19dp5/6dt - Happy Mother's Day

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 Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas, soon to be mamas, pet mamas and future will be mamas!

Unfortunately for me, I started off my first soon to be mamas day with what is probably a cold. I can't figure out whether it's a regular cold (pregnancy suppresses the immune system) or just pregnancy expanding all my vessels which produces more mucous. I've got a killer sore throat so I'm thinking I might have some sort of post nasal drip thing going on and irritating it. Instead of going out to dinner tonight like we'd planned, E picked up some Matzo Ball soup for me which I ate before falling asleep on his arm and stomach. I'm pretty sure I drooled all over him, my nose started to plug up and I was sleeping with my mouth open, but he didn't move and let me sleep for a good two hours. I seriously love that man.

Since I'm pregnant I can't take anything for a cold. It's not fun, but honestly this is one cold I'm more than happy to just suffer through, I'm not willing to do anything that might damage our fragile embryo during such an important part of development. I can get some decent relief gargling hot water with a little apple cider vinegar but I made the last batch too strong and ended up gagging which was no fun. It works pretty well for at least an hour but I'm not sure I can pull it off with a more sensitive palate. 

In better news, I got a voice mail from the clinic confirming that they want to do my ultrasound at 6 weeks. I was thinking they'd wait for 6 weeks and a few days since we're more likely to see a heartbeat on the 18th at 6 weeks and 4 days but their message said 6 weeks exactly. I'm planning on giving them a call tomorrow and see if I can't get an appointment date so we have something concrete to wait for.

Stuffy, Runny, Sneezy

At the beginning of Thanksgiving week, E caught a cold. I'm pretty sure he picked it up in Las Vegas, where he went with one of his besties to see KISS in concert at the Hard Rock. He and his bestie C were there for maybe 36 hours, just long enough to squeeze in some good food, a couple sports bets, the concert, and apparently some icky germs.

E was really sick for maybe one day, took some meds and then almost immediately started getting better. Me on the other hand, with all the crap I've been putting my body through, have clearly committed to the long haul. I thought I was going to skip this round of illness but then E accidentally used my electric tooth brush head instead of his own and I was doomed.

This nasty beast came on fast, I felt normal, successfully cooked Thanksgiving dinner and then bam, I woke up sick the morning of Black Friday. Scratchy, sore throat, the nose that is both stuffy and runny at the same time, pressure in my head, the works.

Here is where I get stuck. Normally I'd start loading up on immune boosting supplements to kick my  system into overdrive and pummel this cold. However, our FET is only weeks away, where we'll be putting back an embryo with it's own DNA that is foreign to my body. The very last thing we want is my immune system awake and ramped up.

I've already stopped the acupuncture herbs because those will nourish whatever you're growing, even a cold virus, and it looks like I'm stuck with Dayquil in the meantime. Man I hope this cold passes quickly, I really need to be healthy for everything coming up!

Day 3: Growth Report

We got our growth report this morning and our embryos are still dividing! We have 4 that look really good with nice, even cell division and 2 that look good but are growing a touch slower. We also have 1 that fertilized but is pretty far behind the others with only 2 cells so we're not sure if that little guy can catch up. E is calling it our runt, Wilbur, but I don't think there's any chance of him catching up.

Original Photo came from here

I talked to Dr. D about our next cycle and he thinks we're on track to start in about 6 weeks. I didn't get to really clarify what that means since I later realized it could mean taking a month off or not taking a month off. If I get my period in about 2 weeks, then go on birth control for about 2 weeks, then stim for about 2 weeks, that's 6 weeks right there. I was asking if we'd take 6 weeks off doing nothing before starting the next cycle but I don't think I got that across. I'll have to bring it up again another time.

I also asked about the crazy bloating which he said is probably from the HCG as well as the estrogen. He said I should expect it to stick around in my system for at least 10 days so I don't see this belly going down anytime soon. I have no illusions about the physical side effects of infertility and the IVF process but it would be nice if I could save some growth for a baby.

As far as recovery goes, I'm feeling a bit crappier today than yesterday. I'm still only mildly sore but I have a weird nauseous/imminent cold feeling that probably wasn't helped by the fact that I woke up every 2 hours to pee and didn't get great sleep. I'm not sure where I could have picked up a cold since I've been taking it pretty easy and not going anywhere but I can definitely feel it hovering at the edges of my throat. Hopefully it's just the hormones because I can not get sick right before our next cycle.