On being pregnant

It's been fun posting pictures of our growing bean with updates of its progress but I haven't mentioned how pregnancy is affecting our lives.

To start, let me say I'm pretty darn lucky. Aside from a few days here and there of pretty annoying nausea and being in a constant state of drowsiness, I feel good. In fact, really good.

I don't have any data to back this, but I attribute my minimal bouts of morning sickness to all the fertility drugs I've taken. Oh trust me, at the beginning, I was a lunatic. But now, I think my hormones are so elevated that my new level of crazy is just my new normal. Scary, but true. So I didn't have that spike in hormones that most newly pregnant women get; I got mine about 11 months ago when I started my first (of three) rounds of fertility drugs.

I remember one day shortly after starting up my 3rd cycle of hormone therapy being at the gym (a place near and dear to me) and having to leave after my 2nd set because someone wanted to work in with me and I couldn't deal with people. Poor Brian just watched me rant, then waved bye-bye as I stormed out of there. Wow, I must have looked insane (Brian is nodding his head in agreement right about now...).

Anyway, the point is not that I'm a raging hormonal lunatic, which I probably am; the point is I feel that this pregnancy is going along quite smoothly. Even as I type this post at almost at 10.5 weeks, I'm amazed how fast it's progressing. Only 30 more weeks!


Wait, 30 more weeks? Hmm, maybe it's not going so fast...



Here's a shot of me at almost 10.5 weeks.

Graduation Day!

Today is a milestone in our pregnancy; we graduated from our fertility physician to an OB/GYN.

We've been with our fertility center since May 2008 so it's bittersweet to be moving on. Dr. Abusief and our "Dream Team" (Shawnda, the best IVF Coordinator ever, Diana, Nurse Extraordinaire, and Eleanor, all things office related and always with a smile) have become an extension of our family and without their support and expertise, we would not be on the road to parenthood. Needless to say, this graduation comes with bittersweet feelings.

But, we did have a wonderful reason to celebrate today; we saw the baby for the first time where it actually looked "real". In addition to actually being able to make out the shape of the baby, it was wiggling around during the ultrasound; doing an Irish jig for us already! It's truly amazing to watch this unborn child develop. Some of the key things we saw today were it's heartbeat, it's head, it's limbs, it's forming spinal cord, and Dr. Abusief pointed out the dark white spots on the ultrasound were it's bones forming. Fascinating! Words cannot express the joy and awe we are experiencing.

I love to bake so in honor of our graduation, I made a plate of goodies for the team to enjoy. Below is pictures of our graduation celebration and a Week 10 ultrasound of Baby McCormick.

8 Weeks and Counting

We had our 8-week ultrasound today and after last week's scare, we were quite pleased with the results.

Baby Mack's little heart was beating between 120-130 beats per minute and although still measuring a little bit smaller than expected (7 weeks, 5 days), the bean is within the normal range. And, our doctor said focus on how much the baby grew this week rather than the measurement. He said, and I appreciate him saying this, that the baby is catching up.

We're making progress!

Here a shot of Baby McCormick at 8 weeks.

Sick n' tired and lovin' every moment

After trying to get pregnant for so long, walking through a sleepy haze and having twinges of nausea that can last for hours and hours are a blessed and warm welcome to my world.


Well, I have to admit, in the realm of pregnancy, I'm quite lucky. Most days I feel sluggish and maybe every three days I feel utterly nauseous that lingers for hours and hours. Unfortunately, food (carbs in particular) seem to help. So, I keep cracked wheat crackers within arm's reach at all times.


The crazy girl mood swings...well, that's been going on for 10 months thanks to the ridiculous amounts of hormones I've been injecting. Poor Brian never knows what to expect when he enters the room. I'm sure Brian would say I'm just as sweet as can be, but that's because he doesn't want to sleep with one eye open.


In spite of the not so fun feeling days and the bouts of crazy lady mood swings, I welcome the queasiness and crabiness because after having gone through such leaps to get pregnant, I just relish in the fact that I can finally say I'm pregnant!