But let's back waaaaaaay up to last July, when we had our first transfer in trying for baby #7. We were met with a negative pregnancy test, so we regrouped and tried again. But our transfer in September was met once again with a negative pregnancy test. Eric and I knew that another baby was in our family plan, so we didn't give up hope. We had our third transfer on November 13, and just before Thanksgiving we got what we'd been waiting for- a positive test!
I can't thank all the staff at STL Fertility enough, especially our wonderwoman of a doctor, Dr. Dayal. Her perseverance with our treatment and willingness to do whatever it took helped us get the family we have wanted for over 10 years.
We had our first ultrasound on December 6th and I was positive that I'd lost the baby. I woke up that morning to bright red blood and feeling extra discouraged. Thankfully when we got into the doctor's office we were able to see that beautiful little heartbeat. Turns out it was just a subchronic hemorrhage, which I have had with both the twins' and Katie's pregnancies, so I should have known it would happen again. But it's still a scary thing to have happen!
Our second ultrasound was on December 20th, and we were once again blessed to see a growing baby with a beautiful heartbeat. We sadly said goodbye to everyone at STL Fertility, but were so excited to be continuing our journey back home. By this point, my stomach had definitely popped out, and it was getting harder and harder to hide. I wore lots of baggy shirts and sweatshirts for a while!
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On January 19th we had a 12 week scan with Dr. Haller where she gave us the much awaited news that baby had a perfect little head. So many praises for this! That night we told the kids that I was going to have a baby. It wasn't the picture perfect moment that I was hoping for, but that's ok. It was real and adorable nonetheless, and that's the important part.
Shortly after that we told our parents. I had plans to tell the social media world much before we actually did, but we were so busy with basketball and varying sicknesses that we just weren't ever able to get together and looking presentable all at the same time. So here we are, just a few weeks later than anticipated.
Overall, I've been feeling very good this pregnancy! I had some nausea at the beginning of my pregnancy, but if I ate something it went away pretty quickly. I started feeling baby around 13-14 weeks. Mostly flutters inside when it would roll around, but I was definitely feeling it. The past few weeks I've felt more kicks and punches than rolls. I thought I should have been feeling more of those than I had been, but my suspicions were confirmed at my anatomy scan when they said I had an anterior placenta.
Aside from that, I've just been much more tired this pregnancy than I remember being at this point in my others. I'm sure that's because I'm growing a human while also taking care of 3 other little humans and I'm just exhausted from that. But boy am I missing that energy boost I used to get in the second trimester!
I can't wait to spend these last 20ish weeks with baby, soaking every little thing in. I'm sure this is our last baby, so everything has just been bittersweet this time around. Here's to a memory filled next couple of months!
