Ultra Sounds and Nausea

This is my sweet daughter at twelve weeks! In every ultra sound I had she was so active! The ultra sound techs got such a kick out of her! She never stopped moving! And she still doesn't!

The below picture, from the last post, is the very first ultra sound we had of our little Afton. This is only when I was six weeks along. The reason I had an ultra sound so early was because of my previous miscarriage and the doctor wanted to make sure everything was starting out well and the way it should. The picture is a bit fuzzy but you can see a small blob in the dark circle at the top. That's our little baby! We got to see her little heart beating already! It was going 120 BPM which for how far along I was is exactly where it should be. It was so exciting! The doctors told us that once you see and hear the heart beat the chances of miscarriage go down by a fair amount. We were so thrilled!
About a week after that ultra sound, when I was thinking how easy pregnancy was going to be and sure I'd have an easy time of it, the nausea hit.
I've never before felt like my stomach might come out through my mouth and nose. I couldn't eat anything without it coming right back up. I learned to eat things that were better coming up versus other things. Yogurt, for instance, doesn't burn when it comes back up. Through all of this I somehow managed to be at least healthy enough to keep my baby. I ended up in the hospital at one point with IV fluids because I was so dehydrated. Along with the fluids they gave me Phenergan. It made me so loopy! I couldn't talk without slurring and I could barely walk. Oh man I hated it! Some people like that feeling but I can't stand it! I hate feeling out of control. Or rather, not in control of my body. They gave me a pill to take any time I felt I needed it called Zofran. It worked well enough to at least keep me from throwing up EVERYTHING. Although I was still nauseous all the time. It dissolved in my mouth so that the medicine could actually get into my system even if I did throw up. It tasted like mint but had that bitter medicine taste underneath all the mint. But it still helped a lot!
At about 16 weeks the nausea decreased dramatically and here came the funnest part of my pregnancy!

Second Time Around

After finding out that I had lost my first baby I was eager to get back on the horse and try again. Now knowing that I have Rh negative blood I also knew that I would need Rhogam. If a mother had negative blood and the father had positive blood then a fetus may end up having positive blood and the mother's blood does not recognize the extra (the plus) in it and tries to attack it, resulting in death or birth defect to the baby. To prevent this Rhogam is given. Now if both mother and father have negative blood then there is nothing to worry about. But my husband has positive blood.
When I asked the doctor that was on call that I was sent to after my miscarriage about it he must have told me the wrong thing accidentally because he said I would need the Rhogam after 4 weeks when really it was within 4 DAYS or even better, within 72 hours. So when I went in to get the Rhogam they said I was too late and that now I had to wait three months to get pregnant again to make sure I hadn't built up antibodies to the baby that I lost. It was a very frustrating time, knowing that if I had seem MY doctor and not the doctor on call that I would have been able to get the Rhogam in time and been able to start trying to get pregnant again.
Luckily after the three months had passed I was tested and I had not built up any antibodies to the baby and I was free to start trying to get pregnant again.
In this we were extremely lucky. We got pregnant the first month we started trying! I was unwilling to hope so soon even though my period was a day or two late, even though I was already starting to feel a few of the pregnancy symptoms that I had first felt with that first baby. The two most prominent of these symptoms were a relenting metallic taste in my mouth and the inescapable tender and tingly breasts.
I didn't want to waste money on expensive pregnancy tests if I wasn't pregnant, so I went to the dollar store and found a couple. To my very great surprise I found out that they are just as accurate, if not more accurate, than just about any other test out there. In fact, the test I took detected hCG levels at 20mlU/ml. The lower the number the sooner it can detect hCG. First Response Pregnancy Test detects it at 25lU/ml! So check out the dollar store tests first!
Back to my story, I got a few tests from the dollar store and took the first. At first I felt that crushing disappointment that anyone wanting to be pregnant and reading a negative pregnancy test feels. My husband told me he was sorry and that it would happen soon. I sat on my bathroom floor with the test on the toilet seat just staring at it. And slowly a second line appeared. It wasn't an evaporation line as sometimes happens if you let the test sit too long. I called to my husband and told him there was a second line! He said he couldn't see it. But I know I could!
The next morning I took another test, just to prove it to him, and sure enough this time the line was dark enough that he couldn't even doubt its existence! And here began the biggest adventure of our lives!

www.babycenter.com

Coping with Miscarriage

After we found out that we had lost our baby I was traumatized. I was sure I had done something to cause it. My doctor assured me that I didn't do anything wrong, that these things just happen sometimes. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it was my fault. Everyone told me that I couldn't have done anything differently than I did and that it was meant to be.
After months of persuasion and inner seeking I finally accepted the fact that I had lost my baby and it was just my bodies way of getting rid of something that would never have been healthy. I looked a lot on www.babycenter.com about miscarriage and some of the posts there helped me a lot. Also just coming to terms with myself was all I could do to really get over it. I encourage any and all who may be going through this rough expirience to talk about it and post any and all questions or concerns you may have. Look at this address to see questions I've answered about miscarriage. http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=76.1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-miscarriage

To brighten things up a bit I'll tell you that once you have one miscarriage that your chances of having another miscarriage goes down a great deal as long as there is not an underlying problem that caused the first miscarriage.

How it came about--Conceiving our miracle.

When it comes to conceiving a child there are very few methods out there that remain untried. For those who have had difficulty getting pregnant I'm sure they know every one of them. We were lucky in this area.
We had been married for a few months when we decided that we wanted to have a baby. Low and behold that first month we got pregnant! It was such a joy! I was so excited. I wanted to go out shopping right away. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor the next day.
I was 10 weeks along at that first appointment. We got into the room, so excited and filled with anticipation to hear that baby's heartbeat!
The doctor came in and put the ultrasound goo on my belly and then told me that off course this early that a heartbeat might not be detectable. I wasn't worried at all, I fully expected to hear my babies heart beat. But of course I was disappointed for when she put the Doppler on my tummy all we could hear was static. She said not to worry that it happens all the time. Later looking back I now realize that she did act a little worried. But was she said was, "How about we give you a Christmas present and we'll send you for an ultrasound!" I was so excited! I'd get to actually SEE my baby!
And so we rushed down to the ultrasound center and got set up for the ultrasound. Now the first red flag came when the Ultrasound Technician told me empty my bladder since it was going to be a vaginal ultrasound because I wasn't far enough along for a surface ultrasound to pick anything up. I went to the bathroom and there was old blood everywhere. I began to panic. I went back to the room and told the technician about it. She assured me that we'd look and see what was going on.
She started the ultrasound and there I could see a little baby! Ah I was so excited! I didn't notice anything wrong. And then the technician pointed out the little chest and told us there was no heartbeat. Oh the devastation that came then...Never had I ever believed, even considered that I would ever be one to have a miscarriage.
I'd like to hear from others. How did you cope? In my next post I'll share how I was able to cope and how I was able to conceive again!

Little Family

We have begun our little family in the past couple of months. Our sweet little Afton Virginia was born on January 24, 2009. She looks just like her daddy! She is the joy of our lives!

Today she is just over 10 weeks old. And for the first time she laughed! It was the most adorable thing ever! She smiles so much too. She acts like she is going to be rolling over soon too.

She is the first grandchild on both sides of the family so she is spoiled rotten. She absolutely adores people and loves to be talked to constantly. She already thinks she's the center of the universe! And in our lives she is!

She has a little bit of a cold right now and is very grumpy because of it. She is just being a little diva about it and if we don't do exactly what she wants she lets us know how mean we are. She is very impatient just like her mommy!