Monday at work I called my Reproductive Endocrinologist’s office to tell them the good news. I was glad to be able to share it with someone. They ordered a confirmatory HcG blood test. I went and had my blood drawn as soon as I could get away at 10:30 then checked Careweb every few minutes for the results. Finally at 12:15 they were up. 25 mIU/mL and higher is positive for pregnancy. Mine was 292. Yeah! The nurse called me later in the day to congratulate me again. She said that we would repeat the test on Wednesday to confirm that the numbers are rising as they should. Then I will have an ultrasound at 6.5 weeks and if everything is okay, they will release me to the care of a regular OB. My due date is 2/24/09.
Wednesday I had my second HcG blood draw today at 10:18. Wade totally guessed that I was pregnant since I kept sneaking off to have blood draws. I didn’t want to lie so I told him to keep it hush hush. I am not quite good at this secret thing after all. The results were up at 11:49 and my levels have risen to 575 mIU/mL. Yeah! The nurse said that my HcG levels were good so we didn’t need to repeat the test anymore. I shared with her my concerns about exposure to Methacholine and having to do DLCO carbon monoxide testing on myself at work. She talked to one of the doctors and agreed that I should not be doing those things. They wrote a letter to my supervisors and faxed it to me. I think I will wait until I absolutely have to give it to them since they are not receptive to limitations or any happy news in general.
Paul is hoping we only have one baby in me but I am not so secretly hoping it is twins. There is a good likelihood for twins since I had two good eggs release for the insemination. Maybe a boy and a girl but I will really settle for anything as long as the baby is healthy. I still don’t feel pregnant but I sure am tired. I went to bed early every day this week and have been craving eggs like mad.
News from the womb…
The baby has turned from a flat embryonic disc into three distinct layers of tissue. The endoderm will eventually form the glands, lining of the lungs, tongue, tonsils, urethra and associated glands, bladder, and digestive tract. The mesoderm will eventually form the muscles, bones, lymphatic tissue, spleen, blood cells, heart, lungs, and reproductive and excretory systems. The ectoderm will eventually form the skin, nails, hair, lens of the eye, lining of the internal and external ear, nose, and sinuses; tongue, mouth, anus, tooth enamel, pituitary gland, mammary glands, and all parts of the nervous system. This week the top cells of the ectoderm form a thickened area called the neural plate that will form the baby’s head. The rest of the ectoderm has compressed to form a groove called the notochord that will give rise to the vertebrae. The cells on the periphery of the notochord have begun to fold inward to create the baby’s central nervous system. The primitive version of the baby’s heart has been forming all week and by the end of the week it will have divided into all four chambers and will have begun circulating blood cells throughout the baby’s body. As the circulatory system forms, the mesoderm on either side of the spinal column divides into blocks of cells called somites which will eventually form the bones and muscles of the baby’s head and body. About eight pairs of somites have formed this week and the neural tube (later called the spinal cord) has begun to form between them. The thyroid gland has begun to form as well. The baby’s growth this week is quite rapid. At the beginning of the week, the baby was 0.4mm long and two or three babies the size of mine could fit into the space occupied by a printed period. By midweek, the baby was 1.0-1.5mm long and was tiny enough to rest on the point of a ballpoint pen. By the end of the week, the baby was 1.5-2.5mm long and was about the size of a sesame seed.
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