Fumbling Towards Eggstacy

22w6d

Ultrasound

Here are some images from yesterday's ultrasound.  Our little baby girl is doing great, everything is normal.  The tech estimated she's 1.3 pounds, and the doc said her heartbeat is 140 bpm.  She seems to be quite flexible too, almost touching her forehead with her toes.  Maybe we have a future Cirque du Soleil acrobat in there.  =)

 

Before the tech took this shot, on the screen, we could see her eyeball moving around.  Her belly looks so gigantic to me.

 

Birth Date

Doc said we can schedule the C-section for any day after April 9th, because at 39 weeks, babies are as healthy as they are at 40 weeks.  Our decision may be based on which day our favorite doc is working, and the schedule hasn't been set yet.  I am so so happy that they are willing to do an elective C-section.  I asked how they determine if it's medically necessary (that's what the insurance company requires to pay for one).  The doc said, if I want it, they'll do it.  He said it doesn't cost the insurance company any more money, and in fact, depending how long a natural childbirth would last with labor, it's usually less expensive.  The recovery doesn't scare me at all.  Maybe I'm naive.  But I'm seriously ecstatic that I don't have to push a human out of my hoo-ha.

Feeling Baby

I still haven't felt baby move in my belly.  The ultrasound tech assured me, and I could see, that baby is very active.  She reassured me that it's due to the placenta being in the front.  She said that some women don't feel their babies their entire pregnancies.  I'm hoping to feel her in there by Christmas.  She's still small but this is a time when growth picks up fast.

Before I saw her on the ultrasound on Monday, I have to admit I was worried.  Part of my worry came from a woman I work with who lost twins at 23 weeks after an amnio.  There was no cause discovered but she suspected it was the amnio.  Why people like to share their horror stories I don't know, but that one, plus the lack of movement in my belly, had me geeking a bit.  I had visions of having to sell the crib and having to deal with a loss.  Now I feel much better.  My very kind and understanding doctor said I can go into his office every week to listen to the heartbeat if it will make me feel better.  I think I'm fine now though. 

Nursery

I still need to take pics of what's in the room so far.  I'm working on ideas for the walls.  I got a library card last week and got a bunch of nursery decorating books for ideas.  I like the idea of a crib canopy, but the books say to remove it once baby can roll over, so it seems like a lot of work (to make) for four months.

I was going to make curtains, but even on a budget that's hard to justify since curtains are so inexpensive.  Plus I went to a fabric store and I am of course attracted to the fabric that's $30 a yard, not $6 a yard, which would make homemade curtains more expensive than purchased ones.

I may create artwork myself, or at least give it a try for fun.  I'm no artist, but I think I can handle painting butterflies or daisies on white canvas.  A lot of nursery artwork looks like a 7-year-old painted it anyway.  Plus then I can buy paint colors that match the bedding perfectly.

We bought a used Dutailier glider for me (and DH) to feed and rock baby in.  It's white wood with sage green cushions, and it is so comfortable I think I could sleep in it.  It feels good to have the furniture in place!  But even getting that crossed off the to-do list, there is so much more to buy and do in the next four months!

How I'm Feeling

I feel great.  Last week, I was in Tampa for work and everyone asks how I feel since I wasn't able to keep my morning sickness any kind of secret.  I'm fearful of being tagged as the sick pregnant girl at work, so it was nice to be able to report my super energy and health.  ;)  I have felt a few sharp pains in my tummy -- but I think that is probably just muscles stretching.  Saturday night I had a pain in a small spot on the top left of my tummy that lasted two hours while we were at a party, and today I had a pain on my whole left side that hurt so bad I had to lie down for an hour.  As long as they go away within a couple of hours, I'm not going to worry.  No other symptoms really -- I don't even feel pregnant.  In fact I feel better than I did when I wasn't pregnant.  Hopefully this lasts at least another month until the third trimester.

Hold On (2)

This is more of a follow up to my last post.  Wanted to elaborate on the Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS), especially because I left out all the background info & presentation info from my meeting and just put my Q & A.

Comparative Genomic Hybridisation (CGH) is new as far as PGS goes and this new use was discovered by Dr. Geoffrey Sher in Las Vegas (see http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg19325893.900-egg-screening-doubles-ivf-success.html).  It sounds like FISH may be on its way out.  CGH can test either the polar bodies (and thus check for maternal chromosomal damage only) or the embryos (and thus check mom + dad).  Testing of the polar bodies should theoretically not affect the eggs because the polar bodies would otherwise be shed by the eggs.  Testing of the embies is more risky because one or two cells are removed, thus possibly (a) compromising the embryo, (b) causing damage due to human intervention, or (c) giving an inaccurate reading due to mosaicism.  Per Dr. Lincardi at NYU (http://infertilityblog.blogspot.com/), mosaicism means “that some cells have one type of DNA and other cells have different DNA. For example, in an 8 cell embryo, it’s possible to have some cells that cause Down’s Syndrome (this is an extra chromosome 21) and some cells can be normal. Just to back up, almost all of us have 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. If an embryo is missing at least one, or had an extra 1, we generally call this aneuploidy. Aueuploidy is the genetic problem related to aging. Down’s is an extra chromosome 21, but any of the chromosomes affected in the same way, either an extra or missing. Getting back to PGD, if the embryo has 2 normal cells, and 6 abnormal cells, and the biopsy plucks off a normal cell, this mostly abnormal embryo will be transferred, probably producing no pregnancy. If the embryo is mostly normal and an abnormal cell is tested, that embryo will not get transferred, yet it may have produced a normal child."

Dr. Licardi's blog also says, "CGH may someday be the answer, but it’s way too early to tell. There is one doctor in particular who pushes CGH, but he has pushed a lot of other things in the past, none of which were any good. I am not saying he is wrong about this, I just need to see data reputable data from him or others."  

Obviously CCRM is on a mission to get reputable data.

I can understand why a person would want to do PGS if they expect a lot of embies.  For me, mine had morphology issues, and so it would be unlikely that selection would be needed.  I'd just put back in what I have and hope for the best. 

IVF is seeming to me more a game of statistics, since it takes a lot of women 3-4 IVFs to get pregnant and since most eggs are bad, even for young women.  In the New.Scientist link above, it says that CGH on donor eggs (from mostly twenty-somethings) shows that 65% of them are poor quality. 

In talking with the genetic counselor, I was most surprised to learn that morphology issues (fragmentation) is unrelated to genetic quality (chromosomes).  However, this would explain cycles where the embies are fragment-free but don't implant or otherwise survive long.  So that perfect blast could have a DNA issue, yet the struggling 5-cell at day 3 could have kick-ass DNA.  And you would never otherwise know.

The other thing that struck me as undesirable is that CGH can determine chromosomal damage with 90% accuracy, yet chorionic villius sampling and amnio can test with 99.9% accuracy.  And they highly stress that you should still have CVS or amnio -- that CGH is not a replacement for it.  So in my opinion, CGH is best for those with (a) lots of embies who want to avoid risk of multiples, or (b) a motivation to isolate any imperfect DNA ASAP, thus avoiding a BFN, a blighted ovum, a miscarriage, or an abortion.

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As far as I'm doing, I'm not doing great.  GS and I had a big fight in the car while I was driving him to the airport.  I was trying to explain egg quality and he said I was explaining it poorly and wasn't making any sense, and I got pissed because that's just rude, and he got pissed because I got pissed, and we had a shitty goodbye.  I won't see him again until Sunday night, he's going to his niece's graduation in FL (deep breath...interestingly enough, his niece is headed for Yale for a pre-med degree and wants to specialize in genetics). 

Anyway, back to me, I'm mad at him because he didn't apologize and doesn't even seem to get that he should.  I don't even want to have his stupid baby at the moment.  Shit.