Pregnancy Update

I've been receiving a few emails & Facebook messages from friends wanting to know what's going on with the pregnancy. I guess I did leave all you hanging. Honestly, I was a little bummed out after my last appointment and I haven't felt like blogging about it.
Here's the scoop. I had my 3rd ultrasound last Thursday. The doctor said I was measuring 6 weeks (I have me at 7 weeks) and she found my tubes clear. She was able to rule out a tubal pregnancy, she did find an ovarian cyst and said that was probably the source of my pain. Then she found the gestational sac and the yoke sac but she was unable to see a fetal pole or a heartbeat. She looked long and hard, I think she wanted to see the heartbeat as bad as I did. Sigh....
Sooooo, we wait AGAIN. She wants me to come back on Tuesday for another ultrasound. I can't imagine 4 transverse ultrasounds can be healthy for anyone but we do need to find out if we have a living baby or not. The doctor said "maybe this baby is just getting off to a slow start." She also said "keep positive thoughts" and "call me if you start bleeding." She also advised me to limit my physical activity. Well, that's the scoop.

Til Tuesday....sigh

This isn't my ultrasound picture but mine looked very similar to this one.

You've Gotta Be Kitten Me!

You've gotta be kidding me, the kids were playing hide & go seek in the weeds and found a pile of 4 baby kittens. We see the mama cat all the time but didn't know where she stashed her babies. I guess she thought some weeds next to our grape vine looked like a good spot.

 The kids are getting attached, we've gotta get these kittens outta here.

 Can we keep 'em? Can we, pleassssse!

(Kaianah was just playing in the creek when she stopped by for a quick kitty visit)

 No, no, no they are way to little to go on the slide!

If these kittens survive the kids they will be some tough cats.

~~OH BABY!!~~

Since we shut our blog down a few months ago so much has taken place! I can't wait to update this outdated blog. It's nice to be back up and running again.

So, the BIG announcement is that we are expecting baby number 6. Due March 2012. We've been so thrilled with the idea of another baby on the way. The kids are very excited as well, each one has stated which gender they would prefer. This does mean that we've outgrown our mini-van and we will have to purchase a larger vehicle. (Not excited about that part! :) Anyone have a 15 passenger van for sale?? Just thought I would ask...

We've picked a wonderful birthing center to have this new baby which will be a complete 180 from our previous hospital experiences. Some concerns have come up already.
We have a possible heterotopic pregnancy. What that means is that we possibly have twins but one is ectopic. The doctor has ran HCG tests and progesterone tests. The progesterone test level came back at 21.3, the nurse stated to me that this is not quite the number the doctor had hoped for, she wanted to see that number higher than 25. The HCG levels are doubling at 1.68 days which is a little higher than normal. Typically doubling of HCG happens every 48-72 hours (2-3 days). Because both babies produce HCG these findings don't help us rule out an ectopic pregnancy. We've had 2 ultrasounds this week but it's just to early to know for sure what's going on.
The doctor wanted to order an MRI to confirm or rule out an ectopic pregnancy. The funny thing is that I'm allergic to ONE thing in this world and it happens to be the contrasting agent used during MRIs.  In order for me to have an MRI and not have a huge allergic reaction I have to take lots of prescription drugs just prior to an MRI, none of which are safe during pregnancy.
Should we have a heterotopic pregnancy the ectopic pregnancy will have to be surgically removed and in most cases the other pregnancy can be saved without any harm to the baby.
So we wait. We go back for another ultrasound this Thursday. The doctor has emphasized that we are to head to the nearest ER if I have "any pains that drop me to my knees."
We've got a great group of friends up here in Idaho and all of them are praying for us, that's all we can do right now.
I'll be getting this blog up-to-date SOON!! :)