my 1st appt so that they can make sure i am not dialating/effacing prematurely as the baby gets bigger. Hopefully everything will be fine but in the event there is an issue they will just so a simple Cerclage to stitch the cervix shut still we are ready to deliver.  

We tried to take some pictures of Brayden in his "big brother" t-shirt. TRIED is the operative word. Lol.  He never sits still so getting him to sit and smile was a joke. We did get some cute and silly pictures. He's the best! 

Happy EMBRYO-VERSARY!

One year ago today our lives changed forever! On this day last year we had our frozen embryo transfer (FET) in our second attempt at IVF. Two beautiful embryos were transferred but only one survived after 6 weeks and we were blessed with our little miracle baby Brayden!!! Its been a rollercoaster of a year and being parents has been the most amazing experience of our lives!!   I can't imagine our lives with out Brayden! 

Words can't express how greatful i am for the technology that allowed us to be able to concieve. We had an amazing experience with our Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) Dr Check at the Copper Institute.  All of the nurses, techs and embryologists that worked with us were invaluable.  They definitely made our journey just a little bit easier despite all the ups and downs we experienced. 

Who knows what the future will bring... we can still only hope and dream that when the time comes for baby #2 we would be able to concieve natrually but if not we still have 15 Keyser Embryos on ice!

Our perfect little Embryos! 

Watching the process of conception unfold, it really is a MIRACLE that one little embryo can grow in to a beautiful baby!