So I was actually going to let my blog “expire” for this coming year. I haven’t been good about updating it, not to mention I have been working on turning my blog into a book, so writing on here wasn’t on the top of my to-do list. However, my blog auto-renewed for the year 2022 – so it looks like you all get one more year of me with this! 🙂

Anyway, the last time I posted I was definitely very angry and over this whole process. Being infertile is incredibly frustrating and it is easy to hit a breaking point. Honestly, even after our IVF round in August 2021 resulted in the very exciting BFP (big fat positive), I didn’t want to post anything about it. I was too scared. (Also, I cannot believe this is the fourth time I’ve been pregnant!) Anyway, tonight I’ve decided it is time to write a post, because I will be 24 weeks pregnant tomorrow! For those of you who don’t know, 24 weeks is the mark in pregnancy where the baby is considered viable to survive outside of the womb. So at this point, if I do go into pre-term labor (which I certainly hope and pray won’t happen), the odds of this baby surviving are much higher.

So, some quick updates:

My transfer for this pregnancy was August 3, 2021. I wanted badly to transfer two embryos, but again, I knew I couldn’t. However, I did ask if there was ANYTHING I could do to help make this round work. So before this transfer I started baby aspirin and prednisone. I figured adding another medicine certainly couldn’t hurt, and at least it was trying something new. Clearly, that is what it took – because it worked!

Of course, in true fashion of every time I am pregnant, there was some drama in the beginning of this pregnancy. Around 5 1/2 weeks, I was long term subbing the week before the students returned at the school I used to work at, and of course I started bleeding bright red. I tried to stay calm as I have bled with every pregnancy, but bright red blood that early is usually a bad sign. I tried to call my fertility doctor, and of course the office was closed because the building had a Freon leak. They were sending all of their patients up to Columbia. I had basically no choice, so I drove an hour from work to Columbia to have an ultrasound. I got lost on the way there and then wandered the wrong building before I finally found the office. By the time I got to the waiting room, I was a nervous wreck. I saw one of the nurses that I recognized and started crying immediately. Then after waiting way too long, I finally got called back with one of the nurse practitioners that I love. Amazingly – there was a baby and a heartbeat – and no sign of bleeding! Almost an exact repeat of what happened with my pregnancy with Brooklynn. Strange, but thank goodness it ended up being nothing! 🙂

The next bit of drama came around 10 weeks. I was driving to work and started having horrible contractions. (I know what you’re thinking – they were probably just cramps, its way too early to have contractions, etc.) But trust me – I have had full blown contractions multiple times in my life – these were actual contractions. It got to the point that I had to pull over on my way to work because they were taking my breath away. Of course at this point, I had graduated from my fertility clinic and hadn’t had my first appointment at my regular ob-gyn office. I called my ob’s office, and they told me that since I was less than 16 weeks, my only option was to go to the ER. I got myself together enough to drive to work, and when I walked in they all scolded me that I was there. But I didn’t want to go to the ER. However, after hiding in an unused room and crying again, I ended up leaving work and going to the ER. By the time I got there, the contractions had pretty much stopped but I still wanted to know what caused them. Of course I waited among some very annoying and dramatic people, but was finally seen. They did an ultrasound and the baby and my uterus looked great – as did my cervix. So once again, no idea what caused the drama. But once again, thank goodness it ended up being nothing.

Now, the next story is less drama and is actually just funny and ridiculous. I got a cerclage put in again this pregnancy. This time it was scheduled for October 14, 2021 – the day I hit 13 weeks. This is fairly early (but not too early) to get a cerclage. They scheduled it early after my contraction scare. The procedure itself went great, and I started getting my feeling back pretty quickly! When I went to stand up to try to very cautiously walk to the bathroom, it turned out my feeling wasn’t as back as I thought – and I peed all over the floor! (I honestly couldn’t even tell I was peeing – it was totally ridiculous). After a few minutes of that hilarity, I actually started to get nervous. I could tell that they were slightly worried that my water had broken since I couldn’t tell anything was happening. When I finally made it to the bathroom, I got very light-headed from a combination of anxiety and only eating one uncrustable all day. I pulled the cord to get help, the nurses came in, and I passed out. Oof. (For those of you that don’t know me that well, this isn’t totally uncommon for me). Another embarrassing moment. I rounded the day out by immediately vomiting into a sick bag when I finally got food. That was pregnancy related because it was grilled chicken haha! I’m sure the hospital was very happy when they finally sent me home that day.

My last bit of drama is pretty long, so I’ll shorten it and probably go into more detail later, or just save it for my book ;). I will briefly mention it and reassure that everything is fine. At my 20 week scan, there was a small moment where they couldn’t tell if one part of the baby’s brain was developed as it should be. I had to go to Children’s National hospital in DC for an MRI and more detailed ultrasound. I was so incredibly nervous, and sitting in the waiting room with those parents and their sick children was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done for my anxiety. I kept picturing that being my life in the future. I truly will never understand how parents stay so strong during that – and I honestly do not envy them at all. But – the amazing moral of the story was that the baby’s brain looked perfect! This was the biggest sigh of relief of them all.

Now, here we are reaching the viable life mark and I am trying to breathe a bit. I am going to have a scheduled c-section for this baby that has tentatively been scheduled for April 14, 2022. Hopefully the next 15 weeks are calm and boring and everything goes smoothly! We can’t wait to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl – we’ll see on April 14th! 🙂