7w5d – I’m in my eighth week. Weird.
Although I’m at 7w5d I am ALSO in my eighth week of pregnancy. How cool is that? I hadn’t really sat down and thought it through, but one of the numerous baby sites I subscribe to sent me a “news flash” about my 8th week of pregnancy and I got all indignant until I sat down with a calendar. Guess it really is. That’s sort of nifty.
Sprog is straightening out, looking less like a hunchbacked embryo every day and more like a fetus. Ah, they grow up so fast, these little ones…
Seriously, I remain in awe of the rate of progress in there. Hell, I remain in awe of the fact that there’s anything in there at all. I have my last RE appointment on Thursday, at which I can expect an ultrasound, and I suppose that might be my last one for a few weeks. *gulp* I don’t know how normal women do it. The time between checks on the baby is pretty unbearable, and since I’m too early to feel like anything much is going on in there, I spend half of each week convinced that nothing is. Anyone rent one of those Doppler heartbeat checkers? I cannot convince myself that it would be safe to bombard Sprog with whatever sort of waves it uses as often as I would feel compelled to check it. Input, anyone? Talk me out of it / talk me into it? At the moment I’m leaning toward “no” (though that’s easy to say while I have another ultrasound on the calendar & while it’s still too early to hear anything on a rented doppler machine.)
Urrrk. Hmmm. The Sick seems to have gotten a head start on me this morning. Looks like maybe English muffins weren’t the best possible breakfast. Or perhaps the gut is objecting to the prune juice? Blech. Looks like I’ll be holding very still for a couple of hours. Of course, that means I could go back to sleep, which is always an enticing option.
This just might be the most boring blog ever. No trauma, no stress, nothing particularly exciting to read about, though I swear that the prospect of more sleep has me nearly giddy with joy. I do apologize, only not really. It’s sort of fun having nothing to bitch about for a change. Maybe I’ll spend the day knitting a pair of booties.
Or maybe I’ll just take a nap. I have been awake for a whole hour…
Boring is good! No trauma, not stress – all good things. We’re just so used to reporting on all the bad things, the worries and how nothing is working correctly that I’m sure it’s strange to know that everything is ok and going according to schedule! Congrats on 8 weeks – sprog is looking great!
Susan- I’m with you — the wait us terrible…. I also struggled with the do i rent one or do I not, and at 20 weeks I still think I want to rent one. HOWEVER, I’m with you— I just don’t want all those waves traveling to the babe. Check with your midwife. My sister used a midwife (and had a lovely home birth) and the midwife gave her a binder full or articles – one of which warned against having too many ultrasounds etc for that very reason. I can find the source and send if you’re interested. Email me.
No trauma! Yay!
My sister says that the doppler sounds like a helicopter to babies and that it is ‘bad’. However, she also had 7 children, most of the ‘oops’ babies, so she could afford to be mellow. As an infertile I wonder if the stress of me thinking the baby is dead all the time would be worse than a helicopter sound?
I’m sure when my time comes I’ll waffle endlessly and drive everyone around me nuts.
Glad you are in week 8, sprog is looking more humanesque every day! I think I would be all over renting a doppler, you could (try) to limit use to once a week or so, but it would make me crazy until the kicking started. We have a stethescope with a fetal attachment, have no idea how much that would cost but I bet you could hear a heartbeat around the same time as the doppler (having no actual facts to back this up). Perhaps worth looking into – we got ours at a Goodwill for $5!
Happy your blog is boring (not really, I love reading it) – I feel like mine is uber-boring right now. Oh well, no trauma is good.
Warm up your prune juice as it works much better that way, we use to use it that way in home health. Also had a patient who mixed it with milk of magnesia and it was called a brown cow (a common thing), another patient mixed hers with a Valium and called hers a happy brown cow!
It actually tastes much better warmed up I think. That is the way I prefer it, but it does pack a punch that way, it is not for casual drinking!
Wow, it seems like just yesterday you were talking about the FET and other stuff before it happened. And now, it’s 8 weeks already. Holy cow and awesome! I would I could speak from experience about the little machine, but most of the blogs I’ve read of people who get them say it puts them at ease and they feel much less stressed. I can understand the risk of the helicopter sound too, but I think Sarah has a good point about the stress factor. Either way, you’ll make the right decision.
Hi
Congrats on your pregnancy! I usually lurk but just wanted to put my two pennies in on the doppler…. I am not qualified to know whether they do any damage or not, did some reading before I got one and overwhelming view was that they are fine but I do understand your concern. If I had weeks 10 – 16 again though I would not buy a doppler again. I bought one post ivf for exactly the same reason as you, bought really expensive state of the art one that promised to detect fetal heart beat at 10 weeks… by 12 wks of pretty persistent checking I still couldn’t hear the heartbeat and was in tears before my scan convinced there’d be no baby. Of course baby was perfectly fine and healthy on the u/s when I had it but I could have saved myself a couple of weeks of unnecessary worry if I hadn’t checked. Obviously when I couldn’t hear the h/b in the first couple of days of checking I spoke to my Dr, she said it is not possible to hear that early unless you get very lucky with baby’s position to hear h/b that early with a handheld doppler and people who think they can are often just hearing their own pulse distorted (sorry – just passing on what she said, i’m sure there are people who have managed to hear their baby). She wouldn’t even check for me in her surgery as she knew said it is not reliable until at least 16 weeks. (I still worried for 2 weeks straight until I saw healthy baby on u/s).
You may find by 16 weeks (long way off i know) you start to feel little flutters which soon become rolls and kicks, you probably won’t worry as much then as you can feel the baby a lot.
Sorry for long comment – Just one view but hope it helps. Good luck in whatever you decide and best wishes for your much deserved pregnancy.
I did rent a doppler but only used it when the DBT (Dead Baby Thoughts ) got too bad. So I must have used it every other day the first pregnancy…about once a week with the 2nd. I swore up and down I would not rent one this time around becasue I was determined to be less worried and stressed out about DBT…but I caved and I realized I gotta cut myself some slack and do what I have to do to get thru the day or get some sleep. I sent it back once I started to feel kicking. It’s just a matter of what lets you sleep better at night. If there was clear empirical evidence that a low level of waves was harmful I would not have done it and I’m sure Dr’s would not do it routinely either.
No stress is not boring. It’s great.
I recommend a day by day pregnancy journal/book that gives the development each day of your little nugget. We have had them for the kids and they are GREAT. I love looking through and seeing how quickly and how unique each day is.
Congrats on being in your 8th week!!! Great news!!!
I think to celebrate your 8th week you should eat cheerios in duos.
Sorry your tummy is upset, but such a great reason. I agree with K, it seems like yesterday we were shouting GO FOR IT on the FET and in a blink of an eye here we are. Every day sending lots of positive vibes your way for more good news in the weeks to come and thanks again for stopping by to visit me and comment. I get warm heart fuzzys every time.
I read a blog where the chick got the heart beat thing and it really helped her relax. I would like to know i can hear the whenever I want. Or, find the place in my mind where everything is really quiet and just hang out there.
Have a good nap! And I’m so excited for you
It’ll be fun when you can actually feel that babe kicking you…then you’ll know someone’s in there for sure.
I contemplated renting a doppler and don’t know any of the scientific background as to whether checking daily is a good or bad thing, but my doctor advised against it for one big reason. She said that it can be difficult to find the HB at times (especially early on) and typically one will not find the HB, freak out (obviously!!), and then come to find everything is fine at the next visit. At my 16 week it even took the nurse about 30 seconds to a minute to find the baby (which had me in a panic) and another friend actually had a nurse not find the HB, call the doctor in (she is waiting in tears), and it still took a minute (she has a perfectly healthy daughter now). So I think it’s best to save yourself the stress and just do your best to stay positive. And talk to the baby all the time- it helped me stay sane
And now he’s bumping around in there, so that’s my new comfort. And you will get there very soon- I promise!! Just think- now that you’re in week 8 you have a few short weeks to go until you’re in your second trimester! Woo hoo!
Hey there you,
I cannot imagine a boring Sprogblogger post.
Things going well? NOT BORING, Delightful!
Oh I am so happy, 8 weeks happy, happy happy happy.
With a little more happy than that even.
I bet you’re tired. You’re growing a person!
And prune juice? I liked mine ice cold. Cold cold cold.
Maybe even cut with seltzer.
Or as a slushy.
Please don’t barf because of me, I would feel horrid about that.
Love hearing you are ok
if your uterus is tipped back, step away from the doppler. it will take longer into the pregnancy to hear anything and you’ll drive yourself insane. Otherwise, I hear it does wonders for the crazies.
xo
Kate
So cool!!! and so not boring!!! Wow, just wow – I am still delighted for you. I am in the hotel – it is 7am and I have been up for hours – woke up with some pretty strong nausea. I just want to go back to sleep and wake up in time for my ultrasound tomorrow!!