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Janet L's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/7/00 -------------------- 10/30/00 10/24/00 10/18/00 10/10/00 10/3/00 9/26/00 9/19/00 9/9/00 9/5/00 8/29/00 8/23/00 8/15/00 8/8/00 8/1/00 7/23/00 7/14/00 7/8/00 -------------------- Janet L's Introduction

October 10, 2000

Hi everyone,
Well, it's been quite a week. We had a scare last week and I don't think we are completely out of the woods yet. Last Thursday, I woke up to some spotting. It was very light and brown, so I decided to wait until later on in the afternoon to call the doctor. By 3 p.m., the spotting was continuing and I started to worry. I called my OB, who was out of the office, so I was told that another OB from his office would call me back within 30 minutes. At 5:15 p.m. he called me back. By then, of course, I was frantic and felt I had an emergency on my hands.

This doctor was very nice, but basically told me it could be a miscarriage or it could be normal. There was no way for him to tell at this point because my pregnancy was so new. He told me to think positively and to keep my regularly scheduled appointment with my normal doctor (five days later) to get more information. I ask you this: How do you tell a pregnant woman that she may be losing her baby, but she should wait until her scheduled appointment in a week to get a better idea of what is going on? I just started bawling in my office at work as soon as I got off the phone with him. I was thankful that it was after hours and everyone from my department was gone for the day.

I called John and he came home right away to be with me. Needless to say, we were both very scared. The only stories I had ever heard of women spotting during their pregnancies involved miscarriages and the spotting continued, so as each day passed I became more and more fearful that I would be included in one of those stories. DH looked on the Internet that night to get more information (he is so wonderful)! He found out that spotting in some pregnancies is normal so the waiting game continued. I was also concerned because I hadn't had any real pregnancy symptoms yet. I know some women never get symptoms, but along with the spotting I felt that was a bad sign.

I woke up Sunday morning and was very nauseous! I was never more happy in my life to feel sick -- finally a good sign! My sickness has continued until now and let me tell you, it is not limited to the mornings. I feel sick all day! As miserable as it is, I am thrilled to have this feeling!

In addition, my breasts are sore and I can't seem to get before at least nine hours of sleep. So, the PG symptoms are in full force. Still, I wanted to see my OB before I let out that sigh of relief.

Today John and I met with my OB. He did a PG test, which came out positive (duh!), a pelvic exam, full blood work and an internal ultrasound. If you have never seen or had an internal ultrasound, it was pretty funny. They put a condom over this instrument that looks like a wand, then they insert the wand inside you and you can see what is going on in there. Anyway, he warned me that it may be too early to see anything, but he gave it a try. We saw the yolk sac and we saw what may be the heartbeat, but we couldn't tell for sure. My OB said everything looked good and scheduled my next ultrasound for four weeks. I would feel so much better if we could have been sure that what we saw was a heartbeat, but I guess I'll have to wait for about a month to find out for sure.

He did say that I was measuring at five and a half weeks and that scared me because I should be just more than six weeks now. He told me that I was basing my calculations on ovulating on day 14, but I should check my charts to see when I did ovulate. If it was later than the 14th day that could explain it. Sure enough, according to my charts, I O'd on day 18 which would account for the difference.

I am still very cautious, but feeling a lot better than I was last week! DH and I have decided to wait a little longer to tell our families and definitely wait until we get the next ultrasound to tell our friends and coworkers. If they will let me, I'd like to stay on the preconception diaries for a little longer too.

Thanks for all the support I have gotten from other ladies on my board! You are all great and such a wonderful support group!

Baby dust to all you TTC'ers out there!

Janet