12 weeks 5 days

I had my ultrasound today and that is what the baby is measuring! I have tons of great news today! So much to share!!! First off, let me just show you pictures of my beautiful, bouncy healthy baby!

The ultrasound couldn't have gone better! Baby was measuring at almost 13 weeks, everything looked great! Nuchal fluid measured normal, nasal bone was visable, saw normal brain development, organs, stomach, feet, hands! Baby was kicking, bouncing, and restless!! It all looked like a dream! Then we got the blood results and they came back at 1 and 10,000 chance of having a chromosome abnormality! Amazing news!!! ALLSOOOOOO........it's a GIRLLLLLLL!!!!!! We are having a little girl!!!!! I am overwhelmed with joy! I need to constantly pinch myself to believe this is all actually real. But yes, things are real and things are progressing wonderfully!

Now to bring myself back down to earth a bit. I am still having to remain very cautiously optimistic here. We are by no means out of the woods. We have a very long road ahead of us. I still have inflammation issues that hopefully the hydroxychloroquine will help keep at bay. They are monitoring me like a hawk. I cannot and will not breathe a complete sigh of relief until this baby is in my arms. Until then I must remain grounded and keep myself leveled here. 

But today, today is wonderful and I am so excited to share it here. It's been such a long journey and to see it come this far, well there are simply no words. I just pray it continues and I will finally get to hold this little rainbow soon. 

<3 <3 <3 

Beta #5

Well I can go into this weekend with a big sigh of relief! Just got the betas back and my numbers jumped from 1497 to 3,576!! They are rising beautifully!! I just pray that this is our rainbow!! I know I keep saying each day is different...one day could change from the next. But today is wonderful news, and I am holding on to this feeling all day!!!

December 4th is my birthday and I certainly know what I will be wishing for when blowing out the candles! Tomorrow marks the 5wk mark also!! It will be a pretty nice weekend if we all make it through!! haha! Next up, Ultrasound on Tues to hopefully see a nice healthy sac! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Updates!

I have some good updates and some not so good updates. First off, with the good! I went in for my third beta today and it is at 808!! That is excellent and they are rising perfectly! ALSO - the brown spotting has stopped since last friday! My doctor thinks perhaps it was implantation bleeding or progesterone. So alllll is good so far! I am 4 weeks and 2 days today - so this week is insanely crucial as I have never passed the 5 week mark except once.

  The bad...I got my follow up NK results and looks like my levels are still elevated. My doctor really wants me to do IVIg but I just cannot afford that! I have also done a lot of research as of late regarding NK cells/high tnf and I have learned that NK cells need to be determined through uterine scraping/ not by bloodwork. Because everyone has NK cells in their blood - it's normal! Anyway - without getting into too much depth with it all - I am not really convinced that the NK assay tests I've been doing are proving much. I tweeted to Dr. Braverman on twitter - and he actually responded to me. He stated if the levels are not done by serum - they are worthless. He said intracellular tests show and prove nothing. So I am at a loss. But after researching other women in the same boat as I am - they seem to get along fine with just a higher dose of prednisone. So I asked my doctor to up the dosage to 40mg a day. Which she agreed.

  So I will take 40mg a day to hopefully keep things suppressed enough to not interfere with anything. And by the grace of God - it will work. I am no doctor - and I could be taking a huge risk with all of this by "self diagnosing and self treating" myself through my own private research. But I just am not comfortable doing a blood transfusion treatment that costs a ridiculous amount of money and isn't guaranteed 100% to even work!! Maybe I am wrong - and if all goes wrong - I will give it a go next time. But I am praying in my gut that I am making the right choice by sticking with the treatment plan I am currently on - and by upping the steroid dosage. I guess we will see.

But enough of all that....I am taking this one day at a time. And today, things are POSITIVE. 808!!! Grow baby grow!!!!!

Negative

Got some VERY great news today! My retest for HTLV came back negative!!!! FINALLY something going my way!!! What a relief! Man that was nerve racking!! Going a whole week and a 1/2 wondering if you have some weird virus! As if I needed that additional stress in my life!!

  But I am so happy to receive this news today! I sent the results to the Canadian clinic so hopefully we can reschedule the LIT appts and get this train back on track! I'm bummed we wasted this weekend for nothing since I literally could be having the procedure as I type. But it is what it is. Honestly, this past weekend, I did nothing. I vegged out and completely took the time to just unwind and relax. So it really was a nice chill weekend which is exactly what I needed.

 I guess everything happens for a reason - so maybe we just weren't supposed to go this past weekend. Who knows. Anyway, I will keep you posted on when I reschedule my appt!

Today is a good day! :)

***UPDATE***

I rescheduled my LIT appts. My first round will be on April 4th, and the second round will be April 25th. Once that is done I have to wait 3 weeks to retest the LAD and see if it worked. Fingers crossed!