Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Baby Baskin 5 (and maybe 6?)

God has blessed us again with our 5th pregnancy. As many of you can imagine, I have hesitated posting this news because of our history of miscarriage, but according to my RE, our chances of delivery are as high now as they will be in any other time during this pregnancy so I wanted to share our news. Today I am 7.3 weeks.

I found out 3 weeks ago last Saturday - (I can't believe it has only been three weeks, if feels like 3 years). I had our adoption application ready to be mailed that day, and I had to take a test to see if I needed to stop the progesterone. I really didn't think I would be pregnant. I was so happy with our decision to adopt and was so looking forward to attending the March orientation weekend if we were accepted in time. It was stong positive and my stomach felt like I had been sucker punched. I was instantly a bag of nerves.

My first hcg at 14 dpo (or there abouts, I didn't take opk test that month) was 434 and 2 days later was 1067. Good start, but I was still so nervous I went back a few days later for another hcg check to ease my nerves. The number was 15,500 and should have been about 8,000 doubling every two days. I had a panic stricken couple of days before the first ultrasound and just knew that they were going to tell me it was not a viable pregnancy. I had my poor DH upset, I told him I knew it was so - my queasiness had slowed down, there was no more breast tenderness, I just knew it. But in my defense, when you have been through this 4 times, it is hard to hope for the best. But the ultrasound showed a baby measuring 6.3 weeks and 128 heartbeat and that night nausea came back with a vengeance. Since then I have been very nauseated, but I am not complaining because when I feel sick, I don't worry about miscarriage as much. When I have an okay day or several hours without feeling sick, I worry - so I gladly take the nausea throughout the day, though it seems to be worse in the late afternoon/night. There is very little I want to eat but I can't get enough fruit espcially pineapple and cranberry limeades from Sonic. My breast tenderness comes and goes, some days are worse than others. I have taken a few naps, but I am not terribly tired. I was going to the bathroom every few minutes, but that has slowed down a bit too. I do have insane acne over the past week suddenly have some dryscalp/dandruff??? Apparently a sign of pregnancy due to overactive hormones.

Our appointment yesterday showed the baby with a heartbeat of 156 and measuring at 7.4 weeks. The tech pointed out the brain starting to develop and the umbilical cord. I was worried the baby was measuring two days more than my actual time, but the tech said there was no need to worry, sometimes they experience a slight growth spurt, and they only worry when the spurt is 5 days or more. I can't lie and say I am not still worried about that and dying to consult DR. GOOGLE, but I am not giving into it. I am putting this pregnancy in God's hands, and nothing google spits out will change that.

My RE said last week with the measurements, heartbeat, poisitioning of the embryo my chance of delivery at that point was about 70%. After this week's ultrasound, we were bumped to the mid-high 80s% and he said my odds will never get higher than that during the pregnancy so we decided to tell more than the close circle of friends/family we had already told. We will continue with weekly ultrasounds until I get to the point of our furthest pregnancy which was 10 weeks . God willing all goes well until 10 weeks, he will release me back to my regular obgyn.

And now for possible baby 6. Right before the knowledge of this pregnancy, I had contacted a high school friend who is a lawyer locally. The lawyer we met with would only be able to help us with an adoption in TN, so I contacted my friend who practices in MS. He called a few days later with news of a possible pregnancy situation. A 17 year old high school girl from Colombia (where we originally wanted to adopt from!!!!!) was contemplating adoption. She is 10 weeks and he met with her mother and step father weeks ago. He then met with her a couple days ago and told her about DH and I. She is only 10 weeks and has no one to talk to besides her mother and they argue and fight when they discuss the pregnancy. She has limited English skills and is in a local high school and knows that she has a lot of life in front of her and is scared to parent. The baby's father is out of the picture due to legal issues, and wants to meet us! My friend suggested she speak to our priest friend who speaks Spanish to get some guidance and advice. I am going to write a birthmom letter with a picture and would love to meet her after she receives some counseling from Fr.

Am I crazy?? I could possibly have twins seperated by birthparents and a couple of weeks. Could I do this? I am letting God lead me.