20w0d: Anomaly scan

This morning we had our 20 week ultrasound. Before the scan, my husband was talking to me, saying that today is the day that we find out whether we're having a son or a daughter. I told him that I didn't want to think about it and made him talk about other things. However, they called us up right on time, and soon got down to business. Everything looked great, and the sonographer couldn't find a single thing for me to worry about. They counted the fingers and the toes, looked at all the internal organs, checked the placement of the placenta and the fluid, and took a bunch of measurements. The baby weighs 377 grams, and we found out today that I am carrying a boy. It is strangely wonderful to be able to say "he" rather than "it". My husband has told me that I now have to start facing up to the fact that we are most probably going to have a son in less than 5 months.

The NT scan

This Tuesday last week I was anxiously counting down the hours until my NT test. I was a bundle of nerves, and had to break down the activity into tiny steps so that I could get through it (get dressed, leave house, get to hospital, walk through front doors, etc). My doppler still hasn’t arrived, so I had no idea if the foetus was even alive.

I arrived 30 minutes early and impatiently waited for my husband to arrive, as he left it to the last minute and only arrived 5 minutes early. Twenty minutes after that, they called us in. My first transabdominal ultrasound, I didn’t even have to take off my pants.

The technician pressed down on my belly and a grainy picture appeared. At first glance, it didn’t look that different from the scan three weeks ago, and my heart froze. But she pointed out the heartbeat and I started to relax. I thought that I had been a responsible patient by drinking a litre of water an hour beforehand, but the technician said that all I was doing was forcing my uterus further towards my spine. She sent me to the bathroom to empty my bladder, and then got down to business.

Everything looked great. The foetus was measuring 6.5 cm (12w6d) at 12w0d with a femur length of 0.68 cm and a NT thickness of 1.49mm (photo of the fetus with a hand on its nose here). I was so relieved when I saw that NT measurement. Then the technician went on to check all the organs, pointing them out as she went along: brain, stomach, kidneys, spine, fingers, feet, even the four chambers of the heart. Due to the position of my uterus, she switched to a transvaginal probe for some of the measurements, so I got a visit from my old friend too. All in all, she concluded “it is a good baby”.

The foetus waved its hands in front of its head, occasionally wiggling and kicking. Although the print outs were a bit poor, seeing the live-action movement on the screen was incredible. With my husband by my side, holding my hand and smiling at me, we could have watched that little thing for hours.

After she had finished, the supervising doctor came in to double-check the measurements. I was a little concerned that the heart rate was a little low (151 bpm) – (the mean rate is 159 +/- 3 bpm at 13 weeks). She did something where she did four different types of doppler heartbeat measurements and said that everything looked fine.

My urine, weight, and blood pressure looked good, so they printed out an official certificate of pregnancy that I need for my work and for securing a childcare position. A few days later I heard that my combined trisomy risk is 1:11 600 for T13 and 1:20 000 for the others.

So, there we are. So far, things look good. Now another three weeks until my next check-up, and another seven weeks until the big anomaly scan.

8w0d Everything looks perfect

We walked into the shiny new ultrasound department of the hospital, just unveiled a few weeks ago. Lots of space, new machines, and they even called us in 5 minutes early. The doctor was great. She quickly went through our history and confirmed that I had previously miscarried, and then moved immediately to the ultrasound. She delicately stated that at this stage, they get better resolutions with a vaginal scan, and I told her that wasn't a problem, I was used to those.

Pants off and then I was sitting up in the chair, watching my uterus pop up on the TV screen on the wall. A few seconds in, and she said "and there is the heartbeat", and I saw a cute little bean in a gestational sac, with a flicker inside. My poor husband was just confused, I guess he hasn't been watching as many ultrasound YouTube videos as I have, so it took him a bit longer to understand what he was seeing. At one stage he thought he saw whiskers.

She then spent a while measuring everything and checking my ovaries for cysts. She measured the heartbeat at 140 bpm, and told us that they switch the sound on the machine after about 10 weeks. The estimated gestational age was 8w1d, one day ahead. Photo can be found here.

She went away to check the measurements with her supervisor, then came back and said everything looks fine. She said congratulations, enjoy your pregnancy. I said Thank-you. Then we went and made an appointment with a gynecologist for next week, and for a NT scan at 12 weeks.

Afterwards I sat outside in the waiting area with my husband in shock. What a surprise. I am supposed to be starting my Gonal-F injections next week, yet somehow I am already half-way through the first trimester. I am so, so, thankful that we received such wonderful news today.

IVF#1: Day 9 of Stims

Lining: 6.4mm
Right ovary: 4 follicles, largest ~8mm
Left ovary: 4 or 5 follicles, largest ~10mm
E2: 461
Drugs: 150u Menopur 1xday, Suprefact 3xday

My midwife seemed fairly happy with my scan today. She said that things were growing "not too fast and not too slow". They are keeping me on the same dose of stims, and they don't want to see me until Monday. She estimates my retrieval will be at the end of next week, maybe Friday.

I am really happy with my lining. One of the great things about a slow cycle is that it is giving my endometrium a lot more time to mature, compared to my premature response during IUIs.

Thank-you so much for all your comments, I am reminding myself that we only want one baby, so we just need one good embryo. It's about quality, not quantity.

And my lovely husband (who came with me to the appointment and held my hand throughout) was even thoughtful enough to ask the midwife for a print-out of my follicles because he knew I would be too shy to ask. So here they are - let's hope they're the beginning of something wonderful.

Cleared for take-off

I had my baseline check today, and we are cleared for stimulation.

I was a little put-off by the midwife who did the scan for me this morning. She wasn't very gentle with the wand, and she couldn't even find my left ovary. She just told me that it would stand out if there was a cyst on it, so it must be okay if she can't see it. Nor did she do a blood test.

I told her that I responded very quickly to Menopur, so she booked me an appointment for Tuesday (day 6 of stims), only to call me and move it to Wednesday (day 7 of stims).

I am not very good about standing up for myself. I don't know what is normal and what is not. Should I have requested a baseline blood test? Should I have insisted on a Day 6 scan? Or do I just need to relax and trust that this clinic knows what they're doing?

Internal Ultrasound

Yesterday I had my internal ultrasound. Again, it was at the gynaecology ward of the hospital, so I was surrounded by large bellies and excited couples. I imagine this would be very difficult for many.

It was a little bit disconcerting, sitting there half naked with my legs hoisted up to the ceiling while the doctor was asking me about my medical history. It also didn’t help that the technician was new and couldn’t find my uterus or my ovaries. For a while there I was convinced I didn’t even have a uterus, which had me shaking with nerves on the cold chair.

But in the end, my uterus and my ovaries passed this superficial test. They exist, there is no endometriosis visible, and my left ovary has a bunch of immature follicles that are competing for dominance on this CD6.

I asked the doctor if I could get a copy of the images. He looked completely baffled. He said “why, to show your family?”, like I was going to post my grandmother a photo of my empty uterus. So I just told him that I liked to keep a copy of all my medical records. He didn’t give me any images, but I did manage to wrangle a copy of the report.

As for the results of all our other tests? We do not find out until August 12. I called up the Fertility Centre and they only discuss the results in person, during the consultation appointment. They do not release the results before then.

This is very frustrating. I like to do my own research on the implications of the data, but instead we have a single meeting with the head of the centre to discuss strategy where he is holding all the cards. I know that all the information we need about our own bodily fluids is just sitting in a file someone, and I am unable to access it.

So more waiting and waiting for us.

My insides:
Uterus:
Position: ante
Dimensions: L:53 A-P:26 T:32

Endometrium:
Imaging: clear division
Structure: intact

Right Ovary
Imaging: visible
Morphology: Normal
Limitation: Regular
Size: 31
x 23
x 18
Volume 6.7

Left Ovary:
Imaging: visible
Morphology: Normal
Limitation: Regular
Size: 30
x 30
x 17
Volume 8.0