Three years ago.

Three years ago, I called my mom to tell her I was pregnant.  I was planning to do it in a cuter, more sentimental way, but I needed the answer to a question, and it was late at night, so I called.  "I keep fainting and I can't get up from the bathroom floor.  Is this normal?"

I definitely didn't want to be the high-maintenance pregnant woman.  If this was morning sickness, I could handle it.

Mom said, "call 911."

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Three years ago I was in the ER, and while the doctor was still walking toward me he identified the cause of my discomfort, "hemmorhage."

It seemed like immediately there was a bag of blood above me, and then I was shaking because of the blood going in me so fast, and then they gave me morphine and I felt much better.

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Three years ago tomorrow, I woke up with several incisions on my belly, one of them eight inches across.  The doctor came in and ordered two more units of blood.  That makes six altogether.  They told me that was about half my blood supply.

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So much has happened since that day.  A second pregnancy and loss, a new job for Ryan, moving to Alaska, a new job for me, and now finally... a third pregnancy.  And going strong at 17 weeks.  Our blessings are abundant.

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Here in Kodiak we don't have a blood donation center.  Once a year the blood truck comes to town on the ferry and we have a chance to donate.  Two years ago I donated.  Since then I have had two more opportunities to give, but I wasn't able to because I was preparing for fertility treatments at the time.  And now... I need to hoard all my blood supply for this precious little baby I'm growing.

I'm thankful today to be alive, and to be blessed with the ability to carry this pregnancy.  I wish that I were able to donate blood today, but I hope some of you would be able to go in my place.  Please, if you have a spare hour this week, go save a life and donate blood.

Sneak Peek!

Three years ago, Ryan and I decided it was time to expand our little family.  As you know, life does not always (ever?) go as planned.  But it does go on, and at long last I am finally pregnant.  Here is a bit of that story so far...

We traveled from Alaska to California on our secret mission.  On the way to the clinic to go get our babies, we hit a bit of traffic on the 405.  Good thing we left early!

At the clinic, the fertility specialist transferred two previously frozen embryos into my uterus.  Including Ryan and me, there were five people in the room when I got pregnant.  (!!!)  This photo from the embryologist was our parting gift:

And then the wait began.  The pregnancy blood test was scheduled for 12 days following the transfer.  Of course I couldn't wait that long, and started peeing on home pregnancy tests much sooner than that.  Here is our first real positive at 6 days post transfer: (one cheap dollar store test, one reliable First Response Early Result)

Then on the 12-day blood test, we got our definitive answer: positive!  But we couldn't rest easy until it was confirmed to be intra-uterine pregnancy.  I had my first ultrasound at five weeks.  All we saw was a yolk sac.

Here is my second ultrasound at six weeks.  We can see a yolk sac and a fetal pole, about the size of a sprinkle:

And here is our eight-week scan.  You can see a little arm nub, although most of that line connected to the body is actually the yolk sac.

Yesterday we had our ten-week scan, and we got to see fingers, toes, spine, and umbilical cord.  We got another listen at a very strong heartbeat of 160, which was difficult to get because the little gremlin would not sit still!  We could see the arms and head moving all around. 

 

Cute, huh? 

As you can see, although we transferred two embryos, there is only one baby in there.  We are sad that one embryo did not survive, but we remind ourselves that a singleton pregnancy is safest for momma and baby, so we are happy, content, and thrilled with our one.

I guess Mom was right

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals

I'm never touching plastic again.