(won't be posting on Facebook till after more testing, so please no FB posts)
Although we got this exciting news in November, the journey started much earlier... this is the timeline leading up to today for our fertility journey (I promise this will be the only uber long post):
August 2011: Landed a new job at UnitedHealthcare and decided that after 3 months of getting used the new change (and time for FMLA to kick-in, I work in HR and knew first hand how important this was) we would try for baby #1.
November 2011: Started tracking Basal Body Temp (lasted all of a few weeks, I've never been good at getting up at the same time every day!), purchased oddles of ovulation quick tests & a ClearBlueEasy fertility monitor, and lastly invested money on this pricey thing called OvaCue - I was ready to purchase any and all gadgets that would help!
November 2011 - October 2012: Continuous trying, confirmed ovulation... but no positive tests. Although the process was the toughest thing I had gone though, I still took each month at a time and tried to be as positive as I could. I also changed positions and now work for the Government.
October 2012: Went to my OB/GYN and told him of my concern of trying to conceive for a year with no luck even with the presence of using all the tools above. Dr. Beard (my OB/GYN) gave me a personal referral to see Dr. Malo at The Center for Reproductive Medicine.
10/4/12: 1st appointment with Dr. Malo. From the moment I walked in the office, I was IMPRESSED with the professionalism and the kindness. The nurse took down our complete history, then Dr.Malo performed an ultrasound himself making sure he had a good idea of the uterine structure I had, lastly he sat us down and showed us this photo and explained my reproductive structure:
The rest of the appointment consisted of a full fertility bloodwork panel: everything came back normal. Lastly Dr. Malo made a plan for the coming weeks which consisted of getting an HSG (Hysterosalpingogram) done on cycle day 7-12. I was super scared for this test as all I heard on the TTC boards was that it was deathly painful!!!!
In the meantime waiting to get scheduled for an HSG derek had his man parts checked and all came back fairly normal, nothing stood out that could be causing fertility issues.
10/26/12: Finally cycle day 9 came, it was the bigday for the procedure I had been stressing about... the HSG!! I spent hours upon hours preparing myself for the procedure, please if you ever have to have this done do NOT use YouTube as your source of reference. I went to Abbott for the procedure, Dr. Casey (one of Dr. Malo's partners) was the Doctor performing most functions other than taking the photos... essentially the procedure is conducted to check the openness of the fallopian tubes (A catheter is inserted into the cervix and then the uterus is filled with dye until it flows through the fallopian tubes). I was basically shaking on the operating table (yes, it's odd that they perform this on an OR table - I think this made it even more intimidating), Dr. Casey said I had nothing to worry about it was not as bad as those lairs on YouTube! I am so relieved that Dr. Casey was right, other than some cramping it was not bad at all :)
11/7/12: Met with Dr. Malo to go over the test results and come up with a plan of action...Test results from the HSG: both tubes open, but septum in the uterus is pretty low (this could pose issues in pregnancy). Plan of action was to start IUI with Clomid in Januay 2013, as Derek's insurance would cover 6 rounds of this.
11/17/12: took a pregnancy test on a whim... and I saw a slight SECOND line :) This was the first time I ever saw anything other than stark white in my life!! The weekend consisted of testing, testing, and re-testing --> I just could not believe it was happening. I also made a call to Dr. Malo's office and they scheduled me to come in for a blood test first thing Monday morning.
11/19/12: bloodwork - 1st beta was 126 @ around 13 days past ovulation (normal range)
11/21/12: bloodwork - 2nd beta was 300 @ around 15 days past ovulation (normal range & normal doubling time)
11/26/12: bloodwork - 3rd beta was 3,020 @ around 20 days past ovulation (normal range & normal doubling time)
11/30/12: Ultrasound with Dr. Malo to check the size and development of the gestational sac & yolk. Everything looked great - the gestational sac was measuring about 4 days behind, but Malo assured me that this is nothing to worry about. We have graduated from the RE Doctor and will be seeing our OB/GYN from here on out.
12/4/12: 1st appointment with Dr. Beard pertaining to pregnancy, just went over the plan and scheduled an ultrasound for the following week.
12/10/12: I had my 2nd ultrasound @ we saw & heard the
HB (136)… they said that this was a good HB as the baby just started beating
recently.
12/21/12: We had our nurse appointment where they went over everything we would ever need to know about pregnancy.
12/27/12: 2nd OB appointment, nothing exciting to report other than I will be referred to Maternal Fetal Medicine for further testing and monitoring.
1/7/13: Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Minnesota appointment. I started off with a lengthy ultrasound (the baby bean now looks like a baby) followed by a consult with the Perinatologist. We got the best news: the baby has implanted in an optimal place (not on the septum) and he/she is viable :) I was smiling from ear to ear after this appointment, the implantation of the placenta has a big impact on the viability of a baby in a septate uterus. We also found out that the baby is ahead of schedule and was measuring 11w 6d (I was supposed to be 11w 4d).
1/9/13: We had a 1st trimester screen done to check from chromosome abnormalities. Tests came back with good news: very low risk!
This is where we leave off & now Derek and I are off to vacation - cruising the Western Caribbean :)
Could have done without that pic of the lady biz, haha, but fun to see the baby timeline! Still love that ultrasound pic!!!! :-)
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