part 2 of half way there

so we were in fci all of last year. going through ultrasounds, blood tests, sperm samples, shots, and one attempt at insemination. all nicely covered by hmo :).

our first try at insemination was unsuccessful. very disappointing, but definitely a learning experience for us and for our care team. this was also our disappointing first false positive.

it was in october when we were scheduled for our second try at insem. my body was primed and ready to go. the weekend of our insem, mw, lil bro, and i ran the bucktown 5k. i was feeling not so hot that day. was experiencing some side pains which i attributed as cramps. nothing terribly debilitating, but a minor annoyance. finished the 5k and that evening had a celebratory roll in the hay ;). monday morning, was feeling same side annoyance, but proceeded to go for my routine ultrasound to check follicles. care team was excited, three very promising follicles (triplets possibly?). midday at work, pain in my side was now blinding. i was in the bathroom stall literally passing out. the only thing that kept me upright was the constant flow of people and flushing from the neighboring stalls. when i relieved myself, i rushed to the phone, called my doctor's office and asked to be seen right away. only available was 2:30pm (it was 1:30pm). i said i'd be there, and after hanging up called mw right away to come and pick me up. in short, i was passing a kidney stone! this was not good. my regular doc wouldn't be in the office until wednesday, so i had to be seen by her associate. who cares, just see me! interim doc suggested to hold off on insem because i needed to have xrays and ct scans done. and if i was preggers, it would be detrimental to the baby. don't want to risk it she said. i was devastated, we were devastated. my body was primed! no way! couldn't there be another way???? in the end, the day we were to do insem, i passed the stone! darn little thing was the size of a peppercorn.

so, thus begins our journey of medical discoveries... november found out i had a strep bovis virus living in me. possibly on my kidney stones which come to find out from the ct scans i have several in both kidneys. small enough to pass and cause huge amounts of pain. my physicians thought that it could be treated and eliminated with amoxicillan, but no go. now this nasty little virus if not treated could cause colon cancer and heart failure, so there is great need to get rid of this little bug. so in i go for an echocardiogram, colonoscopy, and egd (scope down throat to stomach). good news, all came back negative. because of all the treatments and tests i was going through, we decided to hold off on starting fertility treatments till 2007.

december comes and goes without much incident. except some minor dry heaves and extreme fatigue. but all in all a good month. by christmas week i was craving pickles like nobody's business. i told mw and he suggested taking a test. for what i asked, we couldn't be preggers. finally, a friend at work looked at me and said i looked funny, in a good way, glowy like i was PREGNANT! she suggested i take a test and see my doctor. i told her that it was impossible and that i would do no such thing. finally and because i didn't have the energy to get up and go pee new year's weekend, i decided to take a pregnancy test on new year's eve. i peed on the stick and crawled back in to bed. mw looked at the results (it was positive) and since i didn't say anything to him, he thought it couldn't be true. he had to go to church to direct parking, and i couldn't even open my eyes, so i stayed in bed till about noon. crawled out of bed, peed, took a look at the stick and almost fell off the pot. was that a POSITIVE!?! couldn't be! i consulted the little pamphlet that came with the tests over and over again, even comparing the stick to the pictures on the paper. mw came home, i told him i think we're preggers and he was dumbfounded. he was wondering since i didn't say anything, and since we had a false positive over the summer, it couldn't be. let's take another one that night. that night, second test was POSITIVE! no stinkin' way! a bit giddy and still apprehensive, let's take another one tomorrow just to be on the safe side. new year's day...POSITIVE! three POSITIVES!

can't deny it any longer, we are preggers. and a final blood test with fci confirmed we were expecting.

so the following monday we went in for an ultrasound and discovered we were 13 weeks and 4 days pregnant! what the??!!?? and there began our journey :) by the way, that's how we came up with the title for my blog. it's a play on meanings...3 positive hpt's and the three of us (felix/mw, z/mommatobe, & our first born dog kona (aka bubba) plus babe (bun in the oven).

half way there

20 weeks! half way there!

it is absolutely amazing to know that i am pregnant! mr wonderful and i have been trying for seven (7) years. the last two more aggressively with fertility treatments.

i guess this would be a good time to give background to our new found joy.

seven years ago, like most young couples we didn't think that we would have any problems getting pregnant. mw decided he was ready to start a family (i on the otherhand had been ready for two years prior). so we ditched all forms of birth control and took the plunge. every missed period we would wonder excitedly would this be "it". when "it" didn't happen right away, we just decided to have fun and if we got pregnant, then that would be awesome. well, the months passed and the years passed and still nothing. finally at about year four (4) i decided, we needed to find out what was going on with us. the first three years it wasn't such a big deal, and also the doctor i was seeing at the time just said i needed to lose weight and then it'll happen. no need to do extensive testing because i was, from what she perceived was still young, i was 32 at the time. fortunately, my primary was retiring and i had to look for a new doctor. i ended up at lutheran general and a friend recommended i see her ob/gyne. i never really saw the ob/gyne but her associate who was a young, aggressive, very innovative physician. she ordered numerous tests to find out why we were having problems getting pregnant (mw's tests are a story unto their own, and quite amusing...for another post). turns out i had a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome (pcos). bottomline, i had several cysts on my ovaries that were suppressing the eggs from releasing, as well as sending my whole hormonal makeup out of sync. she recommended fertility treatments right away starting with clomid pills. after consideration with mr w, i didn't feel we should jump right into meds and treatments if losing weight would help. go natural was my thing before using medical intervention. unfortunately, she left the practice and i was without her guidance and finally ended up seeing the original ob/gyn that i had intended on seeing in the first place. this is now year five of intertility. i expressed to the new physician my intention of pursuing pregnancy naturally by losing weight. unbeknowst to me, my condition didn't allow for that to happen. medical intervention was necessary. then, the whole insurance thing happened, lutheran general no longer was accepting my insurance (we were united healthcare ppo). so we had to leave the hospital. year 6, i ended up at resurrection medical center and found the most wonderful ob/gyn, dr. g. she was compassionate, caring, young, and innovative. she allowed me to try again on my own, but at the end of the year if nothing happened then she said we should pursue fertility treatments. turns out, at the end of the year we didn't get preggers and she referred us to feritility centers of illinois (fci).

the whole idea of going to fci was a turnoff for us, because we heard their commercials on the radio and didn't believe we would be treated as individuals; treated with care and compassion. we felt we would be treated like a number. well, again it was quite the contrary. from the desk staff, phlebotomists, nurses, and physician our whole experience was great. i actually enjoyed the whole experience. again, at this point we changed insurances because we found out that hmo covers 100% infertility treatments up to four (4) tries of in vitro. now that was enough to get us switching. (sidebar...i wish i had kept a blog during my intertility treatments, there are some good stories there. yes mw you were right).

was it worth it

so, today wasn't too eventful, until i got home. the workday had its usual boring, frustrating, uninteresting events. although the girls at the office make it bearable and keep me entertained.

so i've been craving this breakfast fried rice that my dad used to make for us when we were kids. basically it is made up of leftover rice, fried bacon, eggs, and soy sauce for seasoning. i made this middle of last month and haven't been able to give it up. i crave it for breakfast every morning. but i've been lazy so i haven't had it in 2 weeks. this is when things turn.

i come home, do the usual take kona out for his relief, wash dishes, and start dinner. i decide that's what i want to make for dinner tonite (especially since the scheduled chili option for dinner fell through, partly because we didn't have the chili mix...yes we make ours from a mix, but mind you we doc it up =)). i prep the rice, breaking it up. then begin to open the package of bacon. ok, i'm sure a normal, sane, right frame of mind person would have used a pair of scissors to open the package. what do i do? and this is when i claim pregnancy insanity...i reach for the meat knife and hold the corner of the bacon package and proceed to open it! and as you can imagine i'm holding the area a bit to closely to the blade and...slice a piece of my left index finger! umm...ouch would not adequately describe the slicing pain of flesh. quickly i apply pressure and run it under cold running water in our kitchen sink. mr wonderful (mw) comes rushing to see what the screech of pain was all about. and what does he say? oh honey, what did you do? why didn't you use the scissors? go to the bathroom and hold it under the running water in the bathroom. (was the idea of blood in the kitchen sink grossing him out =)). applying pressure and occasionally checking on the damage, i noticed the skin hanging a bit loosely, so more pressure to stop the bleeding and hopefully fuse the skin back to the finger. could i finish making dinner? don't think so. so mw suggests ordering something for delivery. what? i don't know... mind you it's about 6:15pm and by the time we figure out what we want, order, and get it delivered, i'd be grouchy, faminished, and in pain. mw takes baby boy for a walk and me lying on the bed contemplating should i cook or should we order out. well, the craving for the fried rice couldn't be denied any longer.

i get up, wash up a bit, check on the wound, get a clean papertowel, apply more pressure and begin to cook. obviously it was slow going, but i managed. was it worth it? well, unborn child is extremely happy, craving satiated, mommatobe felt pretty good for accomplishing the task in duress. afterwards i decide to apply nuskin (liquid ointment that helps cuts heal faster, kinda like neosporin, but it seals the cut and applies a protective coating so one can resume normal activity). slight stinging, slight pain, but minimal compared to the slicing.

yes, the pain was worth it.

genesis

mr wonderful (mw aka hubs) suggested i start a blog to share my thoughts on our most exciting journey...our long awaited pregnancy. the beginning is always hard...thoughts swim through your mind, words appear then disappear, trying to capture the most perfect description to catalog. but i guess that's what blogging is all about, you just compose and publish, hoping what you say makes sense and is entertaining to read.

and here is my disclaimer: i am in no way responsible for what is on this blog. i claim pregnancy ignorance (and of course even afterwards when this miracle is born), i can then claim parental insanity (lack of sleep, lack of energy, lack of brain cells, etc...).

thanks for stopping by, kick back, and welcome.