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.

Bad Dreams

I had the most awful, terrifying, horrible nightmare ever last night. You know how pregnancy can make dreams more intense? And you know how dreams play on your subconscious feelings and fears? Yeah, well this nightmare was a nightmare to end ALL nightmares! Thank G-d it was just a "dream". Ok, I know you're all curious now, so I'll tell you, but first I'm saying a big "pooh pooh" that this should never, ever happen (G-d forbid a million times over) and just because I dreamed it doesn't mean anything.

It took place in a hospital. I noticed that I was bleeding, like heavy, and I was quite freaked out. I kept wandering the hospital going from place to place as the doctors were trying to figure out where I would have an ultrasound. (You know how dreams go...they don't make much sense.) Anyways, I got in for the ultrasound and you could see the baby floating around in there. There was no heart beat (pooh pooh!!!) but for some reason it looked to me to still be moving (bouncing around, flailing arms, etc.) In my dream I was screaming "NO! NO! NO!" And then I woke up. You know how sometimes you wake up all of a sudden and you feel like you fell into the bed? It was like that...and I was in a cold sweat. I knew it wasn't real, but I was still pretty freaked out. I went to the bathroom (not actually to check for bleeding...it's because my bladder was full!) and then went back to bed. I did have a "part 2" of the dream where I was back in the hospital, but I can't really remember anything from that one.

In any case, even though I knew all was ok, I still checked the baby's heartbeat when I got back from school. And there it was, beating away like usual at 153bpm. I know that the miscarriage risk for someone at almost 15 weeks is pretty low, but I guess deep down the fear is always there, especially when you have a history of cervical issues. Thank goodness I have an ultrasound next week so we can start checking up on that. Wow, does that bring back memories... :-)

Sleeping is entertaining

Why, might you ask, is sleeping entertaining? Well, I'll tell you. Being pregnant definitely has several up-sides, one of these being strange dreams. My dreams are highly entertaining. Three nights ago I dreamt that I was at Camp Anawana...now, the only people who will understand this reference are those who watched Nickelodeon in the early to mid 1990's. The TV show "Salute Your Shorts" took place at Camp Anawana (yes, there are episodes on YouTube). I had a very vivid dream about trying to join the swim team (even though I am a VERY slow swimmer) and hanging out with "Budnick". Two nights ago I dreamt that I was at Camp Tamakwa, the real summer camp that I actually went to for 7 summers. During this dream people were doing a triathalon (this is generally a pretty big event at camp); I was waiting in main camp for the triathletes to finish the race and watching Jon Linden (he may have been doing the infamous "butt dance"). Then last night I dreamt that I was with the people on the TV show Scrubs. This was a very complicated dream, but involved Dr. Cox and JD doing various things. I think this may have also involved swimming and a gas station. I think I may have also told them I was pregnant. lol

Well, there you have it. Pregnancy makes sleep so much more fun! :-)

Smelly People

I had 3 different people come into the bank today who smelled SOOOO badly. I couldn't tell if it was B/O or if they'd been smoking cigarettes or what, but it was naaaaasty. Now, if it had been 1 person, I could have shrugged it off as just a person being unusually smelly. But 3? No, that's pregnancy. :-) Maybe 1 of them was particularly smelly, but the other ones probably were not--and I just smelled them because my nose is overactive. But good grief! I thought I was going to pass out!

Also, I had THE MOST BIZARRE dream last night. When I'm not pregnant I probably dream less than once a week, but since I've become pregnant I've had at least 3 very weird dreams. In the first one, my husband was trying to divorce me, G-d forbid, and I know that would never happen and it was very strange. In the second one, I was trying to go back to college to get a degree in music (at the college I did actually graduate from) and my middle school music teacher (who is THE BEST music teacher EVER and who now lives in Colorado) was teaching there. (In response to hearing about this dream, my mom said, "Of course you wanted to go back to school...Mr. Ramsey was teaching!") lol In the third dream (the one I had last night), I was having an affair with someone I knew in high school, G-d forbid, which is again something that would never, ever happen and was incredibly bizarre. This is just to show you how bizarre pregnancy dreams are. Although that music dream isn't too bizarre because I've had ones like it...but the other ones were pretty shocking to me. I'd much prefer having nice dreams about my husband...use your imagination on that one. ;-)