Interesting Milestone

We just passed a very interesting milestone back on Oct 12th. On that day Tzipora was the exact same age that the twins were on the day she was born. Pretty wild, isn't it? And we only just started TTC. Funny how things change as time goes on.

Speaking of TTC, we're hanging into today at 6dpo. I'm still reeling at the fact I actually ovulated on time, CD 15. The wildness of that to me is completely mind-boggling. I looked back at my past ovulation charts - and I have the past 6 years in charts - and the only times I've ever ovulated prior to day 16 were when I was on Follistim and/or took an hCG shot to trigger ovulation at a certain time. And even with that, I only rarely ovulated prior to day 20 of my cycle while not on any actual fertility medication (ie Metformin, Clomid, etc.) When I was using Chinese herbs and FertilAid (waaaaaay back when I was TTC #1) I ovulated on day 18 or 19 a few times, but even when I was on Metformin I usually ovulated on day 17! Maybe this was a fluke and next cycle (if there is one) I'll go back to having crazy late ovulation, but I'm hoping not. It feels good to be normal. :-) The fact is, if I got pregnant this month I would actually be able to give my midwife my real LMP and get my real due date! That's beyond cool. With both the twins and Tzipora I gave my OB/midwife a made up LMP that I concocted based on the actual day I ovulated/had my retrieval so she would have my correct due date and not an inaccurate one. Would the extra 2 days have actually made a difference with my care? Well, with the twins it would have put me as 35w3d instead of 35w1d at their birth...not a big deal considering they did fine regardless. Tzipora was born at 39 weeks, so their records would have stated 39w2d. But...had I gone "overdue" with Tzipora, the extra two days could have meant the difference between having an induction forced on me or not. This is why I like accuracy when dealing with pregnancy! I don't want any practitioners claiming I am 42 weeks pregnant when I am still 41w5d and could give birth on my own. For some women who ovulate weeks late, this is HUGE! And this is also why it is SO IMPORTANT to either know your ovulation date or to have an early ultrasound (like 6 or 7 weeks) to date your pregnancy accurately. One of my doula clients has a habit of going late...like all the way to 42 weeks according to her midwife. But really, she ovulates nearly a week "late"...so she's really more like 41 1/2 weeks when she gives birth! She's narrowly escaped Pitocin induction twice now because she's begged and pleaded to be left alone until 42 weeks. Had she made up a LMP based on her ovulation (or close to it), she would have gained some extra time. Now then, I'm not saying to go hog wild and randomly pick a date here. If you know your exact ovulation date, use it to calculate back a LMP if you haven't ovulated on CD 15. If you don't know the exact ovulation date but have a range of a few days, pick one of them. If you are completely 100% clueless, get as early an ultrasound as possible. The earlier on, the more accurate the date they will give you.

Speaking of pregnancy, I had some super weird dreams the other day about being pregnant and giving birth. Yeah, I know...you're all going to say "But Elana! You only have really weird dreams when you are pregnant!" And then I'm going to tell you to shut your face because I already know that and it's creeping me out. Anyhoo, in dream #1 I was actually in labor....and it hurt, too. But then my mother walked in and interrupted and my body was all "YIKES MOM IS HERE!" and stopped being in labor. LOL I was kinda pissed about that. In my second dream I actually gave birth. From what I remember it was pretty fast and Heavyn and Melanie were my doulas. (That is actually what I would LOVE to happen for real next time I give birth, but anyway...) I was all proud of myself for having them as doulas and not needing a "professional" one. Though honestly if I were going to do this in real life I would train both of them in the preceding months to make sure they'd be superb doulas anyway. But the kicker was that the baby was a girl, and I was NOT happy. I was all "Seriously? Another girl? No freaking way..." LOL My third dream was about school, but I don't really remember what happened.

Other symptoms this week: I am extraordinarily gassy. It's completely obnoxious and painful at times. I hate those gas bubbles! I've also had a bit of the runs, which is not fun either. I've been a bit dizzy too, but that's not really new. I've had horrific orthostatic hypotension ever since I started taking a beta blocker for my migraines, so it's most likely related to that.

I'm sure you've all been dying for an update on my London trip, right? Well there's nothing really new to report. As of the last time I chatted with Steve they don't really need any extra help, but Eoin is also completely consumed with filming the movie and isn't in the mindset to even be thinking about the convention. So I asked Steve if he would reconnoiter with Eoin after filming and ask again - this time making it super clear how much it would mean to me to help out - and he said he would. I still have some hope left! But no news on who the other two special guests are. There haven't even been any clues since my last post. I'll keep you updated on that front when I know more.