*first trimester check-in week of June 20, 2016!*

vssbrm

This is a weekly check-in for those in their 1st trimester: weeks 1 through the end of week 13. I know we've all gone through a lot to get to this point so congratulations and best of luck to all of you over the next several months!

Please post a little about yourself, your EDD (if it’s not listed below- if I left you off please let me know )  any upcoming appointments, symptoms, etc. Feel free to also share your IF journey, I know many of us can relate. 

QOTW: 
Have you made the big announcement yet? If you have or when you do, how do you plan on telling friends and family? Are you going to make it FB official? Are you as afraid as I am to let people out side of your inner circle know?

Congrats to all of the Mommies & Daddies to be:

*Finally updated to track everyone currently active!*

@Griffin5413 EDD 12/28/16 with 1 BOY

@emma61210 EDD 1/1/17

@Drove2u EDD 1/4/17

@WishingforLuck EDD 1/6/17

@joyzie77 EDD 1/10/17 with 1 BOY

@ultratomato EDD 1/12/17

@vssbrm EDD 1/14/17
@alavore21 EDD 1/17/17
@tulips29  EDD 1/22/17

@HJ.Morgan EDD 1/23/17
@sumo2519 1/24/17

@susykat77 EDD 1/26/17

@dragonfaerie EDD 1/27/17

@lynnNJ EDD 1/28/17

@jdonegan EDD 2/1/17
@NurseTMD85 EDD 2/17/17 (You put 2016 but I assume you meant 2017!)

@Aglorentz Please let me know when you have a date!
@chicandbubbly Please let me know when you have a date!
@Colleen0516 Our fingers are crossed so tightly for you, and we are all sending good thoughts/prayers/whatever is in our disposition. 

Please let me know if your info needs to be added, updated, or if you have graduated to the next trimester. 

Tulips29

QOTW - we decided to make the big announcement to our family yesterday during Father's Day dinner. We had both sets of parents at our house. DH's parents started screaming and his mom jumped out of her seat and flew at me with arms wide open, it was such a funny but amazing reaction. My parents were thrilled, but my mom suspected we might tell. My SIL started crying when she heard. It was so genuinely sweet all around, I cried half the evening with them. Of course the parents got uber excited and started discussing who is taking off when to help me with the baby when I give birth. I had to stop them and remind them I'm only 9 weeks and it's super early to talk about those things. They didn't listen. They were in their own world, so I let them stay there. We don't plan on telling friends until around 14-16 weeks or so. 

Edited to add - probably no FB announcement for us, we want to keep it private and just tell people in person. 

dragonfaerie

QOTW - We've been gradually letting family members and close friends know. This weekend we called DH's grandma on her birthday, and then told his dad on Father's Day. The rest of our close friends will find out next weekend when we will be at 9 weeks. Then we will do a FB official post in a few more weeks (waiting on the onesie ordered for the announcement.) I definitely have felt some fear around telling everyone so early, but we had let everyone know about our IF journey, so there were questions and prayers so much that we couldn't wait to tell everyone.

NurseTMD85

4th beta was this morning. Attempting to keep my anxiety at bay while I wait for the call that everything is good and I can schedule my first sonogram EDD 2/17/16

Aglorentz

Hi! I'm so excited to finally be posting on this thread!
We just found out we are in week 4 after 8 unsuccessful IUIs and our first IVF this month (June.)
I'm a little freaked out. My blood work came back looking great, but after going through so much, it's so hard to accept. I'm so glad to, but I'm constantly wondering how it/they are doing... is there one? Is there two? The wait is real!
We did tell our families. We've been very open with them throughout this whole journey so it just seemed natural to tell them as soon as we found out. We had my brother in law take a "picture," really a video, and instead of saying "Say Cheese!" we said "Say Baby!" The whole thing was caught on camera and is an amazing, beautiful thing to watch. My MIL was just flat out screaming and everyone else was crying and hugging whomever they could grab onto. My younger sister is 5 months pregnant. It was so, so, so hard when she initially announced it, but I'm so glad I can go through this with her! I'm waiting to tell friends and the rest of the world still. Not ready for that quite yet. We'll wait a while.

Tulips29

Welcome @Aglorentz! Congratulations and what a great story! 

susykat77

Welcome @Aglorentz !!

QOTW: We have been very open about our journey. I have been blogging from the beginning of our European adventure and up until December, I was posting the link to each blog update on Facebook. After the MMC, I continued to blog but I have not been posting it to Facebook. Some people have continued to follow the blog and so they know. Others have asked us straight up and we tell them. We told family and close friends right away. I imagine that we will announce on Facebook after the first tri.

WishingforLuck

Hey everyone, hope all is well!

QOTW: 
We've only told our parents and my SIL so far. We plan on throwing a BBQ by the end of the summer to tell everyone else. I can't wait because that's when my grandma usually comes to town. We've actually bought bibs that say uncle, aunt, frames that say grandma and great-grandma as part of our giveaway at the BBQ. No FB post for me. I am definitely afraid to let people not in my inner circle know.

chicandbubbly

Hi Ladies! I just found out that I got my BFP after our first IVF (we also did 3 IUI's) My 1st beta was Saturday and the second one was today, so it is still pretty early (I think I am 4 weeks) but we are very excited. I found out today that my thyroid levels are a little bit higher then they like so I have to go on synthroid. .

QOTW: We already told our parents, siblings and a few friends. The problem with IVF is that a lot of people know that we were doing it. I won't be announcing it on social media for awhile though. Congrats ladies! I don't know my official due date but based on IVF due date calculators lol it looks to be about February 25th, 2017.

Tulips29

Welcome @chicandbubbly and congratulations! So happy to read about your BFP, I remember you from the IF boards

chicandbubbly

Thanks @tulips29, I remember you too! It doesn't quite feel real yet!

NurseTMD85

@chicandbubbly You have no idea how happy I am to see you over here on this board!!! Congrats on finally getting your BFP!!!!

@Aglorentz Congrats on your BFP!!! It sounds like it was such a long road for you!!!!!

My 4th beta yesterday was 4188 and I have officially graduated to ultrasounds!!! First one is Thursday at 11!!! I can't wait!!!!!

chicandbubbly

Ladies, did any of you have only two betas? My nurse said I don't have to come back until my OB ultrasound with my RE, July 6th. Definitely makes me nervous! 

NurseTMD85

@chicandbubbly I had five betas. They monitored me every 3 days or so until I was over 2,000. My RE said they can see what they need to at that point on ultrasound. My level yesterday was 4188 and I was scheduled for my first OB ultrasound on Thursday.

Tulips29

@chicandbubbly I had 3 formal betas but I also have blood drawn at every appointment and I get an e-mail with my results, which include the HCG levels. My third beta also included an ultrasound. 

dragonfaerie

@chicandbubbly So glad to see you here!! congrats!  I also had only 2 Betas, which I hated. I had a third blood draw about 19dpt and they didn't check then because they said HCG starts to plateau and can even drop so it's not necessarily an accurate indication of healthy pregnancy anymore. Ah well. It's nerve-wracking but so far so good!

chicandbubbly

Thanks @dragonfaerie! That makes me feel better about it.
How did you get that pregnancy ticker? I tried the code and it didn't work- I swear I am so tech savvy and for some reason this site is so hard for me haha!!

dragonfaerie

@chicandbubbly The tickers are weird, here's the instructions I received:

Go here: https://global.thebump.com/ and select one of the pregnancy ticker options. Choose your background and marker. Insert your expecting date. Generate ticker code. Copy the HTML Code.

On separate page, on the top right corner, click on the far right button that looks like a person's head and click on Preferences. On the left hand side, click on Signature Settings. Above the text box, click on the far right button, Toggle HTML view. Paste the HTML Code in the text box and hit save

Griffin5413

welcome to all of the new ladies! Congrats! I have my 2nd OB appt on Thursday as f/u to my scans last week and as my monthly check in. We had our NT scan last week and everything looked great. Baby was measuring about 3 days ahead. All of his organs looked good and we finally got to hear the heartbeat. Going 6 weeks between ultrasounds was rough! I cried when we heard the heartbeat though. It was such a relief to know that everything was as it should be!

QOTW: We just announced yesterday on FB. There were enough people that already knew about this whole journey b/c we have been blogging throughout the process and we had told those who should have been told in person. Plus my mom has already basically told everyone she knows so now it was getting to a point where I had deleted comments on FB from certain people. We are just getting to the end of the 1st trimester so we figured Father's Day was a great day to announce it. 

Sumo2519

Welcome new ladies!

I had my second u/s yesterday at 8w+5d. Baby was measuring 9 wks and 176 bpm.  We saw its limbs and it even wiggled for us!  My last day of drugs will be July 4 @ 11 weeks with last RE appointment & u/s on July 7.  

QOTW: We've been very open with everyone about our IVF journey, including letting people know we transferred 2; then following up with 'no twins, only 1 made it'.  Because we've been so open, there are no egg shells for us or others to walk on. There are people I haven't seen in a year telling me congratulations when I run across them in public.   ---- I know this is unconventional, but all these people (yes, even strangers-it's a small community) have been on me and DH about having a baby for a couple of years, so I'll make sure ya'll are there for all of it.  (don't even get me started on hormones...) 

Colleen0516

Even thought we have a chance of miscarrying, we told a lot of my family. I figured the more prayers the better!!   
My sister-in-law is pregnant (2 weeks ahead of me) so she announced it at a party we had. She told me previously and asked if it was okay, I said yes of course. When she announce it, everyone was excited for her but I immediately got the sad looks from everyone haha (my sister-in-law predicted it)... So on a whim I decided to blurt out, "dont worry- Im pregnant too". Tears started flowing, people started screaming. It was very special and I enjoyed every second. SO hopefully the more prayers this baby has, the better chance it has. 

Drove2u

Such sweet stories about revealing. My family has known quite early and super close friends too. We have been telling very close friends as we go along but I have a lot of phone calls to make and texts to send out. Only telling our close friends and no FB announcement. I may put something on IG when I'm like 5 months but we're going to stay pretty private about it. And by that I mean it won't be really private at all. Hahaha it's going to spread like wildfire. We got the US results back from the NT scan and all looks good. Once we get the blood results and they're good we will start telling people. 

dragonfaerie

@Colleen0516 What a great story, and how fun! I'm so happy for you that things are progressing well.
@Drove2u I feel like there are still a lot of people for us to tell, too! We've asked family to keep it off of FB for a few more weeks because we are doing something fun at the Renaissance Festival for a bunch of our friends this weekend. After this week, I think all of our important people will know, and then it's just a gradual thing.

Weird question: Has anyone had to buy new bras yet? I'm afraid I'm going to kill my nice Victoria's Secret bras if I don't move up, but I don't want to spend a ton of money either.

Griffin5413

dragonfaerie - I haven't had to yet but I'm pretty much needing to. I bought a few without underwire a few months ago that are much more comfortable than any of my Victoria's Secret bras. 

dragonfaerie

@Griffin5413 Where did you go to get them? I was thinking of just buying some cheapie Walmart ones or something.

Tulips29

Are you ladies already noticing your cup size going up? I didn't think mine did yet, but I put on my bra this morning and noticed I'm peeking out from the bottom. Yikes! They are large and in charge as is! 

@dragonfaerie I agree on not wanting to spend lots of money on them. I'll probably be on the hunt for sales at Macy's, you can get great deals there also and I prefer their bras way over VS. VS either rip on me or the wire comes out constantly. 

dragonfaerie

@Tulips29 Mine have been steadily increasing since I went on all the hormones, but now I am up a full cup from where I was before I started IVF. I'm starting to feel like they are a bit out of control, LOL. Thanks for the tip on Macy's, I don't think I've ever shopped there.

Tulips29

@dragonfaerie We don't have Walmarts in NYC, so I have to resort to other options. I actually found lots of great bras at Macy's before, especially with sales, that I have for a long time. I also hear Calvin Klein bras are really great, so I'd like to check them out. I just feel like I haven't grown a full size to justify all these new purchases. I have to stop myself from buying clothes because I keep thinking that I'll just get bigger and should only buy when I absolutely must. 

dragonfaerie

@Tulips29 I hear you, it's hard to not want to go out and buy stuff like crazy. But that's why I want to stick to some cheapie bras until I'm really ready for a nursing bra.

So excited we have our second ultrasound tomorrow! Can't wait to see our Bauble again!

chicandbubbly

@dragonfaerie thanks! Ladies are any of you super bloated already? I am and I am blaming the progesterone.... LOL.

vssbrm

@chicandbubbly I am SO bloated! I completely look pregnant. I won't be hiding it for much longer.

@dragonfaerie I HAVE to get me bras, and probably new underwear soon too. I'm thinking I'm going to try Msrshalls first. Sometimes I get lucky and find Wacoal quality bras there. Which are my absolute favorite. 

I I get to stop the blood thinners after tonight!! Next Tuesday we get to stop everything else! I can not wait.

Qotw: we are telling our inner circle only at this point. It is a pretty big inner circle. On Father's Day we told my grandparents. They were so excited for us. We signed my grandpas card from me, dh, and Baby S. He did not see it the first time he read it, my mom had to tell him to read it again. He started crying and everyone else started crying and it was so sweet! 

Colleen0516

I'm bleeding again! 
i can't take this bleeding anymore. It's so hard to stay calm when everytime I go to the bathroom I'm wincing to see if there is blood. This time, I thought I pee'd myself, but it was blood
I don't get it. Two days til sono. 
Should I call my doctor? Is she gonna think I'm crazy? Do I go to the hospital? I don't know what to do. I'm thinking I should just wait it out til Thursday morning, but I'm gonna have a knot in my stomach til then. 

Colleen0516

I'm gonna wait it out. I'm probably overreacting, I just scared. I feel like I bleed every 3 days. So frustrating. 

chicandbubbly

I have no advice @Colleen0516 but I hope everything is ok! 

ultratomato

I feel like I'm the only one that has no symptoms so I have been freaking out. I just hope they are okay. I hate having this feeling I don't get to see them till July 1st. I know I need to calm down 

NurseTMD85

@Colleen0516 Fx that everything is ok!!!!

@ultratomato I have ridiculous anxiety over my symptoms, too. If I have cramping I think something is wrong, and if I don't have cramping I think something is wrong. One day my boobs are sore, the next not so much. This morning when putting in my progesterone my cervix was lower than it has been. It is infuriating and it all sends me into a panic. I hope that I have a normal ultrasound tomorrow that will ease some of my anxiety, but I have a feeling I'll still be a basket case until I reach week 13. I think it is normal to feel this way, especially since we worked so hard to get here.

vssbrm

@Colleen0516 I feel like if it will make you feel better, do not hesitate to call your doctor! We pay them tons of money, the least they can do is be available for times we are freaking out!

Tulips29

@Colleen0516 I agree with above. Your doctor should be available for things like this. I would definitely call and see what they suggest. Hope all will be ok! 

@ultratomato I feel the exact same way and agree with @NurseTMD85. I freak out when I feel or don't feel anything. The fact that my nausea subsided the past few days has been making me nervous. Then I keep telling myself everything will be ok and I should relax. It's so hard. 

@vssbrm that's a sweet story about telling your grandparents. 

I can hardly wait until my appointment on Friday so I can get reassurance that all is ok. 

Griffin5413

dragonfaerie - I think I got mine at one of the outlet stores like Hanes or Maidenform or something like that. I've also seen them at Kohls when they are on sale. I think the brand I got was Bali. They are like a cross between a regular bra and a sports bra. 

Griffin5413

@Colleen0516 - call your doctor for sure. They will be able to tell you if you should go in to the ER or not. I agree with everyone else... we pay them a lot of money for exactly this reason. They should be available for your questions. 

@ultratomato - I totally agree with everyone else... Sometimes I worry b/c my symptoms really aren't terrible. Maybe b/c we are all so used to being on the hormones and shots and medications that we are already used to feeling a little off anyway. I think I made myself sick last week b/c it had been like 6 weeks between appointments and u/s and everything was perfect when we went in. All of that stress for nothing. 

Tulips29  - hope your appointment goes well this week!!!

@vssbrm - I love your grandparents story! My grandpa was so excited when we told him. He lives in another state but I could just hear him smiling through the phone. Then when we told him it was a boy you could just hear his excited when he talked about having someone else to share his stories with. I think telling him was my favorite!

dragonfaerie

@chicandbubbly Yes! Certain shirts for sure I look prego already. I'm trying to hold off telling the office until I can't hide it, that's not going to be easy for long...

@vssbrm Oh Marshall's! I never remember to go there. I'm glad you get to stop meds soon! Starting next Friday I start getting weaned off. I can't wait to not have daily injections...

AFM: Saw our wee one today, he/she did a little dance for us.