Ist pregnancy need support & advice!

Hello, everyone. :hello:

I have been TTC for about 5 months. I went for a check up and consultation on the day I last ovulated (April 12). Had a smear and internal, all fine. I loved the obigyn and hoped that if I fell pregnant he would care for me. We tried to make babies at the time of that ovulation. I am certain that this is when I conceived.

My next period was late, I did a HPT and got a BFN. It came one week late and was heavier than usual, lasting over a week-- I only usually bleed for 3 or 4 days. Then I had spotting for another few days.

I was going to test for ovulation on Thursday, and decided instead to do another preg test because my breasts felt heavy when I was jogging Wednesday night. Turned out to be a very definite BFP. Hooray! I did another test later that day which was also a BFP. I have heavy breasts and feel slightly sick on and off.

I went for a blood test at the doctor's last night (Friday), not a doctor I know. She did a urine test which seemed to take a while to turn positive, but definitely did and she also decided to do a blood test.

I was most keen for her to confirm that even though I had bled heavily for a week and had had spotting that I was still pregnant and hadn't miscarried. She said "Yes look at the test, you are pregnant. Full stop." So yay? She proceeded to give me all the relevent advice and praised the obigyn I had chosen.

She told me to call tonight for the results of the blood test, so I did but she must have meant earlier in the evening-- I can't get through to them at all and DH is away until tomorrow or maybe very late tonight.

Today, after I finally gave myself permission to be excited, DH and I went shopping and I had some spotting, just brownish and light and felt slightly crampy. Now I am panicking.

I am a child care worker and have known so many women who have miscarried, had still births and other troubles so I think I am a bit obsessed and worried about anything going wrong! Plus, I am nearly 36 and have never been able to concieve before. My twin sister has had two early miscarriages but also two healthy children. She had one light "period" with both of them. A good friend of mine had a normal period for five months during her preganacy and her daughter is fine.

I am worried that I miscarried and still have the hormones and also, my period was irregular the two cycles before I (Think) I conceived, so I don't know how to date. I want to avoid the dating ultrasound because is it true that the dating ultrasound a vaginal ultrasound? I am very nervous of having it done because (TMI following!) I have very little stretch in my vaginal opening, due to scar tissue, (I was born with the bottom half of the labia majora fused together and had to have them opened). Even pap smears cause a bit of bleeding and are painful.

I so want to be excited and not fearful, but I don't want to get my hopes up. My Mum is visiting tomorrow and I wanted to be able to tell her her for sure. Any advice or information would be very welcome. Thanks!

Wow sounds like you've been having a tough time of it Rae :-/ I don't know much about this sort of thing (only just pg myself and constantly worrying every time i go to the loo - i daren't look!!) but i have heard of people having periods when pregnant and I have also read that light reddish-brown spotting can be any of the following:-

(1) breakthrough bleeding - can happen when your period would normally be due.

(2) implantation bleeding, when the egg attaches to the womb wall.

(3) or cervical erosion - hormones can affect the cervix.

sorry can't be much help, just wanted to reply with my positive thoughts for you and your embryo :-) trust what the doc says and just take it easy. by the way, i also know cramping and period-type pains are normal - thank god cos i'm getting those quite often!

as for the getting excited bit, i also raised that point in one of my recent posts, and someone helpfully replied that she saw every bfp as a tiny person in their own right, and whether or not they survive their existence - however short - deserves to be celebrated. so we're going out for a meal tonight to celebrate, and i'm finally allowing myself to get excited, so go for it girl - enjoy every minute of being pg and think positive - 80% of pregnancies are fine :-) (can you tell i've been doing my research on the net??! hehe).

ps - how far pg do you think you are?

neat xxx

Thanks so much for replying neat and great news that you are also pregnant!

I know I would have concieved on April 10, 12 0r 13th, but I am not sure how to date that, because my period before that one was out of whack. It was on about 31st March. This is one of the things I am hoping to find out.

My MIL just rang from England and I really wanted to tell her but her ex (my FIL) pays for her tickets out here every summer and has booked them for her to fly back just before I think the baby will be due which will totally upset her and cause tension between her and my FIL! Oh dear, my Mum also rang and said she will be arriving tonight, which is great-- so I didn't tell her either-- how strange. I had to do a lot of not mentioning anything to do with TTC with my MIL, she had a tough time TTC DH and BIL so she has been very sweet over the last few months when we have had the opportunity to talk.

The GP thinks if my last period (not the one I just had!) was 31st March then the baby will be due about 5 January. Oh my it feels very strange talking about a "Baby" strange but good! :)

Rae

I have no experience of what you are going through i can only send you lots of **sticky vibes ** and hope that all is well!

xoxo Little P

Thank you! I hope I am blessed with good fortune and if not, that I can be brave.

I have to switch off now and get this room ready for Mum and her partner. Thanks for the support!

Hi Rae

Your first dating U/S does not have to be a vaginal U/S. Also the U/S is only accurate to a week either way. Bleeding is common in early pregnancy especially around the time that you would have had your period.

Thanks so much, guys, Alan thank you!

The doctor contacted me. My HCG levels are very low 685 (they should be 5000 or 20000) and I would be 4 to 6 weeks so it doesn't look good. I am having another test tomorrow to see of they have increased or not. My sister had low levels but can't recall if they were that low. She never had a heavy period like bleeding, though.

Time will tell, but at this stage I am pretty sure I will be posting in the TTC forum from now on....

Rae good luck with your BT tomorrow i hope you HCG levels have gone up and things are okay.

Hi there, I hope all is well with your BT tomorrow. Perhaps your pg is fine, but you have your dates wrong?? Re the dating u/s, yes it can be done internally if the sonographer can't get a good enough picture through the abdomen, but you can always specify that you only want the abdomen scan. Just so you know, the internal u/s probe is smaller in width than a penis (well, most penises :cryinglaugh:) so it would be no more uncomfortable than having sex. With a pap smear they put the speculum in and that is way bigger than a probe. Still, you should consider a dating u/s so that you have a good idea of your due date. :)

Thanks for the well wishes and advice. I had my BT this afternoon and am waiting for the results which the GP asked to be rushed. I might hear tonight but it is just as possible I will hear tomorrow.

The only way my dates could be wrong is if I was a week (from ovulation) pregnant and that would be pretty hard to pick up on a HPT I think. Plus, I don't know if I was ovulating then and it was on the tail end of the bleeding which might have been the miscarriage. So, I doubt it. It's just that we didn't do any other Baby making that I can recall between around the 12th April and the 6th May. So I think that it is most likley that I miscarried when I bled from around the 31st April or I haven't miscarried but have very unusually low HCG levels.

I don't really "feel" pregnant any more, though. But it could just be psychological. It would be very odd really to think that the time I felt pregnant and happy was when I wasn't any more and when I was I didn't even know it!

Thinking of you Rae

I hope everything will be ok, Rae. Good luck with the BT results. Thinking of you.

Thank you every one! Your support has been wonderful and I've felt like I've had my own personal cheer squad!

Well good news, my levels are going UP so I am still pregnant! :) My DH is delighted and my twin is too! The levels are still very low so either that's just me or I am less pregnant than I thought, either way for the moment I am still in the game so to speak! I won't take anything for granted, though. Each day as it comes etc.

Sticky vibes very much appreciated and working. Thank you!

Congrats on the HCG going up.

I would definetly have the dating scan if I were you. Not only does it check for the dates but it also checks the viability of the pregnancy.

Good luck.

Thanks, Percy. Yes I am going to call my ob-gyn today and make an appointment and have him do the dating ultrasound if possible, I am either only 6 weeks (4 weeks from conception) or less so I have to wait at least another week anyway.

I hope the pregnancy continues but if not, I know I will get wonderful support from my darling husband and family and friends and also empathy and support here! So many of you have travelled the tricky and emotional highway of ttc and pregnancy woes that I know support and understanding are only a key board away!

Oh Rae, congratulations! That is fantastic news!!!

Wishing you truckloads of :stickyvibesboy: :stickyvibesgirl: :stickyvibesboy: :stickyvibesgirl:

hCG levels can be such a daunting thing, can't they! Many women start out with very low levels and have no trouble carrying a child to full term. I think knowing the levels sometimes makes us worry more than not! Just stay positive and know that you'll be holding your little one in your arms before you know it.

Congratulations again!

Love
Goldilocks
-xxxooo-

:happyforyou: oh rae that's fantastic news!

Yes!

Not so good news is that my beloved ob-gyn can't actually deliver my baby because he will be away, but he can look after my antenatal care and someone else will deliver-- since I am planning on a C Section I am comfortable with that-- I won't be "laboring" and needing emotional support from a particular person in quite the same way at the time of the birth ( I HOPE!!).

I am waiting to hear back from his receptionist about a dating ultrasound, they must have a really busy day becuase I have been waiting for a few hours now. But so far I feel happy and confident today (well mostly!). I haven't been feeling very sick at all but my breasts are still heavy and sensitive, and no bleeding/ spotting or anything since Saturday when it was very light.

Ah it all sounds good, rae! Re the dating u/s, the other thing I wanted to mention was that if an abdominal one didn't give a clear picture (this will depend on how far along you are, how large you are etc etc) then if you were willing to try the internal probe the sonographer will let you put it in. I'm not trying to sell this to you, just want you to know that it really is not that bad, just icky to think of. :)

That could make it easier-- having control over it would be better I think, I can kind of psych myself into it-- I must confess I imagined it to be really large, I was with a girlfriend many years ago who had an internal one done and I remember thinking it looked huge! Ha ha maybe I have built it up in my memory.

Still waiting for the receptionist to ring back.

$@!! receptionist!

Hehehe I know what you mean building up in memory, I remember seeing a penis in a porn magazine when I was at primary school (some boys had found one in a paddock) and I was shocked and horrified at how huge they were! Well of course, being porn they were huge, but my memory is that they were the size of our forearm or bigger! Seriously, the probe ending is no where near as wide as the speculums are.

:help:
I think my hormones are making me unreasonable! I am having a total freak out. I have just been looking through the dates of my last 5 months AF arrivals. They are just all over the place and I can't help feeling that a few of the very early or late AF arrivals were actually miscarriages that I didn't pick up on. I didn't POAS every cycle, if I AF arrived I often didn't. I know I did a few times, I wish I had have written this stuff down!

I got a BFN on the day I thought AF was due. A week later, as I discussed in my first post, I had heavy bleeding and a week or so after that a BFP! So-- with my levels being so low, and me just freaking out looking at information about what is happening to the baby if I am about 6 or 7 weeks I am starting to wonder if maybe I did concieve on 6th May, not 12 April. Could a HPT pick up a pregnancy after only 5 days? It doesn't seem possible, but my levels are so low they indicate earlier pregnancy.

I am so confused and looking back through my AF arrivals, I had a similar thing happen after Christmas and my next few cycles are between 31and 10 days, when I was always 24 for years. :confused: So I am worried that I will lose this pregnancy in a few weeks time! I wouldn't have known if any of the other late cycles were miscarriages which means this one may end up the same way!

*sigh* I think I have way too much spare time on my hands!

:) I am feeling better now. These hormones are quite something! I spoke to DH who was so sweet and reassuring and very pleased that I will be having a dating ultrasound next week to clear up the dates.

I think after I saw a picture of a foetus at 6 or 7 weeks I started freaking out. I had no idea they were so complex and advanced. I was imagining a mass of cells-- or something. It suddenly became impossible in my mind that I had one of those and that I'd keep it! Hee.

Anyway. Back to calm. :rolleyes:

ah good that you have a sweet and reassuring DH! hmmm you could be right about past m/c but this is all looking good for this one! perhaps your pg isn't as far along as you think!

Hi rae, I hope everything is going well for you :)

Hiya sal, I have moved my moaning and worrying to the January 1-15th thread!

The story goes like this: levels still increasing (YAY!) but still very low (BOO!). I found out that they were increasing after a very stressful day waiting to hear from the GP. I finally heard from the doctor while on public transport (not a great place to go into detail!) anyway that was yesterday and I had some brownish discharge last night and freaked out, but only the once really just when I wiped and then again once thismorning only less. So I am feeling very up and down but am having an ultrasound tomorrow to clear the whole thing up, is there a baby with a heart beat? Is it younger than I thought or do I just have low hcg levels? Is this spotting becuase AF would have been due and the low levels mean a bit of breakthrough bleeding? I guess I will find out in the next few days.

Thanks for checking on me! :hug:

ETA: Miles is my prefered boy name too I adore it, but DH doesn't love it. I am working on him though!

Goodluck :crossfingers: let me know how you go.

And yes, Miles is a gorgeous name, not very common!

Bad news. No little Miles for me. No babe, no sac just low pregnancy hormones creeping up and a phantom baby that may or may not be an ectopic pregnancy. So I have to wait and see what the levels do, if they continue to go up then I'll have either a laparoscopy to have a look around or an injection of chemotherapy stuff to clear things out. They can't see anything in my ovaries so I am hoping that I will have a drop in hormones and a big bleed and it will sort itself out.

Blah. Thanks for all your answers and support and I hope to see you around next time I have a sticker!

Oh rae I'm so sorry to hear that :hug:. I hope that medically it sorts itself out. Emotionally, I hope you're doing OK (there's a miscarriage and loss forum, the ladies there have all been there and know a lot more about it than me).

I'm going to keep an eye out for you in the preg announcements forum here, I hope to see you there real soon. Please take care :hug:

Rae i am so sorry to hear y our news :hug:

I had the laparoscopy and I did have an ectopic so I am very glad we went in for a look! I am very sore but my DH has been waiting on me hand and foot.

I feel pleased about the outcome because it wasn't a baby yet, just rogue cells that could have made me very ill! They were able to save my fallopian tube which is great. I would rather this outcome than worrying and probably losing a baby in the next few weeks. Any way I'm going back to bed am doped up on forte!

Thanks for all the best wishes and support!

Aww Rae I am so sorry. :hug:

Thats great they were able to save your fallopian tube. Take it easy and take care.

Rae hon, I'm sorry that it was an ectopic pregnancy. But it's really wonderful news that they were able to save your tube!

I'm glad to hear you sounding so happy, given the circumstances! I know it has been a terrible time for you but you have handled it with amazing strength and courage. It really has been inspiring to witness how you've dealt with such an emotional rollercoaster. I truly take my hat off to you.

Take time to heal and I look forward to reading your progress in the TTC forums very soon!

Thinking of you, hon :hug:

Love
Goldilocks
-xxxooo-